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!