NLOVE w/ SCRAPPIN

Pageant Pics from OLM World Universal

2011-02-09T15:43:00.003-05:00

From a Crowns of America Pageant

A Personal Invitation...

2010-10-29T00:45:00.002-04:00

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...

2010-10-28T00:27:00.005-04:00

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...

2010-08-06T11:19:00.004-04:00

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

2010-07-30T19:45:00.005-04:00

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

2010-07-29T22:23:00.004-04:00

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!!!

2010-06-23T07:59:00.002-04:00

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

2010-05-19T10:30:00.005-04:00

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????

2010-04-21T16:15:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-04-16T11:56:00.003-04:00

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!!!

2010-04-15T17:07:00.000-04:00

There are two sides to every story...

Disney World Day 2: Holleywood Studios

2010-04-09T06:57:00.005-04:00

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

2010-04-08T00:44:00.004-04:00

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

2010-04-01T12:25:00.000-04:00

Lots to share :)

2010-03-19T00:16:00.004-04:00

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

Vintage RAK Blog Give-Away

2010-03-17T19:51:00.002-04:00

Check out this beautiful Vintage Kit that you can win here on the Brocantess Blog . I get an extra entry if you let them know I sent ya ;) Thanks also to Julie's Blog for sending me that way :)

Happy Hump Day!
Nik

Sketchabilities #12

2010-03-15T14:08:00.002-04:00

Here's my take on Sketch #12 at Sketchabilities.

The background patterned paper was so busy so I didn't add any other patterned paper with it. I just love this new sketch challenge blog and invite you to come check them out ;)

Happy Monday!
Nik

Sassy Lil' Sketches Blog Hop

2010-03-14T21:33:00.003-04:00

I'm about 30 minutes late in getting my layout completed for the Sassy Lil' Sketches Going Green Blog Hop (dang shoppin' at Walleyworld!) but I'm still posting it to share. I'm not that happy with it. Probably because I was rushing so much while making it and not doing things to it that I would have done but that's ok too ;)

Here are the details of "Going Green" Challenge:
Create a project (card, layout, or altered) using the "Going Green" sketch below AND one of the following "Going Green" criteria:

1. "Go Green:" Do a project that is predominantly green in color.
2. "Reduce:" Reduce your stash by creating a project where all the product used are at least one year old (no new stuff).
3. "Reuse:" Do a project with left overs from a previous project.
4. "Recycle:" Do a project with an item that was used for something else first.

I covered 3 of the 4 criterias. I used mostly green (#1), I "Reused" the left-overs from a Dango Kit (#3), and I "Recycled" a bottlecap from a Mexican soda and used the backing from a Prima flower pack for the journaling strips (#4). Fortunately, I did complete the hop at all the DT blogs before leaving for grocery shoppin' :D

Thanks for stopping by!
Nik

Jodie's FAB GIVE-AWAY!!!

2010-03-14T13:32:00.002-04:00

Check out all the handmade goodness that Jodie is giving away on her BLOG . Hope I'm the lucky winner ;) Be sure to stop and get your name in the hat on all those beauties :)

Happy Sunday!
Nik

Heaven on Earth

2010-03-13T21:10:00.003-05:00

I finally got around to doing a major cleaning/make-over in my scrapden and here is how is looks now. My 16 year old daughter helped me since most of the shelving that I needed to find a home for came from her bedroom closet. I took down all the jungle/safari prints off the walls and removed all the jungle accessories and decorations. I plan on taking down those grass curtains and replacing them with some teal blue ones.

Now it's time to go and create the night away ;)

Dango Kit Reveal

2010-03-09T09:08:00.005-05:00

Our Dango February Kits arrived late because of a late delivery from one of our manufacturers so I'm a little late getting my Reveals posted. Our Kits featured Scribble Scrabble's Nana's Trunk paper line and I love the country, natural look of this line!!

The following layouts were made with February Kit Products only:

The journaling on "so thankful" reads: I am so blessed and so thankful to have a son who is a terrific big brother. Gabriel is always looking out for his baby sister. He even asked for a picture of just the two of them on Thanksgiving '09.

I loved the chipboard embellishments and alphas and wanted to leave them in natural color for a more natural, "nature" effect.

On "KICKIN' BACK DURING THE LONG bus ride", I did not label or list the names of the individuals in the pictures because I wanted the focus to be on the story of the bus ride and not the individuals.

The next two layouts were made with all Kit Products and just a few alphas added for titlework.

"WHY?" was inspired by Dango Owner Heather's sketch that was provided in last month's Kit Ideas Insert Flier.

On "happy lucky life", I added a CKC ticket stub and one journaling bubble tag.

"APPLES OF MY EYE" was made using some left-overs from the kit:

It's design was inspired by Laura's March Sketch on Scrapbook Dreamers.

I also have one card made but I'm trying to work on a few more so I can post one picture of all of them. After I make the cards, I will have used ALL papers from the kit and I still have two more journal cards, two die cut border strips, die cut chipboard alphas, two fabric flowers, and some ribbon that are left over from the kit. Now that's a lot of projects for your $$$!!!!

If you are not a subscriber yet, you may want to seriously consider it. I completed 5single layouts, one 2-page layout, and probably 3 cards with just products from the kit excluding a couple of alpha stickers. And all of my creations are not skimpy at all. In fact, I didn't make even one negative space layout. Plus, I have additional items not used that I can use on later projects. That's quite a bang for your buck!!! And if you subscribe now, you get a FREE bottle of GLIMMER MIST in the color of your choice (from colors in stock). Woot! Woot! Even better :)

In this economy, every penny counts and Dango's Kits are soooo worth every penny ;)

Sketchabilities #11

2010-03-01T12:12:00.006-05:00

I used Sketchabilities #11 Sketch to create this layout. I LOVED this sketch and couldn't wait to cut-up my Sassafrass papers to fit with it.

Just a whimsical glimpse into MY beautiful Life ;)
Happy Monday!
Nik

Dirty Sassy Fit Blog Hop

2010-02-27T18:38:00.004-05:00

Dirty Scraps along with Sassy Lil' Sketches and ScrapFit are hosting a triple Challenge Blog Hop and I've just finished my layout fitting the requirements of each blog.

Here's the awesome Sassy Lil' Sketch that was provided for the challenge:

And Here's my submission:

I was already a follower of Dirty Scraps and ScrapFit but this is my first time visiting Sassy Lil' Sketches and I love their sketches!! The blog hop finishes tomorrow at midnight so hop on over and check them out and get your layout completed in time ;)

I'm getting dressed to go out! Woot! Woot! Don't have a buddy or partner to hang out with tonight but I so need a girl's night out so I'm goin' even if I have to go alone. hehehe

Happy Saturday Scrappers :D

Nik

I WON some PRIMA & a PRIMA CHALLENGE of my own!

2010-02-25T09:35:00.006-05:00

I'm so hyped!!! I won on Prima's blog for their December New Product Picks!!! How AWESOME is this!!!! I SOOO LOVE Prima and all their products.

Here's my latest Prima layout using Prima papers, flowers, bling, lace and flower petal border, and even the backing from a flower pack!!

I used the rest of that border strip to create this non-traditional color Valentine layout:

Thank you Prima for your generosity and thanks to my followers for all your comments and support!!! And how should I celebrate my new winnings??? By hosting a Prima Challenge, of course! Please post a link of your latest Prima creation by midnight, March 15th. One lucky artist will be chosen randomly to win a Prima RAK of their own ;) Please become a follower if you are not and share about this Challenge on your own blog for additional numbers in the Random Generator. Your layout should be your first post. Make an additional post that you are a new follower and/or another post with your blog post to increase your chances of winning ;)

Sound good????

I can't wait to see what you guys are creating with your Prima stash ;)

Happy Thursday!
Nik

Loads of new Layouts!

2010-02-24T15:50:00.004-05:00

I haven't updated in quite some time so I have loads of new work to share.

The first set of layouts all contain Christmas pictures from last year.
The first layout, spending TIME, was inspired by a Sketchabilities Sketch #8. I loved that sketch and thought these pics would work nicely with it.

The next three layouts were January Dango Reveal layouts. I loved the colors of the papers and all the clocks in the January kit!! I designed the sketch for the 2-pager during my down-time at work one night.

365 days was a fun layout designed without a sketch. I just started creating and this was the final product.

Padrinos was created for several forum challenges. I attempted to mask some scalloped circles by just inking around the shapes but it didn't come out quite the way I wanted so I just ended up smudging pink ink all around the background patterned paper to make it look more even.

I am still using the lace that I bought at a yard sale. 100 yards for 50 cents!!! Now that's a bargain :)

I journaled in Spanish so that my Spanish speaking family could read it and enjoy it better.

On BONITA navidad, I drew inspiration from the stems with leaves image on the patterned paper and made my own large stem of leaves on the left side of the page. A stitched stem and cut up paper flower petals along with buttons and small paper flowers made for a nice large embellishment. I used tiny gemstones for centers in the small paper flowers. The pictures are from my church in Mexico. I love seeing the Nativity scenes in all the churches and displays all around town. I couldn't wait to scrap my church's display.

GREEN {VELVET} is my very first layout containing an altered pic that I created using my new Photoshop Elements 8 software. I am still learning more about it but was happy to at least get this first pic created with partial coloring. I used loads of embellishments and even used a tag that was from a Christmas present under our tree last year ;)

girls just wanna have fun was inspired by a February PageMaps sketch. I love these fun and playful pictures that I took during a Christmas party last year and thought they would look great using this sketch. I chose loads of pinks and playful bling to give it a nice, whimsical look.

GROOVY kind of LOVE was created using ALL SCRAPS!!!! Gotta love it when you can dig into that OLD stash and use loads of oldies but goodies. More of the yard sale lace went on this one along with pearls and some very old die cut images.

Gotta run to work so Happy Hump Day!!!!

Nik

Roses Are Red Online Crop

2010-02-13T02:33:00.002-05:00

ScrapbookDeals4U Forum is hosting a Roses are Red Online Crop and Jenny, LG, and all the other DT Members would love for you to come on out and participate in all the fun. Be sure to tell them Nik sent ya on the link above ;)

Happy Valentine Croppin!

Nik

Happy Birthday to ME!

2010-02-02T09:17:00.002-05:00

Well, this is it. The big 4-0! No big plans. No cake. No presents. Just another year along with another wrinkle but thank the Lord, no gray hairs (yet!) lol

Feeling a little more tired, a little more fat, and a little more down than my usual perky self today but I guess that's normal considering the dark gloomy "40" cloud that will hover over me today.

Happy Ground Hog's Day and a big thanks for all of my followers and online scrapping buddies!! Sometimes it feels like you're the only ones who understand ;)

February Friend of PageMaps

2010-02-01T15:45:00.004-05:00

Today is the day!!! The Scrapdango Design Team is being recognized by Becky on her PageMaps blog. I am so honored to be apart of this talented group of scrappers and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a Friend of Pagemaps.

Here is the sketch that Becky provided to use as inspiration:

Here is my layout submitted for the Pagemaps Newsletter and Blog:

2nd home contains Basic Grey papers, stickers, and die cuts; rub-ons from Jenni Bowlin; brown alphas from AC and colored alphas from Cosmo; stamps from 7 Gypsies; ribbon from colobok; flowers from prima; and receipt and buttons from Walmart. I added lots of stitching to give it a "home" feel and used the BG Pantry Collection papers to add to my theme.

Here's another Becky PageMaps sketch that I used for the January 2-Page Sketch Challenge at Groovy:

I stuck with Basic Grey again on this one and kept the embellishments simple since I have so many pictures and they are in both black and white. I love how this one turned out too ;)

Happy Manic Monday Scrappers!! It's a very happy Monday for me (even if I do have to get ready for work)

Will YOU be CROWNED Ms. Scrapdango???

2010-01-31T16:38:00.002-05:00

CROWNED is Almost Here!

Scrapdango is celebrating 4 years, and we are doing it in style with our very own “Crowned Pageant” contest!

Come join us for 4 weeks of Crowned Competition ScrapDango style! There will be weekly pageant competition challenges that will challenge your creativity. Each week the DT will award points for each contestant’s creation. The contestant with the most points at the end of each week will be sashed! If you are lucky enough to be SASHED, you will receive a fun prize pack! At the end of the month, the contestant with the most points will be crowned Queen of Scrapdango and win a guest design spot, including a full Scrapdango kit! There will be other challenges along the way as well, such as scavenger hunts, posting challenges, games, etc. These are voluntary, but they do help you to accumulate more points. The weekly pageant challenges are mandatory. The only way you will be de-sashed and leave the Pageant is if you fail to do the weekly challenges. To play you must visit the forums, say hello and register in the “Crowned” Thread. So come join us and stretch your creativity as we challenge you to Evening Gown, Swimsuit, Interview, and Talent Competitions! The first challenge will be issued February 1st.

International contestants are welcome to play and will receive a $6 shipping credit toward any prize they win. The balance of shipping will be that contestant's responsibility.

Invite a Friend!!! Post this announcement on your blog or favorite forums and have your friend tell us about your referal HERE for an additional point!!!!!!

We look forward to seeing you compete!!!

Dreamer 6th Anniversary Valentine Crop

2010-01-31T14:39:00.002-05:00

Please join the Dream Girls at Scrapbook Dreamer for their 6th Anniversary Online Crop beginning February 1st.

