Apr 27, 2011

Time Flies!

Wow, where is this month going? Going, going, almost gone! Next month is the last month of school!! We had a great long weekend. We got into the pool on Thursday, bounced with friends on Friday, hung around the house on Saturday and enjoyed Easter festivities on Sunday! Monday was back to the grind and we all moved veeeeeery slooooowly. But before moving on, I just wanted to share a few Easter pictures. We bought our favorite paint roller egg kits:
We decided to paint raw eggs because I am the only one that likes them hard boiled and I just can't eat THAT many hardboiled eggs! Of course three broke, so maybe I should just go back to hardboiling and eating as many as I can--sigh. Still, they had fun:

Yesterday, I got some awesome news :) 
The announcement is HERE. I am so excited :)
And I haven't shared my other Elle's Studio April projects--seriously, where has this month gone? Anyway, here is a layout I did with a ton of tags and NO patterned paper. You really don't need it when you use a whole bunch of Elle's super cute tags:
I used almost an entire set of the This Week Note Tags. I stitched on a few and stamped Sweet Memories from an Elle's Studio stamp (no longer available) set on another. I also used one of the Make a List Journaling tags to house both the journaling and the title:
and there is one more tag from the Fun Circle Tags collection hidden behind a Maya Road zipper:
My last two projects are a couple of birthday cards using Echo Park Sweet Summertime line with a Birthday Circle Tag and a couple of the Birthday Handmade Layers Pennants in this one:
 and a Large Birthday Circle Journaling tag and the candles are stamped from this Elle's Studio set.
If you like those little candles run over and grab that set for $1.80 before they are all gone!
And last but not least, I told you about the 2 kits for Scrapbook Circle this month, right? There is a gorgeous May kit AND a special and equally beautiful Anniversary kit. I've had to stop myself from creating like crazy with these kits--they are SO awesome! Seriously the best kits EVER. How about a little sneak peek? Here is a couple of peeks from the May kit called Grandma's Attic:

and a couple from the Anniversary kit:

Seriously!! Can you believe all that scrappy goodness? I am not exaggerating....my favorite KITS EVER. So be sure to sign up for the Scrapbook Circle newsletter so you get all the information about this fun anniversary month!
And with that, it is time to put my monkeys to bed! Have a great night!
:) Rebecca

Apr 23, 2011

Twas the Night Before Easter...

We have kind of a tradition going. On the eve of a holiday where someone magical is due to pay the kids a visit (i.e. Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny) I pretend to hear said magical guest and his token noise. So before Christmas, I will suddenly proclaim that I heard Jingle Bells. Tonight when the kids were dragging their feet about taking a bath, I mentioned that I heard hopping. Let me tell you, those kids ran upstairs, cleaned up the mess of toys and got into and out of the bath in record time! If only every night were this easy! Anyways, the eggs are filled with goodies and hidden. There was a request this year that the Easter Bunny find harder hiding places ;) The baskets are filled and I think the kids are fast asleep because they know full well that the Bunny can't arrive while they are awake.
As for me, I am super excited that the April Elle's Studio gallery went live yesterday! Every month I am literally blown away by the amazing projects the other design team members create and this month is no different. You can check out the full gallery HERE. And here is one of the layouts I created for the gallery:
Elle's Studio tags pair perfectly with the new Echo Park Summer Days collection. I used the Elle's Studio Fun Striped Circle Tags and a Pieces of Life Note Tags.
All the Easter Egg hiding has made me pretty tired so I will share the rest tomorrow. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
:) Rebecca

Apr 19, 2011

Around Blog World...

I have a few layouts around blog world today. My VERY first MyStampBOX post is up HERE. I used Echo Park's At the Playground for this layout about my little guy and added two different MyStampBox stamps (the mini camera and the hearts). I read somewhere that a photographer gets children to look in the lens by asking if they can see the little dinosaur in there. I wish I could remember where I read it because it WORKS like a charm! He asks me to take pictures of him so he can see the little dinosaur lol.
With him looking right into the lens and standing still (so as not to frighten the dinosaur away) and smiling (because the dinosaur is shy) I am able to get crystal sharp eyes! I picked the MyStampBOX stamps to match the theme of the layout and the graphic in the patterned paper.
I also have a layout up on the Scrapbook Circle blog today. For this layout, we were challenged to use the Bella Blvd playing card patterned paper called Game Night. I cut my cards out and matted index photos to them:
I used the first three cards to go along with my title and journaling about my 3 sweeties. Be sure to check out the Scrapbook Circle blog for other inspiration using the Hello, Sunshine! kit. And keep checking back because in the month of May, Scrapbook Circle is celebrating their 5th anniversary! There will be two kits available -a May kit and an anniversary kit-and they are both ABSOLUTELY amazing!! Plus there will be challenges, giveaways and all other kinds of fun going on at the Scrapbook Circle blog--you won't want to miss a day!
Have a great one!
:)Rebecca

