SEI Guest Designer!

I feel very blessed this month to also be guest designing and hosting SEI's blog all next week. I'm a huge fan of SEI products! I especially love their latest Christmas line, Kris Kringle! I'll be sharing projects I created using that line plus a few others next week here as well. To see my introduction post, visit here: SEI Blog. 

I also posted one of my past favorite SEI layouts using an older fall collection, Moravia. Isn't that die-cut paper beautiful?!

Here's a look:

All for today! I'll be back tomorrow! :)

Noel Mignon Challenge: She Gets Misty!

Good morning, friends! I created a new layout for the "She Gets Misty" challenge over on the Noel Mignon challenge blog and have some details with you today. I'm very excited to be a new aunt so my layout features a photo of me with my new nephew, Tatum. I used the gorgeous "Very Virginia" kit on my layout and quickly fell in LOVE with the Pink Paislee resist patterned paper. It looks like I spent a long time creating but this layout actually came together fairly quickly. I sprayed the Pink Paislee paper with the antique silver mist in the kit and then wiped it off with a paper towel. The patterned paper soaks up some of the mist and the embossed design resists the rest of the mist to leave the damask design. I also sprayed the paper with a little turquoise mist. 

Here's a look at my title. I outlined all the letters with a black journaling pen to help them pop off the page. The heart was punched with a Fiskars punch. 

I selected several patterned papers from the kit and used a Fiskars label punch on them: Basic Grey, Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants and Sassafras Lass. I topped the labels with a Cosmo Cricket sticker and then added a Pink Paislee ticket and "T" for Tatum as embellishments. 

This little cluster of embellishments is a punched scalloped circle from the Basic Grey patterned paper, a Cosmo Cricket sticker and Maya Road flower. LOVE that My Mind's Eye crepe paper trim that adds so much texture.

Here's a look at the January kit at Noel Mignon: 

Isn't it just GORGEOUS?! I just adore Noel's kits and love how jam packed they are...it's like getting 3-4 kits in one! If you want a kit, I would hurry and pick one up in the shop there are just two left! 

The kit is named after my friend, Virginia Tillery, who is offering a mini album companion class. You can find all the details about the class on Virginia's blog! The class is just $8.99 too...what a great deal!

Well, that's all from me today! More news tomorrow! :)

October Afternoon Guest Designer!

I've very honored to be guest designing for October Afternoon this month as they are one of my favorite companies! Check out the announcement here. I LOVED working with the "Campfire" collection and will debut my projects on the October Afternoon blog throughout the month. 

First, I have one of the cards I created using the "Campfire" collection. I adore that little fox sticker and just had to use it and thought "Hey Foxy Lady" would be a fun sentiment to send to a friend. 

Be sure to check back for more October Afternoon projects from me this month. I have more exciting news later this week and a lot more to blog about.

Stay tuned.... :)

My Favorite Layouts of 2010!

Happy New Year, friends! Today, I'm going to share with you some of my favorite layouts of 2010. I tried to narrow it down to 10 but just couldn't do it. I have other favorites too but some of them are out for publication! :) I feel so blessed to have had some amazing opportunities to work with some of my favorite companies this past year: GCD Studios, Crate Paper and Melissa Frances. In addition, I was thrilled to be able to design for Noel Mignon and Midnight Rooster as well as create several project kits for The Scrappy Gourmet. One of my greatest accomplishments this past year was making it into Creating Keepsakes for the first time! Here we go in no particular order:

1) "We Believe": This one narrowly missed the cut-off as I created it January 4th but it remains one of my favorite layouts of all time. I created it primarily with Melissa Frances products and it was published in Scrapbook Trends' Holiday Idea Book. 

2) "Greatest Love": I created this layout using the Seaside Cottage kit from Noel Mignon. I was looking through photos one day and happened to come across this snapshot of me looking at my girls that I had no idea was taken. This layout is very, very special to me because of the journaling about how much I love being a mother. 

3) "Meeting Nora": This layout is also a favorite because it includes products and colors that I LOVE - pink, lace, pearls, stitching and butterflies. This was another layout with Noel Mignon's Seaside Cottage kit. And of course, the subject matter is important to me too! :) This layout was published in the August issue of Scrapbook Trends. 

4) "Little Miss Attitude" - Oh, Miss Lily. Her quirky little funny looks were so hilarious especially when they were directed your way. This layout was primarily created with Crate Paper's "Brook" collection. 

5) "God Knew: Just Like Mommy": Another Lily layout but about how God blessed us through adoption and ironically with two little girls who look just like their momma! This one was with Crate Paper's "Paper Doll" collection and was published in the November issue of Scrapbook Trends. 

6) "Having Fun Being One": This was one of my favorite layouts for GCD Studios this year - just LOVE the bright, fun colors of the Homespun Chic collection that went so well with my girls in their 1st birthday tutus. 

7) "The Birthday Tree": This layout was created using the "Sweet Sue" kit from Noel Mignon. I love the earthy color paired with black and white photos. My in-laws bought the girls a maple tree to celebrate their 1st birthday and we planted it in our front yard. Again, another meaningful moment that I was happy to capture. 

