My Joy

Guesting for Pink Paislee!

2012-01-24T12:56:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!! It has been an awful long time since I have come on here and updated.

Actually updated.

I have been busy, true. But mostly I have just been spending time with my family. The girls are growing so fast. I can't even believe that Aurelia is going to be 1 year old in a matter of days!! Time goes by way too fast.

I kinda realized lately that I needed to take a break. The signs were there I just couldn't read them til it had all fallen apart. :P Don't you just love that? lol.

Anyway, I have still been keeping up with some scrapbooking though, and just this week my guest feature at Pink Paislee went up on their blog! I am still so thankful I had the opportunity to guest for them! I used a wide variety of their products, including some of the first stuff I ever bought of theirs: Office Lingo paper! Loved how it all turned out.

*Note: I really really REALLY tried to get InLinkz set up for you guys so you would be able to see what products I used on all these, but the site is not working with my internet explorer browser or something. Sooooo, I'm stuck. I'll keep working on it and hopefully be able to figure something out.

*Edited to add!!* I got InLinkz to work! :D Enjoy!

Here they are! :D

Pink Paislee Office Lingo Cubicle	Pink Paislee Office Lingo Die-Cut shapes	Pink Paislee Enchanting Sticker book	Pink Paislee Enchanting brads	Pink Paislee Captivating Press Ons
Pink Paislee Queen Bee Bella brads	Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology Tickets	Pink Paislee Artisan Tape Black Dots	Pink Paislee Daily Junque Tickets	Pink Paislee Daily Junque Ephemera
Pink Paislee Nantucket Oyster Bar	Pink Paislee Nantucket Crab Cakes	Pink Paislee Nantucket Lobster Bisque	Pink Paislee Nantucket Jumbo Shrimp	Pink Paislee Nantucket Clam Chowder
Pink Paislee Nantucket Clam Bake	Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabet Sawdust	Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabet Wood Chip	Pink Paislee Nantucket Ephemera	Pink Paislee Mistables Scallop Ribbon
Pink Paislee Mistables Misting Mask	Lily Bee Memorandum ABC Stickers	The Twinery Honeydew twine	Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch	Martha Stewart Starburst punch
Martha Stewart Heart punch	Studio Calico Mister Huey's Clay	Studio Calico Mister Huey's Cameo	Studio Calico Mister Huey's Dewey	Studio Calico Mister Huey's Shine

InLinkz.com

Pink Paislee Daily Junque Map	Pink Paislee Daily Junque Ephemera	Pink Paislee Soiree Printed Sheets	Pink Paislee Nantucket Crab Cakes	Pink Paislee Nantucket Clam Chowder
Pink Paislee Nantucket Ephemera	Pink Paislee Nantucket Oyster Bar	Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabet Sawdust	Pink Paislee Enchanting Alphabet	Pink Paislee Enchanting brads
Pink Paislee Nantucket Wood Shapes	Martha Stewart Screw punch	October Afternoon Blue and Cream Mini Market stickers	October Afternoon Cream and Black Mini Market stickers

InLinkz.com

Pink Paislee Queen Bee Bella brads	Pink Paislee Daily Junque Ephemera	Pink Paislee Nantucket Jumbo Shrimp	Pink Paislee Nantucket Clam Chowder	Pink Paislee Nantucket Lobster Bisque
Pink Paislee Nantucket Oyster Bar	Pink Paislee Nantucket Ephemera	Pink Paislee Nantucket Chipboard Tiles	Pink Paislee Nantucket Wood Shapes	Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabet Sawdust
Pink Paislee Mistables Scallop Ribbon	Studio Calico Mister Huey's Clay	Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Hydrangea punch	Martha Stewart Heart punch

InLinkz.com

Pink Paislee Sweetness Flip Notes	Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabet Wood Chip	Pink Paislee Snow Day Wood Shapes	Pink Paislee Snow Day Ephemera	Pink Paislee Nantucket Oyster Bar
Pink Paislee Nantucket Jumbo Shrimp	Pink Paislee Nantucket Crab Cakes	Lily Bee Memorandum ABC Stickers	Studio Calico Mister Huey's Shine	Studio Calico Mister Huey's Pony
Martha Stewart Heart punch	Martha Stewart Heart Confetti punch	Martha Stewart Screw punch	Scenic Route Plain Chipboard Hearts

InLinkz.com

This little brooch is a little something I made as well (but somehow it didn't make it into their post on the Pink Paislee blog). Almost all the layouts above have little banner/pennant flags on them made from the Mistables muslin scallop trims. I altered them by cutting all the little scallop parts off, making just long strips of the muslin that I then cut into. I was left behind with all these little half circles, and decided I would try my hand at flower making! I added it to a Pink Paislee flower from the Enchanting line (?), and also some velvet that I had in my stash. It is so pretty and was super easy!

Well that's the whole thing. I have tons of stuff that I haven't shared from my dt positions, and really need to get on the ball and share them. I will try to do that soon! :D

Take care everyone!

~Amy

2012-01-01T01:07:00.000-08:00

[pinned here]

4 years old....

2011-11-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Been a long time. (I honestly have no clue if I still have readers or not! LOL! Hopefully not all of you have abandoned me!) Lots been going on, but mostly we have just been either busy or sick. :P Seems we always get sick this time of year. Last year at Thanksgiving we were taken out by a serious cold or something and it lasted for FOREVER! Well we are kinda going through another one as it just won't go away. We are non stop runny noses and coughs and feeling icky. Which really stinks because that means Creedence is missing speech therapy and play and learn classes. But she has recently been making a lot of great improvements so after talking with her speech therapist, we both feel she will be just fine waiting to resume sessions til she is fully recovered. Which she pretty much is, it is just me and the baby now that need to get better! LOL! I am always the last to get anything and it always takes me a really long time to get better. But lots of rest and vitamins should start helping soon. :D

So I wanted to share with you all some pictures from this last couple months. Creedence's birthday was the 12th of September (!!), and I realized I had never shown any pictures from then. She turned 4! 4 PEOPLE! I can't even believe it. It is incredible to think that 4 years have passed!
This little girl changed my life. She made me a mommy and it is the greatest thing to have ever happened to me. Even though she is wild and crazy and loud and extremely energetic, I adore her! She is funny and silly and creative and resourceful, proactive and determined. She can be so caring and sensitive and emotional and loving. But she is also a force to be reckoned with. She is headstrong and stubborn, eager and strong-willed. She is also still extremely impressionable, as she still is only a little girl. I think Jed and I tend to forget that every now and then.

She is a non-stop chatterbox anymore, and is always some sort of character or animal. And even though I LOVE this about her, I do worry for her with always being something else. Sometimes other little kids don't really 'get' her, and it really breaks my heart to see that. I want so much for her, but I am realizing there is very little I can do at times to help her. She just kinda has to figure some stuff out on her own, and making friends and fitting in with them is one of those things. Once she gets a little older and understands other kids better, then I think I will be more helpful, but for now I just have to let her be. Letting go of that control is a hard thing to do!

Real soon we are going to be putting her name in for a couple schools around here, and OMGOODNESS I am so nervous about that! I have no clue as to whether or not she will be really ready for it then, development-wise, but we have to put our name in early if we hope to have a chance when the lottery is drawn in February. If she makes it into one of the schools then we will start assessing her to see where she is. And that is still a few months off so we are working hard to try and get all ready for it! :D She is very excited!

So that is what is going on right now with the Munchkin. :D She is being as great a big sister as ever and is just busy being a crazy happy 4 year old.

And because I probably should start catching up with my scrapping shares that I have been making, here is a layout that went up on the Crate Blog on Tuesday for the Farmhouse Harvest Week event going on right now! :D I made a layout about our Autumn tradition of visiting the Hacienda Hay and Feed store here in Carmel Valley. I love that place so much, and these photos are some of my favs from our visits there.

I have to give credit to April Foster for the TTV tutorial! Be sure to check it out as I am in love and have been converting my photos into these non-stop! :D

Til next time! Take care!

~Amy

Today I....

2011-09-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!!! First off, I want to thank you all soooooo much for all your wonderful comments! From the bottom of my heart! Thank you! :D You are the sweetest blog readers ever!

Now I know I said I would be back with birthday photos, but we had a snag with that and it is taking longer than expected. They will be soon though! :D

Instead today, I am going to share with you my first posting over at the Authentique blog. I chose to talk about different things with this post: scrapping from the heart and not being afraid to document the hard times too, and also a twist on patterned paper blocking on your layouts. I decided I wanted to go ahead and share the whole thing over here too for all of you to see as well! Just in case you don't make it over to the Authentique blog that is...:D

So here it is:

Hi Everyone!!! This is Amy Parker, and I am so excited to be posting my first post here at Authentique! :D I was gonna cover two things today, and I really hope you will be inspired by both of them.

Over the years, since I have started scrapbooking, I have noticed that I tend to not use large blocks of patterned paper on my layouts. I like strips of it or hints of it here and there, or in shapes or something. Anything, as long as it isn't just a rectangle or square, but is altered in some way. I am not sure why, but something in my just has to chop it up into something different! LOL! But I will admit, I am very jealous of those scrappers who can pull off blocks of patterened paper on their layouts. I have tried so many times in the past, and been so disappointed that my layouts came out looking NOTHING like theirs, or even remotely as good.

Well, I decided to give it one more try this time. And again it just wasn't working for me. I had my piece of paper behind my photo and it just looked so flat. Then a lightbulb went off! And this may not be anything new to lots of other scrappers out there, but I was so excited when I got this idea that I was literally bouncing in my chair while cutting the paper! :P Anyway, one thing I am addicted to on my pages is texture. I LOVE creating depth and movement on my pages with different texture techniques. Now I don't mean mixed mediums and whatnot (although those are fun!), what I mean is layers upon layers upon layers of papers, embellishments, and pretty much anything that I find in my house that will work. :D So this idea I had was to create the same color block with the patterend paper, in the same spot as I intended before, but this time I chopped the paper into a whole bunch of squares and rectangles (just free-handed it)and just started stacking them on top of one another. :D This created a very layered and piecey and textured look! I was soooo happy with it! And because I seem to NEVER be able to do a layout without sewing anymore, I stitched vertical lines across my paper pieces. This created even more texture and I just love it!

This technique is really easy and so fun, and freeing! I know I will certainly be doing it more in the future! :D

So the subject of my layout you may notice is not the happiest in the world. Since we became a family of four, we have mostly been indoorsy kind of people. Or at least stay in the front yard kind of people. So for our first real big outing as a family of four we went to the County Fair a couple weekends ago. We had a wonderful time, and the Munchkin (just in case you aren't familiar with my blog-that is what we call our eldest daughter Creedence, and that nickname comes as natural to us all as her actual name) was beside herself she was so excited! She went on rides and saw livestock and played games! It was seriously like the best day of her life so far. Up until the last 15 minutes we were there. While eating some food that we picked up last minute while heading back to the front gate area, both Jed and I took our eyes off Creedence. It was only seconds, but that was all it took and she was completely out of our sight. Seriously I am shaking as I type this I am still so scared by what happened. Luckily there was a guy who saw where she went and he helped me find her, as Jed had to stay with Aurelia in the stroller. I felt like I was running in circles, my mind was racing yet empty at the same time and I could hear my heart pounding in my head. The whole thing lasted for no more than 5 minutes as I saw her little ponytail in between some chairs in front of the stage area, and I ran at her and grabbed her. And I just started bawling. Almost losing her was the scariest thing I have ever been through, and the that was hands down the worst day of my life. I felt sick for days afterward. And I made a promise right then and there-to Creedence, to my husband, to our youngest Aurelia, and to myself-I would never ever let go of her hand again like that. Ever. My heart can't go through that ever again.

I shared the story behind my layout with you because it goes along with the next thing I wanted to tell you about. I use scrapbooking as a form of therapy. It is extremely helpful for me to have this outlet, and to be able to let those feelings and emotions go by scrapping them. I felt the need to get this particular memory down on paper, as it was not only a milestone in my mommy years (not a good milestone but something I learned a huge lesson from), but it was also a big day in our family, and one that I never want to forget. I wanted you all to see that it is just as important to document the hard times, as it is the good times. Don't be afraid to scrap something difficult, cause it is incredible how therapeutic it is to get it down on paper, and that has helped me so much through the years.

Well I hope you all enjoyed my first posting here at Authentique! (And I hope I didn't talk your ear off! LOL!)

~Amy

What did you think??! I actually wanted to ask you all: is there something you would like to see me do tutorials on in the future? Topics you would like me to cover? I would LOVE your feedback, as I have lots of tutorials that I need to plan and need some ideas for them and could really use your help! Thanks so much! :D

I will be back soon with the birthday pictures....kinda. :P

~Amy

Basic Grey!!!!

2011-09-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow everyone!!! I can't believe it! Seriously I just can't. :P Not until I saw this on the BG Blog this morning! That made it official! :D

I'm so excited!!! Yay!! And I am so so honored to working with this amazing company and all those incredible designers listed! Thank you so much BG for this awesome opportunity!

Be back tomorrow with a birthday post! :D

~Amy

Authentique and Basic Grey

2011-09-03T12:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!!! Got a couple shares for you all today. :D I have been crafting! It feels so great to be scrapping on a regular basis. But after I get this up I have some major house cleaning to do! :P

First of all I wanted to share with you my very first Authentique Paper layout! :D Yay! It is up on the Authentique blog today for our first challenge as a DT! You should totally come check it out as the DT just did an amazing job with the sketch! Hope you all get a chance to play along as we would love to see what you do with the sketch too!

On this layout I mixed a couple different lines, using my favs from them. :D It is so awesome how well all the lines work together! I put my own twist on the sketch for the challenge, while still somewhat keeping the basic design. This layout is sized 8x8.

And a few close ups...

Next I have just a real quick share for ya. A layout that I just finished yesterday and barely got sent off in time for the BG DT Call! :D Yep that is right, I just couldn't resist!! Who can though right? I LOVE BG, and have wished they would do a DT call for a long while now.

I had intended on creating more than just one new layout, but ran out of time. It takes me a while to do a layout and I just didn't have enough time to get all I had wanted done for this call's deadline. Oh well. :D I will have some more time this week to work on more of them.

I made this layout using several different BG collections: Nook and Pantry, Out of Print and Basics. I used my absolute fav things from my fav lines on this layout and really love how it turned out. :D I was tempted to put some of my Prima flowers on it but decided to keep it pretty much just paper instead, and I am glad I did!

And here are some close ups...

I sent several other layouts with my submission, and I am hoping they loved them as much as I do! :D I sent these:

And also these 4 projects from waaay back when I was with Scrapbook Nook:

Simply Crate!

2011-08-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!!! Morning! First I wanted to thank you all so much for your sweet comments! They mean the world to me! :D

I am so excited this morning because my first tutorial for the Crate Paper blog is finally up today!!! :D I LOVE this layout that I made and really worked hard on typing out thorough instructions on how to make it.

I was assigned a Simply Crate, which means you are only supposed to use a limited amount of supplies in order to keep it simple. And this is a HUGE challenge for me! But I really really had a lot of fun with this one, and created something I am so happy with.

Be sure to check out the Crate Paper blog if you would like to remake this layout yourself! :D Take care!

~Amy

Authentique Paper Design Team!!

2011-08-20T16:22:00.000-07:00

Hi yall!! Been a little bit since I have been back and posting. Sorry bout that! I have all these posts that are half done that I just need to finish up and then I can schedule them. :P I have a bad habit of starting them but just not finishing them at all on the time schedule I had planned. LOL! Anyone else like that?

Anyway, I have some awesome news that I am actually a few days late in sharing.....I am a designer for the new paper company Authentique Paper!!!

I put my name in for this call (almost completely last minute!) and I got an email from them the other day! I am very excited and honored to be a part of this company's new adventure, and can't wait to get started! I really do think their lines are gorgeous and am especially in love with all the alpha and text stickers! :D I am a sucker for those!

Here are a few of my favs from their 6 new lines!!

Awesome stuff right?! Hopefully I will have some projects to show you soon, but right now I am still awaiting my box! :D Getting things all ready for it to arrive though!

Hope you all are well! I will be back real soon with some more scrappy shares, and also an update on the girlies! We had a 6 month birthday recently and I have the most adorable pictures of Aurelia eating her first birthday cake! :D See you again soon!

~Amy

Seriously...

2011-08-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! So the second layout I made for Crate Paper recently was put up on their blog last week, which means now I can share it here! :D I used the Random Collection for this one, and did something different that I had never done before. I created a little flip book on my layout using the new 6x6 paper pads Crate came out with this CHA! I had a lot of fun doing this, and will definitely be using these paper pads like this in the future.

The story behind this layout is one I am very happy to have scrapped, but I think it might be one of those 'you had to have been there' moments. Laugh! It displays the type of relationship that my husband and I have, and what keeps us laughing together. These happy moments I cherish, and when I saw these photographs I knew I had to document it.

I had asked Jed if he wouldn't mind taking some new photographs of me, as I needed some for not only Crate Paper's new DT announcement, but also for the upcoming Guest Design gigs I had coming up. So of course he said yes, because he honestly thinks he is a really great photographer, and any opportunity for him to prove that he will take. LOL! One of the many things that he does that makes me laugh! Even though it may be slightly annoying, it really does put a smile on my face.

Anyway, the photos are going well, changing backgrounds and smiles and blah blah blah. Taking pictures of myself is honestly a pretty daunting task for me, as I really think I am the least photogenic person alive! But I am who I am, and I know that I will be kicking myself years from now if I hadn't taken any pictures of my early days as a mom and of me in my late twenties. These moments only come for a short period of time and then they are gone!

Everything is going well til we move to the waterfall (yes I have a waterfall in my front yard. I keep saying to Jed that I really think he is confused as to where we really live, cause I waterfall is the last thing you would normally find in the front yard of a home in our town! LOL!) Jed all of sudden says "Ohhh I know what would look really good! Stay right where you are...." and he just keeps snapping pictures whilst sloooowly moving the camera away from me. I start to think he must have some sort of look he is going for with these, but it just keeps moving further away and he is talking still like I am doing great and to not move. :P A couple more seconds go by and he is still moving away and I said "Wait a minute!! Seriously?! Do you even have that camera pointed at me anymore?!!

I said "Nu-uh! Your not getting me out of this shot!!" and I leaned over as far as I could making sure I stayed in the camera's view! Laugh!! He is such a punk! Always trying to pull a joke and give me a hard time! I totally didn't think he was getting me in the shots, but then when I loaded the pics to the computer and saw that he actually was, well I knew I needed to scrap this memory, cause it gave us both quite a laugh. This moment is actually really special for me, and I am so thankful to have these photos to go with it.

Hope you enjoyed this, and laughed about it some! It makes me laugh every time I think about it. :D I will be back again in the next couple days with another layout share. Take Care!!

~Amy

Wishful Thinking....

2011-08-09T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hi! So my workload for this last CHA was REALLY light! :D I only had to make one layout for Crate Paper's booth at CHA, and one for their blog to use a week later. I was actually quite thankful for this because it turned out to be a rather busy time for me at home. :P

My CHA assignment was to work with Peppermint, which is their Christmas line. So gorgeous! I am totally in love with the colors of this collection, and all the patterns and details just make it wondeful! :D The only hiccup I have with a holiday collection is that we NEVER where I live. :P Never enough to really be able to take a picture of before the sun comes up and melts it that is. Laugh!

So I had to get creative with my subject. I chose to use some pictures of Creedence spinning the sand at the beach, pretending it was snow! This little girlie wants to go see the snow sooo badly! I honestly think she will be quite shocked when she finds out how cold it is! Laugh! Either way, I am really happy with how this layout turned out, and wish I still owned it :P But I seriously have enough product to be able to recreate it if I wanted. :D

Be back again soon with another Crate Paper share!

~Amy

A little more American Crafts love....

2011-08-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hi again! :D Crazy to see me again so soon huh? :P

I wanted to real quick let all those who have written me emails as of late that I still need to respond to know that I am going to do so this weekend! :D I have not forgotten about you at all, things have just been super busy, so forgive me please! Life is just taking the wheel a little right now.

So as I mentioned yesterday, I decided to put my name in for the AC Design Team call-totally doubt I will make it but you never know huh?! :D I am trying to stay positive about it and not go nuts checking my email every 5 minutes ya know? I'm sure they had soooo many people apply this term, not that they don't every time, but I am just trying not to get my hopes up real high. :P I just think about how much fun I had making these projects and it makes me remember why I do this hobby. :D For me to have some fun, and get my family's memories recorded.