Apr 18, 2011

Upsy Daisy Springtime layouts

This month at Upsy Daisy Designs we are celebrating with Springtime layouts and other projects. The funny thing about Spring in the Southwest is that we are pretty much enjoying summer weather. The mornings and late nights may be cool, but usually the days heat up. So, for example, last easter, the kids had long sleeves and pants pajamas on when they found eggs, but by the afternoon they were playing in their new sprinkler. I thought I would show a bit of both this month. Here is a layout using Upsy Daisy's See You Later Alligator line:
I thought that the B side of the Alphabet Soup paper looked like a decorated Easter egg:
I love the journaling square patterned paper that comes with every Upsy Daisy collection:
My other layout this month uses pictures from later that day. For this layout I used the Vogue line:
The "pocket full of sunshine" is a rub on that I placed on white cardstock and then cut out:
I am not much of a fussy cutter, but these flowers are just begging to be cut out:
What is Spring like in your neck of the woods? I remember going to college in Connecticut and coming back to snow after spring break! Some of you may be tempted to be jealous of our warm weather right now, but let me alleviate that by telling you that we read we are supposed to get record highs this summer. We may even hit 125! UGH! And on that terrifying note, have a great night!
:) Rebecca

Apr 14, 2011

patterned paper-less cards

For those of you that just clicked over from THIS POST, thanks for taking the time to read 2 posts from me ;) For those of you who just wandered onto this post, I was just talking about how it is totally possible to create layouts and cards with absolutely NO patterned paper at all. Specifically by using fabulous cardstock like Core'dinations. In these examples, I want to show the difference between light sanding and heavy sanding. In this card, I used just a light piece of sandpaper (not too rough) and lightly sanded the pre-embossed butterfly cardstock:
To stamp the typewriter and heart keys I flipped the Core over and stamped on the ungrained side for a clear image. For the greeting, I decided I liked the idea of stamping directly on the embossed, sanded textured side. I added some glossy accents to the keys and some black enamel to the teeny typewriter keys, but generally the light sanding gives an aged, vintage look. The next card for my girl (for her second month of 100% on her monthly testing) I used the pre-embossed alpha core from the same Jenni Bowlin Core'dinations stack. This time I wanted the embossed letters to really stand out so I used a heavier grain of sandpaper and went to town with the sanding!
She really is our little smarty pants ;)
So there you have it! Two cards that achieve different looks using the same product by sanding lightly or heavily--and not a piece of patterned paper in sight!
Thanks for stopping by!
:) rebecca

My Core’dinations Creative Frenzy

I know there are lots of "patterned paper people" out there. Don't get me wrong, I love a pretty piece of patterned paper as much as the next person ;) But me? I am a cardstock gal. Always have been, always will be. It is VERY rare that I will do a project without any cardstock. For one thing, I like how the absence of pattern gives the eye a place to rest. But even more than that, I love texture. So when I was first introduced to Core'dinations--cardstock with so much texture and depth, it was truly love at first sight. From pre-embossed designs to different color cores, there really is something for every project and technique. The best thing about Core'dinations is how many different ways it can be played with to create such different looks. I tried to use a variety of methods in my projects.

For example, in this layout,
I cut squares of pre-embossed Core'dinations cardstock, sanded them and glued them down to a black background. Once I was sure I had wiped off most of the dust I sewed inbetween the squares for a quilted look. Then I punched stars from a white wash color and sanded half of them. The other half I flipped over and layered underneath:
For this layout, I wanted to create a polka dot background (again with some Whitewash Core'dinations):
so, I opened up an embossing folder, placed it underneath the cardstock
and sanded. I continued to move the embossing plate around to different parts of the cardstock.
I highly recommend getting one of these Dust Buddy wipes if you are doing lots of sanding:
After all the sanding and wiping, I was left with a fun polka dot background:
To create this fun worn flower:
I started with a purple and white core Core'dinations cardstock and cut a bumpy spiral:
(yes they make dies to cut out these bumpy spirals but it is easy enough to cut your own!). Then I sanded the edges of the spiral:
and rolled it (just the way you make a rolled rose, starting from the outside going in towards the center. I added a few hand cut and creased leaves from a pre-embossed green Core'dinations cardstock. Even the journaling strips were printed on a Whitewash color of Core'dinations so I could sand the edges and add an additional pop of green.
Finally, for this last layout, I used a tearing technique. Well, not really TECHNIQUE, I just tore the paper lol, but look at how cool strips of Core'dinations looks when it is torn:
And the three hearts were punched and then embossed using my Cuttlebug and a heart embossing folder:
Isn't Core'dinations fun? If you made it all the way through this post and you're still not convinced that you could make something without patterned paper, check out THIS POST, where I made two patterned paper-less cards :)
Thanks for stopping by!
:) Rebecca

