March's Paper Niche Sneaky Peaks

Hi girls. Happy Thursday, almost Friday!! Thank the Lord. Thanks so much for all the sweet comments over the last few days (and always!!). It means so much to me. Fills me with positivity & joy :D.

Today's my day to post my Sneaky Peeks from March's Kit over on the Paper Niche Blog. I'm going to post them here too, but if you think upon it, so check it out over the next few days, becuase the other gals will be posting their sneaks too & they'll just be awesome!! Full reveal of the kit/projects on the 1st ;).

Ok, before I share the sneaks, I should tell you WOWZA, this is one jam-packed amazing kit!!! FULL of creative awesomeness, the posabilities are literally endless. So many different things!! Great patterned paper... chipboard... and you dont even wat to get me staretd on the flowers (BUT I WILL SAY THAT WHILE ASSEMBLING THE KIT, THEY GOT THEIR CHA PRIMA SHIPMENT IN...HELLO!!!) You will love LOVE love it! Ok, enough ranting on my part, onto my sneaky peeks:

As you can see, I've been playin with handmade flowers again!! and...
last but not least...


Well, that's about it for me today. I can't wait for the full reveal. I made a couple things (one of which is a mini-book) that I'm seriously proud of :D and I hope you like them too.

Dont forget, all the rest of the Design Team girls will be posting their sneaks over the next few days as well, so head over there and check them out!!! I hope you have a great day!

Anniversary card for Lawn Fawn!!

Hello again. Well, in case you didn’t get enough of my fabulous flower yesterday, I have another card using a similar (card) pattern. I made this card for the fabulous LAWN FAWN STAMP CO.. Kelly Marie mentioned a little while ago (on Facebook, maybe) that Lawn Fawn's official anniversary is March 1st :D. That Kelly Marie is always so sweet, helpful, and encouraging. I couldn’t let their anniversary go by without sending them a little love. I hope it makes them smile, here's a look:


For this card I used My Minds Eye’s Stella and Rose - Hazel - collection. {I picked up a 6x6 pack this weekend - and a few extra 12x12 sheets of the graph/ledger page in the collection - I’m a sucker for these!!} and couldn’t wait to use it. Perfect for another beautious handmade flower (again, I found the amazing tutorial for this flower on the Crate Paper Blog). The brad in the center is by Pink Paisley. I decided to use that lovely Get Sketchy #75 sketch for this card too, only I changed it up a bit, kind of tilting the sketch. I paper pieced another lovely Lawn Fawn banner (adding a Sophie's Sentiment: "Happy Anniversary") and the purty birdies from the Bannerific set as well - and popped those little guys up with some foamies. To finish it off, I added some rustic twine for a little pretty.

I started my creative journey as a scrapbooker. I was all about the scrapbooking - and I still love doing that. Then I started making cards (a little while before I found Lawn Fawn’s blog) but their awesome stamps, amazing Design Team, Kelly Marie’s informative video tutorials (not to mention her general “sweetness” - she just makes me smile), and YOU, all you other Lawn Fawn/stamp/card lovers... the Lawn Fawn Community ;), you have REALLY inspired me in ways that have catapulted my card creativeness and I truly appreciate that! I've learned so much from you all, and I love the little “family” I’ve made through Lawn Fawn. So many of you girls who have welcomed, uplifted, and encouraged me along my journey came from our shared love of all things Lawn Fawn. Thanks lovely ladies!! I wanted to post and mail this card today - so they get it in time ;). Maybe if you’ve got some creative spare time, you could make/send them a card too. I’m SURE it’d make them smile :D. Hope you have an awesome, awesome day.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah
Patterned Paper: My Mind’s Eye (Hazel)
Stamps: Lawn Fawn (Bannerific, Sophie’s Sentiments)
Ink: Momento
Boarder Punch: Fiscars
Circle Punches: Fiscars/Marvy
Brad: Pink Paisley
Glitter: Martha Stewart (coarse & fine)
Twine: Papertrey Ink
Foamies: American Crafts

Get Sketchy #75/Lawnscaping #4

Good Monday everyone! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was good. Busy and full of family fun AND craftiness :D.

