I survived Tuesday

Tuesday is always my long day. I teach a full day and the kids have activities both before and after school. Added to that, it is always the big 5th grade homework day. Even a normal Tuesday has me collapsing at the end of the day--usually around 7:30.

This week I have the added whammy of Drew traveling and final exams. And then I needed to race fit in a quick 15 minutes in the grocery store with both kids in Tae Kwon Do gear.

I am not ashamed to say that Ronald McDonald cooked dinner. I have no guilt over it at all.

What makes me happy? The next FIVE weeks are my semester break. Yes, 5 weeks of no teaching and all day to enjoy.

What scares me? Starting in January, Tuesday gets longer. The only day I could get the kids into swim lessons was, you guessed it, Tuesday. From 7-8pm. After all of the other activities.

Go ahead and faint with me. Until then, I will focus on today's mantra: just keep going and you will survive.

I love this pretty picture:


It really symbolizes my Tuesday. I can live through it. Goodnight, Tuesday.

Have to spill

ScrapStreet's Showroom column for the January issue features the fun stamps from Stamps of Life by Stephanie Barnard. I had the best weekend playing with them! So much fun that I have some left over after turning in my article and I am not done yet! Normally, I would wait until after the issue is out to show, but a little peek cannot hurt, right?

Digital Stamps: Stamps of Life Back2Basics, Cardstock: Coredinations, Ribbon: Offray, Markers: Copic, Tools: Cuttlebug, Fiskers border punch.

I printed the stamps in just an outline and colored them with my beloved Copics. Next, I used embossing powder for shine. Popping them with foam off of the Swiss Dots background makes for a great mixture of textures. Where did I start? With the ribbon. I have had this in my stash for awhile and it never quite matched any papers. I was able to color everything to match it instead. Fun!

coloring is good for you!

Honest. It is. There is a reason why we give kids some crayons and paper. Ok, so promoting hand eye coordination and fine motor skills can be offered as rational, but it is just plain fun, too. A little bit of coloring and I feel less stressed. I can make something pretty and have complete control over it even if everything else is swirling around me. ahhh.

I am having a bigger problem figuring out how to make cards with my pretties. I prefer a 4in x 4in square card. I think it comes from scrapping 12x12 solo pages for so long--I think in a square. However, my new stamps are bigger. They want 5x7 cards. They need to go big. I have to give them what they want. After all, is this deer not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

Merry Christmas. Paper: Crate Paper, Pink Paislee, Die Cuts: Crate Paper, Stamp: Whiff of Joy, Markers: Copic, Other: Raffia.

I am going to take a batch of stamped images and my copics with me to school this week. Watching students take finals will be far less stressful with my magic markers at hand.

Just a bit of hello

I was thrilled to receive an "open before Christmas" present today with a bunch of stamps perfect for coloring. I have stamps. Honest. After all, what self respecting scrapper doesn't? However, most of my stamps are not the color me type. They are more patterns and words.

I have found a few digi stamp sites since my copic obsession started, but had not purchased any rubber stamp pretties as of yet. Now I have a new batch just begging me to play!

Hi. Paper: Crate Paper, Ribbon: Offray, Stamps: Stamping Bella, The Stamps of Life (digital), Markers: Copic, Tools: Scor-it.

Have a happy, stampy day!

My day off

Ahh, Friday. Freezing cold temps and not a single meeting to attend--what's a girl to do? Stay home and scrap! The week was absolutely crazy. Drew is out of town and the kids had their full complement of activities. It was the last week of the semester, so I had more than enough grading to do in between reviewing for finals. I did not have time to scrap, but I did make a little time to color each evening.

I used Kazan's sketch 41 from 2s4u--flipped a bit--for this one. I even pulled out the machine for a little stitching. It has been way too long since I did that!

You. Paper, Diecuts: Crate Paper, Chipboard: Heidi Swapp, Stamp: Whiff of Joy, Markers: Copic, Tools: Sewing Machine, Scor-it, Distresser.

Happy Friday, friends!

It's Complicated

I love movies. In college, I worked at the "slightly late" theater on campus. A perfect job since I could eat candy and watch movies for free after working the concessions before the film. What could be better?

As an English major, films were often part of our writing assignments. We would read a Shakespearean play and then watch a number of movies based on the same play. Some of the best papers I wrote were analysis and comparison among film and the written word. I did learn--quickly--that I prefer my own imagination. The movies based on books are never quite as good as the way I saw them in my mind.

