Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sneak Peek - Basic Grey Green At Heart

I can't reveal this layout until Friday, but I wanted to give  you all a little sneak peak, especially since I used the new Green At Heart collection by Basic Grey, which just happens to be what I am giving away for my blog candy.  Remember you have until Sunday April 4th to sign up for a chance to win.  I will pick a winner Sunday night.  Good luck!!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Your Blog Is A Charm Award

I was pleasantly surprised tonight to receive this beautiful blog award, Your Blog Is A Charm from Lidia over at Breaking Barriers.  If you haven't already visited her blog, please take the time and stop by.  She is incredibly talented.  This award was given to her by two of her friends in Brazil.  I am not sure if I am suppose to pass this on or not.  I will leave it here for my blog friends to take if they wish.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

A Family Is A Patchwork Of Love

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!  I should have been cleaning, instead I was scrapping.  I'll pay for it later.  I love the sketch this week over at Stuck On You Sketches, and wanted to enter their sketch challenge.  It is by Amee Gandy, aka as Southernbellescrapper.  I knew I soon as I saw the sketch what I wanted to do.
I knew that I wanted to do a family layout.  I had a lot of scraps and thought the idea of a patchwork quilt would be cute.  I also wanted to enter the layout in the current written challenge over at Butterfly Crafts, where you had to use  polka dots, orange, gingham ribbon, butterfly, scalloped edge, turquoise, cherries, pins, felt and bling. You don't have to use them all, but you have to use at least one.  I used polka dots, gingham ribbon and felt. I also wanted to enter it over at Practical Scrappers where you are challenged to use something old.  Most of the paper is old, and I've had the rubons for at least a few years.

The background paper is new and by Prima.  I did some machine stitching on the little squares and had a terrible time with the tension on my sewing machine.  I used two of my new Cricut cartridges, Songbird for the title and the fence with the little bird, and Straight From The Nest for the tree.
The cute little felt flowers are by Jillibean soup.  The rubons are by Three Bugs In A Rug, and the frames I found at Michaels yesterday.  They come in a little pad and are by K and Company.
The pictures were taken on Thanksgiving day, 2006. I'm sure you can tell by the expression on daughter's face that she wasn't very happy.  The beginning of that week she had her four wisdom teeth extracted.
Thanks for stopping by!  -Debbie

Friday, March 26, 2010

Smile

Happy Friday everyone!  It's been a long week and I haven't had a chance to work on any layouts, except for my DT project over at Frosted Designs.  We were challenged this week to use acrylic, vellum or a transparency on our project.  I found some cute little acrylic sliders by Pebbles, Inc. that I have had for years. I am also entering this layout over at Practical Scrappers.  Their current challenge is to use something old on your layout.  I have had those acrylic sliders for at least four years.  I was surprised when I found them because I thought I had given them away.
I just got these new papers by Crate Paper,  the Season Collection and had to use them.   Love the colors!  I also had to try out my new Cricut cartridge, Straight from the Nest.  I splurged and bought it from HSN.  It's a great cartridge filled with some great cuts!  I cut the tree from the cartridge.  The picture is my daughter and our precious dog, Zoey!  I love the huge smile on my daughter's face.
Don't forget to check out my blog candy!  Click here.  You have until April the 4th!!!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Sneak Peek! - Straight from the Nest

I splurged and bought the new Cricut cartridge, Straight from the Nest from HSN.  It's a great cartridge packed with tons of cute stuff.  I thought I would show one of my favorite cuts from the cartridge, this tree.
You will have to wait until Friday to see my layout!  Don't forget to check out my blog candy.  Click here.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

More Blog Love And Don't Forget I Have Blog Candy!!!