On with the layouts! :D

So my first here came out differently than I had started, definitely not how I had imagined it, but I am still very happy with it. I really love this photo of Creedence, even though it came out super blurry (it is actually focused on the tree behind her), and really wanted to use it on a layout. So I did sort of a play on words thing, and my title is Trying To Stay Focused. It is about knowing Preschool is just around the corner, and I am trying to make sure that Creedence is prepped for it. Staying focused on how it will all benefit her and help her in the long run, but at the same time I am starting to realize that the sooner we get to that point, the sooner she will no longer be a little baby!! She is growing up so fast, and I am just not ready for it.

This next layout is also about the Munchkin, she is just going through so many stages and changes that I am finding it difficult to keep up!! :P She has always been super active and on the move 24/7, but as of recent I have started to think she was seriously going overboard with being active! She is a million miles a minute, and that is NO exaggeration! She is always talking, moving, jumping, tickling, asking, drinking, eating, running, pretending, and just plain loving being a kid!

My last paper scrapbooking project for the call is this card. :D Now most of you who know me absolutely know that I am NO card maker! I have gotten many a laugh from myself at my failed attempts at cardmaking, and I have also wasted a TON of scrapbooking supplies trying to make said cards. :P But it is so much fun when it comes together as easily as this one did! It really helps when you have stuff that all goes together. :) To be honest, I think this might be my fav card that I have ever made!

And last, but certainly not least, my altered project. I had really REALLY wanted to do a particular mini album, but I had to put that aside for later due to time constraints. (I have intentions on doing the mini real soon though!) So instead I made this t-shirt for Creedence! I had started one for the baby as well, but realized I used the wrong size onesie-I used a 6 month when she fits 9 month so there was no fudging trying to get her in it! :P She is just waaaaay too much of a chunker anymore to fit anything but 9 month. Which technically for her age is the right size, but she has actually been in that size since she was almost 5 months!!! :P

Anyway, this shirt was so much fun to make! I have really been loving the cute little t's made by Amy Tangerine, and really hope someday I have enough money to get some for the girls! But for right now I opted to make my own. And it actually was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

I decided to use my favorite font, American Crafts Regards chipboard thickers, and they worked beautifully for this! This particular font was big enough to show what the letters were when stitched, yet small enough for all the letters to fit on the shirt :D I just simply stuck the letters on the shirt where I wanted, then stitched around them, and peeled them back off when I was done, to reveal the perfect size letters! :D I was really quite proud of myself because this was pretty crafty for me! Laugh! The little heart I made out of felt, and I sewed some Dear Lizzy ribbons onto it and then a pretty little bow in the middle! It came out pretty cute and Creedence LOVES wearing it!

She had such a blast posing in it that I couldn't help but send in this other cute pic of her wearing it! :D She is such a ham!

So there you have it! My submission! :D I really hope they like it!

And I totally blew it the other day when I posted my Guest Design projects and forgot to put up my cards! I made two cards for it, and they took almost as long to make as the layouts because I am that card challenged! Laugh! They are both pretty simple, and both baby cards. I am still in baby mode over here! And I think it is safe to say that I probably will be til the littlest turns one. :D

I'll be back again soon with my recent Crate Paper shares!
Take care!

~Amy

Guest Designer at American Crafts!

2011-08-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I know I have been gone for a little bit here, but it is because I have been non-stop crafting and had family visiting. :D I hope to get back on a blogging schedule real soon here! It is incredible how much time has gone by since I was last on here, and it seems like a million and one things have gone on in that time! :P I am writing up some other posts today, most of them will be scrapbooking catch up, but I will make sure to do some update ones on the girls cause they have grown sooooo much!!

Anyway, back to the scrappy stuff for right now....I received an email from Paige Evans of American Crafts a while ago about being their Guest Designer for the week! I couldn't believe it! Talk about a dream come true! :D Who doesn't love American Crafts stuff huh?! So of course I said yes! It has been a little bit since my layouts went live on the AC blog, so I thought I would share them here too. :D

This first layout is about my two favorite flowers we had in our garden this season! I LOVE Ranunculus and this was my first time having some! They are so beautiful and delicate and just perfect for putting in vases. :D Make me very happy. And then we had a surprise in the garden with millions (I am not exaggerating!) of poppies! Jed threw out a butt load of seeds without paying attention to what went where or anything, and as plants started growing we would try to figure out what they were. Well for the loooongest time we thought these were weeds, but as buds started to form we realized they were poppies! And man they were stunning! So many colors and sizes, some single petaled and others super thick!! And with how many seeds they let down they should come back even more next season!

The theme for my week of guesting were decorative brads, so I tried my hardest to use them on my projects! But they really took center stage for my altered project: hair barrettes and pretty clips! I couldn't resist making these! They not only work for going in your hair but also clip onto clothes or scarves! Some I made specific for me :D , and then the rest I made for the Munchkin and Aurelia!
These are for the girls!
And these are for me! :D I've already worn the middle one several times and love it!!
I know there were requests to do a tutorial on making the little hair clips from the Elmer's and XACTO Blog Hop, and I haven't forgotten that! I will be working on that real soon! :D

Next up is a layout about the little one. I am working on trying to catch up on her monthly layouts, and I am still three months behind now! Laugh! Anyway, I had so much fun making this layout! I tore out a couple sheets of paper from a spiral I have and messily folded them in half. Not a bit of it was even, as sheets were sticking out in different directions in several places. I trimmed some layers with decorative scissors, and then stuck some strips of patterned paper cut with punches into some of the sections. Everything is leaning differently and it is slightly messy, but by keeping the colors crisp and bright and using a clean white, it keeps it from looking a mess! :D Once it is all stuck down, then I sewed through each layer and started adding photos!

I have my dear friend Rahel to thank for the gorgeous pink Thickers!!! She is the sweetest!

And last, but certainly not least, is my layout about Creedence's Speech Therapist, Sharon. I am so indebted to her, I don't know how I could ever thank her enough for all she has done for Creedence! She worked so hard with her and was so patient with her, and Creedence is not the same little thing because of it! Her speech has improved immensely and I am so happy because of it! Laugh! Now Creedence seriously NEVER STOPS TALKING!!! But I wouldn't change a second of that! :D

So there you have it!! :D All my American Crafts GDT work!

Less than two weeks later was the deadline for the DT call, and serioulsy with all this amazing AC product that I had just received I could not resist putting my name in!! :D I will be back tomorrow to share with you my submission!

Take care!!

~Amy

Elmers + X-ACTO Craft and Tell Blog Hop!!!

2011-06-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

Omgoodness everyone! My sincerest apologies!! I have no clue what happened, but my post is gone! :( Had it prescheduled (done it a million times), and it has just disappeared. ? Anyone ever had this happen? So needless to say I am rewriting the whole thing! :P

So by now you have made it through the whole line up-such an amazing group of ladies right?!!! (In case you are joining the hop without starting from the beginning-go here to Amy Heller's blog) I know I have told Amy a dozen times, but I am so honored to be a part of this awesome group of ladies!! Their creations are far superior to mine, so I feel awful being the last on the list for you all to see! I hope you all enjoy my creations!! :D

I am going to start you all off with the PRIZES!! Elmer's has been extremely generous with their prizes for this hop! We have 4 prize packs to giveaway, with a retail value of over $400 in total!! That is just incredible people!! :D

2 Grand Prizes-Two lucky people will receive this prize pack

In EACH of the (2) GRAND PRIZE bundles include:

3 X-ACTO Retract-a-Blade knives
3 CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Sticks
3 CraftBond Tape Runners
3 Mini Bi-fold 9x12 Foam Board packs
1 Painters Markers pack
1 X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors pack
1 Circle Cutter
1 X-ACTO Self-Healing Mat
1 Glue Dots pack
2 Photo Corners packs (various colors)
1 Gel Pens pack
1 Tacky Glue bottle
.................................
$140/retail!!

and then there are 2 more prize packs being given away by Amy Heller!

Prize Pack #1

1- XACTO Cutting Mat
1- XACTO Gripster
1- XACTO Circle Cutter
1- Elmer's Foam Board Pack
2- Elmer's Photo Corners
1- Elmer's Glue Spots
4 Gel Pens
.................................
Approx. $50/retail (US)

Prize Pack #2

1- XACTO RotaryTrimmer
1- XACTO Scissors
2- XACTO Decorative Scissors
1- Elmer's Glue Spots
1- Elmer's Craft Bond
5 Gel Pens
.................................
Approx. $50/retail (US)

Here is how to possibly win one of these for yourself: Hop through all ten blogs on the hop (starting with Amy Heller's blog) and leave a comment on each blog. You have until 11:30PM, PDT (West Coast Time) on Sunday to comment- that gives you all weekend! :D Winners will be chosen and posted on Amy's blog on Tuesday. :) Super duper easy right?

Now to show you my projects!!

I will first start with some barrettes and clips I made for both the girls and myself. :D Please note that I am really really (REALLY) late to the 'make-your-own-flower-hairthingy-and-clips' bandwagon. So these are my first attempts at it. :D I had a blast making them! But somehow it slipped my mind how INSANE my eldest Creedence is, so all the pictures of her are crazy and super blurry. This child is wild I tell ya!! But I think the only reason the pictures of Aurelia turned is because, bless her heart, she is stuck in her swing! Laugh! Won't be long though before this baby is on the move! Ok back to the projects....

This is the best picture I got this headband I made. :P But I love how this looks!!! :D I used my bottle of Elmer's Tacky Glue for this project, and as long as you let it completely dry then it works great!! The top part of the band (that goes across the top of the head) is actually 1 inch cotton seam binding that I sealed closed by applying a line of the glue on the inside and simply folded the two sides together. The bottom part (which is underneath your hair at the back of your neck) is some elastic ribbon, just enough to make the headband taut on the head. Glue these two pieces of ribbon together and you have your head band! The flower was really easy. I made it out of felt. There are tons of tutorials on how to make these rolled up felt flowers online, but if you would like a link to one just let me know in the comments and I will find one for you. :D On top of the flower I glued a bow and a yellow flower brad (which adhered beautifully!).

These next photos are ones that I was talking about. Creedence is just moving waaaay too much and I am not a good photographer so I don't know how to not get them blurry. :P I actually have no clue how to use the camera except in automatic. Laugh! These are simply just felt circles cut out and then a brad through them. I used some aligator hair clips and used the Tacky Glue again to ahere the ribbon on. (I can do a tutorial for this if you would like! It is so easy anyone could do it!) This isn't an instant drying glue so the ribbon did take some holding onto for it to dry together but it didn't take long. :D And now I have customized hair clips for the girls!

Here is the munchkin playing peek-a-boo with me while I am trying to get her picture!

Her mouth here is completely covered in chocolate milk! My daughter is one of those that can not help making a mess no matter what she does.

Here is Aurelia with her barrette! It matches her outfit :D Probably the only time this baby has worn coordinating stuff since she was born! Laugh!

And because I can't do this blog post without having a picture of this baby looking at the camera!

Here is a side view of the barrettes so that you can see them on the clips.

And here are two clips that I made for my sweaters. :D I almost ALWAYS (even when I sleep) wear a little plain silver barrette in my hair to help keep my bangs out of my face, but rarely do I wear a decorated barrette in my hair. So seeing as I wear sweaters all the time, I thought I might make a couple little things to dress them up once in a while! One has a clip back and the other a pin. Both are adhered, again, with the Tacky Glue! (Love this stuff!)

And because the munchkin has to be in EVERY PHOTO I take now a days, she just couldn't resist putting her hand in there!

Next is a layout I made about all my favorite quotes from Pinterest lately. :D This was an enjoyable layout to make! It is a two pager (8.5x11 double). I products I used for this project are: Elmer's Tacky Glue, Craftbond Permanent Tape Runner, and Craftbond Glue Spots. They worked beautifully for my scrapbooking!! The glue spots are super thin (so no lifted off the page effect when you are not wanting it), the tape runner is so smooth and easy to use (and quiet! I used to have a tape runner when I first started scrapbooking that made a clicking noise the entire time you ran it-and when you have a little one in the same room as you in the dead of night when you are trying to craft-quiet means a lot!! :D), and my fav of all the Tacky glue works fabulously! What I love most about this glue is that it is thick, but it doesn't warp your paper like other glues I have found. And I am a wet glue girl, so I have used MANY a bottle of wet glue since I started scrappin. :D So this glue for me is a keeper.

And lastly, I have here a project that I have wanted to do for a VERY long time!!! Ever since I first saw these frames from Sassafras Lass I knew they would be awesome for this! So I finally did it! Here is our little family portrait hanging for the living room! Doesn't go at all with our furniture or the colors anywhere in our house, but I LOVE IT!!! I can't wait to get it hanging in it own designated spot in the living room! (for this picture I just hung it on the pan rack in the kitchen area so I could get a picture next to the sliding glass door) I used all the same glues as the above project, and again they worked like magic!

So there you have it!! All my projects! I had a few things in my box that did not get used, though I have intentions to do so. There was a circle cutter (something I have NEVER owned) so I was really intimidated by it. Circles is not something I have used much on my layouts because I would have always had to hand cut them out, and they look all wonky so I just avoided it. But now that I have the cutter I am going to put it to good use. I tried to use it for these projects but kept messing up (user malfunction! Laugh!), so I need to work more on my technique with it and then I know I will get it right eventually! :D And the other thing I wanted to use was the Foam Board! I could not for the life of me figure out what to do with this, until last night an idea came to me! LOL! A little too late huh? So I have plans on putting that together this week and hopefully will have it done soon!

Again Everyone I am so so sorry that this did not go up when it was supposed to! I have never had a post just get eaten up like that before! :( All your comments on my other posts will all be counted, so no need to recomment unless you really would like to! Thanks so much!!!

Real quick I wanted to say a HUGE Thank you to Amy Heller!!! She is the best, and I really had a blast with this Craft and Tell! And also a HUGE HUGE THANK YOU to Elmer's and XACTO for making all this possible!!

Take care everyone! And good luck with the hop!

Elmers + X-ACTO Craft and Tell!!!

2011-06-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! I can finally share my excitement!! This is gonna be so fun!

A little while ago I was contacted by the amazing and awesome Amy Heller, asking if I wanted to be a part of an Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft and Tell Blog Hop she was hosting! Of course I said YES!! I was so honored that she asked me, as I not only love her work but adore her as well! She is the sweetest and nicest and is serioulsy talented!! I have been super giddy ever since I got her email! :D I received my box about a week later, WOW I couldn't believe some of the stuff in there! Some things really cool, some so super useful, and others that I have never used before in my life so this was certainly a fun and new experience! And I have had a blast! I will have some sneaks to show you real soon, but they just aren't quite ready yet. :D The full reveal will happen soon.... First off it is time for you guys to have some fun!!!

On Saturday and Sunday, June 11-12, mark your calendars, because some of the most talented ladies out there will be bringing you layouts, cards, altered items and mini albums all created with Elmer's + X-ACTO's specially designed adhesives and cutting tools, perfect for paper crafting aficionados such as yourself!

Amy Heller is going to be announcing a new member of the Elmer's + X-ACTO Craft & Tell Blog Hop Team via Facebook and Twitter each day (so make sure you are friends with her there/or following her there). Each day the person she announces will have a post on their blog, maybe even with a sneak peak of one of their projects that will be shown in its entirety during our hop! It is going to be a lot of fun seeing what all the amazing ladies on this team have in store for you!! :D

Not only will there be TONS of inspiration, but Amy will be giving away two spectacular prize packages (U.S. residents only) provided by Elmer's + X-ACTO!!! HUGE!!! Here's a look at what Elmer's + X-ACTO will be giving away that weekend!

Prize Pack #1

Prize Pack #2

Totally AWESOME right?!!

Remember this will all start on Saturday the 11th!! So make sure you check out Amy Heller's blog on that day to begin hopping through our blogs!! :D

In the meantime, make sure you "Like" Elmer's and Xacto on Facebook and follow them on Twitter:

FacebookElmer's : http://www.facebook.com/Elmers

X-Acto : http://www.facebook.com/XACTO

TwitterElmer's : http://twitter.com/#!/elmers

Woohoo Can't wait til the 11th!! Hope you all have fun and I'll wish you luck!! :D
~Amy

Exciting News and Winners!!!

2011-06-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!!! Lots going on today, so I am going to have a couple posts go live today. I have winners to announce, layout shares and super duper huge awesome blog hop that I am so honored to be a part of!!! :D Let's get to it!

First up, so so sorry that I did not get on here sooner to tell you all the winners of my Scrapbook Trends April magazines! And I totally blew it when the munchkin drew names and didn't have my camera out. :P Which was probably best cause I was almost in tears when the names were finally drawn and all was said and done. I was so frustrated because Creedence just did not want to listen at all to my telling her to just pull ONE NAME AT A TIME, she wanted too much to just throw the whole bowl up in the air and have all the little papers go flying, and pretend like it was snowing on her. :P Bless her little heart, she just loves to have fun! Needless to say though I think I will have Jed pull names for future giveaways from now on. And something awesome...I decided to do three names instead of just two!! :D So there is one more lucky winner! Yay!

Here they are:

Glue Meets Paper said...
wow Amy great post :) Your little ones are too adorable! No surprise they picked that pretty little girl for the cover! And btw when I saw your picture I thought "wow she looks GREAT for having such a young baby" and then I read how you're still unhappy with how you look. So let me just say I completely understand that feeling (i have so much more to lose and my baby is already 8 months eek) but you really look fabulous. OH and your layout is so darling....love it! Alright- long comment for a long blog post :)
May 8, 2011 10:51 AM

Katey said...
great photos! congrats on the layout on the layout!
May 18, 2011 9:01 PM

Olivia said...
Wow Amy, what a beautiful layout with the patchwork heart! Your Easter looks like it was fun, love the cute photos of Creedence's expressions :)Hope that you had a lovely Mother's Day xx
May 8, 2011 3:30 PM

Yay to the lucky ladies!! Congrats! If you ladies could all email me (09122007@sbcglobal.net) your addresses I will get these off to you ASAP! :D Thank you to all who left comments!! I will have more giveaways coming real soon!

I also wanted to thank you all for your wonderful comments about how I look. :D They really made me feel so much better, as I had been really low lately. You all are wonderful!!! Thank you!!! *HUGS!* I have started really watching what I eat (as I had been eating a ton of this lately!) and been trying hard to kick my butt in gear with working out, but I am determined not to be watching the scale. I need to get back in shape and not be so focused on the losing weight part. It is unrealistic for me to automatically assume that once I am back to my previous weight I will be able to fit all the pants I wore just out of hight school. Laugh!! What truly is just silly. I know that things have changed since I had the girls. Things shifted that are never gonna move back! So I need to just come to terms with that. :D But being healthy is a goal I can achieve. And that is what I will be working towards.

Everyone is good here, just chuggin along. Jed has grand plans for the house and is getting an itch to start them, so we are in the middle of combining our offices right now. Thought this would be a lot easier than it turned to be. I knew it would be madness!! So now my scrap room (which was somewhat close to being done) now got turned upside down again, and has about half of Jed's stuff in with it too. :P This did not make some of my pending deadlines very easy!! :( But I am working on it.

Speaking of scrapiness stuff, I have a share for you all! :D It is a layout I did for the new Noel Mignon challenge which is all about Birthdays! My layout was late (thanks to my missing mojo) so it is not on the challenge post, but it is up on the Noel Mignon blog. :D I used the new Mary Ellen kit for this layout! Love that kit!!!!

This layout is filled with so many layers! It was a lot of fun to make, but took quite a bit of planning! :D I put this in for the Elle's Studio call, didn't make it though. :( I will keep trying for that team though cause I want it soo much! :D Really love the colors in this kit! I hope to get a couple more layouts done with it before the new kit arrives!
That's all I have right now so I will be back soon with more scrappy shares and picture updates!

I have also posted info in another post on the totally awesome blog hop so be sure to check that out!! :D

Take care!

~Amy

Giveaway still open.....

2011-05-16T22:52:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! So I don't know if all of you know but Blogger WENT NUTS over the weekend and lots of my comments on my giveaway post got deleted. :(

So I am going to keep the giveaway open for a little bit longer so that you all can make sure your name is in there if you were wanting it :D

You now have til Wednesday 11:59 pm PST to comment! Be sure to do so in the Giveaway post!

Be back soon with a winner!! :D

Where I have been and what I have been doing....

