Wednesday Ramblings - What's in My Cart?

It is rainy and cloudy here in Philly so I don't have a layout to share but here are some of my favorite things, just like Oprah!

Before we get scrap happy, if you get the chance please stop by and visit my post on Platinumscraps for my Tissue Paper Wreath tutorial.

Now back to the goodies! After debating it over and over again in my head I think that I will be adding the new heidi swapp to my stash, love the bright colors!


And I am head over heels in love with Indie Chic fom MME, this is just a sampling - the entire collection is huge!






And finally I can't wait to get the new Scraproom kit. Even though I haven't started using last month's kit yet, the May kit has several collections that I have been drooling over so I am really looking forward to getting it in my hands.

Crate Paper Farmhouse

It is cloudy here so I tried my best to get a clear photo, but I am still not happy with the results. Being a true city girl I wondered what could I do with a line called farmhouse but I have to tell you that I love this collection. The colors are rich and fun to work with and look I even included a pinwheel. I couldn't think of any journaling right now but I may add it in the future.

Scrapping Alphabetically - the letter B

So I am a little behind schedule, okay maybe a lot being schedule with my layouts that I am suppose to be doing once a week but the good news is I have been doing them - getting them posted has been a challenge, lol. So I am going to attempt to catch up over the next three days.

This is my Basic Grey layout using the new Plumeria line. The colors went well with my daughter's prom pictures from last year. And even though I tried to fight it, I am addicted to washi tape!!! Just a little strip adds the right touch.

Who doesn't need $100?

What a great giveaway!!! Kristen Wilson is having a giveway to celebrate her new blog, and when I say huge I mean huge! She is giving away a $100.00 Gift Certificate to Scrapbook.com Superstore to one lucky winner!!

Visit her blog here for the details on how to win and then keep your fingers and toes crossed. Good Luck!

Wednesday Ramblings

Just a few thoughts, I promise to get back to scrapbooking tomorrow, lol.

• Even though I feel like there is not enough time in the day, would I really want more added?




• I have several layouts done just need to take photos.




• Pilar and Deion Sanders divorce is messy, who is really thinking about the kids?




• Why would anyone eat a "Heart Attack" burger, the name says it all.




• Reality check - Sixers vs the Heat in the playoffs -ummm I love you philly but not a chance!




• Disclaimer - just because something is made in your size does not make it fit to wear - enough said!




• How is it possible to have over 400 channels and the only thing good to watch is King of Queens reruns?




• Found a great fish market in Upper Darby, the Rainbow Trout was awesome!!!!




• I never miss an episode of Cupcake Wars, even if I have to DVR it.




• Why are my dogs so noisy when they are cleaning themselves, yuck!




• In a good mood today - I pity the fool who ruins it, lol.




• It is nice to still have men open the doors for you, a favorite perk at my job.




• Today is National Walk at lunch day - get to steppin!!!!




• True friends are forever, glad to have you back!




• I heard Think like a Man is a good movie, maybe the girls and I will have a date night Friday?




• Time to cut the strings, not as easy as I thought.




• 4 sisters+5 different personalities = my family, I love them a lot.

What the WIP!!!

My WIPs (Works in Progress) are running amuck!!! I think that I have a pile of almost 15 layouts that I have started and for some reason or another I just can't say that they are finished. I drive Mika crazy with it because she says most of them are done, what more do I want to add? To be honest I can't answer that, lol. I just don't have that feeling of completion. Case in point this layout - I want it to be done, I thought it was done, I even said it was done at one time but now looking at it I feel like it is missing something. so I am going to channel my WIP muse tonight to guide me as I attempt to finish this layout, lol.

This is the Voice

So who is keeping up with The Voice? Even though I am trying to ween myself off of reality shows I have to admit that I am hooked. My favorite artist so far is ...........................................Juliet Simms. I love 80s rock - The Bangles, Duran Duran, Annie Lennox, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, George Michaels, 

The GoGos, Phil Collins, and of course Sting. I have played her version of "Roxanne" 10 times this week alone. Her voice is gritty and powerful, go Juliet!!!!!!

I Couldn't Resist

Once I saw the May card kit being offered over at Simon Says Stamps I knew I just had to have it! This kit looks like a ton of fun and it features the brand new Basic Grey collection. I am sure since it is jam-packed with supplies there will be enough for my layouts too. I did resist making other purchases at the same time so now I will be stalking my mail carrier when this is shipped, lol. Since it is a May kit I am not counting it as a part of my April spending freeze, how is that for rationalizing, lol.