As momhood set in, movies became a dvd habit. Very seldom did we make it to a grown up movie on the big screen. Why? When they were tiny babies, it was money and time. As they got a bit older, there was the joy of watching them watch movies. It is so real to them that you just cannot resist. But over the last year or so, my patience for their movies waned. I desperately want the time I spent watching "Kung Fu Panda" back. There was actual pain in watching that one.

Earlier this fall, Zack started first grade and I took the plunge. I went to see a movie in the middle of the day all by myself. No one else wanted to see "Julie and Julia" so I grabbed my Jr. Mints and headed in all alone. And, I liked it. The movie and the experience.

I still prefer to see a movie with friends, but I am ok with heading out on my own and then discussing it with friends later. What I noticed about the last batch--except for J&J--is that I am older than the movies. The romantic comedies seem to all happen to women BELOW 30. The movies with vibrant "women of an age" with central romantic roles are few and far between.

Which is why "It's Complicated" is on my holiday must see list. Check out this screen shot:


Cheating with your ex-husband on the young tootsie that cheated on you with him? Ok, it sounds a bit twisted, but fun.

Of course, "Princess and the Frog" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks the Squeakuel" made the family must see list. I definitely deserve a bit of complication after surviving both of those!

Quick Trip

The first real snow of the season started yesterday morning, bright and early. Allie and Zack eagerly bundled up for a few minutes of play before the bus arrived. Unfortunately, Allie could barely fit her feet into her old boots. In early October, she tried them on and they fit, but 2 months later it is a different story.

We had a tiny shopping window today while Zack was at scouts. 15 minutes in and out at Target. Luckily, she fell in love with these in an instant.

Her size? Woman's 7. Eeeek! I sense a growth spurt about to happen. She was a 5.5 at the beginning of the school season. The good news is that I am an 8.5 making it not much longer before I can double my shoe collection.

caught us

You never know where Zack will pop up with his camera. He loves taking pictures. Every so often, he will bring me his camera filled with pictures for me to upload. He sits patiently and goes through shot after shot. He is ruthless with his eye, deleting those that do not please him. "I can always take more, mom," he tells me. He selects ones to print and keeps them in his room. Of course, I am allowed to print extras to scrap.

Zack is seven.

My kids amaze me all the time. Being a mom is the greatest gift. Well, on the days that it is not being the hardest work. It is definitely the most profound dichotomy of my life.

These shots are from sometime in early November. Allie and I got the mail and found a magazine for each of us. We plopped right down on the front steps to read and Zack appeared a bit later to capture the moment.

He is happy to take a couple of candid shots and then his bossy side pops up. Turn your head. Chin up. Now, over the shoulder. I love some of the creative things he comes up with like peeking over our magazines.

I forgot all about it until he brought me the camera today. How cute it turned out! I am already searching my brain for a title. Suggestions?

Hi Elf!

I am having such fun with these darling Instyle stamps. I love when companies with really cute art make digital stamps available. Being able to have them instantly, resize them, print them again and again--all such selling points for me. I love the anime art eyes and cannot get enough of these stamps. Darling!

I created this card for the sketch on the Club Anime blog. I cropped the little elf into a head shot and used my spellbinders for a frame. I love the subtlety of the cuttlebug embossing on the white.

Santa Was Here. Paper, Die Cuts: Crate Paper, Ribbon: Offray, Stamp: Instyle.com, Markers: Copic, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Pearls: Kaisercraft, Tools: Cuttlebug, Spellbinders, Scor-it.

Just downloaded a new stamp and I have coloring to do. Happy Monday!

Ready for some football

Ok, so our Steelers are torturing us right now. I have no excuses. Theories, certainly, but valid reasons escape me for such a horrible losing streak. Still, at our house we dress for the occasion.

Sundays are football days. We toss in some homework and some laundry, but all around football. What did we do before we could pause the games? Or before the magical NFL Sunday Ticket allowed us to see them all? Or before fantasy football gave us a reason to watch them all so energetically? Fortunately, we do not have to remember--we are soooooo spoiled.

