...yes, it's been two weeks since my last confession....

April 24. A day I dedicated to catching up on my blog.

And what a great two weeks this has been! Full of surprises, joy and of course, some layouts.

So MUCH to share with you, seven posts, so you just have to keep reading until you reach the bottom! :)

Let me finish off this night of catching up with two layouts I made this week.

One is an assignment for Got Sketch? #58. Also combined with The Journaler's Junction where we used only adjectives in the journaling:


Patterned paper: American Crafts, Scenic Route, Prima IOD, Pink Paislee; Chipboard phrase stickers: Scenic Route, Imagination Project; Die-cuts: Scenic Route, Making Memories


and this one was a Creative Team design for Sketch This! #47. I used two circle punches on the Prima IOD Dude paper to create the circles on the background grid paper. Used this week's colors again at Color Combos Galore.

Patterned paper: Imagination Project, Dream Street, Prima, Hambly; Letter stickers: Jenni Bowlin; Star accent: Heidi Swapp COMMENTS:
5 thoughts, thank you! (add your ♥ ♥ ♥ here)

Color Combo #68 and Pencil Lines

YAY! Nicole Harper is our Guest Designer this week at Color Combos Galore. And I just LOVE her style! I really admire her work. She is a design team member of both Studio Calico and Pink Paislee and they are both sure lucky to have her. So when she accepted my invitation for Combo #68 I was both honored and thrilled! We worked on these colors together and our final result was seal brown,(pale) mustard, celadon and pumpkin. Once again I left my layout for last minute and went to Pencil Lines #81 for some inspo. It is a multi photo sketch that I hardly do, but had the perfect pictures already printed years ago when I made page kits with products like Sandylion, Jolee's Boutique, and REALLY REALLY old ugly paper. Remember all that stuff from 2003 and 2004? Yeah. I did have something in there that I did use on my page.

yeah, that's really old! But I loved the little butterflies.




So this is what I came up with for both challenges.


Patterned paper: SEI, Scenic Route, 7 Gypsies, Sassafras Lass, Making Memories (journal); Chipboard letters: Heidi Swapp; Chipboard flower: Imagination Project; Brad: Queen&Co; File tab: October Afternoon; Butterfly accents: EK Success COMMENTS:
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I am a Grand-Aunt again!!!!

My darling niece had another baby!!! Her second, a baby girl born on Friday, April 18 at 8:35pm.

And her name is Mikaela Grace. Beautiful.

So this is the crazy that happened.

We had a baby shower already planned. I made the invitations and it was scheduled for the next day. My niece called me on Thursday asking whether I dressed my children in their own clothes or did they wear the what the hospital provided. I told her I always dressed them with their gown, cap, mitts and booties after their first bath and were wrapped in their own blanket as well. Everything matched. She decided to do that and needed to buy that and bottles. She didn't know what she was having or that there was a party planned for her in two days. So I told her to hold off, we would go together the following week. Then we started talking about water breaking and that I never experienced that moment of puddle or leakage. It was always popped for me. She said she hadn't either but would never want her water to break in public and I should be grateful mine never did.

So what happened?

For medical reasons, she was scheduled for a C-section on the 30th.

Well her water broke in her office in the afternoon in NYC.

They had no car.

They borrowed one from a friend, drove from the city to Long Island and admitted her.

She arrived 9cm dilated.

Her husband had a 'Ricky' moment and left the keys in the car.

She pushed for over an hour.

And brought Mikaela Grace into the world.



We still partied the next day, mostly on speaker phone! COMMENTS:
3 thoughts, thank you! (add your ♥ ♥ ♥ here)

Scrapjack! and some tea!

So now that I found my new favorite challenge, I played again. It was Kelly Purkey's turn to be Scrapjacked!. Also played How Much Is Too Much where Elizabeth's recipe was 7 rub-ons, 3 photos, 7 stickers, 5 flowers, 0 buttons, 0 ribbons, and The Journaler's Junction where Heather had said to use only adjectives in the journaling. Well, when I created the layout, I remembered the gist, but not the specifics and ended up with extra journaling. Oh well, got a little mixed up.

Again, working with old photos that printed horribly on my old (and long time ditched) HP printer. And because these were printed long before I knew about dpi and resolutions and levels, they are very dark and not crisp at all. But I still haven't bought ink (which will cost me over $50 for several cartridges) so it will have to do.

The story behind these photos is that Zayn always asked me for some of my tea. I am not a tea drinker by habit, prefer the coffee, and don't drink decaf unless I am pregnant. So he has never had it at this point. When I did make some decaf tea for him, he was, well, the photo says it all!


Patterned paper: Sassafras Lass, Scenic Route; Cardstock: Bazzill; Letter stickers: Sassafras Lass; Rub-ons: Doodlebug Designs (stitches); Fontwerks (rub-ons); Epoxy sticker: SEI; Flowers: American Crafts; Prima COMMENTS:
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Sketch This! DT !!!

So Janelle Richmond decided to combine her Sketch This! layouts and Sketch This! Cards sites. She had a new Design Team call and sent out this sketch to the applicants, team members had to reapply as well.


So this is what I created for the call and was THRILLED when she asked me to stay on the team! YAY! HUGS, Janelle! mwah!

