Webster's Pages & Get Creative!

Hey everyone. An evening post for me as I've been too busy gossiping with my good friend Carrie all day and am finally getting to it now! We generally get together once a week or more and we spend the day visiting while our kids play...and gives me a good excuse to get NOTHING accomplished...all...day...long, lol!

But here I am, better late than never :).

I created the following layout using a whole pile of different Webster's Pages collections...I lost track, but there are at least 6 different collections used here, if only small parts of them. I love that I own pretty much every one of their lines and that I can pick and choose amongst the scraps to put a nicely coordinating piece together. I will never tire of the fussy cutting opportunities and finding new and interesting ways to dress them up :). For this particular layout, I was inspired by the "We Love Our Guys" challenge on the Webster's site, encouraging us to scrap about the special guys in our life. I have three very special guys in my life: my husband, my older son Wyatt, and my younger son Gunner. Here I've scrapped Gunner, who just had a 2nd birthday and also who I've spent a lot of time thinking about lately. All of my kids are very special, but because he just reached his second year, I've done a bit of pondering his growing older and my reluctance to allow him to do so...  

So here's what I put together for this challenge:

"My Guy"

I've been doing a bit of design team work lately after taking a week off when Kelly was here visiting, and have been working without sketches. So for this page I decided to turn to the July 1st sketch challenge at Get Creative, using a beautiful sketch created by the very talented Melenia:

And here are some close-ups for you...

I've dressed up this umbrella with some Webster's bling from one of their bling strips, then added some burlap and flowers.

 Behind my main white flower I've tucked a couple of the beautiful Webster's Sparklers vintage button embellishments...

 This gorgeous chipboard flourish is from Scrap FX. They have the most amazing selection of flourishes...

 This merry-go-round has also been decked out with some Webster's bling and some flowers...

 These words really speak what I feel for Gunner in my heart :)...

I really hate that the lantern on the right has a crooked string...need to fix that pretty much now. Will update my photo, lol!

And that should do it, folks!! So glad you stopped by for a quick look :)~ see you all again real soon...

Take care,

Lots going on @ C'est Magnifique!!

Hey there everyone :). I wanted to pop on here quick today and share with you some of the stuff going on at C'est Magnifique!! First of all, we've already had a couple of looks at the beautiful August kit, featuring papers by Maja Design out of Sweden- you will LOVE these gorgeous vintage designs, so be sure to have a look at the August section of the store HERE. Though the full kit has not been revealed, the papers and add-ons have been.

Secondly, C'est Magnifique- in addition to their sketch challenge on the 1st of the month- will now be doing a SECOND challenge on the blog, starting on the 15th of the month. It will be a word challenge, and this month's word is "Grow". You can use this word in any of its forms (growing, grown, etc.), and it has to be VISIBLE on your layout- whether it be in your title or journaling (but cannot be hidden- we need to see it!). The winner, as chosen by random draw, will receive this amazing giveaway put together by Leslie, valued at more than $40...PLUS FREE SHIPPING, INTERNATIONALLY!! And what's more~ the winner will be able to go shopping in the C'est Magnifique store (which is full of items from all over the world!) and have their purchases shipped with their prize at no extra cost!!

And because C'est Magnifique is a kit club, we want to show a little extra love to our members. So anyone who uses one of their kits to complete their project will be put in a separate random draw (in addition to the main prize) to receive a $10 gift certificate to the C'est Magnifique store!! Just a way to say "thank-you" for being a fabulous subscriber!!

There will also be 5 chosen layouts to feature!! SO many ways to shine!!

See the "Grow" challenge HERE to enter your project. The only rule is that you must be/become a follower of C'est Magnifique- it's that easy!! You have until August 14th @ midnight to enter.

And finally, I wanted to let everyone know that Leslie (owner of C'est Magnifique) has just loaded up the store with a PILE of GORGEOUS MANOR HOUSE FLOWERS!!!!!!!!!! Many are new releases, there are also a couple of pre-orders, and they are all to-die-for-STUNNING. You MUST have a look HERE- check them out, you will NOT be disappointed, I promise. They've come all the way from Australia, and if you've never had the chance to work with these incredible blooms, you definitely need to grab some for yourself before they're gone!! Here's just a little peek at what's in the store...

