Simon Says Card Kits

Oh yes, I even used some of my Simon Says Card Kits over the weekend. I love the stamps!

Pick-a-card, pick-a-card, any card..................

Hey there crafters! I hope everyone had a productive weekend. Today marks the first day of my nine hour shifts at work so that I can have every other Friday off. It is usually a good deal but it makes for some really long days sometimes, oh well we will see how it goes. I did some crafty things this weekend but of course not all that I wanted to do, but I am proud that I at least made a dent in my list of To-Dos. I am going to a wedding in May and wanted to have a jump start on at least making the cards. I made two different styles and now I have to choose which one to give the newlyweds.

First I did a kind of whimsical card. I cut the car image using my Slice and the Tie the Knot cartridge (I wish they (the people at Slice) would get back into the paper business although I have enough design cards to get me through for a while). I pieced the image, added stickles to the hearts, rhinestones for the tail lights and a little glossy accents over the license plate just for effect.I used an image from My Time Made Easy for the sentiment.

The second card is more elegant with silver embossing on the sentiment that was stamped with a wood block stamp that I have had for a while. I embossed the yellow background  with a Cuttlebug folder and cut the hearts and flower image using my Slice Tie the Knot cartridge again. I embossed the flowers with another cuttlebug folder and added stickles to the hearts. then to top it all off I added ribbon and some bling.Since this is a kind of formal wedding I am leaning towards this card, but my friend that is getting married is very good natured and he may like the other card better. I think I will just flip a coin, lol.

May-Tastic News!!!!

I am so excited. Not only is National Scrapbooking day in the month of May but there are some fun-tastic events coming up too.

The Scrap-room is going to have their annual NSD sale and Tammy always does it big. I really hope you get a chance to check out the store and grab some great deals. I love being a member of the Scrap-rooom kit club and so do my friends so make sure you stop by, you won't be disappointed! 

-and-

Sketch~n~Scrap will have their first Birthday Bash!!!! And trust me this is going to be a SUPER party with a variety prizes through out the entire month! Can you believe that? Mark your calendars and be sure to visit the Sketch~n~Scrap blog every day, or better yet just become a follower and receive daily updates.

And it is not too late to submit your layout for this month Sketch~n~Scrap sketch challenges. You can do either sketch or both sketches to have your name entered to win this super cute set of flairs from A Flair for buttons. Entries are due by April 30th.

A GRANDson weekend



Okay technically he is my husband's grandson only  because I am too young to be a grandmother (I need to add this disclaimer every time for my own vanity, lol). In fact I still haven't decided what he should call me. He calls my husband Pop-Pop and my husband tells him to call me grand ma-mom or nana, uggh no way! My baby niece calls me La-la and even though I don't know why, I kind of like that. My sister's grandchildren call her G-g, and I don't want to be a copycat. Now that he is almost two he calls everyone Mom so I was kind of leaning towards Mom-mom but even that is a little too old for me. .........so at this point I might just have him call me Tamika, lol. No matter what he calls me I enjoy his visits, he has a ton of energy and the cutest laugh and when I saw the Echo Park All about a Boy collection I knew I had to have it to do layouts of him. For this layout I used a sketch from Sketches in Thyme #107 that just came together so easily, those are the best layouts right?

Sunny Side of the Street

I am trying to keep my spirits up but it seems that there are outside forces working against me. Besides all of the tragedy in the news that really has me bummed out, I mean it has not directly affected me but my human compassion is high and I feel for what people are going through right now - life for me ain't no crystal stairs either. I mean my strife is small on the grand scheme of things but still draining nonetheless. Especially since lately I feel myself doing a Tyler Perry and asking, "Why did I get married?" So I pray a little harder hoping to find an answer and I scrap a little more to escape. This is a layout I did of my nephew on his 8th birthday. He has always been a ball of energy so I have to try to catch him in action. I brought my layout to work on the train to take a photo of it and since I did not pack it as carefully as I should have the edges got a little crumbled on the train ride, bummer :( Tonight I am going to an organic restaurant for their Spring Menu tasting, and I think I am going to detour to Copacabana's afterwards for drinks - Margarita's always make me feel better, lol.

Doodlebug Boys only collection, American Crafts Thickers



I am in!

