We have a winner!!! (and some projects)

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who donated to my family's Relay For Life team!!!  I know that money is tight all around right now, but this cause is near and dear to me and I really appreciate your support as well!

The winner of the Christmasy mini-album is....Lisa T. Howard :)  So, email me your address and I will get that to you asap :)

I can't believe Thanksgiving is only 2 days away.  It's bittersweet for me though because we're going to Illinois for Thanksgiving, which means the first Thanksgiving ever away from my family.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad about it. 

I am really excited for Chad though because he's really looking forward to it and, his brother Steve, who lives in Vegas, hasn't seen Caeden since he was 4 months old and hasn't seen Logan ever.

Now for something crafty...here are some more of the projects that I created using Lost Coast Designs stamps.  These projects are specifically using a music note border.

For this first layout, I used MME oo-la-la papers, and I used a Fiskars border punch around the edge to get that frilly border, which ended up being just perfect for this page.  My journaling strips are crooked but it was too late, so I'll deal with it I guess.

For these 2 cards, I used Basic Grey's Wassail line from last Christmas.  I got it and then never used it, so I pulled it out with these stamps.  The poinsettia in the first card was made by tracing a poinsettia that I had (the color didn't really work), and handcut it out. 

Happy Monday

Monday is a little happier when it's a short week! 

The New issue of Scrapbook News and Review Magazine debuted last night at 8:00 pm.  Great issue!  The sketch section had been waning a bit, so we are revamping it, and I got the pleasure of working with that.  We are really playing up the diversity of interpretations.  We have a sketch for different sizes, different styles, different levels of embellishment, and cards.  I am really excited about it!

My new budget column is going to start with the next issue and I am super excited about that as well :)

Here is a bright and cheery layout that I created at the online crop last weekend at From Here 2 Scrapternity.  I scraplifted one of Alecia's great layouts, and came up with this.  I love the happiness of this Sassafras line.

Journey of Motherhood, etc.

I am SOOO behind on printing my pictures.  The last pics I printed were from JUNE!  I printed a hand full back in September so I could make a mini-album about Logan's birth, but other than that I haven't printed any since then.  That is going on 5 months worth of pictures!!!  Insane.  Now I need to go through and purge them, which will be a good thing.  I always end up printing way too many of the same event, including the ones that aren't so great and I don't end up doing anything with them so they just sit in my craft room, a waste of money, space, and resources.  I want to avoid that. 

Also, this is kind of random, but maybe putting it out there will help motivate me to keep on track.  I am determined to get healthy.  I am not necessarily going on a "diet" in the typical sense.  I just want to be  healthier.  I have a history of heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc. in my family and I really need to take that seriously and take care of myself more, KWIM?  Now is a prime time for me to do it because my eating habits directly effects Logan as well. 

I got these papers from A Walk Down Memory Lane a while back but hadn't done anything with them yet because I couldn't quite decide what I wanted to do.  Finally, I thought that the journey papers would be perfect for a motherhood layout, since I really do feel like motherhood is a constant journey and not so much a destination, KWIM?  Anyway, I was pleased with the way this layout turned out :)

Only 1 week until Thanksgiving!

When we get to this last month or so of the year, I'm always left wondering...where did it go???  I can't believe that Thanksgiving is only a week away!  In honor of Thanksgiving, I finally finished creating this Grattitude Box, thanks in part to a challenge over at From Here 2 Scrapternity this weekend to use autumn colors. 

I am also planning to create some little cards to go along with it, and have everyone write down something they are thankful for for Thanksgiving.  I even thought it is something that we could do all year long and just keep in somewhere in the house, along with the cards, and then we can take them out and read them periodically when we need a little reminder.

The chipboard mailbox is by Maya Road, and the patterned paper/embellishments are mostly from the November Sussies kit.

Stamping Tutorial (from SNR)

Back in early October, I had the pleasure of working with some Lost Coast Designs stamps for Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.  Here is one of the projects I created, along with a little step-by-step of what I did.  Head over to the magazine forums to see what the rest of the staff team did with these stamps.  There were some fantastic projects.



For this project, I used the small flourish stamp. This stamp is just gorgeous, and gives a great impression every time! The detail on the flowers and flourishes is just exquisite!


Stamp the design on at least 3 different papers. I used cream, green, and pink. I stamped using a Colorbox dark brown ink pad.



Cut around the entire image on what will become your background color. I used the cream paper as my background.



Cut out flowers and adhere them to the base color, using foam adhesive. I made all my flowers be pink.

Using scissors and/or a craft knife, cut out leaves from your third color. Adhere those to the base as well.  The different colors and layers add a lot of dimensional interest to your design.


Finally, add a pearl gem to the flower center on the opened flower. To use this image on a card, I matted it to a coordinating paper and added some layered mats to really make that gorgeous flourish shine front and center.

SNR Related stuff--Free Issue winner, Calls, sneak peek, etc.

First things first...now that the blog hop is officially over, I drew a random winner for the free issue of the magazine.  That will be going to Sandy Lewis, who I have already emailed requesting her username so we can get the free subscription set up.

Also, I am working on an article for a new COLUMN that I will have in Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.  I am sooo excited about it!  Hopefully can share some more details soon :)

This past weekend was the Karen Foster event at Scrapbook News and Review Magazine.  Here is a sneak at one of my projects, head over to the forum to check out the rest of them.  There were some fantastic projects and classes posted.

Last but not least, here are the scrapbooking calls for the December issue, deadline is November 30th:
By Style* (see special call below)

2 Page Layouts
All I Want for Christmas . . .
My Story
New Year's Resolutions
Using Cuttlebug Embossing Folders
Using the Cricut

send to: subs@scrapbooknewsandreview.com

To see all calls, or for more info, go HERE.

A New Week (And, pics of the boys)

First of all, THANK YOU to everyone who was a part of, or participated in the Blog Hop!  It was a huge success, and a ton of fun!!!  I loved hopping around to see everyone's creations and am already looking forward to the next hop!

We had a busy, busy weekend around here.  Chad had to work all weekend, so we didn't really see that much of each other.  One of the things I did was to take the boys to our best friend's house for a little while on Saturday afternoon.  It was nice to visit with Leslie, and Caeden got to play with her kiddos for a while.  And, Nelson is a photographer.  He was getting his Christmas set all ready and wanted to practice...we were more than happy to oblige (yay for having an easy going baby! lol).  Here are some of the great shots he got.

Isn't this cute?!?

I just love the little face Logan is making here.

Caeden did not cooperate AT ALL.  But, he found the drums, which Nelson is kind enough to let Chad store in his basement, and wanted to play drums.  Already he LOVES anything and everything to do with music.   I think this picture looks like a Ralph Lauren ad or something. 

I love this one.  It's also fitting that he just happened to be wearing his "my dad is my hero" shirt that my mom got him to wear for Father's Day.

That's all for now.  I have some crafty things that I have been working on too that I will be sharing this week.