Class giveaway!

Good morning ladies! I'm popping in to give you a heads up--Big Picture classes has a super awesome SUPER Stash Busters class happening this summer, and I was fortunate enough to be a guest designer for the class! It's going to be four weeks of fabulous video lessons, sketches, challenges, free cut files and inspiration to help you use whatcha got, and quit hoarding all of those pretty supplies. :)  Here's a sneak peek of the project I did for the class:

The class starts July 31st, and you can register right now,  HERE.

I've got one seat in the class to giveaway to a lucky reader--to enter, just leave a comment below!

Super Deal Alert! NEW Evolution Advanced on HSN!

Hey, girls! I just wanted to give you a heads-up---We R Memory Keepers is going to be launching the ALL NEW Evolution Advanced on HSN, May 14th. The Evolution Advanced is perfect for die-cutting, embossing, and letterpressing, and has these cool features:

1. It has an adjustable roller so with the switch of a dial you can set the machine for your project instead having to figure out which mat combinations to use.

2. The Evolution Advanced is interchangeable with a hand crank or motor option.

3. The tool folds up and has built in storage.



To see it in action, check out this video: http://tinyurl.com/nbwvc7e.




There are very limited quantities at the debut price, so make sure you are ready to snatch one up on the 14th!!

National Scrapbooking Day with We R Memory Keepers!

Good morning! This coming Saturday is an exciting one for scrapbookers--it's National Scrapbooking Day! And We R Memory Keepers is bringing you some inspiration early to get your creative mojo flowing for this weekend.  You should have arrived here by way of the talented Shannon Morgan, but if you get off track, no worries, the full list of hop participants is listed at the end of this post.
For my hop project, I chose We R Memory Keepers Game Day to showcase this picture of my soccer-loving son. We're right in the middle of soccer season, and this boy genuinely loves the game.  My hubby took this picture of him last season, and I've been waiting for the perfect collection to use to document it.  I love that Game Day has great muted colors that represent a few different sports.

I added some machine stitching around the edges of the papers for some added detail, and popped up some of the embossed stickers with foam squares.

This journaling card is from Game Day's Albums Made Easy set--I love using Albums Made Easy cards as journaling spots on layouts. They match perfectly, and have an extra bit of detail, too! I love how that WRMK washi matches the soccer ball pattern.

Be sure to check out all of the WONDERFUL inspiration you'll see at the other hop stops, and comment along the way for the chance to win some AWESOME WRMK prizes.  Thanks for stopping by, and Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Full list of hop participants:

We R Memory Keepers - http://wermemorykeepers.wordpress.com/

Traci Penrod - http://www.artsyalbums.com/

Shannon Morgan - http://designsofapaddymack.typepad.com/

Jennifer McDermott - http://www.wonkywares.blogspot.com/

Amanda Johnson – http://www.asjmade.blogspot.com/

Aly Dosdall - http://alydosdall.blogspot.com/

Pam Bray - http://www.pammejoscrapbookflair.com/

Rebecca Fellows - http://www.mykitchentablestudio.blogspot.com/

April Bog Hop with Kiwi Lane Designs!

Good morning!  And welcome to the Kiwi Lane April Blog Hop!  You should have come here from the fabulous Catherine Povec's blog.  If you get lost along the way, just head back to Kiwi Lane's blog for the hop order. And be sure to comment along the way--one lucky blog participant will win a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane store JUST for commenting.  The hop goes until 11:59 MDT on Sunday, April 6, and the winner of the gift certificate will be announced on the Kiwi Lane blog on Thursday, April 10th.

Did you know that April is Superhero Month?  Well, it is, and I don't know about you, but I've got three superhero-lovin' boys in this house.  When I received the Wacky designer templates I'd  be using for this blog hop, I knew that I wanted to make something for my son that used that fun spikey template.  I thought about making one continuous blurb with the spiky template and turning it into one of those BAM! or POW!  bubbles a la the original Batman series.  Since we're redoing his bedroom, I decided a throw pillow would be fun!

To create the pillow, I sewed around some white scrap fabric to make the actual pillow.  Then I ironed on some fusible interfacing to the back of my red and white polka dot fabric, and then placing the template on the fabric, I traced around it, then flipped it over and traced around it again, so it made one big spiky circle.  Then I grabbed my fabric scissors (not my paper scissors!!) and cut it all out!  I ironed it onto the white background, and then fired up the Silhouette to make the "BAM!".  I cut out the sentiment on a scrap of blue heat transfer vinyl, and ironed it on top of the red and white polkas, then stuffed and sewed shut. And, BAM! there you have it---a superhero throw pillow!

You now get the privilege of stopping by Kristy Lee's blog.  Tell her I said hi!

