Monday, February 28, 2011

A little bit of this and a little bit of that . . .

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a nice weekend!  Mine was a quiet one and believe it or not a non-scrapbook one.  I just wasn't in the mood.  I did however redo my blog.  Thought it was time for something a little brighter and Spring like.  I got adventurous and designed my own header using a digital kit  by Pink Lotty Designs which I bought at Shabby Pickle Designs.  Seriously there are some gorgeous kits in their store!!!  

I have some news to share:

Frosted Designs as added  more talent to their ever so talented design teams!  We've got 10 new ladies joining our Fabulous Fridays Challenge teams and three new ladies to our Sketch Along Tuesdays Challenge!
Please stop by Frosted Designs and give our newest members a warm welcome! 

The March kit reveal is up over at Artful Delight!
It's packed with  Little Yellow Bicycle Twig and Jillibean Soup Spotted Owl.  I got my kit on Saturday and all I can say is CUTE!!!!!   You can check out the full contents of the kit here and if you're interested in purchasing the kit you can find the information here!  Artful Delight's  kits have been selling fast, so if  you want one head on over and place your order!

Today is reveal day of Team 2 over at These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things! 
We've got a great new challenge and some fabulous entries from the DT.  Please stop by and check it out and while you're there get inspired and enter your project for a chance to win the Lovey Dovey Collection by Bella Blvd.


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A View From Above

A new sketch challenge is up over at Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesdays Challenge today!

My fellow DT member Fern created the beautiful sketch for our 2-22 challenge:
Our sponsor this month for our Sketch Along Tuesdays challenge is Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker

and the her Tree Love Collection is the prize for our February 22nd sketch challenge:
I was lucky to have been sent her Tree Love collection to work with and enjoyed using it on my layout of my two kids at the park a few years ago.

Please stop by our sketch challenge and enter a project for a chance to win Nikki's Tree Love collection, and while your there why not check out our DT call!  We are looking to add some new members to our DT for our Sketch Challenge Team and Fabulous Friday Challenge Team.  You can check out the details here.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Bella Muse Challenge

Hope all of you are enjoying your weekend!  Yesterday it was so windy here.  Gusts of winds up to 50 mph.  I thought my house was going to blow away!!  My electricity went off, came on, went off and came on!  We've gone from temps in the 70's to temps in the 50's and that dreadful four letter word "SNOW" is in the forecast for the beginning of the week.  I've been up since 4:30 AM as my daughter embarked on a trip to Albuquerque, NM to visit a friend for a week.  I'm a nervous Nellie right now as she has a stop over in Denver and this is only the second time she has flown on an airplane,  and the first time flying by herself and with changing flights.  I'll be happy when I get the call that she has arrived at her destination.  You all know how us moms are, as I kept asking her tons of questions and her answer to me was mom, I'm not a child any more.   Ouch!!!   My little one has grown up way to quickly and will turn 21 on March 4th.

I've got an altered frame to share with you today. 
I had seen a layout someone did using this beautiful image for the Bella Muse Challenge at Bella Creations, and couldn't resist!  I love vintage!  I dug into my flower stash and was able to use these beautiful flowers that had been part of a monthly scrapbook kit.

Here are a few closeups:



Enjoy the rest of the weekend!
I will be back on Tuesday for my DT reveal for Frosted Designs.  Don't forget that Frosted Designs in having a DT call.  You can check out the details here.


Friday, February 18, 2011

A Look Into The Past . . . Timeless Memories

I am going to admit that for quite awhile I was hooked on the monthly kit subscriptions.  I've have numerous kits I haven't even touched and made the decision awhile back to cancel my monthly kit subscriptions.  There are a few kit clubs out there that I love and once in awhile, if my budget permits I indulge and buy a kit.  Swirlydoos February kit, Things Remembered caught my attention, not only because it was crying out "vintage layouts", but more so for the beautiful colors. 
Recently my sister gave me an envelope full of vintage photos from my dad's side of the family.  I came across this picture of my great grandmother and instantly knew that I was going to use my Swirlydoos kit!  This layout is my final DT project for Stuck On U Sketches.  We were given a  Pagemaps layout to use:
 When I first got the sketch I was a little thrown off  by all of the circles.  Actually I was clueless as to what I was going to do.  Swirlydoos kit to the rescue with the beautiful papers by TPC Studio and mirror embellishments!
Everything else on my layout came from my stash.  I was looking though some of the old kits I had purchased and found some beautiful Prima flowers, a Dusty Attic scroll frame and a beautiful cameo pin!
 I took the cameo apart and used three different pieces of it on my layout:
 I want to thank Nanne, Sandi and Leah, the co-creators of Stuck On U Sketches for allowing me to be a part of their amazing design team!  The invitation was open for me to remain on their team, but I made the decision to step down to lighten my DT  load some. 
Don't forget that Frosted Designs is having a Design Team call!  You can check out the details here!