Gosh it's so nice to come home, check out your blog and find out that a sweet person has left me two blog awards, Ms. Bright Side and the Sweet Blogger Award.
That sweet person being Nanne over at Nanne's Creations.  I first got to know Nanne on the Cricut message board.  She claims that my garden layouts inspired her, but in truth her beautiful, creative layouts have inspired me.  Thanks to you Nanne for thinking of me. There are some rules that go along with the Ms. Bright Side award and they are as follows:
1. Give a top ten list of things that make you happy
2. Give a top five list of trivia about myself
3. Share the award with only 5 people and ask them to do the same
4. Link the blogs you choose and link the blog of the person who gave it to you!!
10 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:
1.  My family
2.  Looking at all the beautiful creations on other blogs
3.  Since it is officially Spring, working outside in my garden
4.  The weekends!
5.  Days filled with sunshine
6.  The great group of people I work with everyday.  Love them all!
7.  All my online friends I have made 
8.  My fur baby, Zoey.  She may shed like crazy, but she's my baby!
9.  Online shopping
10.All of the little things in life
5 TRIVIA THINGS ABOUT MYSELF:
1.  I am a perfectionist.  Not a good thing!  I always find faults in my layouts.
2.  I am always there for whoever needs me.  If you need the shirt off my back, I would truly give it to you.
3.  I am addicted to French Vanilla Cappuccino and Dove milk chocolate
4.  I have lived in the state of Maryland my whole life
5.  I am a paper addict.  I love Bazzill cardstock and own way to much of it, along with countless numbers of 
     patterned paper
 Now I need to pass this blog award to 5 others..
           1. Irit - Her work is amazing!
           2. Andrea - Gotta love her layouts!
           3. Kim - So creative and a truly wonderful person
           4. Dawn - talk about creativity!!
           5. Tammy - she is the one who encouraged me in the first place to start a blog
:) to all of you!

Don't forget that I have Blog Candy!!!!!  Click Here


Monday, March 22, 2010

Sweet Blogger Award



A big "thanks girl for thinking of me" goes out to Sandy over at Details by Sandy.  Sandy was sweet enough to think of me and pass this sweet blogger award to me.  Thanks Sandy for bringing a little sunshine into my rainy day.  Sandy is such a sweetie and a truly wonderful  and creative person.  I am so thankful to have her as a blogger friend.  I am not sure if there are any rules that go with this award, so I will share it with all of my friends.
Thanks again Sandy for making me feel so special.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Blog Candy!

Well it's been a rough week here.  My daughter came down with the flu and ended up in the hospital.  She is a lot better now and hopefully will be able to return to work tomorrow.  I hope that  know one out there gets this bug.  It's a nasty one.  I was also sick, but had the milder version.  Last week  I spent way too much time online shopping (therapy when down in the dumps) and over spent and over ordered.  I love the two new collections by Basic Grey, Kioshi and Green At Heart.
I just opened the boxes today and saw that I double ordered on a lot of the Green At Heart collection.  Rather then return the items I thought I would give away some blog candy.  All that I ask is:
1.  Be a follower of my blog.
2.  Leave a comment so that I know who is playing.
3.  Spread the word!

I will pick a winner on Sunday April 4th.  Good luck!!

-Debbie

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring Has Sprung!

Well, it's Friday and time for another new challenge over at Frosted Designs!  This week's challenge is Spring flowers.  As most of you know I have a passion for gardening.  Springtime is all about the daffodils, tulips and crocus.  I had recently bought the Die Cuts With A View Flower Shower Spring Stack and card stock pack.  I flipped through it and found this beautiful paper.

 I cut out the clouds and all of the flowers from the second piece of paper in the stack and added some pop up dots.  The birds and birdhouses were cut from paper from the pack.  I used some glitter yellow paper  from the cardstock pack and cut out the sun with a Sizzix die.  The tree was cut from the Cricut Serenade cartridge, using paper by Cosmo Cricket.  I added some lime green stickles to all the leaves on the tree.  I apologize for the crinkle in the middle of the layout.  I had set the paper down on the floor to take a picture of it and my dog ran across it!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Springtime At The National Zoo

Over the weekend as I was looking through my box of photos and  I came across these pictures from a trip my daughter took to the National Zoo in Washington, DC, four years ago.  It was in the Spring and  the red tulips were lovely!

I started to look through my paper to find something to go with the layout and couldn't find a thing.  Well on Monday I received my monthly scrapbook kit from Two Chicks Designs .  I opened it and  my prayers were answered, because inside the kit were the papers I used.  I designed this layout based on  the current sketch #95 over at Creative Scrappers.  I will also enter it under the current chipboard challenge over at Practical Scrappers.

The paper I used is by KaiserCraft, Scenic Route and Cosmo Cricket.  I cut the tulips out from my Cricut cartridge Walk In My Garden, and the butterflies from a Martha Stewart punch.  The title is a chipboard piece by Pink Paislee that I covered with paper and inked.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Forsythia - Welcome Spring

I love Spring!  I guess you could say that I love all the seasons!  I'm fortunate, living in Maryland, that I can see the changes that are brought on by each season.  Spring to me is the "rebirth" of nature.  I see small signs of tulip, daffodil and hyacinth plants popping out of the ground.  My perennials are coming back to life, with little leaves emering from what would appear to be a dead stalk.  Most of us think of tulips and daffodils in the spring, but don't forget the forsythia!  I love the virbrant yellows!  I based my layout on the current sketch over at Pages in Time.  This beautiful sketch was created by the very talented Alda Stevens.  Most of you who frequent scrapbook galleries might know her as Flying Unicorn.

