Jun 30, 2010

3 Scrappy Boys July Trio Revealed!

The 3 Scrappy Boys July Kits were revealed today! I received the July Trio this month and can I tell you how much I LOVE this kit. The patterened papers are Kismet (by Glitz Designs) Treehouse (by Pebbles) and 365 Degrees (by Pink Paislee). I never would have thought to put these three collections together, but they work beautifully together. Of course the kit also comes with plenty of cardstock (both Bazzill and Coredinations) and goodies (American Crafts Thickers, Pink Paislee Cork Buttons, Maya Road chipboard...just to name a few!!!). This was the first layout I completed:
Everything you see here is in the kit (and this is just the tip of the iceberg!).

The little clouds are from a Pebbles piece of patterned paper. I am going to have to buy several more sheets of that. I just love cutting out clouds! I added some Glossy Accents to these for shine.

Sometimes I struggle with the pearl bling shapes, but this one was perfect for an airplane smoke trail!


I have FIVE more layouts and a card already completed and plenty of goods left to work with! Take a look at the whole kit in the 3Scrappy Boys store. And while you're in the store be sure to check out the July 4th sale. Everything is on sale!! Some past kits are marked down up to 40% off. There are tons of fun grab bags and a few clearance packs left. Then check back in the gallery and forum tomorrow when the DT challenges and projects will be loaded for the month of July!

In other news....I have another layout up on the My Little Shoebox blog---HERE. It is one I did from Little Miss's graduation ceremony.



I have to admit I was not a big fan of Facebook in the beginning, but I love having another way to connect with the scrapbook companies I love and having another venue to share layouts. Oh, and the possibility of winning prizes isn't too shabby either.

Wishing you a prize filled week :) Be back in a few days to share the rest of the 3SB trio projects.

Jun 28, 2010

Monday Means Big News!

Well, we made it through Little Miss's birthday party. It was HOT, but the kids seemed to have a great time swimming. And the parents were good sports about swimming with them or helping us get everyone fed. There was no real party coordinator so we accepted help from any of the parents that offered. It went fine and she had a blast. I didnt get too many pictures though. I do like this one:

And of course, being Monday the new ScrapTiffany Challenge is posted. This week's challenge is to use those photos that are, well, how should we put it...less than wonderful. There are a few times a year that I feel pressured to get good pictures and seem to continuously fail miserably. The most notable is Christmas. The light in our living room stinks so all the Christmas morning pictures are bleah. This year I tried to take some super low light (actually no light) pictures of the stockings hanging on the stair rail and the tree. I guess the stockings one is ok, but the tree picture looks like a picture on Mars. Oh well, maybe by next Christmas I'll have a better camera with a higher ISO. For now, I still wanted to scrap these photos, so I put some of the title over one to detract from it's not so great qualities ;)


I sanded some Coredintations (from the Classic Cosmo Cricket pack) and then spritzed it with Tattered Angels Chalkboard white for the background.

Head on over to ScrapTiffany to check out the other designers ways to scrap those less than desirable photos. And if you have some some photos you've tucked aside because they are seemingly not scrap worthy, take the challenge and be sure to email it to Tiffany by Friday!

I have a few other items of FUN NEWS!! First up...I was selected to be a member of the inaugural Just Imagine Design Team! Just Imagine Crafts is the exclusive US agent of Kreaxions Punches. They have a super cool circle cutter and many 4 in 1 punches as well as standard image punches. I already have a set of punches to work with and I can't wait to get started! You can see the announcement HERE and check out the other members of the team (their blogs are listed to the right).

Also, I have been doing some behind the scenes designing for Moxxie and just recently, the DT coordinator made me an official Design Team Member!! I am super excited and will have the opportunity to design some projects that hopefully will be displayed at this summer's CHA. 

Finally, I have a few sneak peeks to share from the upcoming July Trio kit for 3Scrappy Boys



There are so many fun goodies in this one, I know it is going to sell fast. I will be back in a few days (where did June go???) once the kit has been revealed to share some layouts.

Have a great week!

Jun 21, 2010

Mondays can be fun!

