Proud Mama Moment

My baby girl is entering the ninth grade and she had chosen to go into a military based Academy. The curriculum is purely college prep but they do have ROTC training and a lot of PT. At first she was nervous about the school but after spending two weeks in boot camp over the summer she loves it and is looking forward to moving up in rank. So far I think the school fits her personality and I am sure she will do well. Hats off to my cadette!

Interpreting a Sketch

I hope everyone is fairing well after the storm. We are still experiencing high winds and flooding so it is not over just yet. I did get a little scrapping done during the storm, thankfully we did not lose power. I love using sketches for inspiration. At first when I started using sketches I felt like I had to interpret them literally. Over time I learned to take elements of a sketch and make it my own. I used this sketch by Aphra Bolyer as the starting point for my layout.

The first thing I did was to turn the sketch around for a different perspective. This angle worked for me once I decided on which photo and paper line I wanted to use. Since I wanted to do a single photo layout I focused my attention on the bottom part of the sketch.

Then I picked out the elements that I wanted to incorporated into my own layout. Like having a decorative edge, the cluster of embellishments and the vertical writing.

After gathering all of my thoughts I got to work and the end result is this........................................................................

my final take on the sketch. I think sketches are a great way to kick start your creativity, don't you?

Blogging Break!

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to check in really quickly because I will be M.I.A for a couple of days. There is so much going on with school about to start. This year I will have a freshman and a senior in High School and a fourth grader in Elementary School, there is so much to coordinate that I am trying to maintain my sanity. Starting next week I plan to focus on craft fair items because I do want to do at least two fairs this fall. So on my creative to do list I have to-

1. Make a diaper cake for my former boss

2. Make a diaper castle for my husband's co-worker

3. Make 8 post-it note pads (order)

4. Plan eight scrapbooking classes

5. Get at least two layouts done each week

6. Make a craft fair goal list and get it done!

7. Attend a Crop with my girl Rashidah

My household list is just too long to put here but it starts with cleaning and ends with purging. I hope everyone has a great weekend and for those on the east coast batten down the hatches in case Hurricane Irene hits hard, who would have thought we would get hit with an earthquake and an a hurricane in the same week? This is definitely something to scrap about and pray about! Before i leave you I just wanted to share - my husband buys me flowers every other week, this week it was orchids and he got me a stuffed animal from the bank - meet Pinto (ignore the tag calling him Lightning we changed his name, lol)!

Summer is coming to an end

And next weekend we are going to make a trip to the beach before the school year craziness starts. Last year we had a wonderful beach vacation, and although I am not a big fan of the sand I enjoyed some quality time relaxing with the hubby. I really enjoyed working with the American Crafts Margarita collection and putting together this layout.

I wanted to keep the chipboard title simple but I wanted to use a nice size font so I looked in my stash and pulled out these green scenic route alphas, that unfortunately didn't match my color scheme.

No worries, I just removed the green layer -

And painted the raw chipboard with a white acrylic paint, added some stickles and my title was done. This is a good way to stretch your supplies.

Monday Pooh-ism

“A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.” - Winnie the Pooh

This is a small diaper cake I made for another one of my husband's assistants this weekend. For some odd reason they all seem to be pregnant,lol. Since she does not know the sex of the baby yet I decided to keep it gender neutral and do a Winnie the Pooh theme, I mean who doesn't love Pooh right?

Working with LYB Twig

I really like how this layout came together, once I cropped this photo down to get out all of the extra background out I decided to go with an 8 1/2 x 11 layout of my niece and her brother. I used a Teresa Collins foam stamp from my stash for the dots and cream colored acrylic paint. I used some of my favorite Miss Elizabeth's alphas for the title - I have been holding on to those for a while, lol.


I embossed the card with a cuttlebug folder and I got the stamp from Michaels $1 section. I added some of my favorite crinkle ribbon that I bought from Prarie Bird Boutique.

Flea Market Find

I am inspired by some paper lines instantly, so imagine my joy when I found the Colorbok line Flea Market at Joann's. It is a very fresh line with a little grungy feel. My favorite part of this layout are the keys. The big blue one is a die cut out of chipboard using the Expression and the Happily ever after cartridge. The second is an embellishment that I picked up at CKC and the black one is a sticker. My friends put out a challenge to make a card after a layout. I found this great tutorial link on clips and cuts and decided to give it a try. It came out great and I am looking forward to making more in various sizes.

Play Time

Here is a layout from pictures my niece sent me of my grand-nephew playing in the park. He loves his little froggy boots and tries to wear them all of the time. I smashed a bottle cap, added some pattern paper, punched button holes with my cropidile and added some glaze for a cool handmade button. The word "play" was cut from chipboard and cardstock using my Cricut Expression and the Birthday Bash cartridge. The patterned paper is from my stash of Cosmo Cricket's "Lil' man" collection.

