Sketchy Thursday Challenge

I decided to participate in something new for me.  It's my first ever online scrapbooking challenge.  I did it for 3 reasons ... 1. it gets me creating outside of the box, at least what I'm used to doing. 2. it puts me on a deadline so I can get these pages done faster (and actually complete them). 3. It's an opportunity to win some goodies and who can resist that???  Of course, that's not what's driving me to participate.  It's really points 1 & 2.  So, on to my page.  My page is based on this past week's Sketchy Thursday sketch.  Here's the sketch:

Here's my take on it. It's a term I hear often from my daughter in a whiney, but actually cute, voice.

Everything I used was from my existing stash. I used K&Co Napoleon paper. I wasn't happy with the yellow background paper so I took some white paint and added some CTMH Crystal Blue re-inker to get it the color I wanted. Then I distressed the outside edge of the paper with that paint and then with black ink. While I had the paint out I also distressed the photos and edges of circles and the arrow, which I drew, cut and popped up. The blue ribbon is actually blue cardstock that I stamped with my CTMH Fabric Finishes stamp set to give it the grossgrain look. I then stamped the words on that. The other ribbon was misc. scraps I had. Oh I also had this cute flower ribbon that looks like the bluebonnets in the picture so I wrapped one of the circles with it. The chipboard letters are by Heidi Swapp, as is the clear flower under the button with the date on it. I made the smaller letters out of an old black envelope I had and stamped it with white ink. I used black Staz-On & CTMH Moments in Time stamp set to stamp the date. That button lays on the clear acrylic flower. I added a yellow flower with blue rhinestone below the title. Lastly I added black beads (Robin's Nest) to the bottom right to tie it all together. This was so fun and I'm looking forward to my next challenge. Wish me luck on this one!

Mommy's Girls

love to be wherever I am, and I mean EVERYWHERE.  You mommies out there know what I mean.  Anyway, I was working on some layouts the other day and my hubby snapped a few photos of my girls scrappin' with me.  My youngest was trying to get into everything so I wasn't too productive but how could I resist her wanting to ... help???  Of course, I will be scrappin' this soon I am sure!  My oldest worked on her own album next to me.  She had to have her mini tote, which holds her scrappin' supplies and her album that she got from her friend, Sammy (whose mom is my friend, Ale). She was working on Santa photos.  I hope they end up with the same passion as I have for this hobby so we can continue to do these things together. 

January marks the release of

the new Close To My Heart 2010 Spring catalog! I am sharing this with you because I am in love with so many of the new products.  I may sell CTMH but I don't do it as a business.  I sell it (mostly to myself) to support my hobby.  You see, I inevitably fall in love with so much everytime a new catalog comes out so I figured I'd join CTMH to get the discount.  I'm sure I end up spending the same amount of money, or more now that I'm a consultant.  I certainly do not use CTMH for all my layouts, not even close.

Here are some of my favorite items from this Idea Book and past Idea Books:

Topstitch Collection - The colors in this are perfect to scrap the all the lastst professional photos we took in November (a few are in my last post). 

Charmed Acrylic Stamp

You Rock Collection - this is on my list; just need to figure out what I need it for first ;)

I'm not usually a rainbowy swirly paper kind of girl but I really like this paper and coordinating goodies.

You Rock Die Cuts * Star Power Acrylic Stamp Set *You Rock Acrylic Stamp Set

Simple Stitchews Acrylic Stamp

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this.  It gives a great stitched on look to my layouts.

The Notebook Collection - I love the vintage look of this paper & stickease

There's so much more cute stuff.  Check it out for yourself.

I love, Love, LOVE

my family!  I grew up with incredible role model parents who gave me a strong foundation of what makes a marriage HAPPY and for that I am so lucky!  They may have only known each other for 2 months before they got married but they are still going strong after 40+ years.  My hubby and I are definately in love and I hope we can provide that same foundation for our kids as we all grow.  I wanted to share a few photos of my adorable little family with you all.  The photos were taken by Allison Schnurr of Allison Avenue Photography, a Texas based photog.  Allison is a FABULOUS photographer and her work is AMAZING.  Her pricing is great and she even gives copyright release to the photo images you buy.  Check her site out and you'll see my oldest girl on the main page.  She was 5 then; she's now 6.  http://allisonavenue.net/

So, here we are ... The Leopard Gang. My oldest daughter, hubby, me, baby and step-son.  These kids are gorgeous, if I do say so myself. 

A Preview

of what's to come.  OMG I have so many pics to take of the layouts of my pics!  Here's a couple of my favorites from this past year.  I will post more as I complete new ones and have time to go back through my albums.

This first double layout features pink background paper I distressed, chipboard letters that I stained with ink using a rubber brayer to match the layout. I made handmade flowers, crumpled them and then inked all the raised ridges.  I then used epoxy brads, buttons, more brads, spirals, tiny heart buttons and more for the flower centers. I really love how this turned out.

This 2nd page is features a pink and green plain cardstock that I handstamped to add a slight pattern. I then added a scalloped pocket to hold a personalized note, made from a corner rounder, added rhinestones, tied it with a ribbon.  I covered the #3 chipboard with matching paper and more rhinestones.  I then doodled, colored the hearts in with a blending pen and added a few more rhinestones to tie it all together.

