Update:

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

{Hugs}
Nik

I have been "BLOG TAGGED"

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

And here are the rules:

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

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

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links to those blogs on yours.

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

I nominate these 7 people:

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

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

Good Afternoon Scrappers!

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

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

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

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

Hope your day is a creative one!

Nik

Even More Layouts for Challenges:

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

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

Hope your day was pleasant and creative ;)

Win Some Christmas Candy!

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

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

Layouts for Challenges Part II

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nik

More Layouts For Challenges:

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

This is what I created:

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

Here is another layout I created this morning:

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

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

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

Hope you're having a creative day!

--Nik