Project Life week 1

Today I thought I would try and meet a goal I set last year of sharing more of my Project Life album.  This is my 3rd year doing it and I'm still learning along the way.

Last year I pretty much stuck to one kit, and I'll be doing that again this year.  I do use some odds & ends in my book by creating some of my own journal cards and I want to add on some more stickers/letters and such.

I've found that I want to stick with the same layout for the majority of my book.  I don't tend to take portrait pictures, but more landscape so this works for me.  I've also decided NOT to round corners in this album, it was such a PIA, even though I liked it.  

This is week one of my book (above).  I haven't finished my cover page yet, but I've got it mapped out already.

Below are some closer pictures.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my scrapbooking journey with you!

Little Miss Spider Princess

Today is Jo's turn to host our challenge over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge and here is what she has challenged us with:

"It's my turn to set the theme this week at Stampotique Designer's Challenge so I decided on something that I usually avoid- using photographs along side stamping.

No...come back...don't panic, it's not as scary as it sounds!  As a non-scrapper I too, feel that fear that perhaps washes over so many when the word 'scrapping' is mentioned, but this challenge theme can incorporate your photographs in any way possible either on a page, inside a journal, on a canvas, a mini book, an altered item...anything you wish, just as long as you are using stamping somewhere too.  If you are natural scrapper, this theme couldn't be better!  And if you are not, make it work for you.  Please take a look at the fantastic contributions from the team to see how diverse the artwork has turned out to be."

I haven't done much scrapbooking other than my Project Life albums, but I decided to make a cute little page from two years ago when my daughter was Little Miss Spider.

Libby Hickson from the design team was over this weekend and it was great to bounce some ideas off her (and borrow some goodies!).  Her contribution to my page was these darling little spiders as I didn't have any of the Stampotique spider stamps.

Hope you will join us over at Stampotique Designer's Challenge this week and show us how you "Scrap-It" for a chance to win one of two $30 gift certificates.

I also am entering this in the October Gallery Challenge over at the Paper Crafts Connection.

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Page details:

Stamps: Princess 3001, Web 3025 from Stampotique Originals

Cardstock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Melon Mambo

Inks: Perfect Little Black Dress, Paint the Town Pink

Embellishments: Braddies (spidies) from Doodlebug Design

TSOL New Release- Crayonletters2stamp and Numbers2stamp

This year is my son's first year being able to play Middle School Football and while he hasn't seen a lot of playing time, he is enjoying it and we are having fun as well.

I've been wanting to scrapbook a little more in my Project Life albums so I used this picture of him and created an 8.5 x 11 page with the new sets from The {Stamps} of Life, crayonletters2stamp and numbers2stamp along with the lines2journal to add my little journaling line underneath his picture.

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Scrapbook page details:

Stamps: crayonletters2stamp and numbers2stamp, lines2journal from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler, Perfect Little Black Dress, Gina K. Luxury White

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice

Embellishments: Maraschino Twine from The Twinery

This card was a quick thank you card using the crayonletters2stamp.  Love how this looks and think it will make some great thank you cards for kids.

The bottom uses the wavy scallop die and the little flowers behind the candy dots is from the Thanks2you set and I just fussy cut them.

This card is based off the TCPTUES225 sketch.

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Card details:

Stamps: crayonletters2stamp and thanks2you from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Authentique Celebrate, Basic Black

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard- Licorice

Embellishments: Candy dots-unavailable, Wavy Scallop Die from The {Stamps} of Life

For my last card, I envisioned something for my pre-k little guy and these crayons work so well with this set.  Just a little thank you card he can give to one of his teachers.  I actually left the inside blank, but that's what I had in mind when creating.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the new goodies used with the crayonletters2stamp and numbers2stamps!

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Card details:

Stamps: crayonletters2stamp and crayons2stamp, numbers2stamp from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Yo Yo Yellow, Whisper White, Basic Black

Inks: Color Box by Stephanie Barnard- Licorice, Grape, Strawberry, Blueberry, Banana, Tangerine

BC2564: Baby Theme

Over at blogger's challenge today isn't all about BABIES.  I have got a LOT to share today as I love to make baby cards and had a new set to play with.  I went a little crazy with making some baby stuff so hope you'll stick with me.

First up I made this cute little card by stamping the onesie from Onesie4Baby on patterned paper and then coloring it with my copic.  I kept it pretty simple just stamping a teddy bear border on the bottom.

For my second card I kept with the little boy theme and just used the little sailboat image and stamped my sentiment directly on the patterned paper.  I love this card and think I'm going to duplicate this layout and make a variety of cards using a different image.

