Welcome Winter

I am hosting the challenge this week at Lollipop Crafts and the theme: WELCOME WINTER Create a card/project with a winter theme.



I chose to do a layout of some winter fun from a couple of years ago. In Oklahoma we get snow but maybe one a year were it is enough to go out and play in. This was one of those times.
I've done some simple LO's lately but these are my favorite. Adding bling and embellies wherever I can. I'm not one for blank space. To me a blank space is screaming for something to be put on it. All the writing on this is from rub ons.

We have MelJen's Designs again as a sponsor this week. She has some adorable digi's. The winner of this week's challenge will get their choice of 5 digi's.
Now it's time to hop on over to Lollipop Crafts and see what the Lollipop Girls did for their winter projects.


I am entering this project in the following challenges:
AiFactory - winter
Aly's Sunday Challenge - your favorite christmas movie (White Christmas)
Catch The Bug - anything goes
Creative Belli - "R" embellishments (ribbon)
Crafts and Me Challenge - Dreaming of a White Christmas
Crafty Pad - Anything goes
Digi Doodle Shop's Best - Let It Snow
Flutter By Wednesdays - Open Challenge, must include a butterfly, fairy or angel (kids made a snow angel)
Lexi's Creations - blue and silver
Ooh La La Creations - inspired by a christmas song (Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow)
Order of the Opus Gluei - Let's Get Frosted
Paper Playtime - Snowflakes
Paper Romance - winter
Scrap-Creations - anything goes
Tuesday Throwdown - embellish it
Wags 'n Whiskers - snowflakes
Woodware USA - anything goes

Calendar Girl

This week at Lollipop Crafts the challenge is to create a project that is "Very Girly".

This one is very easy for me because I love flowers, bling and anything that is girly. I did a LO of Kaitlyn. She was in the Down Syndrome Assocation of Tulsa calendar for 2009. She has been in them before but this was her first full page feature. I just love how her picture turned out and wanted to do it justice in the LO. The sponsor this week is Fairy Knoll. The winner of this week's challenge gets their choice of 5 digis from their store.

Head on over to Lollipop Crafts and see what the other Lollipop girls did for their girly creations.

I am entering this LO in the following challenges:
Crafty Emma - think pink
Fairy Tale - anything goes
Freshly Brewed - 2 or more patterned paper
Iris's Spot - Anything Goes
Lili of the Valley - Anything Goes
Lil Red Wagon - Things in 3's
One Stitch at a Time - Fav Color
Our Daily Bread Designs - anything but a card
Paper Playtime - P.S. I Love You
Paper Romance - everything but the kitchen sink
Papers, Scissors, and Rocks - use a leaf on your project
Sassy Studio Designs - anything goes
Secret Crafter - sparkle and shine
Sketches In Thyme - Sketch

Birthday Fun - Pizza Party

This week at The Sisterhood of Crafters the challenge is Birthday Fun! Create a card, layout or project for a birthday.

I scrapped one of Kaitlyn's birthday parties. This was when she turned 7 and her theme was a pizza party. The girl loves pizza! Hey what can I say, so do I.
I found the invitations at a $1 store and then added some pizza stickers to them and just printed out the inside info and cut and pasted it over the text they had, I didn't want to fill out all the info by hand. I ordered a big cookie for the cake and then found these gummy pizza slices, also at the $1 store and added them on top the icing.

This is the third page of the layout. I seem to always have enough pics of the birthday to make more than just a 2 page LO. On this one I used a circle stencil to mark the spots where to put the brads. I can say for certain this is the most brads I have ever used on a page before, but I really like how it turned out. The white writing on the pictures is from rub ons. Love adding them in the blank space of a picture. Check out what the other Sisters did for the birthday projects at The Sisterhood of Crafters and then join in our birthday fun challenge.

