New projects and a Toot!! :D

That was a lot longer break than I wanted it to be! Crazy how weeks go by so dang fast, and before you realize it you are seriously behind on a lot of things! :P I am under massive piles of DT work right now, trying to play some catch up on that! Thought I would pop on here and share the only things I have created since the September BAP in the post before last! This was by far the longest scrapper's block I have been through yet, and let me tell you-it sucked! It feels so good to be crafting again!!

First up is the Prima November BAP!!! (Can you believe it is Nov?!!!! I can't. :P) It is a two pager, but don't let that intimidate you! I totally cheated and did a 6x12, and it worked great! Took all the scariness out of it, and was super easy to follow yet change up as I needed! I did this layout with all these great pics of Cree and Maggie, my aunt's dog! Maggie is, I think, almost 12, but you would seriously have no clue when she is at the beach, because she is in absolute dog heaven!!! Give her a stick and some space to dig these huge holes and she is good! She and Creedence both have an absolute blast at the beach! (You know I just realized I did another layout in this post about Cree at the beach! How did I not catch that? :P)

Supplies:

Paper-Prima

Chipboard-American Crafts

Stickers-Making Memories

Flowers-Prima

Punches-Martha Stewart, Marvy

Paint-Claudine Hellmuth in classic teal, Craft Smart white

Now this project I designed to be my scrapper's block fix! :D I needed something where I could just create and not care. Hence, Let go. You tend to forget who you are creating for, and what it really means to you. This little book helped me a lot, and I strongly encourage making one of your own. It was super simple too, I just used a whole bunch of the brown paper bags that my kit club papers are packaged in! I cut them to size, stacked it all and sewed right down the middle with my machine, then just glued the papers in! :D Used a piece of paper and wood veneer to make the spine, which works quite nicely. Love how this cover turned out. If it wasn't my Fix it book, then I think I might just frame it.

First inside page.

And more pages just waiting to be filled.

Supplies:

Paper-Cosmo Cricket

Chipboard-Cosmo Cricket

Flower and Leaf-Making Memories

Paint-Claudine Hellmuth, Craft Smart

Lace-Prima

Punches-Marvy, Martha Stewart

Rubon-Cosmo Cricket

Corkboard butterfly-Chatterbox (punched with MS butterfly)

Stamps (letters)-Studio G

Ink-Stazon

Sticker-Cosmo Cricket

Bakers Twine-Martha Stewart

Other-Wood Veneer

Just finished this layout the other night, and it didn't turn out exactly like I had wanted, but still think it is fun! Huge mix of papers here, from the Boyfriend line, to Nutmeg and Earth Love! Took inspiration from Stephanie Howell's layout in this post-love that layout!

Supplies:

Paper-Cosmo Cricket, Bazzill Cardstock

Chipboard-Cosmo Cricket

Stickers-Cosmo Cricket

Punches-Fiskars Apron Lace, Marvy 1 1/2 in scallop circle, Martha Stewart 3 in 1 butterfly,

1 in circle and 1 in scallop circle

Baker's Twine-Martha Stewart, vintage

Corkboard-Chatterbox (used MS butterfly punch on these)

Other-Doily from Michael's, wood veneer

And because I am so absolutely excited and I have no one else to share it with who will understand really, I wanted to tell you this: I signed online this morn and went to my usual stuff, blah blah blah, then went to 2Peas to check what was new and HOLY COW!!!!! The LO above got picked as the Featured LO!!!!! I am over the moon right now! I have never had this happen, so I am so excited! And just had to share! :D LOL!

And this lovely LO was my first one out of the scrapper's block! I used the Studio Calico Oct main kit Yearbook (one of my favs of all time!) and the Fall Festival add on! And the picture there is of my daughter hidden in the wild flowers in our backyard. She seriously used to just get burried in them! (the picture kept giving off weird reflections-no matter how many times I rephotographed. I finally gave up!:P) Anyway I really had fun with this LO.

Supplies:

Paper-Bazzill cardstock, Sassafras Lass, Studio Calico exclusives, Crate Paper, Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, Jillibean Soup, Bo Bunny

Journaling tag-Jenni Bowlin

Stickers-Basic Grey, American Crafts

Brads-My Mind's Eye

Mist ink-Maya Road

Stamps (letters)-Studio G

Ink-Stazon, Cat's Eye

Punch-Marvy

Floral word strip-Making Memories

Die cut flower-Sassafras Lass

Sequin center-Prima

Felt-American Crafts

Other-Prima packaging

I also wanted to tell you about a site that I found a bit ago, called Rollip. :D It is a serious understatement to say that I am obssessed! Holy Cow I can not stop changing all my photos! I process them through here and presto they come out amazing!!! You have a few filters you can put it through and also if you want it to be a polaroid or not, but those are the only decisions you have to make, and after you have stunning photos!! Here are a few examples:

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after:

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Awesome, no?!! That pic of me, goodness I look so horrible, but the fixed one makes me not look so bad! :P