Next up I went with a more feminine card and embossed my background with the Sizzix Textured Embossing Folders and then stamped the little butterflies across the onesie and added a little hand drawn trail.  For the onesie I colored the sleeves and then stamped the dot to make a pattern.

For my last one I created a scrapbook page of my friend's twins.  They are the cutest little things and I love all the photos she sends me.  I asked her if she'd mind if I created a page of the twins.  For my strip I again embossed the background and then just added a few of the images along with the You are So Sweet from Standup4Sentiments.  Aren't they cutie pies????  Sorry my pictures aren't that great, I'm not quite certain the best way to take pictures of scrapbook pages.

Want to join us at blogger's challenge this week? Create something with a baby theme and link in over at Blogger's Challenge.  Can't wait to see what you create!!!

BC259: Die Cuts

 I have been on a little blog break, thanks for sticking around to visit me this week.  I got to have a little fun weekend with my daughter at her last cheer leading competition in Myrtle Beach, SC.  We enjoyed the beach briefly and this picture was at the hotel we were staying on the beach.  It was gorgeous but would definitely love to be back there when the weather is nicer.

Today's Blogger's Challenge is to use a die on your creation and I have two to share with you today.  My first sample is a scrapbook page that I created of my little cheer leader with the new set from The {Stamps} of Life- Frilly4ABC's  I love how this page turned out and it looks great in my Project Life album (which I am behind on!)  The die I used is the Butterfly Die set.

Scrapbook page details:

Stamps: Frilly4ABC and Butterfly2Build from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Real Red, Going Gray, SEI Black Orchid, Neenah White

Inks: ColorBox by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice & Strawberry

Embellishments: text on MS Word, Butterfly Die Set, Janome sewing, Dare to be a Diva Red buttons, black twine, Mark Richards metal sticker gems, Parisian border punch from EK Success

For my second is a card that I created a trio of cards using the dragonfly die and although I'm not sure how it looks on my background below but I sprayed some Silver Foil Smooch Spritz from Clearsnap.  My sentiment was created using the Frilly4ABC's set.

Card details:

Stamps: Frilly4ABC and Creations2Fill from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Maroon Maven, Basic Black, Neenah White

Inks: ColorBox by Stephanie Barnard-Licorice 

Embellishments:  Dragonfly Die Set, Janome sewing

Want to join us at Blogger's Challenge this week?  Just link up DIRECTLY to your new creation over at Lisa's blog to play.  I know you are just "die-ing" to join us :-)

Happy Birthday! and Project Life

Today is blogger's challenge and while I have been absent the last few weeks, it's not for lacking of wanting to participating.  My mojo disappeared over the holidays and I've been trying to force it to return...it wasn't working, so I took a little break.  I finally feel like this week it's creeping back ever so slowly.

Our theme today at blogger's challenge is "Texturize It".  I won't lie, this card took me awhile to complete, but was so happy with the end results.  Do you ever start making a card, get side tracked doing something else, and then the card takes FOREVER to complete?  That's me almost all the time.  I'm easily sidetracked when I'm stamping.

For this card I texturized the edges of my cardstock using my Donna Salazar's Distrezz-it-All, which I've had for ages and barely use....now I'm wondering why I never use it...oh yeah, it's hidden under my desk where I forget about it (mental note: put OUT on desk, not UNDER it).  I sewed one of the strips of my cardstock and also used the polka dots embossing folder from Quickcutz.

My goal this year is to complete all the SFYTT sketches in 2012.  Last year I missed a month or two and gave up after that, but this year I would like to keep up with Jen's sketches.  I've been a fan of them for a LONG time!   I just had to give a HUGE laugh as I hadn't looked at Jen's post of her card closely until I just went to link and noticed we used the same designer paper.  

The balloon was paper pieced with a piece of some of my new favorite paper- Authentique Gathering. I originally bought this paper to work with my Project Life kit (see below) and love it so much, it's heavier and two-sided and I adore the blues/orange/brown combo.  Think I may need to invest in another pad of the paper.

So with Project Life mentioned above, I'm starting my 2nd year of doing this and am so happy about that.  There's a little break in my kids' lives where I stopped scrapbooking and I really wanted to get back into it, but it was always intimidating.  I've been trying the digital as well but have a LOT to learn in that regard.  I thought I would share bits and pieces of my Project Life album on here.  I'm keeping up pretty well so far in 2012, and while I got behind in 2011 I made it a goal to finish up by the first week in 2012, and I was able to do so.