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Sketch~n~Scrap April 15th Challenge

As I sit here with an estimated hold time of 208 minutes just to get the balance due on my water bill and my blood pressure is rising in steady yet consistent increments (you would think that you could get this information online in a major city such as this but nope!, ugggggh!) I tried to take myself to a happy place and what could be happier than the next Sketch~n~Scrap sketch reveal? I hope everyone gets the chance to participate, Lisa is doing a fabulous job getting fantastic sponsors and I hope you stay tuned because there are some exciting changes on the way!  Here is my take on the sketch, yes I know I do a lot of layouts of my niece even though I have boxes of photos of my daughters but I just can't help it, she is not camera shy at all, lol. And before you sign off of the internet because your boss is about to come back into the room, be sure to visit the main blog for more inspiration from the rest of the design team, lol.

InstaLove - American Crafts Dear Lizzy collection, Silhouette Cameo cut, Jenni Bowlin butterfly Washi Tape, Heidi Swapp ghost heart

And lastly, don't forget to join us at Sketch~n~Scrap for our birthday bash - a month long celebration with giveways and prizes!

Ready for the Weekend!

I cleaned up the scrap room, I have my shows lined up to watch while scrapping, ,my snacks are lined up - just need to get some Red Bull and I will be ready to scrap tonight! I even got a head start last night by pulling out one of my Simon Says kits and can I tell you, I Love my Simon Says kits! A little too much though because I have started hoarding them instead of using them, lol. Last night I pulled out the February kit to make this cute girlfriend card. I don't know why I procrastinate making cards because I really do enjoy it. So I hope everyone has a productive weekend, and stay crafty!!!!!!!!

It's Reveal day, No Foolin'!

It's the first of the month and the Sketch~n~Scrap Design Team has yet done it again with their amazing takes on the sketch. Be sure to visit the blog as we would love to see your take on the sketch. The prize this month has a lot of "Flair" so I am sure you won't want to miss out.  I took advantage of this sketch to finally scrap some photos from my father's birthday party last year. He was so surprised, he though he was just going out with one of my sisters. Even though the sketch calls for four photos, I chose to only use three. You know I am not too good at following the rules......................................................

................................APRIL FOOLS, lol! Not only did I use four photos but I cut a piece of cardstock to make a kind of mini flip album/folder and added four more photos for a total of eight photos on this layout total. If there is interest I can add a tutorial giving more details on how to create the mini  flip album/folder.

P.S.

Thanks a million to all of my visitors but I have been hit recently with a lot of Spam so I had to change my post permission to await moderator"s approval. I still have my word verification turned off but if those rotten spammers continue I might have to reactive it, sorry for any inconvenience!

Special Request

My BFF Tamika is trying to get to 100 followers. She is currently at 96 followers, can you help me put her over the top? And just to sweeten the deal she is also having a giveaway for some American Crafts papers.

 Please visit her here - http://jojojorenee.blogspot.com/2013/03/so-rewardingpass-it-on.html ! Thank you!!!!!

March Mojo Madness

I don't know why but my mojo has picked up the past two nights and I was able to get another layout done in about an hour. For this layout of my niece and her sons I dug into my MME stash and used their dreamy collection. Lisa in Texas made me laugh saying she wished she owned every single paper collection and sometimes I swear that I actually do, lol.  But I love my stash, I love being able to find the right colors or patterns to go with my photos no matter how long ago I purchased it. I used a sketch from a new kit club that I found called  Artful Delight (unfortunately I am too late to enter it in their challenge). But fortunately I am in time for the 2Broke girls calendar challenge in their forum and I used 3 pattern papers, 1 photo and 4 buttons to celebrate National Pi day.

(sorry for the photo quality, I had to take the picture indoors)

And don't forget Cardmakers that the Sketch~n~Scrap NEW card design team call is still going on. You can get more details here. Woohoo I can't wait to see what I can come up with tonight!

Slow and Steady

Another month has flown by and I haven't been able to get through all of the sketches and challenges that I have wanted to but I am making a little headway. Last night I sat in the scrap room pretty uninspired until  I pulled out these awesome pictures of my niece and the American Crafts Margarita collection. I am going to be so sad when I use all of these papers, the colors are so vibrant and fun, perfect for summer layouts. and since it is snowing outside of my window right now this layout really brightens my mood today. I used a sketch from My Scraps and More's awesome sketch blog. This is my take on sketch #21, I can't believe how fast this layout came together. I am also entering this in one of the 2 Broke Girls forum challenges. Have you been to their site yet? It is a new challenge blog that my bbf Mika hipped me too and I really like their challenges, especially since I can combine them with my sketches, it makes me feel like I have gotten more accomplished. You should come over and join the forum, I am still learning my way around but I like it so far. I hope to finish up a couple of WIPs this week and get serious about some cards. Do you have any crafty plans this week?