Well that is all I have for now! :P Things are getting very cold here. Certainly starting to feel a whole lot more like wintery times. I know it is not there yet but we are gettin real close! :D Cree has had a few developments over the last few weeks, we took her to get her hearing checked and she came back fine. We did that because she is not talking yet. Well wasn't. She now says Goodbye, Hi, and Kitty. It is so cute, it doesn't exactly sound like those words but we know that is what she means, but it is adorable to hear her voice. :D She is also in her own bed now. Not going quite so well but we are really working on it. And she is in love with reading books! She actually flips through each page and points to things and is just loving it! This was really hard for her before because she just was not patient enough to want to see the book. She would get mad and run off. So this is nice for us because it is making some special time for us as a family. :D Anyway on to scrappy stuff, I am working right now on some tags and a box. So as soon as I have some stuff to share I will get back on here!!! Hope all is well with everyone! Take care!

~Amy

Forget if you have seen me lately......

The real question is: Have you seen this?!!!!!! Holy Wow!!! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this reveal! This is 100% without a doubt my fav collection yet!! :D To say that I am just a wee bit excited is a severe understatement! The colors are beautiful and perfect and the animals are just soooo adorable! Love it!

Well I can guarantee that as soon as this hits my door I will be in scrappy heaven! :D I will share as soon as I can!

As for my recent absence, :P Life has been crazy. Non stop and crazy. Been sick a million times, had no mojo, had Cree's 2nd birthday, family in town, and a weekend trip that is never as much of a vacation as we would wish it to be. Now I have a possible impending move and I am not looking forward to it. :P Needless to say I have not been able to sit at my scrap table for a very very very long time. This makes me very sad. This also means I have nada to be able to show you on here (except the awesomeness above!! :D) Anyway, I will soon have some things to share though. Maybe not all scrappy, but a share none the less. :D Hope everyone is well! Be back soon..... :D

~Amy

Category Stories and Cosmo Cricket

Back so soon?!! I know I am crazy sometimes! :P Anyway I wanted to share with you some fun and exciting news before it gets too far into the month! The new prompt is up at Category Stories and wanted to make sure you saw it! There are a couple of totally awesome things going on this month at CS!! Firstly, the sponsor for this month is the absolutely and totally amazing Studio Calico Kit Club!! And April and Scarlet (the fantastic owners of SC!) have provided us with (not only their amazing LOs for the Saturday Morning Cartoons prompt!) the gorgeous September kit Cotillion!!! *See Picture Below!* In the picture you will also see that they have three add ons for this month! Now Foxtrot is actually no longer available for purchase (it sold out fast), but Tango and Waltz are still there! And the second awesome thing going on this month is that the Category Stories blog is being featured in this month's ScrapStreet online magazine!!! The article was written by our very own Stacey Michaud, who is also a regular writer for the mag! Very cool! Thanks Stacey! And Thirdly, we are having a Guest Designer contest!!!! Totally aweseom right?! :D All you have to do is play along with us on both prompts this month and then email them to us along with a short bio, and then we are going to choose three ladies to be our guesties!!! :D So exciting! Really hope you all play along!

Here is my LO for this month's first prompt Saturday Morning Cartoons. I wasn't sure what to do with mine. We don't get any cable/channels/TV in our house, we only watch movies. We made this decision because we really didn't want to be spending all our time in front of the TV just watching for hours and hours, which we know we would end up doing!!! We have no control like that! So to save us the trouble of getting nothing done, we decided to not give ourselves that option. But this makes me sad, because when I was a kid watching cartoons and all my fav shows was such a magical thing for me! It helped inspire so much in my imagination! And I am realizing that I am really wanting this for my daughter. But at the same time I don't want her exposed to all the commercials and messages that TV sends! So you see, either way there is a down side to this. It's a Catch 22.

Hence the title of this LO.

Supples:
Paper-Studio Calico exclusives, Making Memories, Collage Press (Die Cut sheet), Cosmo Cricket, Bazzill cardstock
Stickers-Sassafras Lass, Pink Paislee, Basic Grey, Heidi Swapp, K and Company
Brads-American Crafts, Pink Paislee
Pearls-Basic Grey
White Pen-Sakura
Frame-Making Memories
Punch-Martha Stewart

This next LO is one I did for an older prompt at Category Stories. Well not super old or anything, it was the second prompt for August and went live on the 15th of last month. It was Pampering Me. I made it using Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird line! The little cups were perfect for this! My LO was about what I do to pamper myself. And to be honest, it is really quite easy. I just have a simple cup of tea. Black tea with a little sugar and milk, and I'm good. :D I gotta share, I used two stamps on here that are exclusive Studio Calico stamps that I am just absolutely in love with! First, which you can barely see it because I used Distress Ink, is the Coffee Stain stamp (which I used as a tea stain stamp!! LOL!). Unfortunately this is sold out right now, but hopefully they will be getting more in. :D And the Story Time alpha stamp, which is still very much available! This alpha is so amazing, and the DT have used it in so many awesome ways that there is inspiration to last a life time! :D

Supplies:
Paper-Cosmo Cricket, Sassafras Lass, Bazzill cardstock
Die Cuts-K and Company (yellow tag and ruler measurement), Collage Press
Stickers-Cosmo Cricket
Chipboard-Cosmo Cricket
Stamps-Studio Calico exclusives
Ink-Stazon, Distress Ink
Pens-Sakura
Punch-Fiskars

Ok so that is all that I have at the moment. I am working right now on some Kitschy Digitals stuff and some Cosmo Cricket things! Hopefully I will have them done soon to share! Hope everyone is having a fabulous Labor Day weekend!!! And remember, be sure to play along with us at Category Stories!!! :D Take care!