2011-05-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

*Giveaway down at the bottom of the post*

Hi Everyone! :D I want to thank all of those who left a comment on my last post. I wrote that at about 1 in the morning, and had just kinda let everything go with it. Which was really good! Very therapeutic, but really sad. Sometimes you just have to get it out though ya know? It has taken me a few days now to stop being so emotional and sad, but with National Scrapbooking Day and Mother's Day this weekend, I have lots of reasons to be happy! It is 1 am again and I am sitting here editing photos from Easter! Laugh! Better late than never right? :D First I will share a little update on what we have been up to:

This one is growing faster than I ever could have imagined.

(asked her here to please give me a smile but her mouth was super full of candy! Of course!)

She is talking non-stop, and in more complete sentences. She has an enormous vocabulary, it just astounds me! She said the other day that I was beautiful, she was pretty and Aurelia was lovely. :D She is such a joy and a sweetheart!

But she still has her extremely stubborn side, and is as strong-willed and stubborn as the day she was born! (If not more so!) Time-out is much more frequent as of late, but that is because she is now testing more than ever. And she knows how to back talk now too! It is cute as ever, Jed and I have the hardest time keeping a straight face! But Holy Shnikes I had no idea one little kid could be so crazy from the moment she wakes to the moment she falls asleep! It is like pulling teeth to get her to do anything, including listen to you. :P

Physically she is doing tremendously well. She is so tall right now, she is up to my mid waist! (I am super short but still! This is my baby! When did she get this big?!) She loves to run, jump, spin, scream, fly and go for walks, and that is all before breakfast. Laugh!

She is getting so good at sharing, and is always very concerned when sister cries. She is loving to read books right now, and can count to 12! Still working on understanding what those numbers mean though. She may play tough to get most of the time but she is such a huge softie, and absolutely breaks down when she gets in trouble. Automatically the Mommy I Love you's come out and she just wants to be held. And I can't help but do just that. :D

(Awesome perspective here huh?! Jed took this picture :D)

It's pretty funny these pictures below-she just could not help herself but to start eating!!

And start talking while she was eating....

Want some?! .... :D She is at such a challenging yet super fun age!

This little one is growing more and more everyday!

(Please ignore Jed's face here. He too couldn't stop eating the candy!)

Aurelia is now 3 and a half months old, and is so stinkin tubby it is hilarious! She has some super power thighs under those pants there! :D She is the cutest Sumo baby when she is just in a diaper. Cuteness overload! She has also started laughing! She is very select at what she laughs at, but she smiles at almost everything. She is naturally a happy baby, and we are so lucky to have this little one! She reveals more personality everyday, and it is so fun to see her becoming who she will be. She adores her sister! She would watch Creedence all day long, if only Cree would stay within Aurelia's sight. She loves to be sitting up and feel a part of what is going on, and absolutely can not stand to be left laying there for more than like 20 seconds! She is one of those that wants to go with you where ever you go, and if she can do that she is perfectly content. :D
She has been having some not so happy times lately because she is getting 4 teeth in! I can see quite easily that this is affecting her, and I feel so bad! The poor thing. 4 is just way too much for one to handle all at once! And what is worse is she can't hold onto anything yet so teethers aren't working for her at all. She found her hands fairly early so she uses those to chew on when I am not there nursing her or holding something for her to chew on. I know that she will only be this little for so long and also this bout with teething will pass soon, so we are doing our best to get through it. :D
(Love those chubby cheeks!)

This guy is being an amazing father, and a wonderful husband.

He comes home from work (that's right! He found a job! :D), exhausted, but will still make time to play with the girls-be it a full tackle and run session with the munchkin, or playing airplane/superbaby with the bitty. Creedence and him have a special time that they spend in the front yard when he gets home. She helps him with moving rocks to the pond, and planting seeds and picking weeds. She LOVES to be outside with Papa. Jed has taken on a couple things since Aurelia was born, things that help around the house but also make for special bonding times with the girls, but mostly for Creedence. He bathes the girls almost every night (sometimes Creedence passes out before bath time happens!), he brushes the munchkin's teeth every night, and he puts Creedence to bed at night (as I usually stay up later and am nursing Aurelia at that time). He is also the champion cuddler of the house. If anyone has a owie or is upset, he is there to let them sit on his lap. (ie: the munchkin! hehe)

And as a husband he is really being wonderful. So understanding of the fact that the first year having a baby some things just have to get put on hold. We are working hard to keep our relationship strong, and communicating much better with each other than we ever have. He's a crazy guy who constantly needs to be kept in check, but I love him. :D

And this is me as of right now.

I won't deny that I am not really very happy with how I look right now. But that is kind of normal seeing as I just had a baby and am dealing with about 20 extra pounds that wasn't there before. :P I don't know what is going on but I tried to put on a pair of pants this evening that I wore last Tuesday and they would not get past my hips. Sigh. That right there made it official. I can no longer fit any of my non-maternity pants, and am stuck with wearing my maternity jeans or my sweatpants. All. the. time. I am really bummed. Tomorrow starts a change in my diet and regular exercise. And I can't tell you how extremely difficult it will be!! Omgosh. It's gonna be super hard. But I gotta do it, cause I am so tired of this. I hate the way I look right now, and I want to wear my clothes gosh darn it! :)

Here is a pic of almost all the cousins lined up and ready to start egg hunting!! Creedence did so good with posing for these! She stayed in one spot and kept this huge smile for like 6 pictures! Laugh! That is really good for her! :D
And here is a picture of almost the whole family on Jed's side. :D There are several people missing from this shot but hey at least all the kiddos are there!

And because it is just too gosh darn cute I have to share a pic of the sweetest most adorable little puppy I have ever seen!! :D
I seriously just wanted to put it in my purse as I left! And it would have totally fit too! Love!
Now for scrapbooking related stuffs!! :D I have a couple things I wanted to share with you all.

First off I want to tell you about a site that a new friend of mine, Rahel, just started called The Scrapbook Mentor!! It is not your ordinary scrapbooking site. You can think of it as an ongoing, online scrapbooking course. This “course” is taught by Rahel Menig, the on-site Scrapbook Mentor. She has years of scrapbook experience and is so inspiring!! Her scrapbook style is flawless and fresh and I absolutely love some of the ideas she has for using products on her projects! Every month she will have new things to show us and teach us! Each month as an exclusive member you will get:

2 New Video Tutorials (invaluable insight on how she creates her masterpieces!)
3 New Articles On Various Scrapbooking Topics (tips and techniques that will inspire you!)
1 Open Question & Answer Webinar (being able to talk one on one with Rahel herself!)
1 Product or Service Review With Giveaway (free stuff! seriously how awesome is that?!)

Here is a little bit more talking about the site (taken from the main page :D): Think of this site as a scrapbook meetup that never ends and an online scrapbooking classroom that never closes! As a member of our site, you can login day or night at anytime and participate in the growing members only forums. At the same time you can get inspiration for new scrapbooking pages and learn some new techniques from our resident expert. We feel that this site takes scrapbooking to the next level. There is nothing better then being a part of a special community and that is exactly what we’re building here. We don’t know of any other sites in the scrapbooking world that are doing what we are. We want you to be a part of this!

Here is a link to The Scrapbook Mentor's blog where you can check out not only the awesome projects she has featured for members this month (which includes tutorials, behind the scenes footage, inspiration, and thought process while making these gorgeous creations!), but also the current National Scrapbooking Day Challenges she has posted!!! Yay!!! I am working on mine this evening and am having a blast! Here is a link to the FAQs page if you have any questions, or you can contact Rahel here. :) Please come check it out and give it a try!! Rahel is super sweet and would love to see you there!! :D

Next thing on my list to tell you all about is the awesome NSD challenge going on over at Noel Mignon that was posted by the lovely Jill Cornell! It is all about using up those old kits and getting your layouts you make submitted for publication!! It is a for fun challenge so no prize involved, but still a great challenge nonetheless! :D Totally need to do this as I have massive amounts left over from Noel's kits that desperately need to be used! And many a call to submit to that I keep forgetting to do!

Two last things to tell you about before I head back to my scrap room to start scrapping again-Today was my day to post up a challenge over at Cosmo Cricket! I was so nervous about this because the last time I did a post there I had soooo many typos it was seriously ridiculous! Laugh!! But I used spell check this time so I think it turned out ok. Here is my layout for the challenge:

Totally didn't photograph at all like I had hoped it would, but it was my second round with photographing it and I really didn't feel like doing it again. Laugh! The layout turned out differently than I had intended but I kind of like it being different. My handwriting on it ruined it though! Guh. Well hopefully Creedence will appreciate seeing my handwriting when she is older and flipping through her albums. :D

And then last but not least: I received my box of the April 2011 Scrapbook Trends with my layout on the cover!!!

I had no idea they would send me so many copies! I have two for me to keep (just in case one gets ruined-you know, having a particular monkey around LOTS of things get ruined fast), one each for my Grandma and my Dad (who each requested one :D), and TWO to giveaway for you all!!! So leave a comment on this post by Wednesday 11:59 pm PST! I will have my munchkin/monkey Creedence draw two winners on Thursday!

My last thing to say:

I know this is the same image I used last year, but I just love it soooo much!!! :D Can you blame me for using it again? :)

Take care everyone!!! :D Be back soon!

~Amy

8 years....

2011-05-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

I have been dreading May 1st for about a month and a half now. It is incredible how fast this day came. Even though it is May Day, a gorgeous flower holiday, it is so hard for me to see it as that, because 8 years ago today my dear mother passed away.

This is my Mom, my sister Melissa, and me (I was 16 here!).

I remember parts of that day so vividly. It is funny what sticks with you. It rained that day, but only after she passed. Rain always makes me so happy, so maybe she was trying to cheer me up. I always think of my mom whenever it rains anymore.

It is incredible how much I have clung to just because it was something that she loved. Like I still have her purse. Completely untouched and intact since the last day she used it. I don't know if I have shared this on here before (can't remember) but there is a little restaurant here in town that she LOVED. We always went there. It is a breakfast and early lunch place. Breakfast was her fav meal, and she would get blackberry pancakes. They never had enough blackberry to them for her (even though they were covered in fresh blackberries) so she would put a couple of those little tiny blackberry jam packets they have for toast ontop of her pancake stack. And she would always take a few for the road so she would have some at home just in case. Her purse still has a few packs in it. It has been almost 5 years since I looked in her purse last, I break down every time I do.

Jed used to give me a real hard time about the fact that I watch the same movies so much and so often. It took him really pressuring me about it for me to realize why I will play Harry Potter 10 times in one day, though I only see it once throughout the whole day but in bits and pieces. My mom layed in her bed, which was in the living room, for most of the time and to bring her a little more happiness we would watch movies. There wasn't a whole lot she was able to do so this was special for her. I would give anything to be able to watch a movie with her one more time. And I promise I would actually sit there through the whole movie. It is uncontrollable my need to have a movie on. I can't describe the happiness it subconsciously brings to me.

I did a layout about a month ago about this day. Sadly I have a lot of regrets that I am finding very hard to come to terms with. So it was very therapeutic to get it all down on paper. Although rereading it all to type it, it all still hurts so much.

Journaling reads: I can not believe how much I didn't say that I should have. You deserved so much more from me than I gave. I regret staying away because I didn't know how to deal with it. I miss watching movies with you. Meandering through stores. I miss your humor, your laughter, your creativity. It makes me so angry my daughters will never know you. I cry so hard some times I can barely breathe. It has been almost 8 years and it feels like nothing has changed. I should have been there more. Been more involved. Tried to make a difference for your life while you were still here to enjoy it. I'm sorry I didn't. Although I can not remember everything from that day, I most certainly can recall it being the worst day of my life. The main emotion I feel when I think of it is regret. I did not expect that day to come as quickly as it did. I remember when grandma came to me and told me she thought it was close. I didn't believe her. I guess some part of me always thought you would get better. I actually had attitude when she told me. And you were gone 20 minutes later. I can barely remember what your hand felt like in mine. These things I own I will never part with: Your purse-with all the little blackberry jam packets you would take from the Wagon Wheel still inside. The answering machine-the only recording of your voice that I own. It absolutely rips me apart inside when I hear about women not having a relationship with their mothers that is constant. Daughters that hate their mothers. I never once told my mother I hated her. From the time I was 12 years old I was afraid of losing her. Of being pulled out of class to be told that it had finally taken her. And if I had not dropped out of school to be there, that would have happened. I would have missed those last months moments with her, so I don't regret even for a moment disappointing her and not graduating when I should have. I will never again be able to tell you I love you. hug you. help you. enjoy with you. laugh with you. Be able to call you. depend upon you. ask anything. hold your hand. I will never again hear your voice. Hear you tell me how proud you are of me. How much you love me. It is kind of silly but I miss being called your Mazy girl. Why didn't I cherish that more?

I have an awful lot to work through. My grieving process has only just started recently. When you sit down and actually talk about the pain, it feels like it is neverending. I miss my mom so much. I am very thankful to have my wonderful husband Jed and my two beautiful girls. They keep me going. I am going to spend today remembering my mother, but spending some quality time with my family to make it a little easier.

I am sorry I have been so MIA recently. I have been distracted by this happy silly girl (who is growing so much! Since when did her 3T pants not need to be rolled over at the waist anymore?)

and by this chunky monkey! (She is cutting three teeth already! which means she is almost constantly nursing :P

I will return soon with updates and shares! Hope you are all well! Take care!

~Amy

Lily Bee shares and an update on pictures....

2011-03-31T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hi! Well I really thought I would have pictures to share by now but they haven't made it on here yet. I am going to be taking more tomorrow and do some editing so hopefully I will have updated pictures real soon! :D Until then, I have some layouts to share with you all. See layouts are actually easier to do than take pictures cause I do my crafting at night when the little ones are sleeping, so I get more done then. During the day if I try to take pictures of the munch she usually has several things going on that keep the pics from turning out like I would want-super messy hair, food on face, absolutely no clothes on (this one happens a lot. I turn around and poof! she is naked again!), or just doesn't want me to take pictures. :P I need to get over the fact that pictures are not always going to be perfect every time! And focus more on documenting the everyday. I really really need to do this.

I have a busy weekend coming up as it is massive house cleaning time here at the Johnson house. I have neglected the house long enough this week, and it is just too much right now! I can't stand it anymore, so a huge cleaning is in our future and that will hopefully make it easier for me to take pictures cause I won't be worrying about getting that messy pile or those dishes in the shot. :P Laugh!

So on the scrappy side, I decided to throw my name in the hat for the Lily Bee Design Team call. :D I really love their products, and am always so inspired by their current DT that I thought I would give it a go. Unfortunately though I really don't have a whole lot of their past few releases (just what I have gotten in kits) so I had to work with some old OLD product for one of my submission LOs. I don't think they will mind though. :D It was not at all required for submitters to use new product. So here are the two LOs I sent over this evening.

This first one I used the This & That collection, and it is about my two girls getting along as sisters. They are just doing wonderfully together, and I couldn't be more happy! (I used my Jump and Jive kit by Noel Mignon to make this-there are still some left!!)

And this next LO I decided to go very neutral on the background cause I wanted lots of color pops, and used flowers to do this. So I relied heavily on the Lily Bee papers as neutrals to balance my LO and also give those colorful flowers something to bouce off of. :D I really love how this LO turned out, although it still needs journaling-which will go on the left hand side written in black. I am still trying to figure out all I want to say so that is why I left it blank for now. :D

So keeping my fingers crossed and wishing good luck to all who applied!! Can't wait to find out who they pick for the new team! :D In other scrappy news, I have something pretty awesome to announce! I found out the other day from my good friend Noel that I made the cover of Scrapbook Trends April edition! I was thrilled!! This is seriously a scrappy milestone for me-and I never thought I would have this opportunity! But here it is: I can't even believe it! Thank you thank you thank you a million times over to Pam Baird at Scrapbook Trends! She is the sweetest! It will be a little bit before this mag is in my hands, but I can wait. :D Well that is all I have right now, I will be back with more scrappy shares this weekend, as this has been a busy crafting week! :D Hope all is well with you all! Take care! ~Amy

Noel Mignon Blog Hop!!!

2011-03-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!! So here is the low-down on the Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the April Kit Sneak peek Blog hop!

This will be a two day event, so be sure to join us both Saturday and Sunday to join in on all the fun. This is more than just a fun way to get a bunch of sneaks all in one weekend, we have also turned it into a fun game! For April, we are revealing the name of the kit through jumbled letters (this is a 3 word name, with 11 total letters).

The first stop on the hop is the NoelMignon LO/Project blog. So if you are stopping here first, please head back over there and start over to be sure you collect all the letters.

Also, be sure to leave comments along the blog route, as there will be one lucky winner of a $10 discount pulled from all the comments left along the way. We are going to pull the winner from ONE blog, but that blog is a "mystery", so be thorough, and leave comments on every blog so you don't miss out!

The kit goes up for sale bright and early Monday morning! There will be a full reveal and kits will start shipping that very day! Get your order in early, as this one has the lines that have been getting a lot of attention since they debuted at CHA, and it won't last long! Check in at the Noel Mignon LO/Project blog on Monday for the full kit reveal!

So here is my letter for the word scramble! :D

Ok so remember, it is a 3 word-11 letter phrase that you are trying to figure out so make sure you get every letter-one from each design team member! And in case you were having a little difficulty with figuring it out....Noel gave me this fun image to show so you had a little hint! :D

Happy Hopping!!! And Good Luck! Now head back over to the Noel Mignon LO/Project Blog tomorrow morn for the full reveal of this gorgeous kit! :D

~Amy

Pictures from February

2011-03-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hi again! :D I have pictures to share today, but they are not recent. :P I went to go grab the camera just a few minutes ago and the battery is dead, so I need to ask Jed when he gets home where the charger is so that I can take new pictures tomorrow. Until then I will share pics from our photo shoot at Carmel Beach from February 11th. (Can't believe it has been more than a month since then!!!)

I will start off with this silly crazy little girl! She is just a wild thing nowadays, and is growing so fast! She is feisty, and opinionated (now that she can verbalize it all!), but she is so sweet and caring as well. She is a wonderful big sister, and I thank her for that everyday. She really appreciates being needed and helpful. She is still just as head strong and stubborn as the day she was born. Even though those are her most difficult attributes to deal with, I don't ever want her to lose them! She is doing a lot more on her own (eating, playing, and talking), and is wanting to do more on her own. She really growing and becoming a beautiful little girl.

These two are doing beautifully together. Aurelia puts up with 50 plus kisses a day (sometimes just that many at bed time!), and constant little hand holding. Creedence wants to be able to interact with her but realizes that there are limitations with what Aurelia can do. I know too well that that will be changing real soon, as this first year is going to be tremendous in regards to Aurelia's growth! (*Sigh* I had to take a little pity party moment there after typing that sentence! Why do they grow so fast?!) And Aurelia is just entranced by Creedence! She loves to watch her and be around her! It is so sweet to see!

And this is me. :D I haven't really wanted to take a whole bunch of pics of me lately, but I know that my children will appreciate it when they are older. I just really wanted the weight that I gained to be gone quicker! :P I know I know, I am only 2 months out. But sheesh! I seem to have a ton more on me after this baby than I did with Creedence! Laugh!

And me and my girls. These photos below mean a lot to me. This is us, all day long til Jed comes home. I thank him very much for capturing these images for me. They leave me speechless. :D

And here he is. This man is wonderful. He didn't skip a beat when Aurelia arrived. He stepped up and did what he needed to around the house, and with Creedence, and for me or Aurelia anytime something needed to be done. I can't thank him enough for being there and being so congenial about it. And he loves being a father. I can't believe my girls and I got so lucky with him. :D

Well there is an update (kinda! :P). I will be back tomorrow with the Noel Mignon Blog Hop, so be sure to check in!! :D The hop started today so if you would like to get the first part done, it all starts on the Noel Mignon layout blog! :D Happy Hopping!

Be back soon with more project shares and pictures! Take Care!!

~Amy

P.S. all pictures here were edited with Paint The Moon PSE free actions (specifically sunny days)!! Check out their facebook for details! :D

Be there!!

2011-03-18T12:15:00.001-07:00

Wanted to let you all know real quick we have another blog hop happening this weekend at Noel Mignon!!! More details on that will be coming up soon! But be sure to check in to the Layout blog on Saturday to get started!! :D

Happy St Patrick's Day!!!