Notable by WRMK

Good afternoon!  I hope you are enjoying a good preview of spring this week.  We're finally able to see the  grass and venture out without a jacket, so I am one happy camper.  (The air doesn't hurt!) And, I'm rocking a hot pink lipstick today, so I'm getting all kinds of things done. (It's amazing the motivation that a little bit of lipstick gives!)  Today I'm sharing a project I created with WRMK's Jan 2014 release, Notable, and lots of WeR tools.  Let's get to it, shall we?

So, I've found over the past couple of years that it's hard to keep up with scrapbooking four kids that came into our family in rapid succession.  I've given up the notion of staying "caught up" and just try to have fun with documenting every day moments and special little bits of our kids' personalities.  Part of that is recording their cute little quotes and trying to get down things in their own words, so we can look back on their kid-isms when they're older.  But, I don't have a good way of doing this, so this is what I've been doing:

Grabbing whatever piece of scrap paper I can find and quickly jotting stuff down and adding the date.  Then throwing it on my desk.

Not a great long term solution.  So when I saw this, I was inspired to make a similar album to hold little papers with my kids' quotes, so I can keep them all together until they can be scrapbooked.  I started out with my Envelope Punch board and a couple of sheets of Notable that I cut down to 6x6 (the correct size to make 3x4 envelopes)

I started out by making envelopes with the punch board, but adhered them sideways, so one of the shorter sides made the open flap.

Then I used my Tab punch to make little tabs with each of my kids' names on them, and adhered them to the back of the envelope.

Next, I ran a little bit of adhesive to the very bottom/back of each envelope and adhered them each on top of the other. I grabbed a sheet of Notable, and cut it down to a 3.5x10.5 strip.  I scored at the 4.25",  4.75" and 9 inch mark, then adhered the stack on envelopes inside the scored cover, like so:

Now, for the closure: I wanted to make one of those string closures like you see on accordion folders, so I grabbed my Crop-a-dile, a couple of eyelets, 2 die cut circles (from Lawn Fawn's Tag You're it), and some WRMK twine.

Starting with the flap, I used the Crop-a-dile to punch a hole, then strung the twine through the hole, and put the die cut circle on top.

Then, punched it all together with the Crop a Dile and eyelet:

And did the same thing with the other side of the album cover.

I would recommend that when you set the eyelets, you don't squeeze too terribly hard.  You don't want the eyelets set so tightly that you can't wrap the twine around the paper circles.

And lastly, I decorated the cover using lots of Notable goodies

And there you have it! A cute and handy way to keep all of those little memories preserved!  What else can you use this little album for? I bet there's lots of different uses! Coupons, recipes?

Come back to tomorrow to see a cute layout I made using Notable!

WRMK on HSN today!

If you have a chance, check out HSN's programming today--it's full of WRMK goodies, including a fabulous sticker bundle that I got to work with!  Here's a sneak peek of one of the projects I made that you'll see on the show:

Check it out today on HSN!

RCC 90: WASHI TAPE!

Good morning!  I'm pleased to be sharing another Ribbon Carousel Challenge with you--this time it's WASHI TAPE! Yay!!  Washi tape is extremely versatile and fun to use off the page and around the house.  I just love how it easily dresses up envelopes and little bags!  For this entry, I used it on a layout to anchor my 10x10 paper to the background.  (That lovely coral washi is by WRMK and matches the Chalkboard collection perfectly!)

This is such a fun theme for the month of February, so be sure to link up your entries here, at the Ribbon Carousel blog !!  Have a great day!

Instagram Album giveaway!

Hey, guys!  Have to seen the totally sweet Instagram Albums that WeR debuted at CHA?  Well, how'd you like to win an album and the Instagram journaling cards?  Just go here to enter the giveaway!

CHA 2014: a new release by WeR!

Good morning!  Have you all been able to get your fix of CHA coverage? I know I've been trying to keep up with all of the fun pictures that have been filling up Facebook and Instagram--trying to get a peek at the beautiful booths full of things I know I'll "need" very soon.  Have you found a favorite new collection or stamp or tool that you can't wait to get your hands on?

I for one am super excited about one of We R Memory Keepers' new releases, Indian Summer.  They seriously nailed down some of the newest trends in this line, and I love that it's DIFFERENT than the stereotypical summer lines out there.  There's lots of natural textures in the papers: leather, feathers, and woven fibers and the tans, browns, and turquoises are gorgeous.  A breath of fresh air.  If you want to check out the full collection (and some other new releases from WeR), you can find them here. And, here's a couple of projects I created with Indian Summer.

 Inside the mini album, instead of individual pages, I made envelopes using the Envelope Punch board, sized large enough to fit 4x6 recipe cards.  That way, you can always add to it as you find new recipes you like!

Indian Summer starts shipping in June, just in time to start documenting your summer memories.