I decided to play along with this week’s Get Sketchy’s card sketch challenge (my first time) and incorporate that with this round of the Lawnscaping #4 challenge!

Ok, so the Get Sketchy challenge looks a little something like this:
And the Lawnscaping #4 Challenge is all about paper piecing (squeal - my fave): Here is a look at my card:
Pretty flower right?!? I’m in love LOVE love with it! I learned how here on the Crate Paper Blog. Fabulous tutorial by Tara Anderson - and the flower is just amazing!! Easy to do, and I’m just - well can’t you tell - I’m in love with it. I made several of them this weekend! I’m such a sucker for handmade flowers!!

So I started off with (Neenah - Sandstorm) cardstcok, all the patterned paper and the pretty brad are from My Minds Eye (Breaking Free). I used three Lawn Fawn sets to do my paper piecing: Bannerific, Fly Free, and Sophies Sentiments. They are stamped in Momento Ink and popped up with American Crafts foamies.

I hope you likesie. I’m loving it! Going to mail it to a friend who moved away :(, I’m sure it will brighten her day - that’s the plan anyway :D!

I don't know what the Get Sketchy prize is yet (to be revealed later), but it was a fun sketch, so whatever it is (if I should win it) would be a bonus! As for the Lawnscaping prizes, there are two, a chance to be a guest designer (cool!) - and you also Lawn Fawn's Fly Free Stamps. Now, I'd love to win this!! I do already have the Fly Free set, but I'd love to gift that to my mom :). She's commented on it a few times, so I know she'd love to have it. Are you playing along with any challenges this week? Which ones? This is my 1st time combining challenges. I always see girls doing it & so I wanted to give it a try. Well, that's all for me today. I hope you have an awesome one!!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah in Sandstorm
Patterned paper & Brad: My Mind’s Eye - Breaking Free/Hazel (brad)
Circle Punches: Fiscars, Marvy
Glitter: Martha Stewart - clear glitter (coarse & fine)
Boarder Punch: Fiscars
Stamps: Lawn Fawn - Bannerific, Sophie’s Sentiments, Fly Free
Ink: Momento
Foamies: American Crafts
Glue (for Flower): Glossy Accents

Gifted Mini!!

Hello there! Hope your week has been delightful so far ;). As for me, I’m just SO ready for Friday all ready (P.S. tomorrow's my Friday - squeel)!

I wanted to share a lil Cupcake mini-book that I made as a gift for my massage therapist, Jeanine. I started seeing her about a month and a half ago as a result of my car accident (on 11/30/10). Turns out I have 3-4 herniated discs in my neck - YAY! I had headaches for - NO LIE - 10 weeks straight (all day long - it was horrible!) and now, because of her healing hands, I’m only having them occasionally, maybe 3-4 times a week at different times of the day... but that’s A LOT better than what it was!! It’s manageable, and for that, I’m very thankful!!

Anyway, she gave her 2 week notice :( and is going off onto bigger and better things (boooo). I’ve really enjoyed chatting her up these past few weeks and I’ll really miss her. Hopefully we'll get together (take our kids to the park together & stuff like that) but I still wanted to make her a little something.

I going to make her a little card set as a going-away present, but then I remembered how she was telling me that she threw her daughter, Sage, a “princess tea” type 5th Birthday Party a few weeks ago - with tulle everywhere, bedazzled everything, and decorate your own cupcakes type stuff. Uuuuuber girly ;), so I looked around my stash and found a chipboard mini that I had gotten at Michaels for $1.00. Perfect! Then I looked into my paper stash & found this Sassafras Lass Hedgehog paper/sticker kit. Here’s a look at the finished project:



For the embellishments - and extra pretty - I punched various sized circles & crinkled/chalked them red for flowers. Finished them up with some brads (Doodlebug), buttons (Papertrey Ink), and twine (The Twinery).

Anyway, what do you think??? I HATE leaving empty space. I resisted going crazy and filling every open space. It’s always hard for me to make “blank” books. I usually prefer to make it for someone and go off of what pictures are going to be used to create a general theme - plan of action - and add the pictures myself. In this case, I couldn't do that - it was a gift. It was a challenge, but I think I got through it with it still looking kinda cute. I actually felt like it wasn’t too great (I'm telling you, I really hate empty spaces - they stress me out). Also, my hand drawn apostrophe {‘} on the cover also played really hard on my (self-diagnosed) OCD. The letter stickers didn’t come with one... I should’ve used something else (Thickers of a coordinating color or SOMETHING!)... Oh well, I’ll just have to get over it.

