Queen of the Crop

I am so excited to be chosen to be a guest designer for Scraptacular for the month of October. It is this wonderful store in Douglasville, PA. Beth is super, the store is wonderful, & the forums are "the" place to be. Lots of challenges & chats, & give aways. If you are in PA, stop by for cropping time or classes, or just to shop. If you are outside of PA, go online & check out her yummy products!! I have to admit that I have never scrapped anything for Halloween before. Fall, yes, but never Halloween. So, with this SPECTACULAR October kit, a fire was lit under me, & I finally did some Halloween los. Here is what I did with this fabulous kit. I feel I need to explain this next one. We had this humongous! spider (I'd say a good 5-6") on our deck last year. She was gorgeous. My dh, being the city boy he is, wouldn't go near it, & couldn't understand my fascination with it. (My father had always had us out in creeks & fishi...

Here is this weeks submission for Nuts About Sketches design team. She came up with a wonderful sketch again, & it was the perfect opportunity to scrap these pics. Check out her blog for some great inspiration & see the other great creations from my fellow DT members.

I had so much fun doing this lo. We had gone to Elmwood Park Zoo, & had a ball. It is a small zoo, but perfect size for my girls. The embellishments are cut from DCWV paper, & you can't really see it, but I pop-dotted them to make them stand up a bit. But my favorite part of this lo is the butterfly in the upper right corner. If you look closely, it is my daughter, Audra, poking her head through a cut out butterfly. I cut it out, pop-dotted it, & the wings kind of flutter. This lo was created for Nuts About Sketches bonus lo, & you can find it posted on her blog under the design team work, along with all the other ladies wonderful los!

Here is my submission this week for the Nuts About Sketches design team. Check out the sketch & all the other talented ladies takes on it. Emma was putting hearts up on the windows. It kept her busy for hours!!

This was when Tony & I went to Las Vegas for a weekend without the kiddos! We went to Paris & climbed the Eiffel Tower. It was a really neat view of the strip! Tony is totally scared of heights, but he was a trooper & did it with me! What we do for love...... This lo was created for www.yourmemoriesbydesign.ca Friday Night Scrappy Hour.

This is of me ("naked" = no make up & hair not done), & my girls. The journaling just states that I used to be a career gal, 40+ hours per week. Loved my job, husband, house, life & didn't think things could get any better. But then God blessed me with my 2 girls, & I never knew I could love like this. That I was born to be their mother. (or something to that affect). I got a little teary writing it! lol. This lo was created for a crop challenge at www.fromhere2scrapternity.com

This is my parents 40th anniversary. They renewed their vows on their actual anniversary date. They never had a big wedding the first time around, just a handful of friends in Germany. So, this time, they did it up with the full church wedding & reception after wards. I included the invitation as well.

The 4th of July the year Audra was born. We spent with our great friends, the Dramby's. It was so funny, I guess BJ wasn't used to us having Audra, so when he suggested we take family photos, he offered to hold Audra so Tony, Emma, & I could get our pics taken. Quite funny. This layout was created for a crop challenge at www.fromhere2scrapternity.com

This card was created for a crop challenge at www.fromhere2scrapternity.com

This is of one of my oldest & dearest friends. We have known each other since kindergarten. We may not talk all the time, but we know that we are there for each other & would do anything for each other. Angela had Brendon in January of 2005, & I had Emma in April. Do you think they will be future prom dates?? This lo was created for a crop challenge at www.fromhere2scrapternity.com

This is the story of my parents! Their prom night in 1965, & the story of how they started dating.

Nostalgia again! Scrapping Emma when she was so small makes me sad that she is growing up so quickly. I was playing "photo shoot" with her, as I did on a daily basis. She was always such a good sport. This lo was created for a crop challenge at www.fromhere2scrapternity.com

I have really gotten my mojo back. It seemed to have disappeared for a little there, but I have recently found so much inspiration in blogs, galleries, websites, forums, sketches, a whole another world that I didn't know existed! Where have I been? Living under a rock? This layout I did for the YMBD Saturday Scraplift Challenge. http://ymbd.blogspot.com/ . Again, I stepped outside of my comfort zone, & did a few things that I don't normally do on los. I pulled out my stamps! Yup. I stamped with 3 different stamps, the stars up in the corner. & I used my chalk pencils to color them in. They gave the best brightness in color. I always love to use them, but don't remember very often. The pic is of Emma's clothes. Funny subject, I know, but she had this way of taking all of her clothes off & it still would look like someone was in them. They stood straight up! Diaper & all. We never saw her do it, but there it was, & she would be runni...

Today was the next reveal for Nuts About Sketches. What beautiful sketches she has, & they are so much fun to work with. http://nutsaboutsketches.blogspot.com/ Those of you who know me, know I adore sketches. As for this page, I think the pearls on the page dressed it up a bit, since it is for Emma's Baptism, it was quite appropriate for this special day. It makes me quite sad, scrapping her as a baby. She is almost 5 years old now, & to see how far she has come since her 3lb. early birth, is truly amazing! She is quite the little girl now. We truly are blessed! Love my girls!!

I had quite a productive Friday night!! Your Memories by Design has a blog & a weekly scraplift challenge. Well, while DH reffed, & the girls were sleeping, I took that challenge & scraplifted the beautiful page posted. I came up with Tiny Bubbles. Not only did I win ( http://ymbd.blogspot.com/ ), but I tried 2 new techniques on this page! I punched holes from the plastic box that cards came in to make the bubbles. You can't really see them from the pic, but they are up the left side & throughout the letters. I also used puffy paint on the letters. It gave my letters a cool effect! Who needs Thickers?? JUST KIDDING!!! But it turned out cute & I got to try new things. A win all the way around. I can't wait to get my goodies! YMBD also had a Friday Night Scrappy Hour. They posted this ad & you had to come up with a lo. Well, the ad is a little disturbing, to say the least, but please find my take below. Have I ever mentioned how much I truly...

Here is my first submission for Nuts About Sketches. It is on their blog with the beautiful pages of all the other gals on the Sketch team. Check it out at: http://nutsaboutsketches.blogspot.com/

My sister had this idea, years ago, to make a cork board out of corks from actual wine bottles. After saving corks for her for years, getting trash bags full for her from family, friends, & even strangers, all of the corks some how ended up back in my possession. So, while cleaning out the basement a few weeks ago, I came across an old box of picture frames. My wheels got to turning, & I decided that I was going to make the cork board. With a hot glue gun, sand paper, making memories paint, Heidi Swapp flowers, some ribbon, & some random gems I had, I came up with this little creation. It wasn't hard to do, just a little time consuming. But I think that it turned out pretty good. It actually matches the color scheme in our living room, so it may replace the cork board we have up already.