I know I do my fair share of Monday bashing. But I am learning that Mondays can be fun too. Check out the latest ScrapTiffany challenge. The challenge this week is to do a 2 page layout. I used to only do 2 pagers and now I never do them. But they are perfect for lots of pictures. I had a bunch of Christmas pictures of the kids running down the stairs to see if Santa had come. Of course he had :)

Go on over to ScrapTiffany to see the other 2 page layouts. And speaking of ScrapTiffany, the new Design Team was announced. I am so excited to be staying on for another term. The Team is fabulously talented and Tiffany has lots of fun challenges and fun things planned for this term.

More good news? I won the My Little Shoebox challenge this week! Here is the layout I submitted:
So all in all, I am pretty happy with this Monday :) Hope you all are too! Have a great week!

Jun 16, 2010

American Crafts Men Week Challenge

The American Crafts Studio Blog challenge this week is to create a layout about a man or boy using at least 2 different American Crafts products. Since Scott's scrapbook is sorely lacking in layouts and Father's Day is right around the corner, I thought this was the perfect time to do a Scott layout.

Supplies Used:
American Crafts black patterned paper (Elegant line), American Crafts Travel Flair, American Crafts Thickers (red Cupid and cream Emerald), American Crafts foam arrows, Elle's Studio journaling card, Jillibean Soup Corrugated letters, Tim Holtz mini attacher staples, Bazzill black cardstock and The Paper Studio Kraft.

I love the photo even though it is just one I took while we were in the car. On a side note, Scott wanted me to add a few items to the list. In his view "network administrator" should be on there. We always joke about when I get a message on my computer that says I need to contact my network administrator about a problem since he is the one dealing with the network. 

I also wanted to let you know that the Design Team for 3 Scrappy Boys has posted their mid month challenges. You can see them all on the forum HERE. Each month I provide a new product challenge.  This month my product challenge is to use journaling cards in a different way other than just for journaling. You can see my challenge HERE. And here is the example I created for this challenge. 


I used a bunch of cute Elle's Studio journaling tags to house my photos and embellishments and placed them in a circular design. Head on over to 3 Scrappy Boys. If you take my challenge and upload it to the gallery by July 15th and link it back to THIS THREAD, you will be entered into a drawing for a journaling card RAK from me! And each month, Heather does a random drawing from all the challenge participants for a 3SB RAK! That is TWO chances at free goodies for YOU! 

Have a great week :)

Jun 14, 2010

Monday Mess

I dont know about you, but after the weekend everything is way more of a mess. Throughout the week, I slowly try and piece everything back together only to have us mess it up again on the following weekend. Sigh. Same goes for my desk. I try to follow the, NO NEW project until the last one is cleaned up, but most of the times I just have piles and clutter and...mess. So, when Tiffany challenged us to do a layout about where we scrap, I had to be truthful--my space is generally messy. Here is the layout I did:

This is the first time I used this stitch on my sewing machine, but it won't be the last ;)

The chipboard shapes and patterned paper are Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl--I knew I was saving those scissors and sewing machine for something :) The cardstock is Coredinations (from the Cosmo Cricket Classic stack) and the tag is Elle's Studio.

Go on over to ScrapTiffany and check out the other designers scrap spaces--most quite a bit neater than mine :) And if you want to take the challenge, email Tiffany your scrap space LO by Friday.

In other news, I wanted to share this Jillibean Soup layout I did. 

I love the new Jillibean Soup Summer Squash papers. The colors are so fun and the patterns are fabulous as always. It may be hard to see, but I added MANY coats of Glossy Accents to the lanterns to pop them up and make them shine. I added more Glossy Accents to the little punched butterflies. I would add a layer and leave it for hours and add a layer and leave it overnight--you have no idea how hard it is for me to use that kind of patience lol!!!  

They were nice enough to feature this LO on the Bean Talk blog last week--you can see it HERE :) 

I also got some of the new Jenni Bowlin Playdate line. Again, the colors and patterns are so fun and summery.  I did this LO all about me ;)


The "N is for Numbers" journaling tag is from the Jenni Bowlin collection and the "a few of my favorite things" tag is an Elle's Studio tag. Did you notice the last line of journaling...("I hate to clean")? Well, now I have officially tied the whole post together based on the fact that I am a complete mess :)

And, speaking of journaling tags, I have one more to share, but I think I'll wait for tomorrow and share it as my 3Scrappy Boys product challenge of the month (and maybe offer a RAK for those who play along!!)