Stay tuned for more to come.

To be more AWESOME this year

I need to concentrate more on what makes me happy.  I put everything I have into my family and I do a great job capturing those moments.  What I don't do a good job of in transitioning those events into a story.  I have so many incomplete albums and so many years that I jump back n forth to.  Not only that, most of my layouts are missing key elements, like titles or the actual photos ... HELLO! I am going to challenge myself to complete one layout per child each month.  Doesn't sound like a lot does it?  Well trust me, it is for this mommy who works full time managing multi-million dollar marketing campaigns. I wish I was the type to just throw a layout together, slap pics on them and go but I'm not.  I treat each one like a piece of art and put everything I can into them; therefore, I spend hours upon hours on them. 

So just how will I do it?  Free time = scrap time. I'm going to spend at least 2 nights every week after the kids go to bed organizing photos, planning layouts, sketching, printing, journaling, etc.  I'm hoping to exceed my goal but I figure I better test the waters first. I'm starting this month and even though it's half over I WILL make my goal this month. Follow my blog and leave a comment telling me how you make time in your busy schedule for your hobby. I'll randomly draw a winner for a free Close To My Heart stamp set (shown below).

Check back soon to see my progress.

My New Year Resolution ...

was to be more awesome in 2010 than I was in 2009.  Seems impossible, right?  Not quite.  You see, my favorite comedy right now is How I Met Your Mother (HIMYM).  It's laugh out loud ... wait for it .... funny.  I love the Barney-ism, so much so that I follow his fictitious character on Twitter.  Anywho, he's always talking about how AWESOME he is so I'm mixing that posititve vibe with positive thinking to make every day an awesome day, no matter what comes my way. I figure it's all a learning experience to make me better, whether it's good or bad.  I've been chronicaling my awesomeness on my Facebook status but you will soon see it on my Twitter feeds, posted here and I will expand on some of them via this blog.  I only hope to inspire all of the people who are {not} following me.

Holiday Stampaganza 2009

Stamp lovers rejoice! I'm so excited about this promotion!!!  This usually happens early in the year so when those months came & went with no Stamapanza campaign I wondered how I'd stock up on my favorite stamps this year.  And even worse, I knew you guys had been looking forward to it as well.  So for the first time (we've never done a promotion like this so close to the holidays) and this month only, buy two CTMH stamp sets, get one FREE. What a great way to stock up on your favorite stamps or better yet, make gift giving more affordable. This is a great way to help Santa mark someone's favorite stamps off their wish list (yours included)!

Get more details at http://leopard.myctmh.com/

We're Off To See The Wizard

the wonderful Wizard of Oz because, because, because, because, because ...
I always loved Halloween as a child but I never truly LOVED it until I was able to experience it with my own kids.  It's just been recently that we've really made dressing up a family affair.  It's all been driven by our oldest daughter's choice of costumes.  Last year she chose to be Alice in Wonderland, even though she had never seen the movie.  So daddy was the Madd Hatter and I chose to be the Queen of Hearts.  Baby R was born 3 weeks early and 4 days before Halloween.  The day after I got home from the hospital I made her a rabbit costume.  I must have been delirious from lack of sleep because not only did I pull off a rabbit costume for a small newborn but I also still had to make my costume.  Look how cute we were (and excuse my 3 day post baby belly, booty and ankles).

So fast forward to Halloween 2009, our daughter informs us that she wants to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  Again, another movie she had never seen.  I still can't figure out how she chooses these characters but I love it.  So we buy the costume, and the movie.  Can you believe my shy 6 year old little girl was not scared of it and cried at the end?  It was so sweet and it was the first time she really empathized with a character.  It only made sense for the rest of us to complete the cast.  Baby R was the Cowardly Lion, I was the Tin Man and daddy was the scarecrow.  We had a wonderful time singing and skipping down the Yellow Brick Road.

I love that we are building lasting family memories for our children and can't wait to scrapbook this!

My Baby Is One!!!

Time flies when you're havin' fun, right?  It's hard to believe that 1 year ago today I saw my sweet baby girl R for the first time.  For 8 1/2 months, I wondered whether or not she'd look like her big sister. I could only imagine what her personality would be like.  Would she have brown or blue eyes?  The list goes on and each day I would start to learn more and more about her.

I promised myself that I wouldn't do what everyone says they do with their 2nd child and not take as many pictures.  I've done my best this first year but I do have to agree that it's hard with all the activity, and hustle & bustle of a multi-child household and full time working mom.

I hoped to have 75% of her 1st year scrapbooked and preserved by now.  I'm a far cry from that.  Not only am I so far from that goal but now I'm even more behind on Rheagan's book.  I think I need to get away for a weekend scrapbooking retreat with my girlfriends and SOON!  In the meantime, I'm going to print contact sheets so I can figure out pics, make my sketches and take a few days off and just devote it to playing a little catch-up. Maybe I'll start with Baby R's 1st birthday party pics and work backwards.  Then again, maybe not. 

Speaking of Baby R's 1st birthday, we celebrated a few days early this past weekend.  Great food, awesome family, fun times and TONS of pictures to scrapbook!