2011-03-17T10:31:00.000-07:00

I hope you all have a Bonny Bright Day!! :D (Jed took this picture btw)

I will be back soon! I promise!

~Amy

Sass shares and finally some new pictures!

2011-02-12T14:24:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!! I finally have some pictures to share with you all! They were taken a few days after her 'one week birthday', and hopefully I will have some more taken tomorrow too. And not just pictures of the wee bitty, but of us all. :D Much needed right now as none of us have been in front of the camera in a while. :P

Seriously, could she be any cuter?!!! That last picture is one of her funny little smiling faces. She actually does those a lot! And almost always when Jed comes around. :D We know already that she is a daddy's girl.

I have some Sassafras Lass shares for you all today! I finally finished a few of the projects I had been working on for the Sass DT call. :P I just hope that they nose around on peoples blogs so that they see these! Laugh! If not, oh well. I am really happy with these LOs and that truely is all that matters. I still have more that I am working on but they are not quite done, and I have a few other projects to work on right now so they will have to take a bit of a backseat until those are done.

This first one is the first that I finished (and it was before my Truly Scrumptious kit came from Noel Mignon so it is made primarily of all older Sass products). The photograph here was almost deleted by Jed, and I am so glad that I caught it because I love it! Yeah it is not of anything but Creedence's head and the path behind her, but I think it is gorgeous. Something about it just spoke to me and I had to use it on a LO. This is titled 'Follow Your Heart'. Something that my mother taught me to do, and something I will be passing on to my own daughters.

This next LO I made for the Valentine's Day Crop over at Noel Mignon (did you come and join us?! It was a blast!), and I used my Truly Scrumptious kit to make it! :D My challenge was to follow the rule of twos! That means that you can use anything you want on your LO, but it must be in twos! So you can only use to pieces of cardstock, or two pieces of patterned paper, or only two pieces of chipboard. The only things I required you to absolutely have on your LO were two hearts. It is a Valentine's Day challenge after all. :P I decided to use two of the new Sassafras Lass Paper Crush papers for my patterned papers. LOVE THESE! :D

This last LO was an absolute blast to make, and it came together so fast! I made it for the current DT challenge over at Noel Mignon, where we followed a sketch. I decided to turn the sketch as it made it flow better for me. :D One thing that was a lot of fun (but difficult!) to do was the circle punched border running vertical on my paper. I punched 1 inch circles out of my Sassafras Lass Mix and Mend paper, then lined them up exactly as they were on the paper on the paper I wanted for my background. It created this scalloped border that looks exactly like the Mix and Mend paper. :D Certainly more work than it needed to be but lots of fun to do.

And there you have it! I will have more to share with you real soon! Certainly more photographs of us. I need to stay more on top of sharing those for my family! I am sooooo bad at getting photos sent off to them.

Hope you are all well!! Thanks so much for your sweet comments! They make me smile so much! :D

Take care!! ~Amy

One week...

2011-02-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

Thank you so so much to everyone for your sweet comments!! :D They mean so much!

I can't believe it has been one week already since I had her!!! She is just as sweet as can be. But is a bottom-less pit, so I feel like I am CONSTANTLY feeding her! Laugh! I wish I had some pics to share with you all but the week has flown by and we have all just been in a daze here. No routine for anything yet, but family just left 2 days ago, so it being just the four of us is still new. Creedence is doing wonderfully! She tries to be gentle bless her heart! But she wants so much to just play with Aurelia and show her all her toys and things. We keep telling her soon, very soon. We both know too well that the first year goes by soo fast! I layed awake the other night looking at my sleeping munchkin Creedence and just cried. Bringing home Aurelia made me realize just how big Cree really is! These are precious times, but extremely short, so I am trying to focus on just being present and not getting overwhelmed. There are emails I need to send, projects that need to be made, deadlines coming up, but I just sit with my two little girls in bed and watch Sprout or read a book because I know that is where I truly want to be.

Thought I would share with you all the most recent LO I've finished. I made it with the Noel Mignon Very Virginia kit (which has since sold out!), for the most recent challenge that went on over there. Love how this LO turned out! (although on my blog the pic looks a little dark? Is it just me?) I was trying to go for clean and simple, yet messy and distressed at the same time? :D Laugh! Either way, I really love this LO.

Right now, in between feedings and changing the tiniest diapers in the world, I am trying to finish up a couple little LOs that I started for the Sassafras Lass DT call. They got set aside when I went into labor last Tuesday night. :P Oh well. I would have had them done in time, but I was holding out for the new Noel Mignon Truly Scrumptious kit to arrive!! (Sorry this is now sold out too!) It is jam packed with brand new Sass Paper Crush and stickers! But alas, it is somewhere in transit and still hasn't arrived. :P I hope I get it real soon!! Until then I have TONS of older Sass that I am using, and that certainly isn't a bad thing as working down my stash is essential! :D

Well that is all I have time for at the moment...wee one is wakin up! I will be back soon again, and hopefully with pics next time!!! Take care!!

~Amy

My Cup Runneth Over...

2011-01-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little one finally arrived.

Aurelia Sierra Mae Johnson
born 1/26/11 at 4:49 am
weighing 8lbs 1/2 oz.

I can not express in words how full my heart is right now. Thank you everyone for your thoughts and well wishes! And thank you to my dear family for all your support, especially in watching Cree!

Noel Mignon Blog Hop!!

2011-01-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!!! :D I have desperately been meaning to get back on here and start doin some more posts, but gah it has just been hectic!! :P Thought last Thursday we were gonna have to head into the hospital, but nope the contractions stopped. Not sure if I have progressed any more since, but either way I am still very much preggin along here. Laugh!

I am stoppin in real quick to let you all know that an awesome thing is going on right now: a Blog Hop over at Noel Mignon!! :D So exciting! If you already know this then that means you came from the lovely Jill's blog! If you didn't know about the blog hop, well head on over to Kim Moreno's blog as she is the first on the list!! :D Here is the description of how to play along:

Welcome to the blog hop for the NoelMignon February kit, "Truly Scrumptious"!

Let's play a little word scramble game, shall we? As you can see, there is a letter showing in my sneak, and there will be letters in everyone's sneak peek.

Here are the rules:
1)Follow the hop in order(go back and start at Kim's blog if you are starting here).
2)Leave a comment on each blog showing that you have picked up your letter from their sneak.
3)Collect all the letters and unscramble the word.
4)Leave a comment on the last blog of the hop on Thursday, revealing the secret word, and you may be one of 3 lucky winners to win $10 off their kit purchase!

It's that easy!! Here is my sneak:

Isn't it incredible?!!!! I am dying over the colors! Just love it! :D Now since I am the last stop for the day (Wednesday), this means you all need to pick up tomorrow (Thursday) morn with the super sweet Diana! She will direct you where to go from there!! The best of luck to you all!! Hope you enjoy all the sneaks as much as I am! And just so you know this amazing kit goes up for sale on Friday morning, so don't miss out on it!

And last thing real quick, just wanted to remind you that we are having a Crop this next month! Super fun stuff planned, so mark your calendar! See you all there!!

And Thanks so much for stopping by!! I will be back very soon with more updates! Take care! And have fun with the blog hop!

~Amy

small-time catching up....

2011-01-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone! :D I'm back sooner than my usual, but later than I had wanted to be. My goal this year to get into a everyday/every other day/every 2 days kind of blogging routine. So I am hoping this morning I can get some work done on that. :D I have lots and lots that I haven't shared with you all. I have been keeping my galleries somewhat updated, but have been slacking on the blogging of my LOs. I wasn't sure if I should try to show them all in one lump sum, just to make sure that they actually make it on here (laugh!), but I decided instead that I really should work on the blogging routine, and always having something that needs to be shown will help with that.

Firstly though, I want to thank all of you who still read this blog, and for all your wonderful comments! I read every one of them, as they all get sent to my email, and I have the best intentions of writing each one back, but it just doesn't seem to happen. I am going to really work on that this year, so if you left a comment on my last post, then I will be getting to writing you back real REAL soon! :D And I know I mentioned a while back that I had lots of stuff to giveaway on here, and I want you to know that I still have all that stuff! I am still going to do the giveaways, but at this time I am having a hard time lifting boxes and going through stuff for the different packs of giveaways, so I think they will have to wait til the baby arrives and I can actually do stuff again! So thanks so much for being patient with that, but I gotta ask you to be patient a little longer. It will be worth it! :D

Speaking of the baby, I had my 38 week check up today! :D (No progress from last week though :P Still dilated to just 2) We are getting so close it is really making me nervous! I am very anxious to have this baby, as my body is just shot right now, but I am also extremely nervous about delivering as many (MANY) things did not go right last time, and it just makes me worry about what is to come with this one. I have a much better understanding this time as to how much I can go through, but I just don't want it to go as far as it did the first time because it put so much stress on Creedence during her delivery, and I don't want that to happen with this little one as well. So things are to be done a little different this time, but I still hope to be able to do it naturally. The big thing that will determine how this one goes is if this one starts on it's own! :P Inducing did me in last time, and I want to avoid it if at all possible this time. Either way, I will be keeping you all updated on how things progress before I go into the hospital. Neither Jed nor I have phones that can do internet stuff (I actually don't even own a cell phone! :D), so all updates about the delivery and arrival of our wee one here will be after I get out of the hospital, but I promise to make sure that happens! :D

Ok so I started trying to figure out (from memory mind you!) what LOs I had shown here and what ones I hadn't. Well it hadn't been working out too well for the last ten minutes so I have resorted to going back through my own blog to see what is actually on there. :P Pathetic! Laugh!

So I guess I will start with a few things that I wanted to announce about that are happening over at Noel Mignon! :D

First off is a class run by the amazing Virginia Tillery that starts on Saturday the 15th! :D I am taking the class, and seriously can't wait for it to begin! It is a companion class to the Very Virginia kit (only 2 left!) that came out just a little bit ago. You are not required to have the kit to take the class, but seriously who can resist this gorgeous kit!!! Go check out the kit here. And check out the class description here. :D It should be tons of fun!

Next thing going on over there is the announcement of the Valentine's Crop!! :D I am super excited!! Already planning my challenge, and trying to get ideas for other things. The February kit will be here with me soon, so I will be ready to begin as soon as it hits my front door! The sneaks for the February kit have not started yet, but don't frett! They will be starting very soon! Just watch the message boards as the kit items have already started arriving to Noel! She did give one little verbal sneak here, in case you simply can not wait to know what is kind of in the kit! :D (She is seriously such a huge tease for doing this! :P)

Hope to see you all there at the Noel Mignon message board for both of these awesome events happening real soon! :D

The last thing I wanted to announce is something that had me squealing! Literally! I have tried out for this team before, and did not make it, and got crushed. :( But I moved on and thought maybe I would try again another day. Well then they had their Featured Guest artist call, and I decided to go for it! It actually works out much better for me with the baby coming and all. :D But HOLY COW I was stunned that I actually made it!!! Yay! I am super honored to be on the list with all these amazing ladies! I can not thank Pink Paislee enough for the opportunity! And this will be my first Guest Design spot so I have actually hit a scrappy milestone too! :D Laugh!

Well seeing as this has turned into a pretty long post, I will just wrap it up with a LO share. :D A LO about my OLW for 2011, for the She Get's Misty challenge over at Noel Mignon, and made with the amazing Very Virginia kit I was telling you about. :D

I will be back soon with more to share! Take care everyone!! And be safe! There are a lot of storms out there right now.

~Amy

New Years Resolutions and my Favs from 2010....

2010-12-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

Well hi! Did everyone have a great couple months?!! :P

Things have been up and down over here. The holidays were chaotic, and when I say holidays I mean all the way back to November. That month held quite a few important events, and 2 colds that knocked us all out. There are three birthdays in my family in that month, and there is also Thanksgiving, so there ended up being lots of visiting going on! :D Aside from the horrible colds we got, it was a very lovely November. But busy, as the month flew by and I hardly noticed! LOL!

Then came December, and I had really hoped a lot more things would have happened in December than they actually did. I had hoped that Jed would have a job by that month, so that a normal Christmas could happen. With him being out of work, it put a huge damper on my Christmas spirit. It is a little difficult hanging a wreath and decorating a tree and wrapping presents if you are unsure as to what the next month holds for you financially. But I really tried to keep my spirits up! :D I baked with my Aunt and Creedence, and enjoyed yummy Christmas bread for days afterward!

Spent a couple quiet nights-even though we traveled to family-with my family and Jed's family, and my Dad came to visit. Towards the end of the month, I began to see that certain things were not needed at all to make my Christmas a wonderful one. I am blessed that I was able to spend the Holiday with my family, for they are my entire world! I realized that I have some of the most wonderful friends online that I could ever ask for, an invaluable gift that I cherish dearly. And I am one month closer to the birth of this dear little one, that is getting bigger by the second! At 37 weeks, I am really quite ready to see her!

That's right! It is a girl! I totally forgot that I hadn't revealed that yet on my blog. :P I have begun hanging all the clothes and organizing all the little stacks and piles of things in their baskets. It is so convenient that we are having another girl, so I didn't actually need to buy anything for the baby as I already had it all! :D And it has been really nice to go back through these little things, remembering the first time Creedence wore them. Good memories.

I should have updated this blog a really long time ago, but motivation has just been hard to find these last few months. And I don't just mean with blogging, no it has been a struggle with almost everything!! LOL! But the end is in sight, and my energy and body will return to normal. :D

Signed onto the message boards today and got a shock that holy cow it is the 31st of December and people are doing their New Year's resolutions and stuff!! Is it pathetic that I only just remembered New Year's Resolutions happen right now? Seeing people talk about it made me go OMGOSH I totally forgot those existed. LOL! I do have some resolutions though! There are lots of things I want to do differently this next year.

1. Simplify all things in my life. Mainly the stuff in my home. I want to downsize all of everything we own! But also I want to simplify a lot of my processes here at home. Like when laundry comes out of the dryer-fold it right then and put it away. It is done in 5 minutes and won't come back to torment me later! Those types of things make my life soooo much simpler! But those acts can't be done without my next resolution...

2. Have more Self-Discipline! I need to stop being lazy, and just do what needs to be done without complaining or procrastinating. Seems like such an easy thing to say, but it has been very hard to implement into my life! But I need this very much right now in order to stay on top of things and not get overwhelmed. I try to just keep looking at the positive that will come of it!

3. I need to blog more. MUCH more. LOL! I am a slacker blogger, and that just won't cut it anymore. So I will be setting a schedule for myself, and will be using my second resolution to help stay on top of it!

4. Make 2 quilts. I have been meaning to do this for a long time but am so scared. I just need to take the plunge and make my daughters' quilts, or else I know they will never get done. I really want to do this, and I am going to try doing them without stressing too badly.

5. I also want to knit more. I start projects and then don't finish them. They just sorta get set aside until I think of something I want to use that yarn for and so I rip that project apart to start a new one. No more of this either. I will knit more, and I will finish my projects.

6. This last resolution is something that has long been needed. Jed and I have had 4 'dates' since our daughter Creedence was born 3 years ago. Every other moment spent together, we have been with Creedence too. I want to make a habit of 'date nights' for Jed and I. We need this for our relationship, and I think when the new baby comes, it will be even more important.

There are a few scrappy resolutions I have as well:

1. I want to stay more on top of my commitments. This is very important.

2. I want to keep a log of all my finished projects, along with their supply lists so that they will be easier to blog and share. :D

3. I HAVE to put all my LOs away in albums. If this means that the only scrapbooking allowance I get for the whole year goes toward albums to make sure that I actually have albums to put my LOs away, then so be it.

4. Use my stash, sell my stash or just give it away. LOTS of my stash. It is just waaaay too big for one little scrapper to need. This one will be a benefit to both you AND me! :D

What are your resolutions for the year? One other thing I want to do for the year of 2011 is OLW. I have been thinking about this for a little bit and am really excited to start. I will talk more about it soon. :D

So to keep the tradition, I have here my Favs from 2010! LOs I mean. :D I still had an impossible time narrowing it down to 10, so I gave up and did what I did last year and just picked my favs. Last time I had 21. LOL! This year I have 25. I know, not much progress huh?!! But I just couldn't help it! There are a few in the bunch that have never been shown on my blog, partially because I just hadn't put them up yet and also because they were secret until recently. Since the secret ones have recently been published, and the book has already made it through it's first publication, I think it is alright for me to share them here. :D Here we go!

One of my last LOs for Prima. I really loved making this LO. The color combo is so different, but I had a blast! It is layers and layers of textures and papers and flowers. And even though it has flowers on it, I still think it came out pretty good for a masculine LO. :D

This Artist Printer's Tray was a labor of love. Each one of these ATCs was a joy to make, and I hope to repeat this project again real soon! I have a few ideas that I will share when I get it started!

These next three LOs were made for the Prima Idea book that came out this year. I put so much heart into these, and I am very happy to be able to share them on my blog now. :D

This LO is sized 8x8 and is probably one of my favs that I have ever made of that size. It was just a hap-hazard throw it together kind of LO, but I had a blast doing it! And those pictures of Creedence just crack me up, because those kinds of images are 90% of the shots that I get from her! She is a crazy thing when you pull the camera out.

This LO was a struggle. Not to make, but to get back into my hands. I almost lost it, but fought hard to get it back here with me again. And I am so glad that I did, because this LO means more to me than almost any other LO I have ever made.

We have now left the realm of Prima, and have moved into Crate Paper! :D This little LO below (I really hope I can share!) I made for this last CHA, and am actually still waiting for it to debut on the blog, but I think it has been long enough that it is ok for me to show. :D I love this simple little LO.

The next Crate Paper LO I have here to show is this one. I love the colors. And I know my mom would have too. I miss her terrible, and that is why I made this LO.

And these next three little frames I made just recently. They are the only holiday decor that made it up this year, but they brought so much happiness, that I still have them hanging in my room! :D

Even though I wasn't actually with Polka Dot Whimsy kit club for very long, there are several LOs I made for them that I really adore. :D They are all sized 8x8 or something similar.

And here we move onto all my Cosmo Cricket LOs! This first one is one of my absolute favs from this year! Love that Material Girl line!

I love the picture on this next LO. And all the layers and paint on this LO were just a lot of fun to do. It just works. :D This next LO was a lot of fun too! The process of layering everything was very therapeutic! :D I love LOs like that.

This little LO is simple and clean. And documents a new beginning for my little one.

This LO was bought by Cosmo Cricket because they liked it so much, yet I kind of regret letting them do so because I really like it too!! I am going to try and recreate it soon, because I really miss it! :P

This is another little one, and it was a blast because I went overload on my punches! LOL! Certainly one of my favs from this year. :D

I was surprised at how well this LO turned out coming from the Joyride collection, which I didn't think would be a very easy collection for me to work with. But it is one of my all time favs. Love the colors in this collection!

This is a LO I made fairly recently, and have it on display in my home cause it just makes me so happy! :D

And this last LO for Cosmo Cricket just makes me feel at peace. Even though the subject of the LO is not peaceful at all! LOL! The colors are just serene and lovely. And those are some of my fav pictures of Creedence ever. :D
Last but not least, the first LO I did about our soon-to-be-here bitty one, made with Noel Mignon's Dear Diary kit. I poured my heart out on this LO because I needed to verbalize a lot of the fears and stresses that I had been feeling, in order to realize that this baby is such a blessing and that no matter what it brings will be wonderful. I think the biggest thing it will bring to each of us in the family is growth.

So there you have it!! My Fav LOs from 2010! And an update on what is happening over here. I plan to stick with my resolutions, so you'll be hearing from me again very soon! Have a wonderful Happy New Year everyone!!!! And be safe too!

Take care!

~Amy

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!! Sorry I have been gone so long, but after the holiday I will come back with an update and shares! :D Take care!

P.S. Aren't the birds on that little card just adorable?!

Finished!

2010-11-14T09:30:00.001-08:00

I think I have finished my blog! :D I did the header last night (took me til 1:30 am!), and I really like how it turned out! :D The picture of me in the header was actually taken by Creedence from her carseat in the backseat of the truck! She loves to take pictures sooo much! :P

Anyway, let me know what you think! I will get all the credits up for the digi kits I used tomorrow. Thanks so much for being patient while I got it all together!