See what I mean?? Check out the Manor House section HERE for your chance to get ahold of these flowers while you can!! If you've been living under a rock and have never heard of Manor House Creations before, take a look at their blog HERE.

While you're browsing the C'est Magnifique store, you'll also notice Leslie has all of the new Glitz collections (Cashmere Dame, Hello Friend, Yours Truly, and Joyeux Noel) HERE, and the new Fancy Pants "Country Boutique" HERE. Very few places already have these collections available for purchase, so be some of the first to be able to work with them!! I should be receiving mine by the end of the week :D!!

Thanks for stopping by :)~

My final ScrapFIT post + Giveaway Winner!!

Good morning :). It's hard to believe that this post will wrap up my six month term with ScrapFIT...time really does fly! Sara has been great to work for and I've really enjoyed my term there :). I wish the new design team the best of luck and you're sure to be provided with a ton of incredible inspiration!!

So today I share with you a card I created using the beautiful color palette featured in Workout #72:

"2nd Birthday Celebration"

Workout #72 color inspiration! Use this palette to inspire your layout/card/OTP project!!:

Sponsor for this challenge is Paper Issues, offering up a $15.00 gift certificate to the Paper Issues Store!

You have until the end of the month to submit your project and be in the running for the challenge prize :)! I'm excited to see how everyone interprets the palette!!

And before I go, I wanted to make sure I announced the WINNER of my Scrap FX "Stained Glass Quarter" stencil...

Congrats....Heather Robertson!! Please contact me with your mailing info so that I can get your stencil mailed off to you right away!

And thanks to all of you who expressed an interest in my little giveaway :). I hope you all have a beautiful Sunday (or Monday)...take care of yourself!

C'est Magnifique August Sneak Peek!!

Hi there everyone :). I know it's been a while...my sister has been here visiting with her two kids and yesterday was my middle child Gunner's 2nd birthday! So we've been busy hauling the kids to the lake to swim, catching crayfish, grilling food, and party planning. I must say, I was a bit taken aback by how much I struggled with the fact that my little boy was turning two. The emotions were unexpected. And I know I'm not the first mom to say this, but I just don't want him to get any older. I just want to keep him just as he is now...sweet, innocent, silly. But I know I can't, and for that I feel helpless! So I'm just trying to enjoy every moment- remember everything- appreciate that I get to be there with him every step of the way...

But before I start crying again (lol), I need to share with you my reason for posting today. C'est Magnifique has just revealed their very first sneak peek at the August kit, featuring papers from Maja Designs, out of Sweden. And I must say this one is another fave for me!! Here is a look at one of my five projects for the month:

"23 Months"

Here is my beautiful baby boy, just last month :). I love the variety of color available in the August kit. I tend to turn my photos black and white, but there are certain ones I really feel need to remain in color- like this one of Gunner. I am in love with his big brown eyes and the shades of these particular papers and flowers allowed me to let his beauty shine in color!

 As always, some hidden journaling :)...

Here I've used another fabulous stencil from Scrap FX, "Engineering Stencil, Small". I spread on some texture paste over the mask, dried it with my heat gun, and then used another stencil from The Crafter's Workshop to stamp the chicken wire design over the top.

 Some more of the stenciling work...


 Still loving book pages! :)...

Here's a look at the papers included in the kit. Seriously, they are incredibly beautiful! Believe it or not, there are actually 30 sheets of paper in this amazing collection from Maja Designs- they are being sold individually or as an entire lot in the C'est Magnifique store here.

 The flower add-on:

 And the embellishment add-on:

If you love what you've seen so far, head on over to C'est Magnifique and check out how you can join here. Some of the items, including the paper/flower/embellishment add-ons, are already available in the store here.

Thank-you so much for visiting- and putting up with my little emotional rant. I'll get better soon, I'm sure :). But your support means a lot...so thanks. 

Take care, wherever you are...

I'm "In Love" w/ Webster's Pages!!