I gave it to her this morning and she loved it :D. Said it was “amazing” and that she’d never seen anything like it. That made me super happy. I always {secretly} like that. To someone who isn’t into crafting, anything homemade is “amazing”. It makes people feel super loved! And that makes me REALLY happy and full! She like it - that’s ALL that mattered.

I hope you have a great day!!

Are yoooooou ready for Monster Jam?!?

Hello there! Hope you had a Happy Valentines Day yesterday ;). I did, I mean, it was fine. The kids had blasts at their parties and got lots of goodies. We had breakfast for dinner last night - which is always nice! It’s our new Monday night...thing. It’s the day my hubby works late, and since I always work late (I work M-Th from 8-6pm), it’s great to have an easy dinner night. Plus, everyone eats everything on their plates (nice for me to not have to fight with my son over eating for a change!).

I wanted to share a 2 page layout I made Sunday night using Sassafras Lass’ Monstrosity line!! I’ve been hoarding it (a few papers, the felt stickers, playing cards, & the journally element stickers) for a little while & I’m REALLY trying to not buy anything (not much anyway) right now. We’ve gotten ourselves on a budget and if we want it to work I (emphasis on I...) have to stop shopping ALL the time! My hubby never shops for anything. Never goes out to breakfast or lunch, and I’m pretty sure he’d still have his Communion cash if I wasn’t around :(. Anyway, I thought it’d be fun to scrap our (2009) Monster Jam pictures with it. Fun idea right?!? I printed the pics a long time ago & they’ve just been waiting around for me to get to them. Here’s a look (click to enlarge): Here are a few peeks at the layering goodness - warning my camera isn't all that, so these pics never come out quite right:
Cute right?!? Now, I didn’t have a lot of paper, maybe 5 sheets. So I didn’t want to use the patterned paper as the background. And I didn’t want it to get too busy. So, I started with Bazzil Kraft cardstock and misted (well, I did a little misting and a lot of “dropping” - opening the spray bottle & dropping the mist right onto the paper) it with Maya Mist (Charcoal Black and Sunflower Yellow). My pictures started out as wallets and 4x6. I then cut the wallets to 3x2 and the 4x6 into 4x4. Then I just went to town. I had so SO much fun layering the stickers with foamies & onyx jewels - and that “monster lineup” - HOW CUTE IS THAT?!?!? I added various letter stickers (American Crafts - orange & yellow and Doodlebug Designs - black) for the titling. I finished the pages off by using Colorbox Chalk Ink (black) all the way around the pages for a distressed sort of look. I have to say - this page makes me happy :D! Something that does not make me happy?? Well, Sal took Paige & Christian to Monster Jam this weekend, and when he asked if he should bring the camera I said {GASP} "Naaaah, it's one more thing for you to carry". I know, I know. After i did this layout I felt really sad that I have pics from 2008-2010's Monster Jam show and NONE from this years' now. Bad me. I regret it. Why did I do that?!? Now I have to live with it. Maybe I'll take pics of the kids in their new Monster Jam shirts & fake the funk. Siiiiiigh.

P.S.
Because I’m a total spaz - here is a picture of this month’s Paper Niche kit:
Niiiiice huh?!? I’m sorry I couldn’t get the picture up before now - like I said, total spaz! I still have to post another project that I made using the kit, but kinda put it to the side with all of the Valentines festivities & projects going on. Hopefully it’ll get posted soon. I got so much crafty goodness out of the kit, and still have SO many embellishments/stickers left (I used all the papers HEE!!). So many more opportunities for crafting! AAAAnd , I’ve been given a hint that next month’s kit is AMAZING. I can not wait! I feel so grateful for this opportunity to work with Paper Niche!! They rock my world, let me tell you!