Today, my Steelers lost. But my Saints won. Yes, I adopted the lovable Saints during my undergrad years. Tulane played in the Superdome and tickets for the Saints were not hard to come by. Of course, they were more commonly called the Aints in those days before they had EVER seen the playoffs. It definitely looks like it is their year. And it is easy to root for them when Brees is leading my fantasy team. Such the hero.

And the translation for my non football scrappy friends: yada yada yada cute picture yada yada yada picture. Love yall!

Happy Card

I was in the Christmas card mood with red and green doodads out. I organize my goodies by color tray and somehow apples jumped out at me instead of anything holiday. I had such fun playing with the bright and the bold. I used Laura's sketch 40 from 2s4u. I swear the sketches get cuter every week over there! And the newest design team members are all super talented.

Love You. Paper: October Afternoon, Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Ribbon: Offray, Pin: JoAnn's, Alphabet: American Crafts, Sticker: Making Memories, Tools: Scor-it, Spellbinders, Cuttlebug.

I have to say that this particular green paper--this card and the one from yest--is my favorite of the week. How can I have owned this one for months and somehow not have used it? It is such a yummy shade of green.

copic obsession

My copic obsession is new. And fabulous. For those who have not yet discovered copics, they are a marker. But they are so much more. They are refillable, blendable, more like paint brushes already loaded with the perfect amount of color than a maker. There is even an airbrush system that works with the markers. Can you say Christmas present? I can!

I picked up my first few copics on sale at Hobby Lobby before I discovered they are marking them up WAY too much. I found an online store that delivers quickly and charges less everywhere else. I am in love. I have spent countless hours on youtube watching videos and wander through blogs.

Today was my day off. No work, no committees, no meetings, no playdates--just a me day. I slept in. I colored. I bubbled. I ate cookie dough. ahhhhh.

My blog hopping led me to Too Cute For Words a challenge blog featuring Instyle Stamps. I headed over and picked up my first couple of anime digital stamps. Excellent customer service! I created this for their color challenge--use brown, coral, and kiwi.

Paper, Stickers is BasicGrey, Journal Spot: Jillibean Soup, Bling: Kaisercraft. I used my copics on just about everything. I love how darling the journal spot is after it is colored!

Here are the copics used:

I can not wait to get back to my desk to color more!

lots of love

I love a cute window card! Normally I just do a basic with the window, but this mouse was just too cute to make share a space. I decided to go with the trifold. How darling is he?

The paper is October Afternoon. I used photoshop to color the mouse's holiday bag and hat the exact color of the paper green. Really easy to do with software.

Almost ready to show off my very first copic coloring. I am definitely having a ton of fun doing my copic homework.

smooches!

12 Days of Christmas

The nature of teaching college means I have a lovely holiday break. Four to six weeks of no classes. Oh, sure, I have classes to design and meetings to attend, but I have a long span of not teaching. I fill the time. Absolutely. I scrapbook. I read. I chatter with friends. I still have kids and a husband and a house.

But.

I always have this feeling that I missed the joy of Christmas. The month of December flies by with a ton of things that have to be done--especially final exam torture--but not much that gets to be fun. And then I have all the time in the world in January, but the holidays are gone.

What's a gal to do? Make a plan, of course. Tonight the family sat down and decided on 12 things to do to celebrate Christmas together. I know some of yall may be able to do the entire Advent countdown, but I have a traveling husband and an insane schedule so 12 is my number.

Each family member picked 3 items to add to the list. Drew shocked me when his first pick was to see Chipmunks Squeakquel on Christmas Day. Really, husband? He also picked a trip to the mall. Clearly, I do not know this man as well as I thought. Of course, when he added "just to look, not to shop" I knew he was back. Giggle.

We are all excited about the list and can't wait to kick off the holiday season. 12 days and counting . . .

Digital Delights

Happy December! I am so excited to share the new issue with y'all. It is our 49th issue--the very first one of year FIVE. How is that possible? Recently the staff took a look back at issue one and had quite a giggle. We have certainly come a long way, babies.

Here is our current cover (and link in):


This month our fabulous Showroom sponsor is Digital Delights by Louby Lou. These digital stamps are so freaking cute! I am happy to blame designer/owner Wendy for creating designs so cute that I could totally justify buying copic markers. A LOT of copic markers. I did not have them before I completed the article, but I am a coloring fool now!

I am so proud of the creativity of all of our designers. Take a peek here to see the 24 different items we created together.