Phone Dump

I have been working on layouts all week but I don't have anything finished yet to share so just to keep my posting momentum going I am sharing some phone photos. Very picture heavy.

It took me a minute to realize that she fell asleep like this, I put her in the bed right after I snapped the picture, lol.

A decorated glass for one of my Husband's co-workers, I love the way the Cameo cuts!

Diaper bike for another person at my Husband's job - he keeps me busy.

He fell off for a while but he is trying to redeem himself.

Found my collection of Homies, long story and lots of quarters to get these!

Mika Mc Muffins! waaaaay better than McDonalds - my family loves them.

Homemade Banana pudding from scratch - it goes down in my house.

Octopus, Squid and Conch salad - He loves making this!

Love Old Navy and coupons, lol.

A little blog candy from Simon says stamps, now if I could only win a $50 gift certificate!

Sunday dinner, I told you it goes down in my house!

I really only went into Joanns for adhesive - you do believe me right?

L@M

My bestie came up with this new text abbreviation to relieve the stress of trying to figure out why we do the crazy things that we do. L@M means "laughing at myself". This is appropriate today because I started this layout a while ago and did not mark it complete because.......................well I don't know why, lol.  I kind of think I wanted a better/different title but to be honest I don't know where or what I would add. So after spending time trying to figure out what was missing, then L@M, I decided to go ahead and post this layout of my grandson when he was just a few days old and mark it complete, lol.

Sketch~n~Scrap Reveal and DT Call

Sorry to be such a bad blogger, it just seems that I have fallen behind in life and I am having a hard time catching up. Friday was the March 15th reveal over at Sketch~n~Scrap and if you haven't had a chance to check out the sketch please be sure to visit the blog for more inspiration. It is a excellent sketch that gives you a lot of room to add your own special creative touches. Although I have been shopping and acquiring a few of the new "must have collections", I went into my stash to use one of my top ten faves for this layout- Circa 1934. The colors match perfectly with the photos of my niece and her extended/blended family. She is more like a little sister and she has a big heart when it comes to family. Please be sure to join us, not only do you get a great sketch to use but each month there are prizes to win too! And now the BREAKING NEWS...................................Sketch~n~Scrap will be adding cards to the blog, yes you heard me correctly, as we approach our first year there will be card sketches added to the blog and there is call out to all card makers to join the design team. Please visit the blog here for more information. Good Luck and I can't wait to see who joins the team!

Bringing in March with a smile

Wow a new month already and I am bringing it in with a smile for Share a smile day (which is today) ! There is so much going on and I know we all face a variety of trials and tribulations but just for a moment SMILE, and enjoy the good things life has to offer today.



The beginning of a new month means so many things for me. First of all it reveal day over on the Sketch~n~Scrap blog. Sketches motivate me to get more done and to stretch my creative limits and this one was no exception, you can check out the sketch here. This is a layout using pink Paislee's Portfolio.

Because of the colors in the photos I struggled with finding papers that weren't too busy and the Portfolio collection was neutral enough, a perfect fit. I cut the circle background using my cameo and the word together is a Heidi Swapp sticker. We would love to see your  take on the sketch and as usual there are prizes being offered at the end of the month so be sure to keep us bookmarked so that you can join in.

Also today the Scrap-room revealed their new kit for March and I am all in! I have each one of these collections on my wish list so I will be stalking the postal carrier for the next week or so, lol.

This morning I web surfed and collected my first round of sketches that I would like to work with this month. I really like this month's pagemaps sketches and I hope to participate in a couple of challenges again this month. My Scraps and More is having a sketch-a-thon,along with their regular sketch challenges, featuring a new sketch each day, oh how I would love to be able to keep up with that! I still have some sketches leftover from last month that I hope to get to but we will see, I can't promise anything.

And looking at the calendar there are some pretty cool non-official and official holidays in March. some of my favorites include:

March 1 - Share a Smile day

March 2 - Dr. Seuss birthday

March 12 - Girl Scout Day

March 20 - First Day of Spring

March 21- World Poetry Day

March 25 - National Waffle Day

March 30 - Doctor's day

And this year Easter Sunday falls on March 31 I really hope we don't get snow that day, but it has been known to happen.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, sorry for the long post - it didn't start out that way, lol.  - toodles!

Gettin' Busy Y'all

 My long weekend was too short, but then again I don't ever remember a time when I said, "whew that was just enough time off of work, I can't wait to go back!", lol.  I didn't do everything that I had hoped but I did get a couple of layouts done. First up is my take on Brenda's monthly sketch challenge on her blog.

