Breaking Free

I completed two more layouts using the Breaking Free line from MME! I am soooo in love with this line - I just want to scrapbook all my pictures using these papers and the fabulous embellies that go with them!

For this layout, I used a Fancy Pants chipboard circle and scalloped border that I sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, a chipboard heart from Riff Raff, and random buttons. I just ♥ the kraft tags that come with this line!

My second layout is Just a Boy in the Summertime. This has to be my favorite and I love how well my photos work on this page.

I had so much fun playing with all the coordinating die-cuts, titles, tags, etc. I added some chipboard swirls from Fancy Pants plus some gems, ribbon and mini alpha stickers from my stash.

Thanks for looking!

Use It Challenge

I noticed that a couple of bloggers I know create cards based on the Use It Challenges blog. This week I thought I would give it a try. This week's challenge had a LONG list of requirements: square base, summer theme, flowers, ribbon, pin, twine and punches!

I created this 5-1/2 by 5-1/2 card using some papers and stickers I had from Cosmo Cricket. I also used my Fiskars wave punch (again!) and some buttons and ribbon from my stash. The straight pin is one I borrowed from our store (shhh... don't tell Carolyn!).

I think I satisfied all the requirements and it was really fun to make!

Delight

Karan, our store's Design Team Coordinator, had posted a sketch challenge on the Two Scrapbook Friends forum and I decided to give it a try. I love, love, love sketches! They make such a great starting point for a layout or card.

I had some great papers from the new My Minds Eye Breaking Free collection that I was waiting to use so this was the perfect inspiration that I needed for my layout.

I also used a chipboard flourish from Fancy Pants, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to color it, Kaiser Craft pearls, a Fiskars border punch (for the wave border - isn't it cool?), flowers from Bazzill, a bling title from MAMBI and some random buttons from my collection.

The photo was taken at a beach in Michigan from our vacation time with Mary and her girls last summer. It truly was a delightful day in the sun, sand and water.

Thanks for looking!

Memorial Day

When I was home on the weekend we drove through the cemetery that my Dad is buried in and I was completely amazed at the display of United States flags that I saw.

Completely lining the fence, for at least a half a mile in either direction of the entrance, were hundreds of flags waving in honor of all the service men and women that are buried there. They also lined the entrance driveway and many grave sites had small flags on them as well.

I don't know if I have ever been past this particular cemetery on Memorial Day weekend before, or if I just didn't pay attention, but I was deeply moved by this incredible tribute. With my Dad buried there, I felt it was a beautiful and perfect way to say thank you to those who fought for our freedom.

My father was a veteran of two wars and his headstone was donated by the Veterans Association. It is a very simple and humble headstone and I will admit that at first I thought I would have liked to have had a much more elaborate stone honoring him. But as I contemplated this further, I realized it was the perfect testimony to my Dad and his life. He was a very humble man who never felt material possessions or worldly accolades were important. He knew that the true treasures in his life were family, faith, health and the simple, everyday moments that brought him happiness.

My father was buried with Military Honors, a moment I will always remember. May we continue to have a deep gratitude to all who selflessly defended our country. May God bless them.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

I just got back this afternoon from a fabulous girls weekend away! My bff, Carolyn, and I went to visit my sister Mary for a girls-only weekend that included shopping, scrapbooking, wonderful food, chocolate, a great movie, and a finale that you wouldn't believe!!!

We arrived in Michigan on Friday evening and our first stop was our favorite place to shop for scrapbooking supplies and to get inspired for an all-day crop we were going to the next day. (Yes, we do shop at other scrapbook stores - we can't possibly carry it all at our own store!) We found a couple of fun new things and then it was off to Mary's house for the night.

The next day, we started out early and went to our cropping location.

It was a beautiful place and we settled in for 12 wonderful hours of scrapbooking. It didn't take too long to get started on creating some layouts. I had brought some of the papers and embellishments from the new MME collection, Breaking Free. I have been drooling over this line since it arrived in our store just a couple of weeks ago and I have to say - it is the best!!! I will post the finished layouts in the next day or so.

This is one of my pages in progress. I realized as the day went on, what a truly messy scrapbooker I am! Carolyn's space was quite tidy all day, but mine kept going from bad to worse! Mary scrapbooked more like me as you can see in this photo.

We enjoyed some amazing food from a great little Italian restaurant that was right next door to our cropping location. For lunch we indulged in the best original Italian folded pita that I have ever had.

Then for dinner we had an old world Italian Wood/Brick Oven pizza and Antipasto Salad. Oh my - was it ever good! The only thing missing was a bottle of red wine, but if we had that along with our meal, we would have never been able to finish our scrapbooking!

After 12 wonderful hours of talking, laughing, chocolate, and playing with paper, ink, Glimmer Mist, chipboard, gems, ribbon, buttons, brads, photos, and countless other scrapbooking goodies, I completed close to 4-1/2 layouts.