Patterned paper: Scenic Route, BoBunny, KI Memories; Lettering: Jenni Bowlin, Collage Press, K&Co; Journal die-cut: Scenic Route; Sticker trim: KI Memories; Chipboard flowers: American Crafts COMMENTS:
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Color Combo #67 and Pencil Lines

Well, I ran out of ink on my printer.
My scrapbooking budget was depleted.
So I decided to use up some photos that I already had printed.
This photo was in my living room but the glass on the frame broke. I came across it while searching for a photo for Color Combo #67 where Chris Dodaj was our Guest Designer and our colors were coral pink, wheat, orange and an orange-red. Needless to say, it was a MUST SCRAP! I took Jolene's sketch for Pencil Lines #80 from that very day and made this. I just LOVE IT!

Patterned paper: Sassafras Lass; My Mind's Eye, Prima; Lettering: K&Co, Jenni Bowlin; Phrase sticker: My Mind's Eye; Journal tag: Sassafras Lass; Buttons: SEI, Making Memories COMMENTS:
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They loved it! Scrapjacked, OLW and HMITM

So I created this layout for OLW (BEST) and Scrapjacked! (LAURA KURZ). I have played OLW before but not Scrapjacked! and it was fun to play! I was super happy that my layout was chosen as a FAVE for both sites! YAY! I was so happy and honored! COOL!

Patterned paper: Pink Paislee; Lettering: Imagination Project (chipboard); American Crafts (rub-ons); Die-cuts: Making Memories; Chipboard heart: Heidi Swapp; Stamp: Technique Tuesday; Pen: American Crafts Slick Writer

Another layout that caught someone's attention this week was this one for How Much Is Too Much #75. Paula's challenge was 5 for 5: 5 patterned papers, 5 stamps, 5 brads/eyelets, 5 rub-ons and 5 other embellishments. This was a bit challenging for the stamping, but I did and it won. She sent me a Scenic Route paper pack which I loved! Thank you so much Paula!!!!!

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket, My Mind's Eye, Creative Imaginations; Cardstock: Bazzill Kraft; Brads: Making Memories, Queen&Co; Rub-ons: American Crafts, K&Co; Stamps: Autumn Leaves (flourishes), Art Impressions (dots), Savvy Stamps (flowers on chipboard) ; Letter stickers: American Crafts; Chipboard circle: Maya Road; Button: Foof-a-la; Tab sticker: Creative Imaginations; Paper ribbon: K&Co COMMENTS:
1 thought, thank you! (add your ♥ ♥ ♥ here)

Woo-hoo!!!!

I am so excited to tell you that Scrapbooker Online has chosen my Color Combos Galore challenge blog for their challenge this month! YAY!! That is so cool! I have been working on these challenges for so long and love it dearly. My main goal was to open up a world of color for you and experiment new colors. There are so many ways to creatively work the combo into your layout. It's easier than you think! And when you use it right, you get something pretty amazing! So I am pretty happy I have inspired so many of you. So when Carolyn Lontin asked me, I have to tell ya, I was pretty thrilled. Well they chose their favorites from the archives and are starting with Combo #61 for their first week and will post a new one every Monday in April. Check it out and hope you play along with them! And go over to the blog and try this week's colors!

Week #1:

SUPPLIES: Patterned paper: Fancy Pants, October Afternoon; Lettering: American Crafts (chipboard), K&CO (tiny letters); Journaling sheet: Making Memories; Arrow die-cut: October Afternoon; Buttons: Foof-a-la

Week #2:

SUPPLIES: Patterned paper: Imagination Project (background); Basic Grey (circles); Phrase sticker: Scenic Route; Journaling die-cut: Scenic Route; Large brad: Creative Imaginations; Tree eyelet: Treasured Memories

Week #3

SUPPLIES: Patterned paper: SEI, October Afternoon, Basic Grey, 7 Gypsies; Lettering: American Crafts, Scrapworks, Mustard Moon; Phrase sticker: 7 Gypsies; Pebble clip: Making Memories; Flower, heart sticker: Bazzill Basics; Buttons: Foof-a-La; Rub-ons: Die Cuts With a View; Tag template: Deluxe Cuts; Other:Chalk COMMENTS:
6 thoughts, thank you! (add your ♥ ♥ ♥ here)

Color Combo #66

How another week just flew by! Time for another color challenge at Color Combos Galore. This week I am thrilled to have Emily Pitts as our guest designer. Luv ya, E!! So go on over and see what she and our awesome team did!

My title comes from my digital files. It's the very first one there and I always see it when I am searching for photos. So it was about time that I used it. Zayn was about 3 here. Such a cutie!


SUPPLIES: Patterned paper: Hambly, 7 Gypsies; Cardstock: Bazzill Kraft; Letter stickers: Chatterbox; Stickers: Collage Press (ledger tape); Making Memories (chipboard tag); Die-cuts: Making Memories COMMENTS:
(add your ♥ ♥ ♥ here)

Color Combo #65

The challenge went up yesterday. Crazy day yesterday, couldn't get anything done. But how I love these colors! So fresh and feminine. Our guest designer this week is Catherine Bodine, so go over to Color Combos Galore to see the new layouts this week from our awesome team. Love what they did!

I went clean and simple with a photo of my beautiful daughter. What a blessing she is. Funny, when I pulled out my stickers and said to my seven yr old son Zayn, "Hmm, what title should I put here, what comes to mind when you see this picture?". He said "Uh, cutie pie?".

So a title was born.


SUPPLIES: Patterned paper: Scenic Route Paper; Cardstock: Bazzill Avalanche; Letter stickers: American Crafts; Buttons: Foof-a-la; Journaling die-cut: Jenni Bowlin Studios; Rub-ons: Heidi Grace Designs COMMENTS:
2 thoughts, thank you! (add your ♥ ♥ ♥ here)