  



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

My Favorite Magazine

I couldn't be more excited to share with you my  first DT reveal for These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things!  Fav Things is headed up by Julie Tucker-Woleck (awesome girl and great scrapbooker) and a team of 24 designers!  We are broken into two teams and I will have one reveal to share with you each month!  My first assignment was to scrap my favorite magazine.
Now I guess most of you were sure it would be a scrapbook magazine, and it's not that I don't like scrapbook magazines, it's just that I've always loved Woman's Day magazine.  I can remember when I was little my mom use to buy it and I loved to look at all the pretty pictures in the magazine.  It is full of great recipes and decorating tips!  What was perfect for my layout were the Melody Ross papers and chipboard elements I've been hoarding, just waiting for the perfect layout!
Here are a few closeups:


Now I know this page is quite cluttered, but I couldn't resist with all of the chipboard elements from Melody Ross!  And can you believe that I actually used staples on this layout!  I think it is a first for me. I thought it would be neat to use them to add the pleating in the green gingham ribbon!
Now make sure you stop over at  Fav Things to see what DT#1 has created and join in on the fun!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Family - Sketchy Thursdays 2.10 Sketch Challenge

What more can you ask for?   A fabulous sketch at Sketchy Thursdays and some beautiful Be Mine papers from Echo Park!!! Combine the two with some precious family pictures and your get this:
and here is Sketchy Thursdays 2.10 sketch:
Working on this layout was quite an emotional roller coaster for me.  The pictures were taken over 40 years ago on what ended up being the last week of my grandfather's life.   He had been diagnosed with colon cancer.  His family gathered together to embrace the precious time left with him.  One son flew in from Canada and the other from New York.  My mom only lived a few hours drive from their home in Berkely Springs, W VA.  I so dearly loved my grandfather, as he was so special.  While I worked on this layout memories of my childhood spent at their house in the mountains of West Virginia came to mind.  Happy and joyful memories, but I found myself  looking at him in the pictures and remembering how weak he was and how much pain he was in, and I could not hold back the tears.  Oh how I miss him.
Here are a few closeups:
The R on the sign symbolizes his last name, Rathbone.  I tore the pink paper and placed a bird cage underneath it and added some small pink pearls.
A Pink Paislee Artisian frame which I painted pink.
And a beautiful sentiment cut from the Echo Park Be Mine Collection.

Tomorrow is my DT Reveal for These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things!!!
Can't wait to show you my reveal, but for now I will leave you with a little sneak peek:
And  . . .
Frosted Designs is having a Design Team call.  Check out all of the details here!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Waiting For Springtime

Hope everyone is having a fun filled weekend!  I know I am, cause I've been scrapping! I got my cleaning and laundry done, and it's far too cold and windy to be outside, so what's a girl to do, but scrap!! I have another layout to share with you using the February kit from Artful Delight.  I am so in love with the Graphic 45 Once Upon A Springtime collection!
The end of January we had a terrible snow storm  which literally crippled the Washington DC metro area.  I had posted about it when it happened, as a 30 minute ride home for my daughter turned into a 5+ hour trip home, only to be stranded on the back roads.  By the next day the roads had been plowed and my daughter and son drove the back roads to recover my abandoned car.  Sara took her camera and shot the beautiful pictures on my layout!
I have to say that untouched nature is so surreal.  Here are a few more pictures my daughter took:
 That's my car!
 Here you can see how narrow the road is. This is my son in his car.

The snow covered trees reminded me of the artist Bev Doolittle.  I thought how wonderful it would be to capture a picture with these gorgeous snow covered trees and some wildlife.  Unfortunately, no wildlife, just snow covered trees.  For those of you who are not familiar with Bev Doolittle here is one of her drawings:
Here are a few closeups of my layout:

The forecast for the next few weeks promises warmer weather!!!  Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Four Friends

I spent a good amount of today on the computer, searching and applying for jobs.  In between the job searching I visited some of my favorite blogs and came upon Jennifer's blog, Scrapping Daze.  She had posted a beautiful fall layout based on a sketch at Sketch Inspiration.  Now I'm always looking for sketches and loved their sketch #206.  As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I had the perfect picture to use!
Here is their sketch:
The picture dates back to 1940 and the young man on the left is my uncle.  I used up some of my Crate Paper stash and also My Minds Eye.
Here are a few closeups:
 K & Company dice hung with a little twine.


Here I did some faux pleating.  I cut 1 inch strips, distressed and inked them and every other one I added a pop up dot.
Oh, if I could only support myself with scrapbooking!  Job hunting is frustrating!  I've applied to so many and even though I love having all of this free time, I need a job!!!