**There are some giveaways posted in my left sidebar- make sure you check them out and enter for your chance to win before you leave!! :)**

Good morning everybody :). It's Sunday morning here, had a great time last night visiting with a friend of mine who is more like a brother to me than a friend- we grew up together, born a month apart, our parents were best friends...don't get to see him much, so it was really nice to just laugh and talk. Also took the kids to the lake yesterday evening to swim and relax...I love summer. I love the smell, the warmth, the water, the wind...if only it lasted longer! I know for many of you, it's winter- and being in the middle of this heat wave, it's hard for me to picture winter. Hopefully it stays that way for a while!

But anyways, what I'm here today for is to share with you a layout I put together, inspired by the "Beyond" challenge over at Bird is the Word. Immediately what came to mind when I thought of the word "beyond" was the love I have for my husband. Sure- we're just like any other married couple- we do things that annoy one another and what wife doesn't like to complain every once in a while about her husband? But I love him with everything in me- and I know he feels the same. And when I sit down and think about what brought us to where we are now, I still get those raging butterflies I first felt when I fell in love with him. Our love is one that reached beyond the limits that tried to keep us apart- and we made it through. He really is the love of my life...

Here is my layout, featuring the ultra-gorgeous "In Love" collection from Webster's Pages (my first wedding layout using this wedding-themed paper):

"So Happy Together"

 I put a lot of love into this one! Starting with the carriage which I fussy cut from one of the papers, taking out my craft knife to cut out the spokes and undercarriage before adding the pearls and bling...seriously, took me way too long, lol. But I really didn't want to hold back on this one or rush anything. So I just took my time...

 Here's a closer look at my "loaded" carriage, full of blooms and lace and bling :).

My hidden journaling, which reads: "Our love is beyond measure...beyond my wildest dreams! Josh & Erin, June 20th, 2009".

I added punched paper layers, doilies, and strings of pearls to the top half of my page to add a romanticized, and layered effect...

Yet another fabulous Scrap FX chipboard title! Painted white with gesso and stamped with a Prima flourish stamp to blend with my layout.

Gotta love trinkets and resin treasures...perfect little touches :).

Supplies Used:

~Webster's Pages "In Love" papers

~Scrap FX chipboard title

~Prima Marketing & KaiserCraft flowers

~Prima Marketing resin treasures (bird)

~Teresa Collins metal key

~Melissa Frances pearls

~Martha Stewart Border Punches: Optic Dot, Eyelet Lace, Garden Rail

~Prima Marketing flourish stamp

~Prima Marketing Chalk Fluid Edger Pad: "Shabby Tote"

~KaiserCraft bling

~Webster's Pages bling (on carriage)

~gesso, lace, cheesecloth, pearl strands, doilies

So glad you stopped by today. Wherever you are, I hope you are well. And I appreciate the time you take to check out what I've been up to lately. For those of you who are still "in" the weekend, I hope it's winding down nicely for you- and for those of you just starting your week, I pray it goes easy on you!! ;)

See you soon :),

Guest Designer @ The Paper Mixing Bowl + a SNEAK!

**There are GIVEAWAYS posted in my left side bar- be sure to check them out before you leave!**

Good morning! I hope you're all having a good weekend- it's Saturday morning here, so my weekend has just begun and it's beautiful out today! Can't wait to get out in it! :)

A little while back I got an invite email from Sarah, owner of The Paper Mixing Bowl, asking if my sister Kelly and I would be interested in guest designing at her challenge site. It's a newer challenge blog that incorporates the fun idea of a recipe card to get your creativity going! So we of course accepted, and were subsequently sent the July Recipe Card, "Strawberry Shortcake":

Delicious, yes?? The requirements are to use the sketch, at least 2 of the utensils, and at least 1 of the journaling requirements. Here is what I came up with:

"Sun Shine"

And (of course!) a little closer look:

**My hidden journaling**

Added a bit of glitter and pink glimmer mist to my texture paste this time :)- gotta get girly sometimes!! ;)

Fun fun fun!! Be sure to check their site out for sure! For complete directions on how to follow along, visit their Etiquette section--->HERE. I hope you get the chance to play along :)...