8) "Grandma's Gowns": This layout is so, so special to me. Way back in 1958, my grandma made my mom gowns for her to wear as a baby. In 1981, I wore one of the gowns in a photo with my grandma and in 2009, BOTH of my girls wore grandma's gowns in a photo with my mom. You see, grandma had created identical cream gowns with pink embroidery, not knowing that more than 50 years later she would have twin great-granddaughters. I love the comparison photos on this layout and it was made with almost all Melissa Frances products. 

9) "Built in Buddies": This layout was created using the Lemonade Stand and Sun-Kissed kits from Noel Mignon. Love the bright happy colors here with these sweet photos of my girls. 

10) "Mama, I Don't Like Green Beans": I just love these photos of Nora trying green beans and hating them. I love the soft colors of the Kitchsy Kitchen collection by Melissa Frances along with the tone-on-tone kraft and doily die-cuts. 

11) "Forever Family": I love using a grid as a design and the "Dear Diary" kit from Noel Mignon was perfect with these photos of the day my girls were officially adopted. Just a moment I'm happy was captured. 

12) "The Great Pumpkin Adventure": Whoa - a two-pager! I ventured back into a few two-page layouts this fall and winter and this was one of my favorites created using the "Dear Diary" kit from Noel Mignon and mostly Lily Bee Designs products. I experimented with mists on this layout and paper-pieced pumpkins. 

13) "Law & Dis-order": This is another favorite layout primarily because it captures our everyday life of pure chaos! Toys strewn everywhere is an everyday thing here! I used the "Sweet Sue" kit from Noel Mignon on this one. 

14) "1st Halloween Highlights": Another grid design using the "Sleepy Hollow" kit from Noel Mignon capturing my favorite moments from the girls' 1st Halloween. 

15) "The Gift of His Dreams": I pulled out the circle and snowflake punches on this layout using the "Bedford Falls" kit from Noel Mignon. Love this photo of my husband as a child receiving his very first synthesizer. 

16) "Now & Then: I Love Cookies": Another comparison layout of little Jill and big Jill baking cookies! Again, used the Kitschy Kitchen collection by Melissa Frances. 

17) "Oh Christmas Tree": This was another recent layout using the "Bedford Falls" kit from Noel Mignon. I just love the patterned papers at the top and the little embellishment and journaling clusters.

18) "How to Pick the Perfect Apple": This was a two-page layout for Midnight Rooster. I love all the patterned papers along with our photos that tell a story of a fun afternoon at the apple orchard. 

19) "11 months": This was one of my first layouts for Midnight Rooster. LOVE these photos of the girls for their monthly album and the fun, bright colors of the fabric banner in the kit. This layout was also in the October issue of Scrapbook Trends.

So there you have it! Nineteen of my most favorite layouts from the past year. As I was looking through these, I gathered that I'm a lover of banners, punches, grid designs, lots of journaling, machine stitching, feminine details and KRAFT cardstock! Most importantly, I'm happy that I captured these moments of our family history that I'll be able to pass along someday. I consider all of my work to be love letters to my girls. I'll share some of my favorite cards and altered projects and mini albums throughout next week. 

Thanks for looking! :)

What a Christmas!

Our Christmas this year wasn't exactly the idyllic one I had in mind. Glen and I spent many sleepless nights last week taking care of two very feverish and sick little girls. We even had an ambulance ride in the middle of the night for a very, very high fever. So far, everything has been viral but I think we're headed back to the doctor again today as I've got one with a fever again this morning. Sigh. Glen also has this nasty virus and yesterday I finally felt it coming on. This has been one of our worst rounds of illness yet. I have a bunch of projects I need to be working on (of course) right now and have yet to get out the rest of our Christmas cards. But, that's okay....it will all happen in time. I'm happy to be able to comfort my little girls even if it results in testing my patience at times. :)

But, I wanted to pop on here and share with you a project that I created for both my parents and in-laws for Christmas using a 7gypsies printer's tray and the "Hollywood Vogue" collection by Webster's Pages. The grey, plum, lavender and green in this collection matched our family pictures this fall perfectly. I love Webster's gorgeous trims and alphabet stickers too! I also used some embellishments by Pink Paislee (cork, chipboard alphabet, frame, artisan tape), Martha Stewart (doily die-cut), Melissa Frances (pearls), Prima (flower), and Jenni Bowlin (label stickers). 

Here are a few close-ups of my project....

Hope you enjoy the last few days of 2010! Please, please pray for good health for us right now - we need it!

I'll be back soon...I want to share some of my favorite projects of 2010! 

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Merry Christmas, friends! My layout today uses the gorgeous "Bedford Falls" kit from Noel Mignon, and I created it for the new challenge to scrap outside decorations. When I learned we were doing this challenge, I knew that I wanted to scrap about my hometown's annual huge Christmas tree that is placed in the middle of main street. My hometown has less than 1,000 people and yet this tradition is upheld every year. 

