1..2..3

Hello Sweets! How are YOU today? We are good.  Enjoying our last few days of summer break and just hanging out.

I’m in a nesting mood still.  Wanting to clean up this house of mine and get it sparkling, all ready to start the Fall and a new school year with our best foot forward. Yesterday was window washing day.

Starting in the living room, I traveled all across the back of the house, around the corner into the sunroom, and finished up in the kitchen.

I ended up happy but tired, and I can tell you one thing for sure………

Nothing makes the outside of your windows look dirtier than cleaning the inside.

I wonder what today will bring? I haven’t decided yet.  Will it be polished appliances in the kitchen? Or perhaps some hand-mopped floors?  Maybe some more windows? There are always more windows! Tell me friends…….

What should I do today?

While I’m pondering my next cleaning project, I wanted to share with you all a little challenge contest the Webster’s Pages design team has cooked up for you.

For the month of August, the team has each created one project,  in 3 stages of simple, moderate, and complex design. We wanted to inspire scrappers of all levels, from beginners to experts, and share how easy it is to create beautiful projects using Webster’s Pages products. This is the idea behind our fabulous 1..2..3 contest at inspireME.

Here is a peek at my page.

Yummy Seaside Retreat Collection including patterned papers, 6×6 Petite Paper Pad, Deluxe Journaling Cards, Die-Cut Cardstock Phrase Stickers, and trim package.  I also included some Glittered Sparklers, Scalloped Sparklers, and Vintage Sparklers.

Just follow this link to see all the wonderful projects the team has created and choose ONE to use as inspiration for you. Scraplift your inspiration choice and load it in our gallery. The winner will receive their choice of ONE of our paper collections! Yippee!

So get crafting ladies!  I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

I think I’ve made my cleaning decision. Any guesses??

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And the Winner is…..

Happy Friday!

Thanks to everyone who left nice comments over the last week for my Bazzill stitching templates giveaway.  These templates were my favorite part of the August kit from Paper-Playground, and I am so excited to have some extras to offer up to a new home.

I’ve had some questions as to how best use these templates, and I thought I would share how I generally use them.  They can shift around on you, and if you poke holes while it’s shifting, it can turn out a bit messy and frustrating. So what I tend to do is hold them firmly in place with one hand and place pencil dots inside each template hole with the other.  Then I remove the template and using a needle or a piercer, poke a hole where each pencil mark is.  You can then draw a faint line in pencil connecting all the dots, or just keep your template nearby to use as a guide while stitching.  I use only 2 to 3 strands of embroidery floss at a time.  If you use all 8 strands that make up the typical floss, you need a fairly large needle with a larger eye, and the floss is a bit harder to pull.  I hope some of these tips help!

And now that I’ve got you all excited about the templates, I can announce the winner of my random drawing.  Congratulations goes to Lisa Dorsey.  Yeah Lisa!  Woo-hoo.  I can’t wait to see what cute projects you do with these templates, girl.  And thanks again to everyone for playing along with me.

Not much else is going on scrappy-wise, but I have to show you all this cute book that Nik and I have fallen in love with lately.  If you guys like Halloween, you are going to love this.

Are you guys familiar with Ed Emberley?  I am just the biggest fan of his.  He has created all sorts of step-by-step drawing books for children.  I’m also in love with his fingerprint art books.  I’ve used the fingerprints in art projects I’ve done at the kids’ school and even in some card classes I’ve taught.  Nik and I have been having a ball with this Halloween book.  Here’s a couple of our latest masterpieces.

Sorry for the lousy scans.  One thing I’ve really come to realize lately is that Nik is ready for a genuine sketch book with real watercolor paper.  We’re going to put that on her Christmas list.  On these, we were stuck using a cheapy doodle book from back in her preschool days, but we sure still had tons of fun.  For both pictures, we did sort of a round robin game where she would start the picture with one image, which I couldn’t see her draw.  Then she would pass the book to me and I would add one thing to the picture that she then couldn’t see.  We kept passing it back and forth until we thought we had added everything that could be added.  I loved seeing the happiness on her face every time she would search for my new addition.  Very fun.