~Amy

Shades of the Same

2010-11-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!! So did you all have fun doing the blog hop?! It was pretty awesome huh? I had a blast just going around looking at all the amazing tags my fellow designers made! They blow me away! It truly is a talented and diverse team-and I am so lucky to be working with them! Great group of gals. :D

Well today I am going to share with you an ATC project I did a little bit ago for a challenge over at Noel Mignon. The challenge was to use as many shades as you wanted of one color, but only ONE color!! (I assumed that the picture elements you chose could be whatever colors, so that is what I went with) The color I chose (and this may be cheating :P) was a creamy white. :D So everything on here is from a stark white to a dirty kind of malty cream color. Absolutely had a blast doing this!

I used these gorgeous (free!) images, found at this blog, for the little pops of color on the ATCs. Everything else was from my stash or things around the house that were the color I needed. :D You are probably wondering why there are three empty spaces in my Printer's Tray, and that would be because I ran out of time. :P But I fully intend on finishing the last three. As the other 9 were a ton of fun to do! :D

Here are close ups of all the ATCs I made. I will list all the products used after each one.

Supplies: Paper-Basic Grey Nook and Pantry "Cornbread", Cosmo Cricket Coredinations cardstock (punched leaf), vintage book paper and glassine envelope, organic paper from my stash; Embellishments-Making Memories Vintage Findings Large Baby kit (safety pin), Making Memories Vintage Findings Velvet Flowers, tulle from Michaels, Autumn Leaves button; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch

Supplies: Paper-Crate Paper Pink Plum "Very Berry", Basic Grey Nook and Pantry "Waffles", Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage book paper; Embellishments-Elle's Studio Journaling Tag (punched leaf), Hambly Stitches rubon in Cream, Prima La Fleur Boheme flower (little cream flower taken off of larger flower), Prima Velvet Rose Leaf in white, crepe paper and twine from my vintage stash; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch

Supplies: Paper-October Afternoon Night Light "Katie", organic paper from stash; Embellishments-Ivory Jute twine from Studio Calico, Making Memories Vintage Findings Mini Nature kit, Hambly Doilies rub in Cream

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie; Embellishments-Elle's Studio Journaling tag (punched with startburst), Tulle/Fabric/Lace all from my vintage stash, Prima Felt Stem in Cream, Button from Beverly's Crafts, Basic Grey Manilla Micro Monograms stickers; Tools-Martha Stewart starburst punch

Supplies: Paper-Bazzill Swiss Dot white cardstock, vintage book paper, organic paper from stash; Embellishements-Making Memories Vintage Findings Large Baby kit, Making Memories Vintage Findings Silver buttons, Girl's Paperie Sticker Market (wish sticker), Hambly Birdcage overlay in Cream, K and Co Handmade vintage frame sticker, Bird bead from Beverly Crafts; Tools-Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop circle punch

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Earth Love 6x6 mini deck, Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage book paper and glassine envelope; Embellishments-Hambly Birdcage Overlay in Cream, Prima Calcutta leaf in Oatmeal, Prima La Fleur Boheme Flower (little cream flower taken off of larger flower), K and Co Handmade Frame sticker, Maya Road Calendar rub in white, string from sweater extra; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop circle punch

Supplies: Paper-Bazzill Cardstock, Basic Grey Nook and Pantry "Cornbread", Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage book paper; Embellishments-Sassafras Lass deer sticker backing, Pink Paislee Velvet ruffled trim, Studio Calico Ivory Jute twine, Making Memories Vintage Findings Word strip (dream), Autumn Leaves button, Hambly Doily rubon in Cream, Snow glitter from Michael's; Tools-Martha Stewart Star Confetti punch, Martha Stewart Starburst punch

Supplies: Paper-October Afternoon Cherry Hill "Tea Towel", Basic Grey Nook and Pantry Doily in Yellow/Cream, vintage book paper; Embellishments-Webster's Pages lace, Making Memories Vintage Findings Mini Girl kit; Tools-Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch

Supplies: Paper-Basic Grey Basics White "Census", Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage paper from stash; Embellishments-Hambly Doily rubon in Cream, Hambly Lace Overlay in cream, Making Memories Vintage Findings Word strip (love), Making Memories I Do brad, Prima Velvet Rose Leaf in white, Prima Flower Centers in white, Prima Donna Downey Canvas (backside of it), Prima Trellis Rose in White, Basic Grey Basics White sticker trim, Elle's Studio journaling tag (punched with Rose leaf); Tools-Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch, Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop circle punch

Ok wow. Could that have been any longer?! LOL! I had no idea it would take such a long post to get all that typed up :P One thing I wanted to share with you about this project (and of my previous ATC project), is that none of the ATCs are fixed into the Printer's Tray. I use that sticky tack whatever stuff you can get from the Office Supply store to keep them in, but are super easy to remove when you want to change out the display. :D That way I don't have to keep buying more trays! But what I am planning on doing with the ATCs when they come out-as I don't want to just put them in a box or something never to be seen again-instead I am going to make banners out of them and string them up! :D At least I think this will work. :P I haven't tried it yet, but I think it should be pretty easy. I will just adhere the string to the back of the ATC (near the top) and that should be good. Have any of you ever tried this? If so any good pointers would be MUCH appreciated! :D

Well that is all I have for right now. Stay tuned real soon for more scrappy stuff and a baby bump update! :D

Take care everyone!

~Amy

Crate Paper Blog Hop!

2010-11-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!! Well another post did not make it up this weekend before today, but that is ok because I just about finished redoing my blog instead! :D I just want to redo the header, and then it should be done. Soo happy for that! (Although I am not sure how easy the header will be :P) Anyway, fun stuff for you today!! Crate Paper is having a blog hop! Woohoo! Rules are pretty simple-just grab the letter you see to your left at the top of my sidebar, as you need this letter to be able to spell out the phrase for the blog hop! After you get my letter, mosey on back to the Crate Paper blog to find out who's blog you go see next! :D Good Luck!! (And if you want to see what I created for the blog hop-then just keep scrollin down. :D)

All of us over at Crate Paper created a tag about what we are thankful for in our lives. I am most thankful for my family. I can not imagine a single moment without them, and am so blessed to be able to have them in my life! :D Here is my tag:

I decided to use a Melissa Frances scallop tag as the base. I did lots (and LOTS) of layering on the outside of the tag. I used a mix of School Spirit and Restoration papers, along with embellishments from Restoration, and two older lines: Mia and Lemon Grass. The first thing I did was make the 'cover' for the tag sleeve. I did this by simply wrapping my paper around the back of the sleeve. (I don't do cards or tags very often so I really didn't think this one through too much when it came to the back of the project :P) Next time I will be planning thing differently so that it is a bit cleaner on the back. :D Laugh.
Anyway, I used School Spirit "Homeroom" as the main paper for the sleeve cover. I used a little sliver of Restoration "Doilies" on both the top and bottom, and then finally the Restoration Border Stickers brown scallop below the "Doilies" paper-just barely sticking out. The actual tag itself was really easy-I just cut the Restoration "Lace" paper to the tag size, cut out a grade card from the School Spirit "Grade Card" paper, and lined along the card the selvage trim edges of paper from School Spirit "Ruler", School Spirit "Study Hall", Restoration "Slipcover" and Restoration "Flea Market". Then I punched out some butterflies from the Restoration "Doilies" paper, and placed them on both the tag sleeve and the tag insert.

The truly more detailed layering that I did are the two main elements on the tag sleeve. The chipboard element (pictured below) was made with the green doily chipboard piece from the Restoration 12x12 accents sheet. On top of that I used a punch from vintage paper,
which was covered with the charcoal grey doily rub from the Restoration rubons sheet. Even further on top of that I used a punch from the Restoration "Heirloom" paper, then I layered some ivory jute (tried to make it look like a decent bow but I'll be honest-it kind of failed! LOL! Oh well. What are you gonna do ya know?) and a heart punched out of the Restoration "Lace" paper. I accented the heart punch with part of a rub from the Restoration rubons sheet. This turned out a lot more subtle than I thought it would, but I like that a little better.

The other element is almost as many steps as the first one, but somehow seems a lot easier to tell! :D The main thing I used for this element were the Restoration Phrase stickers. I first took the 'Sweet Little Thing' sticker and covered the middle with postmarked rub from the Restoration rubons sheet. I knew this would just barely show up on both the top and bottom of the element, but I was only wanting a little bit of an accent on it. Next sticker to go on was the 'mind your Ps and Qs' sticker. After that I took the 'much thanks' sticker (the sentiment for the front of my tag sleeve) and stuck it to a sheet of vintage paper. I then used my 'Postal' decorative scissors and trimmed around the edges of the sticker. And finally, it made it's way home by being stuck to the front of the sticker stack I had just made. Really pretty easy. :D

Oh and just in case you were wonderin-the little epoxy circles on the tag sleeve are from the Mia and Lemon Grass epoxy sticker sheets. :D Love those little things! The colors worked perfect-which I thought was pretty awesome! Makes me really want to dig through all my older stuff and find what it will fit with of my new stuff. Great way to use up your stash!

Well that is all I have for you today-I'll be back soon with more scrappy stuff to share! Take care!

~Amy

.....

2010-11-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

And just like that...*Poof!* She is gone again! :P I've got mad blog-neglect skills.

Totally was not my intention, but it happened. I still haven't finished redoing my blog either. I began working on it. Switched it to just a 2 column, but now that I am looking at again (weeks later) I am really not liking that. So I think switching back to 3 columns is a must. Which means I have to get back into the HTML, which I hate! LOL! Who else here can't stand that stuff?! It's total non-sense jibberish! Anyway-I am still working on the blog header too. Picked up this digi kit from Kitschy Digitals, and am having a blast working with it! I had been waiting for that kit to come out for a while, so I am stoked that I can finally use it for my blog banner. :D That will hopefully be up next week.

Got some scrappy stuff to share with you today. :D I was hoping to get all my Halloween stuff done before Halloween, but I only have parts of several projects done. LOL! I guess those will all just have to go up for us to enjoy in November! :D I will share all of those when I am done, but until then I have a few Cosmo shares.

Post went up last Saturday over at Cosmo Cricket-it was Wendy Sue's turn to do the DT challenge, and she chose a gorgeous page from a Pottery Barn catalog. Love it! So here is what I did for the challenge:

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Haunted papers 'Macabre' 'Never More' 'Gothic' 'Journaling Cards', Cosmo Cricket Matilda 6x6 paper pack, Cosmo Cricket Coredinations Cardstock Neutral collection Whitewash Woodgrain; Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend Chipboard, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Black, Maya Road Leaves Singleton Stamp, K and Company Handmade lace frames, Prima felt branch, Making Memories Vintage Findings Copper Buttons, Making Memories Vintage Findings Plastic Flowers, Making Memories Medium kit Bienvenue, Martha Stewart Gerbera Daisy stickers in Gold/Peach, 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Flashcard Words ; Tools-Martha Stewart Autumn Branch punch, Marvy scallop punch, Color Box Chalk Cat's Eye Ink

Next up is a new LO I finished using the Mitten Weather line. I really do like this line a lot, but I for some reason just have a hard time scrapping winter/Christmas themed projects, and have them turn out looking decent. :P I don't know what it is, but they just never turn out the way I wanted. This LO turned out super plain jane to me. :P But the pics of Cree make me smile so I am still somewhat happy with it. :D I decided to tone-down that background paper by giving it a white-wash with watered down gesso. Everything else I just cut into squares, and some of them I punched the middle out with one of my fav winter punches from Martha Stewart, then backed those pieces with a different patterned paper. Once everything was all lined up, then I ran it through my sewing machine. Some of the pieces turned out a little wonky cause they weren't so securely fastened, but it is pretty subtle. Anyway, here it is. :D

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather collection (all papers, including journaling cards and borders); Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather 12x12 Ready Set Chip, Cosmo Cricket Ready Set Chip Glittered Sweet Sparkle chipboard alpha, American Crafts Lullaby Thickers in Charcoal, Kaisercraft Pearls, Ivory Jute twine from Studio Calico; Tools-Martha Stewart Alpine snowflake punch, Martha Stewart Arctic snowflake punch, Martha Stewart Star Confetti punch, Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

This last one I will share is actually pretty old! :P it went up on the Cosmo blog month's ago, but never made it to my own blog! LOL! But it is one of my all time favs. I really like how this one turned out! I don't usually do circles on my blog (I am not sure why, they just don't come to mind when designing), but they really made this LO I think. Lots of distressing and inking, and some machine and hand sewing. And I love that pic of Cree so this LO just makes me happy. :D

Here are some close ups of the hidden journaling tag behind the picture. I still have to put the journaling on there. :P Details, details.

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride collection (pretty much every paper in the pack is on this LO somewhere), Cosmo Cricket Early Bird 'Ribbon Sandwich', vintage book paper; Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Joy Rid cardstock stickers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type black stickers, Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride 12x12 Ready Set Chip shapes, tulle from Michael's Crafts, Ivory Jute twine from Studio Calico, vintage lace; Tools-Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Martha Stewart scalloped 1 in circle punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in scallop circle punch, Martha Stewart Chrysanthemum punch, Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink

Ok so I have a lot of catching up to do still!! LOL! I am going to be finalizing my blog this weekend, as there is something really fun happening on Monday that you all will be able to be a part of! :D Check back on Monday for the details on that. I am going to try and get one more post in before the end of the weekend, but we will see, as it is a busy weekend for me! Lots of scrapping to be done!

Hope everyone is well! Take care!

~Amy

Under Construction!

2010-10-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

I have slowly begun the process that I have said I was going to start for a long time now: The reconstruction of my blog. :P

Bare with me as I work on it. As I am super horrible with these things! LOL!

Thanks!

~Amy

A kick in the butt from a good friend..

2010-09-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

A very good friend of mine left me a comment, reminding me that I am neglecting my blog. (Thank you so much Sasha!! It meant so much to me for you to give me a little kick in the butt! LOL!) Crazy thing is that I don't realize I'm doing it even when weeks have passed! :P My concept of time is very bad. And because I am always at home, I can almost never tell you what day of the week it is because it just really doesn't matter when it comes to the everyday things that I need to do. LOL! So the fact that weeks have passed is always a shocker to me! :P I really need to get a handle on that.

I was going to get posts prescheduled but finding time on the computer is just hard these days! And with Jed home now all the time, I feel like I have two toddlers here constantly pulling me away from the computer! LOL! Not that that is a bad thing, it just doesn't make for a good blogger.

Well a couple updates for you here: we did NOT find out the sex of the baby because the little stinker was in the worst position to try and determine! LOL! I kinda had a feeling when we went in that we were gonna come out of there still not knowing. And for some reason, with both Jed and myself, we really REALLY want to know this time! But the next available time for us to do it is when we have another ultrasound at like 30-something weeks. Which is 10 plus weeks away. I had really hoped to have the room set up with all the clothes and such by then but oh well. We will just have to do a last minute dash when we find out! :D

Next up, I have a few LOs to share that I made recently with the new Sweet Sue kit from Noel Mignon. There are still a few left in case you are interested!

This first one is for the newest challenge at Noel Mignon-"I Gotta Be Me"-where you are challenged to scrap your style. Hehe. Does this LO say enough about who I am or what?!! Everything is everywhere, but hey it all color coordinates!! LOL! No really, this challenge was truly a bit challenging for me because I find it impossible to pinpoint my exact scrapping style. The only way I can describe it is that I tend to 'fly by the seat of my pants!' :D It really all depends on what I am scrapping, how I feel right then, the products I am working with, and what I am inspired by as of recent! Which means that a LO could go a million different ways! I did a post over at Noel Mignon about this LO and the process through making it-check it out here. And in case you were wondering-Thursday afternoons are my day to post over there so you can expect a new post from me every week at that time. And if there is anything you wish my to cover over there, or on here for that matter-please don't hesitate to ask. :D I tend to get clueless on what to talk about. LOL!

And some close ups:

And this LO is from the previous challenge where we were supposed to take Fall Fashion and use that as our inspo. :D It was a lot of fun too! I hadn't done a two pager in a long time! And I had never done a collage to this extent so it was most certainly challenging! That collage took the most time to make because my pics weren't lineing up right and nothing was working out like I wanted. :P But I stuck with it and kept going! It is far from perfect, so I am on the hunt for a good photo collage site-any suggestions would be awesome!!! :D I kept the embellishing really simple on this one, but did a lot of hand cutting.

Close ups:

Now I still have tons more shares from previous Noel Mignon kits, but I will save those for other posts. Preorder just went up for the October Halloween kit-featuring manufacturers like Pink Paislee, Girl's Paperie, My Mind's Eye, We Are Memory Keepers, SEI and Making Memories! I can't wait to get mine!! So excited about it! Although I have no clue what I am going to scrap it with because I have no Halloween photos-except ones from when I was tiny! LOL! But I have plans for a banner, and a wreath hopefully and who knows what else. All that will be coming soon! I just have to get my kit first. LOL!

So recently I have been working like mad to get this house purged!!! Especially in my scraproom! LOL! Can you say nesting?! I have been itching to get the baby clothes out of the bags for almost a month now, but I truly want to wait until we know what it is before I start getting it all perfectly clean and set up. Logical thing to do, but so not easy to hold myself to. LOL! In my scraproom I have filled 9 12x12x4 inch boxes with stuff! Paper, and embies and tons of scrappy stuff that I just really REALLY don't need anymore. So expect a few giveaways coming up soon, and also I will be trying to sell the rest on Craigslist (with a link back to a blog of mine set up with all the images and prices of things), so I will let you all know when that happens in case you are interested in any of it. I hate in this economy right now to be like 'Hey, why don't you buy my stuff so that I have money!' but with Jed out of work, I am kinda left to do that. LOL! But trust me I will be giving LOTS of really good stuff away, so buying won't be your only way of getting things from me. :D Everything else in the house is getting put in the garage so that when it comes time for a garage sale it is all there and ready. :D My house is just too filled and it is driving me nuts to have to clean it all! LOL!

The need for simplicity is necessary for me now. I am at the point where I have to lay down several times a day in order to get my back to stop hurting, and that is really cutting into my productivity and bringing me down. So I think the best solution is to just get rid of a lot of stuff, so there is less to do. :D Makes sense to me.

On the scrappy side, I am working on finishing up a couple projects for Polka Dot Whimsy kit club-the September kit is so gorgeous and filled with fun stuff! :D At the same time I am working on some Cosmo stuff, and getting my Crate tutorial finalized. I am super busy on the scrappy front! Just not enough time to do everything that I want you know? :P Stayed up til almost 1 last night, and it kicked my butt. I haven't stayed up like that in months! But I got a little headway on projects. :D

For future posts I am getting some things together for inspiration posts! I have lots of things I have been bookmarking online for awesome decoration and project ideas that I want to share-even stuff for Christmas already!! So if you have anything certainly let me know, as I am always on the search for holiday ideas! :D

Well I should probably take off now, as it is snack time for both Cree and me. :D And I have a super dirty kitchen that is only going to get dirtier unless I do something about it.

Take care everyone! I will be back again real soon!

Crate Paper shares.....

2010-08-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well I am here today to share all the Crate Paper stuff that I have been meaning to share for far too long! :D I have one of my newest creations made with the Restoration line, and 2 other projects that were up on the Crate blog a looooong time ago!

First up is Vintage Love, that features some of my fav things: a few pics of my antique treasures and the gorgeous Restoration line!! Please forgive the awful picture. :P I am having sooo much trouble photographing here at our new home. (I hate it! I want my old spot back! LOL!) But I am working on finding a better spot. :D Anyway, I really actually had a hard time doing this LO because I just could not get my LO to look good enough to do the collection justice!!! I look at what the other girls did and I just gasp! They are phenomenal! But I really tried and did have fun doing this LO! And I have many more opportunities to give this collection a go so I am pumped about that! :D The background scallop I cut myself after tracing the die cut paper from the Crate Paper collection Lemongrass. (Anyone remember that collection? Feels like a million years ago but I still love that paper!) I love the wonky scallops, but the only things I changed was the fact that I didn't punch the holes that are in the die cut. Next I just decided to play with all the colors in the collection and started lining papers up to see what looked good. I cut flowers and leaves out of the Slipcover paper and mixed them with some of the chipboard, and also cut a few of the doilies out of the gorgeous Doilies paper. The rest just sort of came together, and I found a few alphas in my stash to match-American Crafts Letterbox Geyser chipboard and Webster's Pages Polka Dot alphas.

I do have one more LO that I made with the new line School Spirit, but it has yet to be shown on the Crate blog so I can't show it here yet. Buuuut, they did put up a pic from CHA that had it on their displays, so I think it is ok to show that as sort of a teaser. :D It is the one on the bottom far left. Doesn't look like much from here but it is one of my favs. The pics of Cree smiling are priceless. :D

Next up are the older projects that I had yet to share with you all on here. :P So sorry about that! But here they are!