Every Monday and Thursday the Dream Girls will be posting two challenges to inspire you! Plus there will be games, and how to's plus a few bonus challenges. Each challenge you complete you will receive an entry into a drawing for an awesome prize (will be pictured later) You will have until march 5th at 12:00pm est to complete as many challenges as you can!

It's going to be loads of fun and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us!
Hope to see you there and tell them Nik sent ya ;)

Welcome February!!

Nik

Goodbye January

2010-01-30T02:37:00.001-05:00

The first month of the year is almost over and I can tell already that 2010 is going to fly by for me.

My birthday is in just three days but I am planning on going out tomorrow night with some girlfriends from work if I can get a sitter. 40!!!! How did that happen???? My body sometimes feels far older than 40 but I still feel like a young 30 year old in my mind ;)

Here's a recent layout to share that was created for several forum challenges.

It's after 2:30am and I would like to get a couple of layouts done tonight so off I go.

Happy Saturday!!!

Nik

Kiki Art Giveaway!!!!!

2010-01-27T08:36:00.002-05:00

Kiki Art is hosting a fabulous RAK giveaway on Sarah's blog!!! Take a looksie and put your name in the hat on this fabulous kit!!

Much Needed Update with Pics

2010-01-18T13:00:00.009-05:00

I'm so behind and out of the loop since returning from Mexico so here's a much needed update and pictures of my trip, recent layouts, and anything else I wanna throw in this post ;)

I went to La Villa to go to Mass and see all the pretty Christmas decorations in downtown D.F. This is the front of the church.

I love this picture. There's a softness to it that just catches my eye. I love taking pics in Twilight!!!

This is that same Christmas tree but from the inside of the church looking out. People were leaving Mass at the time I took the picture.

This Guadalupe light image is displayed in front of the main gates of the church. It's so beautiful and it's the first thing you see when you're walking toward the church from the lower parking deck.

This display in front of the alter is of the Three Kings presenting Jesus with their gifts. These three are who brings the children their gifts on the morning of January 6th.

We are currently having a Tango with Scrapdango Online Crop at Dango. I am hosting two challenges for the crop. This first layout, just lovely, is for my "Shorty Got Low, Low, Low, Low" Challenge requiring you to make a negative space layout with your picture at the right corner of your page. I kept this page girlie using soft colors like pink, teal and mint green and added a little flirt by adding a pink chipboard birdie with heart wing and felt buttons and flourishes.

10 Reasons I Love You is my example layout for my "Across the Border" Challenge in the Tango with Dango Crop. For this challenge, your layout must have border strips. In my layout, I used a die cut border strip followed by a stitched ribbon border strip followed by a patterned paper border strip that I fringed and rolled. The "love" journal box is a mixture of rub-ons and hand-drawn lines. The "love" title came in a rub-on pack along with the hearts and "I Love You" wording in the title. The torn paper edge is Jenni Bowlin as well as the "Name and Numbering" grid on the right side. I hand-drew the right side of the grid so I would have more room for journaling my reasons. I kept embellishments few and simple since your eye is busy enough with the stitching, journal box and paper rolling.

I have some more new layouts that I have made for various Tango Challenges but will post them later.

Also, the Groovy Gals are hosting a Birthday Bash Blog Hop with loads of challenges and prizes on various Groovy Gals blogs. I had intentions on participating in this Hop but my Mexico trip hindered my participation so please accept my apologies for not hosting a challenge myself.

I have to get ready for work soon so Happy Monday and I will post again soon. Promise ;)

Nik

Do you own a Cricut???

2010-01-18T12:47:00.002-05:00

If you do, then you will want to head over to Michele's blog for her awesome give-away. Good luck and Happy Monday!

2009-12-15T13:21:00.007-05:00

These are pictures taken by my 5 year old daughter, Brooklyn. I have definitely got a photographer/scrapper on my hands.

Here is a picture I took at the mall of my three younger children. We went for pictures with Santa but Santa had left early that day.

Here are a couple of recent layouts.
Hello! Navidad was inspired from the gold and brown hues in the picture. I crocheted the ivory/gold flower that I used in the middle of the ivory silk poinsettia and used a gold snowflake button in the center. The embossed, gold foil star and ornament are Christmas tags. I used the personalized ribbon bow from the favors of the wedding on the foil ornament. I wasn't sure where I would place the journaling because I had little room from the embellies that I used so I machine stitched a frame around the two vertical pictures and hand-wrote the journaling above the stitched lines. The thick gold ribbon fit perfectly in the bling buckle and additional bling photo corners and flourish dazzled the layout up a little more. This layout was made for Day 5 of The 25 Days of Christmas at Scrapbook Dreamer and for Challenge #1 at Sassy Scrapper's December Holiday Extravaganza.

On December fun, I used non-traditional colors again for a Christmas layout. I knew I could get away with a color palette of blue/black/lavender by using a black and white picture. The blue metal word plates were very old in my stash and originally designed for a baby boy page but still worked well with a Christmas theme. I stickled the tips of the black paper flower and white silk flower to coordinate with the white silvery cording ribbon. This layout was made for Day 6 at Dreamer and for Challenge #2 at Sassy's.

Happy Tuesday!
Nik

New Prima Product Picks

2009-12-10T19:39:00.002-05:00

Prima has announced their New Product Picks and you can get a chance to win these beautiful babies by posting a link on your blog and leaving them a comment on their blog HERE. Be sure to stop by and put your name in the hat :)

Happy Thursday!
Nik

Urban Swank Giveway

2009-12-06T10:04:00.003-05:00

Urban Swank is giving away a FANTASTIC patterned paper assortment pack and I would love to be the lucky winner of these goodies. Click on the link above and spread the word for your chance to win.

Happy Sunday!
Nik

12 Days of a Twilight Christmas

2009-12-04T22:45:00.014-05:00

Good evening scrappers. As most of you already know, I'm a huge Twi-mom and I'm addicted to anything Twilight and wrote this little tune at work last night and wanted to share. Please sing along with me to the tune of The 12 Days of Christmas.

Here we go:

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me
A Vampire in a Forks Tree.

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Two Motorcyle Gloves and a
Vampire in a Forks Tree.

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me Three Wolf dens Two Motorcycle Gloves and A Vampire in a Fork's Tree

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
FIIIIIIVE VOOOOlturi Kiiiiiiings!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Six New Borns Slaying, FIIIIIIVE VOOOOOlturi Kiiiiiings!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me Seven Bella Swans Swimming, Six New Borns Slaying, FIIIIIIIVE VOOOOOOlturi Kiiiiiiings!!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Eight Days of Reading, Seven Bella Swans Swimming, Six New Borns Slaying, FIIIIIIVE VOOOOOOOlturi Kiiiiiiings!!!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Nine Laurents Dancing, Eight Days of Reading, Seven Bella Swans Swimming, Six New Borns Slaying, FIIIIIIIVE VOOOOOOlturi Kiiiiings!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Ten Quileutes Sleeping, Nine Laurents Dancing, Eight Days of Reading, Seven Bella Swans Swimming, Six New Borns Slaying, FIIIIIIIVE VOOOOOOlturi Kiiiiiiings!!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me Eleven Rosalies Griping, Ten Quileutes Sleeping, Nine Laurents Dancing, Eight Days of Reading, Seven Bella Swans Swimming, Six New Borns Slaying, FIIIIIIIIIVE VOOOOOOOlturi Kiiiiiiings!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Tree.

On the twelth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Twelve Volvos Humming, Eleven Rosalies Griping, Ten Quileutes Sleeping, Nine Laurents Dancing, Eight Days of Reading, Seven Bella Swans Swimming, Six New Borns Slaying, FIIIIIIIVE VOOOOOOlturi Kiiiiiiiings!!!! Four New Moon Shirts, Three Wolf Dens, Two Motorcycle Gloves, and a Vampire in a Fork's Treeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about my little jingle ;)
Have a Very Sparkly Christmas fellow Twilighters and a Hooowling New Year ;)
Nik

2009-12-03T08:51:00.003-05:00

I am hosting this week's Blog Challenge at the Scrapdango Blog. For my challenge, I want you to tackle your stash and your fears. I know we all have a huge stash of eyelets that we are still trying to tackle so break those babies out and put some to good use. I want to see at least 10 eyelets on your creation. Bling, Bling, Bling. Who doesn't love bling? Be sure to add some bling from your stash and dazzle your project up a bit. Lastly, is doodling. This will probably be a tough one for many of you. I don't doodle much on my layouts but do on occasion so go ahead and show me some doodles. You can doodle outlines, flourishes, circles, dots or anything you like--just as long as it's doodled and not stamped. It must be hand-doodled without a template. That's it! Simple enough, right? Halloween '09 is my example layout to inspire you to join us. Just post your layout on the Scrapdango Blog by clicking on the link above. Can't wait to see what you come up with!!

let them eat CAKE is an If It's Groovy layout inspired by a wonderful sketch provided by our DT Member Lissa. Our theme was layers and what better way to represent layers than showcase the wonderful layers of a Mexican wedding cake. I layered three rows of ruffly lace by stitching each row individually and included more layers of patterned papers and flowers. I LOVED the end result. I even used the Fancy Pants packaging from the jumbo chipboard sheets (underneath the last row of lace) and added corduroy and fabric buttons for more texture. We would love to see what you come up with using this week's sketch. Just post your creation on the Groovy site by clicking on the link above.

And another quick reminder to please join us at Scrapdango for our 12 Days of Christmas Challenges HERE and also at Scrapbook Dreamer for the 25 Days of Christmas Crop going on right now. Please be sure to post HERE that Nikki sent you so that we both are entered in the drawing for a fabulous Christmas patterned paper give-away.

Happy Thursday!!
Nik

ScrapDango 12 Days of Christmas with a Twist!

2009-11-30T11:31:00.002-05:00

12 Days of Christmas...with a Twist!

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Join us December 1st through the 12th at ScrapDango for our 2009 12 Days of Christmas...with a Twist!

The design team will be giving a daily project/tutorial for you to do. If you complete the project, you earn one draw for a Scrapdango Kit!

For each project, there will also be a twist...a challenge to incorporate into that day's challenge. If you choose to do the twist, you will earn another draw! So for each project, you can possibly earn 2 draws! Don't like the twist that day? Just complete the project without the twist and you still earn one draw!

Every other day there will also be a game to participate in! And of course, you can earn draws that way as well!

Sign up in the sign up thread and keep track of your draws there! You have until midnight EST on Friday, December 18 to get all your projects done!

International members welcome to play, however...a $6 shipping credit will be given. Any shipping above the $6 will be the members responsibility.

It's going to be a blast!!! Hope to see you there :)

2009-11-30T10:44:00.020-05:00

November 2009 SCRaPDANGo ScrapNews Newsletter

Contents

November 2009 Kits
December 2009 Sneak Peeks
November Guest Designers
Tips for November Kits
Thanksgiving Quotes & Titles
Fast & Easy Christmas Tags
Giving things a little dimension
SCRaPDANGo Sketches

November Sugar and Spice Kits

Sugar Kit
Cosmo Cricket - Nutmeg

12x12 Patterned Double-sided Scrapbook Paper
o 1 sheet Maple
o 1 sheet Acorn
o 1 sheet Falling Down
o 1 sheet Clove
o 2 sheets Cinnamon
o 2 sheets Autumn
o 1 sheet Nutmeg Elements
12x12 Cardstock Scrapbook Paper
o 1 sheet Arizona
o 2 sheets Dragonfly
o 1 sheet Lizard
o 2 sheets Burning Ember
Embellishments
o 1 package American Crafts Rocketeer Chipboard Thickers in Chocolate
o 1 package Prima Pearls and Crystals in Olive
o 1 package Prima Mini Stamp Set - Owl
o 3 Prima Fun Felt Venti Daisies
o 1 Prima Embroidered "Family" Canvas Tab
o 3 American Crafts Flair Adhesive Badges in Miss You and Relax

Spice Kit
Bella Blvd - Super Stud

12x12 Patterned Double-sided Scrapbook Paper
o 1 sheet Robot Love
o 1 sheet Eclipse
o 1 sheet Cosmic Energy
o 2 sheets Cyber Kisses
o 2 sheets Planetarium
o 1 sheet Bits A Bella
12x12 Bazzill Cardstock Scrapbook Paper
o 2 sheets Desert Sun
o 2 sheets Spring Breeze
o 2 sheets Atlantic
Embellishments
o 1 package American Crafts Tinsel/Foil Thickers in Cricket
o 1 package Prima Say It in Studs embellishment pieces
o 1/2 package Prima Pebbles in Digitized
o 3 Fancy Pants Rough and Tough Pins
o Approximately 8 American Crafts Glitter Brads in Primary
o Approximately 6 American Crafts Glitter Brads in Earth Tones
o 1 yard Prima Ribbon (styles and colors vary)

December sneak peeks

Take a look at next months Sugar & Spice Kits for December 2009!
You’ll want to add these to your stash. Watch for the Big Reveal…….on December 15th 2009! These kits will begin shipping December 25th!