So glad the weekend is almost here.  Hope you all have a good one!

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Sketch This 67

Hi everyone!  Are you all ready for another sketch over at the Sketch This site?  Here is this week’s sketch.

I thought this was a fabulous sketch for a layout, and as a matter of fact, I think I’d like to go back and make a page from this soon.  For my card project, however, I simplified the design just a tad by eliminating a few elements.

I removed just a few strips from the bottom and left side of the design, and used the cut-out leaf branch in place of the vertical strip down the side.  A rub-on sentiment from K&Co. acts as my greeting on the journaling block, and another floral cut-out stands out as my focal point.  The cardstock, patterned paper, journaling block and brads are all from the August Paper-Playground kit.

And speaking of the August kit, I still have a couple of extra Bazzill mini stitching templates that I am giving away.

These little templates were by far my most favorite items from August’s kit.  If you would like to have your name entered into the drawing, just leave me a message in the comments.  I will do a random drawing tomorrow and announce the winner on my blog.  Good luck everyone!

Have a great day!

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Monday Musings

Hey everyone!  Good Monday morning to you!  Not too much is going on………I did get Nik back to school this morning after missing three days last week.  She is still feeling really nauseated, and we’re not sure where that is coming from.  Possibly a side-effect from some other medication she is on.  Poor little thing!  She’s going to go until lunch, and then I’m bringing her home.  Baby steps is all we can take at the moment.

But in happier news, I did get the chance to do some scrapbooking over the weekend.  Went to my friend Kathie’s house where three of us Paper-Playground gals got together for a little crop.  They were working on some super cute September kit layouts that I will have soon to put up on the Paper-Playground gallery.  I worked on a card using the August kit and some other assignments that I will be able to share soon. Love those kits. And speaking of the kits….I got September’s kits boxed up and ready for mailing yesterday.  They are sitting at my door as I write, waiting for the mailman to whisk them on their way.  I always love seeing the boxes stacked up and ready to go.   Gives me a such a sense of satisfaction.  There are still kits left if anyone wants one, by the way!  And don’t forget to leave me a comment on my blog giveaway day post to enter your name in a random drawing to win some of the Bazzill mini stitching templates we used in August’s kit.  I will do the drawing for that on Friday.  Woo-hoo!

In other scrappy news, I wanted to tell you all about the September challenge going on over at the Webster’s Pages inspireME site.  This month’s challenge is all about heritage photos.  Here is what design team member, Anabelle O’Malley has to say about it.

“Webster’s Pages naturally lend themselves to vintage, shabby pages. And what better photos to scrap this way than heritage ones? My challenge for you is to pull out those old photo albums and create a layout using an older photo. Of course, your page doesn’t need to be shabby, you may want to do something fun and funky!”

What an absolutely perfect theme for Webster’s Pages products!  I do hope you will all play along.  The winner of the challenge will win a collection of the Webster’s Pages line of her/his choice.  What a great incentive!  Time to get scrapping!

Have a great day everyone!

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Blog Giveaway Day

Can you all believe it’s Friday already?  I cannot believe how quickly this past week has gone by.  And I don’t feel like I’ve gotten a whole lot accomplished either.  It’s a bit hard to pinpoint where all the time has gone.  I’m sure having the kids go back to school has added to the quick pace of the week… or that’s what I will tell myself, anyway.  Nik’s been sick, too, and we’ve spent several days going back and forth to the doctor.  And Glammie is still here keeping us occupied.  Guess all of this combined is making time truly fly.

Haven’t spent much time doing a lot of scrapping, but I have been slowly working on a page over the last few days that I finally finished last night.  I have been wanting to go back and work some more with the August kit from Paper-Playground, as there are still some patterns that I haven’t worked with at all yet.  Also, I’ve been wanting to do some more with the adorable calendar stamp from Imaginisce that is a special feature of August’s kit.  Here is the page I made with a picture of Nik on her first day of fifth grade back in July.

