Happy Halloween!!

I hope everyone has a great Halloween tonight!! Each year we gauge whether or not Caitie has outgrown her phobia of people in black and the Halloween decor and she hasn't. I can't even take her grocery shopping with me right now because of all the scary Halloween stuff at the stores. So for the past few weeks I've been going shopping with Audrey while Cait is in school. We decorate with cutesy stuff in our home but all the stores around decorate pretty scary to sell the Halloween merchandise. She actually has panic attacks so it's not just a little thing that we can get around. Anyway, it has been the same this year so no trick-or-treating again. But my girls never seem to mind, their favorite part is just getting dressed up and it's become our own little tradition to do a fun photo shoot, make goodies, and just have a good time at home ^_~

This bella I made for the #52 color challenge. The colors this week are more Halloween - Orange, Taffy, Grey Wool, and Black. Anytime I see grey I automatically cringe, lol. I'm usually not good with grey. But I LOVE the way this came out. I was trying to color Witchybella's hat like a candy corn and it totally did not work, hehehe. But that's okay because I ended up doing some shading on her entire outfit and putting the candy corn theme on her socks and I am loving the result! The shadow, pumpkin's face, straps on her dress, and her hat's stripe are all done up with my stardust pen so that they shimmer. This has got to be my favorite Halloween card that I've made :D

I also played with the #52 sketch challenge. This one was so hard for me!! I wasn't liking anything I was doing. I had a cup stamped out and paper pieced and tried to make a cute scallop circle around it for the circle element... just everything I was doing didn't look right. The ribbon is there to cover up a huge coloring botch and the flowers are there because my center circle seemed to completely clash with the card. I think it came out alright in the end, but boy was this one frustrating for me, lol!

Aren't they just too cute!! I love their huggy poses :D Lately though I can't get them to smile. Or Cait will smile now, but Audrey won't. I'm sure all the moms out there know exactly what that's like, lol.

Here is my Supergirl!! She did this little pose all by herself! I think tonight for their photos I'm going to have her wear her red headband. We'll see how it works out ^_~

And Audrey was Cinderella yesterday :D The dress is too big for her but she still looks so darling in it! She was in her Batgirl costume earlier but traded it out before we went outside for the Princess dress. I'm still wondering how in the world I'm going to do her hair tonight. I'm sure whatever we come up with will be cute though. Have a Happy Halloween everyone!!

I {heart} your Smile

Thank you so much everyone for all the support and online hugs!! It made me cry (in a good way :D) to feel so much love yesterday while I was struggling! I know everything will turn out alright. My hubby and I constantly remind each other of that, but it helps even more to read you guys telling me it will work out too and that I can and will get through this and anything else life throws at me. You all are such sweethearts. Thank you so very much for being a part of my life and lifting me up when I'm feeling down!



Supplies : Perhaps paper by Basic Grey; CS by CTMH; Buttons by My Minds Eye; Thickers letter stickers by American Crafts; Felt flowers Unknown (RAK); DMC embroidery floss

I was in the mood to use up some more of this paper and these pictures. This time I focused on Caitlyn's smile. The bottom photo was the inspiration for the entire layout. I caught this picture on film and just couldn't throw it out even though it cuts off the top part of her face. It got such a great part of her laughing smile that I saved it thinking I would be able to find a way to use it and I did :D It's almost 2 years later, but hey it's better late than never! Just a simple page using up the scrap piece from the Full of Joy layout. The longest part was the stitching. It took me forever to remember how to do the blanket stitch on the heart and I'm still not certain I did it right, lol, but it looks well enough ^_~ Have a Happy Thursday everyone!!

Some Scary News

Paul and I spent yesterday driving up to SLC for a couple of appointments and then coming back (a 5 hour drive each way for us). The first was his MRI and the second his regular follow up with the neurologist. What we found was a little bit scary. His MS is progressing right now. If you remember back in April I think I wrote about the relapse he was having, how he couldn't feel his legs very well and had to get a kind of emergency treatment (3 IV treatments over 3 days to help stop the inflammation in his brain). We found out a couple months later that he had a new lesion in his brain from that relapse.

Well he's been having a hard time and we found out why from the new MRI. He has another new lesion in his brain in addition to the one they found 5 months ago and his MS is active again. His neurologist is putting him on injection medication. We're trying Rebif and hopefully he won't have a bad reaction to it like the others he's been on. It's a subcutaneous injection 3 times a week and I am praying that it will help. He's been having such a hard time and every day it seems to get harder for him. To top it all off he needs to have a root canal and an extraction (which we have to pay for since we don't have dental insurance). So not only are we both stressed about what's going on with his MS, we are worried about this dental bill.