Have a great day :)

Jun 13, 2010

Five years ago...



Five years ago, Scott and I lived in San Francisco. Five years ago today, this was the view outside my hospital room window.

Not too shabby, right? I didn't have too much time to enjoy it though. Four hours after being checked in and led to my room with said view, we had a baby.


A baby, who minutes after being born was wide awake, her eyes wide open, ready to take on the world. A year later she had her first taste of cake.


A year after that and her hair started growing ;)
A year after that, she had her first friends from school party at Gymboree.

That same year, she got to bring cupcakes to school. They made her a crazy birthday hat to wear.

When she turned four she had a friends party at Bounce U.

And brought more cupcakes to school (thankfully there was no crazy hat this year).


On Friday we brought cupcakes for her to share with her friends one last time at this school before she will be starting kindergarten late this summer (choke, gasp...I am working on it, really I am).
And here she is this weekend, opening presents, going roller skating, to the pool, out to dinner and home for ice cream cake. We got her a doll house this year and she thanked us about 100 times randomly throughout the day. Nona and Pop Pop sent her a Leapster and she is already earning rewards by mastering the games. Her choice for dinner was spaghetti and meatballs from Buca di Bepo and her dessert of choice was Baskin Robbins ice cream cake. I chose a Hello Kitty theme and it went over very well ;).  

We love you sweet girl. Happy, Happy, Happy 5th Birthday.

Jun 8, 2010

Elle's Studio Challenge goodies

Sometimes the days just get rolling so fast, I have to go back and see what I've missed! And here is a fun one...A couple of weeks ago, Elle's Studio hosted a fun challenge on their blog to create a LO with Elle's product about your favorite aspect of spring. This is the layout I entered:
And it got chosen as one of the layouts spotlighted on the Elle's Studio blog HERE. But it gets better ;) My name was also randomly chosen to win a $30 gift certificate from Elle's Studio! Elle makes the most fabulous journaling tags, flashcards, acrylic stamps etc. I picked out my goodies and they shipped them right out to me. And I've been playing with them ever since :) Here is one layout I did using a few Elle's journaling cards.


I love using the journaling cards to journal of course, but it is also fun to use them to house embellishments too.
That's all for tonight, I have to get some sleep because tomorrow is going to be a long day. Little Miss has her pre K graduation ceremony tomorrow night and she has already informed me that I am going to be a wreck. Actually what she said was, "You are going to cry when you hear us sing the song we are going to sing." Seriously? My almost five year old is emotionally preparing me to cry at her ceremony? Sigh. Well, I'll come back later this week and let you know if she was right. 

Jun 7, 2010

Mega Monday!

It's Monday which means the new ScrapTiffany challenge is posted, but before I get to that I wanted to thank everyone for stopping by this weekend for the ScrapTiffany Recycled blog hop. Thanks for taking the time to look through all the designers posts on the hop and for leaving such sweet comments here. And without further ado, I want to announce the winner of my blog hop giveaway. I used Random Integer Generator to pick a number for us and it chose lucky number 14!
So the winner is Katie:


Blogger Katie said...

Fabulous ideas! I can totally see me doing a few of them! BTW, your kiddos are seriously cute!
June 5, 2010 8:51 AM
Delete
I have a nice priority mail envelope with a little stack of new goodies ready to go-- so Katie, just email me your address (rebeccakeppel at hotmail dot com) and I'll get that package right out to you
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled programming...the ScrapTiffany challenge this week is to focus on family.  All of our extended family lives far away, so the time we spend with them is extremely valuable to us. I made this LO about a visit we recently had from Grandma and Grandpa.

I used the new company Echo Park's Summertime collection for this one.

 The bright colors and super cute designs are right up my alley.  The buttons are Basic Grey and the little yellow butterfly sticker below with the love letters are Jenni Bowlin.


As always, the DT created lots of wonderful layouts so go on over to ScrapTiffany to see everyone's take on this challenge. And if you participate, be sure to email your take to Tiffany by Friday.

Have a great week!

