Jan 31, 2011

Happy Monday!

You know something is up when I say Happy and Monday in one line! Especially after a night of no sleep because my little guy is sick....AGAIN. Something is up alright...Elle's Studio is celebrating this week and introducing each member of the design team. I am up first---EEEK! The Elle's Studio blog has an introduction to me today, including a peek at my scrap space and a Valentine's canvas I made especially for the occasion. Here is a peek at the canvas:
To see the whole thing you are going to have to head over to Elle's Studio Blog. And don't forget to leave a comment because Elle's is giving away goodies ALL week!
I also have a few layouts to share. First up is another one I did with Scrapbook Circle's February Happy Days kit:
I love the bright pop of glittery blue from the Pink Paislee glitter stickers:
Scrapbook Circle is going to be doing a blog hop on February 4th (that is this Friday!!) to introduce the new design team members and each of us is going to be giving away a $10 GC to the store! They will be giving away a whole kit on the Scrapbook Circle blog too!
And tomorrow, 3 Scrappy Boys is releasing the February Main, Trio and Add on Kits! I was thrilled to design with the Main kit this month and I LOVE it. Here is a little peek of one of the layouts I made with this fun kit:
You will not want to miss the full reveal tomorrow, but I would head over right away because they are having an awesome Pre-CHA sale to make room for all the new goodies we've been requesting. Seriously EVERYTHING is on sale! Run to the Store to check it out.
And last, but not least here are a few layouts I worked on this weekend:

(Pebbles New Arrival collection and photos of Little Miss when she was just days old).
(Sassafras stuff and Little Miss recently).
More Sass and a funny story. We had the windows open during dinner recently and heard this strange noise. The kids asked what it was and I said, "hmmm kind of sounds like a neighbor using a blow torch"? Then the sound seemed closer. Little Man got up and looked out the window at the same time I said, "ya know what it actually sounds like..." And he yelled, " a hot air balloon!!!" There were three of them and they were flying right over our house. One seemed to be landing and came so close, we could see the people in the basket--they seriously must have been landing a block or two away!
Well, that's it for now. Have a great day!
:) rebecca


Jan 29, 2011

Winner Winner!! .

Sorry I didnt check in last night with the winner. It has been a LONG week around here. Little Miss was going through monthly testing. On Friday morning I got up and found in her in the office---studying. She is FIVE. I guess it all paid off because I asked the teacher at pick up how she is doing (mentioning that she seemed a little stressed) and her teacher said she was one of the best in the class and only got a few of the 70 phonograms wrong.

Anyway.... I headed to random integer and it chose a winner for me:

True Random Number Generator

Jan 24, 2011

Scrapbook Circle Happy Days

The February kit for Scrapbook Circle is called Happy Days and let me tell you it made me very happy indeed! So many gorgeous papers from Basic Grey, Pink Paislee, Glitz and October Afternoon. I easily made 5 layouts. You can go check out sneaks of the kit HERE. Some inspiration from the design team is already loaded up to the Idea Gallery and plenty more will be coming! Here is one layout I made using only items from this fabulous kit:
I sewed the transparency right onto the background so I didnt have to deal with hiding adhesive:
I cut out a flower from the Basic Grey papers but to make it even more over the top I cut out and layered extra petals and then used the October Afternoon badge as the center:
The pics are from when my best friend from 7th grade came to visit with her family. Her youngest and mine were buds within 5 minutes of meeting each other. We had a feeling they would get along well, but they were constantly holding hands, sitting together and carrying on long in depth 3 year old conversations. It may be the cutest thing I have ever seen. People kept stopping us and saying things like, "I wish my kids got along so well" and we would laugh and say, "oh they are NOT related!!"
Anyway, this kit is AMAZING. Run, do not walk, over to Scrapbook Circle to check it out for yourself!  
And if you are looking for my Elle's Studio giveaway, just go to THIS POST. Remember you have until Friday to enter!
Thanks for stopping by.
:) rebecca 

Jan 22, 2011

Elle's Studio January Gallery AND a GIVEAWAY!!