Personally, I made more than the three that made it into the issue. We did have to pick and choose. The first item I made was the wine bag. I took one look at this girl and knew I had to make her in felt. She is just the perfect little santa gal:



My favorite of the images on first glance was the turtle. I have colored him a half dozen times with my copics now practicing to shade and highlight well. I am certain I will have him looking fabulous soon! For this layout, I used my photoshop to color him and printed him on a transparency over and over as a border. Too cute!


This card was also colored in photoshop and then glittered a bit by me. I tried a bunch of different ribbons for the reins, but liked the glitter best.

I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to play with digital stamping. As a hybrid scrapper, these are my new favorite scrapping toys. Have you stamped today?

back in the saddle

Finally. After several weeks of feeling all topsy turvey with my new schedule, I managed to phase scrapping back into my daily life. I feel so much better! I had a number of items to make for upcoming publications that I cannot share, but not that the must scrap list is done, I have time for fun scrapping. Yay!

I headed over to 2sketches4you and grabbed this week's sketch: Laura's Sketch 38. Fabulous! I used it for this thanks card for my inlaws. They were so sweet watching the kids when Drew and I were in Miami. A happy card and a gift certificate for dinner out was our way of saying thanks.

Cosmo Cricket papers, chipboard, ribbon from Earth Love, Jillibean Soup journal spot, and American Crafts Thickers with a hint of ink. I love how the colors are light, yet so warm. Yummy!

Off to scrap!

Halloween fun

Halloween shopping this year was quite easy. Allie took one look at the darling ladybug and fell in love. Surprisingly affordable with everything from leggings to antenna, it fit her personality perfectly. And it fit my mom requirement--NOT sexy. Allie crossed into the tween size/age category this year and as we browsed online costume stores, I was getting nervous. I am just not ready to see my little girl in fishnets yet. I was thrilled with her choice:

While Allie and I shopped for her, Zack and Drew headed to the boy land. Zack had already decided on Harry Potter, so I was shocked when he came over with a snow wolf ninja costume. He loves wolves and was determined that this would be his costume. We arrived home to find that the mask was not in the bag.

Back I went. Although the bag listed it as included, it was not in any of the ones in stock. The manager offered to take it back and give me some $ off another costume for my trouble, but Zack held firm. He did not want a mask, anyway. He liked his costume, but did not make it to love and is certain that next year he wants to be Harry Potter. Here he is making his best evil ninja face:

I still think he is adorable--even when he is trying to be scary. Happy Halloween! Off to raid the candy bucket.

Back to scrapping

Finally. After a couple of stressful weeks, I headed to my scrap room, turned on the tunes, and found absolutely no mojo. Eeek! Now that is a spooky Halloween. My favorite way to get my juices flowing is to lift one of my other works. Giving an old idea a new twist helps me get started.

I loved the paintbrush album I made for my mom's birthday and decided to put together one for Halloween. It let me use some fun premade embellies--like these darling monster felties from Sassafrass. How could you not love them?

The rich colors of the Pink Paislee papers are just gorgeous to work with and I definitely was in the groove by the time the project was ready for photographing. Quick, easy, and fun!

Life and fruit

Life tosses fruit at us all of the time. Sometimes it is little life disruptions in the form of small fruits: lemons, limes, or berries. Other times you duck a coconut just to get hit with a pineapple.

In younger year we learn to take lemons and make lemonade. After a few years of experience, we laugh at lemons. Toss them at us and we turn them into a full meal from lemon shrimp appetizer to a lemon meringue pie. It is the nature of the hard working mom to multi-task our way through the fruit salad of life.

I spent a week enjoying juggling limes. Limes are my friend as they make great margaritas. Drew and I traveled to Miami for his work and enjoyed warm weather, good food, and friends. The Monday night football game was a definite highlight. Sure, I had a ton of prep before we left and make-up work when we returned, but it was worth every second.

While sitting in the airport waiting for my flight, life decided to add some more fruit to the mix. My dean called to ask a favor. Would I take an accelerated English class starting in just 4 days?

Eeek! Just one little 9 week request would change my life enormously. 4 days of work instead of 2. An extra 13 hours of prep, grading, teaching time. 13 hours less to manage the mom job and house stuff. The upside? More money, a happy dean, a chance to touch the lives of additional students. The tiebreaker: the woman scheduled to teach the class was called to active duty in Iraq. How could I not?