Needless to say I'm scared. We talked about what we would do if he wasn't physically able to work after getting his degree, the plans I had for going back to school, what we'd both have to do about jobs, budgeting over the next few months for his dental work, etc. We agreed, even if he has to take it slow, for him to finish getting his bachelors since he's worked so hard and is getting close now. I still won't be able to go back to school until the kids are both in grade school but I wonder if worse comes to worse, if I'll be able to handle working and trying to go to school, yet still be there for my girls and Paul. With Caitlyn's PDD and Paul's MS I just feel so frightened and worried for the future right now. I know everything works out in the end, I'm just having a hard time seeing that right now. I usually try to not post about this kind of stuff. I know most of you come for the art, but thanks for reading this. For some strange reason it helps me to get over feeling down and be mentally able to tackle those challenges ahead. All the art I post lately has been previously scheduled, so at least I don't have to worry about that, lol. Thanks for stopping by! Hugs to all my readers out there!

Silly Bird

Supplies : Laurel pattern paper line by Scenic Route; Thickers letter stickers by American Crafts; Flowers by Prima; Bigger Brads by CTMH; Brads by Queen and Co.

This was made for the Oct. Bonus sketch on Inspired Blueprints. I love the combo of photos and again here is another sketch that worked wonderfully with these lovely Scenic Route papers. In fact I ended up loving the papers, photos, and sketch so much that I had to make a coordinating page!! These pics of Cait are too silly. I journaled about how she is such a nut when I want to take pictures that it's nearly impossible to get her to take any 'normal' smiling pics anymore, lol. Anyway, thanks for stopping by! Have a Happy Wednesday :D

Shy

Supplies: Sultry Paper and Sugared Brads by Basic Grey; CS and Ribbon by CTMH; Small flowers by Prima; Large flower Unknown; Thickers letter stickers by American Crafts

Another layout using the Inspired Blueprints. This one is the #2 sketch and a superb one at that! I actually turned the layout so that it used horizontal pics instead of vertical ones, but I can totally see some of my vertical photos using this sketch as well and looking fabulous. I also added some journaling strips since most of my pages just don't feel complete without a bit of journaling. I'm not usually a shabby chic scrapper but the page was coming together so sweetly with that style that I just had to continue it! The papers started it but after I added the crocheted ribbon I just had to carry out the theme. This page is one of those that looks so much prettier in real life. There is a lot of soft dimension with the ribbon. Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great Halloweeny week :D Thanks for stopping by!

Color Challenge #36

More Halloween colors!! To play use 3 of the colors and send me a link to your creation so I can post it here. Don't forget to have fun!

Orange

Topiary

Sunflower

Pansy Purple
Black (optional)

Sparkle's Darling Whipper Snapper Ghost Card
Alanna's Cute Simple Spider Card
Kim's Fun Happy 'Owl'oween Card

My Sample:

Supplies: Discovery and Enchanted PP, CS, Ribbon anchor with brad, Spot on Backgrounds, Say it in Style, and Playful Flourishes stamp sets by CTMH; Orange brads and Ribbon unknown

I wanted to try and make a Halloween card even though I don't have any Halloween stamps. I picked up the small oval coluzzle template to try out these oval punch pumpkins I had seen before. The sketch is from SCS, SC199 horizontal version. The pumpkins were SO easy to make and I simply stamped the spot on background designs on them in orange and then ink distressed the edges. The faces were just free cut shapes from black CS though I was thinking felt would look so darling on it (I just don't have any). I had glued down all the panels before remembering that I wanted to put some of this ribbon on them so I had to improvise with one of the ribbon anchors and some brads. Overall just a fun card. Caitlyn loved it, saying the jack-o-lanterns were a mommy and a baby and that they were her friends, lol.

And isn't this little farm girl such a cutie!! This is one of Paul's old hats. I've never seen him wear it other than just fooling around and I was seeing if I missed any Halloween decorations in one of the storage tubs when Audrey spied this hat in there and immediately claimed it before running off to pretend to garden again. While she was wearing it she kept saying she was a boy, lol. I guess only boys can wear these kinds of hats ^_~ I tried to convince her that maybe she was a farm girl or a cowgirl but she said "Nope. I boy, Mom-Mom!!"

While You Dream and Blogger Photo Fix

Supplies: Perhaps paper by Basic Grey; Discovery Paper, Buttons, CS, and ribbon by CTMH; Rub-ons by Bo Bunny; Flowers by Prima; CS flower unknown (RAK); More buttons by My Minds Eye; Thickers letter stickers by American Crafts; Journaling pattern paper by CollegePress

This layout was done for the #1 Inspired Blueprints sketch. They just barely went live on the 1st and are looking like they will be a great sketch site to visit. A sketch is posted on the 1st and the 15th of each month and they are very 4x6 photo friendly so far. This photo is a 5x7 for the sketch but I saw one of the designers use a regular 4x6 pic in her example. In fact this sketch was perfect for this photo. I had taken only one (SO rare for me, lol) so I had a 5x7 printed out already instead of a 4x6 since I knew it would be the only pic on the page when I got around to scrapping it. I adore how this came out. The journaling is very meaningful - about what I wonder what Audrey will grow up to be, what she will be like and if she'll still be like how she is now, shy and loves animals. I tried to be a little poetic and I started off the journaling with the title and then ended with the title. It was a very fun layout for me to make, very out of my box but I think I did fairly well in still keeping this layout to my own style.

(EDIT:)So Blogger is still having trouble with the photo thing, but I've figured out how to get my photos back to posting the correct size. For those also using blogger that haven't figured it out yet here's what you do. You need to go into the edit HTML tab and find this section in the code for your each of your pictures in your posts: (This will be within an alligator bracket)

img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 600px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 481px; TEXT-ALIGN: center"

The problem lies in the sections I've marked red. Your numbers maybe different, but these are what determine whether your picture fits within the post or not. Just simply change the width to 400 and erase the height part so it looks like this:

img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center"

That will allow your photo to fit within your post and should keep the aspect ratio of your photo (it did with mine). You will have to check all your future posts as well since I notice it's doing it to the ones I scheduled recently but haven't been posted yet. When you preview your post and are in the compose mode your photos may look smaller than usual but the photos should publish to fill the body of the blog text. Kind of a pain in the butt, but at least it works for now :D Good luck everyone, and I hope that helps!

Full of Joy

Supplies : Perhaps Paper and Euphoria glazed brads by Basic Grey; CS by CTMH; Title and Journal tag by My Minds Eye; Orange and small pink flowers by Prima; Big pink flowers Unknown; Felt Flower RAK from Jenn

I got these Perhaps papers a couple months ago on sale and have finally started to use them. These ones matched Caitlyn's dress so perfectly that it didn't matter at all that they weren't Halloween colors. I changed up the journaling as well, making it about how often she wore this dress and the cute persona she adopted when she wore it, instead of about Halloween. This layout uses one of the new Oct Pagemaps layouts as well.

Caitlyn is not quite 3 in these (she's a winter baby), so about the same age Audrey is now! It amazes me to look back at these pictures and remember how quirky Caitie was even then and how different Audrey's personality is from hers at that same age. I remember Cait wearing this dress until it was rags as well. These poor things just don't hold up to Super Acrobat Princesses, lol. The great thing I find about Halloween costumes for us is that they double as dress up wear. So even if I spend $20 a costume, they are getting every last penny out of them and probably even more ^_~

Bella Color Challenge #51 and Blogger Problems

EDIT : So my photos keep coming out funny no matter how I try to upload them. It comes out fine in my preview of the post and my compose but the published version is all wonky. This just started today for me and I checked on the Blogger groups and it seems to be a widespread problem with many people either not able to upload images at all or this. So you can see this card here in my SCS Gallery. You can also comment there if you cannot on my blog since I've also read that another recent issue is that people can't comment on any of the blogs as well. Blogger has just been doing weird stuff lately. Hopefully they can get it fixed soon.

Supplies : Witchybella by Stampingbella (RAK from Sparkle :D); Enchanted paper, CS, Pansy Purple Brads, Inks, Markers, and Say it in Style stamp set from CTMH; Flowers by Prima

Sparkle RAKed me with a sweet Halloween card and some Witchybella and Trick-or-Treatabella images just in time for her color challenge which are Halloween colors. I had checked the colors yesterday afternoon and laughed because I thought I'd have to get really creative again doing Halloween without Halloween bellas. But later that evening when my hubby checked the mail I got a wonderful surprise!! So here is my first Witchybella :D I've already sent her to my lil sis since I hadn't made a card for her yet for Halloween (one of the reasons why the post is late since I spent last night getting cards written and ready to send out :D) and she LOVES the bella cards I give her ^_~

And here's the sweet RAK Sparkle sent me :D Thank you Sparkle!! Aren't those mice so cute!! Cait got such a kick out of them being candy! This is the first year I've really decorated for Halloween. I found a bunch of darling things at Robert's and for 75% off you can't beat the price!! Caitlyn had so much fun getting to decide where we were putting everything that she brought out her stuffed spider and black cats to act as decor ^_~ (they had gotten those a couple Halloweens ago). So when I opened the card Caitlyn was all excited squealing "Happy Halloween!" Kids make holidays so much fun, lol! Have a great weekend everyone!

The Artist in Me

Supplies : Pattern Paper by Scenic Route; Orange paper (Enchanted), CS, and Friendship Alpha Stamp Set by CTMH; Journaling prompt and transparency by My Minds Eye; Thickers letter stickers by American Crafts

This page was made using the sketch for the Think Pink Pagemaps challenge on Becky's Blog to use this sketch and scrap about something meaningful to you. Art has always been very rewarding for me and since I don't have any scrapbook pages about just me, this felt like a very meaningful layout for me to make to start out my own album. I hope one day when my girls are older they can see this and go "Yup, that's Mom... always creating!" ^_~

I just got these papers 2 days ago, lol. Robert's was having one of their great 40% off all pattern paper sales so I had to pick me up some of these wonderful graphic Scenic Route papers. Only problem is when I got home I wasn't sure how I was going to use them. I kept looking at them going "I love these but what do I do with them?!" lol Either I just didn't have my thinking cap on or I'm a nut, the latter probably being the most probably case ^_~ Anyway, this sketch provided the perfect solution for this paper, at least in my mind :D I got to showcase the kraft paper design and use some of the matching regular pattern paper without compromising journaling or pictures. I kept the layout very simple to not take away from the graphic on the kraft paper which I just love! Besides all the flowers I added made the layout look wrong and then more wrong, lol. Anyway, thanks for stopping by! If you want to play Becky's got the challenge going until the 27th. Even if you don't play for the challenge it's a great sketch so check it out!

Double Challenge Bella

I made this cutie for both the Bella #51 sketch challenge and for Laurel's Blog Candy. Her challenge is to make a 'Just Because' card using pink and ribbon. I am cutting it close as the deadline is the 24th of this month so you still have a couple days if you want to play :D I broke away from my Christmasy bellas for this one though I did try really hard to think of a way to incorporate pink and just because in a Christmas card, lol. I love the way this turned out with Daisybella though, so I'm glad I stepped away from the Christmas bellas for this. Thanks for stopping by and Merry Wednesday!!

Do you Believe?

Supplies: Enchanted PP, CS, Bigger Brads, and Sans Small Alpha stamp set by CTMH; Orange large flowers by Prima; Velvet flowers and sparkly centers by Petaloo; Glazed Brads by Basic Grey; Thickers alpha stickers by American Crafts; Chipboard (altered) by Rusty Pickle

I love that quote by Tinkerbell, "Do you believe?" It's one I've been wanting to use on a scrap page for a while now. I made a swap page with that as the title about a year ago, but the colors I used just didn't go with these pics so I decided to use it again. Caitlyn has an amazing belief in magic and God and I just adore it. The way she gets so excited whenever there is shiny dust or glitter makes me laugh and there's something so wonderfully precious when your small children say their own little prayers. That alone makes me believe that there is indeed magic in the world and I know Caitie is just filled with it!

I also just got this super cute RAK from Jena! Isn't it so pretty!! :D I don't have any cassettes but I knew almost right away what I could put in it. My sketch and charcoal pencils have been needing a nicer home and this was perfect for them! Thanks Jena, this was too sweet!!

Color Challenge #35

It's starting to get close to Halloween. I love traditional Halloween palettes or variations of them so for the next couple weeks we'll be doing some Halloween combos ^_~. This week I'm using Creme Brulee again, just love that yellow! To play use at least 3 of the colors and send me a link to your creation. Have fun!!

Goldrush
Creme Brulee
Sweet Leaf
Smokey Plum

Sparkle's Darling Tilda Bagalope
Jena's Cute Cupcake Card
Alanna's Hoppy Birthday Card
Kim's Lovely You're a Star Card

My Sample:

Supplies: CS, Brads, Creme Brulee Ribbon Collection, It's a Party, Spot on Backgrounds, and Say it in Style stamp sets by CTMH

I have been loving all the little trees that are popular lately. Since I haven't invested in any tree stamps yet (just can't seem to decide which ones I really want, lol), I thought I'd try and just make some trees using what I already have. I used the circles from It's a Party stamp set for the leafy part of the tree and then just free cut the tree trunks. I think they turned out pretty cute ^_~ Have fun with these colors this week and thanks for visiting!

A little moment to share

It's rare for me to spend more than a few minutes checking out other blogs. A year ago it was just the opposite. I'd visit and hop and soak in all the artwork and stories. Over time it's dwindled and it's gotten to the point where I'm only on the computer when I feel I need to be, so basically no surfing, hardly any shopping, and no blog hopping. Well it has been one of those rare moments where I can actually sit down and do what I want for an hour or so without too much interruption.

The girls have been entertaining themselves quite well in their room, playing ponies and now I can hear them pretending to cook up stuff in their toy kitchen. Yet instead of doing all the other things I know needed to be done around the house, I felt compelled to look around online. So I peeked around on some of the blogs I love but don't get to visit often. I started with The Scrappy Side of Me and from there found a new scrapbooking sketch blog called Inspired Blueprints. They are so new that they just debuted on Oct. 1st and only have 2 sketches up so far.

Somewhere along the way I read on one of the designer's blogs for the sketch site about this woman, Aleida Franklin. I never knew her, I had never seen her blog before, but I have been affected by what had happened to her. She died at only 41. You read through her blog and life was just happening like it always does. Posts of her art, posts of her darling kids... and then suddenly she's gone. Someone runs a red light and that's all it took to take her away from her life. She scrapbooks, she makes cards, she blogs, she has kids she adores, she takes lots of pictures and I thought, that could be me. I pondered what would I leave my girls, what would I leave my husband with if suddenly I was taken away?

The last post she made was about 9/11 and how she would never forget what happened that day in her own life and I wonder now that she's gone how many people will never forget her or the day they visited her blog to find out she had passed away. It's truly amazing how the internet connects us. I can be touched by someone I don't even know, someone who's left this world because her story reminds me of how short life is and how terribly unexpected it can be. Her story reminds me of why I scrapbook - to preserve precious memories. And more importantly her story reminds me to live each day in the moment, to treasure the memories I am making with my family first, and then to preserve them second.

As I look through my scrapbooks there is very little of me in them, though. How would my girls know me if something were to suddenly happen? They would know that I love them from all I tell them so in the pages about them, but would it be enough? There aren't stories about me in our scrapbooks except when I'm pregnant. And I don't journal about my life or my feelings or dreams. If I take anything from this, I want to be more active in scrapbooking about myself and more persistant about having my picture taken with my girls. I am always the one behind the camera and I think I've grown too comfortable with that position as the documentor and never the documented. I want to try and journal more and not just on the pages I complete. Life is short and I find that I remember plenty about myself even as I get older. It's the people close to me that need to know more about me and I hope I can start doing that a little better. Anyway, I thought I'd share this and let you all know that I love having you as readers (or just lurkers ^_~) on my blog. And thanks for reading my little moment in time today.

So Beautiful

Supplies: Pattern and Glitter Paper by Making Memories; CS, White Daisy Flowers, Waxy Flax, and Clear Buttons by CTMH; Glazed Brads by Basic Grey; Letter Thickers and Fashion Buttons by American Crafts; Rub-ons by My Minds Eye; Pink Flowers Unknown (RAK from Julie)

This was one of those pages that I had no idea what I was doing, I was just winging it. I did use a few of the same design ideas in this layout that I did in my "The Cat's Meow" though. Remember back in the spring I was doing all those layouts with that Making Memories set? Well here are the other papers finally :D More pictures of Audrey putting on makeup, lol. I can't help it, they are just too fun and cute!! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Bella Color Challenge #50

Supplies: Teapot Daisies from Stampingbella; Perfect Day PP, CS, White flowers, brads, and Say it in Style stamps set by CTMH; Bigger brad by American Crafts; Ribbon and felt flower unknown (RAKs from Linda and Jenn ^_~)

Sparkle picked Tulip, Ocean, and Spring Iris for the colors this week. She's hosted 30 color challenges now, yay!! If you haven't visited the Bella Forums you should drop on by, it's a blast! I've had this cute little teapot stamped out for a while now and this was just the color palette I needed to inspire me to finally color it in ^_~.

I love that my MIL gets the girls Halloween shirts each year. It's so fun for them to get these festive shirts that the moment they see them they are taking off whatever they were wearing so they can put on the new cute Halloween tops, lol. Here are Cait and Audrey looking cute together in this years shirts ^_~ And the shirts are sparkly!! Can't get better than that!

Bella Monster Bash Challenges!

So I got on the bella forums way late Wednesday night to see if the color challenge was up yet and what did I discover?. . . That there was a Bella Monster Bash that night!! lol I think I remember reading about it coming up but totally spaced when it was going to happen. Of course it doesn't help that Cait has been out of school this week for UEA so my days are all jumbled, lol. Anyway there were only 2 challenges so I did them yesterday morning. Here is the card for the first challenge : BLSC1 - to make a Halloween/Fall themed card without using ribbon.


Supplies : Twinkle Fairy by Chichibolie from Stampingbella; Green and Orange CS from Bazzil; CS and Black Brads from CTMH; Flowers by Prima; Sakura Stardust pen

This card is for my SIL whose birthday is close to Halloween. She loves Halloween colors so I thought she'd like this ^_~. I almost put ribbon on the card too, even though I usually don't use ribbon on my cards, lol. Highlighting done with the silver stardust pen, it shimmers a lot more in real life :D

Supplies: Bubblebella by stampingbella; Green and Orange CS from Bazzil; CS, brad, and swirl from CTMH; Rhinestones; Acrylic flower by American Crafts; white gel pen by sakura

And here is my project for the 2nd challenge : make a Halloween treat box. I don't have any Halloween bellas so I had to get a bit creative. I thought Halloween bath treats would be cute and Bubblebella was just calling me to make her tub into a cauldron, lol! I found the template for this acetate treat box on the SCS forums and just went to work. So imagine there are cute little green bath fizzies in there for Halloween ^_~ Here is the top and front view of the box. Enjoy and thanks for stopping by!!

Make Up

Supplies : Pattern Paper, Journaling Prompt, CS Flower Elements, and Transparency by My Minds Eye; Pink Texture CS by Bazzil; Col White CS by CTMH; Glazed Brads by Basic Grey; Red Dotted Brad by Queen Co.; Letter Thickers by American Crafts; Chipboard Brackets by Scenic Route

The facination with make-up starts at a very young age, lol. Caitlyn and Audrey have always loved watching me put on make up and most of the time I have to pretend to put some of my makeup on them too :D But this time they got free reign and boy did they ever have fun!! A pretty simple layout with paper blocking for the background and quartet placement for the photos, title, and journaling. Hope you all have a Merry Wednesday :D

Snowbunnybella Sketch Challenge #50

Supplies : Fruitcake Paper by Basic Grey; Red and Blue CS by Bazzil; Other CS, Nail head, and Say it in Style stamps set by CTMH; Snowbunnybella by Stampingbella; Liquid Applique; White gel pen and Stardust Silver pen by Sakura

This is my card for BSC50 on SCS. Wow can you believe the bella boards have done 50 sketch challenges already! It seems like such a short while ago when I first saw the bellas but when I think of it I first saw them back in November!! Almost a year ago! I remember getting my first bellas too for my birthday in December, lol ^_~. Snowbunnybella was among those first bellas I got. Onto the card, I used liquid applique for the first time, it's super fun stuff!! And I used my stardust pen again for some fun shimmer on her ties, boots, and buttons. If you've noticed, yes I have been doing all Christmasy cards for the new sketch challenges lately, lol. This gives me a chance to get my Christmas cards made without too much fuss ^_~

Pretty Princess

Supplies: Enchanted Pattern Paper, CS, Chipboard Oval Tag, and waxy flax by CTMH; Foam Letter Thickers by American Crafts; Flowers and Centers by Petaloo; Ribbon Unknown (cut by the yard from Memoirs)

I still have a ton of these princess pics from Halloween '06 so I decided to work on some of them. I remember having so much fun putting makeup on Caitie for the first time and then we put her hair up all pretty. Of course she took her hair out within minutes of me finishing but at least her makeup lasted a little longer ^_~ I have been using the Enchanted paper pack for nearly all of the Halloween pics that year so I carried on that theme with these pictures. Using another new Oct. Pagemaps layout. This one was really quick to put together, under 45 mins. For me and especially for a 2-pager that is excellent! Have a Happy Tuesday everyone and thanks for stopping by!!

Color Challenge #34

The colors this week are inspired by school. Whenever I think of the primary colors kindergarten and first grade some to mind. So I'm doing a play on that palette this week. Use at least 3 of the colors in a new project to play and send me the link to your artwork so I can post it here. Have fun!

Twilight
Cranberry
Creme Brulee
Brown Bag

Alanna's Sweet Thinking of You Card
Sparkle's Adorable Tilda Card
Jena's 8 is Great Card

My Sample:

Supplies: Cardstock, Twilight Brads, Creme Brulee Ribbon Collection, Nursery Bash and Life's a Jungle stamp sets by CTMH; Red Cardstock by Bazzil (I'm out of Cranberry :P)

I miss making square cards. The only reason I don't make many of them is because I like to be able to fit my cards in a standard invitation envelope for mailing, but I know I will be hand delivering this card to Caitie's teacher so I can get away without having an envie for it ^_~ I used Nursery Bash for the numbers and the little toucan from the Life's a Jungle stamp set because I always imagine him in primary colors anyway, lol. Have fun with the challenge, I can't wait to see what you all make!

Lil' Baker

Supplies : Orange and Paisley Pattern Paper and Polkadot Bracket by My Minds Eye; Juniper dotted and stripe paper, Cardstock, and Brads by CTMH; Foam Letter Thickers by American Crafts

With some cute pictures of my girls dressed up in costumes already for this year, I have totally been in a Halloween scrappin' mood. I kept with the theme of not using a classic Halloween color combination for my '07 pictures. I did run out of my other Minds Eye paper that I had been using but thought it would be nice to do something a little different and use some other papers ^_~ This layout uses one of the new Oct. Pagemaps and to tell you the truth, while putting this layout together I had a tough time believing it would turn out well. Until I got the journaling strips on the layout felt disjointed but boy did they make all the difference when they finally got placed on the layout! Some simple embellies and viola! Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!!

O Little Town, a Princess, and a Bat

Supplies: Fruit Cake Paper by Basic Grey; Colonial White Ribbon Collection, Bamboo Brads, and Bethlehem Stamp Set by CTMH; Textured CS by Bazzill

This card was made for the SC197 weekly card sketch challenge on SCS. Only after I finished making the card did I realize I jotted down the sketch slightly wrong as my big middle panel should be aligned more closely to the bottom and left. I drew it on my post-it at in the center, oops! But it still came out nice ^_~



And here is my pretty Princess and cutie Bat. We had finally found a costume for Audrey and when we got home she wanted to wear it right away. Caitlyn is going to be Super Girl for Halloween so when we found this Batgirl costume we just couldn't pass it up. It is SO cute. It has boot covers, a utility belt, the cape, mask, and even little wrist bands! They are going to be adorable as little super heroes this Halloween. Caitlyn is wearing a new Cinderella dress in this pic ^_~ Her Sleeping Beauty one finally got tossed (it was so ragged!!) so we let the girls have this one to replace it with. They were too funny posing and playing in their costumes. Caitie kept kissing Audrey and Audrey kept insisting she was Bat Man, not Bat Girl, lol.

In case anyone was wondering exactly how the dance layout came together so quickly (it was an under 10 minute layout), this is how I did it. The flower background paper was a scrap as was the photo mat paper (though I did have to trim this one a little bit). So I simply glued down the big strip on the plaid paper then matted the photo and glued that down. The flowers and journaling pieces are preprinted cardstock elements by My Minds Eye so I grabbed a couple that matched, layered, and the glued down (except the transparency, I used a big brad for that). A couple more regular brads for the mini journal tag and then putting on the letter thickers and all I had left was the journaling. Since these journaling prompts leave you with just enough to put a few sentences it was easy to fill. The mini journal tag holds Caitlyn's name and the date. Nothing fancy and everything was already precoordinated. Easy, simple, and quick :D

It's a Chichi Christmas

For both the sketch challenge and the color challenge this week I did Christmasy cards with my chichis :D

Supplies: Pia Puddingtop Chichibolie stamp from Stamping Bella; Fruit Cake Pattern Paper by Basic Grey; Juniper CS, Colonial White Ribbon Collection, and Pewter Brads by CTMH; Red Textured CS from Bazzil

Isn't she just darling! I made this card for the #49 sketch challenge on the Bella Forums. Jamie used an oval for the image but I don't have those cool nestabilities yet so I stuck with a regular ol' rectangle. I've been trying to shade a little more using my CTMH markers. I'm pretty sure I could do more if I actually splurged and got some watercolor paper but oh well, lol.

Supplies: Twinkle Fairy Chichibolie stamp from Stamping Bella; Cardstock, Silver Brads, Spot on Backgrounds, and Say it in Style stamp sets by CTMH; Stardust Gelly Roll Pen by Sakura

I was going to use Daisybella for this color challenge as I already have a few of her stamped out, but then I saw little twinkle fairy here and immediately 'midnight fairy' came to mind with these colors. As it turns out, the Christmas sentiment was an afterthought, but I thought the colors fit so well and this fairy is so versatile, that she could be sprinkling peace over the earth for Christmas ^_~ I loved coloring her in and I tried out my new stardust pen on her. I really like the results! Anyway, thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous Friday!!

Dance

Supplies: Papers, Transparency, Journal Prompt, Flower Element, and Mini Journal tag by My Minds Eye; Foam letter Thickers and Big Brad by American Crafts; Heavenly Blue brads by CTMH

This is such a simple layout and it literally came together in minutes. The papers are all from the same Dreams 2 set from My Minds Eye and the flowers and journaling prompt also come from the same set. No trying to match things up, they match already! I used some odd ball letter Thickers for the title. I keep reading that you shouldn't be afraid to mix up your fonts or colors with letter stickers so I decided to give it a whirl finally. Journaling reads "I love to watch you dance and twirl! You are so free and confident, I don't have to 'hope you dance'. I know you will!" Have a Happy Thursday everyone!

More Bellas

Are you all sick of me making Bella cards yet? ^_~ Just more catching up on the challenges. Now all I have is this week and then the sketch challenge #44 and I think I'm all caught up!

BCC46 and BSC46 with Tiny Tina Teacup - Tulip, Blush, Olive, and Heavenly Blue

BCC47 and BSC47 with Snowbunnybella - Cranberry, Blush, Key Lime, and Ocean

BCC48 and BSC48 with Daisybella - Autumn Terracota, Goldrush, and Orchid Bouquet

Thanks for visiting and Merry Wednesday!!

Totally Rockin' RAWR! face

Supplies: Whoopsidaisy Paper Pack, Classmate Alpha, Friendship Alpha, Friendship Large Alpha, White Ricrak by CTMH; Pink dot ribbon, Pink sparkle flower, and Flower Rhinestones by Unknown; Purple Flower and Center by Petaloo; Glitter Black Button by Doodlebug

A couple weeks ago it was pretty cold. Cold enough for Cait, Audrey, and I to all be wearing hoodies around the house. Since the girls looked so cute together I set them up to do a fun photo op on the couch. Caitlyn was hilarious, making tons of silly faces as usual and these two pictures were a couple of her funny growling faces. I knew as soon as I got the prints back that the Whoopsidaisy paper would match her sparkly pink hoodie just perfectly.

I used a Pagemaps layout for the base part of the page and then used my photos the way I wanted and added a journaling square which is one of my favorite parts of the layout. My favorite part (aside from the photos) is the single flower cluster that ties the two photos and journaling mat together. A super fun layout for a super fun girl!

Color Challenge #33

I had to fight using an 'Ice Creamy' palette for Sorbet, lol. This week wasn't really inspired by anything except that I liked these colors together. I'm still a little on the fall theme but Sorbet is nice and soft so I wanted a nice, soft combo to go with it's debut color challenge. To play use 3 of the colors and send me a link so I can add it here. Have fun!

Sorbet
Taffy
Garden Green
Bamboo

Alanna's Sweet Hello Girl Card
Ashley's Pretty Treasure Love Card
Sparkle's Gorgeous Butterfly Card
Jena's Darling 1st Birthday Cards

My Sample :

Supplies: Cardstock, Parchment Brads, Col White Ribbon Collection, and Treasure Life Stamp set all CTMH

I have been trying to think of a card to make for my Aunt for the past few days now and decided to go ahead and use this color challenge for her card. I just found out she has cancer and I haven't seen her in like 9 years. And it's only been the past few months that I've developed the actual beginning to relationship with my own mom (this aunt is on my mom's side), so I kind of feel the need to try and build a connection with my aunt with what is happening but at the same time I feel awkward about it because we have never been close or even in contact. Paul urged me to go ahead and send her a card to let her know we are thinking of her and praying for her so this is what I came up with. I wanted something pretty but simple. I hope she likes it and that it helps her feel at least a little better.