December Sugar Kit Sneak Peek

November Spice Sneak Peek

November Guest Designers

Kelly aka kcflorida

My name is Kelly and I'm so excited to be chosen as a guest designer for Scrapdango. I'm looking forward to working with everyone. All of the work that is produced on this board is such an inspiration! I spent several years teaching 5th grade,
but am now a SAHM in sunny Florida!!
I have been married to my wonderful husband (Jason) for 6 years now. We have 2 children who keep my very busy; Jacob(3) and Allyson(1).
I began scrapping about 10 years ago by accident for a school ‘how to speech’ project. It took off from there.
But, it wasn't until I had my son that I became a serious scrapper. It now consumes all my free time. I love capturing and preserving every moment in my kids lives. Hopefully, one day they will look back and treasure these pages!
http://www.jandkconner.blogspot.com/

Tips for November Kits

Sugar Ideas

1. The strips on the Falling Down paper is lined just like primary writing paper and makes really fun journaling strips!
2. I love using the American Crafts Flair badges as a fun alternative to buttons or brads for flower centers! They work perfectly with the big Prima Venti Daisies in this kit!
3. When you don't have a sewing machine (or it stops cooperating like mine did mid LO!) use a white pen to connect your holes to create "faux" stitches!
4. If you're looking for something to add to your flower petals, use other shapes you may have on hand. I used a scalloped circle punch and cut slits in it to make another flower to layer.

Spice Ideas

1. You can change the color of the chipboard alphas in the kit by ripping off the top layer and then inking or painting or add stickles or glimmer mist to it.
2. Don't throw away negative images. I used the cricut to cut a star out of cardstock and then used the negative image on a card and backed it with one of the coordinating papers.
3. Use your gel pens to doodle patterns onto your thickers to create a different look.
4. The pins are great elements to add to a ribbon knot.

Thanksgiving Quotes & Titles
By Lisa

Thanksgiving Is Not A Time Of The Year, But An Attitude Of The Heart
~ Unkown
"An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day."
~ Irv Kupcinet
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"Forever on Thanksgiving Day, The heart will find the pathway home." ~ Wilbur D. Nesbit
"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all."
~ William Faulkner
"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." ~ Cicero
"He who thanks but with the lips, Thanks but in part; The full, the true Thanksgiving, Comes from the heart." ~ J.A. Shedd
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice." ~ Meister Eckhart
"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving." ~ W.T. Purkiser
"Real abundance is found when we join hands with those we love."~ Anonymous
"Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow." ~ Edward Sandford Martin
"Thanksgiving is possible only for those who take time to remember; no one can give thanks who has a short memory."
~ Anonymous
"To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." ~ Johannes A. Gaertner
"When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup."
~ Sam Lefkowitz
A Bountiful Harvest
A Day Of Thanks
A Happy Heart Is A Thankful Heart
A Harvest Of Memories
Carving Memories
Count Each Day As A Blessing
Family Traditions
Feast Your Eyes On This
Friends, Family, Food And FOOTBALL!
Gather Together With Thankful Hearts
Give Thanks With A Grateful Heart
Happy Harvest
Happy Turkey Day
Harvest Delight
In Everything Give Thanks
It's Turkey Time!
Let's Get Stuffed
My Little Turkey
Our Table Runneth Over!
Pies, Pies & more Pies!
Pilgrim's Pride
Pumpkin Pie
Sharing The Harvest
So Much To Be Thankful For
Thankful Hearts, Helpful Hands
Thanksgiving Traditions
The Dressing Of A Turkey
Turkey Day
Turkey, Dressing And Pumpkin Pie
Turkey Time!
What A Feast!
What We Are Thankful For

Fast and Easy Christmas Tag
By Nikki

Want to add a home-made touch to your Christmas gifts this year?
Why not make your own holiday tags!
A hand-made tag can save money and make the recipient feel special by adding a bit of your creative touch to your gift. With a few items from your personal stash, hand-made tags can be made quickly and with little effort.

First, gather your materials needed.

I chose a lot of felt because I love the texture and playful look it gives a project. With a few colored sheets that cost around 15 cents each and a Big Shot Die Cut Machine, I made several Christmas trees and hand-made flowers to adorn my tags. Green pipe cleaners make cute holly leaves when twisted to shape and you can never go wrong with buttons, ribbon and rub-ons to be used for sentiments. Christmas embellishments like jingle bells, candy canes and small die-cuts are also great additives. You really can’t go wrong with anything Christmas related in your current stash.

Using hand-made embellishments and stitching:

My hand-stitched felt flowers were perfect embellishments for these pink tags that can be used on my teen-aged daughter’s gifts. A hand-stitched border also ties in with the stitching used on the flower. Non-traditional colors for the holidays are a big trend right now and these mint green and hot pink colors are perfect for pink, white or green wrapping paper. A Christmas button will also spice up your felt flowers.

Using Ribbon:

Grab your left-over pieces of holiday ribbon and create cute tags like these. A few pieces of different lengths can create an adorable Christmas tree and top it off with a punched star using a glittery patterned paper. Add more bling by randomly placing clear bling circles for the look of lights. A brown ribbon tree base works nice and stitching is optional. Don’t shy away from non-traditional embellishments like bottle caps, staples or mesh. Nothing is wrong when using your scraps or older stash items.

Stickles, Sequins and Bling!

All that glitters is gold and Christmas is the time of the year when everything glitters. Grab your stickles or glitter glue and make your tag sparkle. On my White Christmas tag, I wanted a snowy texture along with the glittery border so I cut up white yarn to resemble snow all along the border of the tag. Red buttons, in various sizes, hand-stitched on made great berries. And with a little red ric-rac, my tag is ready for any gift.

Even black cardstock can make a great Christmas tag. Red sequins stitched with tiny knots made adorable ball ornaments on the green felt Christmas tree and a touch of sparkly red fiber made for perfect tinsel. I left this tag blank so I could hand write my own “To: & From:” on the front.

Using your Tags to make Christmas Cards:

Why not take your tags one step further and create Christmas cards with them. A larger tag can be glued on the front of your card and you’re done! Don’t want to hand-stitch or use your sewing machine? Just hand draw your stitched lines like I did in this cute Noel card. It’s much faster but it stills gives you the same great result. You can also glue your tags onto plain colored gift bags. Add a few Christmas ribbons, raffia or curling ribbon and you’ve created a beautiful bag for far less than it would cost you in the store.

Merry Christmas and Happy Tag Scrapping!

Giving things a little Dimension
by Kerryn Fry

Have you ever stood back and looked at what you are working on and felt like it lacked a little something?
Or felt your page was a little flat and needed some life added to it?

Adding dimension to your layouts can give them a whole new perspective and it is so easy to achieve.
I can honestly say there would not be many of my layouts that don’t have some sort of dimension to them.

The simple version of achieving depth in your page is to vary the products that you add to your design.
Thankfully, most companies bring out a variety of pre-made embellishments in their ranges to co-ordinate with the pages you use.
Rub-ons and stickers are thin and are generally added directly to your layout, but you can also apply them to cardstock, cut them out and use some foam to put them on your work.
Chipboard products are a perfect product, they generally vary in their thickness for easy dimension, but a simple piece of mounting foam also sees them in a new light.
You can also use felt and foam for different textures which will give your work life.
And Journal tags and die-cuts are a fabulous item to lift off of the paper.

But of all our products, I think Patterned paper would be the most flexible of all scrapbooking products.
Without any fussy cutting you can instantly create the illusion of depth simply by using a few different techniques.
Scrunching and folding come to mind, they are 2 of the easiest methods, both can achieve fabulous results.

But with a little bit more work and a good pair of scissors,
the next step is capable of taking your page to whole new world, with the ability to tell its own story.
It can be as easy as scissors, papers and some 3D tape, dots or foam sheets.
A bit of fussy cutting from patterned papers, can be all you need to create dimension and it would be one of the cheapest option to decorate your pages!

It is at this point I should add a warning,
Once you start to look at patterned papers only for what you can cut out of them,
sadly it means you have fallen fowl to this addiction.
But you will never regret it!

So where do you start??
I found the easiest patterns to start with are large flowers, circles and stars.
Usually, the paper will contain different sizes of the one shape, allowing you to create a few layers within that element.

Once you become confident when cutting things out, the possibilities are endless.
You will be able to add anything to your work, if it appears in print, then try to cut it out.
It won’t always go to plan, but you will be amazed what parts you can use.

Remember it doesn’t just have to be the shapes that appear on the paper.
The smaller patterns can be used with any punches, stencils or you can draw your own shapes and cut them out.
Stars, arrows, corners and brackets would be my favorite.
But any templates or chipboard shapes you have on hand can be used.

So there you have it, any product on your page can be lifted to create layers.
Mounting foam is the easiest way to add depth, but I also keep scrap cardboard on hand in different thickness as a second option.
I found with the amount of 3D work I do, double sided tape and cardboard is definitely a great cost effective way to mount items.
I like to use it for larger items on my layouts like photos and journal tags, it helps on the recycling front as well.
Multiple photo pages really do come to life when some of the photos are mounted onto cardboard.
So keep any of your clean cardboard packaging in a safe place, it will always come in handy.

Well I hope this article gives you plenty of ideas when starting to create your next page,
a little bit of mounting foam can go such a long way when it comes to creating a masterpiece.
The great thing is, you can achieve it easily without buying all of the fancy embellishments that are released.
Either way, the difference a bit of depth and dimension will make to your layouts, will speak for itself.
So sharpen up your scissors, gather your embellishments, make sure you view your papers in a different light and begin the journey.

Happy Scrapping!

SCRaPDANGo Sketches

Sketch designed by Lynn

‘A very busy summer’ by Carly

Sketch designed by Kerryn

‘Hold me close’ by Kerryn
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25 Days of Christmas at Scrapbook Dreamer

2009-11-30T10:34:00.005-05:00

Please come join the ladies at ScrapbookDreamer.com for their 25 Days of Christmas Challenges and tell them I sent you for a chance to win a fabulous patterned paper prize packet. Just complete one challenge during the event and you and I both will be entered to win the wonderful paper assortment shown in the link above. Don't forget, tell them Nik sent ya ;)

Thanks and here's to us!

Scrapping The Music Challenge #113

2009-11-29T14:05:00.003-05:00

Here is my entry for the latest STM Challenge. Love, Me is a terrific country song and I couldn't wait to scrap it. I took this picture of my husband on Thanksgiving Day so I had to print it at home to be able to use it but I just couldn't wait for an order to come in. The die-cut background paper was just recently delivered and is Bo Bunny. I accidentally scrapped it upside down but it's ok ;) Nothing could be finer than Prima flowers in the Carolinas in the mOOOOOOOOOrning so I filled it up with a variety of primas. The small, yellowish, snowflaked balls actually fell off a Christmas swap the other day so I tore them apart and glued them down with glue dots. I added a few snowy white buttons and some snowflake buttons for more texture. I really like this layout because I love using girlie colors and flowers on a manly page. So non-traditional and I think that's what makes it so fun. Be sure to check out the challenge at Scrapping The Music.

Happy Sunday!
Nik

12 Days of Christmas 2009 at Scrapdango

2009-11-28T09:46:00.001-05:00

Hey ladies! Are you ready for a 12 day extravaganza of amazing inspiration, tutorials and games? We've got it coming your way! The fun will all start on December 1st and continue all the way through the 12th! Everyday you will find a new project with all the instructions you need to make it yourself! And every other day there will be a new game to try your luck at! Earn draws for winning games and completing projects! One winner will receive a wonderful Scrapdango treat! Hop on over to the Scrapdango forums and join us for all the fun!!! See you there :)

One More Day....

2009-11-25T11:01:00.003-05:00

til Thanksgiving. Is everyone ready??? Have you got all your shopping and food preparations done. I just wanted to take a moment and wish all my blog followers a Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I am so thankful for all my online scrappy friends that inspire me everyday with their wonderful and creative creations. Yep, that's you!

Also, I have a Halloween layout that I forgot to share with you:

It's from the Gravedigger's Ball concert that we went to featuring Back Street Boys. We had so much fun!! This was the only picture that I have from that night that has me in it. I just randomly asked another party goer to take our picture. It's blurry :( but it's all I had so I tried to make the best of it ;)

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless!!!

New Moon Madness!!!!