Well, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Good morning! Hope it's a good one so far. For me it was a little hectic... but the worst is over, got all the goodies to school (2 of them) and to work without any issues. Big accomplishment! I'm not a big supporter of V-Day, but I am enjoying it from the kids' perspective (and the crafty perspective!). A few years ago I did jump onto the "it's just a Hallmark Holiday" bandwagon, but it's all good. I remember when I was a little girl, coming home from school and pouring my bag of Valentines out and oogling at all my goodies!! So, I thought it should be just as fun for my kiddies! As you know, I got majorly Valentine crafty this year. I made the kids' class Valentines, Valentines gifts for our parents, my hubby's card, and treat bags for the teachers/my office. Whew. Kinda happy it's over.

So, yesterday, I got up bright and early to start baking cookies (12 dozen - of different cookie all variations/flavors!!) to fill the goodie bags. Here's a look at the finished products all sprawled out on my couch ;): Alivia's teacher asked that I make goodie bags (for the class party), so kept it simple and went to Target and picked up these cute (purple polka dot gift bags for $1.99 (for 20) and filled them with the Valentines I made and a mini bag of M&Ms (they're only 2 year olds - didn't want to go crazy). I punched a 2" circle and made little "From: Alivia" tags using Lawn Fawn's "Just My Type II" & "Jessie's ABCs". Came out cute!: Then these are out parent's gifts - little photo-holders, all finished up with a sweet card for each of them using Lawn Fawn's "Harold's ABCs", "Bannerific", and "Silly Valentine":
I was so happy (around 1pm) when all the Valentines goodness was complete and I could move on to other stuff. Sigh. I'm sure someday I'll be over making craft projects for these holidays (who knows maybe that'll be next year!). My husband is all like "why are you going crazy"... but all I could tell him was... "BECAUSE IT MAKES ME HAPPY" :D. it makes the kids happy! And there you have it. I liked making all of these things. Plus, I spaced them all out so that I wasn't completely overwhelmed with anything (I started the bags in January). I took my time and enjoyed every minute of every project. This is what I do when the rest of the world is asleep ;). And that's A-OK with me.

Lawncaping (#3) Challenge - Additional Submission

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thanks so much for the sweet comments on my OCD card & all my other projects!! It always means so much to me that you take a few minutes to give me some blog love. I've said it before & I'll say it again, I think that's super important - not just cause I want comments - but because I think one of our purposes here, in life, is to lift eachother up and share the love. It makes me feel so good to know someone likes or is inspired by something I do - or is just being nice & saying hi!! It's a wondeful thing - this blogging experiance. It's wonderful to get to "know" people through their art and creativity!! I appreciate every friend I've made! Life can be hard (even in a fully blessed and happy life), it's nice to have a place to go where other women create, inspire, and share the love!

Ok, I'm not just posting today to get all ooshy-gooshy on you ;). I wanted to make another card (to redeem myself...to myself, maybe) with the same kind of concept as yesterday's card. OH! F.Y.I: I heard from Laurel over at the Lawnscaping Challenge Blog & she said you can make as many entries to the challenges as you want, just number them. AWESOME!

So, here is my #2 entry into this round of the Lawnscaping Challenge - I'm also going to enter it into Moxie Fab World (Paper Piecing Challenge): Isn't it a cutie? I used 6 - yes SIX - Lawn Fawn Stamp Sets on this card. Critters in the Burbs (bunnies & the tree), Bake me a Cake (little hearts on tree), Partly Cloudy (cloud), Bannerific (banner), Harold's ABCs (sentiment on the outside of the card), and Silly Valentine (sentiment on the inside of the card..."Some Bunny Loves You" ;) teeheehee). I made it for a teacher, Ms. Tenes, at my daughter Alivia's preschool. She was in the hospital for about 3 weeks, and just returned to school this week. I'm so happy she's back and feeling better! She's not my daughter's teacher, but takes care of her in aftercare, and she's just one of those people who you can tell were MADE to work with kids!! She is so sweet to my baby girl & in turn, Alivia LOVES her so much! She really missed her while she was out.