This is a photo of my daughter and her boyfriend that I have been wanting to scrap for a while. I decided to do an 8x11 layout (thanks to my bestie Mika). I used Simple Stories Snap from my Scrap-room kit. The colors are so much fun!

Next is a sketch from the my scraps and more sketch blog. They have some really great sketches that spark my creativity.

This is a layout of my four nieces, two generations.  I love these girls!

Finally, I tried the first sketch of the month over at Paper Secrets. Unfortunately I did not finish it on time to enter the challenge but I love the way it turned out.

This is a layout of my oldest daughter on her 16th birthday. I made the tickets myself using my Papertrey Ink die and stamp set. The papers and embellies are from the Prima Doodle Deux collection.

Bieber Fever

My six year old baby niece decided that she wanted a Justin Bieber party for her birthday (which was later changed to a skating party, Batman party, or a sleepover/makeup party - I mean she is six so it is hard to make up her mind, lol). With both of my girls being almost grown I was very happy to help out. I made "microphone" cupcakes, that I put in a pink "boombox" display box made pretty pink and purple cupcakes, and made some fun party bags that included blow-up microphones, colorful hair extensions, and rock star makeup. She had a good time. 

Reveal Day, Including the Winners

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Sketch~n~Scrap blog hop! I am especially appreciative of the warm and touching comments on my layout about my Aunt. I could just hear her reaction in her Southern accent and it literally brought tears to my eyes. Then on top of everything I didn't make becoming a follower a requirement yet so many of you became a follower anyway and I was so excited that I have included another surprise prize for all of my (new and previous) followers that left a comment featuring the Good Life.

But wait before I announce the winners I want to remind you that there is a new sketch up on the Sketch~n~Scrap blog. Here is my take on the sketch. You have until the end of the month to upload your take on the sketch to be entered into the monthly giveaway

AND NOW THE WINNERS ARE.............

The winner of the Valentine's Day prize, selected by random integer is -

Scrap Steph said...


A great layout to honor a special person; what a motivation for me to get busy scrapin.

And the winner of the additional prize for my followers is =

Toneisha B. said...

I love your layout! You can feel the love and warmth it it! Gorgeous colors you chose as well!

Ladies please send me your snail mail address via email at tmikmik@yahoo.com and I will send your prizes postal right away. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Happy Valentine's Day Blogland!

I am soo very excited, I can just feel the love in the air! Today is the last day for the blog hop and I will be announcing my winner first thing tomorrow morning, I promise not to have you wait too long. I am so appreciative of all of the wonderful and heartfelt comments left that I will also have a special surprise so make sure yo ustop by tomorrow. We will also be revealing a new sketch tomorrow and I know you don't want to miss that. So I hope everyone is having a great day,m the weather is beautiful here in Sunny Philly and if you love the one you want, then love the one you are with :) Before I leave I saw a post about your celebrating your wedding song for Valentine's Day and here is ours - "Nothing Has Ever Felt Like This"
Lyrics :

[Rachelle Ferrell]

Oh Lord, what do I do to deserve you?

Heaven knows, I'm not like you

I'm not perfect

When he sees, will he leave?

Or will he stay anyway (Anyway)

[Will Downing]

Oh Lord, what can do to deserve her?

Heaven knows, Lord knows I'm only human

Can this be, someone truly for me?

Or is it a cruel fantasy?

(Chorus)

Nothing has ever felt, like this

Nothing has ever meant the whoooooole world to me

Nothing has ever been this good

Nothing has ever been this right

Nothing so sweet, In my life...

[Rachelle Ferrell]&[Will Downing]

RF->I know, you treasure me

WD->And I, I know, that I'm the only man you see

RF-> It's a living love with you

WD-> I love my life with you

Both-> We'll share a life together

I love you right now and foreverrrrr OH

(Chorus)

Nothing has ever felt,quite like this Oh No

Nothing has ever meant the whoooooole world to me

Nothing has ever been this good

Nothing has ever been this right

Nothing so sweet, In my life...

[The Break Down]

[Rachelle Ferrell]&[Will Downing]

RF->Nothing, has ever been this good before

WD->And nothing has ever felt this right before my love

Both->Ain't nothing, ain't nothing ever been so sweet

WD-> Oh I need you

RF-> I need you boy

WD-> And I want you too

RF-> Baby hey ey ey

Both-> Nothing, nothing this good

RF->Hey I love you boy

WD->I love you too