2009-11-22T10:00:00.006-05:00

I LOOOOOOOOVED New Moon!!!! I mean, who wouldn't love it?? I just couldn't get enough of Edward and Jacob (and yes, even Bella). We arrived at 8:30pm for the 10pm show and we were toward the front of the line. I'm kinda glad I didn't go to the midnight premiere because my niece said the lines were OUTRAGEOUS and people were showing up at 5pm. This year, I am Team Jacob!! I was Team Edward last year for the Twilight premiere but they are both so great, I just couldn't decide so I thought I would spread the love this year ;) Chelsee is still Team Edward and I bought her a new t-shirt for the movie. I went with a Team Jacob hoodie. Yesterday, I bought the New Moon six-pack burger meal from Burger King and now I have the New Moon coupons to buy more clothing from various stores. Gotta feed this addiction!
Now, about the movie. We were so happy that they were so true to the book. Almost all of the dialogue was straight from the pages. And how about those digital wolves???? They were so awesome!!!! My daughter and niece weren't too happy with Kristin's acting but I was pleased because she stayed consistent to Bella's character and personality from the first film and I wouldn't have liked to see a drastic change in just one year. It made sense. But I think she could have broke out the water works in the forest when he kissed her goodbye. Edward leaves you and no tears???? Say what???? Exactly. And how about that ending??????? I loved it. True to the book even to the end. Stephanie really must have put her foot down and made sure they left her baby alone.
Now, we just have to wait until summer for our next fix. {sigh}

Scrapdango November Sugar Kit Reveal

2009-11-20T10:56:00.006-05:00

Here are a few of my new creations using this month's Sugar Kit at Scrapdango. I just loved the fall colors and leaf patterened papers. Loads of machine and hand-stitching on this one and you can never go wrong with bling and stickles ;) This is four of my children and my little one just did not want her picture to be taken ;)

I love putting flowers on a manly page. This is my wonderful husband, Victor, or as I always call him, "Husband." I am so thankful that God gave me this man. He is the most hard worker, the most honest person, the most dedicated father that I have ever seen. I am so lucky to be spending my life with him. This picture was taken at our home in Mexico during his mother's Rosario service after her funeral. He rarely smiled during this trip so it was nice to catch a small smile although his heart was hurting so. Prima flowers and Cosmo Cricket papers are my two most favorite things in this month's kit.

"let's bounce dude!" is a more simple design that was made in less than 30 minutes!!! The circular design of the patterned paper and the basketball in the picture inspired me to punch the circles out and bounce them down the page at an angle (just as if they were dribbling down the page). A few metal wheels/gears added a nice boy touch and a rub-on title and doodled border were all I thought it needed to complete the design.

I will upload more later but I need to sleep and I've got to get rested up for NEW MOON tonight!!!!!!!!! I have waited over a year for this movie and I am SOOOOOO READY!!!!!!!!

TGIF!!! and TGF New Moon!!!!!!
Nik

Gabrielle's Kanzashi Bloom Tutorial

2009-11-17T12:32:00.023-05:00

I saw this tutorial on my dear friend's blog and I LOVED it and wanted to share it with my followers as well. Gabrielle Pollacco is a scrapper that I met on scrapbook.com and I often buy her handmade items on her etsy store. Please be sure to stop buy and visit her sometime. She's so talented and too sweet. Here is her tutorial straight from her blog:

Kanzashi blooms are an ancient technique used by the Geisha girls in Japan. They would use left over scraps from their beautiful outfits to make these pretty fabric flowers for their hair and clothing. Above are some samples of blooms I made up using scraps of fabric and some cut ribbon pieces.

ROUND PETAL TECHNIQUE (See White bloom above)

Step 1 ~ Cut a square of fabric in the size you need for your project. I like to use pieces in sizes of 1" square up to 3" square for scrapbook pages.

Step 2 ~ Fold your square in half diagonally leaving the 'good' side of the fabric on the outside (bad side inside the fold)

Step 3 ~ With fold at the top of the triangle bring down point 'A' to point 'B'

Step 4 ~ Now do the same for the right side, bring down right side to meet in the middle, then flip the project over, you will have the folded edge at the top of the project

Step 5 ~ Keeping the folded edges at the top and raw edges at the bottom, fold in the right and left points to meet in the middle

Step 6 ~ Now bring both edges together again, essentially folding your project in half. Your finished petal will be the back edge of this fold (you will see 3 folded edge, this is the front of the petal)

Step 7 ~ As mentioned above the front of the petal is the edge with the 3 folds, you will round out the top of the petal to give it it's shape. Secure each petal with a pin or with a couple of small stitches (I prefer to use a couple of small stitches as it's easier to put the bloom together later if you're not fiddling with the extra pins)

Step 8 ~ Trim away extra fabric (below your stitch or pin)

Finishing your Bloom (Step 9)

With a need and thread string together all of the petals and tie off creating a ring (the less petals you use for your blooms the more fiddling it may take to create your circle of petals) I used 7 petals to make up the white bloom with the pearl centers. Add pearl or crystal beeds, metal pieces, crystal stickers, flower stamens, buttons.....whatever you like for centers to your blooms.

Here is a finished picture of a rounded petal bloom

Basic Pointed tip Kanzashi Bloom Tutorial

Step 1 ~ Cut out several square pieces of fabric or ribbon (I used 6 pieces of 2" fabric for the above bloom.

Step 2 ~ Fold fabric in half diagonally ...good side of fabric on the outside....

Step 3 ~ With fold at the top of the triangle, fold in half again, bringing left side point to right side point.

Step 4 ~ You will now have 2 folds at the top. Bring down the right point to the bottom. Do the same with the other point except in the opposite direction.

Step 5 ~ You will now have 2 folded edges on the right side again. Bring this edge to the main middle fold (basically folding the flap in half)....do the same for the opposite side.

Step 6 ~ This is your completed pointed petal. It will look like the photo below on one side. It can be used like this for pointed petals (this also works very well for leaves). Finish off by securing with a couple stitched or a pin. Trim as shown in the diagrams for the rounded petal technique)

Step 7 ~ If you flip this petal over you will get a ruffled looking petal as show in the photo below......

Step 8 ~ Put petals together using the instructions above in the rounded petals technique. The example you see at the top of this tutorial shows a flower made using the backside of the pointed leaf. Below is a sample of a flower I made using the front side of the pointed petal technique (the orange petals)......I layered a smaller bloom made with the rounded petal design on top of it.

So if you have some pretty fabric scraps you've been saving or some wonderful ribbon, give this technique a go! The above bloom was made using sheer organza ribbons.

Is that not an awesome tutorial or what??? Thanks so much to Gabrielle for sharing that with us and for her permission for me to share it with you :)

Happy Tuesday!
Nik

Scrapdango November Kits Reveal

2009-11-17T06:22:00.005-05:00

We have two more exciting kits for you this month! Can you smell the season in the air? Why, I do believe I smell...nutmeg! Yes! That is it, it's NUTMEG! Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg to be exact!

November Sugar Kit

And we couldn't complete the Sugar and Spice kits this month without adding something a lil' bit studly, could we? So, this months Spice kit is in honor of all our little Super Studs out there! Yep! Bella Blvd Super Stud, nonetheless!

November Spice Kit

I'll post soon with my creations with the Nutmeg Kit in a few more days. Couldn't wait to share the pictures of these yummy kits!! Be sure to get your order in quick over at SCRAPDANGO before they sell out!

Happy Tuesday :)
Nik

Final Day of the Scrapdango Blog Hop!!

2009-11-15T07:34:00.006-05:00

Woohoo! Here we go again for our third and final day of the Scrapdango Progressive Blog Hop. If you joined us for the last two days on our fabulous blog hopping journey, then you know exactly what I'm talking about! If not, be sure to check the posts below to catch up and find out all the details!

Today's ventures bring you once again to the Fall 2009/Spring 2010 Scrapdango Design Team blogs. Once again, you'll be collecting a total of six ingredients to use on a new item- an ALTERED ITEM of your choice! You can choose any item you wish to alter (as you'll see from the DT examples) but you MUST include all six of the ingredients in the recipe! More are always welcome, depending on what you like! When you've completed your search and used the items in your own creation, link it to a post here on the Dango blog, or visit the Scrapdango forum to show us what you've done! We can't wait for you to share! Remember, everything must be completed by Monday night, November 16th at midnight, EST, so get going and good luck!

My ingredient that is needed for your Altered Item is the color RED.
Here is my example of an ALTERED CLOCK. I'm not much of an "altered" scrapper so I was laughing a little when I finished this clock because it reminded me so much of a "granny" gift---you know the kind---like what a Grandma would make to give as a gift to a neighbor or friend...lol. Anyhoo, I'm going to give it to my Mother as a Christmas gift and she will only have to hang it up during the holidays so I guess that won't be too embarressing..lol.

The photos are of her four children (I'm #9), circa 1997, and I cropped them from a small wallet size photo I had stuffed in the bottom of one of my photo boxes. After punching them out with my small circle puncher, the circular pictures were missing bits on the ends so I hid them a touch with cut out trees from the patterned paper. I had a lot of fun making this and I will probably make a couple of more that are more modern to give as gifts to friends and co-workers for Christmas.

Ok, it's time to get hopping!! I can't wait to see what you create!!

Scrapdango Blog
Heather's Blog
Lynn's Blog
Nikki's Blog<<<----You are HERE!
Carly's Blog><<<----Go here next!
Lisa's Blog
Kerryn's Blog

Scrapdango Blog Hop Day 2

2009-11-14T08:06:00.003-05:00

Hey There! Welcome back! If you're joining us for the first time, be sure to see the post HERE to get yourself caught up! If not, well then, let's get started!

Today's portion of the hop involves a layout recipe. Yet again, there are 6 different ingredients. In order to get all 6, you'll need to visit the blogs of each of the DT members. It's there that you'll learn a little something about each of their favorite items to incorporate on a layout and hopefully a little bit more about each of the members themselves! Remember, the details can be found here! You may even get yourself a chance to win a RAK or two along the way!

Don't forget- your layout is due by Monday, November 16th by Midnight EST to be counted as a draw toward the prize of one of Scrapdango's amazing monthly kits. You can upload your layout in the comments sections of the Scrapdango Blog or on the FORUM in the Progressive Blog Hop section.

My ingredient for todays Layout Challenge is Rub-Ons. I love using Rub-Ons on my layouts and I am known to host Rub-On Challenges in the cyber world. In my example layout, life in "da burg", I only used one Rub-On but it's very prominent in the layout and I think it adds a touch of whimsy to the rich colors and design. I can't wait to see your creation from todays Layout Challenge but be sure to go to Carly's Blog next to check out what the next ingredient is for your layout. Her link is below along with the rest of the Design Team's blogs.

Get out there and get back to hopping!

Scrapdango Blog
Heather
Lynn
Nikki- You Are Here
Carly<<<-------------You Go Here Next
Lisa
Kerryn

Prima Products Picks Give-Away!!

2009-11-13T06:12:00.002-05:00

Prima Product Picks!
They have an AMAZING selection of gorgeous NEW products from Prima ready to give away!

The orange and yellow hues in our choices this month reflect the changing leaves on trees as we enter into Fall, and are perfect for a variety of seasonal projects! Halloween, Fall and Thanksgiving are just a FEW ideas for using these products. (They would also fit in for spring & summer for our international scrappers.)

Prima's Picks Include:
Tropics Paper-840976
New Alpha Letter Stickers in Orange and Yellow-531096, 531102
Trellis Roses in Orange and Yellow-533144, 533151
Jewel Box Butterflies-532376
Say It In Pearl Centers-530679
Sultan Centers in Autumn Gold-535094
Gypsy Petals in Burnt Orange and Goldenrod-531621
Donna Downey Wildflower Iron-On-920234
Country Elegance Hydrangeas in Orange-533465
Parlor Petals in Sunflower Yellow-534423
Crystal/Pearl swirl in Burgundy-530471
Gossamer Wings in Dark Orange-533953
Medicci Flowers in Orange-532949

Sure would love to get my hands on all this!!! Be sure to check out Prima's Blog on the link above for details on how you can win all this scrappy goodness!

And don't forget to join us at Scrapdango for our Progressive Blog today. (See post below this one). It's so easy and so FUN!!!

Happy Friday the 13th :)
Nik

Ready to Hop???

2009-11-13T01:18:00.003-05:00

It's time for the Scrapdango Progressive Blog Hop. I am fortunate to be working with a wonderful new Design Team at Scrapdango. A fun way we can introduce ourselves is via a Progressive Blog Hop. You get to know us better AND get some great challenges along the way. And as a reward for sharing all your fabulous creations, we are giving you a chance to win one of Scrapdango's awesome monthly kits!

You should have just left Lynn's Blog and picked up one more ingredient needed to make your card. Not sure about what I'm talking about or the rules of the Progressive Blog Hop??? Well, here they are:

You need to follow the order of the blogs of each DT member given below. At each blog you will find one part of a recipe that you will need to use on a project. There will be a total of 3 progressive recipe challenges. On Friday, we will be doing a DANGOS card recipe challenge, Saturday will feature a layout recipe challenge with our DT members' favorite items, and Sunday will feature an altered item recipe challenge. You will need to visit each of the blogs all 3 days to get the new list of items for the recipe for that day.

So now you should have the ingredients for the letters "D" and "A". My ingredient for the letter "N" is Notebook Paper. Notebook paper or ledger paper is a huge trend in the scrapbooking world right now. You see it everywhere and it is used for every theme. I see it on seasonal layouts and cards just as much as I see it used on Back To School projects.

"25th" is my inspirational card example using Notebook Paper. It also contains the rest of the ingrediants needed for todays Card Challenge. Can you guess what the next letter will represent???

Hop on over to Carly's Blog next and find out what your next ingredient will be. Be sure to post a picture of your card HERE on the Scrapdango Blog or HERE on the forum.

Remember, for each of the 3 challenges that you complete this weekend, you will earn 1 draw toward the prize of a Scrapdango kit. You can also earn extra draws by doing the following:

1. Posting comments on all 6 DT blogs.
2. Inviting a friend that actively participates in the hop (they should leave a comment saying who invited them)
3. Posting on the Scrapdango forum something you learned about each DT member from their blog.