So, I thought it'd be cute to use the Critters in the Burbs bunny and, make a whole lotta them - as her little students. I have to say - I love how it came out. I made another little picture tutorial too because I think you'll really like how I made it. I thought it was a neat idea (if I say so myself) because I got all "recycley" (nice word huh) and used the cover sheet for the paper pack (Basic Grey's "Hopscotch") I just picked up. I stamped the super cute bunnies (18 of them!) onto the little "sample" squares on the cover page of the packet. Ok, maybe that sounds odd, here's a look: . As you can see, I stamped the bunny into the little square swatches, and I think it worked out really nice for the card, because it meant the images on the patterned paper were smaller (very cardworthy - without having to use a 6x6 paper pack). Next I stamped the tree (also Critters in the Burbs) onto some Bristol art paper and used an Inkadinkado Mask to cover the image while I Distress-Inked up the card base with Ranger's Tumpled Glass (Edges done with Broken China) and the Tim Holtz Blending Tool. I also inked the edged of the (Neenah) card with it as well. Then I heat embossed the cloud from another Lawn Fawn (Partly Cloudy) set (twice - once directly onto the card, and then again on the Bristol paper.) & then used distress inks on that as well and then paper pieced it leaving a little edge so you could see the blue. Also, you should know, the embossing ink i used was Ranger (Tim Holtz) Distress Embossing Ink...thats why it's not a full image (its actually a little distressy, as you can see). Then I popped up the pieced cloud with foamies for prettyness.

Then I paper pieced the tree using the "Hopscotch" paper and stamped the cute little heart from Bake Me a Cake onto it. Next I stamped the Bannerific banner with a "Welcome Back" sentiment using Harold's ABCs. Let me just say, Lawn Fawn's letter stamps are AMAZING! I love the fonts and how easy they work. The grass is just a little strip of paper that I hand cut into grass (I have the Martha Stewart scissors, but don’t feel that I get the same effect as hand cutting) and then chalked with Colorbox (green) Chalk Ink. Lastly, I added the bunnies in onto the grass. THEN I got real creative and cut the arms/feet of the bunnies apart and hung 4 of them off the banner. Just for a little something extra and different. ok, one more looks at the card:
I hope you like it. I really Sorry, I forgot to photo the inside sentiment ("Some Bunny Loves You" but it was there ;).

Hope you have a wonderful day! I'm hoping to have a scrappy weekend. My hubby, son, and niece will be going to Monster Jam and Alivia & I will be going to a Valentines Day Dinner at Church. She's my date ;). Have a great weekend.

Lawnscaping Challenge #3 - Second Entry...

Good morning! Hope everyone's having a good day so far! Ok, so I made a card inspired by this round of the Lawnscaping "All About Love" challenge. I'm not entering it (I dono how many entries you can add... gunna look into that, oh well... doesn't matter though, because I’m not too crazy about it anyway) I just wanted to play a little bit with the theme - SO FUN! I used four Lawn Fawn stamp sets for this card: Bannerific, Critters in the Burbs, Harold's ABCs, and the cute heart from Just My Type II.

Here’s a look at the card:
Like I said, I'm not too awful happy with how it came out, in all honesty. I mean, it's cute (hard not to be super cute with all the Lawn Fawn on there!), but it was waaay too late when I got started which means it was WAAAY too late when I finished it. When I saw myself going overboard (with the hearts, mainly), I should have put it down and came back to it another time. But I didn’t. Siiiiigh... I got warm (thanks girls) reception on Facebook, but I still can’t help but feeling like I totally “OCDd-out” (feel free to use my made up words whenever you want) on it.

To make it, I started off with plain white (Bristol) art paper (purchased at an art supply store by my house). What I NEED to do already is head over to Amazon.com & pick up some Neenah Solar White Cardstock... but that’s besides the point right now. Then I stamped that adorable Lawn Fawn tree (I used Momento ink for everything) onto it. And used (really super cool) Inkadinkado’s Stamping Mask Paper (got that on my recent AC Moore adventure) to mask off the tree while I inked up the entire card with Ranger's Tumbled Glass and it's edges with Broken China (Distress Inks) - it worked wonderfully (highly recommending that masking paper!)! Then I did a bunch of paper piecing with my Lawn Fawn Lovelies and patterned papers (the top of the tree, little birdie, tire swing, banner, & grass are all Glitz Designs and the tree trunk is Bo Bunny).