Scrapping Alphabetically

Have you seen this post from my sister Mika? She is so awesome and she keeps me on my toes. We are always trying to think of ways of using our supplies. Not just because we love to scrap but also that way we can buy even more supplies, lol. So right now we have challenged each other to scrap using manufacturers alphabetically. The crazy part is that I think between the two of us we definitely have products that span the alphabet ............... hmmmmm is that a good thing or the sign of a serious problem, lol. Here is my American crafts layout using the Margarita collection.

Platinum Scrap Reveal

Hi Scrappers! This week's design team sketch stretched my creativity brain cells. This week we were given a two page layout and boy oh boy was it a challenge for me. My layout has been revealed on the site today but here are a few little sneek peeks for you. Be sure to visit me on the Platinumscraps blog to see the entire layout.

Got to keep moving!

Let me introduce you to the twins. My husband and I have matching bikes and we have been going on Saturday morning bike rides. Why is that noteworthy, well because it has been many, many, many years since I have been on a bicycle. I am trying to boost my confidence (even though I am still afraid to ride in the street). We follow a bike trail through our section of the city, which is pretty cool but it is a long ride. I do have one tip for the ladies though that I learned the hard way - maxipads and bicycle seats do not work well together, lol.

I haven't posted pictures in a while but my hubby has stepped up his flower game. He has gone from every other week to every week, lucky me! It is nice having fresh flowers in the house all of the time. I really, really love my orchids. They last a long time and are sooo beautiful.

And finally look what my daughter bought for me! We were in Michaels getting ribbon for my next diaper cake and we saw this. I am on a self-inflicted spending freeze so I couldn't buy it (even though it was 40% off with an extra 20% off coupon) so she offered to buy it for me. I have been looking for a server for my dining room and I can display this holder on top of it. This will be a good way to share some of my favorite layouts with my family.

A dime late and dollar short

I know that I said that I would post this a while ago but you know how that goes. I really didn't add too much to the WIP, and for some reason I am stuck on white backgrounds right now. I did get a chance to use some of my alphabet beads on the word family and some of my glittered black cardstock as a border strip. Look for this Echo Park Yours Truly again soo, I absolutely love this collection!


I hope everyone has a great weekend!

A Little Mustard Soup

Trying to attack my WIPs. Here is a layout of my daughter when she was five years old. I tried to use a little canavas too, didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it but hey, it is done right?

A little Randomness

In an effort to ease the guilt of being chronic shoppers, Mika and I decided that we were going to work with a particular collection this weekend to at least break the seal, lol. We chose Crate Paper Random. This collection works great layered. The colors are bright and funky and were the perfect compliment to this picture of my daughter on New Year's day - ready for 2012.

And the biggest news that I have from this weekend is that I received this in the mail on Friday. It was a gift from my very best friend (better know as my twin). I was so overwhelmed that I started to cry and then kept crying every time I thought about it on the way home. This is such a big gift! She better not buy me anything else for two years!!!! My hands were shaking when I took it out of the box and I spent a lot of time this weekend reading tutorials. I set everything up on the computer and I am ready to go. Between this and my Expression, I feel like a mad scientist, just ready to create!!!!!

Tag, I am it!

Today my layout is featured on the Platinumscraps blog. I have always been hesitant about applying to design teams because of the amount of time I would have to dedicate to it but I must say I am enjoying every minute. I feel like I am really being stretched creatively. We are going through some changes but stay tuned as there will be more tutorials, games, and giveaways. This week's sketch came from Pagemaps and you can see the full reveal here but I wanted to point out a few of my favorite elements. The two white flowers were cut using the Flower Shoppe cricut cartridge. You cam make a variety of flowers wtih this cart but I kept it simple. the green flower I made freehand and I finish all of the flowers off with a little bit of stickles for a sparkly effect.

The butterflies were cut using the Martha Stewart punch and instead of gluing them down flat, I used one mini pop dot per butterfly and pulled up the wings to give that "fly away" look. I also accented each one with some bling.