I chose to work with the Clementine kit this year and while this shows the "A" style pages, I'm hoping to incorporate various pages this year.  I keep with the rounded corners on most of my stuff for it all to flow and also picked out 2 6 x 6 paper pads that would work with the colors of the album so I could cut filler spots and embellish as I wanted.  I do not usually go with the picture/day way of doing things, and more or less just photo/document when I feel like it.

The pages above document a few weeks ago, I had been traveling in PA when I saw this car off the road (bottom photo, top left), got an e-mail from Syd's teacher that she cut her hair during cut and paste centers, and our trip to Chattanooga for Syd's 2nd cheer leading competition.

Thank you if you have stuck with me through all my mumbo jumbo this post, I've been wanting to share more of my scrapbooking/Project Life so will probably do that occasionally.

Want to join us at Blogger's Challenge, link in on any of the blog hop blogs or at Lisa's blog here.

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Card details:

Stamps: Love in the Air by Our Craft Lounge

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Authentique Gathering

Inks: Dish All the Dirt Brown, copic markers

Embellishments: Memory Box Jewel Stickers-Halloween, dimensionals, Janome sewing, Quickcutz Polka Dot embossing Folder, Circle die from Spellbinders

I'm thankful for...

Happy New Year!  Hope you all had a great ringing in of the new year and weren't asleep before midnight.  We just barely made it, but we heard the fireworks around the neighborhood for awhile after midnight.

Last year I was very thankful for the creative endeavors I was able to explore and the wonderful opportunities I was given to design.  I've enjoyed being on great teams and making great friends, and for that I'm very thankful!

The new release, list2write from The {Stamps} of Life is one I can see myself using a lot this year as I try to complete my 2nd year of Project Life.  I have not been doing a week layout like it's meant to, but more used it as a guide to keep up with some scrapbooking.  I plan to continue it this way in 2012 along with integrating some digital and regular scrapbooking pages.  This page fits the CR84FN color challenge this week, the yellow is subtle but there is some in the designer papers.  I'm definitely going to be using this color combo again.

Above is a cute pic I took of my youngest earlier in the year at a baseball game.  I love his many faces and thought this would make a great scrapbook page.  I also used the boxes4abc for my banner along with the rounded tags framelits from Sizzix.

My second cards I was inspired by a card I saw online with this color combination.  I thought these would make a cute notecard set.  My goal for 2012 is to use more bright yellow, which I rarely use now.

I for one always have a "honey-do" list going for the hubby.  Right now as I type this up, he is busy hanging a new t.v. from the wall...something that has been taking him 1/2 the day to do, but he's getting there.  That's after he helped take down decorations, built a desk for our oldest son, etc.  So this notepad that hangs on the fridge will come in handy.  It has a perforated top so I can just tear the pages out when done.

For my last card I decided to use a size I don't create much with, it's a 2.75 x 4.75" card.  I used the Mojo Monday sketch #221 for this.  My petals are created using the creations2fill set and I added some stickles to my center flower.  I adore this color combination and it's one I will be using more frequently.

Hope you enjoyed these cards/creations and if you want to see some more spectacular creations with this set, visit The {Stamps} of Life gallery where there are hundreds of samples.

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Cutie Pie Scrapbook page:

Stamps: list2write and boxes4abc from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Ballet Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Barefoot & Bliss from Bo Bunny, Neenah White

Inks: Blueberry, Tangerine and Licorice from Color Box by Stephanie Barnard

Embellishments: Janome sewing, rounded tags framelits from Sizzix

Just a Note:

Stamps: list2write from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Yo Yo Yellow, Spring Rain, Kraft Like a Rockstar,  Neenah White

Inks: Chocolate from Color Box by Stephanie Barnard, copic markers

Embellishments:Yo Yo Yellow grosgrain ribbon, stapler

"Honey-do" List:

Stamps: list2write from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Taken with Teal, Neenah White

Inks: Chocolate from Color Box by Stephanie Barnard, Taken with Teal

Embellishments: dimensionals

I'm Thankful For:

Stamps: list2write and creations2fill from The {Stamps} of Life

Cardstock: Kraft Like a Rockstar, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Rose Red, Neenah White

Inks: Chocolate from Color Box by Stephanie Barnard, Rose Red and Old Olive

Embellishments: Fruit Punch stickles, dimensionals

Cooperstown Baseball

This new alphabet stamp from Clear & Simple Stamps, Alpha Varsity reminds me of my high school days and is so perfect with all their sports sets.

I loved putting together this layout, it was nice to remember the trip I took with my son last year with his baseball team and our once in a lifetime opportunity (although it looks as though opportunity is presenting itself again this next year for us).  I have been trying to scrapbook at least once a month, if even only just one page.  I put it my project life album that I'm working on whenever I get a page completed.