Thanks for stopping by! Good Luck & Happy Blog Hopping!!!
Nik

My Mind's Eye Submission

2009-11-12T06:57:00.004-05:00

My Mind's Eye is giving away one of EVERYTHING from THREE LINES of your choice and all you have to do is create a project using at least 80% of My Mind's Eye product and use a Anam Stubbington Sketch for your inspiration! How easy is that??? Here is my submission for their November #5 Sketch Challenge. PRE conCerT contains all My Mind's Eye patterned papers as well as punched dies, cut out owl and Roll Call Tag. Additional items added were Thickers, bling, Jolee's spiders, lace and ribbon. I'm still working on the GraveDigger's Ball pictures and hope to scrap some of the Backstreet Boys soon before I have loads of New Moon pictures to scrap ;)

Be sure to check out My Mind's Eye Blog and send in your submission.
Happy Thursday :)
Nik

Progressive Blog Hop: Friday 13th

2009-11-12T02:26:00.002-05:00

Scrapdango is having a Progressive Blog Hop this weekend and we would love for you to come join us. The new Fall 09/Spring 2010 Design Team has just been announced and this is the perfect opportunity to meet us and get to know us better. The fun starts on Friday the 13th. You will start at the Scrapdango blog and then move on through each of the Design Team Member's blogs. There will be a new project challenge posted each day Friday through Sunday and there will be progressive recipe challenges where you will have to visit each blog to get a new piece of the recipe that needs to be included on your projects. For each project completed, you will earn a draw toward the prize of one of Scrapdango's kit chock full of scrappy goodness. There will also be other ways to earn draws including inviting a friend that participates in the fun, so spread the news and have them tell us that you invited them either on the Scrapdango blog or in the Scrapdango forums. Check in at the Scrapdango blog on Friday the 13th to get all the details and to get hoppin'.

Hope to see you there!!!!

Nik

Sassy Scrappers November Reveal

2009-11-07T03:46:00.006-05:00

Sassy Scrappers has a WONDERFUL sponsor for November...Nikki Sivilis!! Check our her wonderful website full of goodies at https://www.nikkisivils.com/mm5/merchant.mvc
I am honored to be chosen as a Guest Design Team Member this month at Sassy Scrappers. I had a lot of fun playing with Nikki's papers and brads and created this small chipboard mini-album title "goin home." She has a ton of yummy chipboard albums in various shapes and sizes. Go check her out.

All the products in this mini-album were Nikki's except for a little cardstock, piece of cardboard, large flower, touch of rub-ons and bling, and ribbons.

And don't forget...Sassy is having a crop November 13-16th...Rock around the Calendar. There will be a ton of challenges about the different holidays through out the year. And...I think another fantastically fun game of bingo hosted by Valerie so be sure to come and check it out. Their link is on the blinkie to the right.

I have another layout I made for the reveal but will wait til I finish making a few more creations and then just post them at one time.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!!

Nik

One Door Closes......

2009-10-28T17:57:00.007-04:00

This month is my last month serving on the Design Team at Pages In Time. Although I am sad to see it end, I am also looking forward to the future and what it brings. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with PIT owner Karen (fablady) and under the direction of Team Leader Ann Arbogast. I learned so much from my second Design Team experience and will continue to participate and be inspired on the PIT forum.

One Door Opens....

I had been keeping my eye open for another possible Design Team to join but had only applied to one. I figured if I was not chosen, I would continue and apply to the next one on my list. Well, Praise Be..... I received the call yesterday while I was getting ready for work. ScrapDango Owner, Carrie, gave me the fabulous news and I couldn't be more thrilled. I am so excited to be given the opportunity to work with these amazing women. Here is bit of the DT Announcement thread on the board:

"Thanks to everyone who applied for the Scrapdango Design Team. Thank you for your interest in joining the Scrapdango DT and for sharing your beautiful work. We had many talented ladies apply. Every time I make these announcements, I have to reiterate that these decisions are very difficult and made with many different factors being considered. The new DT has a few new faces to add to our Team and we have a few designers that will be staying on with us also.

With this said, I am pleased to announce our new Design Team members."

Heather (hlough)
Design Team Leader
Spice Kit Designer

Lynn (iemom)
Design Team Co-Leader
Sugar/Spice Kit Designer

Kerryn (kerryn)
Newsletter Editor
Sugar/Spice Kit Designer

Nikki (NikkiLove)
Newsletter Contributor
Sugar/Spice Kit Designer

Carly (cgannon74)
Blog Coordinator
Sugar/Spice Kit Designer

Lisa W. (picture2pages)
Sugar/Spice Kit Designer

Woot! Woot! How exciting!! I spent a lot of time jotting down ideas for future crops, future articles and future layouts while at work last night during lockdown. I have updated my blog and you can find all my Design Team Members blogs to the right. Please sign up to receive our newsletter!! Simply email us with "Newsletter" in the subject line at newsletter@scrapdango.com. Be sure to become a Follower of our ScrapDango Blog.

Now, let me share some recent layouts that I made for some mini-crops and blog/forum challenges:

And some new cards:

Hope you guys are having a fabulous week!!
Happy Hump Day!

Crop-toberfest at SCRAP THAT!!

2009-10-23T19:49:00.003-04:00

SCRAP THAT! is hosting a great crop this weekend and I want all my blogger friends to come join in on the fun. Click on the title to this thread or HERE and let them know I sent you for an additional 30 points toward their awesome Prize Pack. There are so many inspirational challenges and fun games so hop on over and check it out!!!

Happy Halloween!!

New Layouts & a Carolina Crop!!!!

2009-10-20T16:30:00.004-04:00

I didn't get a chance to share the rest of my new layouts so here are a couple more. 2 + 1 = 3 is a gift for my co-worker (the guy in the picture). He gave me two small wallet size pictures to work with. I gave his wife a 6 x 6 album for their baby shower and he thought she might want a 12 x 12 to frame. This layout is also my submission for Nov. GDT at Scrapdango.
Their Contest was given a wedding theme with the following requirements:
--For something old, you must have something at least 6 months old
--For something new, you must use something from your newest stash
--For something borrowed, you must find any layout in the Scrapdango gallery
and "borrow" an idea from it, whether you lift the whole layout or just a
small part of it--be sure to let us know which layout you used.
--For some blue, you just have to have anything blue on your layout.
The transparancy, papers, lace, ribbon, flowers, safety pins, bling buckle, and stickers are all WAAAY over 6 months old. The thickers and pearl flourishes are all new. I used blue ribbons and there is also blue in the old stickers that I mounted on cs and pop-dotted. I "borrowed" the design (or I should say, was inspired) from DT member Keely Yowler's Seize The Day layout.

GO JOE was made for Michelle's Challenge 6 of Scrapbook Dreamers Can You Survive the Nightmare Blog Hop. Her challenge was based on the thriller movie "The Sixth Sense." In my layout, there are six people in the picture, six flag felt banners, six journaling strips, six brads, six black gemstones and six techniques (stitching, inking, distressing, hand journaling, matting and embellishing). I drew this sketch at work one night with this 8 1/2" x 11" picture in mind.

Now, onto the Carolina Crop. If you live in South Carolina or nearby, you won't want to miss Vivian's upcoming Carolina Crop at her workshop/home in Columbia/Lexington area on November 7, 2009. I have been to her workshop and let me tell you gals, it's incredible!! Enough crop tables to comfortably fit maybe 12 or more ladies (or you scrappy guys) and every single gadget/tool/die cut system known to man. I haven't gotten a confirmation on the exact crop time but I will guess around 5pm start time and we usually crop until we drop...lol. For directions and exact location address, please check out this SB.Com South Carolina link and pm Vivian or myself. I would love to meet other local scrappers and put actual faces to all these online user names from the blogs and forums.

I will be posting reminders as we get closer to the crop date. If someone lives in a town that I pass in going to Vivian's, I'll be happy to pick you up nearby. I drive I-77 South almost the whole way so if you live near I-77, let me know and we can car pool.

Hope to see you there!!!
Happy Tuesday :)

2009-10-16T02:02:00.007-04:00

So much to share! I just finished this first layout for the Take Three Challenge at
Screen 2 Scrap. The Night at the Museum Criteria was:
1. Use a group photo (3 or more people)
2. Yellow or gold title
3. Use one element from the poster - a dinosaur, monkey, plane, rocket, squid etc.....OR
3. Something inspired by one of the figures in the poster.......
On "the climb" I used the planes from the poster as inspiration. I broke into a very old stash of boy rub-ons for this one and I journaled in black and in white to add more contrast and interest. This patterned paper is about as old as my teeth too so it was nice using some of it up. I nabbed that B-SAFE Bingo card from my electric company when making a payment for the restaurant. I thought it would make a great accent on a boy page.

Here are a few new Fall/Halloween layouts that I made for several forum/blog challenges.
I stamped!! Yes, I finally broke out my acrylic stamps and put the owl on "f@ll f@vs". I hand cut the stem that the owl in perched on. Another plus was that I put a tiny dent in my eyelet stash. Always good to get rid of those...lol. I journaled on "10 REASONS" very similar to my last Jenni Bowlin die cut paper like this. I used some OOOOLD Halloween ribbon on this one too and who uses foam stickers anymore?? lol This layout is my submission for Challenge #1 in the Can You Survive the Nightmare at Scrapbook Dreamer. "FALL FUN" is a simple layout of my son and some of his classmates in Kinder last year. I was fortunate enough to get loads of kinder pictures from his teacher last year at the end of the school year. She knew I was a scrapper and thought I would appreciate them. Boy was she right!! I'm having so much fun working on his Kinder album with all these great pics! How adorable are those turkey hats, I ask you?????

Thriller Night was made for several blog/forum challenges. I hand-cut and painted the tree from my good ol' faithful cardboard backing from the pizza at supper ;) I designed the sketch for this layout while at work one night. I really like how this one turned out.

I have several more to share but it's late and I need to get to bed.

Happy Friday!!!

Your Daily Reminder:

2009-10-06T16:23:00.001-04:00

Here's your daily reminder to get your name in for the drawing at Out of the Hat Scrap Blog and my own card drawing as well ;) Click on the title to this post to check out the Out of the Hat Contest and check out a few posts below for my own card give-away :)

Goodmorning.. here's your daily reminder

2009-10-05T08:57:00.001-04:00

Just another friendly reminder to get your name in for the drawing at Out of the Hat Scrap Blog and my own card drawing as well ;) Click on the title to this post to check out the Out of the Hat Contest and check out a few posts below for my own card give-away :)

Happy Monday!

Pages In Time October Kit

2009-10-04T16:06:00.006-04:00

This month's kit of the month is packed full of rich colors of autumn,using the wonderful basic grey pp! Lots of bling,felt die cut art strip from prima,prima rich bold flowers,glitter brads,ribbons,and cardstock swirl. BG Alphabet stickers,BG bling it,and journaling card completes the kit! Don't miss out on this kit,this is our largest kit we have done!

KIt price $25

Add on: One BG doily pp,bling jems,Prima rich new flowers,and new bird embellishment. price $12.95

2nd add on prima bling $6.50

You can place your order by sending Karen a pm or email. Paypal is accepted.

Happy Sunday and God Bless!!

2009-10-04T08:25:00.001-04:00

Just another friendly reminder to get your name in for the drawing at Out of the Hat Scrap Blog and my own card drawing as well ;)

Out of the Hat Scrap Blog Giveaway

2009-10-02T08:04:00.003-04:00

Out of the Hat Scrap Blog is celebrating their first birthday and thanks to a very generous and lovely lady, Leanne from Mad About Scrappin, they are kicking off their birthday celebrations with a bang!!! They have a HUGE pack of scrapping goodies to give away to one lucky person. This pack is worth $70 and includes a huge range of products from brands such as Kaiser, Petaloo, Scrapbook King, Buzz and Bloom and Bumblebee Crafts to name a few. Just click on the title to this link to check out a picture of all those yummy goodies and instructions on how to get your name in the Hat ;)

And just a little reminder to not forget to leave your comment on the post below for my Card Giveaway!!!

Good Luck on both contests!!

LOADS of new work & a FREE RAK!!!

2009-10-01T11:46:00.010-04:00

I designed the sketch for this first layout while at work one night. Hodges is a gal I met while at the Police Academy. We had several nicknames for each other and these were a few of hers. We kept in touch for a while but she has now moved and changed her number so I hope to hear from her again one day. She's a blast to be around. On AKA, I used a laser cut paper as a border and made the flower myself with felt and punch papers. I used the same sketch to create A VERY MERRY Christmas.I used non-traditional Christmas colors as well as loads of pinks on a boy's Christmas page. I kept both pages fairly simple and went with a black and white pic of my son with Santa since the colors of the picture would not have gone well with the girlie colors of the background paper that I used.
I sketched "giving THANKS" at work as well. This is a picture of my sister and her ex-sister-in-law on Thanksgiving of last year. Angel & Becky have remained close even after my sister divorced her brother. I loved the rub-on flowers and had them in mind when making this sketch. The deco-edged border is a sticker that is about 100 years old. I just love using old stash. It keeps me from feeling too bad about being a hoarder...lol.