Will be back tomorrow with some Webster's romantic goodness I cooked up last night! Here's a little sneak preview:

I know my blog has been pretty loaded this week, but thank-you for taking the time to stop by every day, it's so appreciated!!

See you then!

Scrap FX July Reveal #1 + GIVEAWAY!!

Good morning everybody :)! Glad to see you here today, as I'm sharing with you my first project this month for Scrap FX~ AND a little GIVEAWAY!! :)...

It’s a new month and that means NEW releases and NEW inspiration!!! July is a very exciting month for Scrap FX as they’ve just released their brand new (and might I say AWESOME) stencils!! So today I wanted to show you how I used not only a pleasant supply of Scrap FX chipboard pieces, but also one of my most favorite of the new stencils, the “Stained Glass Quarter”…

"Remember"

Let’s take a look first at how I used the Stained Glass Quarter stencil:

 I applied the stencil not only to the upper left and lower right-hand corners of my layout, but also to the central circle of the page. For the bit of brown masking in the corners, I simply laid the stencil down and dabbed over it with a brown chalk fluid edger pad. For the masking over the circle, I placed the stencil over 1/4 of the circle , finding the center and making a little mark so when I did the remaining 3/4, I could easily line up the pointed end of the stencil. I took a paintbrush and dabbed on texture paste over the stencil, dried it with my heat gun, and then used the same brown chalk pad to add just a hint of color. I still wanted to retain the light blue shade of the paper beneath, so I was careful to keep the coloring to a minimum.

After my foundation was complete, I was able to place my photos and begin clustering!

 I started my cluster at the right-hand side of my layout with this beautiful new “Berries Stem”. I painted it first with gesso before applying a tan shade of chalk ink, dabbed the edges with a darker shade yet to add some definition before finally taking a dark brown chalk ink and stamping over it with a vine stamp. This stem was the perfect addition to this cluster, along with the other twigs and sprigs .

 There’s nothing like a beautiful flourish to set the stage for a cluster. The “Flourish V” one is particularly beautiful. I treated it the same as I did the “Berries Stem” and the rest of the chipboard pieces on my layout. I really love the effect created by stamping over the top of chipboard!

 The wordlet title packs such as the “Remember Wordlet Theme Pack” come as a set of three different chipboard words. I love that they’re just that perfect size for squeezing in anywhere! I tend to leave my title placement until the end of my layouts and more often than not, I leave myself very little room- so these are perfect for that!

I felt that the lower right-hand corner of my cluster needed a flourish too! Why not? I actually clipped this section from the “Flourish Flower”.

And of course my layout would not be complete without some hidden journaling. And my go-to supply for that is the many tags available from Scrap FX. This one in particular is from the “Tags, mixed kraft” pack. I simply painted it white with gesso and applied the same techniques as I did the chipboard pieces on my project.

Scrap FX Chipboard Used:

Berries Stem

Flourish V

Flower Flourish

Remember Wordlet Theme Pack

Tags, mixed kraft

Scrap FX Stencil Used:

Stained Glass Quarter

 Additional Supplies Used:

~Pink Paislee "London Market" papers (all except cream/tan paper behind my circle)

~The Scrap Cake "Moments in Time" paper (cream/tan)

~Manor House Creations, Prima Marketing, & Petaloo flowers

~Manor House Creations sprigs & twigs

~Prima Marketing Resin Treasures (birds)

~Pion Design butterflies

~Melissa Frances pearls

~Martha Stewart Border Punches: Optic Dot & Garden Rail

~Prima Marketing "Fairy Belle" vine stamp

~Martha Stewart Texture Effect

~Prima Marketing Chalk Fluid Edger Pad: Knotted Wood, Shabby Tote

~Tim Holtz "Frayed Burlap" distress ink

~gesso, doily, thread & lace remnants

Okay! So on to the giveaway!! How would you like to win that beautiful Stained Glass Stencil??

Easy! All you have to do is : (1) Make sure you're a follower of my blog, and (2) link up using the Inlinkz tool below! That's it! :) I will keep this giveaway open until midnight of July 13th and draw a winner shortly thereafter. I'm happy to ship to anyone, Internationally! Good luck!