Some Play...

I took the past Friday off from work. It was the first time since I entered the workforce that I took off the day after Thanksgiving. I cut stuff out using my Cricut and the kids glued things together. That was exhausting. Then in the afternoon, I took them to Children's Museum for five hours. I allowed myself a break from the camera, indeed, it was so much easier!

I did manage a layout on Thanksgiving day using sketch 47 of 52 sketches 52 weeks.
I misted the PP using the yellow Maya mist, it looks surprisingly good, definitely adds a little texture to the layout. I love what Pearl said "updating my looks!" YES!! I misted the Technique Tuesday chipboard but I liked the natural cream color better so I just flipped it over to use. I also machine stitched on the layout. I must have felt very ambitious.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!! I am looking forward to the Macy's parade, three NFL games, and a fantastic meal with my second family, the Andersons. I plan to have a bite of turkey and plate(s) full of candied sweet potatoes. I am not kidding! I don't kid when it comes to food!

I thank you my readers. I don't know what draws you to my blog, but I thank you for visiting, frequently or occasionally. I appreciate you! Here is a card that was published in Scrapbook and Cards Today Fall 09 issue. I dedicate it to you!

Experimenting with Maya Mists

I was introduced to Maya mists by the wonderful people of Studio Calico. I've been trying to play with it and learning as I go. One thing is for sure, Maya mists' saturation level is high. Of course, I'm totally heavy-handed, just look at this layout! That background cardstock is a light green! I am still adjusting from glimmer mist where I do need to spray and spray and spray and spray.

I made my own mask here. I laminated this ziggy-zaggy Collage Press diecut and used an exacto knife to cut. This essentially created three masks, one of which I used in my layout below. I know I could just use the diecut paper as the mask, but now that it is laminated, it can be used over and over, at least in theory!


This one is based on a Scrappiest sketch again. I am so glad to use some fun products and put a slight dent into the ever growing stash, lol.

Oh yes, Martha Stewart's deep edge punch! I got this one because it was the last one on the shelf. I figured that it was popular for a reason, so I "needed" it. *LAUGH!* Here it looks like a fence to me, appropriate eh?

Lastly, I have another layout where I did some Maya misting. This is definitely the most personal layout I've made and it took a long long long time to conceptualize what I wanted to express with it. I will never pretend to be an artist, but I feel like I caught a glimpse of what artists perhaps go through, the process of translating thought into art form... So I share a peek with you and you can see it in Scrapbook Trends August 2010.

Home Bakin'

Nearly two years ago, I jumped into the "challenge and contest" world. One of the first challenge sites I came across was Noel Mignon's. She happened to be doing "parts of the speech" challenges! How intellectual can it get? Love that!! I jumped in right away with the preposition challenge and with some serious beginner's luck, I became the Preppiest! LOL. The prize was Noel's debut and add-on kit. I still have it all together neatly on one of my shelves several layouts and two years later.

It has been a long long long time since I've done another Noel Mignon challenge, but the latest challenge of "home cookin'" once again motivated me to scrap. The Nook and Pantry line from Basic Grey must be used while it is still hot out of the oven, lol. I guess having pictures that suit the challenge helps since I am never a print-as-I-go type of gal. And lastly, I really really wanted to enter the College Days challenge with Deana, but I failed her, so I'm making up with this challenge and layout.

Roar for MME Challenge

Here's a confession, I have at least four inches of MME paper in my stash. Yes, I know it's a lot, but I am excused because MME is an extremely productive manufacturer. For example, their latest Amber Road line, that's gotta be at least two inches of paper if you get it all! What is inexcusable is letting the papers sit! So I needed this MME blog challenge like the desert need the rain (ugh, who sings that song? lol).

Who else just LOVES that dinosaur paper? Here's another confession, I printed more photos of Dinoland USA than I would have typically because of these papers! lol... Here I used this photo of my DD in Dinoland for a purpose other than the trip album. When it comes to scrappy papers, I am very comfortable using boy"ish" papers on my girls. It's just like clothes, no one is going to point out the truck on my DD's shirt and say, "That's for boys!" Same thing holds true for scrappy papers. I'm an equally opportunity paper employer!

I want to mention that the cardstock I used here is Prism's China, and it matches amazingly well with the grays in this MME line.

I'm pretty pleased with my frugal self here for using the "Abbey Road" strip and trimmed out the "Roar" for the title. LOL. I've done that previously with MME's "Tres Jolie" line, and cut out "tres jolie" and accented layouts of my children. Jolie et parfait, merci MME!