I submitted this last layout, star students, to Your Memories By Design November Guest Design Team contest. It was a real simple layout and I'm not sure why I even bothered submitting it when lots of the entries were very detailed and gorgeous but I did sooo... Of course, I didn't win but that's ok too. I love challenges and I love that site and that's what it's all about anyway :) I went with non-traditional colors again on a school theme layout and used a gorgeous lace ribbon that I bought at a recent yard sale for 25 cents. I cut a long strip in half and used it as borders against the patterned papers as well. It really softened the page and worked well with the skeleton leaves. Once again, I went with a black and white picture since the colors of the picture would not have worked with the soft colors I chose for the layout.

This mini-album was made during a Think Pink crop last weekend at Memorable Seasons. Design Team member Dettao offered a terrific accordian mini-album tutorial that was so easy to follow. I love how this turned out~! I used kraft paper as my base and used My Minds Eye papers since they were the sponsors of the crop but I also used a Basic Grey journal box for the cover and various rub-ons throughout the album. The crop raised over $125 for the Susan P.K. foundation which was awesome!!! Thanks to MS for hosting such a terrific crop for a terrific cause!!!

Here are some of the front and back pages. I will add the journaling and maybe some final touches later. These pictures were taken at our home in Mexico back in 2002.

I am trying to catch up on all my older Mexico pictures and I am thinking that mini-albums are the best way to go. This is my second Mexico mini-album I've made recently.

These pictures are of my sweet Mother-In-Law. I've blogged about her before. We are coming up on the one year anniversary of her death so you can imagine how difficult that will be for us. In this one picture, the baby she is holding is our son who is currently 9 years old. Seems like just yesterday I was taking that picture. I will probably journal about my feelings of the anniversary in this album. I also submitted this to Design Team Member Natalie's Destination: CREATION Challenge at the Fall Into Scraptember Online Crop at Scrappin Coast 2 Coast.

Now on to the cards.

I don't make cards very often but when I do, I pump um out like crazy. These are a few fall cards I made for 30 Cards In 30 Days Contest at YMBD as well as several challenges and crops on forums and blogs.

The thing I love about making cards is that I use up quite a bit of my older stash as well as paper scraps. I usually give many of them away and I sell some of them for a mere $2 each but that doesn't matter.
This coming Saturday is National Card Making Day and I hate that I have to work because I will be missing all the fun and crops going on at the forums and blogs. You ladies (and gents) have fun without me ;)

This "HI" card was inspired by a card I saw in a CMH catalog. I had the same line of paper and loved the design. I used acrylic letters for my HI sentiment rather than what the original designer used and loved how it turned out.

These wintery cards were pretty simple to make and I think they feel so cool and fresh.

I have already given away this baby boy card along with an outfit as a gift to one of my husband's co-workers whose wife just gave birth. I used magic mesh behind the glittery chipboard stars and I thought the touch of ribbon on the large center star really helped set it apart from the others.

Since I've shared SOOO much on this post and have so many extra cards from my weekend of scrapping, why not share a little with you guys???

Please post your comment on your favorite layout or card and why it is your favorite and I will put your name in a drawing for a set of 4 handmade cards with envelopes. Post about my drawing on your blog and leave another comment with a link for an additional chance in the drawing.

Have a wonderful weekend (and think of me working hard while you're scrapping away)...lol.

September/October Pages In Time Newsletter

2009-09-28T04:40:00.002-04:00

Pages In Time Newsletter
5221 South 48 St (inside Sutter Place Mall)
Lincoln NE 68516
(402)420-6933
Website: www.pagesintimestoresite.com

Grand Reopening & Fall Open House! Oct 8,9,10,and 11 Thur-Sun
Come join us for our biggest and best ever event! We waited till our store is packed full of new products and fun stuff for fall! Door Prizes, Lots of Free Make and Takes! Special Guests! Big sales throughout the store! All Club members who stop in get a free gift!! Also bring in your club tote bags for extra special savings and prizes!!!! Stop in Each day will be filled with fun prizes, and gift give-aways!

We offer a wide variety of classes.

Learn to ScrapBook- Every Wed day, 1-3; every 2nd, Thur of the month 6-8
Everyone should enjoy their photos and memories! Come and discover just how fun and easy scrapbooking can be. We'll teach you everything you need to know to get started, plus help you create your very first 2 pager, too. You will be surprised how easy and fun it is.
Class is free! You just pay for the supplies which is aprox. $5 Please bring some of your
photo’s.
Simple Card Making! Thur evening 6-8 1st thur evening of the month. Learn how to make fun easy and fast cards,that u will love,class is free you just buy the supplies, approx $5
Paper Bag Album: Want to make a paper bag album but don’t know how, well we can teach you, Thur evening 6-8 pm 2 week class $15.00 class fee +supplies. Also teach this on some Sat’s all day class!
Six-Pack Cards
Create six cards with coordinating papers. Class and supplies approx. $10- call for times.
Beyond the Basic- you want to add some flair, some more advanced work on your layouts, so come join the class on Oct 17 Sat 12-3 or Oct 21 Tues 1-4. Class fee is $5 +supplies (Club Members class is free)

Crops!! We have our every other Friday night crop back! 6-midnite! Club members its free! Sign up is required! Call for dates!
Saturday’s 1st- 3rd and 5th of the month- 10-5!

Have You Stopped In at the Store on Wacky Wednesday?Come in every Wednesday and bring competitors' coupons with you! Coupons must be valid, presented at the time of discount and items must be in stock only! Discount is taken from regularly priced merchandise. If an item is already discounted it will be taken back up to regular price before competitor discount is applied. Competitor coupons are accepted on Wednesday ONLY! Only ONE % OFF coupon will be allowed.(

Use Our Space!Did you know that our cropping area is FREE (good up to Christmas) - to use during regular business hours whenever there is not a class or scheduled crop? So grab some friends and your scrapbooking supplies and come on down to the store.

Do you need some inspiration or ideas? Well we have over 75 copy cat layouts in our store, they are fun easy way for you to do a lo in no time at all! Always free with purchase is the copy cat of the month!

Store Hours:
Mon-Fri 10-6
Thur 10-8
Sat10-5
Temporary closed on Sunday’s!

Coupons
$1.00 OFF $10 PURCHASE OR MORE
Offer not valid with any other coupon or discount. One coupon per visit per day.
Not valid toward gift certificates or special orders.
Coupon good only for in store purchases. Expires Oct 24 2009

$5.00 OFF $40 PURCHASE OR MORE
Offer not valid with any other coupon or discount. One coupon per visit per day.
Not valid toward gift certificates or special orders. Expires Oct 31,2009

Wacky Wednesday! COMPETITOR SPECIAL
Present this coupon with any single competitors* coupon
and Pages in Time will match that coupon!
Limit one coupon per customer, per day. Coupon not valid towards previous purchases or paper bag albums.
Offer not valid with any other coupon or discount!
*Competitor's include Hobby Lobby, Michael's & any
other independent scrapbook store.
Not valid toward gift certificates or special orders

Club Members Only Coupon
25% off all paper (excluding sale priced items) Oct 8-12

Club Members Only Coupon
Buy one item at reg price get 2nd item at ½ price Oct 13-19

Club Members Only Coupon
25%off any embellishment (excluding sale priced items) Oct 20-25

**Want to join our club, stop in for details!! And if you’re a club member make sure you stop in and receive free gift each week in Oct!!**

~~Check out our web site for more coupon savings!!!~~

I WAS CHOSEN!!

2009-09-14T09:10:00.003-04:00

Your Memories By Design chose my Paradise layout as the Saturday Scraplift layout on their blog. You can see the layout displayed on their widget to the right on my blog. Thank you, Cat, and YMBD designers for that great honor.

Use Your Stash Submission

2009-09-14T08:41:00.007-04:00

This new layout works for the brand new Use Your Stash 1-2-3 challenge going on this week. It contains a one word title, two labels or tags and 3 flowers. I journaled this note to myself at work one night and thought it needed to go in my Book of Me. If you click on the picture, you will be able to read the journaling. Gotta work tonight and for the next 11 nights. Bummer! Not going to be scrapping any for almost two weeks :(

Happy Monday!

September Guest Designer at Paper Blooms

2009-09-13T10:59:00.009-04:00

I was thrilled when Leah chose me to be a Guest Designer at Paper Blooms. She had originally chose me for August but I did not receive her email when I went to Mexico so she said I could step in for September. I got my blooms a little late and I've been working loads of overtime so please forgive me for the tardiness of not having these done before the 9th of this month. This month's theme is BLING! My first layout for PB is Life Is A Journey. This layout is also a Design Team layout for Pages In Time and for Helen's Butterfly Challenge at Scrap A Little Blog. The crocheted blooms are Paper Blooms and the patterned paper, rub-ons, paper blooms and brads are from the Pages In Time store. This is a layout for my Book of Me. That very young and much skinnier girl on the right is me.

My second layout for Paper Blooms "le gusta FLORAS" is also my submission for this month's Strip Tease challenge at
Candy Shoppe Designs. Requirements were to use the colors teal, cream, hot pink and purple and a sketch was provided for an extra point. Paper/ribbon strips are the theme for this challenge. Basically, any type of strip works. I love how this layout turned out and I think the bling really shines in this one.

Here are some more recent layouts:

Happy Sunday!

It's not too late for the National Holidays Mini-Crop!!

2009-09-13T02:15:00.005-04:00

We are having a BLAST at the Pages In Time National Holidays Mini-Crop that I am currently hosting. You still have time to join us and get your chance at winning the September Pages In Time Kit shown in the post below this one.

I have put together kits for our 2nd and 3rd Place Winners and here they are:

2nd Place Romance Kit:

It includes patterned papers from Basic Grey and Chatterbox, four Making Memories journal boxes, Autumn Leaves rub-on borders, Paperbilities alphabet metal tags, fabric and paper doily, two black scallop nesting circles, 3 Jenni Bowlin bingo cards, one packet of Zva crystal flourishes, one Fancy Pants chipboard flourish, one transparency border, two "bling" buckles, five Your Memories By Design Punctuation Tags, four assorted lace and ribbons, assorted silk florals including one cream Prima.

3rd Place Chloe's Closet Kit:
It is a collection of the Making Memories Chloe's Closet line as well as extra goodies to match like gems, felt ribbon, flowers, lace, rub-ons, buttons, felt stickers and jumbo paper clip.

Just click on the title of this post and it will take you straight to the Crop Thread. If you are a new member, be sure to let me know on the National Holidays Welcome Thread for an extra 5 points toward the prize kits. The crop will end at 9pm EST today (Sunday) so you still have plenty of time to get those challenges completed.

Hope to see you there!!!

National Holidays Mini-Crop!!!

2009-09-08T13:43:00.004-04:00

Are you ready to crop the weekend away?????

I am hosting a National Holidays Mini-Crop at Pages In Time and I would love for you to come join in on the fun with us. What can you win????

How does the September Pages In Time Kit sound???? Yummy, right???? There are already sold out so this is your only chance to get this awesome kit in your hands.

The National Holidays Mini-Crop starts at 9am Friday, September 11th and last until Sunday 9pm, September 13th. There will be lots of challenges and some fun games and our top winner will get that yummy kit shown above. Second and Third place winners will get some goodness from my personal stash.

I haven't scrapped since the CKC Convention so I'm sooooo looking forward to cropping with you!!!

See you there :)

Wet & Wild Mini Crop at Pages In Time

2009-08-26T10:32:00.001-04:00

Wet & Wild Crop At Pages In Time

Come join us for a weekend Wet and Wild crop.
Starting 8 a.m. EST Aug. 29th...you will have until Sun. Aug. 30 EST to complete the challeneges.
Your hosts: Debbie and Mellissa.
Hope to see you there! Just click on the title to this post and head on over :)

2009-08-19T10:26:00.001-04:00

Scrapping The Music Challenge & more New LOs

2009-08-11T20:22:00.007-04:00

Finished this one for the current Scrapping The Music Challenge. My daughter's friend, Markie, came for an overnight visit and my daughter took some quick pictures. I loved the purple bow that her friend wore and used it as inspiration for a large purple bow on the layout. I never scrap the color purple and a large bow is another rare item for me in scrapping. I also made this layout for Jenn's "Walk The Plank" Challenge at Treasured Scrapbooking's "X Marks The Spot" crop currently going on now.

Here are some more layouts I've made for that crop:

The design of this layout was inspired by Cathy La Hay's "Change" layout. I loved the simplicity and the border ribbon she used at an angle. I went with a border of punched edge patterned paper. This is my daughter and niece having a quick devotional on Mother's Day. I RAN for my camera so I could catch that special moment on film. I love it when I nab photos like this. No planning. No expectations. Just spur of the moment pictures that are priceless. The journaling was written while I was a work.

I printed a couple of pictures today of my Godson's baptism. He's also my nephew. He was baptised in July in Mexico. I had so much fun visiting my family and home during my vacation. For this challenge, I had to use the color red, a clock, and black swirls or flourishes. I layered three rows of lace for a border and overlapped the cursive black thickers for my title. I loved the Jolee's baptism layette and thought it made a nice embellishment on top of the chipboard clock.

Here's another baptism layout. I used up some stickers from my very "old" stash by applying the title sticker onto chipboard, cutting it out, and adhering it with dimensional tabs. The mesh angel wings were also from my "old" stash and I thought the yellow rub-on flourishes helped freshen and update them a little. I added some stitching to the Basic Grey rub-on corners and just doodled on the foam American Crafts stars. I loved the triple layer of lace so much that I did it again. Each layer is stitched on individually. The bingo card and star patterned paper are both from Jenni Bowlin.

