I CLEANED my Scrap Den!!

I haven't seen this countertop in sooooo long. My daughters helped a little and it didn't take me too long.


I put away a lot of supplies and embellies that I've been buying and also tried to sort through my ribbons. I stored away the large seasonal ribbons that I rarely use and threw away the empty rolls and tried to straighten out my wall shelves.


I also think it helped my creativity. Here's the layout I made after I finished my cleaning.
I made it as another example for my Rub-It-In Challenge at SB.com and for the recent challenge at Gutter Girlz using "Still Hurting" as a theme and also using sewing pins. I used Pencil Lines Sketch #113 for the design. I love their sketches!! This is my sweet mother-in-law holding my baby girl. It's been over two months since we lost her and yes, I'm still hurting. I've been thinking of her a lot lately so I'm really glad I decided to join their challenge. Thanks Gutter Girls for the inspiration!!!

Happy New Year Scrappers!!!

Some more new LOs:

I'm scrapping away. I love this patterned paper I bought at CKC this year. Finally getting around to using it.
I'm going to try and scrap as much as possible before I return to work.















Here's one of me and dh on our wedding day. I used it as an example for my Rub-It-In Challenge at SB.com. Hope everyone is having a creative day!

Here's my first Layout in almost a month:

I made it for the December Cosmo Cricket Challenge and the Leave Me In Stitches Challenges at SB.com. It's a simple LO but I was happy to get back into the swing of things. I'm tired of laying around the house.

Blessings!
Nik

If anyone has ever lost a child....

then you know what I am going through.

I know I haven't been online lately but for good reason. I finished my three weeks of training at the Police Academy but on the day before my graduation, I was admitted into the hospital. I was pregnant but did not know it. I was having severe lower abdominal pain and the leaders forced me to go to the hospital. Good thing. I was pregnant in the right tube and I had to have emergency surgery. The baby was inside the right tube and they had to remove that one AND they went ahead and removed the left tube because they said it was severely damaged and bleeding.

I was by myself and very emotional but happy to be alive. The doc said I might would have died had I not came in. My husband and I weren't planning on having more children but we weren't prepared for all of this. I'm still emotional but getting better everyday. My husband just acts like it never happened. I guess he's still dealing with the death of his mother. He never even mentions the baby.

Please pray for me and my family during this difficult time. This is our fourth child we have lost and I think I'm having a harder time with this loss because I know I will never have another child.

I am out of work until the 6th of January and will probably return to work on light duty. I am planning on cleaning my scraproom tomorrow and starting some new layouts. Scrappin' always seems to be good therapy for me so I am looking forward to drowning myself in creativity.

Until next time, God Bless!

Nik

The Twilight Countdown

The Twilight Countdown!!

We're celebrating by having a Twilight Slumber Party. My niece and I are taking 10 teenaged girls to a hotel for appetizers and blood red cider (served in wine glasses) and then we're heading out for the 10pm viewing. Then we'll return for the hotel for pizza and popcorn and stay up all night talking about how much we all love Edward. It doesn't get much better than that! We are so excited and can't wait for this movie!!!

Update:

I know I haven't blogged in a while but my mother-in-law passed on Monday, October 20th and we spent the week in Mexico with out family. I have been working daily since we've returned and haven't had time to even upload my pictures to my computer. I will be off next weekend and will catch up then. Hope everyone is having a wonderful and creative Halloween!!

{Hugs}
Nik

I have been "BLOG TAGGED"

OK, I hate tag games but this seemed cute and a different type of tag so I have to give it a try. I don't have to type random things about myself but I am to promote the inspiring blogs that I like to visit. Seems harmless enough, right? Well, considering I don't know much about how to post links and other savy computer gadgets onto my blog posts, this could be a little challenging for me but here goes. My good friend Kristie Bentley has tagged me with this cute image:

And here are the rules:

1. If you've been tagged, you can put the logo on your blog.

2. Link the person from whom you received the award.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links to those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.

I nominate these 7 people:

1. http://alteredgeisha.blogspot.com/ Altered Geisha
2. http://scrappyerin.blogspot.com/ Erin
3. http://lovemylife-marti.blogspot.com/ Marti
4. http://mel-melplace.blogspot.com/ Mel
5. http://photoscrapin.blogspot.com/ Jane
6. http://mmoedt.blogspot.com/ Monica
7. http://mavsfann.blogspot.com/ Erica

Now, I know that doesn't look very neat with the links all out there and long but I don't know how to do it the right way, so... phooie. But I do love their blogs and visit them often. {{HUGS}}

Good Afternoon Scrappers!

Trying to get some layouts done before I have to pick up kiddies from school and get ready for work. Yes I said WORK! I go back to work today after being off for three weeks! Hope I haven't forgotten how to do my job ;) hehehe.