~Amy

Sharing my Prima CHA booth LOs......

(And one more LO for Prima!!) But first I can believe I didn't realize I hadn't shared my CHA LOs for Prima! :P Yeah I have been that busy!! And I feel right now like I am in the middle of CHA all over again! I working nonstop trying to get stuff done, while life around me is being just as demanding!! Can't reveal anything that I am working on right now, but soon enough! :D (No clue when that will be but trust me when I know, you'll know!) Anyway, my desk looks almost exactly like the desk I posted in this post, but trust me it is a ton more organized!!! Now all I have to do is just package things back up when I am done with a LO and then Voila! it is clean again!!! :D Goodness that makes things so much easier. Now I just wish the house could be like that too. :P Well, moving on to my LOs. I had dreamed of getting so many more done for CHA but it just didn't happen. But I make myself feel better about this by repeating the saying 'Quality over Quantity'. LOL!

This first LO is a pretty artsy one. I had just got my Charcoal Maya Mist and was itching to use it! Also I had just got some Prima stamps (these ones) that I wanted to try too! Now the title/journaling on this LO hardly shows up in the picture (you have no idea how bummed I was about that, but just for the life of me could not make the letters show up!). So I included a close up picture below, so you can see what it looks like. :D I just used my Sakura White Gel pen and outlined the inside of some letters, let that dry and then did the same thing lightly with a thin black pen. Really liked the effect!! :D And there is a lot more texture to them than you can see in the picture. Anyway, the LO says: If I only could I'd be running up that hill, with no problem. That is part of the chorus to Kate Bush's song Running Up That Hill. I'd link you up but I can't find anything that has it for free. :P Anyway I love this song so much, I had to do a LO with it! :D Used lots of new and old on this LO.

Supplies: Everything on this LO is Prima (except for the vintage book paper and Maya Road Charcoal mist)

This LO is one of the small additions I have made to Creedence's book. :P I still have what seems like a million to do! This is her 21 month page. Only a few things on this page are new. (The pink background paper, a pearl center and the main Trellis Rose). I love how this page turned out. :D

Supplies: Everything on this page is Prima (except for the blue flower cut outs which are Making Memories and the Tattered Angels chipboard)

This LO is only the second LO I have ever done about my mom. It has been 6 years since her passing and still it is so hard to do LOs about her. But they seem to help as well. This picture is my mom's graduation picture. She always told me that she wished she had known me then. The journaling reads: I wish I had known you then, and that you knew me now.

Supplies: Everything on here is Prima (except for the book paper in the background)

Now this LO was super fun to do! You might not believe me but the pink 21 month LO above is not 12x12 so I had to cut the pink paper down to size and could not for the life of me get it right! So I ended up with a million 1/4 cut offs of that paper, which on the backside is this lovely purple, pink and orange pattern!! :D It worked out wonderfully! Also I received a huge handful of the new painterly hydrangeas (which I didn't much know what to do with) and amazingly enough the colors matched perfectly with the paper! So instead of using the flowers for what they were intended I punched butterflies out of them!!! :D Love how this looks!

Supplies: Everything here is Prima (new and old), except for the paint, kraft cardstock, and book text.

Now I am going to share my September BAP LO! I didn't have it done in time for the blog but it made the newsletter. :P I have just been super busy (with things that I unfortunately can not show! :P) But be sure to play along with us this month because this sketch is awesome and I can guaratee that the prize is even more awesome!! :D Here is the link!

I had so much fun with this sketch!! But I decided early on that I wanted to try to follow it exactly! Which is not something I normally do with a sketch! :P I chose a cream background, but still wanted white to be a part of the LO. So I outlined everything paper in white with my gel pen! Love how this turned out!!!! (close ups are below) And then of course I had to use my sewing machine and stitch it all down! The sketch looked like a quilt to me so I wanted to put that into my LO. :D

Supplies: Everything is Prima, except for the cream cardstock and Tattered Angels chipboard frame.

Well that is all I got right now! I am going to be doing a post this weekend about some exciting news at Category Stories and a new Cosmo LO! :D And I promise I will come out of my hole now and be here! :D I feel like I have constantly been under a huge pile of paper and flowers, but I will be coming out now! :D Thanks for stayin with me! Hope everyone is well! See you this weekend! :D

~Amy