And finally after surpassing the learning curve I must say that I am in love with the Cricut Craft Room. You can use it like the Gypsy and weld your letters and customize your titles. This font came from the Quarter Note cartridge; I changed the slant of the letters, the width and welded them together to cut one beautiful title. Then I topped it off with Paper Glaze for a glossy effect.

You can see the entire layout on the Platinumscraps blog and be sure to become a follower, there is a group of talented designers there ready to inspire you!

An Outpouring of Love Request

Hi Everyone, I don't talk about him often but my husband is a very giving and charitable man and when someone is in distress he does everything possible to help them. I told him one day I am going to come home and find out that another family lives there because he gave our house away, lol. Well he just sent me an email from a dear family friend whose very young niece-in-law is battling cancer. She is requesting an outpouring of prayers and cards and I thought who better than my crafty family to help. Here is a copy of the email, please fee free to spread the word. Thank you in advance for your support.
Tamika aka Phillyscraps

My nephew's wife in ATL who's thirty with seven girls is fighting for her life. My nephew is only 26. The youngest girl just turned one and the oldest child is eleven. She has already undergone an aggressive treatment of cancer. At one point she received chemo and radiation at the same time. The chemo made her very, very ill. Now she has kidney failure. At this point the doctor's want to do chemo., 3x week, every 3 weeks for the next four months. She doesn't want to do it, I guess remembering what she went thru the first time.

Everyone that I know is so, so, so, blessed. If we could begin praying for their family because GOD is a miracle working GOD. Also, I was thinking if they were to receive an uplifting and encouraging card from my circle of friend's and family oh how wonderful it may make her feel. An outpouring of LOVE even if you just write a note and drop it in the mail I'm sure it would help. Here goes the information -
Mr. & Mrs. Charles & Shawnita Dyson
6856 Maddox Road
Morrow, GA 30260
I would be so grateful and they would as well. Thanking everyone in advance.
Veronica Dyson, Social Worker

No End in Sight

To the busy weekends! I hope everyone had a great weekend and gorgeous weather like we did here in the Northeast. My grandson came over this weekend and since he is walking at 10 months he does not like to sit still. I forgot how much energy it takes to keep up with little ones. Here he is hanging out in the scrap room with me. I gave him a paint brush to hold so he would stop grabbing my papers, lol.

By the time he left I was too pooped to party, and so was he. He fell asleep while I was feeding him. He was in the middle of chewing when his eyelids dropped.

I also had a couple of diaper cake orders and still have three more to complete this week. I also had 40 baby shower favors to do at the very last minute (not my fault this time, lol). I have to admit though, this kind of busy is a happy busy!

A Few Cards

My body can't keep up with the weather changes here in the Northeast so I stayed home from work yesterday to recuperate a little. I received some Happy Mail containing my new Papertrey Ink stamps and I was able to crank out a few cards (the Best Wishes card uses a stamp from My Time Made Easy) for my stash. I used Making Memories and SEI papers and a few of my punches.

A Ray of Sunshine

First let me say thank you for all of my blogging sisters that reached out to me with love, support any prayers. If only I could tell you how much that means to me right now. Even through the storm there is a ray of sunshine - remember when I said I had big news coming, Well here it is! I am now a designer for ! Today was my first post and I am so excited. Make sure you stay tuned because we have a lot of things planned in the near future over at Platinum Scraps, including a blog hop. I will definitely keep you updated.

My first project was a Page Maps sketch layout I did of my Stepson, his wife and baby boy. I used Echo Park Little boy papers and really had fun with this layout. I did a small banner using my Dilly Dally stamps from Making Memories, and used some of my favorite embellies like my brown and white bakers twine, variety of buttons, stars by making Memories, some adorable red and white ribbon and the tag is being used for hidden journaling. I used my Slice to cut the word family, curled the ribbon banner and popped circles on the patterned paper for a fun look.

WIP Monday

The good news is that I started a lot of layouts this weekend. The bad news is that I didn't finish too many of them, lol. the past five days have been very tumultuous for my family as we receive some really devastating and potentially life changing news and we are trying to weather the storm. I went into a very deep funk and I am only functioning right now because of my bestie Mika and scrapbooking. Mika keeps me grounded while scrapbooking keeps my mind occupied. It felt good to get into the scrap room and I felt semi-productive. Here is the WIP I plan on finishing this evening and posting. It really only needs journaling and a few accents so I am pretty confident that I can git 'er done! I will update this blog this evening with the results.