I just finished this layout for the Dixie Piece's Birthday Bash Crop and I also used some Your Memories By Design products in it. This is a layout inspired by an Ad posted for the challenge for today. They are posting challenges daily to celebrate their birthday. How fun and Happy 1st Birthday Dixie Pieces!!! This is my five year old son in a very rare moment of stillness. His nickname is "Turbo" so I don't have to tell you how shocked I was to capture this shot. He's never still. I always wonder what he's thinking about when I look at this picture and I started to make that the title but liked "in deep thought" a lot better. This is the Ad that we were to use for inspiration:

How cool is this?? I loved the swirls and whimsical feel of it. It has a linear design too and Kristie Bentley has helped me discover that I am a linear scrapper. I always struggled with trying to figure out what my style is and I thought I was a "clean line" kind of gal and she reinterated it. Thanks Kristie!

Hope on over to Dixie Pieces and give these challenges a try :) I had a ball making this one!

Hope your day is a creative one!

Nik

Even More Layouts for Challenges:

Here are my latest creations for more challenges. First is a layout I made for several challenges. For the Dixie Piece's Birthday Bash, the color challenge was orange, tourqouise and pink with a touch of green. For SewScrapSleep's Keep Me In Stitches challenge on scrapbook.com, the layout must include hand stitching. For Megan's Complementary Colors challenge on Your Memories By Design, the colors must be the opposite colors on the color wheel. I hand cut and stitched the felt flowers and title mat. I've had the blue plastic textured flowers behind the felt forever so I was really happy to use them. They are hard and feel like a sponge and I don't know what company makes them. They were a RAK from another scrapper YEARS ago. I enjoyed stitching and playing with the felt. I want to do this again. I think it gave the layout a whimsical feel and thought it went well with the picture of the grands. I also love these Magnolia patterned papers from My Minds Eye. They're very bright and cheerful.

This layout was made for Dixie Piece's Birthday Bash's Opposites Attract challenge, ScrapScheme's Scheme 7 challenge and for the Use Your Stash blog's Rub-On challenge. For DP's challenge, the layout had to be made with two opposite colors with only a small amount of one additional accent color and the title had to be two opposite words. For the Use Your Stash Rub-On challenge, the layout had to contain 3 different rub-on shapes or elements. I went with flourishes and the white circle frame by Basic Grey, and a couple of small rub-on flowers.For the ScrapScheme 7 challenge, they have a beautiful black and white leaf patterned dish set to use as inspiration. I used my new Home Accents cartridge to cut the large black flourish and the 3 dandilion looking blooms. I cut the large stem by freehand. Of course, I had to add stitching to my circle DCWV patterned paper mat just because it's one of my favorite techniques. The flourish strip of patterned paper was a scrap piece from an Autumn Leaves kit as well as the rub floral buttons. The polka dot flowers, fabric button, and red brads are by Paper Studio Spare Parts and the red and black alphas are also by Paper Studio. I added just a touch of Queen & Co. black felt lace flowers behind the silk flowers. The white silk flowers were flowers purchased from Walmart. My daughter hates this picture of her but I love how the layout turned out ;)

Hope your day was pleasant and creative ;)

Win Some Christmas Candy!

Elf Creations is giving away an awesome prize pack. Here's the link:
http://elf-creations.blogspot.com/2008/10/christmas-candy.html

Good luck {but secretly I'm hoping I win :D}

Layouts for Challenges Part II

I haven't blogged in a couple of days. I went to Vivian's (my scrappin' buddy from sb.com) crop on Saturday and had an awesome time with her. Here are some new layouts for the Dixie Piece's Birthday Bash Crop going on through the month of October. Please come check it out and join in on the fun.

This one is my youngest daughter. I can't believe how fast she is growing, sniff... sniff. I used Basic Grey and Love Elsie papers here and K & Co. stickers for the title. The design is a sketch by Ginnifer at Dixie Piece's. Here's her blog:

http://www.sunnydayscrapper.blogspot.com/

I loved this sketch and plan on doing more layouts with it!

For this one, I needed to incorporate the words to one of my favorite songs. I chose Brad Paisley's "We Danced." To take a listen, it is the second to the last song on my Playlist. The picture is me and my husband dancing for the very first time at a Christmas party. I wouldn't have believed it on the day the picture was taken, but we married almost one year to the date of the party. This was actually the first night we REALLY talked. We had been working together for many years but really didn't know each other. We became friends on this night. I used Autumn Leaves papers, buttons and journaling box rub-on. The acrylic letters are Heidi Swap and I bought the lace ribbon from JoAnn's $1 bin. I used my last acrylic heart I got from Your Memories By Design. I've had that red heart puffy ribbon FOREVER so I love it when I can break into the "old stash." I wish I would have written in pretty cursive in the journal box but I'll have to just accept it the way it is :D I really love this picture because he and I were so young and thin and had no idea what we would become in just a short time. In this picture, we are just two friends dancing and enjoying the moment.