The first one is a album I made to first help me plan Jed's and my official wedding and then after the wedding it can easily transition into our actual wedding album. :D *Now you may be wondering if you are a blog follower what is going on because Jed and I are already married? The simple way to put it is we eloped! We didn't let anyone know until a few months later when we were already married. :D They knew we were going to get married, but just not right then and most certainly not without the whole family! So we made a promise to the family to have an actual celebration wedding where the whole family can get together to celebrate with us! And that is what I mean by planning our "wedding"* Anyway I made this with a few different Crate Paper lines (Pink Plum, Paper Doll and Lillian) and some things from my stash that I thought mixed in nicely. :D First few pics are the cover and close ups. Oh BTW this binder I got at Target for $3! I upcycled it! :D Fun stuff. And what is even more awesome is that it is made out of all 100% recycled papers so I feel doubley good about it! LOL!

First inside page. The half circle across the right page is actually a pocket. :D So it is handy for putting all sorts of little paper things in to remember to look at.

Next up is the middle folder that I always want to break down and cry about. :P Creedence took a pencil to it! And it's not like an easy erase off sort of thing either. She full on gouged into the paper with that pencil, and there was no way I could hide it! So I tried painting over it and it just turned out like bleh. So sad!! My favorite page: RUINED! Oh well.

And lastly, the cute and simple page. :D I had a blast making this little album! Loads of fun!

And lastly, this LO is very near and dear to me. It is about my mom. And how I miss her so. I really wish she could be here, as I know she would just adore being a Grandma. She loved babies and little ones. Cree is getting a little bit older than baby stage but she is still little. My mom's fav age. :D

I used a butt load of products on this LO! LOL! I really wanted to do a list of all the products but it is just too crazy at the moment, and would take a lot longer than I have time for at this exact second to research and type up! :P So if you are desperately interested in any of things you see on this LO (or any project I have done and not given the products list for) then PLEASE don't hesitate to leave me a comment askin about it! :D I would be happy to answer. So many details and layers on here that I am not exactly sure how I even did it. LOL! But I have this LO sitting on my desk so that I can always have it to look at. I am planning on getting it hung soon in my craft/baby room. I think it will be perfect hung in there.

Well I am in the process right now with pre-scheduling some posts for the next week and maybe even later! It all depends on how much Cree will let me sit here on the comp. I have some projects to finish this weekend and Cree starts speech class again on Monday, so I am trying to get a few posts done before all that starts. Do let me know if there is anything particular you want me to cover or whatnot as I am pre-scheduling. I always just kinda mumble through my posts sharing my stuff, and don't really have any purpose behind them. LOL! Aside from sharing that is. :D I am going to do an update on my belly soon too! I have my 20 week ultrasound coming up and will share the pictures and whatnot as soon as that happens! :D Been feeling lots of moving around and everything! Which is always a wonderful feeling. But it is definitely starting to make me feel sick again! LOL! All the movement means this babe is pushing things around that don't particularly like it. But I am trying to enjoy it all before the wee one gets too big and it becomes just straight uncomfortable! :P

Til next time! Take care!

~Amy

Noel Mignon shares...

2010-07-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!! I am going to start off slow and try not to overwhelm both you and myself! :P Because I have a lot of catching up to do as far as what I have to share LO wise! So we will just do small shares until it is all up. :D Sounds good!

Here I have a LO that I did for my most recent Noel Mignon post that talks about my fav kit item, the Maya Road Kraft Envelopes! As I say in the post I have about 3 full packs of these but I didn't actually ever use an envelope until I received a couple in my Sunkissed kit.

This was an extremely fun LO to do, as I love doing the patchwork, and the colors in the kit were so awesome all together that I think it just worked out well. :D This LO is about all the different emotions and things going through my head now knowing that we are expecting baby number 2.

I worry for Creedence, I worry for the new baby as I am wiped out enough with Cree, and I am worried for me because I know this will mean a lot less me time. (wow that last one really sounds selfish! :( it's not meant to be, I just know that if I don't get a certain amount of time without a break to just be me then I start to go nuts. don't we all a little bit though?)

I guess I am just in worry mode. I worry about the delivery as I don't want it to be anything like it was with Cree.

I worry about the money of all this (our insurance doesn't cover maternity-and we knew that going into this-so that means it all comes out of pocket. Cree was in the NICU for 5 days because of a long and traumatic delivery. I know that if that happens again that we are going to be in some serious debt. :P Which we are more than willing to go into but it is just a scary thought. And on top of that if it is a boy we don't own anything boyish!!! LOL! I have so much pink from when Cree was little that we are kinda hoping for a girl just out of convenience! :D Makes me sound really cheap. :P)

Gah! You can see that this will never stop if I am allowed to go on all day! LOL! The worries just never end, but I am working real hard on not dwelling on anything, and spending these days that I have with Cree, as she is cuter than ever and is blossoming more and more everyday! Right now she is obbsessed with putting all the baby shoes she found in a bag on all of her dolls. She gave up a while ago on getting them on her feet, and realized that her dolls and stuffed animals fit them much better. But of course, mommy needs to be the one to put them on! LOL! So I am interrupted about 20 times an hour to put little bitty shoes back on feet that the shoes don't fit. :P I think a LO needs to be in the works here. :D

Back to the program now. :D I have a few things Noel Mignon related to share! :D First up, my friend from the Noel Mignon kit club DT, Brittny Lejeune, is hosting a mini book class called My Growing Up Book!!! It looks fantastic!! Click this link to go directly to her website and see all about it! Here is the poster!

Better yet-she is giving away two instruction spots in the class for Free!!! Here is the link to the thread on the message board where you can enter to win! You have until August 7th to get two chances to win!! Good Luck!

And last I am happy to annouce that Noel Mignon kit club is going to be doing a Fun in the Sun Crop from August 9th to the 13th!!! Woohoo!!! I am so excited!!! I have never been a part of a crop so I am really looking forward to it! (Still not sure exactly how things work and what not but that is ok! I'll find out soon enough!) So save the dates! And I hope to see you there!! :D

Well that is it from here! I will be back next time with my CHA stuff for Crate Paper (which was the only CHA stuff I got done! So glad a lot of the morning sickness is going away!). And I'll also catch you up on a few past LOs I still need to share. :D Take care!!!

~Amy

Amy...You got some 'splainin to do!

2010-07-25T14:47:00.000-07:00

Said in the best Ricky Ricardo voice I can muster. :P

I look back on my last post and seriously want to bang my head on my desk when I see the date that it was written. :P But seriously can not help but laugh at the title of the post. If only we both knew what was in store after that! LOL!

I can not even begin to explain where I have been or what I have been doing lately, and not have it be an hour long read. The pictures alone would be one of my longest posts ever! :P So, I will be explaining over the length of quite a while, but to kinda sum it up for now it goes something like this: We moved. Which took about a month to do. :P And lost internet during that whole time. Which left me in a huge panic. Finally got out of old house, and got internet set up in the new house. Found out just before the move that we are expecting baby number 2! But a few days after that extreme morning sickness and fatigue set in. Morning sickness and fatigue like I have never felt before in my life. And it has not. stopped. SINCE. And if that wasn't bad enough I for some reason now get the migraines I had quite a while ago back. So needless to say I wake every morning just really not wanting to even get out of bed! LOL! Sigh. (pity party over now! :D) Everyone else is doing great here! Creedence is almost 100% potty trained! :D We are still working on the communicating when she needs to go, and the wearing clothes part. Oh and she still wears a diaper to bed. Other than that she rarely has an accident because she gets up when she needs to go and heads to the bathroom all on her own! :D Of course I follow, but the telling me that she needs to go isn't happening so much. And she is always naked, because she confuses panties with her diaper. So those are the only hiccups. LOL! I can't tell you how proud I am of her for changing to this so quickly! And I am also super happy that she is almost 100% out of diapers, as we were going through a pack in a matter of days! :P That is how much she goes. Yeah I know. Crazy. My house is still in shambles as unpacking hasn't gone so well with me being sick, and Jed has had to work a lot more than usual lately. Which means that my scrap area is in extreme shambles too. But I get my own room now! With a door and everything! :D Which means that Cree won't be getting into any of it anymore. But I will have to have the baby crib and what not in there (which there is plenty of room for) as Cree will be getting her own room now. And I think it works fine because the baby isn't gonna need a whole lot of room anyway. And having the baby seperated from Creedence at night when Cree is learning to sleep in her own room I think will work out much better. Any advice you have on that would be awesome, as having two little ones is going to be a whole different ballgame that we are totally unfamiliar with!

Well that is about all that has been going on personally. The scrappy side of me has been a bit busy lately too! I won't share a whole lot right now as I don't want this to be a super long post but I have lots of LOs and stuff to share! I am very sorry that I haven't kept this place up to date, or even been around to share anything! I'm sure there are lots of you that think I have fallen off the face of the planet! LOL! There have been a few of my fav scrappers that have, and I still miss their blogs and scrappy work! But I am totally here! Just running at about 45% capacity. :P Second trimester is upon me so hopefully I will start feeling a whole lot better soon! :D I am busy right now finishing up CHA stuff, and am really desperately needing to answer some emails that I got months ago and just haven't responded to yet. If you are one of those people-my deepest apologies! A response email is in the works! :D I hope that is comforting.

Well until my next update: Thank you all for still supporting me and sticking around here! :D Be back soon! Take care!

~Amy

Earth to Amy.......Are you there?

2010-05-17T00:14:00.000-07:00

Uhhhhh, Amy? Where'd you go? Yeah I kinda disappeared. Sorry bout that! :P It's crazy how fast days go by! I had planned a scheduled post to go live on the 2nd (yeah I know! that was almost 2 weeks ago!), but clearly it never posted! :P Which means that I have no clue how to schedule a post in blogger. LOL! You would think it would be easy, but I didn't really research it, and it was my first time doing it, so honestly I am really not surprised that it didn't post. Me to a T! Clumsy and, predictably, a mess it up kind of person. But I laugh about it! :D I eventually get things to work right, it just doesn't happen the first few times I try. LOL! Oh well.

Anyway, I have things to share, but first, like I said I would, I will tell you how we spent our day on May 1st. (I wrote all of this about my mom days and days ago, so know that when I wrote them I was pretty much talking aloud to my mom, and that it was all relevant at the appropriate time). (I hope that made sense there?)

That particular day is a very special one for my family, as it is the anniversary of my dear mother's passing.

The family tries to get together as much as possible at this time of the year, but this year we all just spent it quietly in our own homes. There is to be a lot of traveling by a good portion of the family towards the end of the month (as my brother comes home from Germany on leave before he ships to Afghanistan!), so spending the first part of the month without family certainly wasn't hard to do, as I know I will see them soon. :D One thing I do every year, to try and remember the happy times with my mom, is to watch all her favorite movies. :D She absolutely loved watching movies, as it was one of the only things she could do for about the last year of life. Creedence and I watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (0ne 0f her dear favorites), Up (that wasn't a movie that she saw but I know she would have adored it!), and The Muppets Christmas Carol. :D (We didn't sit for the whole time these were on, they just sort of played in the background while we did other things). And the last movie I watched that day was probably one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time: Murder By Death. If you haven't seen it, SEE IT! It is classic slapstick, and has a stellar cast. It is an older movie, so if that is not your thing, well I don't know what to say! I absolutely adore it, and am so glad it is on Netflix instant! I have played it several times since last Saturday, mostly at night when I am scrapping. :D My mom loved that one too. :D

Majority of the time we would go down to The Cove (wish I had a pic to show you), which is a little spot on the beach where we spread my mom's ashes. (We know you are not legally able to do that but we did it anyway) But as of recent the cove is inaccessible. The water is just too high and too much sand has been washed out so what used to be an easy hike down some rocks and then a huge sand hill is now a rock cliff with no more sand even remotely close enough to even jump down to. :P Just sitting on the rocks though looking out at the ocean makes me feel closer to her somehow. It has been 7 years, yet somehow the pain has only gotten worse. I am so happy though that I have my family, we are all very supportive of each other and I find myself leaning on them quite often when I am particulary down.

So here is to you Mom!! We miss you and love you lots! I give my little Creedence extra hugs and kisses just for you! (well and for me too!) :D

Cathy Diane Parker-Sonoda Nov 30 1957-May 1 2003

Ok so I started writing this post, didn't include any pictures in it yet, then came back to it a couple days later and totally could not remember what things I had to share! :P LOL! I am losing my brain. I had to look at my older blog posts to see what I had last posted and then figure out what hadn't been posted. I am such a dork!

So! Awesome news! Even though it is most certainly old news now! :P Cosmo Cricket has released a new line called DeLovely!! It is bright, and cheery, and oh so cute! I created two projects with it-a little LO that was fun to do, and a card just because I couldn't resist that little chair!! :D I have another LO in the works, I just havent' finished it yet. :P I'll for sure share when I do, as it will look completely different from these two! :D At least I hope. Like I said, it is still a work in progress. Oh and I wanted to share-I got an email a little bit ago when I posted this LO on 2Peas from Francine Clouden, (who was so nice in the email!) she write this great blog called Craft Gossip!! She does a feature on her blog called Inspiration du Jour, where she features a LO/project that she thinks is inspiring and she asked if she could feature my LO!!! Of course I said YES! I was so honored that she asked! Check out the feature here! Thank you soooo much again Francine for liking my LO that much!!

Next, I wanted to share with you something that I wanted to get up on the blog when it went live on the Crate Paper blog days ago.....My first Crate Paper projects!! Wow it is so scary to see your own pic on there! Makes you scared you will screw up somewhere or something! (:P Ha! Like that would ever happen...to me. Ha ha ha. ha. ha. *total sarcasm* I am just waiting for me to do something silly and not even know it until the whole rest of the scrapbooking world does.) Anyway I am just for now going to link you to the blog as I don't want to make this a super duper picture heavy or really long post today. So I will have that all for you on Tuesday or Wednesday. *PROMISE!* :D I do. Cause I won't be depending on my prescheduling blog post skills.

And the last thing I am going to share on here today is.......I made the Noel Mignon kit club design team!!! I couldn't even believe it!!! I am so thrilled!! Noel's kits are huge, huge! and they are so fun and versatile! She makes the best kits! Hands down. :D I right now have Lemonade Stand, and can't wait to dive in!!! That link will take you to a post where Virginia will show you in a video everything in the kit! I will have more to share on this soon, I am working on my first challenge LO right now and it is going to be super fun!!! :D I'll talk more about all of this later this week.

Well that is all I have for right now, but I will be back in a couple days! Take care everyone!!!

~Amy

Happy Mother's Day!!

2010-05-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

I will be back tomorrow with the post that was supposed to go live last Sunday. :P More about that later.....

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

2010-05-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

Hi! Wow! May came really fast huh?! I can't believe this year is going by as fast as it is. :P Well I have lots and lots to talk about today so prepare yourself for a long post! :D

First I am going to share some LOs with you so here we go:

About freakin time I shared my April LOs for Polka Dot Whimsy huh?! So without further ado:

This is a little hanging that I made for my daughter's room! :D That Webster's Pages paper was too cute, I couldn't resist! Although this has yet to make it up on Cree's wall, as I am soooo afraid she is gonna figure out something to stand on in order to get it down and rip it apart. She is that kind of kid. Always has been. But that means that her walls are bare until she can learn to leave things alone. :P

close up:

This next LO I absolutely adore! I love the colors. Love love love! I am going to frame this in my scrap area! :D That is how much I love this LO. The picture was the inspiration for the LO. It is a gorgeous shot by Sue FitzGerald, who is not only an amazing photographer but a stellar scrapbooker too! When I saw this picture of the daisy I couldn't resist getting her permission to use it on a LO! I love it! If she sold it in prints, I would buy one for every room in my house! :D

close up:

And this LO was so much fun to do! This is a picture of my Mom (on the left) and Aunt Patti (on the right) in 1977. When I found the photo in a box of photos I immediately knew I had to use it! And pairing the picture with the GCD packaging was perfect! The packaging has this super retro feel to it, so I cut out all the flowers and everything, and just love how it turned out. I wish my mom could see it though.

close ups:

Onto my Cosmo Cricket shares from last Saturday's post on the Cosmo blog. I made these two little LOs (yes they are 8x8s!) to try and show ways of using your little scrap papers that I know we all have lying around! :D Or at least I do! LOL! *Funny note about my post this last Saturday-I didn't get my husband to proof read it before I sent it off to be posted. And it has seriously about 40 typos in it!!! I was cringing and holding my head in my hands by the second paragraph because I was so embarrassed. LOL!

On the first LO I have used little strips of paper that were left over from trimming to create my border and a color pop! I also used the border strips -that I actually find a little hard to use (I just can't figure out the best way to get them on the LOs!)-and hand cut the little characters and shapes out to create my embellishments. :D

close up:

Supplies: Paper- Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg "Acorn" "Borders", Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg Mini Deck, Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday "Saturday", Cosmo Cricket Earth Love "Remember", Basic Grey Nook and Pantry Yellow/Cream Doily; Embies-Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday cardstock stickers, Cosmo Cricket Cream Tiny Type stickers, Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend chipboard letters, Martha Stewart ribbon, Studio Calico brown jute; Tools-Provo Craft Mini Scallop Decorative scissors

This next LO mainly uses punches to help get rid of scraps! :D This LO was a lot of fun to do. I used my Martha Stewart Starburst punch to create the circles for the border-I used a repositional glue to apply them to the large circle, then when they were in place I stitched around the whole thing. Everything else was hand cut or punched out in some way. :D Super fun!

close ups:

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Material Girl "Measuring Up" "In Stitches" "Calico" "Tailor Made" "Inspiration" "Elements"; Embies-Cosmo Cricket Cream Tiny Type stickers, Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Ready Set Chipboard shapes, Cosmo Cricket Ready Set Chip Pink Oak, Prima Cameo Rose Mandarin, Prima Velvet Heirloom leaves Meadow; Tools-Martha Stewart Medallion punch, Martha Stewart Startburst punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop punch, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 punch, Provo Crafts Mini Scallop deocrative scissors

This LO is on the Cosmo Cricket blog today for a color combo challenge we have going on for National Scrapbooking day! I got the idea for the stitched grid from one of the LOs in Elizabeth Kartchner's 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges book. It was a LO done by Cindy Tobey. :D I loved the idea so I had to give it a try! It was tedious but I love how it looks! :D

close ups:

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety "Tossed Salad" "Sunshine" "Sunday Picnic" "Elements"; Embies-Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety cardstock stickers, Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety chipboard shapes, Cosmo Cricket Cream Tiny Type, Cosmo Cricket Material Girl chipboard shapes, American Crafts Nutmeg green Thickers; Tools-Martha Stewart Chrysanthemum punch, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop circle punch

So be sure to participate in the color combo challenge, because your name will be drawn for an awesome prize! It is a crafting kit for a BRAND NEW line that Cosmo is debuting on Monday! It is called Delovely and it is gorgeous! Bright, and sweet and perfect for spring! I am going to be working on projects all weekend for the reveal on Monday! :D Can't wait to show you! You'll love it!

And last but not least, I wanted to also tell you about what Crate Paper is doing for National Scrapbooking Day! They are generously giving away a "Super Pink" 16GB 5th Generation iPod Nano!!!! In order to have a chance to win it, you have to participate in the Blinkie Treasure hunt!!! :D Check out the Crate Paper blog to see who from the contributors are participating and all the official rules to be able to play! :D I really really wanted to participate in the Blinkie Treasure hunt as well, but forces were against me on getting my LO done! :P I wasn't happy about that, but there are loads and loads of projects on the blog from the other contributors to help inspire you this weekend!

Well I hope you all have had a great day! Done lots and lots of scrapping! :D I will be back tomorrow with hopefully some more LOs and to tell you all what I did today. Nothing exciting, just stayed around the house but it is a special day today for my family, so I will share tomorrow how I celebrated it. :D Take care!

~Amy

My last Prima post....

2010-04-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

Sadly it is true. I decided not to reapply for this next year with Prima. So many things are going on at home right now, and with Cree's current schedule (with speech classes and upcoming appointments, and who knows what that may follow from those), I thought it was best to just let the door close when it came time.