And so I find myself hitting 2 weeks without a bit of scrapping. I can not wait until this weekend when I can tap into my mojo. Until then, you will find me chopping fruit until I can turn this latest medly into a tasty treat.

Thanks for the fun

The final challenge in the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog birthday celebration is to create thank you cards to send after the party ends. Normally, I do a photo birthday card showing some favorite shots of my birthday kid blowing out candles, opening presents, and playing games. It allows me to share the memory of the day with all of the family.

Even though this will not be our real thank you cards, it was still fun for Allie and I to put together. She felt we worked the tree image enough for our theme so we just used the same fabulous Earth Love papers, Thickers, our beloved Cuttlebug, and some favorite trim.

Thanks, Cuttlebug Team for the inspiration and fun!

Happy Card Day!

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

My day began very happy when the Fancy Pants Designs blog announced me as one of their winners! I am so excited and cannot wait to see what darling goodies arrive. I adore Fancy Pants!

I zipped on over to 2 Sketches 4 You and grabbed Kazan's Sketch 36 to start my cardmaking day off right. I wanted to use this ribbon that I fell madly in love with by Jillibean Soup. How much did I love it? I bought 5 of the same exact one. Red is my favorite color and my son is obsessed with numbers--how could I not?

It is a happy card that is perfect to send as a pick me up to a friend that needs a smile. Thanks for the great sketch Kazan.

Allie and I also made our thank you cards for the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog, but a thunderstorm rolled in making it dark and horrible for taking a good photo. Will be back with it tomorrow!

Hope yall had a great day of cardmaking!

Fancy Friday

Wow. What a long week. Filled with work, activities, meetings, volunteering, and more, every moment was scheduled. By the time I hit the couch on Thursday evening, I was all but brain dead.

Knowing that it was going to be crazy, I made certain to keep my Friday empty. The chores were done. The kids in school. The tivo full. I had all afternoon to scrap and play. Where to begin?

I stopped by the Fancy Pants Designs Friday Challenge. Their World Card Day challenge had me reaching for Rough and Tough and Krafty Boys collections. I was in the mood for a bit of paper piecing and had such fun putting together this little owl. Isn't he just too cute?


I am obsessed with pop dots lately and cannot resist layering items together. Using pop dots under letter stickers gives them such great look. Now the only question is who to send him to?

Bloom Ball

Allie came running in after school on Wednesday eager to see the new Cuttlebug Challenge. She was stumped at first. hmmm table decorations. We do not have scrapping time midweek with after school activities, so we just peek and then run out to tackle the schedule.

"How about tree place cards?" Allie asked on Saturday. With each person's name and a cute little bird. Sounded good to me. We zipped up the cute little "lollipop" trees in a hurry.

Then came time to plan the centerpiece. "How about a real tree with lots of decorations?" Great idea. Except the real party is not until next July. Buying a tree now and then attempting to grow it indoors during a Chicago winter? Not quite the right plan. So it was back to the drawing board.

We had a ton of fun trying to make different trees. It was our own little Goldilocks adventure with too flat, too tall, too silly, but no just right. How could we make that top sphere? Then the light dawned on my darling girl's face: the bloom ball. Early in the school year, they created bloom balls as a book report illustrating and explaining different story scenes on each of the 12 panels. A little work with the circle cutter and the scor-it and we were off and running.


We started to reach for the bling or buttons to embellish the tree, but really thought the embossing was decoration enough. We added just a few items from Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love and left it simple. And we love it.

Thanks, Cuttlebug Challenge Blog for some wonderful challenges!

a mini tree

Plant while you grow. This is definitely one of Allie's personal themes. She feels very strongly that with each year, she should be able to do more to make the world a better place. I could not be a more proud mommy.


It was make a mini album week for the Cuttlebug Blog Challenge--one that went with the continuing theme. I loved my very first tree invitation card so much that I adapted the design into a mini. I layered a few circles increasingly smaller in size and connected them with the Bind-it-all.

Take a peek inside:
Each of the tree fronts features the darling Cosmo Cricket Earth Love while the backs are craft paper embossed with a hint of ink by my Bug. For fun, I used a different folder for each one and stitched them together.


I adored this saying found on a 12 inch border strip so I snipped it up and inked the edges. The little birds on each page were cut out of a Earth Love paper, embossed and given a bling eye. I popped them up a bit for some dimension.