This one was a tough one for me. Since Dixie Piece's is celebrating their 1st birthday, the "1" Challenge was to use one of the following: cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon, additional embellishment of your choice, word in your title, picture on the layout, person in the picture, journaling spot, and color. I think the hardest part about this one was making it a monochromatic. I chose one sheet of American Crafts double sided paper to make it look like there were two sheets instead of one. I also stamped a good bit to make it look like there was more patterns on the layout. I chose the metal tag as my additional item and the button is the little feet on the bottom. I stamped and cut out a ticket to also make it look like there was more elements on the page. I stamped the journal box on vellum and cut it out and added Ranger's glossy accent to the polka dots on the patterned paper to give it more dimension. I thought the ribbon looked like her polka's on her bathing suit.

Thanks for taking a peek and I hope you are having a creative day!

Nik

More Layouts For Challenges:

Just finished making this one for a challenge hosted by {A Million Memories}. You have to use at least 50 of the same embellishment on your layout so I went with good ol' trusty eyelets. I'm trying to get rid of my stash anyway so this was a perfect challenge for that.

This is what I created:

The lady in the large picture is my wonderful mother-in-law, Felicitas. She is the bond that ties my Mexican family together. She is suffering from brain cancer and this picture was taken just a couple of days after chemotheropy. At that time, her cancer was only in the lungs. Just one short month later, the cancer spread to the brain and she is now undergoing radiation. The pictures from top to bottom on the strip are her father and step-mother, her oldest daughter and son-in-law, her youngest daughter and son-in-law, and her only sister and brother-in-law. She has half sisters but that is her only sister with her biological mother and father. They are very close. I am also very close with my mother-in-law. I love her so dearly. She has six children; two boys and four girls; 25 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Needless to say, this is a very difficult time for our family. We visited with her at our home in Mexico this past July and hope to return in December. We are praying that the treatment will help and that God will heal her and take away this awful disease. I used the Pencil Lines Sketch #104 created by Dawn Inskip. I thought the circular frame would be perfect for 50 or more eyelets. By the way, I used 57 red eyelets on this.

Here is another layout I created this morning:

I'm still trying to catch up on old Halloween layouts so this is another one from 2006. I'm trying to incorporate more pictures in the layouts so I can get more done. I love the laser cut apple paper that I bought at CKC in Charlotte!! I had been looking for it and so glad I came across it at the Night Crop. This one is for a few challenges: Megan's Complementary Colors and Cory's Journaling Challenge at Your Memories By Design & Pammy's Multiphoto Challenge and Rusha's October Fall LO Challenge at Scrapbook.com. I didn't need to put the years since I have more layouts I've finished from this same year.

Just finished this one for Donna's Take A Closer Look Challenge over at Your Memories By Design. The challenge is to do a layout about nature. It is suppose to have journaling so I'll have to add a line or two about how these perennials only bloom in the fall. The flowers look more red than pink in this picture but they are actually the same color pink as the flowers in the picture. I took this picture today at an open field on the side of the road before you go onto the highway. It's about 2 minutes from the kid's school. Of course, I have more pics with the children in them. I've already printed them ;)

I really like the Spanish moss I added to this one. Gave it lots of dimension. I added glitter to the blooms of the stamped Martha Stewart bird on top and colored it in lightly with colored pencils.

Hope you're having a creative day!

--Nik

Awesome Inspirational Bargain Finds!!!

Well, I'm still working on another Halloween layout and will probably finish it before I go to bed but I did stumble on some incredible finds today. I went to this vintage clothing store that my girls love. I was on my way to the hospital to visit a co-worker who had electrocuted herself--long story. As a Get Well gift, I took the fall centerpiece that I made two days ago and one of the cards I made from World Card Making Day. Anyhoo, I stopped at the vintage store and look what I found!!!


I LOOOOVED these vintage stick pins. They will be perfect on future layouts and cards. I told her that I wanted any new ones that she may get in the future and she agreed to set them to the side for me. I think I will keep the large safety pin to put my gold charms on ;)

Here is another something else I fell in love with:

Isn't this the most adorable necklace you have ever seen??? It's a lot longer than the picture shows which makes it even more adorable. It came from the Gap. The earrings where hanging up behind the counter and they don't exactly go with the necklace but close enough. I loved them too ;) I wore the necklace out of the store and didn't take it off until I got home. I think I will make a layout in these colors and include hand crocheted elements on it. I haven't crocheted in probably six months so I guess it's time to pull out that needle and yarn.