But, I didn't have any photos of the tree so I sent my mom on a mission for me. The pictures she e-mailed me were not ideal for printing (only 121K) so today I'm going to share a fun little application with you that I used on my photo. It's called Poladroid and it's completely free! You just have to download it to your computer and drag your photo to the application and wait for it to expose. To print my photo, I went back into Photoshop and re-saved the photo to a size I could print. This type of photo treatment works so well for those photos that aren't great - they might be blurry, overexposed, etc. 

Here are a few close-ups of my layout...

I added a Jenni Bowlin label from my stash.

A fun little cluster of embellishments (Making Memories patterned paper, Pink Paislee die-cut, Making Memories snowflake and rhinestone, My Mind's Eye brad)...

And here's a look at all the patterned paper I put together at the top of my layout....love all the choices Noel included in this kit! 

This morning, we're (hopefully) getting ready to spend some time with my family for Christmas. I say hopefully because I've had a sick little one the past couple days and I hope she's better enough today to travel. 

Have a very Merry Christmas with your family! I'll be back next week with more projects! 

My Mind's Eye: Blog Challenge #18

I somehow managed to fit in time this month to work on Challenge #18 from My Mind's Eye. I love doing their challenges each month and this month's theme was "It's a _________ Thing." I knew that I wanted to do a Christmas themed layout this month so I went with "Christmas: It's a Merry Thing" and my absolute favorite pictures of the girls from last Christmas. Most of the patterned papers I chose are from the "Holly Jolly" collection and in Noel Mignon's "Bedford Falls" kit. The text paper is from the "Union Square" collection. 

I used Martha Stewart baker's twine on either side of my banner title. 

The Cosmo Cricket mini alphabet stickers are in the "Bedford Falls" kit and the "Merry" die-cut and journaling spot are from a past My Mind's Eye Christmas collection. During a recent trip to Archiver's, I picked up a package of these gorgeous Prima holly and berry glitter sprigs. LOVE these!

I created a little tree using kraft cardstock, a Jenni Bowlin label sticker and green and red brads from the My Mind's Eye Lush collection (the brads have been in past Noel Mignon kits). 

Here's the sketch we worked with this month...

Thanks for looking! Have a great day! :)

Mini Kit Winner!

The winner of the December Midnight Rooster mini kit is:

And a funny story about this...my mom actually e-mailed me and said you have to pick Laurie this month because this is something that happens to me too. I usually just pick a random winner but had to listen to my momma this month! :)

I'll be back with more soon!

 Laurie! said...

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is a silly one. Every year we go to my great aunt's house for a potluck Christmas dinner. But my mom always forgets to buy an ingredient for whatever it is she's making and she doesn't realize it until Christmas Day morning when she's trying to cook. So she sends either me or my dad out to Walgreens, one of the only places open on Christmas Day, for supplies. Every Christmas we joke, "Have you been to Walgreens yet?" Sometimes we just stop there just to say we've gone. :)

8:09 AM

Midnight Rooster December Kit & Mini Kit Giveaway!

Happy Friday! The Midnight Rooster December kit is now up so that means I can share my work with you. All of my projects are decidedly non-Christmas. First up, I have a two-pager using this month's kit. I chose some of my favorite images that my friend, Carrie, took back in March 2009 of the Adoption Celebration fundraiser our friends put on for us.  I kept my patterned paper and embellishment choices fairly neutral with little pops of red and yellow to bring out some of the colors in the photos. I did add Basic Grey alphabet stickers in black and white to add a little more information to the photos. The Maya Road doilies are in this month's add-on kit. 

I hand drew the scalloped border along the top of the layout. The black thickers this month are my FAVE! 

I punched some hearts with my Fiskars punch for this layout and threaded the My Mind's Eye buttons in the kit with some twine.

"Remember this very moment" is an October Afternoon rub-on in the kit. 

For my second layout this month, I scrapped an old photo of me giving my president's speech at high school graduation. Our school colors were red and black so the colors in this kit were fitting. I sprayed the black dot Bazzill cardstock with white Mister Huey by Studio Calico. It almost looks like a chalkboard effect = pretty cool for a graduation layout. 

I created a little banner in the corner using The Girls' Paperie patterned paper and Martha Stewart twine. 

 Here's a look at some of the Jenni Bowlin stars I used as embellishments.

I cut out two "9" cards from the Crate Paper patterned paper in the kit. 

For my final layout this month, I actually scrap-lifted myself! I had similar pictures of the girls with their great-grandpa and their great-grandma so I just used the same design for both. 

The polka dot paper is Lily Bee Designs and the cool burlap, button and rhinestone flower is a handmade exclusive in the kit this month (although I did trim it down a bit to fit my layout). 

I used a couple pink buttons from my stash on this layout. 

Here's a close-up of my photo grouping and embellishments. 

These darling clay pinwheels are a Midnight Rooster handmade exclusive this month and I used them on a "Thanks" card. 

And now, it's time for this month's mini kit giveaway! Here's a look...

In order to be entered into my drawing this month, just leave a comment and answer this question:

What is one of your favorite Christmas traditions? 

I'll choose a winner on Monday. Have a great weekend and thanks for looking! :)