Here are some more recent layouts that I haven't yet posted:

Slice Give-Away!!!

2009-07-24T15:50:00.002-04:00

Melissa is giving away an awesome array of goodies on her blog to celebrate her blog birthday. Be sure to head over to Keepsakes By Melissa and tell her I sent ya ;)

SWEET purrsonality

2009-07-24T03:18:00.003-04:00

This layout was made for a couple of blog challenges. First, for Paper Blooms, an animal had to be the focal point of the project and a punny sentiment was prefered. My sentiment was in the title. For Scrap Schemes, black and white monochromatic patterns were given for inspiration. One of the patterns had butterflies so I incorporated a couple of punched butterflies in the layout. The kitty was my sweet Zica. He was an indoor/outdoor cat who was known to sometimes stray for a week at a time but always managed to make his way back home. He was also a fighter and would sometimes return with deep cuts from fights but would always let me mend him back to health. He left over six months ago and never returned. I have given up hope that he will return but hope that he is now in a better place.

Happy Friday!
Nik

Introducing.... Bella:

2009-07-20T03:06:00.005-04:00

I know it's been a while since I've blogged. I left for Mexico on the 30th of June and returned home on July 7th with Bella. Isn't she adorable?? She's my new baby and I'm lovin' being a new mommy. I had to pay $125.00 for her plane ticket to come home with me but she was so worth it. Since I am suffering from OCD
(Obscessive Cullen Disorder), of course I had to name her Bella. My niece has a toy Chihuahua named Reesee Cup. I wish she would have named him Edward. They are already great friends and love to play with each other.

I've got a couple of new pages that I want to share but will blog them later. Need to get some sleep since I have to work this evening :)

Because of YOU

2009-06-26T19:56:00.003-04:00

This layout is for the Scrapping The Music Challenge #91. I just love Kelly Clarkson and couldn't wait to use her song title as a title to my layout. I used the cross of candles and flowers in the picture as inspiration for my background patterned paper cross. I stitched it with black thread to make it stand out more. The round and square journal tags are from Your Memories By Design and I never get tired of using the Jenni Bowlin bingo cards. The MOTHER poem is a vellum sticker that I cut out and placed on top of the journal tag. It's very old from my stash. The rub-ons are also from my older stash as well as the ANGEL definition sticker. This is another one for my memorial album of my sweet Suegra (mother-in-law). I am trying to get a lot done before I leave for Mexico this Tuesday.

Happy Scrappin'!
Nik

MI ALMA

2009-06-26T19:39:00.004-04:00

Finished my layout for Let's Get Shabby's 1st Challenge. It is an INSPIRATION challenge. My inspiration for this layout was the silk florals that I plucked from an old arrangement. I loved the cream color with a touch of mauve in the roses and I also took the colors from the picture as inspiration. I wanted to use blue butterflies to pull out the blue in her jacket. The florals also matched the color in her shawl. The Anna Griffin paper worked great with the florals and also matched my color scheme. I purchased the old lace from a yard sale. The alpha stickers were old and from an album that you personalize the front of. I placed them on chipboard and cut them out and pop-dotted them to add more dimension since the florals had so much dimension. I rounded all corners of patterned paper and on the picture to soften it as well.

Be sure to head over to Let's Get Shabby and get your submission in on time. This month's prize is a $50 gift certificate for Purple Onion Designs!! How awesome it that?? Just click on the title to the post or the link above to check it out.

TGIF!
Nik

New Layouts

2009-06-25T18:47:00.006-04:00

Lots of new Layouts I made today. This one was inspired by a sketch from Amanda Winchester who is on the Design Team at Treasured Scrapbooking. The baby is my nephew's first born. His name is Daniel but everyone calls him Dani. He is so precious and everyone just adores him. The top picture is of him and his mother and the bottom picture is of him and his grandfather (my brother-in-law).

This layout was inspired from a sketch by Valerie Semon with Got Sketch 2008. It is for our June Sketch Challenge at Pages In Time. My aunt Macuka is the lady in the far right of the picture with her daughter and son-in-law and their two children. The birdie is from Your Memories by Design. I wanted to use the bird because I call her "Cuka Ruka Koo" and that is the term used for the noise that the Toucan bird makes. It's also a famous song by one of my favorite Mexican singers, Juan Gabriel. I sing the song everytime I see her and it always puts a smile on her face.

Sketch was Pencil Lines #137. I know I'm really late in making it but I didn't care because I really liked the sketch. Design Team member Anna designed the sketch. Instead of using a journal box, I just used the printed lines from the background Cloe's Closet patterned paper. Primos is spanish for cousins. I liked the look of the rub-on scalloped border as well as the rub-on chandelier from Making Memories. And, of course it's always nice to use up the button stash.

I just love this new Jenni Bowlin cherry paper. I received it and the journal tag from my Pages In Time Design Team kit. I kept this layout simple and my neighbor thinks I need to add more to the negative space in the patterned paper blocks on top and bottom but I told her I wanted to keep this one simple. The picture really spoke to me and I wanted to keep it the main focal point of the layout. I love those cursive Thickers and I thought the stitching kept it neat and linear. She thinks this one is really plain compared to most of my other layouts but she's not a scrapper so what does she know...lol.

I have a couple of more new layouts but don't have the information on them yet so I will post them later.

I'm feeling much better and have a doctor's appointment tomorrow so I will have an update on my health later. I feel much better so thanks again for all your prayers.

Happy Scrappin' and don't forget to join us Saturday for the Summer Mini-Crop at Pages In Time!!

Online Summertime Crop

2009-06-24T07:37:00.003-04:00

Come join myself and everyone at Pages In Time for The Online Summertime Crop of 2009on Saturday June 27th. Rayette has put together some great challenges and fun games for you to enjoy.

The crop will run from 8am to Midnight pacific time. You may work on the challenges all weekend but on time points will be awarded. Prizes will be awarded for the most points accumulated throughout the day.

So set that yard work aside for one day and come join us. And while you're there, don’t forget we have live chat so you can chat with myself and other members of our fabulous Design Team.

Hope to see you there!

PAGES IN TIME

INFECTION & Our Crop Hop Winner!!!

2009-06-23T15:01:00.004-04:00

I'm so sorry I have not been online and posted my winner to my Crop Hop Challenge. I have been very sick and hospitalized for four days with sepsis. I am still very weak but getting better everyday. Thank you for all the prayers and support for those who knew about my condition.

Now to my winner:
My six year old son was so excited to pick the winning ticket. He cut all the names off the printed paper all by himself and picked out the basket to put them in.

Congrats Marcie!!!!!! You're gonna love the kit!!! Please message me with your snail addy so I can have the kit mailed to your door.

Thanks to everyone for participating in our Crop Hop!! Please continue to pray for me as I am still recovering. I hope to get to scrapping after I have my energy back ;)

Give Me 5 For Kids Online Crop at PIT

2009-06-10T08:38:00.003-04:00

Time: June 13, 2009 at 7am to June 14, 2009 at 6pm

Location: Pages In Time Forum

Website or Map: http://pagesintimestoresite.ning.com/
Event Type: Online Crop

Hosted By: Design Team Member Lesley Walker

Organized By: Design Team Leader Ann Arbogast

Come join us at Pages In Time for a mini online crop this weekend.
This is our first of a series of monthly online crops to host.

Lesley will be hosting this weekend.
The theme is "GIVE ME 5 FOR KIDS"
(This theme is simply recognising and making everyone aware of all those kids in hospitals all over the world that don't have enough equipment to help them have a fair chance of survival; a fund raising cause that Lesley supports in Australia).

More details can be found in the main forum under,
Crops and Other Online Events

Hope to see you here!

Only Two More Days:

2009-06-09T07:45:00.003-04:00

To get your entry in my 80's Rubik's Cube Challenge!!!!! Who wouldn't want that awesome Kit shown below????? It's so easy!! Just get your Layout made and linked to the comments section of the contest thread below and you will be entered into the drawing. If you have completed more challenges in the If It's Groovy 80's Blog Hopping Crop, then link those creations as well along with the name of the challenge for an additional entry. Get on that train ladies (and gents)!! There's still time to get croppin' :)

Come On Ride The Train! Choo! Choo!

2009-06-05T08:07:00.001-04:00

We are rolling back to the 80's during our very first Online Blog Hopping Crop at If It's Groovy!!!

Here is how this works...

Groovy Deb has listed the first challenge and an example on the If It's Groovy Blog. If you click on the title to this post, you will see her challenge and example. When you have finished linking your creation to her challenge, hop on board to the next Groovy Member's blog and share your "Totally Awesome" layout to that challenge.

You will then look for the list below to go to the next design team member's site (or a guest who wanted to hostess a challenge).

Click and take a look at the next challenge. She will then have the next place for you to visit.

We have had our share of blogger issues today; "Groody to the Max!"
Please don't get discouraged. "Get Into The Groove" and come back and start hopping some more :)

This crop will last for ten days (June 4th through the 14th) so get busy there are a lot of challenges .

Enter all or as many as you would like :)

Did I mention all challenges will have prize to be given to one player of each?

How Groovy is that???

Here is the list of Train Stops:

http://scraphappymama2.blogspot.com/

http://nikiraysniche.blogspot.com/

http://theuntamedscrapper.blogspot.com/

http://windingroadhousewife.blogspot.com/

http://allamyleigh.blogspot.com/

http://marcisscrappingspot.blogspot.com/

http://scrapgurl.net/2009/06/04/if-its-groovy-blog-hop-crop-challenge/

http://www.charlottescraps.blogspot.com/

http://californiascrappydreamin.blogspot.com/

http://artycrafty.wordpress.com/

http://www.celinascraps.blogspot.com/

http:///www.scrapjanny.typad.com
you will have to type this into your browser or follow Jeanette's from Celina's place

http://www.willubmyhoneybee.blogspot.com/

http://mardi-sistas.blogspot.com/

http://heartfeltfriends.blogspot.com/

http://jackietorres.blogspot.com/

http://itsgoodtobeaqueen.blogspot.com/

http://allthingsprincess.blogspot.com/

http://pookahbot.blogspot.com/

http://charlottescraps.blogspot.com/

My Cool, Hip 80's Challenge for you is the Rubik's Cube Challenge. Create a layout using square pics and use at least three colors of the Rubik's Cube.

Here is a reminder of what that tricky, little cube looks like:

And here is my example:

What do you win for making it to the final stop of the train????

How about our current June's Kit at Pages In Time!!!!!! The pictures are posted in my previous post.

All players who have taken the journey on our Groovy 80's Choo Choo and linked their creations to my challenge will be entered into a drawing for this month's PIT kit. A substitute kit will be made and shipped to your door if this month's kit sales out before your journey ends.

Please leave your link to your layouts in a comment to this post. If you have created layouts for other Groovy Pit Stop Challenges, please link them as well in a separate comment and that will earn you another entry in the drawing. I will draw a winner on June 15th.

So who is On Board this "Radical" Train????

Pages In Time June Kit Available

2009-06-02T21:48:00.000-04:00

The June Kit at Pages In Time is now available and yummier than ever! Just look at all those delicious goodies. Here's a list of contents:

Basic Kit $25

Paper 12 sheets of pp

Oh Lovely 3 different sheets all double sided

Large floral Rose Rouge

DCWV-With Black Velvet trim

To Have and to Hold-Kaiser

DieCut- Sweet Roses cream/white pp

Pink Paisley Die Cut-Hip Huggers

Enchanting

Sincerely YoursTwo Ribbons that match the paper

Lace corner cover

Alaphet Letters

Diecut swirl with flower on chipboard (you can paint,ink,glimmer mist it)

Glitter Leaves

Buttons

3 Large Flowers

Medium flowers

Small Flowers

Mini black pearl beads

Stitching template

Die cut flower ( you each will receive a different one but that does match)

small metal key

Add on Kit: Price $12

Prima Flowers (2 pack)

Rub on's From WR Memory Keepers

Quik Quotes brads and Ribbon set

Bling it from Basic Grey

Best Creation pp with glitter

You can email Karen: fablady101@msn.com and can pay by paypal or you can call the store

(402)420-6933

May's Kit sold out quickly so be sure to get your kit ordered today!

Enjoy and Happy Scrappin'!

I'm FREE to BE ME

2009-05-29T14:43:00.000-04:00

Here's a new layout I made for Challenge #87 over at Scrapping The Music. http://www.scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/ The challenge was to make a layout inspired by the song "Free To Be Me" by Francesca Battistelli.

Here are the lyrics:

Free to Be Me by Francesca Battistelli
At twenty years of age I'm still looking for a dream A war is already waged for my destiny But You've already won the battle And You've got great plans for me Though I can't always see, (chorus) 'cause...I got a couple dents in my fender Got a couple rips in my jeans Try to fit the pieces together But perfection is my enemy And on my own I'm so clumsy But on Your shoulders I can see I'm free to be me When I was just a girl I thought I had it figured out See my life will turn out right And I'll make it here somehow But things don't always come that easy And sometimes I would doubt, 'cause... (chorus) And you're free to be you Sometimes I believe That I can do anything Yet other times I think I've got nothing good to bring But You look at my heart and you tell me That I've got all You seek And it's easy to believe, even though... (chorus) And you're free to be you

I love that song and thought it would be fun to do the challenge. I used YMBD male/female sign labels and also both journaling tags are YMBD products. I got the puffy gel alphas from Peachy Cheap and the Husband sticker is as old as I am...lol. Of course, the tickets are JB.