Choosing circle pictures seemed just right for the album. I cropped them in circles in elements and then trimmed them making it easy on me.

I couldn't resist embossing and slanting the back of the album a bit, too. Why ever use plain cardstock again?

Just for fun!

Ok, so scrapping is fun, but sometimes the list of things I "need" to do for my commitments takes over and it is a couple of weeks before I can just grab my supplies and scrap for just the fun of it. But no more!

I know that for most people New Year's Day marks the beginning of the year, but for me it is September 1. Not only is it my birthday so I start a new year, but it is the beginning of the school year. As a teacher (and a mom), that is the calendar that my life revolves around. As a result, I make my resolutions now.

One of my resolutions is to recapture the fun of scrapping. I will make one layout and one card just for me at least 3 weeks out of every month. That is totally doable, right? Please say right.


This layout documents the attitude Allie has had for the last year. She is all peace, love, and trees. And it all started with this Halloween Costume. Not much chance that this Halloween layout was going to be black and orange--not with that colorful ensemble. Instead, it is Cosmo Cricket with a title of Thickers and Pink Paislee and a touch American Crafts flair. Add in a few flowers and overlays from My Mind's Eye and I have a live out loud layout that can keep up with that Hippy Costume!

the tree party continues . . .

The second in the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog party challenges is to create a card and giftbag. I am so loving the earthy tones I am playing with for these! If you do not have Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love run to the lss for it is adorable!

For this card I used all of my faves right now. Earth Love, Maya Road (tree/trim), Thickers, and my Cuttlebug. I tried the "ink the bumpy" side of my folder before running the card through technique again since I loved it on the tree trunk of the first card. I know that all the experienced buggers are probably giggling at me, but as a baby bug I am soooo enjoying trying each technique. I get so giddy at the different things I can do with it.

The gift back gave me a bit more trouble. I wanted to just run the whole bag through my Bug. *Looks at bag size. Looks at bug. * Darn. Let's face it--right now I am so into this machine that I want to run ME through it. I needed the bigger bag since the party favor is a little tree to take home and plant and it needs to fit in the bag.

oh, did I forget to mention that Allie is so into this theme that she has decided it is her birthday party for next summer? And with my decisive 10yo I do not have to think she will change her mind--I know this is it.

Allie wanted the bag to say "I heart trees". The heart was giving us fits. We wanted it to pop with a bolder color. We tried a dozen different ones before we decided on this orange one cut out of some Autumn Leaves tags. I am sure that each bag will be just a bit different as we make them. We will probably end up using all of the dozen hearts we discarded all over the scrap desk.

Here is the close up of the embossing:

Obvious in real life, but not so much in the big photo. I must admit that the most fun for me with this challenge is getting to share it with Allie. She really has some lovely design ideas and is so excited about everything we make. We are having a ball!

Boo!

I know. Why be in such a hurry for Halloween? Or even fall? After all, September is definitely the best month to live in Chicago. The weather is flawless. There are a ton of things to do. But on my desk was a fabulous new package of Halloween papers and stickers by Reminisce as they are our October issue Showroom for ScrapStreet Magazine.

I started earlier this week and just cannot stop! What fun they are to play with. I will have a sneak peek of all our work up soon, but for now I am playing with the scraps left from my own projects.

This cute little card is one that I will tuck in a lunchbox for a happy note for one of the kids. I love being able to give my munchkins that extra "mom loves you and is proud of you" hug even while they are away from me.

I used Laura's sketch 34 from 2 sketches 4 you to inspire me:

I loved the simplicity of the sketch replacing the circle with my pieced pumpkin. It only took a few minutes since I built the pumpkin over a journaling block of the same shape from Reminisce. The little pops of green are My Little Yellow Bicycle.


Aren't these patterns just too cute? I cannot wait to show yall what else we are all up to with them!

Time to Party!

I loved reading that the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog is celebrating their birthday in September and is partying all month long. Not only is it my birthday month, but it is also ScrapStreet's 4th birthday! What could be better than for me to just party all month long.

CCB asked us to pick a party theme that could run all month long. hmmm what to pick? I asked Allie and she was quick to respond that we totally needed a tree planting party. She is all about peace, love, and green. Wait until I show you her new backpack (layout in progress). Darling!

