A Personal Invitation...

My good friend, Sarah de Guzman, has opened up a brand new Scrapbook Store in the bay area called Our Paper Place and I wanted to extend a personal invitation to all my followers to check out her new store. Be sure to also follow their Facebook Page HERE.

The infamous, Suzy West, is teaching a class on Friday, November 27th on making an Advent Calendar from 1pm to 3pm and another class Saturday, December 18th on a Mixed Medium Mini Album. Both classes are only $40.00 each and that includes all your materials needed to make your projects.

Please help spread the word and make this LSS a HUGE success!!! With competitions around like Michael's and Hobby Lobby's, it's hard for small scrapbooking business to make it out there. Please support your local businesses and help us all continue to make our favorite form of art grow and prosper.

Thanks for your support!!
Nik

It's been a while...

since I have made a post here on my blog. Haven't been scrapping much but have been keeping busy with Brooklyn and her pageants. Here are a few pictures from past pageants:








I am planning on making some Veteran's Appreciation cards tomorrow for our pageant next Saturday. It is a Veteran's Day Pageant and we are donating them to the Veteran's Home to decorate their walls. I will be back to post what I have made.

Happy Thursday!

Nik

More Smoky Mountain pics...

This little damaged-winged beauty sat pretty for me a few seconds for me to capture these in front of our condo.




Here are pics of our view from our condo. Aren't they luscious!!!











Here are pics from Dollywood. It was super hot and the kids didn't enjoy the first day as much as the second day that we went. We didn't ride the train but we did ride the Water Flume ride and got soaked!!! The second picture is Husband and the kids standing in front of the waterfall at the Water Flume ride.









It was a great vacation but now it's time to head back to the grind.

Happy Friday,

Nik

Another Layout To Share

This one is for the July 15th Challenge over at Scrap A While. I SOOOOO LOOOOVE Beggahuna's sketches!! Challenge was to use her sketch, use the color purple, use metal and distress. Hope I did her sketch justice ;) I used a metal flower embellie, distressed edges using my wonderful Zutter Distress-It-All, loads of purple flowers and paper and made the pearl flourishes myself. I punched holes in the shape of the flourishes using my flourish template I bought from Oriental Trader and then put pearls over top of my holes. The transparancy butterfly was purchased from Gabrielle Pollaco at her Etsy Shop. I added pearls and gems to it but it's beautiful on it's own. I made the purple crocheted flowers, myself ;)


Tomorrow is Brooklyn's pageant so wish us luck. She has been practicing (although she hates practicing but loves winning) but this will be the first time she has to make an announcement on stage. Very hard to get a 5 year old to talk slow when she's nervous...lol

Happy Friday!!!

ScrapAWhile July Cyber Crop

I haven't updated my blog in FOREVER and I haven't scrapped but once in over two months so today was just as good a day as any to try and whip out a few layouts.

Scrap A While posted about their July Cyber Crop on Facebook this morning and I popped over and created a couple of layouts for their challenges.

I created SWEET SMILE for Tarrah's Challenge #1 .



This was a color challenge and you had to use blue, brown, and creams. The pictures were from Brooklyn's photo shoot on Tuesday so I couldn't wait to get them scrapped. Loads of Prima flowers on this one and I love the floral bud tulle ribbon. I misted the background patterned paper and added gems for more bling. The butterfly was a Christmas clip and I thought it MADE the layout. I only wish I would have made the floral patterned paper a little longer on the bottom so that it would show more underneath the ribbon border strip. Oh well. I still love how it turned out regardless of the flaws ;)

I created buggy nap for Kellie's Challenge #2--Blind Challenge. She gave specific instructions on how to create the layout and everyone's creations are usually different from one another.



I dug deep into my old stash and used up several of my star brads. The papers are from Scrapdango's June kit. Unfortunately, life and other tribulations got in the way of my Design Team duties and I had to resign from my position last month. I miss all of the Dango girls and hope to find more time so I can return to the board and play with all of the talented women there. More misting (my new addiction) and my usual stitching on this one and painted some chipboard stars red to finish it off.

I hope to get their Sketch Challenges completed tonight because I know I won't have time to scrap again before the crop deadline.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Sure is hot enough ;) And if you're lucky enough to be in Chicago right now enjoying CHA, then go ahead and buy me something pretty. I'll be happy to email you my snail so you can make my day..hehehe.

Happy Thursday!

Nik

$60 GC Give-away!!!

Sarah is offering a $60 Gift Certificate Give-Away hosted by CSN Stores. Be sure to check it out and sign up ;)

May Scrapdango Reveal

Just wanted to share my May creations for Scrapdango's May Sugar Kit featuring Bo Bunny Sophie.

Here's what I've got done so far:

Friends


Beautiful Inside & Out (sorry it's a little blurry)


1 stubborn toddler
Design is by Dango's DT Kerryn.


Dare to Dream big


chip & dale


And here are a few from my Disney 8 x 8 album I am workin' on:





Hope you guys are having a wonderful Hump Day!!

Also, please keep my nieces, Kristin & Erica, in your prayers. They have lost an aunt from a heart attack and are in need of your prayers. Thanks and God Bless :)

Nik.

are you ready to BE INSPIRED????

Mark your calendar for the weekend of April 30th through May 2nd for a fun-filled event full of inspiration during DANGO'S BE INSPIRED online crop!!! We have several challenges and games planned to keep you busy and inspired.

