Multitude of Grace

I have to be honest... it has been a while since I have counted the gifts. But isn't that the way it often is? Our eyes are opened - our hearts are grateful - and we count the gifts. Then we become complacent once again and we fail to see.

There is so much to be grateful for and yet I am often blinded to the gifts. I am praying that I will once again have my eyes truly opened to His gifts, His grace, in the everyday.

So I begin again... recognizing and counting the gifts...

#212. traveling the familiar route home and the anticipation of being reunited with my family at Thanksgiving

#213. pumpkin pie with whipped cream

#214. playing Euchre with Mom, Spencer and Mr. B and having way too much fun

#215. baby cuddles with Nolan

#216. phone calls from Tyler

#217. crisp, juicy apples

#218. a good book that I can't put down

#219. a warm, comfortable bed and sense of security as I close my eyes at night

#220. sweet baby boys and fuzzy teddy bears

#221. knowing God is at work in my heart

#222. leftovers and laughter

#223. a competitive game of Buzzword with Jacob, Dianne, Emily, Spencer, Hannah, Megan, Mary, Patrick, Nathan, David and Elizabeth

#224. Mr. B getting us safely to and from each time we visit family

#225. making everyday Thanksgiving!

Little Red Wagon #108

Today's challenge at Little Red Wagon was posted by Avril. She wanted us to create something in a Christmas theme.

I made up this little card using an adorable image from Willow Designs.

Isn't he just the cutest? I colored the image with my Copics and paired it with some papers from my wagon! A border punch was used on the black cardstock and a little button with some floss gave the finishing touch!

Thanks for looking! I hope to see you at Little Red Wagon with your Christmas themed project this week :)

Lily Bee Design

Lily Bee Design is an awesome company with fabulous papers! I wanted to create a layout using their Jingle collection ever since we brought it into the store. Such great colors with a slight vintage feel to the them.

I based my design on the Lily Bee Sketch Challenge on their blog. I also added some Maya Road embellies - wooden snowflakes, transparency snowflakes, wood bingo number, organza roses ribbon and star stick pin!

The stick pin was white, so I used a Copic marker to get the color I wanted :)

Tim Holtz distress ink was used on the edges of my papers and on the wooden snowflakes.

My all time favorite product from Lily Bee is their alpha stickers! They are the best size and I love the colors they come in - 8 different colors on one sheet!!

If you haven't scrapped with Lily Bee products yet, you will have to give them a try - you will love them!

Little Red Wagon #107

Happy Wednesday to everyone! It is my turn to post the challenge at Little Red Wagon this week :)

I love paper piecing stamped images so that is my challenge! For my inspiration card I chose a simple image that was stamped using an Impression Obsession stamp.

I used paper from Lily Bee Designs and then I added a rub-on sentiment, some floss and a button.

I even scored a couple of lines across the card for a little extra interest!

Simple and sweet. I hope you play along at Little Red Wagon - I would love to see what you create ♥

Such a Cutie!

** Edit: I was picked as a fave at Sketchy Thursdays for this layout!

Remember this post? Well, I couldn't wait to use these photos on a scrapbook page and that is exactly what I did yesterday!

I found a great sketch at Sketchy Thursdays that I used for the basic design of my layout. Then I used an awesome corrugated sheet from Jillibean for my background. Love it!

This layout qualifies for Sharon's challenge on the TSF Forum to use blues on a layout - 2 pattern papers, two cardstock and two embellies!

My favorite are these amazing letter stickers from Lily Bee Design! Just the perfect size for a bit of journaling.

Have a great Monday and thanks for looking~

Burst of Color On-Line Crop at TSF!

In celebration of Fall, Two Scrapbook Friends Design Team is hosting an on-line crop on the Forum!

Each of the DT members, plus Carolyn and myself, have all issued some sort of color challenge. Mine challenge was to use one of my favorite color combinations - pink and lime green - to create a card, layout or project.

This is my inspiration photo:

And this is the layout I created for the challenge:

This pretty little flower shop on Mackinac Island was amazing! It had flowers, home decor items and even jewelry. Loved it! And the outside of the shop was just as pretty as the inside - it had gorgeous gardens surrounding it, with little benches, garden art, potted flowers! It was truly a delight for the senses.

I used Amy Tangerine papers and embellies (love them!!!) and Thickers foam alpha stickers on my layout.

We hope you join us for this fun crop. You can join in at any time - the crop runs until next Sunday, November 20th. Check out the details here :)

Howdy Pardner!

I think that the American Crafts fall line was my fav this year! As soon as it arrived in our store I was all over it! I loved the mixture of oranges, blues and browns. It would be really easy to hoard these papers - so gorgeous!

Last night I finished up a page that I started creating with this line over month ago.

I just loved working with it and I added some amazing Thickers foam alpha stickers for the title.

I hand cut the cloud from one of the papers, and added some journalling strips with stitching.

Now that the page is done, I feel as happy as the Jack-O-Lantern in my photo!

Have a good weekend~

Little Red Wagon #106

Today's challenge at Little Red Wagon was to make something that says congratulations.

I didn't have a clue what I was going to do until I saw my messy scrapbooking table with some fabulous scraps laying on it. Perfect for a card!

We hope you play along with us this week and be sure to check what the Girlfriends made - you will get lots of great inspiration!

Have a wonderful Wednesday :)

6 Month Photo Shoot

My niece had a photo shoot done for little Nolan. Six months old already! I can hardly believe it!

Here is just a sampling of the adorable photos her friend took for her...

What a bright-eyed little cutie he is! Such a blessing!

Halloween Treat Cone

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

I wanted to share a Halloween Treat Cone that I made. We offered a really fun treat cone at TSF and I liked it so much I felt inspired to create one of my own! So out came some cardstock, tulle, a couple of buttons, ribbon and patterned paper. And this is what I made!

A creepy spider button tied to a green one made the perfect center for my tulle bow.

Then I cut out a cat from the patterned paper and add it to the front of the cone.

A Martha Stewart drippy goo punch was used to create a fun border at the top of the cone. Lastly, I added a wire handle and some ribbon and filled the cone with candy!

Such a fun little project and I am already thinking of ways that I can decorate one for Christmas! Thanks for looking ~

Little Red Wagon #105

Another busy week has come and gone! We have completed our back-to-back weekend retreats at work and it feels good to look forward to a more normal schedule once again.

This week's challenge at Little Red Wagon was posted by Rosanne. In the spirit of Halloween, she challenged us to create something with monsters or the color purple. Since I am not fond of either one, this was a bit of a challenge for me, but I did manage to use the color purple on this very spooky card!

The stitching is compliments of Christa's sewing machine at the retreat (love it!) and I added some Glossy Accents to the windows of the haunted house. The spider web brad topped it all off perfectly and there you have it! My scary purple card!

Check out what the rest of the girlfriends made for this challenge by visiting Little Red Wagon - and hopefully you can play along!