Ready, Set, Graphic 45

This month, Graphic 45 and Tattered Angels are doing a blog relay. This layout is one of my contributions. A while back, Pearl encouraged me to participate in the Scrappiest sketch challenges, so I did, and this was based on a Scrappiest sketch.

The glimmer mist I received from the product swap were very very light in color, so I just sprayed some on cream cardstock and waited for it to dry. Once dried, I used my Purple Cows laminator to flatten the paper, and then I stamped the TA butterfly onto the glimmer misted paper. I did two butterflies to layer them, it looks okay. It probably (or definitely) doesn't go with the ice-cream thing, but I work with what I was given, lol. Did anyone notice the new Martha Stewart combination punch in action here? I really can't get enough of her punches!

I hope your weekend is merry and bright! Speaking of that, if you are here for the Adornit blog hop, please scroll down! Cheers!

Adornit Blog Hop

I am excited to participate in another round of Adornit Blog Hop!! It was so much fun when I participated in the hop in July. The project I created back then will be published in Creating Keepsakes magazine's January 2010 issue!

Enough about the last time, this time, you can get started at the beginning for the entire blog hop.

I made a very simple card for the Merry blog hop. I don't send out Christmas cards/letters but I do give out the occasional card to neighbors and friends. So I hope this one will bring some holiday cheer to someone! Other than the Prism Papers cardstock, everything I used on the card is Adornit product.

I felt that a simple card is probably a bit too light of participation, so I am including a layout from last month when I guest-blogged for Georgana and Adornit. I think it can qualify as both merry and bright, lol. Gosh, who else love these non-parallel stripes and those precious dots!?

Well, that's about it from me, I hope you enjoyed my projects. Next up, please visit Janelle Jones and her lovely blog and project!

To School!

As soon as I received the Report Card line by October Afternoon, I had to sit down and scrap these photos of DD off to school for "real." I used a Becky Fleck sketch, exclusive to BPM's guest designer's search. I do *heart* sketches!! I don't have much else to say except that I love this layout so I'm very excited to share it!!

My NFL Story

If push comes to shove and I must identify the reason why I scrapbook, I will tell you it's because I love to write and I think I'm relatively good at writing.

But scrapbooking for me must start with photos. Basically I mean if I have a story to tell but no photos to go with the story, that story doesn't get told on a scrapbook page.

So here's something about me: I love the NFL. The first time I watched a football game on TV, I was a college freshman. I asked, "How many quarters are there in a football game?" Before the echo stopped, I had an answer for my own question, lol.

As much as I loved watching NFL games, I had never been to one until Aubree took me to a pre-season game in August in Philly! So I finally have a picture that can be used with the story, and therefore a scrapbook page is born!

This layout is created based on sketch 77 provided by Creative Scrappers.

We March on with Nutmeg

Does it seem like I've done nothing with anything else except Nutmeg recently? LOL, that's not entirely true, but here's yet another nutmeg layout. I was trying for a much more different look than how it turned out. I misted again, but you can hardly tell, it looks more like olive colored cardstock in the end! I hand-stitched and I really enjoy that activity, but it is uber time consuming. In the process, I lost the needle for 24 hours, and we turned the couches upside down in the living room looking for it!! In the end, it was on my messy scrap table, ugh!

Who else loves Cosmo Cricket's ready-chips? Handmade embellishments are indeed precious and enviable, but I sure love the convenience of the ready-chips!!!

Happy Sunday everyone. I am looking forward to scrapping finally after a break of several days.

Nutmeg Cards

Here are some cards for next year's United Way auction at work! I might even give out my good stash for next year's auction, lol, listen to me! Again I'm using the WIP kit and the lovely Cosmo Cricket's Nutmeg line. I ordered a few more sheets and hope to use them this weekend!

This one I used a Tim Holtz mask and my new Maya Mist!! I love it!! The "ready-set" is a part of the "ready-set-chip" packaging of Cosmo Cricket's chipboard elements.

Here I misted the flower with the Maya mist.

I broke out the white Hambly tree grain rubon for this one. HEART Hambly!! My stash of screenprints and rubons will rival any of their DT member's stash, lol!!

Thank you folks for checking in with me all the time. I really appreciate you for visiting!

Into the Heart of Fall

November, the month of turkey and sweet potatoes eating has arrived. New scrappy pages can be shown! This month I have the pleasure of guest designing for WIP! Here is my favorite page from the bunch about my favorite summer dress of Second Child. I really love this layout, more than anything, it's because I really love these photos! I am grateful for this crazy obsessive scrapbooking hobby as it makes me take pictures nonstop! Sometimes I get a few that I really cherish like these...

Also, this month at the Prism blog, we will be displaying projects that "give thanks." My little card kicked off today. Stop by to take a look, thank you and good night/day!