Hope everyone is recovering from their Labor Day weekend.  We got some rainy weather the last few days so we have been hanging out in the house which is driving us a little stir crazy!

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Card details:

Stamps: Alpha Varsity, Baseball from Clear & Simple Stamps

Cardstock: True Blue Fan, Dare to be a Diva Red, A Blanc Check

Inks: True Blue Fan, Dare to be a Diva Red, Dish All the Dirt Brown, Brown Leather Satchel

Embellishments: Stapler, dimensions

Standup4Sentiments

New releases are always a fun time of the month, although I'm a bit delayed in sharing all my samples here on my blog.  I was busy this month for this release as I took all the sets that were released and had a blast creating with each one.

These cards were created with the new set standup4sentiments which I have wanted a set like this for ages and just had not found one I loved...until now.  I love the variety of sentiments in this set!

This is a picture of my kiddos from Father's Day-and I loved how it came out, so I used the phrase as my border down the side.

Scrapbook page details:

Stamps: Standup4Sentiments, Borders4Me, Lines2Journal from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Creamsicle Cardigan, Certainly Celery, Basic Grey Mellow

Inks: Old Olive, Ruby Red, Creamsicle Cardigan

Embellishments: Janome Sewing, Date stamp, Library Card, Viva Pearl Pen Cream

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I love the colors on this card, the greens and pinks really made me think of flowers so I pulled out the Flowers2Share set on this card, paper piecing the vase with some of the coordinating paper.

Card details:

Stamps: Standup4Sentiments, Flowers2Share  from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: I'm a Princess Pink, Always Artichoke, A Blanc Check, Basic Grey Hello Luscious

Inks: Always Artichoke, copics R83, G99, YG93

Embellishments: Janome Sewing, Date stamp, Library Card, Viva Pearl Pen Cream

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For my last creation, I created an invitation , with no specific theme in mind.  I just knew I wanted to create one of those tri-fold cards that opens up.  For the belly band I stamped the sentiment  and then used the Back2Basics stamp with the flowers for the corners.  It's very difficult to tell but I used the Lines2Journal flower to stamp on my yellow cardstock.

For the inside I used the Lines2Journal to create the area for me to write my invitation details.

Invitation details:

Stamps: Standup4Sentiments, Back2Basics, Lines2Journal from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Night of Navy, Spring Rain, Bashful Blue, So Saffron

Inks: Night of Navy, Fresh Snow, So Saffron, Bashful BLue

Embellishments: A Blanc Check Twill Ribbon, mini jewels
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This is a card I created for a friend at work.  She has me make cards for her every now and then and this was for her BFF who just go engaged.  

Card details:

Stamps: Standup4Sentiments, Dictionary4Me, Princess4Life from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Trendsetter Blue, Dish All the Dirt Brown, Coral Necklace

Inks: same as cardstock

Embellishments: seam binding colored with copic, circle and scalloped circle punch

Happy Easter!

I've been making an effort to do a few scrapbook pages a month. I purchased the Project Life kit and am going to try keeping up with that and incorporate my own work into it.  

This page was done using Bunny4Easter set from The {Stamps of Life}.  I'm a little behind the times on my scrapbooking and I didn't add a whole lot of embellishments.  I kept it very clean & simple but I like how it turned out.

I've used another set for the journaling circles, looking back I think I would have embossed them or cut them out and added some dimension (which I could still do).

Page Details:

Stamps: Bunny4Easter and Tinyand2Cute from The{Stamps}of Life

Cardstock: Eggplant Envy, Pale Plum, Old Olive, patterned paper unknown stash

Inks: Same as cardstock, You're such a Gray-cious Host, journaling marker, Copics

Are you ready for some football?

When I see the new stamps from Clear & Simple Stamps, I think how much Reenee & Nicki must know me all to well. The stamps fit right into my lifestyle!! Like they can somehow read my mind.

This is a favorite picture I took of my son during his football season last year. His friend was putting a wet towel around his neck as it was a hot day of football. I just thought it was one of the sweetest gestures I've seen and was so glad to capture it on film.

This set "Football" will be an awesome set to have in time for football season. I have a lot of ideas in mind for using it so stay tuned as I share them throughout the next few weeks. Football will be available 8/15/09 from Clear & Simple Stamps.

I wanted a border on the side and thought the stamp with a lot of different sayings regarding football would be perfect. And how awesome is the sentiment "Are you ready for some football"?

Hope you enjoy the scrapbook page, I'm enjoying getting a page completed here and there.

Make sure you check out the other design team member's blogs for their creations with the new School Days sets due to be released August 15th.