It may not sound like much, but each one was a special creation that I totally enjoyed making and will treasure almost as much as the memory itself! I guess that is why I scrapbook and every once in a while I need to get away from the demands of our store and get back to the reason I started in this amazing hobby in the first place.

Saturday night we went back to Mary's with some home-made Cannolis and Tiramisu from our Italian restaurant and watched 'The Diary of a Mad Black Woman' starring Tyler Perry. It is a true chick-flick that makes you laugh and cry and want to watch again and again. If you haven't seen it, you really should.

On Sunday before we left for home, we went to a beautiful outdoor mall, Partridge Creek, to do something that Mary and I have talked about doing for some time. We invited Carolyn to join us in our little adventure and sure enough, she did so without hesitation!

We all got an extra piercing in our left ear! Yikes! The three of us now have a beautiful little diamond stud in our ear and they are so pretty! I have always liked the look of an extra earring and I really wanted to do it! My hubby thinks it is a mid-life crisis thing, but as I explained to him - girls just wanna have fun!!!

It was a truly wonderful weekend and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to get away with Carolyn and Mary to enjoy some girl time. As Carolyn asked on our way home, "So when are we booking our next weekend away?" I hope it is in the near future!

At The Zoo

One of my all time favorite places to visit is the zoo. I just love watching all the beautiful and exotic animals and it is such a great place for photos!

Fortunately, the Detroit Zoo is quite close to my Mom's house so we are able to visit it often. The Detroit Zoo is a great zoo because it is extremely well-maintained with beautiful gardens lining all the walking paths and it is not so big that you can't manage walking around the entire zoo in just a few hours. They have everything from a butterfly/hummingbird garden and Arctic Ring of Life to a giraffe feeding area and the National Amphibian Conservation Center. I am sure if I still lived in the area, I would be part of their Membership Program.

I decided that with all the photos I have taken there, it was time to start scrapbooking them.

I created this double-page layout using the fabulous Safari Chic line from DCWV. I also included a chipboard title that I sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (love that stuff!) and used mini alphas for a smaller title.


I am hoping to take in the zoo once again this summer. How about you?

Sweet 16

Today is my niece Danielle's 16th birthday!

She is the first of three in our family to celebrate their 16th birthday this summer. Spencer and my other niece, Olivia, were also born in the same summer! They are truly like the 3 Musketeers when they get together and it has been a joy watching them all grow up.

When I was home visiting this past weekend, we had a little celebration for her, but I wanted to wish her a special Happy Birthday on this, her Sweet 16th! May God bless you Danielle. Always stay as sweet as you are today!

Love and Hugs ♥

I ♥ Faces Weekly Challenge

This week at I ♥ Faces they are doing something a little different. This week's assignment is to pick your best close-up face photo to enter for the I ♥ Faces Blurb Photo Book contest! Very exciting!

I chose this sweet picture of my nephew Nathan when he was only a year old.

I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

Wish me well and be sure to check out all the other entries!

Gerberized

Our scrapbook friends have coined a new phrase - 'Gerberized'. It all started at our retreat weekend this Spring. You see, Karan Gerber, our very talented page designer, has a very specific style which many of us love. So at the retreat, if someone was working on a layout and felt that it needed something more, we said it needed to be 'Gerberized'. It needed that extra touch or detail similiar to what Karan would do; a group of something here, some distressing there, a chipboard element.

So as I was working on a layout the past couple of days, I started thinking that I needed to Gerberize it. First, I copied Karan's ruffle sewing, which was so much fun to do.

I also used some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist on cardstock for a very cool effect!

I can't show you the entire layout just yet - it may become a class at your favorite store - but I love how it all came together. Thanks Karan for your inspiration and for sharing your talents with us! I love 'Gerberizing' my layouts!!!

The 'Race'

My younger son had an extremely busy and full day yesterday. It began with getting up extra early to participate in an all-day track meet and ended with a drama presentation at his school's Arts Night.

As we were driving home at 9:30 pm, he started to tell me that it was the worst day of his life! As he recounted the events of his day, which began with almost missing his ride to the track meet and ended by being so hot in his costume for the skit he was in, that he thought he was going to pass out, the highlight had to have been the one 'race' he was in.

The track meet was a District meet in which only a certain number of schools come together to compete against each other to see who qualifies to go on to the next level of competition. My son was competing in 3 events, one of which was the 100m hurdles. As this event got close to its starting time, he found out that it was only him and one other student that had qualified for this race. That would have been OK, except that the other student never showed, which meant that Spencer would have to run the race all by himself! At first he thought, oh well, no big deal -- with no competition, he would be sure to win! Then he started to realize that there was always the chance that he would fall, default or somehow not even finish the race, plus all eyes would be on him - HOW EMBARRASSING! He realized that it wasn't even a 'race' - he just had to make sure he didn't mess up or he would be disqualified.