Apr 12, 2011

Elle's Studio and Echo Park

As soon as I saw the Echo Park line Playground I knew right away I would be using some Elle's Studio Brights tags along with it.

On this layout, I used both the This Moment tags

and the Sweet Stitches tags.

I love the bright pop of green they add. The cardstock is Bazzill, the buttons are Basic Grey and the twine is Daisy Bucket. Everything else is from the adorably fun Echo Park Playground kit. I also recently acquired their Summer Days line, but you'll have to wait to see that when the April Elle's Studio gallery goes live :)
Have a great night!
:) Rebecca

Apr 7, 2011

The Good, The Busy and the...

not sure what else. There's no ugly going on, just BUSY and maybe tired ;) Grandma and Grandpa's visit came to an end much to the chagrin of the little people who were getting used to all the extra attention. Little Miss is still rocking the kindergarten thing. This month she was one of 7 in her class to get all her testing 100% right. She has the memory that I USED to have before I had kids lol. She also just finished a 6 class Karate class, which I really wasn't sure if she was going to like at all. But she loved it and is asking to do more! (she is the one in ALL purple).

The Little Dude is busy being 4, starting to turn on the attitude and turn off the listening ears, but for the most part he is still my little sweet boy:

As for me? I just got back a card I had published in Create: Quick and Easy and I layout I had published in the March issue of Scrapbook Trends. This is the first box of goodies I received from them and the first time I got to see one of MY creations in a magazine. Exhilarating for sure. Totally beats having my law review article published because I know that more than my family and friends will see it lol!

And the layout from my last post was spotted on the Jillibean Soup blog this week HERE. Speaking of Jillibean Soup, I do have one layout I can share.  The design of this one just makes me happy so I think I need to scraplift myself lol and do this again:
One last bit of news...The online scrapbook event True Scrap is taking place this weekend! Scrapbook Circle is offering anyone who signs up through THIS LINK a $15 gift certificate to the Scrapbook Circle store!! Holy cow!! Is that awesome or what??!!
And on that note, have a great night!

Apr 3, 2011

Every day is a new fav

I have a new favorite layout. And guess what? It is the one I created most recently. That's usually how it works for me ;) But this one is pretty special to me because it shows one reason why my kids have the best Dad ever. I know everyone probably thinks their husband is the best Dad ever, but how many of them actually swing with their 5 year old daughters? Judging from what I've seen at the park, not many lol.
Lots of new Jillibean Soup goodies on this one. I recently acquired several bits and pieces from Blossom Soup and those mini Kraft alphas---LOVE! And you can't go wrong with corrugated shapes, a broken out grid design and stitched patterned paper:
It's been a while since I posted a card around here. I also recently acquired this Hero Arts stamp set which I had been coveting since it came out.
And I've been thinking a lot about all my long distance friends and how much I miss them. I can't afford to jet set around the country and visit them all, but I can certainly send out some cards and let them know how much they mean to me:
That star patterned paper is October Afternoon. I don't have TONS of uses for the majority of the Campfire line, but I think I could use a whole stack of those stars ;)
Well, we have a long week ahead of us, so that's all for tonight. Hope your weekend was wonderful!
:) Rebecca

Apr 1, 2011

Fun News!!

Totally not an April Fools, I am now a member of the myStampBOX design team!!
You can see the announcement HERE. They are having a fun blog hop to introduce the new members of the team and if you participate you have the chance to win some stamps!!! I am so excited to be a part of this fun team and can't wait to get stamping.
Before I go, I just wanted to share another layout I made with the Scrapbook Circle Hello, Sunshine April kit:
I love the mix of Bella Blvd, Crate Paper and BoBunny in this kit. And these tags are chalkboard tags:
I used a white Uniball Signo pen and doesnt it show up so fabulously on the chalkboard? Love those Crate paper chipboard clouds too :) 
You definitely want to check this kit out at Scrapbook Circle, you will love it!
Have a great weekend!
:) Rebecca