I decided to start with a simple circle card and then add in a trunk. For some fun, I rubbed ink on the folder before I ran it through to give the trunk the extra depth. Love the way it turned out!


The paper and diecut are Cosmo Cricket's Earth Love (what else?) and the bird is Making Memories. A few pearls from Kaiser (a current obsession) and I have a quick and cute invitation to start off the party month.

Thanks Paper Trunk

Paper Trunk is featured this month in ScrapStreet.com Magazine Showroom column. We received several lines to scrap with and the game was on. All of us found mojo and went to town creating beautiful items.

Although I enjoyed all the lines, Maybe Baby just grabbed me and would not let go. I found uses for every spare inch of paper. Honest. There are no scraps. *looks around room* That is such a first for me.

You can see several of my pretties in the issue, but I have more to share. These cards were simple and fun, made from the die cut sheets. One is going to Carrie at Paper Trunk with all my love and thanks. The other two are going into the Cards for Heroes box as we are still creating for our soldiers.


I could not resist using Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder for this one. I may never be able to leave white unembossed again. The pearls are Kaiser, letters are American Crafts, Paper is all Paper Trunk.

These two could not have been simplier. I love you is simply a diecut with the edges trimmed close and a few Kaiser pearls for flower centers. It took seconds. XO again built on a diecut with a bit of another piece (left from making Thanks) and a hint of Thickers. This line is just so classy!

Birthday

Birthday present time! What did I ask for this year? A new phone. Honestly, mine was so old students would ask to see the rotary dial. I didn't have unlimited texting, but I didn't need it since it would take me so long to text that I would give up.

Which phone to pick? I called Lauren and asked what to buy. After all, if it is recommended by a 7th grader, it has to be cool, right? She screamed out enVtouch and so I am now the proud owner of:


A front touch screen, 3.2 camera, video, music and a zillion things I have not figured out yet are all included in this nifty little machine. It opens up to look like a mini laptop and I can catch up with all my gang even at school.

Shopping for it was enlightening. I made Drew head to the actual store with me instead of just ordering online. We figured it would be $100 for the new phone. Except when they pulled up our account, Drew had all kinds of credits as he is such a good customer. Turned out that they paid us to take the phone. Yep. Free phone, free case, and tossed in some free minutes to boot.

I tried to convince Drew that meant he still owed me a present, but he was not buying that one at all. I have to say I am one happy camper. Happy Birthday to me!

Catch the bus

Allie and I were wandering through Target doing our grocery shopping, she spied this:

It was filled with yellow apples and just waiting for us to come along. Since both of my kids will happily eat 2 apples every single day, it was a no brainer to toss it in the cart. Especially when Allie turned with that gleam in her eye and said, "think of the craft we could do, Mom." I am so raising her right.

We arrived home, emptied the apples into the fruit bowl and dropped the bus off in the scrap office. The very next morning, I pop on to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog and see a back to school gift/craft challenge. Kismet! I would have raced to my desk to create, but I knew Allie wanted to make one together. She had dolls all picked out to ride in it, after all.

She wanted a "hippie bus" which was not at all surprising as she has been on a peace, love, and trees kick since last Halloween when she first donned her hippy costume. Anything with a peace sign or a recycle theme has been huge in our house this year!

It took us a couple of days (5th grade homework is insane!) but we are proud to debut the Girlfriend Bus:


The paper and pretties are all Cosmo Cricket. We started with the Earth Love line since just it's name excited Allie, but quickly switched to Girl Friday to get the bold colors she was in the mood for. A little pearl action from Kaiser and some Cardstock trim embossed with our newest Cuttlebug plates:


I love how the two different circles play together. So yummy! Time to run. I need to stitch up a few ponchos for the dolls. They need to be stylin' to ride the bus.

smooches!

98, 99, and 100 . . .

I made it! I wanted to finish 100 cards for the Cards For Heroes Drive at ScrapStreet before I head off to fall semester. Last night, I finished up my Showroom items with the absolutely fun Paper Trunk Socialite collection. I had some fun scraps on my table so I zipped out a few more cards.

I am sure that I will be able to make a few more before we finish the drive, but I am so happy to have my goal met. Just in time, too, as I head back into the classroom tomorrow morning to meet my new students. If you have not picked up this Paper Trunk yet, you must! Our entire team embraced mojo the second we spread them out in our spaces.

Happy Monday, friends!