Most of the paper I used is from Basic Grey Origins.  I love this collection of paper.  I also used a lot of scraps  including Die Cuts With A View, Bo Bunny and Making Memories.  I cut the large frame out using my Cricut Design Studio and the George cartridge.  The branches and flourish were cut using Serenade.
The trim at the bottom I found at JoAnns, and I inked it with some yellow ink and added some bling.
The title is sticker letters by Webster's Pages. 
I also put to use a lot of my small Prima yellow flowers.  I added some dimension paint in the centers.   The little birds were cut out of paper by Webster's Pages.
I found the little yellow frame at Michaels.  I had seen a beautiful mini album  over at Details by Sandy.
Sandy had mention that she found the frame at Michaels in the $1 bin. So of course I had to make a trip to Michaels to buy some frames. The butterfly was also purchased at Michaels.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Fall Fun

A big hello to everyone and happy Friday!!! I am so glad that the weekend is almost here.  I have been extremely busy at work this week and can't wait for Saturday!  I have a ton of stuff to take care of around the house, and more important, I have a few layouts ready to be worked on.  Now what should I do?  Housework or layouts?  We all know the answer to this question --- LAYOUTS!

Here is my DT project for Frosted Designs.  This week's challenge is to use background stamping.  Now I will admit that I have a drawer full of stamps, most of which, infact all, that I never use.  I have tons of ink pads also.  Those I do use for inking my layouts.  I thought to myself, okay Debbie,  pick out a stamp and stamp the background.  Well it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  First of all, most of the stamps that I put on the acrylic block were crooked.  Second, I did not apply enough pressure when stamping.  So after four tries, I settled for the fifth, which I did have to touch up.  I give a big KUDOS to all of you out there that use stamps!  I found a pack of stamps all related to Autumn, and  I had these adorable pictures of my kids back from 1992 playing in the leaves.
I love, love the paper I used on this layout.  It is by Bella Blvd. and is from the Honey I'm Home collection.
I used my Cricut George cartridge to cut out the photo frame.  The title was cut using Quickutz Studio mini alphabet.  The cute little tree is chipboard by Pink Paislee, and the felt flowers and leaves are Jillibean Soup.
I also used my Fiskars scallop border punch. The little houses and trees at the top were cut out from Die Cuts With A View Green Stack.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Fall ...the colors you breathless

Here is my latest DT project for Frosted Designs.  We had to do a project based on a layout sketch by one of our DT members, Cassie.  Here is her sketch:
And here is my interpretation of her sketch:
As you all know, fall is my favorite time of the year.  I took this picture a few years ago in Eldersburg, MD.
I pride myself in saying that all of the materials used in this layout came from my "old" stash.  Feels so good to use up the old stuff!! I used my Cricut cartridge Street Sign to cut out fall, and George to cut out the photo frame.  The leaves were cut using the Speaking of Fall cartridge.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Pieces Of Me

I had a lot of fun working on this layout.  It drummed up a lot of memories, some good, some bad.  Over the weekend I was cleaning my bedroom and caught myself looking around.  Certain items caught my eye and I decided to take some pictures.  Now mind you that my bedroom has been decorated the same way for the past 6 years.  It underwent a major overhaul after my marriage ended.  I wanted it to be my space and a reflection of me and what I love.  I didn't want anything in it to remind me that is use to be "our bedroom", with the exception of the pictures of my kids.  So I filled it with soft pastel colors, beautiful flowers, lace and other nick nacks.  Things that would have been forbidden by my ex.  What I love about this layout is that it expresses me and gives others a glimpse of what I am all about.    I based it on the current sketch over at Practical Scrappers.   

All of the paper came from an old K and Company paper pack, Margo.  The colors in the paper match my room perfectly.  I used my Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut out the title.  I added some beautiful lace that I bought at a fabric store a few days ago.  Almost all of the flowers along with the pearl flourishes are by Prima.  I did take a rose, some ivy leaves and little beads from some of the floral arrangements in my room to add to the layout.