TGIF! (for you. Unfortunately, I have to work all night).

Nik

Happy Memorial Day!

2009-05-25T15:03:00.000-04:00

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful Memorial Day and are remembering those who gave up their lives defending ours.

Just finished this layout for the Sketch This Prompt #86. The sketch was provided by Janelle Lee. Click on the title of this post to check out Sketch This! It's a great site with inspirational sketches. I loved this picture of my daughter and niece on Valentine's Day and thought it would be great with the sketch. The winner of the challenge wins the May Monthly Kit at Scrap N Supply Shack http://www.scrapn.s2.bizhat.com/scrapn.html. I'm also a member there and it's a very friendly site with a fabulous design team. I stitched, distressed and rolled the edges of the patterned background paper and used chipboard, fabric, and button accents.

Here's another layout I made using more Valentine pictures. This is an example layout for an upcoming crop we are hosting at If It's Groovy http://www.ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/ . The journaling tag and calender are YMBD products. The ribbons, chipboard sticker and transparent sticker are all from my old stash.

I have some more new layouts that I made this past weekend but will share them later.

Hope you are having a wonderful Memorial Monday!!

Nik

Saturday Lift and other new LOs

2009-05-23T17:49:00.000-04:00

Just finished this layout for YMBD's Saturday Lift Challenge. It is a lift of Design Team Member Marti's NJ State Aquarium Layout. Click on the title of this post to check it out. I loved how she arranged six pictures on the circular matting without making it too crowded. I chose to go with just three pictures. The yellow sun, black bracket, large scroll flourish, and both journaling tags are all YMBD products. I cooked a pizza today for an early dinner snack for the kids and used the pizza cardboard backing as matting. I love to recycle :) I thought the splash to paint would help mimic the white crashing waves. I've had those transparent border stickers for a hundred years now so it was nice to use something from my old stash.

Here are a few more layouts that I haven't shared yet. This one was for a sketch challenge on http://ifitsgroovy.blogspot.com/ . The "Wet" theme for this challenge was easy to accomplish with all my beach pictures but the twist was to add clear or puffed embellishments to represent water. The tags were heat embossed and I used glossy clear accent liquid to give it a more watery feel. I scratched the Black Magic cardstock to pull out the blue back matting and represent the water. The beach bucket made a great journaling tag and I stamped a piece of vellum for the title.

These last two layouts are of my young Kinder, Christian. Here he is with his teacher assistant, Mrs. Barnes, on the first day of school. He liked finding his spot on the floor for reading time. I used micro-beads for the heart in the title and used some more school themed chipboard embellishments. I journaled around the matting since I used up all my space and thought that worked well. The ruler ribbon was the last piece of a very large roll that I bought at a yard sale. I gave a lot of it away to the ladies at my old lss, swap members and RAKs and I've used it many times in my own layouts.

This 2nd layout "Grow" was also for a challenge at If It's Groovy. Our sponsor for that month was http://www.eyeletoutlet.com/

so the twist was to incorporate as many eyelets as you could. I used blue and white eyelets on my scalloped borders. The black grade school patterned paper was from 1998! Yes that's right. I have paper that old and I love using old stash items. There's just something about using something that would have been thrown out or given away that makes me feel so good about being a huge hoarder...LOL. I loved the background items in the pictures and used a 3-D globe to bring out the globe in Mrs. Gunter's classroom.

I plan on scrapping more this weekend and hope to have more to share with you very soon.

Happy Saturday!

2009-05-18T23:45:00.000-04:00

Would you like to be a guest design team member at Pages in Time?

Then join the forum and enter your lo's/ cards/ altered projects/ mini albums in our gallery and in the guest DT member discussion forum. Be sure to mention you want to be a guest dt member. Entries must be recent layouts! Please try to stop by the site at least weekly to chat, post, get to know us better and to see if you have been chosen.

Karen (our PIT owner) will choose one layout a week that will be featured as the Layout of the Week and then after four choices, one person will be chosen to be the Guest Design Team Member for the next month.

The winner will also be featured in the gallery, blog and on the main post! You will also win a Monthly Kit for being a Guest Design Team Member for that month!

****GET CREATIVE AND SHOW US WHAT YOU CAN DO!****

Enter as many times as you'd like.When you post your layouts,cards, or altered items, be sure to mention it is for the Guest Design Team Member spot.

***You must have a minimum of 10 layouts, cards, etc.) posts in to be eligible to win.*

Good Luck and I can't wait to see your creative creations!

Pages In Time May Kit

2009-05-09T22:17:00.001-04:00

Here is May's kit of the month. It is jammed pack full of goodies and fun colors,and embellishments. It also comes with a sketch that you can do that will be perfect for our kit challenge that I will be offering monthly. This kit has the most paper that is from the newest lines out there. No body puts as many pp's in there kit as we do and keep the price down.

Kit contents:
Paper:
Lovey Dovey-Pink Paisley
Tender
Beloved
Spectacular
Full Moon
Lovely
Rugged
Adorable
Eye Popping
Enthaling
Wisteria-wind chimes-Basic Grey
Wisteria-white dynasty- Basic Grey

Alphabet stickers
1 felt die cute art strip from Prima
enchanting rub on's
captivating petal(package of two)
Mini Stamp set (4-piece set) Prima
Brads 3 large and 3 small
Boshers 1large 1 small
2 metal ribbon hooks
journaling note
small tiles
small beads
Sketch

Price $25.00 You can email fablady101@msn.com and can pay by paypal or you can call the store
(402)420-6933

ADD on Kit:
Paper
Honey Bunch
Stunning die cut pp

Flora doodles-u get the full package of 80 Jeweled Forettes
small arrow beaded
ink pad in black
yard of lace ribbon
2 metal photo corners
Price $7.50

Additonal Add on;
You choose style and how many
Chipboard elements-19 chipboard pieces in package
Fascinating
Captivating
Enchanting
Fetching
Price 5.00each

This fabulous kit is selling out super fast so you need email or call your order in fast. I can't wait to get my hands on these yummy goodies!

NSBD Mini-Crop at Pages In Time

2009-04-30T13:55:00.000-04:00

Come celebrate National Scrapbooking Day with Pages In Time
Saturday, May 2nd

Karen and the Pages In Time design team invite you to join us for a day of fun challenges, games and chat.

There will be RAK's given away for individual challenges, and one main prize awarded.

All challenges will be posted Sat. May 2nd, but you will have until Mon. May 4th midnight EST to complete them.

Check back Saturday May 2nd at 7 a.m. EST for the official kick off of Pages In Time's first online mini crop. Rules and guidelines will also be posted at this time. Just click on the title of this post to check it out.

Hope to see you there!!!!

Terrific News Announcement:

2009-04-30T13:13:00.001-04:00

Sorry I'm so late getting this posted. We took 7 children (5 of which were ours) to Myrtle Beach on Sunday and then I had to work Monday and Tuesday so I haven't been online much. Here is what I read when we returned home Monday from the beach:

Congratuation to Our Pages In Time New Design Team Members!
Posted by Karen (Fablady101) on April 26, 2009 at 10:46pm in
OUR DT MEMBERS
Send Message View Discussions

It was tough more then any of you could know to pick just 6,so many of you are so worthy to be on the team, and it was a difficult choice for me to make, that instead of 6 we have 9. I want you to welcome them as our PIT(pages in time) team members.

Rayette(Scrappinraiderfan)

Aphra

Irene Tan (Scrapperlicious)

Amanda Blevine-Sweet Kitty

Deb Avery-(Luci)

Nicki Love

Ann Arbogust

Melissa Sackman

Lesley Walker

Thanks to all of you who submitted your application and remember I will be having guest DT Members soon!

Woot!!! Woot!!! I was so shocked when I read it because I didn't think I had a chance in scrapper squat on making it onto the DT at Pages In Time. There are so many wonderful and talented scrappers that applied. To be on a Design Team with the likes of Irene (Scrapperlicious) is beyond a dream come true for me. She is so amazing and so are the rest of the DT members that were chosen. I couldn't be more happy and can't wait to start working with these amazing women and I want to thank Karen, founder of Pages In Time, for giving me the opportunity.

Be back in a minute with more updates :)

I've got some terrific NEWS!!!

2009-04-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

Don't have time to post the details today (gotta get ready for work) but I'll be back tomorrow and let you in on my GREAT NEWS!!!!

Creating from the Heart!: Scalloped Pocket Card and a Giveaway!!!

2009-04-23T14:36:00.000-04:00

Creating from the Heart!: Scalloped Pocket Card and a Giveaway!!!

New Layouts and New Forums

2009-04-21T14:20:00.001-04:00

I haven't posted in a while but work has gotten in the way of my scrapping (as usual) so I thought I would give a quick update today. Here are my latest pieces of art. This first one, "if the hair fits," is a close lift of Nicole Eshelman's layout of the same title. As soon as I saw her layout in one of my recent magazines, I knew I would have to lift it. I love these school pictures of my five year old and they worked so well with the theme and title. I didn't have any other poses since they were school pictures but I thought using the larger 3 1/2 x 5" picture in the center would balance it out fine. Nicole made a paper banner while I just went with Martha Stewart's felt banner. The journaling is words that my son says almost every morning while getting ready for school. He's a mess!

This second layout is my nine year old son asleep with book in hand. I printed the close-up picture in color and then centered it between the two black and white pictures and I love the result. I thought the Sassafrass background paper would work nicely with the theme of him loving to read. That paper reminds me of some page out of a fairy tale. I kept the embellishments simple since the paper is so busy by only added a couple of metal photo anchors up top and stapling a couple of transparencies for extra dimension. I used a couple of rub-ons and some Thicker's glitter alphas for the title and journaled in the sunshine rays.

This layout is one of my favorites. I used my brand new Jenni Bowlin die cut paper along with a Scenic Route die cut office arrow. I mixed paper, silk and felt flowers and added brads for flower centers. I tucked a small piece of white lace behind the right corner of the picture and then cut out a bird transparency to add as a photo corner. I hand journaled the 10 Reasons and used stitched on clear acrylic tiles and rub-ons for the title. A hidden journaling tag, a metal clock, and a punched, bling butterfly were also added. I was thrilled to see this as a "Featured Layout" on sb.com day before yesterday. Woot! Woot!

I have two new forums to share with you. First, Karen (AKA Fablady) from sb.com has started a brand new forum called Pages In Time. If you click on the title of this post, you can check it out. You'll probably recognize a lot of faces and her new kit program looks like it's going to be awesome. Her first kit is already posted and it's soooo yummy! Come check it out!

Second, Catherine (owner/founder of Your Memeries By Design) has a very talented husband and he has designed a new site for all things scrapbook related. It is called My Scrapbook Social.com You can go there for resources, post your resume, check out the latest scrapbook events, classifieds, forums and directories. It's a scrapper's Yellow Pages! I just love it :)

I have a few more DT layouts that I can not post just yet but I will post them after their reveals. Hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Nik

Feelin' Froggy???

2009-04-08T02:35:00.000-04:00

Well if you are, why not "hop" over to If It's Groovy and check out our Froggy Challenge this month. Here's my example:

Just click on the title to this post and check it out!

Awesome RAK

2009-04-03T04:54:00.000-04:00

Danielle at Life, One Layout at a Time is giving away a Bind-It-All system and I sure am crossing my fingers in hopes of winning it!! Just click on the title to this post and check out her blog. She does amazing work and is such an inspiration to follow.

My Tribute to:

2009-03-25T14:11:00.000-04:00

Gutter Girlz. Yes ladies, these are my humps.lol. This is my Gutter Girlz challenge layout for their new Prompt. When this picture was developed, I thought I would never scrap it but as soon as I read the challenge, I knew it was time to put this picture to paper. My youngest daughter (who loves to take pictures just like her mom) took this picture during my 5 year old's birthday cake cutting. I was laughing my head off when I saw it but decided to keep it since it was her shot. Glad I did. Made for a funny layout, don't you think? That's what I love about the Gutter. Their prompts make you think outside the box and have you scrapping themes/styles/products that you would never normally scrap. They have started a new forum and their DT members are always inspiring with their challenge examples. If you like getting a little dirty with your art, please jump on in "da gutter" and see just what I'm talking about. A little dirt never hurt ;)

This layout was made as a tribute to the YMBD forum that I visit frequently. I think I will make one for all the sites that I am a member of. Anyhooooo (pun intended--their mascot is an owl), Catherine is the owner and creator of YMBD and a very talented scrapper. She is so friendly and makes every member feel like a welcomed part of the family. The DT is so creative and put Catherine's creations to good use. My former favorite YMBD product was their calender tags. I used one as a flower center in my "together forever" layout that I posted a good while back. My new favorite product is their flourishes!! Great for cards or layouts. I've got some ordered and waiting for my order to arrive. Should be any day now:) Woot! Woot! Several of us at YMBD are inspiring each other to eat healthier and loose a few pounds. I feel honored to be among this group of women and hope that you will stop over and see just what I'm talking about. You'll love it!