Creative Weekend and Scrapbuggy Challenge

Sometimes I feel bad that I purchase more supplies than I actually use so I set forth a deliberate plan to scrap this weekend. Using one of my many scrap-room kits on the shelf I put together this layout using Basic Grey's Hello Lucious. This is one of my daughter's many cell phone pictures that I had printed and an original poem of hers that was published in her school's literary magazine. The card stock was a little too bright for me so I used Glimmer Mist to tone it down and since I am a novice with the spray bottle it is a little messier that I would have liked but that adds the the effect, right? The canvas tag comes from my stash, I was so excited to have the chance to finally use it.

This is based on a pagemaps sketch that I saw on Gemiel's blog for a challenge sponsored by Scrapbuggy. I was inspired by how great her layout turned out so I put it on the top of my list to work on. There is still time for you to give it a shot too, check out the details here.

Cricut Storage and Handbags

I use to be so frugal when it came to buying cricut cartridges because of the price. But once the prices started coming down, my collection started going up and storage became a problem. So I started looking around my house and re-discovered this bathroom storage rack I had when I lived in an apartment and mounted it on the wall in my scrap room. I love that I can see all of the cartridges at a glance and the unit is roomy enough to fit two rows of cartridges on each shelf. There are 32 cartridges pictured here. I use the towel bars to hang notes that I want to refer to at a glance.

In not-so scrappy news when I went to New York we stopped in Macy's and that is where I found out that Fossil makes handbags. I am a big fan of Fossil watches so I was super excited to see their handbags. In true Fossil style the bags are different than what you normally see and I just love their quality. Here are a couple on my wishlist, along with a watch of course.

CKC Valley Forge 2011

Saturday, July 30th me and my girlfriend Rashidah went to CKC Valley Forge. This was her first visit and my 5th or 6th (I've lost count). She had an 8:30 a.m. class but I was going mostly to shop. I have to say this was the least exciting CKC that I have ever attended and it is not really due to the organizers. The venue is undergoing renovations so that kind of put a damper on things and in fact I am hearing that this will be their last year in Valley Forge. Next year the convention is going to be in Lancaster and that's not too bad. It is a little further away from me, but there is outlet shopping and lots to do for a weekend in Lancaster so I am looking forward to it.

So this year I tried to stick to buying newer products. I have so much in my stash that I didn't want to add too much so me and Rashidah set a budget and stuck to it. I did get to see the epiphany crafts tool in person and although I didn't buy it then I think it is going on my wish list. I also got to see Our Daily Bread Designs stamps, dies, etc in person and can I tell you their booth WOWed me. I did purchase one set of stamps there but I will definitely be a frequent online shopper. While at the Studio Calico booth (which was amazing, just like their products) I got to meet Vee! I have been a silent follower of hers for years. She is very talented and I love her layouts, you have to check her out. I gushed and chatted with her for a few minutes and promised not to be a silent lurker anymore so here is a loud and hearty shout out to Ms. Vee, you inspire me!

Here is a full shot of what I purchased, sorry for the picture quality, I am still getting the hang of the ipad.



and up close, I needed more masculine collections and I got this for 20% off.


These are some new papers from Studio Calico, they are yummy in person.




Yay Indie Bloom, I was hoping to get Picadilly too but I couldn't find it.

$3.00 for a set of stamps, can't beat that right, now I need an extra large acrylic block for that background stamp.

Just a little bit of Mustard soup, enough to satisfy my cravings, lol.

There are some other embellies in the first photo like some bling, ribbon and other do dads that I got too. I did get some of the mud sand that I have to show you in detail when I use it. And finally I found these stamps while there and although I didn't buy them Saturday, they are on my wishlist too!

Looking for a new Love

I can not believe how dependent I have become on technology. I broke my camera when I was in New York and I lost my cell phone while food shopping two weeks ago and since then my world has been topsy turvy. Since it is time for me to get an upgrade on my phone and I have a work cell phone and an Ipad I didn't want to rush into buying a new phone. I mean it is a two year committment, a lot of relationships don't even last that long.

I am not really into the whole Android thing, you know I am old fashioned and think a phone should be used for..........................well, used for talking. I have been having a hard time deciding exactly what phone to buy. But after I read the reviews on the my touch slide 4g and discovered that not only can you talk on it but it has the best HTC camera on it, I think this may be the one for me. It will solve two problems in one swoop.

I wish we could go on a couple of dates first, try it out, see if we are really compatible but for some odd reason T-mobile won't go for that. Oh well, after a little more research I will just take the plunge and go for it, after all we could always break up in two years.