• Beth Matson
• Erin Bigler
• Jen Tapler
• Lori Tecler
• Maria Levine
• Neva McMullen
• Robyn Weatherspoon
• Sue Berker (creator of the Apple basket)
• Millie Dawson-Hardy (Guest Designer)
  

Layout details:
Stamp set: Football by Clear & Simple Stamps (release date 8/15/09)
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Papertrey Ink White, Night of Navy
Ink: Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Broncos tattoo, Copic markers

Smoked Pork Ribs Recipe Page

This is the last of the BBQ collection I made. I'm thinking this would make a wonderful gift to accompany the wood chip recipe jar I created last week. I had a lot of fun making a scrapbook page, I forgot how fun scrapbooking can be. Now if I could just print some pictures and incorporate those it would be awesome!

I can't wait to use this recipe I found online (hopefully this weekend). I *love* to BBQ and although I'm not a big fan of the charcoal flavoring, I do like to create new mixtures to baste with to create some flavors I do like.

My scrapbook page uses the BBQ Darling set from Clear & Simple Stamps. I paper pieced her shirt and apron on the page. The words are actually 3 different sentiments that I lined up on my acrylic block and I loved how it turned out. So easy to line up and stamp :-)

Hope you enjoy this recipe and make sure to check out the sneak peaks for the new stamps being released on Friday, they are awesome!


Recipe Page Details:
Stamps: BBQ Darling by Clear & Simple Stamps
Cardstock: Kraft, Real Red, Basic Black, patterned paper unknown (apron), certainly celery (shirt)
Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black, recipe printed using CK Becky font
Accessories: Copics

Recipe for Smoked Pork Ribs can be found here.

Come *Crop* for a cure to help *Stamp* out Breast Cancer

Come * Crop* for a cure to help * Stamp* out Breast Cancer

When: Saturday, August 4th, 2007

Where: Coal Mountain Park Facility
3560 Settingdown Rd
Cumming, GA 30040
(located off Hwy 400 and Hwy 369)

Time: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Details: Dust off those scrapbooks and stamps, come treat yourself to a day away with other girlfriends and get caught up on projects you have procrastinated on. We will be having a few vendor booths as well as raffles, games and a silent auction.

Registration Fee: $20.00 which must be pre-paid by July 21rst, 2007.
Fee is non-refundable as this event will help to benefit the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. Registration fees will be tax deductible as long as information is provided for a receipt (name, address, phone number and e-mail if applicable). Checks should be made out to Breast Cancer 3-Day and mailed to Kim Howard @ 8330 Gabriel Court, Gainesville, GA 30506 or your registration fee can be made directly at http://www.the3day.org/atlanta07/kimhoward . Please make sure if you pay your registration fee directly online that you put in the comment section “Crop for a Cure to Stamp Out Breast Cancer” so that I will know you are registering for the crop.

Registration fee includes lunch, light snacks and refreshments as well as 2 raffle tickets. Encourage friends to register and give your name as a referral to earn additional raffle tickets.

So far the following have committed to making donations or have already made donations towards raffle prizes and silent auction items. You will not want to miss all the goodies!!! There are some fabulous things in the boxes I have received so far.

Donations made to the Breast Cancer 3-Day Fundraising Event

http://www.stampingbella.com/

http://www.missbydesigns.com/

http://www.creekbeddesigns.com/

http://www.stampinup.com/

http://www.stamponthis.com/

http://www.scor-pal.com/

http://www.marcospaper.com/

http://www.rosiesroadshow.com/

http://www.closetomyheart.com/

http://www.ginakdesigns.com/

http://www.suink.net

http://www.mftstamps.com

http://loniholt.stampinup.net/

Vendors attending:

Creative Memories

Stampin'Up!

Close to my Heart

TLC

Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone you think may be interested in attending. I also have vendor tables available, so please e-mail me if you are interested. If you would like to make a donation of new items for the raffle prizes or the silent auction, please contact me at khhoward@bellsouth.net

Cape Cod "Memories" Swap

The group from Cape Cod decided to swap out pages of ourselves. What a great way for us to remember everyone and all the good times we had during our trip!!! I wasn't thrilled with mine, should have went with different colors but I completed them and I like them, just not what I had envisioned when I started it.

My color ink cartridge was out of ink, so I had to resort to handwriting all my journaling...a lot of it done in front of the t.v.

Enjoy!

Stamp Sets: Doodle This, Doodle Alphabet, CTMH set for tag

Colors: Perfect Plum, Pale Plum, Always Artichoke, Craft White, Whisper White

Other: Cuttlebug scribble flower, scalloped punch, eggplant grosgrain ribbon, brass hodgepodge