Did lots of cut-work with the Poppy patterned paper on here.  Took a bit of time, but I really like how the large flowers are focal points for the page.  I used a half inch circle punch from Stampin’Up to punch circles to make a border going across the top that I then stitched through on my sewing machine.  Also stamped the calendar stamp on the hand-made die-cut shape used behind my title.  I do love how these colors and leaf print patterns remind me of Fall coming.

One of my favorite parts of this kit has been the mini stitching templates from Bazzill.  It was probably the first thing I started playing with, and have used it to make flourishes and waves on most of my August projects.  I have a couple of extra templates that I would like to give away to a good home.

Anybody interested??  Just leave me a comment and I will do a random drawing next week for the winner.  I’d love to hear about any great project ideas you have using hand-stitching.  Hook me up, I’d love to check it out.

And lastly, look at this cute project Nik made for me to decorate the house for Halloween.

Don’t these little ghosties bring back memories?  I made these same kleenex/cotton ball ghosts when I was a child…..every Halloween.  It’s so sweet to see her doing the same thing all these years later.  Love how she connected the two on one string and found the perfect spot to show them off.  They make me smile every time I walk past.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

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Sketch This #66

My goodness, is shopping ever exhausting! I am completely worn out right now! Glammie and I ran off first thing this morning to see what we could see, and have worn ourselves into the ground in the process. And we didn’t find a single thing. You never know what kind of luck you are going to have. No pain, no gain. At least the ‘ol pocketbook is still intact! I’m sure my dad will be happy about that.

I may be pooped, but I’m still raring to post my card for the Sketch This blog this week. Are you all ready for a new sketch? Here it is!

Janelle called this sketch fun and simple, and I definitely agree. I really loved this one, and found it so easy to work with. Think this is one I will fall back on time and time again. To me, it works particularly well for card-making, but I also love the pages the other design team members made. Here is my card.

Went back and pulled out my August kit from Paper-Playground for this featuring cardstock, patterned paper, and die-cuts from SEI’s Poppy line. These colors are so bright and cheerful. I really love how this turned out. I hand cut the flower and leaf branch from one of the sheets and made a scalloped border on another using my Fiskars Threading Water punch. I also used the adorable calendar stamp from Imaginisce included in this kit on the background piece behind the flower. I stamped the calendar 4 times, making a rectangular block that I then trimmed to size. I also stamped a sentiment onto the die-cut tag for my greeting. Brads from Imaginisce finished off the details.

I have to say that this card came together quickly and easily! It’s really a wonderful sketch. Hope you give it a try. Link me up in the comments if you do!

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The August Paper-Playground Kit is Up!

Yippee!  It’s August 1st, and that means that the August kit is now LIVE on the Paper-Playground website! I am always really excited on the first of the month to reveal the new kit, and this month is certainly no exception. If you haven’t seen the beautiful papers from SEI’s Poppy line in real life, you NEED to do so. Every single piece of patterned paper included in this kit is embellished with either pearled or metallic accents. They are absolutely gorgeous. And what’s more, the back sides of each piece offer even more beautiful patterns, giving you twice as many options. Yum-O!

Here is a page I just did using the August kit.

This photo is of me when I was three months old with my brother Paul, my mother, and one of my grandmothers. Looking back on this picture now, I realize how rare and special this visit from my grandmother ended up being in my life. I only ever saw any of my grandparents a handful of times. I wish it wasn’t so. Look at how stinkin’ cute my brother was! And how beautiful my mother looked! I just really love this picture….so glad I have it. And I really think these beautiful Poppy papers did justice to this special photo. The background paper has the most amazing metallic teal pattern. You could easily stick the whole sheet in a frame and call it artwork for your home. It’s just that pretty. I also love the special detailing that the hand-stitching added to this page. Gotta love that Bazzill stitching template.

One thing to note about this page is the KI Lace paper behind the photo. If you are wondering where that came from, I took a piece from the July kit, painted it white and added a touch of glitter for a photo mat. That’s a great way to get that custom look you want using the supplies you already have.

Here are more photos of the entire August kit.

and here’s a close-up photo of the kit embellishments.

This really is a fun kit. Can’t wait to see what else I can do with it. Would love to see what you all do with it, too.

Have a great day everyone!

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