Then I stamped the sweet squirrels onto the Bristol paper and colored them with Copics (which I had some fun with) and paper pieced them onto the card. I stamped the acorns directly onto the card and also colored them with Copics, stamped on the cute little “boingy” things, and attached the grass (which I just hand-cut). Thaaaats when I went absolutely too crazy with the hearts... and I finished the card off with some twine for the tire swing (which was an idea I got from the ultra-fabulously-talented Laurel) and popped up the banner and cute littler birdie with foamies.

I dono, what do you think? Too much right? Just a little? Don’t worry, it wont hurt my feelings... Constructive criticism is all good ;). I wasn’t even going to share it on the blog, but here it is anyway.

I’m working on something (that I DID put down last night when it got too late) that seems like it’ll be super cute, so, hopefully I’ll be back to share it tomorrow. Have a crafty day!

Lawnscaping 3 Challenge - Valentiney Gifts for the Nanas (& Pop)

Morning! I wanted to share my weekends scrappiness with ya today. So, I’m thinking I have my round 3 Lawnscaping (#3) Challenge entry. I think I'll switch it up a bit, instead of making a card.

Are you playing along? You totally should, there’s a Lawn Fawn stamp set (of your choice - what?!?) up for grabs! If I was to win, I would totally pick this little set up. I dont have it yet, and Christiana has SO inspired me today with this card. So, the Challenge's theme this time around is "All About Love" - and the amazable Karen Baker is the guest designer this month - and her card just ROCKS!!! You HAVE TO go check out her, and the Design Team's creations. So much inspiration going on over there!

Ok, onto my project. First, here's a looksie at the finished products:
Ok, so I did (my 1st) a mini-tutorial on this project and it goes a lil something like this:

I went to AC Moore on Friday, I’ve only been there once before (it’s pretty far from me) and wow that store is amazing!! I was there for literally 2 hours... just oogling the goodies!!! Anyway, while I was there, I picked up these plain little wooden springy heart photo holders for $1.00 each. I decided they would be our parent’s Valentines gifts from the kids. So, I started them off by painting them with a pink acrylic paint: After I got the edges, insides of the hearts, and the base painted pink, I reached into my stash for paper (Fancy Pants’ - Vintage Valentine) and traced one of the hearts and made a template to cover each (4) heart with it. Then I distressed the edges of the paper hearts with the pink paint and glued them on with “Scotts” multi-purpose glue.

I love this glue for everyday stuff, like anytime I made a mini-book or a wooden project. It works really well & stays... stuck (always a plus): Next I Worked on my trademark “Made by Heather” stamp to go on the bottom of the project: And then, I worked on my images. Of course, I HAD to go with Lawn Fawn’s Silly Valentine Stamps. I just love them so much & that little bunny with the heart on his rump is just adorable!

I started by punching out a circle, chalking the edges with Colorbox (Red) Chalk, then stamped the images and sentiment using Momento Ink and colored them in with Copics: I decided to add cuteness by flocking the bunny’s tail with Doodlebug (white) flock. I started by coloring the tail in with this glue pen, and then poured a little scoop of flock onto it, patted it on a bit and then let it set for a few minutes. Flocking is so cool. I hope to do it more often!

Well, that's that. I hope you like. it was really fun and super easy peasy. My son loves it and says he wants one... he always does ;). He's my own little fan club! Hope you have a great day!!

My kiddos.

Good morning! I wanted to share a few kiddo pics from this weekend. Excute the wonky pics, this was in the evening & my lighting was crazy. First, my sweet boy Christian.
He's a keeper.

He's been doing so good in school, and as a reward, my mom crocheted him a pokemon of his very own. Heres a better look at his Pikachu - which he loves!:
I love it that my mom made him this. When I was little, she made my sister, brother & I Smurfs (remember those) and I just loved mine. I wish I still had it :(.

My sweet little Alivia is all about her babies and dressing up these days. It's entirely too cute! This first pic is her method of soothing. Two fingers in the mouth and one up the nose. Seems so strange to me. Like, is that even comfy? Strange. At first, it was just fingers in the mouth. Then she started with one finger in the nose too. She doesn't "pick" it, just puts it in there. It was funny when she first started at preschool, they were like "um... do you know where her hands are all day..." Oh, I can guess!
This one cracks me the heck up! Upside down glasses and (while you can't see them) two mismatching princess shoes! Priceless. Loving these two little amazing people!