My baby and her tutu: Then and Now (WRMK Chalkboard)

If you've been reading my posts this week, you'll know that I love WRMK's Chalkboard collection.  I've been loving creating with one of my favorite color schemes, and it's so versatile.  Today, I'm sharing 2 layouts of my "baby". One from when she was a baby, and one from her recent 2nd birthday. (My nana always said they're babies till they're 2)

Here she is at her 6 month photo shoot (photo taken by her daddy) I was super excited to get to dress her up in that pettiskirt.  Is there anything more frilly and feminine than a pink pettiskirt?

(We can play "spot the foam dot backing piece that is photobombing the layout")

And here she is in that pettiskirt one last time--for her 2nd birthday.  She was so jazzed to get a Minnie Mouse (MeeNos) Pillow Pet!!

Precious memories.  I've passed the pettiskirt on to a friend with a baby girl who is a year younger than Fiona.  As hard as it is to part with her girly-baby things, I feel better knowing they're going to a friend who can use them--and I have a chance to see them on another adorable baby girl!

See you next week, when I'll be featuring an awesome release from WeR: Notable.

A treasured memory (featuring WRMK Chalkboard)

AHH!! I'm so excited to share this layout, because it is dear to me.  It features a photo of some of my favorite people--friends who "get" me and and what this hobby is all about.  Plus, I got to play around with Lifestyle Crafts' new dies and my current favorite collection: Chalkboard by We R Memory Keepers.

The story behind the picture: I was in SLC for the Scrapbook Steals Crop, and a group of friends got there a day early to see the sights.  We met up at this AMAZING cupcake shop (So Cupcake), and left with boxes full of various flavors of these delicious little pieces of heaven.  The best cupcakes I have EVER tasted.  mmmmm....What a great meeting spot to reconnect with friends you haven't seen in a year! The owner was super patient with a pack of scrapbookers--he snapped endless photos with everyone's cameras and phones.  What a trooper!

I got to use lots of my WRMK/Lifestyle Crafts goodies, including their Pocket Scrap dies (to make the "life" in the title, the chevrons, then I used the negative part of the life cutout on the upper right corner of the layout.  I used the doily mini 8 punch, and the paper is all from WRMK's Chalkboard collection.

My Christmas 2013 Mini Album (featuring WRMK)

Good morning!  Now that the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is over, it was time to look through the millions of photos taken over the past several weeks.  There's pictures of family visiting, breakfasts with Santa, grown up parties, snow, Christmas day and on and on and on.  I get overwhelmed easily by it all, and to be honest, I don't really like scrapping Christmas.  It's embarrassing as a scrapper to not love documenting such a huge, memorable part of the year, but it is what it is.  I think that by the time the holiday is over, I'm just so burnt out, the last thing I want to do, is a ton of 12x12 Christmas layouts.  So, I did something different this year.  And it was great. And stress-free.  And I still documented Christmas.  I made a mini-album with my Cinch.

I grabbed my North Pole papers and embossed stickers, and some book board, and cut the papers and board down to 5x7. (I knew I would be using 4x6 pictures to make life easier).  I started with the cover, adding some embellishment with a North Pole tag, and some chipboard alphas, and then just embellished random pages as I went along, using the North Pole Albums Made Easy Cards, a little bit of ribbon, and the stickers and paper scraps.  Then, I printed pictures when I was done, and all I had left to do was just adhere them in.  What a breath of fresh air- to have my Christmas scrapping done with zero frazzle.  And I love that it's in a cute, compact form that I can keep on our bookshelf and pull out to look at.  (And if you want to bless a friend, you could give one of these minis to them--just create and leave spaces for her to add her photos.  What a great gift!)

Here are some of my favorite pages from my album:

Ribbon Carousel Challenge #89

Hello!! I'm so glad to be getting back in the bloggy swing of things after a brief hiatus surrounding the holidays!  Well, the holiday season is officially over, and so it's time to get back to it.  I have lots of projects lined up to share with you this week, starting first with the 89th Ribbon Carousel Challenge!  For this challenge, you'll be playing along for the chance to win 10 handmade wooden spools filled with your choice of either May Arts seam binding, ribbon, or twine!

What a LOVELY theme!  I know I've been feeling like some comfort food and peace and quiet myself lately, and this theme fits perfectly!

I wanted to try my hand at the hand-calligraphy look featured on the Chalkboard paper by We R Memory Keepers, so I stamped the "you" then using the Chalkboard paper as a guide, tried to mimic the calligraphy with my UniBall Signo white pen.  I added some We R washi tape as a subtle accent too.  (I love this collection right now and can't get enough of it, so be warned: you'll be seeing lots of it very soon! ;))

You'll definitely want to check out the Ribbon Carousel blog to see all of the other inspiration from the design team, including some new teammates (but familiar faces!).  While you're there, link up your creation for the challenge!