Jun 5, 2010

ScrapTiffany Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the ScrapTiffany Recycled Blog Hop! All the designers on the hop will be presenting projects that will somehow involve recycling materials. Some may use non scrapbook supplies on their projects or use packaging or other creative recycling ideas.  If you've just happened onto my blog, please go back to the start of the hop at the ScrapTiffany site here: www.ScrapTiffany.com

For my projects I wanted to find a number of uses for these...

you know, those plastic sleeves that so many scrapbook products come in. The plastic sleeves are great for purchasers to be able to see what they are buying, but they are not recyclable, so I wanted to find some ways to use them on my projects. My goal was to find the top 10 uses for plastic sleeves, and I came close to that many.

#1 mini album sleeves--
I took a few empty sleeves, and slid photos matted on patterned paper into them. Then I covered plain chipboard which I had cut to slightly larger than my largest sleeve. Finally I used my cropadile to punch a hole through  both chipboard pieces and put a jump ring through the chipboard and through each hole that the packaging sleeves had (for hanging from a store's hooks).











#2-5 several ways to use them on a layout--
For this layout I used sleeves in several ways, First, I die cut flowered shapes into two 6 inch strips of plastic and used those die cut strips as masks for the background of this layout. Then I took the die cut plastic flowers and layered them with crackle paint and popped them up with pop dots. Finally I took one 12" strip and dripped alcohol ink onto it. When the strip was dry I sewed it onto the bottom of my layout.
#6 Copic palette--
Like I've mentioned before, I am not a Copic instructor, but I do know that you can use a bit of plastic sleeve as a palette to mix two Copic marker colors. Color a large dot of the darker of two colors you plan on using on the sleeve.

Then pick up some of the dark color with a lighter color marker.



Use the mixed color for a cool mixed effect.
#7 Stamp Your Own Transparency--
If you use Staz On ink, you can stamp right on a plastic sleeve to create your own transparency. For this card, I stamped 3 butterflies with Staz On red then cut around the butterflies and used a small glue dot under the butterfly body to lift it slightly off the card.



#8 Goody Bag--
Fill with some candy and fold a piece pf patterned paper and a small tag on top and voila you have your own little treat bag!


#9 Keep the product in it's packaging to organize--
While I take a lot of products out of packaging, there are some that are just as easily kept in the sleeves. Especially if you have a peg board to hang them from:


So I am missing 1 to make my top 10 uses....if anyone has a few more uses, please link me up! And, if you take a minute to follow my blog and leave a comment I will enter you into a random drawing for a bunch of fun goodies. I will draw a winner on Monday  :)

And now, let me direct you to the next blog on the hop. Please continue on to Sandie's blog for some inspiring recycled projects! Enjoy the rest of the hop and thanks for stopping by!




Jun 3, 2010

Busy Busy

It may not be June 21st yet, but I think summer is here because everyone I know (including us) has been crazy busy. Birthdays and parties, pool and sprinklers. We get a little more sunshine and light and we all have long, long days. Fun and exhausting all rolled into one! Why just today, we went to the gym, ran home and changed and gobbled some lunch and ran back out to meet friends at the pool. Had ice cream cones on the way home and now after dinner we are watching Toy Story 2 (to prepare ourselves for part 3 coming to theaters in a couple of weeks). I havent shared pictures in a while so I thought I would share a few favs here.

Here is one of Little Miss and her new hair do. She wants to grow out her bangs so we got it cut short to help that process along.

Here is one of her all decked out for Circus dress up day at school.

We found an awesome pool to have her 5th birthday out with a perfectly sized water slide and beach entry zero depth pool.



And here are a couple from our yard and the slip and slide.



Speaking of our yard, I recently made a mini book about where we live. It's easy to get down about living here when it is just the beginning of June and we are already suffering 100+temps. But there are a lot of wonderful things about this neighborhood and I wanted to showecase a few to remind myself :) All the papers are Nikki Sivils...


Dont you love the cute Nikki Sivils breadless tags?




The house shaped mini book is Nikki Sivils too. Loved it because it has a cute shape but is also easy to cover in patterned paper and cut around.

Well, that's it for now, but be sure to stop back on Saturday for the ScrapTiffany Recycled blog hop. I have a few fun projects planned AND I am going to my LSS tomorrow (for a Mom and Me class) and will be picking up some NEW goodies for a GIVEAWAY!!

Thanks for stopping by :)