OH MY GOSH! The Elle's Studio January 2011 Gallery is LIVE and it is INCREDIBLE. And I get to be in it!!! I still can't even believe it! I kept loading up the Elle's Studio blog this morning waiting for the post saying the gallery had gone live and when it did, I just sat there in awe watching all the designers slide shows over and over. Seriously, take some time and check it out. Just click on each designer's photo and you will get to watch a slide show of their projects from this month. TONS of fabulous inspiration.  Here is the GALLERY. Now that the gallery has been revealed I can share my projects with you here too!
I am in LOVE with the new papers and the whimsical shape of the hearts.
For this layout, I used the Birthday Journaling tags. By stacking three on top of one another I was able to place my title and journaling throughout one line saving me lots of room for a 5x7 photo and some fun layered papers.
And last, but not least, I made this Valentines card:
using two Lovely Vintage Valentine Tiny Tags layered on top of one another. I embossed a piece of Core'dinations Black Magic cardstock and sanded it to reveal the red, punched a heart from the same cardstock and used the color side and added a Studio Calico notion and some ribbon to top it off.

Getting to work with all these Elle's Studio goodies has been such a thrill already and this is only my first month! So I want to share the wealth--Elle sent me a stamp set that I had already purchased a while back so I want one of you to get the new, never before used Sweet Summer Stamp Set:
All you have to do is follow my blog and leave me a comment here and you will be in the running for this super cute and versatile stamp set. (heck I may even throw in some other fun Elle's Studio goodies that I purchased last year!) If you want another entry, go over to the Elle's Studio blog and leave some love there (just be sure to leave me another comment here telling me you did!). I'll leave the giveaway open all week (until Friday January 28th) --the more comments there are, the bigger the prize!
Thanks for stopping by!
:) rebecca

Jan 15, 2011

Catching Up--BIG time.

I honestly do not know where the time goes. Of course there is a lot of driving kids back and forth to school, helping with homework, studying for tests, cooking dinners, trying to get little people to get a good night of sleep.

Then there is watching movies, bouncing in the bouncer, cleaning, more cleaning.

Still, if it is already the MIDDLE of January, we are in for one lightning fast year. And this little stinker called me Mom all day. Not Momma or Mommy, but "Hey Mom..."
Sigh. Oh well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. He is going to be 4 next month after all. Oh, for anyone curious about these painted frames or the polaroids with text I used in my Christmas post, I downloaded both for free from the fabulous Coffeeshop Blog. The BW action I ran on these photos is from the same site.
Ok....in the downtime, I have gotten lots done. Some I can't share yet (some new projects with new Elle's Studio goodies!!!!!!). So here is what I can share:
This one with American Crafts Love Collection:
That big red flower is an American Crafts Details and I entered this into their weekly challenge and I was one of the winners on the American Crafts blog.
This month the Upsy Daisy Design Team focused on their Avalanche line. It is a very winter line filled with snowflakes and winter sports phrases. Here in the Southwest, we don't get a lot of either. So I got creative ;) This first one is actually pictures from over the summer. When it gets unbearably hot, when it is 115 for weeks on end, when it is well over 100 even in the dark of the night, sometimes we stop off at the local skating rink. It just feels so good to be cold for a little while:
The great thing about this line is the B sides are incredibly versatile. The colors are patterns have a cool masculine feel so I thought it was perfect for a layout about my guys:
And this one was made with a bunch of Kreaxions punches and a big butterfly die;
The punches I used are on the Just Imagine Crafts blog today.
I did this one as a scraplift of layout by Carrie Ferrier for a challenge on For the Luv of Art.
And I did this one for a challenge at 3 Scrappy Boys to scrap your One Little Word:
And I couldnt have been more thrilled when Heidi at October Afternoon noticed it at 2peas and posted it on the OA facebook page!
And on that note it is time to call it a day. Have a great night and wonderful rest of your weekend!
:) rebecca

Jan 6, 2011

I'm Baaaaack

Back to back posts!? What??! I told you I might have some exciting news to share...
I was selected to be on the Scrapbook Circle Design Team! You can see the announcement on their blog HERE. I am so thrilled and honored to be a part of this incredible team! And I can't wait to create with Lisa's outstanding kits. I am over the moon excited :)
And since I can't pop in and not share something...here is a layout I did with a bunch of Fancy Pants Love Birds. I am working with is collection for my LSS Scrapbook Barn and it is OH so cute!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great night!


Jan 5, 2011

Bye 2010!