When the 'race' began, so did the friendly heckling: "You can do it - you're still in the lead!" "Keep going - no one is even close!" "You can win - you're still in first place!"

Well, he finished the race and qualified to go on to the next level. But as he told me the story, I was laughing so hard that I could barely stand it! He chuckled along with me, but I clearly was not going to be the sympathetic, supporting mom he probably needed at that time. I was too busy laughing and sharing his embarrassment, which probably made it even worse!

He is off to another track meet today - in the pouring rain. I wished him well as he left this morning and never mentioned the 'race' he had yesterday. I can't wait to hear the stories he has to tell tonight!

Bling It On!

We recently received a shipment from Basic Grey that included all of their brand new bling and all I can say is WOW! There are square bling, round bling, swirly bling, rub-on bling, shaped bling and more! As I was unpacking and pricing them, I was imagining all the possibilities for cards and layouts and before I knew it, I was grabbing paper from the shelf and making up a card just so I could play a little bit!

For this card, I used the bumblebee bling along with some felt and acrylic flowers, a flower brad, ribbon and BoBunny Double Dot cardstock. The price point on the bling is amazing and the size is perfect for cards or layouts. You have to check them out!

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Mother's Day!

"Mother-" Perhaps the most beautiful word in all of language. It expresses life. It expresses love. It expresses cooperation with God. It speaks of something that will never end. ~Fr. Corapi

May yours be blessed!

A Day in the Garden

This past Sunday was a glorious day! After a long winter I was finally able to spend some time in my garden!

I love gardening. I find it very relaxing and therapeutic to be that close to nature.

So, after church and a nice lunch, I donned my new pair of garden shoes (gotta love them!), put on my gardening gloves, grabbed my tools and headed out to our yard.

I dug in the dirt, filled the bird bath and pulled some weeds.

I filled my bird feeders, put out my garden statues and brought my flower pots out of storage. The lawn furniture and garden swing made there way onto the patio and we ended the day by barbecuing some chicken for dinner!

I also got dirt under my nails, got stung by a bee, was chased by a bird (I clearly got too close to her nest), was attacked by a bush (I have the scratches to prove it), made a colony of red ants very angry and sprained/bruised my foot while shoveling. Plus, I could barely move the next day. Ahh... gardening! Almost heaven!

I ♥ Faces Weekly Challenge

The theme this week at I ♥ Faces is "Hats". I immediately thought of one of my all time favorite photos of Spencer and decided to enter it into the Kids category.

He was such an adorable chubby bubby and he smiled all the time! And those big chocolate brown eyes - what a cutie!! Be sure to check out the other entries at I ♥ Faces.

First Ever Scrap Page

Christine has invited me to play this game and I have to say it is truly a lesson in humility to do it - but here goes!

1. Show us your first scrapbook page (eek!)
2. Write a couple of lines about the page - associated with your feelings, your thoughts and when you did it
3. Pass the game on to 5 people

So here is my first.ever.scrapbook.page:

I had been invited to a Creative Memories home party about 10 or 12 years ago and I was soooo excited to start scrapbooking! The style of scrapbooking back then was all about white backgrounds, stickers and rounded corners on your photos. I scrapbooked some photos from a trip we made to Florida in 1991 and I thought I had to scrapbook the entire trip on one page!

Whew! That wasn't as painful as I thought it would be! I am just glad that scrapbooking has evolved to what it is today and that my style has evolved with it.

Now I am passing this on to Carolyn, Karan, Rosanne, Laura and Lynn. Can't wait to see your pages ladies!

Up For A Challenge!

Tomorrow is National Scrapbook Day - a day to celebrate the art and craft of scrapbooking! At Two Scrapbook Friends we have actually been celebrating all week as a lead up to this day and we have had some great fun with some challenges on our forum.

I decided to take up Laura's Tuesday Sketch Challenge. She posted the following sketch and challenged us to make a Mother's Day card based on it.

Here is the card that I created. Now if you turn the sketch sideways, squint your eyes and really use your imagination, you can see how my card is sort of based on her sketch!

I guess that is the idea of a sketch though. It gives you a basic starting point and you can make it your own! I will be delighted to give this card to my mom on Mother's Day! Thanks Laura.

I then posted a challenge of my own! Our theme for NSD is Spring Bling so I challenged everyone to use flowers, butterflies, birds, etc. and some bling on a card or layout. I created another card as inspiration.

I really had fun making this one. I used BoBunny Double-Dot paper, a transparency from My Minds Eye, embossed cardstock, and a great new border punch from E K Success that we just got in!

If you are up for a challenge, it is not too late. Just log onto our forum and start creating! Have fun!