One more goodie that I liked was these hair pins:

I'm not sure if I will wear them or use them in a future layout but I loved the bling in the centers and loved that they were similar to laser cut paper butterflies. They may wind up in my 5 year old's hair..lol.

I'm really tired so I may even post the layout tomorrow. Hope your day was creative :)
---Nik

Halloween Fever!

Today starts the 2nd week of October and the children are already ready for Halloween. The girls have "Super Hero" day tomorrow at school for their Spirit Week activities so they have dressed up in their little brothers' Batman masks and capes. I will be taking pictures tomorrow before they leave for school. With all this costume hoop-la going on, the smaller ones are so ready to go Trick-or-Treating. In keeping with the Halloween frenzy, I created two layouts today with Halloween themes.


This first layout was created for a challange at the Scrapmojo blogsite. You are to create a layout with your favorite Halloween costumes OR a layout about your favorite scary movie. I chose the first option. How could I resist those little Batmen? I saw a cheesecloth ghost on one of the cards that was created during the Online Crop at YMBD and wanted to try one on a layout so here's what I came up with. After putting everything together, I still felt it was lacking something so I stitched a black border and I felt it joined everything together nicely.

This second layout was created for a challenge on the Sketch This Blog with Janelle Lee Richmond. I love placing the journaling around the border of a layout! I thought the white stitching really brought out the purple of the patterned paper so I went with it. I added some funky ribbons, a few cute buttons and a wired stamped title box. The mulberry paper and the balled orange ribbon were my favorite little "quirks" in this layout.

I'm searching more and more for scrapbook related blogs and I hope to participate in their challenges. I have been participating in the challenges at Scrapbook.com for a long time now but want to venture out and see what else is out there in the scrapbooking community--especially when it comes to blogs.

There are a couple of more challenges I am going to try out on a couple of more blogs and will post my creations here when I am done.

I hope your week is bright and full of creativity :)

---Nik

Getting Started...

I so want to get connected in the Bloggin' world so I thought I would just plunge in and begin my own blog. My name is Nikki Love-Salinas and I am NLOVE w/ Scrappin'! I will be using this blog to post recent scrapbook layouts, cards, floral arrangements, etc. that I create. I hope to establish new blogging relationships, learn more, share with others, etc. I am a wife and mother to six beautiful children and two fur babies so my family is my main theme of scrapbook layouts but I do enjoy scrapping about everyday life. I am so many years behind in scrapping but I'm not alone so I don't fret over it much.


Here are three floral arrangements I created today:

I purchased the roses and fall cushions from my local Bilo store while doing some grocery shopping this morning. I've been eyeballing the purple wild liatris that has been growing in my yard so I clipped some of it as well as the tiny wild yellow daisy bunches. I added some fall foilage from my trees in my yard, black cat Halloween bows on the budvases and I used some green and natural raffia scraps to make a bow for the larger centerpiece. Added some artificial gourds and Ta-Da... Fall Arrangements. I love to make arrangements in natural pumpkins this time of year but haven't even bought our first pumpkin. I will try to make some of those and post them as well. The pumpkin pie was on sale and the kids LOVED it ;)

Here's a close up of the centerpiece:

I gave one of the budvases to the ladies at our local post office and will give the 2nd budvase to my mother and sister. The centerpiece will stay on my island ;)

In honor of World Card Making Day on October 3rd, I enjoyed participating in an Online Crop at YMBD Scrapbooking from the 3rd through the 5th. I made 44 cards during the weekend and contributed 22 of these cards to the Cards For Heros organization. Their website is: http://http//www.cardsforheros.org/

The members at YMBD will be mailing their cards to the owner of the site and she is mailing all of the cards from the group to CFH. I mailed my 22 cards today when I gave the budvase to Martha (my PO lady). I am so thrilled to be apart of that event and look forward to contributing more cards to our brave troops in the near future.


Here are some of my favorite cards that I made during the Online Crop:
This is the first set of cards I made on the first day of the crop. This is a "Love" theme set and I was so pleased with them. The pp's were purchased in a cheap kit from Walmart but boy did they look so elegant. Lots of inking, paper tearing, stitching, buttons, pins, flowers, stamping, metal charms, ribbon, clips, eyelets, staples, doodling and scalloped edging. Yesterday, I ended up making even more cards with these beautiful papers in birthday, thinking of you and Hello themes and sold one of those to a customer at the post office today.


My PO lady, Martha, purchased a Sleepy Beauty with her Prince birthday card for her granddaughter. The money I make off the extras can help offset the money I am spending on postage and supplies for the cards for the troops so it's a win-win!
This is the back of the card:















She said her grand was always refered to as a Princess so it was perfect for her birthday.

Here are some more of my favs: