Color Challenge #29

Colors were inspired partly by chocolate and partially by just boy colors. To play use at least 3 of the shades in a new project and send me a link to your artwork so I can add it here ^_~ And have fun playing!

Barn Red
Chocolate and/or Cocoa
Honey
Olive

Sparkle's Cute Changito Thank You Card
Noelle's Yummilicious Thanks a Latte Card
Barb's Relaxing Lawn Chair Card
Marcia's Adorable Friends Forever Card
Jena's Lovely Family Christmas Photos Layout

My Sample:

Supplies : Caprice Papers, Winter's Heart '06? Papers, Olive, Barn Red, Honey, Chocolate, Cocoa, and Col White CS, Lifes a Jungle and Paradise Stamp sets, Sunflower bigger brad, Chipboard Circles

I made one of those fun Joy Fold Cards that SCS has a tutorial for this week. I had fun but without my mojo I was really having a tough time putting this one together. This has been such a hard week for the color challenge, I'm telling ya, lol! If I had just done it while I was in my scrappin' groove over the weekend it would have been fine, but no I had to wait because I'm a terrible procrastinator. So getting past scheduling wasn't too bad, only that I realized when I finally got a chance to sit down that I had absolutely no mojo. Then I had a mom meltdown, we won't go into that, lol. So last night ended with nothing finished. Today I woke up feeling much better, talked and played with the girls a bit, had breakfast, then started the color challenge. I was having fun making the interactive card so that was good. But when I went to post, my hubby's mouse wasn't working (a problem he discovered earlier this morning and was trying to fix). So I get my mouse and plug it into his computer. I am going through all this trouble because he has my photo editing software on his computer. Then the entire computer freezes on me. I reset and try to work again and.... the keyboard doesn't work. It looks to be two things... either a virus, which I am doubting, or the ports are dead which is more likely since they sit right next to each other. And that really irks me because his computer isn't even a year old! Anyway, I retake the pictures (because now he is in safe mode doing a thorough virus scan just in case, plus he's on the phone with HP to try and figure it out, and my pictures were on his computer), upload the new ones to my computer, then take forever to edit them online in photobucket. *sigh* Hopefully you all will have an easier time than I did trying to get this done, lol. Thanks for stopping by and reading my tirade ^_~ And have fun with the colors this week!

Layouts from the Weekend

Supplies : Sugared Paper and Glazed Brads, Basic Grey; Buttons, Mind's Eye; Burgandy Flowers, Petaloo; Foam Letters, Thickers; White Flowers, White Ricrac, Baby Pink and Garnet CS, Sketchy Alpha Stamp Set, and Textured White CS by CTMH


This was my favorite layout of the weekend. It was the first layout I put together at my friend's house, and it was so fun to finally get a chance to use my Sugared Basic Grey paper and brads! These pictures are so special since it's rare for me to catch Audrey on film treating her Mao the same way she does everyday. That poor little tiger deals with a lot of tough love, but he doesn't seem to mind :D The title comes from Mao's name. When Audrey was not quite one she couldn't really say 'meow'. It always came out as 'mao'. After a while she just began calling her tiger 'Mao' and the name has stuck. Even two years later though she can mew, meow, and growl like nobody's business, she still calls her tiger 'Mao'. The cat's meow has stuck... or in this case, the cat's 'mao'.



Supplies : Foam Letters, Thickers; M photo corners Chipboard, Rusty Pickle; Little felt flower, Making Memories; Large felt flower, RAK from Jenn; Large Yellow flower, Heidi Swapp; Noteworthy CS journaling prompt, My Minds Eye; Expedition Papers, Autumn Terracota Ribbon Rounds, Black and Chocoalte CS, Autumn Terracota Textured CS, Autumn Sunflower Paper Flowers, Autumn Buttons, Chocolate Waxy Flax, Sunflower Bigger Brads, Sans Small Alpha and Extreme Alpha stamp sets by CTMH; Punch Label font printed in black for journaling

I created this layout second at her house as well. This one was a lot of fun. I had planned the title for the picture on the left for quite some time and had just never made the leap of turning it into a layout. I love the way it pulled together with the expedition papers and mish mash of embellishments. Since I don't have a label maker I just used one of the free fonts you can download online. It did however take quite a while to cut out all the words and adhere them to the page, lol, but it was definitely worth while since I really like the effect for this layout. The journaling is all about Mao's first time outside in the yard. I'm really paranoid about losing the girls' lovies so I usually make them leave them inside the house. Audrey had a blast with him and he looked like such a sad pathetic little tiger that I loved the idea of using an ironic title for his page.



Supplies : Pattern Paper, Mini Orange Label, and Blue File Label by My Minds Eye; Chipboard Letters by Rusty Pickle; Textured Orange, Pale Blue, and Teal CS by Bazzil; Chipboard label, Silver Accents, Sweet Leaf and White CS, Rustic Alpha, Atomic Alpha, Extreme Caps, and Sans Small Alpha stamp sets all by CTMH; 39 Smooth Font for Journaling

This cutie is one of my nephews. Isn't he just a charmer? I have to say that this was the most difficult page for me to do since I usually don't do boy pages. I kept wanting to put flowers and ribbon, well maybe the ribbon would have worked, but he is such a boyish boy that I didn't want to put any froo-froo on the layout at all, lol. In the end, I think I did a pretty good job with his layout, but I was more than happy to return to making little girl layouts again!!

Supplies : Pattern Paper and Buttons by My Minds Eye; Foam Letters by Thickers, Chipboard Flower Buttons by American Crafts; Textured Orange, Teal, and Green CS by Bazzil; Felt Flower by Making Memories; Dotted Flower by Doodlebug; Chipboard Photo Corner by Rusty Pickle; White Ricrac by CTMH

These pics are so funny because they were taken right after Cait and her cousin finished a battle over his new toy truck. Cait wanted to play with it and he most definitely did not find that at all acceptable. But it wasn't long before they were watching a movie peacefully together, lol. I went ahead and used the same boy papers as my All Boy layout but added flowers and the ricrac to this one since Cait was in the pictures with him.

Supplies : Pattern Paper, Friends and Tag Element by My Minds Eye; Ribbon unknown - cut by the yard from my LSS; Foam Letters by Thickers; CS by Bazzil; Spiral Flowers, RAK from Jenn; Chipboard Photo Corners by Rusty Pickle; Chipboard Letters and Arrow from CTMH; Apple Butter Font used for Journaling

These have got to be the most adorable pictures I've gotten at the waterpad. Audrey had found a little boyfriend, or rather he found her. They walked all around together holding hands, laughing together, he even had his hand on her back while watching the other kids play at one time! It was so sweet and I'm so glad my camera has such a good zoom because I don't think I would have caught this little romance if I had been closer. I used my pagemaps book for the layout, converting on of the 8.5x11 2 pagers into a 12x12 2 pager. Then I swapped the places of the pages. I finally got to use some of these adorable spiral flowers that Jenn sent me too. I had been trying to find a way to use them that I really loved and the gold ones she sent worked perfectly with this layout! The yellow and green CS in this layout are actually the back sides of the pattern paper. Anyway, that's what I did this weekend! I haven't gotten around to making my sample for the color challenge yet with all the scrapping I was doing so it might be a little late. Cait has her first formal speech therapy appointment tomorrow so the color challenge might not be up until Monday night or Tuesday morning. Thanks for stopping by!

All About A Princess

It's Princess Time!! I didn't even realize I had been doing this, but all these pictures are from Halloween. These pinky layouts have pics from Halloween '06 and the next set are from Halloween '07. They are all of Cait and she's been a Princess the past two years. She'll probably be a Princess this year too. I let her pick her costume and she ALWAYS wants to be a Princess, lol. What can I say though, she is my little princess after all ^_~

Paper : Sweet Leaf, Hollyhock, and Blush CTMH CS, My Minds Eye, Bo Bunny

Accents : My Minds Eye Paper Accents, Ribbon from LSS, CTMH Chipboard swirls and letters, Stampendous Pink Glitter, Bazzil fabric flowers, Unknown flower, Craft Rhinestones

I LOVE how this layout came out and all the pattern papers were scraps! This was the second layout I made today and I was really in the mood to bling it up especially after my first layout which is coming up next. Journaling was printed using my computer in deep pink and chocolate colors using the Apple Butter and Chocolate Box fonts.

Paper : Kiwi and White Daisy CTMH CS, My Minds Eye,

Accents : My Minds Eye Paper Accents, Heidi Swap and Bazzil Flowers, Ribbon from LSS, Rusty Pickle Chipboard, Craft Rhinestones

This was the layout I did last night, or rather very very early this morning since I was after midnight when I made it, lol. I loved this picture and had some scraps that I thought went well with it. After I finished the layout I added some fun doodling which I haven't done in a while :D

Paper : Vanilla Cream CTMH CS, My Minds Eye, Bazzil CS

Accents : My Minds Eye Paper Accents, Rusty Pickle Chipboard, Bazzil Fabric Flowers, American Crafts Big Brads, Hollyhock Ricrac (CTMH)

One of the 2-page layout I started the Saturday before last while I was at my friend's house. After almost 2 weeks I finally got around to finishing the journaling on these layouts while at her house again today, lol. This one uses an older 8.5x11 pagemaps layout that I extended to fit the 12x12 papers ^_~

Isn't this toad such a cutie! Kelly L, an awesome SBS4 sister sent a few images of him to me during our Secret Sister Image RAK and I am just now getting around to using at least one of him. I colored him in with Twilight and used the blending pen to lighten up the ink a little. I wanted to put something in this fun Minds Eye die cut circle and just couldn't find anything until I came across this little toady. He couldn't be a more perfect fit, he's even looking up at the picture of Cait!

Paper : Vanilla Cream CTMH CS, Bazzil CS, My Minds Eye

Stamps : Building Blocks Alpha, Sans Small Alphas, Atomic Lowercase Alpha, and Playful Flourishes (CTMH), Toad is from an SU set (can't remember the name) the image RAKed to me by Kelly L

Accents : My Minds Eye Paper Accents, Bazzil Fabric Flowers, American Crafts Big Brads, Hollyhock Ricrac (CTMH)

And the other 2-page layout I did at my friend's place also using a pagemaps layout. The title for this one is "Sleeping Cutie". Ever since Cait has seen Sleeping Beauty she has called her Sleeping Cutie. Even now, she still says she's sleeping cutie, lol. Julie said I just had to put that somewhere on the layout and so I did ^_~ I made it the title and the journaling is all about how Caitie calls Sleeping Beauty, 'Sleeping Cutie'. And that's all I've gotten finished this week so far. I've been a bit slow with my scrappin' but I hope that'll pic up soon ^_~ Thanks for dropping by!

Color Challenge #28

The beach was my inspiration for the colors this week. To play use at least 3 of the colors and comment me with a link to your artwork so I can add it to this post ^_~ Remember, if you don't have the exact colors, to just use whatever shades you have that are close. Have fun!!

Crystal Blue
Bamboo
Desert Sand
Buttercup
optional Heavenly Blue

Sparkle's Fun House Mouse Card
Sue's Beautiful Fall Woods Card
Marcia's Adorable A Little Something Card
Jena's Fun Best Buddies Layout

My Samples :



Papers : Crystal Blue, Bamboo, Buttercup, and White Daisy CTMH CS
Stamps : Friendship Flowers, Cottage Floral, Serendipity (CTMH)
Other : White Ricrac, Circle Windows, White Embroidery Floss

I wanted to do something fun and different so I made a circle card which I haven't done in two or three years, lol. I forgot how fun they are to make. I did a lot of fun stamping and layering with my favourite floral set, Cottage Floral by CTMH.



Papers : Crystal Blue, Bamboo, Buttercup, Heavenly Blue and White Daisy CTMH CS
Stamps : Paradise (CTMH)
Other : Harmony Sassy Strands (CTMH), CTMH Markers

I actually made this card first but it wasn't what I had in my head. I still think it's cute, just not quite what I had in mind for the sample. Some coloring with the markers to fill in the image, it was way handy that the buttercup marker on the crystal blue stamped image made the green for my palm tree and grass ^_~ TFL and have fun with the challenge colors!

Cuts, Cards, and Challenges

So I'll start with the last thing first, the challenges. I haven't been creating that much this week and what I have made I haven't taken the time to post because of EQ2. For those that don't know what that is, it's EverQuest 2, a massive multiplayer online role playing game. And it just so happens that they have free play for all Sony accounts during this month and since Paul just happened to finish his summer semester, we've been playing together once again. It's always fun to group and play with my hubby so any internet time I've had has been spent questing Norrath with him ^_~


Papers : CTMH Breeze, Sweet Leaf, Outdoor Denim, and Grey Wool CS
Stamps : I-wish-I-looked-so-good-on-a-bikeabella, Say it in Style (CTMH)
Other : Pewter small and double swirl spirals, white ricrac, pewter brad, white prima, CTMH Markers, Sakura Med Gelly Roll White

For the #37 bella color challenge. I just fell in love with this bella when I first saw her so I just had to use her again for a color challenge. I love the little grey dog :D I always wanted a little terrier when I was a little girl because my favorite aunt had one.

Papers : My Minds Eye, CTMH Sunflower CS, Bazzil CS
Stamps : Bikabella RAK from Sparkle, For Every Occasion (CTMH)
Other : CTMH Markers, Sakura Med Gelly Roll White, American Crafts Chocolate Brads, Waxy Flax

I did the Bella challenges Thursday and didn't even realize until I had finished this card that I had used bikabella with this same paper on one of the other sketch challenges, lol. So here she debuts again. At least I think I colored her differently. This is for the #37 sketch challenge. I flipped the card horizontally and then flipped it on its side.



Papers: It's a Guy Thing (CTMH), Cocoa and Olive CTMH CS
Stamps : Unknown Tilda RAK from Kelly ^_~
Other : Pewter hinge and ribbon holder (CTMH), Cocoa Ribbon (CTMH), CTMH Markers, Blender Pen, Sakura Med Gelly Roll White, Pinc Shimmer Chalks

Isn't he just a cutie!!! I had asked my SBS4 sister Deb how she colored her images since they always come out so jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and she said with watercolors! Amazing right? Well... I am not so amazing, lol. I even went to the craft store to peruse the watercolors and was totally lost. So I thought to try something a little different with my waterbase markers and that was to use the blending pen that I normally use with just the ink pads. I noticed that the blending pen lightens where I brush it, and if I brush to much it almost has a bleaching effect hence the chalking on his overalls to cover up my mistake. But if I used it just a little, it made my marker coloring have that softer look of watercoloring which I loved with this image! I used the white gel pen just on the bobber and his overall clasps for some highlighting. He took me forever to color because I was trying to do it just right since he's the only image of him that I have, and I have to say I am so happy with the way he came out! He might not be perfect, but he came out great for my first time coloring like this!

And here is a picture of the cut. What cut you ask? Well, last Saturday Paul went out shooting with some friends. One of these things he shot was a 300 Winchester Magnum (I had to write this down). Apparently, it is a HUGE rifle with massive kick. Kay showed me a picture of the size of the bullets and they are humongous!!! That cut above Paul's eye is where the SCOPE hit him! So that night, they get home at just after 8pm and ask Julie if she thinks Paul needs to get stitches. It doesn't look too bad until he raises his eyebrow and it splits wide open! So Kay took Paul to the emergency room. He ended up with 5 stitches inside and 5 stitches outside. That's male bonding for you. Go out shooting, go get stitches together, come home and joke about the whole thing, lol. The stitches came out Thursday and it doesn't look bad at all. I already have a title for the page, "SCOPED" and I just need one more picture and that's of the rifle, well maybe one of the bullets too ^_~ I wish I could have recorded them talking about it that night, it was so hilarious. Anyway, that was just some of the craziness that happened last weekend. I also made two 2-page layouts but STILL haven't finished putting the journaling on them. Hopefully I'll get that done soon so I can post those before another week goes by, lol. Next up the color challenge!

Color Challenge #27

So, I kinda posted a peek at the color challenge colors this weekend. I had actually been early and made my samples Friday evening. Then when I was playing with my bellas, I used the colors again on halobella ^_~ The combo is inspired by spring and summer flowers. Or bright pink ones anyway, lol. To play use at least 3 of the colors and send me a link to your art so I can add it here! Have fun playing!

Bubblegum
Kiwi
Sunny Yellow
Watermelon

Sue's Whimsical Flowers Card
Sparkle's Sweet MFT Thank You Card
Marcia's Lovely Merci Card
Mary's Pretty Thank You Card
Tegan's Sparkly SU Flower Card
Ashley's Fun Summer Time Card
Jena's Gorgeous Sister's Layout

My Samples :

Uses Say it in Style and Sweet Flowers. My set is actually unmounted red rubber on the EZ Mount since I never got around to buying the acrylic set. I sand distressed the second card quite a bit but left the first one alone. Simple bug embossing for texture and some RAKed organdy ribbon for embellishment. TFL and have fun with the color combo!

Color Challenge Listing

The Color Challenge Listing - To make it easier to find the past color challenges on my blog here is a post that I will update to contain all the color challenges. Clicking on the challenge takes you to the original post for that particular color combo so you can see my example and others from ladies that participated. Guidelines for the color challenges are simple. Create a new project (layout, card, altered item, etc.) that uses at least 3 of the colors listed. If you don't have CTMH shades use whatever you have that is close :D I have a CTMH/SU conversion link at the bottom of this post to help if you have SU colors. Or you can just eyeball it ^_~ I hope this makes it easier for anyone who wants to play in the past challenges. They are all still open so if you create something using one of the old challenges, send me the link! I love to have your samples on the posts ^_~ Have fun creating!

38 - Juniper, Ponderosa Pine, Desert Sand, Bamboo
37 - Tulip, Petal, Pansy Purple, Creme Brulee
36 - Orange, Topiary, Pansy Purple, Sunflower, optional Black
35 - Goldrush, Creme Brulee, Sweet Leaf, Smoky Plum
34 - Creme Brulee, Cranberry, Twilight, Brown Bag
33 - Sorbet, Taffy, Garden Green, Bamboo
32 - Tulip, Honey, New England Ivy, and Vineyard Berry
31 - Juniper, Olive, Honey, and Cocoa
30 - Cranberry, Grey Wool, Black, and Bamboo
29 - Barn Red, Honey, Olive, Chocolate and/or Cocoa
28 - Bamboo, Crystal Blue, Buttercup, Desert Sand, optional Heavenly Blue
27 - Bubblegum, Kiwi, Sunny Yellow, Watermelon --- Halobella
26 - Sweet Leaf, Buttercup, Honey
25 - Lilac Mist, Cranberry, Moonstruck, White Daisy, optional Spring Iris
24 - Ocean, Citrus Leaf, Breeze, Orange, optional Sunny Yellow
23 - Goldrush, Holiday Red, Crystal Blue, Chocolate, optional Sunflower
22 - Outdoor Denim, Cranberry, Twilight, New England Ivy
21 - Star Spangled Blue, Cranberry, Sunflower, Topiary
20 - Moonstruck, Watermelon, Hydrangea, Heavenly Blue
19 - Ocean, Honey, Breeze, Goldrush
18 - Pink Carnation, Baby Pink, Key Lime, Kiwi
17 - Holiday Red, Orange, Sunflower, Bubblegum
16 - Hollyhock, Garden Green, Blush --- Another Sample
15 - Barn Red, Crystal Blue, Bamboo, White Daisy
14 - Vineyard Berry, Ocean, Topiary, Hollyhock
13 - Goldrush, Sunkiss Yellow, Autumn Terracota, Sweet Leaf --- Another Sample
12 - Citrus Leaf, Orchid Bouquet, Crystal Blue, Pink Carnation
11 - Heavenly Blue, Sweet Leaf, Buttercup, Chocolate
10 - Citrus Leaf, Kiwi, Buttercup, Topiary
9 - Hollyhock, Sunkiss Yellow, Sweet Leaf, Cranberry
8 - Clover Meadow, Key Lime, Sunny Yellow, Breeze
7 - Buttercup, Lilac Mist, Garden Green, Bamboo
6 - Outdoor Denim, Indian Corn Blue, Olive, Cranberry
5 - Hollyhock, Vanilla Cream, Blush, Chocolate
4 - Taffy, Sweet Leaf, Orange, Orchid Bouquet
3 - Amethyst, Petal, Sweet Leaf, Spring Iris --- My Card
2 - Key Lime, Baby Pink, Black, Holiday Red
1 - Holiday Red, Taffy, Sunflower, Vanilla Cream

CTMH/SU color comparison

I Should Be . . .

. . . Scrapping. Or I should be cleaning up the mess I left on the table from making cards last night, lol. But no, I'm making MORE bella cards, lol. I really wanted to play with the new ones I had gotten yesterday and apparently the couple I did last night wasn't enough ^_~. So here are a few more.

I love this color combo! Last night I had actually thought about using this bella for the bella color challenge #35 and this afternoon just figured I'd go ahead and make her with it even though I already did the challenge ^_~ Isn't she a doll!! With Love used for the floral background stamping and then Say it in Style for the sentiment. Buttons are from My Minds Eye and the ribbon was the last I had of some from my LSS, just cut by the yard stuff. And I played with my white gel pen again.

I've actually had Bookwormabella for a couple months and she's the only one I haven't inked up, so in a way she's new ^_~ I colored her in first and then put the card together. I used With Love for the floral background stamping again and then my cuttlebug to emboss the crystal blue. More of the same ribbon I used on the tea card to complete it and doodle alphas for the sentiment. And if you couldn't tell I used the BCC36 color combo again as well :D




And here's my Halobella. Aren't these colors just so bella!! I love her, she's so cute!! Bug embossing for the backgrounds and more playing with my gel pen. I tried to play with my blender pen but so far the only thing I'm good at using it for is with the ink pads for a watercolor look. I can get it to blend the harsher lines a tiny bit but otherwise I'm not very good at using it :P Anyway, maybe I'll actually get my tush in gear now that I've played with most my new stamps and scrap some pages since I'm starting to get behind again, lol. Have a great Saturday night!

And how funny is this girl!! We took this last night. That thing taped to Audrey's face is Potato Head's bottom! I have no idea what brought this on, whether it's supposed to be a Doctor's mask or something like a desert trooper's mask, lol. She is such a silly girl!

Bella Challenges 35 & 36

I was going to scrap tonight but instead decided to play a little bella challenge catch up ^_~




Aren't these little tea cups adorable! I love tea, it's my comfort drink at the end of each day :D I had just gotten these in the mail with my bella order today! There were also some tea pots with flowers too, but I'll have to wait until the next time to get those^_~ This card is for the #36 color challenge which I really had a hard time with. The image was easy to color with the palette - holiday red, crystal blue, citrus leaf, and desert sand - but putting the card together seemed tougher. Probably because I hardly ever use desert sand :P But it came out cute and I am loving this little image! With Love and Say it in Style CTMH stamp sets used for the background flower stamping and the sentiment.




Partybella for the #36 sketch challenge and the #35 color challenge. The colors are Heavenly Blue, Orange, and Chocolate. And my heavenly blue marker is SO not heavenly blue, lol. Well, I do really saturate the paper with the ink so it's probably just the way that I color that made it come out like that. I added some star spangled blue and taffy for coloring her in. Sentiment from the Say it in Style set again. Anyway, that's all for today. Hopefully I'll get some scrapping done over the weekend. I hope everyone has a great Saturday! Thanks for dropping by ^_~

Sweet Halloween

I was getting these photos out because I wanted to scrap them, but just couldn't see them with traditional Halloween papers or even colors for that matter! Instead I went with some My Minds Eye papers that matched both of my girls' outfits. I still have 3 more two-page layouts to finish up Halloween '07 but here's what I've done so far.

Anything but Spooky was the theme for this page and I love the finished layout! This uses a June '08 Page Maps sketch. My favorite part is how the flowers came out. I used mostly Cottage Floral but there is also Serendipity (the striped flower middle) and Friendship Flowers (the dotted flower middle and the stems) used as well. Title was made with the Building Blocks and Hodge Podge alpha sets. It has been quite a while since I've done stamping like this on my layout. It took forever, but I love the result! All the flower middles were also covered with a clear circle window for some fun dimension. Colors for the flowers used were cranberry, hollyhock, and goldrush for the main flowers; twilight and cranberry for the other flowers; and vanilla cream CS with bamboo and desert sand ink for the leaves. This was a super fun page to make!

This was the layout that I had started the night before last. I had started it late and had been too tried to finish it. In fact I am still debating whether to put some journaling on this page or just have all the journaling on Audrey's other layout. This one uses an older page maps layout, one that I've used a couple times before even. Every time I've scrapped Halloween it's been with traditional colors like orange and black. It was tough for me to get out of that box, but I'm so glad I did as I love both of these layouts! Funny though that I'm starting my '07 Halloween scrapping before I finish my '06 lol. I still have half the pictures left of that one to do!



Remember back when I posted about Caitlyn cutting Audrey's hair and I was too mortified to take a picture? Here it is finally! Caitie actually did a pretty good job as I only trimmed a tiny bit on one side to make both sides match. I'm still wondering if I should go get her hair cut. For now it's fine, she looks really cute with bangs and a ponytail. I do plan to grow them out though ^_~

Thanks Gals!

I've been nominated for this award by three fellow bloggers, Carolyn, Stacy, and Amanda. Thanks so much girls! Take a minute to visit their blogs :D All of them have some fun artwork going on with CTMH. Stacy has some cute Friendship Wordpuzzle cards, Carolyn's got an adorable watermelon layout and fun baseball layout, and Amanda has some awesome flower cards, so take a peek!


The rules for this award: 1. The winner can put the logo on her blog. 2. Link the person you received your award from. 3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. 4. Put links of those blogs on yours. 5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.

So the 7 I am going to nominate are: Jena, she always has such creative layouts and super cute pics of her girls! I have all girls too (well all 2 of them, lol) and it's always neat to see what she's doing to preserve and share her special moments with them. Chris, she makes wonderful cards and is such a great SBS4 sister! Seleise, another great SBS4 sister who is always doing new fun techniques on her cards! Y.Poulsen, she makes such great creative layouts! Kathi, who just awes me with her cards! Jenn, a fellow CTMH friend who makes amazing and fun cards! She's just an all around fun girl! And Sparkle, she is the coolest gal! She's got a lot of awesome cards on her blog and every so often a super cute layout ^_~ She also just got married so hop on over and congratulate the new Mrs. Smith! If you haven't seen their blogs before, go and take a look these ladies have got talent!!

Becky's Got Blog!

Becky Fleck that is! She finally has a PageMaps blog and what better way to start out than a sketch challenge! I have been trying to get some scrappin' mojo back up. I sat down last night to try and create and there was just nothing. So this morning I thought, hmmm... maybe the July PageMaps are up, it's after the 6th, right? And yes they were there! Not only that but I saw that now she has a blog as well! So head on over to this post to see the sketch for the contest she has up. You have until midnight the 20th this month to upload. Come and play!

Here is my layout for the sketch found in the Jan 2008 pagemaps. I've used this sketch once before with pics of Cait fallen asleep while reading Dr. Suess. I seem to have tons of pictures with her sleeping in funky positions, lol. CS is Bazzil, pattern paper is My Minds Eye. Stars from Star Struck stamp set by CTMH, white and green ricrac, white and black brads, and the black photo clip and hinge are also from CTMH. Flowers by Prima and the buttons are from Doodlebug. Dotted blue ribbon unknown cut by the yard ribbon from my LSS and letter stickers from Thickers. The journaling was printed from my computer using the Tom's New Roman font. I have to say I love the way this came out and I had so much fun making it! It just goes to show that even if you don't have great pictures, you can still make great layouts! Thanks Becky for the awesome challenge! It got my mojo back :D

Color Challenge #26

Can you believe I've been doing this for 6 months now? It amazes me because when I started I was posting them just for fun. You know, something interesting to do on the CTMH consultant forums. I didn't really think about the after. I thought, hey a couple challenges here and there and then some other people might start doing some challenges too so we can mix it up a little more. Well, here we are 6 months later and I've done a color challenge every week! It's not always been up by Monday, but it does get done at least once during the week, lol. ^_~ And this week's inspiration comes from a couple of old favorite colors, sweet leaf and buttercup, and a new favorite, honey. There are only 3 this week so have fun creating!


Sweet Leaf
Buttercup
Honey


Sue's Seeds of Love Double Challenge Card
Stacy's Sweet Lean on Me Card
Jenn's Flower Smile Card
Barb's Lovely Thinking of You Card
Marcia's With Heart Winobella Card
Sparkle's Cute Hoppy Birthday Card
Mary's Beautiful Sympathy Card

My Sample:


I went Nursery Bash crazy today. I adore this set. I think the animals are too cute and aren't too babyish so they work with more than just baby cards. Say it in Style and Cottage Floral Sets also used. Flowers by Prima and the "it's a cupcake thing" from stampingbella. All cardstock, the ribbon and brads are from CTMH.




These are super simple and quick cards. I only used scraps to make them all. I first found bigger scraps and cut out card bases. Then I arranged the bigger left over scraps to be layers on the cards and last matting. Bulk ricrak and flowers for embellies and voila! For a little history on the colors I've always loved buttercup and sweetleaf. Sweetleaf is definitely my favorite green and buttercup is one of my favorite yellows. In fact buttercup, baby pink, and key lime were the first colors I ever bought from CMTH. I still have my old original ink pads too, they are the ones I let my daughters use when they stamp with me. I actually didn't like honey when it came out. There was a golden yellow color before it that I thought was uglier, lol, so honey was an improvement but I just didn't see myself using it very often. Until the last couple of months my honey cardstock and ink has been virtually untouched. I know it's in the winter palette but to me this color is all summer. I took a look at it again with some summery pictures and colors and wham! I realized this is a great yellow! I loved the name since I love honey in my tea ^_~ and now I love the color. I threw in orange on my samples since orange is another of those colors I really didn't like until these past few months. In fact now orange is one of my favorites! I specifically look for summer papers with orange in them now. And to think last year I hated orange shades, lol. Anyway, I can't believe it's been a whole week since I created something! I guess we've just had too much fun with family and just chillin' this last week ^_~ I hope everyone had a great 4th of July and have fun playing!