I have had an absolute blast this last year with Prima, and am going to miss it sooooo much! (I know my bank account will be hurting for it as I love their products so much too!) I want to Thank Prima soooo much for giving me the opportunity to design for them this last year. It has been an absolute honor to be on the team alongside so many amazing ladies!

So without further adieu-here are my last Prima LOs.

These first two were actually made a really long time ago! But I am just now able to show them. They still haven't made it up on the Prima blog, but that is ok. :D On this first one I had two things that I specifically needed to work with: the Flirty Little Secret papers and the Caliope chipboard. Both are older lines, but still very gorgeous. I also was trying to do a more grid kind of style, and actually really liked how it turned out-until I added the journaling strips. :P Now I really regret it. Oh well. Nothing will ever be perfect. LOL!

Supplies: Paper-Prima Rue 88 "Rendezvous", Prima Breathe Collection, Prima Flirty Little Secret "Ruby" "Frock", Prima Steel Toe Mary Janes "Her Perogative"; Embies-Prima 4 Seasons leaves, First Blush Rubons (Michael's Exclusive), Prima Lace Madeline, Prima Caliope Chipboard, Prima Camelot Roses Victoria (little green flower), Prima Dandies Flower, Prima Cabbage Rose Amber, Prima Cabbage Rose Light Pink, Prima Nursery Tales Green Rosette (Michael's Exclusive), Prima Windsor Rose Hampton; Tools-EK Success tiny dot border punch

And this is probably one of the only cards I have ever made that I like. :P LOL! I really am not good at making cards, and am quite embarrassed by the fact that this card took me about a week to do. Oh well. It is sweet, and I like the color pops so it was worth it. :D

Supplies: Paper-Prima Indeed "Delighted" "Lilac Breeze" "Enchanted", Prima Paradise City "Fruity Jungle", Prima Flirty Little Secret "Memoirs"; Embies-Prima Whispered Words Flocked Alpha Brown, Prima Build A Frame Collection II Stamps, Prima Parlor Petals Dusty Rose

Next up is the LO I did for this last BAP. It went up on the blog a little bit ago, but I am only just now showing it. Whenever I pull out the camera anymore, these are the kinds of photos I get as she wants to be as close to it as possible so that she can see when the picture comes up on the back. Too funny! It is sweet, but makes for some pretty blurry and intensely close up photos! :P

Supplies: Paper-Strawberry Kisses "Summer Picnic", Prima Paradise City "Island Beauty" "Fruity Jungle", Prima Wink "First Love", Prima Shabby Chic "Morning Poetry" (butterfly), Prima Shabby Chic "Majestic Breeze" (moth); Embies-Prima Newsprint stamp, Prima Tiny Frames stamp, Prima Eline Pearls Midnight, Prima Madrigal Maestro Mauve, Prima Parlor Petals Dusty Rose, Prima Michaels exclusive Spring Mix rose, Prima Gallery Roses Pierre, Making Memories Vintage Findings pearl flowers, Making Memories Metro White glitter alpha stickers, Making Memories Vintage Findings crystal pin, Basic Grey Opaline Rose pearls, KaiserCraft Rose pearls, Prima Heirloom Velvet leaves Meadow, Basic Grey Opaline Turquoise, Prima Lace, KaiserCrafts red pearls, Singer pink stick pin, American Crafts Delight thickers White

This LO I created just before CHA, so it has all older products on it. I only just recently got it in my galleries and such. It is about my husband. He is so wonderful. We have our bad days, more often than either of us want, but he is my best friend. Meeting him saved me from so many disastrous paths I was on. I am so lucky to have him. He says that he thinks he is too manly to have so many flowers on a LO about him, and said just for the sole purpose of making me laugh. He says so many things like that which leave me cracking up for hours. I had started with just a few things for this LOs color scheme, but as I kept searching in all my stuff I kept finding things that would fit, including the flowers, so I couldn't stop! LOL! The tab on the top of the photo is actually connected to a tag that pulls out from the back of the photo for journaling. :D This LO was a lot of fun to do and yes it is another 8x8 to add to my collection! LOL!

Supplies: Paper-Prima Blooming Retro "Origami Gardens" "Apple Tree" "Raindrop Sprinkles", Prima Rebellious "Toxic", Prima Youth Transparency "People"; Embies-Prima Gallery Roses Quillen, Prima Bonnet Blooms Gold Leather, Prima Artistry Flowers Scribe Trio, Prima Raja Center Red, Prima Raja Center Pewter, Prima Youth Epoxy stickers, Prima Felt Stems Cream, Prima Flower Center Classy Chipboard, Prima Canvas Tag, Prima Youth Rubons, Prima Wanderlust Pebble, Prima Red alpha, Maya Road Pewter pearl pin, Jenni Bowlin Reverse Black letter stickers

And last, but not least, my final LO. This LO makes me both happy and sad at the same time. I am happy that I have this LO, the colors I am absolutely thrilled about! Creating it was very freeing cause I just did what I felt. And it is about my dear daughter's made-up language. But I am sad because it reminds me of two LOs that I do not have anymore. Two that I will never have again. I created three for CHA, and only got this one back. But I am not going to dwell on that anymore. I really truly am very grateful to get this one, of all of them my favorite, back in my hands and to have for my daughter to be able to look at when she gets older. (I will just say that I have learned my lesson sooooo intensely that it really is essential to photograph your LOs before sending them off for CHA! And to create things for CHA that it really would be ok if they didn't get returned. :P)

Supplies: Paper-Prima Shabby Chic "My Lovely", Prima Pastiche "Vintage Garden" "Love Letter" "Butterfly Wings" "Seaside"; Embies-Prima Raspberry Tea Glittered Stickers, Prima Devines Orchid Bush, Prima Alphabet Mocha, Prima Lace Nikki, Prima Madrigal Blossoms Maestro Mauve, Prima Calcutta Petals Maize, Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Leaves; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, sewing machine

Well that is it! :D There is a little pain in my heart that I won't be designing for them anymore (that is if I even made it again! :P), but it felt really good to go through all my stuff and down size my Prima stash finally! :D And you know what that means? I will be having a giveaway soon! :D That's right! It probably won't be for a couple weeks as I have quite a bit of other stuff to go through too, but I am getting the boxes together!

My next post I will be sharing my April Polka Dot Whimsy LOs with you! I should be getting my May kit in the mail about that time so hopefully I will have some sneaks for you too! Take care!

~Amy

Giveaway over at the Crate Paper blog!

2010-04-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

Head on over to the Crate Paper blog today because they have a little giveaway going on! :D All you have to do is just leave a comment telling us what you would like to see on the Crate blog! Anything from additions to posts to links on the sidebar-just any suggestions that might help us improve the blog to make it more what you want to see! :D Easy peasy!

And while you are there be sure to look at all of the incredible LOs on the post as well, all created by girls on the Crate team! They are so inspiring! It blows me away what they can all do with paper! Love it! :D

I will be back tomorrow with the last of my Prima shares! Take care!

~Amy

Happy Easter!!

2010-04-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Bunny Day!!! :D We celebrated with an egg hunt yesterday. We drove to my husband's brother's place where everyone on Jed's side of the fam got together! There were so many kids!!!! It was CRAZY!!!! Well at least up until they were able to go egg hunting. LOL! I got a million pics of Creedence, as this was her first time celebrating Easter. (Last year she just didn't really understand it) But with Jed's help, she caught on pretty quick.
I think you will be seeing these pics on quite a few LOs coming soon!!! :D Can't tell you how excited I am to scrap Easter pics! (And how much of a dork that last sentence just made me!) LOL! Oh well. :P

Ok so I have something to share, and it has been killing me to keep it a secret, but the reveal was last night so I can share now!!! :D I made the Crate Paper Design Team!!! I was a screaming mess when I got the email!!! LOL! I am so excited! I had no idea who was on the team as well until the reveal, and seriously as I was reading down the list my jaw just kept dropping further and further! I am sooooo honored to have been chosen alongside so many scrappers that I look up to! Thank you so much Crate Paper!!!

*And the very last thing I have to say is that forgive any mess that may be around on my blog as I will be trying to redo it in the next few days. LOL! We'll see how that goes! :P

Take care everyone!!

~Amy

Photo Heavy Prima Day!!

2010-03-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!!! Been a little bit since I was last on here. :P But we have been a little bit busy because my Grandma made a surprise visit!! :D Well it wasn't a huge surprise, I had a few days notice. I am so thankful that she came to visit because I really needed a Grandma hug and she says she really needed a Amy hug. :D LOL! And it was absolutely wonderful for her because she was able to hang out with Cree the whole time! They had a blast! And Jed and I were able to, for the first time since Creedence was born, go on a date just the two of us!! We had fun, but it was a little hilarious because we didn't really know what to talk about. LOL! We went to dinner, and then saw a movie. I had my Grandma take our picture before we left, and I have the stubbs from the movie (which Jed kept for me!) so a scrapbook page is in order I think! :P Yeah I know I'm silly.

Well I realized that I hadn't shared my LO from February's BAP so I thought I would do that first. I had a lot of fun with this LO! The different colors and such. It seems a little empty to me, but I guess that is because it is a 12x12 so there is a lot more space. I really truly am on a 8x8 kick right now, so anything 12x12 just doesn't look right to me. LOL!

Supplies: Paper-Prima Strawberry Kisses "Cupcake" "Summer Picnic" "Berry Splash", Prima Watercolor Rainbow "Because", Prima Blooming Retro "Cotton Clouds" "Cocoa", Prima Paradise City "Love Letters" "Sweet Whispers", Prima Shabby Chic "Apricot Tree"; Embies-Prima Belle Artes Poetry roses, Prima Pearl Penache White Wedding, Prima Nursery Tales flowers (Michael's exclusive), Prima First Blush flowers (Michael's exclusive), Prima Lilliput Roses Teaberry, Prima Cameo Roses Aqua, Prima Devines Orchid Bush Voila (backing), Prima New Alpha in Mocha, Prima Whispered Words alpha in Cream, Prima Moss and Cream Rose Limited Edition; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Marvy Scalloped circle punch, E K Success tiny dot border punch

And some close ups:

And next I have a bag that I made actually a long time ago, but am only just now able to show! LOL! One side was on the blog the other day so that gave me permission to show it on mine. :D

Supplies: Prima Fairy Ring Antique Lace, Prima Gallery Rose Pierre, Prima Trellis Rose Lemon Creme, Prima Voila Felt Cream, Prima Holiday Lights Pearl Spray

And here is the other side:

Supplies: Prima Fairy Ring Galaxy, Prima Parlor Petals Tudor, Prima Trellis Rose Coral Rose, Prima Holiday Lights Pearl Spray, Prima Lace Jaqueline, Prima Devines Green Felt Voila

And lastly, I wanted to share with you all the 7 Gypsies Printer's Tray that I filled with Prima ATCs that is now on the Prima blog! I used the first prompt from Shimelle's class as my inspiration with this! We were supposed to use metals, so I dug and dug through all my metals (tons and tons) and found lots to use! :D I ended up using 18 brads, 2 keys, 1 frame and 2 metal gears! I was very proud of myself as these types of things never make it onto my pages. :P Anywho-here it is:

Supplies will be listed below each ATC. :D

Supplies: Paper-Prima Pastiche "Heartstrings" "Seaside" "Love Letters" "Quirky"; Embellishments-Prima Shabby Chic Glitter Chipboard, Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Leaves Chartreuse, Prima E line Pearls Olive, Prima E line Pearls Midnight, Prima Parlor Petals Verne, Tim Holtz Metal Gears, Tim Holtz Metal Game Spinners; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch

Supplies: Paper-Prima Paradise City "Fruity Jungle" "Island Beauty", Prima Indeed "Enchanted"; Embellishments-Prima Spring Mix Mini Roses (Michael's exclusive), Prima Say It In Pearls and Crystals Maroon, Prima E line Pearls Fairy Eggplant, Prima Orchid Bush Voila Felt (backing), Making Memories Noteworthy brad, Basic Grey Lemonade brad; Tools-Martha Stewart Scallop 1 in circle punch

Supplies: Paper-Prima Pastiche "Butterfly Wings" "Seaside", Watercolor Rainbow "Tropical Lagoon"; Embies-Prima E line Pearls Garnet, Prima E line Pearls Sunflower, Prima First Blush Journaling tag (Michael's exclusive), Prima lace Tamera, Prima Summer Mix mini roses (Michael's exclusive), Prima Donna Downey Canvas Sheet in Teal; Tools-Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch, Martha Stewart Scalloped 1 in circle punch, Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Provo Craft mini scallop decorative scissors

Supplies: Paper-Prima Strawberry Kisses "Raspberry Lemonade"; Embies-Prima Light Pink Rose Limited Edition, Prima Spring Mix mini roses (Michael's exclusive), Prima Velvet Heirloom Rose Leaves in Meadow, Prima Camelot Roses Diego, Prima E line Pearls Fairy Eggplant, Prima E line Pearls Fuschia, Little Yellow Bicycle Vita Bella brad, K and Company brad, Basic Grey Lemonade brad, Kaiser pearls in Rose, Maya Road trinket pin, Prima Floral Burlap Sheets

Supplies: Paper-Prima Strawberry Kisses "Summer Picnic", Prima Pastiche "Heartstrings"; Embies-Prima Donna Downey Canvas Sheet in Teal, Prima Velvet Heirloom Rose Leaves in Meadow, Prima Spring Mix mini roses (Michael's excusive), Prima Nursery Tales posies (Michaels exclusive), Basic Grey Lemonade brads, Basic Grey Opaline Teal/Aquamarine, K and Company pearl, Kaiser pearl in Rose; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch

Supplies: Paper-Prima Shabby Chic "My Lovely"; Embies-Prima Parlor Petals Dusty Rose, Prima Spring Mix mini roses (Michael's exclusive), Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Rose Leaves in Chartreuse, Prima E line Pearls Olive, Prima E line Pearls Fairy Eggplant, K and Company brad, Kaiser pearl in Rose, K and Company pearl in Pewter, Basic Grey Lemonade brad, Vintage material from book spine

Supplies: Paper-Prima Shabby Chic "Majestic Breeze"; Embies-Vintage lace, tulle, Prima Melange flower in yellow, Prima Nursery Tales posies (Michael's exclusive), Prima Mini Roses Sunrise Yellow, Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Rose Leaf in Evergreen, Prima E line Pearls Fairy Eggplant, Prima E line Pearls Sunflower, Making Memories Vintage Key

Supplies: Paper-Prima Shabby Chic "Morning Poetry"; Embies-Prima Trellis Roses Ivory, Prima Summer Spring Mix rose (Michael's exclusive), Prima Velvet Heirloom Rose Leaf in Meadow, Prima E line Pearls Fairy Eggplant, Prima E line Pearls Fuschia, Prima lace Cynthia, Little Yellow Bicycle Vita Bella brad, K and Company brad, Singer stick pin, Kaiser pearls in Rose, Vintage laces

Supplies: Paper- all Prima Flight of Fancy papers; Embies-Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Rose Leaf Chartreuse, Prima Center Kisses in Brown, Prima Cameo Roses Aqua, Prima Spring Mix rose (Michael's exclusive), Basic Grey Lemonade brad, Making Memories metal vintage frame, Prima E line Pearls Fairy Eggplant; Tools-Martha Stewart Medallion double punch

Supplies: Paper-Prima Strawberry Kisses "Raspberry Lemonade"; Embies-Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Rose Leaf in Evergreen, Prima Spring Mix rose (Michael's exclusive), Prima Symphony Blend Acceso Red, Prima lace Cynthia, Prima E line Pearls Fairy Eggplant, Prima E line Pearls Fuschia, Kaiser pearls in Rose, Kaiser pearls in Red, Little Yellow Bicycle Vita Bella brad, Making Memories Noteworthy brad, Basic Grey Lemonade brad, Studio Calico Jute in Brown, Making Memories vintage key

Supplies: Paper-Prima Strawberry Kisses "Cherry Bloosom"; Embies-Prima Shabby Chic Glitter Chipboard, Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Rose Leaf in Chartreuse, Prima E line Pearls Midnight, Prima E line Pearls Olive, Prima lace Nikki, Prima Cameo Roses Aqua, Prima Spring Mix rose (Michael's exclusive), Prima Gallery Roses Pierre, Basic Grey Lemonade brads, Singer stick pin; Tools-Provo Craft mini scallop decorative scissors

Supplies: Paper-Prima Watercolor Rainbow "Because"; Embies-Prima Innoscence Winter Orchid, Prima E lines Pearls Fuschia, Prima E line Pearls Midnight, Prima Calcutta Minis Willow, Prima Shabby Chic Glitter Chipboard, Prima Spring Mix roses (Michael's exclusive), Prima 4 Seasons Velvet Rose Leaf in Evergreen, Basic Grey Lemonade brad, Kaiser pearls in Rose; Tools-Provo Craft mini scallop decorative scissors

Well that is all I have today! I finished my PDW April LOs, but they are not up on the site yet, soooo I can't share them yet! :P Hopefully soon! As this last kit was a ton of fun. I will be back soon to share those and to tell you all about Jed's and my Date Night (I just need to get those pics downloaded!)! Take Care Everyone!

~Amy

Sharing my space for a challenge!

2010-03-09T15:14:00.001-08:00

:P so I am finally sharing on here where I work. Play. Scrap. whatever! I have a corner next to the kitchen and am quite ashamed that it has spread so far!! And that is not all of my scrap stuff. I have boxes and boxes of stuff that I keep meaning to give away to somewhere and also I have a closet with two 14 drawer tall rolling things (each drawer is between 2 and 3 inches tall), and both of those are jam-packed with stuff that I haven't touched in probably about a year! I am not joking!!! Really it is crazy. The only stuff I really do anything with are my DT stuff or kits. Which is sad because I buy stuff that I really like and tell myself that I really will use it, and then it just sits there and I feel really bad. Sooooo That is why I am taking Shimelle's class!! For this simple common sense rule that I have but for some reason can't seem to follow: I need to use my stuff. :P

Now the first challenge in the class is to show our stash. All of it. Well as I really don't want to go there because I know I will just be depressed-I am going to show my work area, which houses the majority of my stash. At least the stash that I would like to use. :D *That is a really big grin smile there!*

So here is my desk. The first shot is of my messy desk yesterday, and the second is of it cleaned up this morning. :D It got ravaged with my last few projects. I usually do a pretty good cleanup when I am done working on something, but it is not always possible, as I work on several things at once, which also makes my desk ten times more messy because I need that much more out.

See: Nice and sparkly!! :D

And this picture right here is of my little shelf that I created on my desk. I used a shelf from my bookcase (which you will see in just a minute) and glued spaghetti sauce jars to the bottom (only because I had lots of those on hand) and created this shelf. It works perfect for me. Uses what I have and I don't think it looks all that bad. Now all the junk I have put on it and under it, now that looks bad! :P But it works. I have all my sticker alphas and packaged cards (October Afternoon wild cards, Jenni Bowlin calendar cards, Elle studio cards, and blah blah blah) in the blue/brown print box on the far left top shelf, plus some journaling cards that have never been opened. I just like the way they look. LOL! Also it holds all my patterned Basic Grey chipboard alphas. Then the little snap container next to it on the right holds all my pens, little tools like exacto knife and bone folder, my paint brushes and sharpies. The next container over (which is a cleaned out baby formula container-using the good stuff, I know. LOL!) holds all my Crafter's Pick The Ultimate glues-upside down. :D Love that glue!!! And then next, as you can see, are colored pencils, regular pencils, and my necessaries bin-hand lotion, chapstick, and glasses. On the bottom, under the shelf, I have, starting at the left, a basket that holds all my self-adhesive and not self-adhesive rhinestones and pearls, and all my decorative stick pins. And I am addicted to these, so I have about 40 freakin million of the same things over and over in this little basket! Love em. Then next is my paperwork holder. I keep my to do book, lists and whatnot in here, plus my calendar, and all the things I have printed out for inspiration in a binder, and another binder for sketches. It keeps it all in one place that I can slide out easily-if my desk is clean. :D

Next up is my book shelf!!! :D I love this thing. And wish so much I had another. (and in case you were wondering-my husband stained the shelves but didn't make it to the actual bookcase unit so it looks a little funky.) It is located to the right of my desk. This bookcase actually has 6 shelves in it, although I only pictured 4. The 5th is under construction and the 6th pretty much just sits there filled to the brim. The bottom shelf holds a bin of my mini albums and another which holds all my 8x8 papers. Too much for words in regards to both of those things. The 5th shelf holds my papers, although I just changed that kinda. It holds part of my papers and then also will hold my kits. That I desperately need in sight so that I will use. :P The rest of the papers got moved to under my desk-which is a scary place right now. The rest of the shelves are pretty much explained by the picture below. :D I am so proud of myself that I figured out how to do that. LOL!