Well I hope you have a great day.

Card set for my Momma - using Paper Niche Feb. Kit

Good morning. Thank God it’s Friday right?!?

I’ve got so much going on today too. Have to take my sweet little Lulu to the doctor about a rash she’s got goin’ on, then drop off my car at the collision ship to hopefully (finally) be fixed, go grocery shopping, clean the house, and then hopefully hit up AC Moore afterward!! So, before I get to the maddness that will be today ;), I just wanted to stop in and show you the card set I made with my Paper Niche kit.


It’s a total of 4 cards. Super simple, but look elegant, I think so anyway. I started with Neenah Cardstock, and used the Glitz Designs paper from the kit along with Hero Arts stamps. The butterfly is from this set and the sentiment is from this one (I purchased both sets @ Paper Niche).

I made these cards for my mom to give out. She’s had to go to so many doctors, and has had to rely on them, the nurses, friends, and family for help since her diagnosis. You know, that’s how it goes. She’s doing amazing, by the way. So strong. She goes for more scans in March & we’re praying for great news. We know God is the great healer and is ABSOLUTELY in charge!
Anyway, she’s always asking for Thank You cards to show her appreciation to those helping her, and these are for her. They were super easy, just made a little assembly line and went at it. Fold card, chalk edges, cut patterned paper, punch edges of patterned paper, stamp image onto that, then stamp them onto coordinating page of patterned paper, cut out image, adhere to first image (middles only of the butterfly - for dimension), bedazzle ;), lastly add sentiment. That’s it in a nutshell. Super easy peasy!

Well, that is my share for today. Thanks for peeking. I also wanted to say thanks for your comments, and encouragement! I always try to comment when I’m blog hopping. I think it’s good to build each other up. I probably look like a stalker, I comment so much! Ps. NOT A STALKER ;). Seriously though, with a few words of encouragement, we can do SO much for one another. Sometimes, in this life, it may make a huge difference! We never know what someone else is dealing with. Life can be hard. We all deal with a lot (even if to someone else “it’s nothing”...) Sometimes I can live off a smile (or a positive comment) from someone for 3 days! So, thank you girls who comment on my posts! It means a super-duper lot to me and I ain’t afraid to say it! I saw this in my blogging travels this week & HAD to share: Its true, no? Hope you have a lovely weekend.

Paper Niche February Kit - Full Reveal!!

Hello there! I am super excited to finally share some of the projects I created with the February Kit from the Paper Niche!! This is my first time participating as a member of a Design Team and I was super nervous/excited!! I hope I made them proud because it sure was one fabulous kit!!! I'll post a pic of the full kit ASAP, however, I'm having issues with that at the moment!

I can tell you this, it was jam-packed with all sorts of products from Basic Grey (Curio), House of 3, and Glitz Designs!! SWOON! Not to mention, it was also filled with TONS of fabulous embellishments!! I just went crazy, could not stop. I made a total of 5 layouts, 6 cards, and a mini book - and had TONS of product left over.

Today, I'm just sharing the scrapbook pages I made with the kit. Before I start, I’ll just say that everything on all of these layouts was included in the kit, except for the staples and Mist were from this month's kit (p.s. all mist is from Maya Road). I’m new to getting misty ;) and I must say, I throughly enjoy it!! Ok here we go...

This one is my favorite - “4 Generations”:
The picture was taken in June (2010) at our church when my Grandma was here from NY. In the picture we have my grandma, my mom, me, my niece, Paige (9) and my daughter, Alivia (2).

I saw the circle folding idea online, and had been wanting to play around with it for a long time. The problem was, there was not a tutorial... yeah, it was not as easy as I thought it’d be. I wasted AT LEAST 10 of these beautiful circles giving it a go. Oh well. It’s not perfectly perfect, but I tried & love how the entire page turned out. I thought of adding the brads to the floral ribbon and I love how it came out!!!! Lastly, I added Charcoal mist to the background & think it gave it a little something extra ;).