I guess now that it is January 5th I really can say goodbye to 2010! I really wanted a year in review post up before the 5th, but with my little guy not sleeping well (read--ME not sleeping at all) and other forces at work (read--ME sleeping in the cold playroom on a hard futon because I saw a mouse) it just wasn't in the cards. Thankfully my boy is feeling better and our house guest has been, ummm, "uninvited." So...without further ado...

Actually I have one further ado...unfortunately I can't post a few of my favorite layouts from this past year but that is because.... this is the first year I have several out for publication!!! I couldn't be more thrilled about it. In fact, I just had another one of my favorite layouts requested by ScrapStreet for publication in March. So we'll have to make do with these runner ups ;)
Not sure that I even had a chance to share this one yet? In any case, the tags and stamp are from Elle's Studio. Did I mention how excited I am to be designing for them??!! Probably, I did lol. I got my first DT package and all the new products are launched. If you are like me...you will want them all!

Here is another one with tons of Elle's Studio goodies. I loved using lots of tags and the small pictures with rounded corners. I don't do monthly recap layouts a lot but this one was so fun, I am thinking I may need to soon.

I won some My Little Shoebox goodies from a Facebook contest with this one.


I won the Echo Park Life is Good collection on a Facebook contest with this one. (I was never a big fan of Facebook until I started getting free goodies lol).


I was thrilled to be "Soup Spotted" several times on the Jillibean Soup blog this year--this was one that was posted.


I got to Guest Design for Scribble Scrabble and this was my favorite project from that spot.


Although I have yet to make an appearance there, some of my layouts made it to CHA this year (designing for Moxxie).


I was beyond thrilled to make the Upsy Daisy Deisgn Team and this layout (based on DT coorindater Kim Sonkenson's sketch) is my fav so far.


I have gotten such a kick out of designing for Just Imagine Crafts (because I am addicted to punches) that I was thrilled when they asked us to stay on a few more months. This is my favorite layout with Kreaxions punches and that cool new big butterfly die.

No accolades here, but this serves as a reminder that this guy needs to be featured more often :)

and how about a few more that just plain make me happy?




And with that, I leave 2010 once and for all. But stop by tomorrow I may have some news ;) AND I am getting close to 200 posts--I feel a giveaway coming :)

Jan 1, 2011

Remembering 2010

So this was SUPPOSED to be a post looking back on some of my favorite photos or layouts of 2010, BUT my little guy was really not feeling good last night. He could not sleep because of all the coughing, so I ended up sitting up and holding him for much of the night so he wouldnt choke. Needless to say the best of 2010 post did NOT get done, but that is ok. I have lots of other things to share for now and I'll get my looking back post done this weekend. 
For starters here is my last ScrapTiffany challenge. The challenge was a year in review. I chose a photo from each month, cropped them into 2" squares and then punched them out with a square punch. I layered them on some fabulous American Crafts papers (from City Park), punched a border, added some Thickers and called it a day. I love the simplicity and the fact that so many of my favorite photos are included all in one page.
Speaking of simplicity ;) A lot of people are choosing one word to define the upcoming year. Rather than make a list of resolutions I kind of like the idea of a general overarching theme. I dont know what, if anything I'll actually do with my word, but the one that I can't keep out of my head is:
I feel like sometimes I make things more complicated than they need to be. I know I can live more simply and I think I will be happier if I do.
Part of that process, for me is learning not to sweat the small stuff. In an effort to do that, I included the kids in my crafting this week because we were all stuck in the house and can only watch so many movies. So I brought their little table in my room, gave them a big 12x12 box of papers/scraps and let them have access to all my punches. They had a blast AND made a huge mess. But you know what, they let me scrap! So, I am ok with picking up itty bitty punched scraps of paper and vacuuming every day ;)
I got a lot done with the new Echo Park Be Mine line. On this one I also used some Cor'edinations Black Magic (that I won from the Core'dinations blog around Halloween) that I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and the rolling pin method:
I also made a couple of cards using a few SRM Stickers for the greetings:

And speaking of SRM Stickers, here is a layout (with more Be Mine) where I combined some SRM Stickers and Thickers for the title and embellishing:
Last, but not least, I finally got a chance to play with some Jillibean Soup for a pic of Little Man from last year:
Man, it feels good to be making things again--just for the sake of making them, not that chaotic Christmas crafting.
that's all for now. hope you all had a fabulous New Year's Eve and Day. Here's to a productive and SIMPLE 2011!