Hope to see you there!!!

April Dango Reveal and more News!

Howdy scrappers! Groovy Deb at If It's Groovy has made the decision to close several of the Groovy Challenge Groups to condense her Design Team into one smaller group so the Sketch Group has been illiminated. I have been designing for IIG for over a year now and I've had a blast with the Groovy Gals but I am ready for what new adventures God has in store for me.

Now onto Reveal News. Dango's April Kit has some yummy Crate Paper. I loved working with this line!!! Here are my ScrapDango Reveal creations for this month:










Gotta work all weekend so I won't get to scrap again until Monday.
Have an AWESOME weekend, gals!!!

Nik

Bree's Story!!!

There are two sides to every story...

Disney World Day 2: Holleywood Studios

Things went a lot smoother today, thank the Lord!! All children were feeling much better yesterday and no one got sick. We started our day off with a trip to the hotel pool and then decided to go to Hollywood Studios in the hopes that it wouldn't be as crowded and easier to get around in. We were right. Less people. It wasn't as hot. Shorter lines. Much easier than the Magic Kingdom. The only complaint from the children was that there were very little rides and more sit down productions. The soon-to-be 7 year old was the only one wanting to ride roller coasters but he barely missed the height requirement so he was a little bummed but he recovered quickly with the purchase of a $17.00 neon string toy.









Our 9 year old was thrilled with his Aerosmith Top Hat and his favorite question to me was from the new Alice In Wonderland movie: "Mom, do you know what is the best way to travel?? By hat! I thought his "Super Hero" face painting and his new hat really went great with the t-shirt he wore. "









Our 5 year old wasn't as happy with her face painting. She didn't know that they were going to add sparkly glitter to her rainbow and after looking at herself in the mirror, this was her reaction...lol. I just blew it off and she was completely over it in less than 2 minutes flat...lol.










We waited an hour and 15 minutes for the Fantasmic Light Show so we would have great seats in the low center. All those empty seats were packed and there were several people standing in the back by the time the show started. They loved it! Turbo, our 6 year old, wasn't as enthused about the Tower of Terror...lol. All day, he kept wanting to ride a ride so I rode the Tower with him. He wasn't expecting the fast drops and ended up sliding down in his seat with a look of disbelief on his face. I kept asking him if he was ok but he was too freaked to even answer until the ride was over and now, he's not as eager to ride anything else...lol.


All in all, it was a great day!! We haven't decided which park we will go to later today. It will be either Epcot or Animal Kingdom. It's suppose to rain today so I hope the weather won't ruin things. I'll be back with another update later tonight with more pictures.

Thank you for all your prayers for the children. God was listening, as he always is, and they are completely better and ready for more Disney excitement :)

Happy Friday!

Disney World Day 1

Doesn't this look so wonderful!!! Too bad it wasn't that way for us :(

The 9 year old got sick just before leaving to go the Magic Kingdom so we gave him Pepto and went on our way.

The 5 year old got sick just as we were parking and it all went down hill from there.

There were several more bouts of vomitting and cleaning them up and so many people there looking at us in pity while we were trying to deal with it.

We spent a total of 3 1/2 hours in the park and came straight back to the hotel because we just couldn't take any more of it.

Here is the picture that really shows you how our day went:



We are hoping and praying that they both are better tomorrow. We hope to go back tomorrow. The kids didn't get one autograph or ride anything.

No dreams coming true for us right now. Boo hoo!!

Dango's New Beginnings Crop

Lots to share :)

It's almost 12:3oam but I have quite a lot of new layouts to share and wanted to post before I go to bed.

This first layout, Good Times, has one of my most favorite quotes. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out ;)


This second layout, Proud, was from a sketch by Beggahuna. I LOOOVE her sketches and had this one saved in my favorite's folder at sb.com for a long time now so I was happy to finally get it done. Loads of hand-stithcing on this one and Husband really loved it since it was one of his mother, my sweet MIL. October will make two years since we lost her and I'm still hurting but scrapping her helps.


Everyday is another whimsical layout with more Sassafrass papers. A little fancy cutting and some very old stickers from my stash helped me finish this one and I was pleased with this one too :)


For 2009, I wanted to try my hand at making some toilet paper flowers. This layout is based on a PageMaps Sketch. I always love PM and like how this one came out too:)


i LOVE PURE lime green is one of my favorite new layouts that I've created. Loads of green for this March creation and lots of my favs: stitching, ribbon, Prima flowers and gel alphas. I hand-cut the large paper flowers and I made the small flowers with pearl centers with my puncher. Really loved this one!


This 2-pager, MY Valentine Sweethearts, was made using lots of goodies I received from winning the Love Is In The Air Crop at Sassy Scrappers. I spent a lot of time prepping up the 2-pager with stitching, doodling, lace and such but then I thought I took the easy, lazy way out by only adding matted 4x6 pics and not doing anything special with them or changing the design up a bit. Kept it linear and simple and I liked it better before I put any pictures on it...lol. Ok, I'm wierd. I know...lol.


This last layout is for Helen's March Sketch Challenge on her blog, Scrap A Little. I tried to pick colors and patterned paper that reminded me of Mexico and not so new since these pics are from 2002 but I ended up not liking it much at all. Not sure where I went wrong but it's done and I'm not one to tear apart and start over so.... there ya go ;)


Hope you guys have a wonderful Friday and as always, your comments are treasured and appreciated :D

Nik