You’ll notice I haven’t done the journaling yet. I kept trying to do it, and couldn’t stop myself from getting emotional. So much has been going on, my grandpa passed away last Christmas, my mom having her cancer, the struggles that we all go through every day. I just wasn’t ready. When I do journal, I want to say how were all not perfect (I had a reason for making the letters crooked ;) I'm not just a ding-dong), but we all fit into each other’s lives perfectly. How were all strong, even if we don’t always know it. How were built from the same mold, and are all different... but all the same. I just needed some space. I’ll do the journaling when I get it back from Paper Niche, as all of these layouts are currently on display in the store - YIKES - er, I mean YIPPEE!

“reMEMBER”:
This picture was taken the day my mom, Sal, Paige & I became members of our church. I've really been wanting to scrap it for some time now. I love it, not really how I look (sheesh - thank God I got rid of the blonde hair!), but Paigepooh is so little... and my mom too looks so much younger... I mean, Sal & I were a little skinnier, but for the most part look almost the same as now. It’s funny that now I have auburn hair and my mom has blonde ;) tee hee hee. The pic brings back a lot of memories for me. It was a kinda tough time for us. My dad was having a really tough time (with alcoholism, which killed him 3 years ago). My mom and I were desperate and needing something! We got invited to our church by a friend. We would listen to the sermons every Sunday and just cry to ourselves (not even to each other. We were both suffering in different ways as a result of the same problem). That was about 7 and a half years ago. Joining our church is one of the best things we’ve all done together. We're so blessed to have their love and support.

“You make me happy lil miss shy eyes”
Oh, my sweet Alivia... with guacamole on her face to boot! I can not tell you how much I love this sweet lil angel! This Glitz paper was so perfect with the colors in the picture!!!

For the sentiment, I used the letter stickers from the Basic Grey "Curio" set (a whole sheet of them came w/ the kit!). I tapped each of the letters on my pants (real sofisticated, I know), to take some of the stickeyness off of them, and then placed my sentiment on the page where I wanted it, misted over it w/ Charcoal mist and pulled the letters off. Voila!! This is a great way to get a cool effect when you don't have the color letter stickers you need.

“Me @ 31"
This one was really hard for me to do. Not the page, but the picture. I’m not really proud to admit it but, I guess, I have self-confidence issues. I almost NEVER (ever) include myself in pictures. I’m almost nonexistent in our scrapbooks. And I don’t think that’s ok, it just is what it is.

I never like any pics of myself, I'm hyper crytical of myself - always. So my "editing" includes... not including myself in the pictures. I got to thinking that this so unfair to my babies. I mean, they’ll want to see pics of me no matter what I look like... or weigh. They’ll want to know who I am (and what I looked like) when they were 2, 4, 6, 14, etc... when the memories fade and these scrapbooks remain. I don’t want to take that from them. It’s not right. So, one of my goals this year is to include myself in my family’s memories. This page is the beginning of that. I love how it came out. The while page is very "ME". These House of 3 papers/tickets that came in the kit are amazing, and I used my Slice to put out the “@31". The quote is actually from a song off of this CD, Anchor, by Mindy Gledhill. I am absolutely addicted to it!! You should totally check it out, it’s lovely!! Not usually my style of music, but now I can't live without it. Behind this page, I've made a (11x6) pocket that holds a hidden journaling page (which I haven’t completed yet either) where I’ll document what I’m thinking/feeling today, right now, what I want from myself. My goals for me @ 31.

“Keep the Sun in your Heart”
I just love this picture. My boys. I am a lucky, lucky girl!

For this layout, I wanted to challenge myself to use my Cricut. I love that machine, and I do use it for things like invitations, school projects/gifts, etc. Almost nothing else. Just too much to “deal” with. But I want to try to use it more for everyday things. Here, I used it to cut out the sun, and all of the words on the page.

Well those are the scrapbook layouts I created with this month’s Paper Niche Kit! Thanks so much for peeking! Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing the card set I made with the kit. I have to say, I loved my first DT experience. I used every single piece of paper in my kit and just scratched the surface with the embellishments!! Also, check out the Paper Niche blog to check out the other DT members and what they did with this kit - it will knock you socks off. I’m on an amazing team. Can't wait to see what next month brings!! See you back tomorrow with more!