And here, to the left of my desk, is where I keep all my papers for DT work and all my personal stash embies. I keep my papers in the postal boxes with the tops cut off and in files within the postal boxes. Another on had fix that works for me. It looks a little unsightly but no one really ever comes over to visit who would care about it. LOL! :D These are how all my papers in my bookshelf are too. And it was jampacked from one side to the other. :P The drawers below are mostly organized, the second shelf is a mad house and I really don't open it for fear of everything flying out at me. Organizing it is my next task. The first drawer holds my tools. Not that I really have many. I have a cropodile, and 4 deco scissors. And a couple hole punches. The rest of the shelf is made up of pop dots, other glues and refills for my exacto knife.

This is the third drawer. I have all my flowers (other than Prima) and mainly sticker die cuts on the far left. All my rubons next to that, right. I just expanded to put some of the bigger stamps and overflow further right. And then finally the big stamp and ink box on the far right. Lots that I never use.

And the fourth drawer (which for some reason will never fully close) has all my chipboards on the far left, and all my brads, metals and buttons on the right. (Are you likin that Studio Calico box in the top of the photo?! ;D I love those boxes! They are so good for everything!)

Ok and last but not least the little drawer storage that is under my desk. :D It holds my punches in the top shelf, my ribbons-sorted by color-in the middle shelf (in those oh so fancy spaghetti jars again), and all my alpha in the bottom shelf-mainly American Crafts and Making Memories.

Yay! I shared my mess with the world! Now what you don't see here is a huge-I mean HUGE-stack of stuff that doesn't have a home, and the mess under my desk that is so bad I cringe, and sometimes have trouble getting my legs under because it is so crammed. :P Mucho work needs to be done on that. LOL! Now if I could only just convince my husband that I need my own room for all my stuff then I think my problem would be solved! But then I would have more space to add more to my stash and seriously that is not the solution here. :P

Feeling a lot better :D

2010-03-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

I want to Thank all of you so very much *from the bottom of my heart* for you kind words. :D It made me feel so much better to vent, and to be able to do it freely. And to not feel judged or made to feel silly about my feelings, not that I get that normally or anything, but you are always just a little bit afraid inside that you will be. All your comments really made me feel wonderful. It is nice to know that my feelings are normal and human. :P

I had a nice surprise on Friday, when my Lil Snacker LO was picked for the Featured LO of the Day over at 2Peas!! (I know I made this a while ago, but I had only just got around to uploading it. :P) I was so excited! Thank you so much to everyone who left me comments over there, and to 2Peas for picking my LO! It made my weekend! :D

Next up, I am excited to tell you that the March kit for PDW went live a bit ago! (I am late to post this too, so the kit is already sold out, but I can tell you that April's kit is going to be fabulous!!)

I finally got all my stuff done with the kit (although because of all the stuff that happened this last month, and receiving my kit a little late, I didn't get done as much as I wanted. That just means that I have a ton of stuff left over to play with! :D) But without further ado, here are my LOs:

In case you hadn't noticed, all my LOs are 8x8s. :D I love this size. It is a lot less intimidating. :P The last LO I actually used for my week's challenge over at the PDW blog and forum. If you want to participate, then head on over to one of those links, you have until Wednesday to play! :D

I also wanted to share with you another thing that is making me happy. I joined this class today!!! Yay!

I am so looking forward to what this class has to offer! I just signed up in the forum, and holy cow it looks like a lot of people are already there, but I can't wait to start! Hope you all can join, I have heard nothing but good stuff about her classes! :D And I need some serious motivation and butt kicking to get me going again on creating a whole ton, and outside the box. So here's to a super fun next three weeks! :D I'll keep you all updated on what I am making.

Well that is all I have right now, hopefully I will have more to share soon. Take care everyone!!

~Amy

I'm still here..

2010-03-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

Thank you so so much to my readers and commentors on my last post. Your support and kind words truly mean the world to me. :D Days when I miss my mom are more often than I ever admit.

I meant to get back on here before my last post but honestly I had nothing good to talk about. :P And really I don't want to bring a whole ton of bad stuff on here, because the last thing I like to do when is read about all the awful things happening to someone. But that is all that has happened right now. :( And I think I just need to vent it.

On Monday night, my family lost it's oldest and most precious member. My dearest Great Grandma, Gammy. Her real name is Ethel, but we always just called her Gammy. She was 92 years old. I wish so much that we could have taken Creedence to see her just one more time, but by the time we knew it was close, it was too late. I am happy though that she got to meet her Great Great Grandma one time. The picture below is from July 2008. Creedence will never remember it, but she will have pictures to look back on. We all know that Gammy is in a much better place, and lived a very long and full life. The real person I am concerned about right now is my dear Grandma. I wish so much that I could be with her right now, be there to support her. She has worked so hard the past 10 years or so, making sure that Gammy had everything that she needed taken care of, and when Gammy developed Dementia, she worked tirelessly to make sure she had the best medical care. This has been so much of my Grandma's life for so long, that adjusting to not having to do it will be hard. I know the emptiness she will feel. But I hope to see her soon, and help her in any way I can.

My Great Grandma passing is just the last of a list of things that have made the last almost two weeks really really hard. The truck broke down twice. The first time (Thank Goodness!) the fuel injectors were still under warranty, so to get them fixed was free. The second time, well let's just say there goes a week's wages. I was actually the one driving it when it broke down the second time. And it was the biggest pain in the butt I have had to go through in a really really long time! LOL! I don't own a cell phone, and if you don't believe me ask Michelle from PDW. ;D Anyway the power steering fluid/brake fluid box exploded in the drive thru at Jack in the Box. The truck is a lifted F250 and the tires are absolutely huge, so this means when the power steering is gone, those tires don't move. At least not for me. And this drive thru is one where you make a full 180 degree turn to get through, and I broke down in the middle of the thing. I was working on my 3 point turn to make it through, when the wheel just stopped working. My first thought was 'Oh S**T!!' I got out and ran to the little drive thru window and told them what happened, and that I needed someone with muscle to come and help me. Believe it or not the guy they sent was named Jesus. :P Anyway, with both he and I turning the wheel we finally, after nearly 40 minutes, got the truck out. I was shaking my muscles were so shot. Turning that wheel to try and get those tires to turn was hell on earth. I was so thankful that Jesus came out to help, because otherwise I would never have made it. Ever. Once the truck was parked out of the drive thru, Creedence and I went back in and got our food (LOL), and then went and called Jed from a payphone. Sidenote: I am so happy those things still exist. Although I think that there will be a day real soon when payphones are just no longer there. :P Jed came and got us and drove the truck home and then we had a tow truck come and pick it up and take it to the dealership. Needless to say I am pretty nervous about driving that thing anymore. LOL!

The next thing has both good news and bad news to it. Good news is we have finally started the speech therapy for Creedence! She had her first evaluation last Tuesday, and will have another one sometime this next week. She qualifies with this center through the school district, and they will be helping as much as they can to try and get Creedence on track with speaking. They have a Speech Therapist, Occupational Therapist, and a Psychologist at the center, and every child is required to see all three to get a more rounded idea of what we can do to help her.

(In case anyone is unfamiliar with the situation, my daughter is 30 months old and only speaks 3 words. She has her own language for everything except kitty, goodbye, and Oh Wow. She never said mama or papa or any of the common first words.) The speech therapist (hereto after referred to as SP) was very fascinated by Creedence's own language. She talks and talks and talks all day long, but besides those three words, non of it makes sense. We have come to understand a few of her words which she says for the same thing all the time. Like when she wants more of something (which is usually a sippy cup refill) she says Kabwee. We found out from the SP that from evaluating Creedence, she has been able to hear Creedence say up to 9 words in a sentence! And that if she were able to speak correctly, she would have a pretty fantastic vocab!

That really made me feel a lot better about things, because when your child doesn't talk, it really starts to make you wonder if you did something wrong. You start to worry that you are a bad parent. I had never really thought about it until after the evaluation, but the fact that I can not have a conversation with my daughter (like all the other mom's at the mommy and me class), or hear my daughter say anything that makes sense to me, has really really been wearing me down. I am so ashamed to say that, but it's true. I love my daughter with all that I have in me, but to not hear or be able to do those thing with my daughter makes me sad. And scared. The SP says that we are still a ways away from a diagnosis, but from what she has heard this sounds like it could be something called Apraxia.I came home and looked it up, and just started crying. (I especially cried when I read this poem) This told me that we could be in for a very long haul with this. And my Grandma, bless her heart, told me that if we all have to learn sign language to be able to talk to Creedence, than we will. I want so much to be able to talk to my daughter and to hear her say something back. And yet I feel like a failure for feeling this way. Like I said before, I love my daughter so much, and I am sooo lucky and blessed to have her, that I feel ashamed for wanting more and not being happy with the little angel I have. This is one of those moments that I wish my mom was here. She would know just how to comfort me, and how to get through and passed it.

And the last thing, which was the first to happen, is that I am in battles with one of my fav scrapbooking companies to try and get some of my work back. I am not going to go into any details with this, but I will say that it has made me so sad. Really ruined scrapbooking for me, and made me so scared about my work. I would like to hope that my relationship with the company will one day be as it was before, and I hope that day will be soon.

Well, on a more positive note, I am scrapping with the March Polka Dot Whimsy kit today (which looks like it is now sold out)! :D I am waaaaay behind on this (So sorry Michelle and Nicole!) but hopefully by the end of the day I will have sufficient projects to add to the site! :D The other DT members projects are up right now so go check it all out if you get a chance! :D

I will be back soon to share my March projects! And hopefully some much greater news about something! I have no idea what, but something good is bound to happen! :D *Keeping positive here!* :D Hope everyone is well! Take Care!

~Amy

From my heart, from now on.

2010-02-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a whole lot. I don't really have any relationship with this blog other than to just share my layouts. And I feel very sad about that.

So here is to changing that:

I am missing my mom very much today. I miss being able to talk to her and get advice from her. She wore her heart on her sleeve so passionately, and I have tried so hard to live my life like that. But sometimes that can get you into some pretty hot water. I am watching Pride and Prejudice today, it reminds me so much of my mom. We watched that all the time.

I am not sure what to do right now. Or what to say. But no matter what, I will be true to my feelings. No matter the consequences. And I will be proud of myself.

:D

And because I can't do a post without a pic: here is Cree from the other day. She fell asleep standing. With mismatched BabyLegs on her arms. She is such a crazy maniac girl.

Take care

~Amy

2010-02-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Sharing all my Cosmo Cricket stuff today! :D I did a mix of stuff with the new and old (they always ask us to do some stuff with the old so people can try to see it in a new light ya know?). I didn't get to work with any of the paper from the Joy Ride collection so I only have two new layouts for the new collections, one for Material Girl and one for Garden Variety. All the rest are new layouts for older collections.

First up is Material Girl! I absolutely love love love this line! I can't say enough good things about this line. It speaks to my heart completely! :D And I had a ton of fun doing this layout! I'd be happy to do a tutorial on how I did it if anyone would like! :D

Supplies: Paper-all of the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl collection papers; Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Material Girl Ready Set Chip, Ready Set Chip letters in Red Line; Tools and Other-Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, hole punch, (used a Crate Paper die cut paper as the template for the scallop circle), sewing machine and embroidery thread

Next up is Garden Variety. I went super simple on this one because I love the background paper and wanted it to be a focus of the layout. This is kind of my resolution page for 2010. It just listed tons of things that I want to work on, improve on and change. I wanted to use as many of the paper's patterns as I could, yet not use them-know what I mean? The theme for this line just didn't work with resolutions, but the colors are great! So I just used punches of the papers and lined them up. :D I really like how it turned out.

Supplies: Paper-I lost track on what papers I used and what ones I didn't :P I used almost all of the Garden Variety papers here. Embellishments-Ready Set Chip Letters Extra Extra; Tools and other-sewing machine, Martha Stewart punches Starburst and 3-in-1 Butterfly

This layout is my fav that I did. I love the muted colors and the little glassine circles. :D And I went a little punch happy too. :P Oh and once I get the Tiny Type stickers in my new box then I will be adding an m and a o after the 25. :D

Supplies:Paper-Girl Friday "Monday" "Tuesday" "Wednesday" "Thursday" "Saturday" "Borders"; Embellishments-Girl Friday Pink Velvet Scallop ribbon, Ready Set Chip Letters Flour Sack, 7Gypsies Chipboard trim; Tools and other-Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, 1 in circle punch, Rose leaf punch, Frond punch, 1 in Scallop punch, Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, Claudine Hellmuth paint in Sable Brown and Pink, Craft Supply white acrylic paint, sewing machine, glassine evelopes (punched), Starbucks coffeecup liners, vintage book paper

I had a lot of fun doing this LO! And it came together fast too. Very simple. Well fairly simple. No journaling. Just my motto for 2010. Bloom and Become.

Supplies: Paper-Earth Love "Relive" "Remember" "Repeat"; Embellishments-Earth Love Image Rub ons, Earth Love Alpha Rub ons, Boyfriend Ready Set Chip Alpha, Earth Love Cardstock Stickers, American Crafts Nutmeg Thicker, Craft Supply Acrylic White paint; Tools and other-EK Success tiny scallop edge punch, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, Marth Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch

And one of my new all time favs! This LO was a blast! Tons of layers and texture.

Supplies: Paper-all papers from Early Bird collection including the Borders and Elements; Embellishments-Ready Set Chip Extra Extra, Fleuriste Blackboard negative, Basic Grey Opaline Teal/Aquamarine; Tools and other-Fiskars Apron Lace punch, Martha Stewart Hydrangea punch and 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Claudine Hellmuth paint in teal, Craft Supply paint in black and white, sewing machine, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, packing paper

This has got to be my all time fav layout that I think I have ever done. :P I know I say that about quite a few but I this one is really special to me. Oddly enough though, Cosmo Cricket bought it from me for the CHA booth, and now I have to recreate it. LOL! Which is fine with me, I am supplied with more than enough product to do so. :D The journaling is from one of my fav songs, It's Amazing by Mindy Smith. It reads:

Can you see
It's amazing what you do to me
Took my heart and made me feel things
I never felt before
It's changing me
Switched direction so suddenly
Shook me up and threw me around
Helped me learn to breathe
It all in

When I was afraid to reach out
Oh, when I was the one to run
You came along with a new lease on love
To show me how it's done

Supplies: Paper-all Boyfriend papers in collection including Elements; Embellishments- Boyfriend Ready Set Chipboard, Honey Pie brown scallop velvet ribbon, Ready Set Chip Letters Flour Sack; Tools and other-Martha Stewart punches Starburst, Rose Leaf, Frond, 3-in-1 Butterfly, Provo Craft mini scallop scissors, sewing machine

Whew! I can't even tell you how ridiculously long it has taken me to finish this post! LOL! I am still working on the CHA post but hopefully will have that finished by tomorrow evening. I am so excited for new stuff to come out! :D

On another note, I am going to soon begin the task of planning my wedding. *I'm so excited!* It is going to be a tiny thing, but I want it to be beautiful and meaningful. If you happen to know of any good DIY or inspiration sites for weddings I would appreciate it soooo much! I am clueless about how to plan, and about what exactly I would like for our special day. It is in December btw, so I have a bit of time. :D Thanks so much!!!

Polka Dot Whimsy Reveal!

2010-02-01T23:26:00.000-08:00

Ok so I am quite a few days behind on posting these but better late than never! :P The reveal was on the 28th of January, which was later than it normally will be in the future. Usually it will happen on the 25th, with sneaks starting on the 16th (or as soon as any of us can dish them out after the 16th!).

This kit was such a fun one! It is Valentine themed, which was lovely for me because I hadn't got any of the Valentine stuff that was out as of recent. (Themed kits are a little intimidating, but no need to worry, this is the last themed kit for a while from PDW. They are going to resume regular kits, and then in April Michelle will start the addon kits and project kits again! Exciting!) This kit is also really eclectic in that it has lots and lots of little things and variety! From tons of ribbons, to fabric strips, to confetti, to cupcake liners, to tons of buttons-there are a million little things that add the perfect little touches to your LOs and projects! And seriously I have a whole freakin ton left of my kit! I gotta figure out some more stuff to do with it! :P So without further ado-I present to you Polka Dot Whimsy's February kit PS I Love You!!!

And here is what I did with it:

First up is a Valentine banner that I made. Kinda similar to the one I did previously with Prima stuff (love making these!), except this one actually says Happy Valentines and has hearts instead of stars. Please forgive my horrible photos of it, it was super windy outside and I absolutely suck at photographing indoors. :P But you get the idea of what it is.

Other supplies used (besides the PDW kit): Martha Stewart punches-starburst, scalloped 1 in circle, heart confetti, heart button double punch; Marvy 2 1/2 in scallop punch; and my sewing machine

Next up is the first of my LOs. I love this Pink Paislee die cut paper! Love.

And this is the other LO that I did. I had lots of fun with this one! Misting and painting!

Here I decided to make a headband! I used this tutorial from Rachel Dunbow's blog Smile and Wave. I thought it was the cutest thing I had ever seen! But it didn't look nearly as cute on me. LOL! Anyway I used part of the two fabric strips that came in the kit. Sorry for the super bad shots. I seriously took like a 1000 and these were the best out of them all. :P

But oh no! I didn't stop there! :D I had to make something similar for my Creedence. And the pics here are even worse because she was soooo not in the mood to cooperate! This thing has not been back on her head since, which sucks cause it is kinda cute! Oh well.

And there we have it! I was kinda disappointed in myself with this reveal, but I only like one evening to work on all of this and then a little bit of the next morning. Next reveal I will have a whole ton of time to work on the kit! I am excited because it should be here soon! :D If you haven't signed up for the newsletter than click here and do it!

I am working on a couple other posts that has the stuff I did for CHA, and another that has all the new CHA things that are on my ToGet list! And also I am going to be doing an overhaul of my blog because it is in desperate need of such. :P Take care!

~Amy

New CHA and some new awesome news!!!!

2010-01-16T18:26:00.000-08:00

HOLY COW!!!! I can't even tell you how much stuff I am rolling around in right now!!! LOL! I am up to my ears in Cosmo Cricket and Prima!!! I have been working non-stop for a week now trying to finish all my stuff to ship off in the next few days!!! :D Have you all been keeping up to date with the new CHA 2010 reveals from my two fav manufacturers?

If not, have no fear for I will fill you in! LOL!

These are the new lines from Cosmo Cricket! And under each title is my fav paper from each release!

And here are some of the new Ready Set Chip alphas!!! Love these ones! I got to play with the first two here!

And I am incredibly excited about these!!! Love love love! Especially the little words on the bottom of every sheet! Yay!

And now for Prima!!! OMgosh I can't say enough amazing things about everything!

Here is my fav collection!
With this one being my fav paper! Gahhhh I'm drooling. LOL
And totally in love with the pebbles too!

They came out with some new Times alphas and can't even begin to tell you how excited about that I am!!!
And new crocheted trims that are to die for!

This is my fav stamp:Chicken Wire! :D You may be thinking What?!! But I see sooo many possibilities!
A few of my fav flowers from the release!

And some amazing leaves that are for sure going to be staples in my stash forever!
And these Say It In Pearls that are absolutely stunning!!! Those little roses are so delicate!

I will be sharing soon all the work that I have done with all the of new CHA releases! But until then I have some other exciting news to share! :D

A little bit ago I received an email from Michelle Hill who runs the fabulous Polka Dot Whimsy kit club, asking me if I would like to be on their Design Team!! I was thrilled! And very flattered! It was the first time I had ever been asked to join a team without applying! LOL! Of course I said yes! And today the newsletter announcement went out revealing the new DT!!! :D I am so excited to be working with such amazingly talented girls!! Definitely check out the newsletter announcement! And it also gives a sneak peek at the February kit!! (which should arrive on my door on Tuesday!) I can't wait to get started!!! Thank you so so much to Michelle for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this team! And also you should check out the new Ning site that has been set up for PDW! We already have some challenges up and a guessing game to try and figure out who the Guest Designer is for February! (Your gonna love her! I know I do! :D ) I look forward to getting to know you all on the new site!

Well I will be back in a few days with some shares!!! Let me know what your fav releases are, I would love to hear! Take care!

~Amy