This project is being submitted to the following challenges:
Alphabet - U is for Unused stash (I've had the pizza die cut and label for years)
Aly's Sunday Challenge - sparkly and glittery (rhinestones on page 3)
Corrosive Challenges - use some of your unused craft stuff (lots of of old brads)
Creative Belli - embellishments starting with B (tons of brads on page 3)
I Did It! - Keep it Simple (Just pages 1 and 2)
Incy Wincy - Autumn Colors
Lasting Memories Layout Challenge - Circles, squares or scallops
Paper Sundaes - Fall or Halloween Colors
Raise The Bar - something yummy
Scrap Fit - Use green in your project
Secret Crafter - anything goes
Stacey's Stamping Stage - poppy parade, rich razzleberry, wild wasabi, peach parfait, very vanilla (page 3)
Stampin' B's - Use food on a card or project
Sundays with Crissy - sparkly and shiny (page 3)
The Crazy Challenge - Friends Forever (Kaitlyn and her friends at her bday party)
Thoughtful Thursdays - letter 'C'. It can be chalking, coloring, cardstock.
Twisted Thursdays - Happy Birthday to Our Favorite Critters (check out my party animal son on page 2 with a face full of icing)

It's a Boy Thing

This week at Lollipop Crafts the challenge is "It's a Boy Thing".

Since I have a boy this one was easy for me. I did this LO of Austin and one of his many Boo-Boo's. I think boys and boo-boo's go together. He's had scraps, bruises, fat lips, cuts and black eyes. Knock on wood he hasn't had a broken bone though. This is a clean and simple LO using only paper and brads. I cut the title using the Cricut and then used a bandaid punch from my local scrapbook store. I also used 2 different circle punches adding a brad in the middle of them. I thought the colors of the paper went well with what he was wearing. Austin was probably about 18-24 months old in these pictures, he is now 7 yrs old. Yes, I'm behind on scrapping. ; )

The sponsor for this week's challenge is Limited Runs. The winner will receive 3 digis of their choice.
Now run on over to Lollipop Crafts and see what our Lollipop Girls did for their boy themed project.


This project is being entered in the following challenges:
Alphabet - U is for Unused stash (I've had the paper for a long time)

Allsorts - at least 3 punches
Artful Inkables - color combos: Orange and Blue
Corrosive Challenge - Clean Up the Dust (use something that's been in your stash forever)
Crafty Emma - baby bonanza
I Did It Creations - keep it simple
Mami Doodles - boys and the color red
Penny's Paper-Crafty - anything baby
Scrapping-I Did It Creations - it's a guy thing
Secret Crafter - anything goes
Stampin' for the Weekend - tag it
Wild Flower Patch - stripes

1-2-3 Recipe Challenge

This week The Sisterhood of Crafters is continuing the new challenges and this one is a 1-2-3 Recipe. Thank goodness no real cooking is involved. Cooking isn't something I enjoy but I did enjoy cooking up this project for you. ; )

The 1-2-3- Recipe is 1- Ribbon, 2 -Patterned Papers and 3 Flowers. I made another bookmark for my project this week. Since I made a couple for my son last week, Kaitlyn wanted her own bookmark too. So this one is for her. The 2 patterned papers were from scrap and I stacked the 3 flowers.
I had a hard time getting a clear picture of this. If you click on the picture you can see more detail.
I hope you will go over and check out what the other sisters cooked up and join with us on this recipe challenge. : )

Anything BUT a Card

After a small break and some changes in our challenges The Sisterhood of Crafters is ready to start challenging you again. This time we are focusing our challenges on trying to help you accomplish things that you need to get done. We want you to create something you need and will use. For the challenge this week you are to create anything BUT a card. So if you have a LO that needs to be done or gift that needs to be made go for it. Get R done!

I made a couple of bookmarks for my son, Austin. He is in 2nd grade this year and he is starting to read for enjoyment. He needed some bookmarks and I asked if he wanted to make him some. He said yes but make them something I like. I was going to make them boyish but then he said like "Tom and Jerry". He loves that on the Cartoon Network. So I went online and found these images and just printed them out. No coloring on this at all.
If you didn't notice the book that I'm using is "Shiver". I was told about this from another Twilight fan. They said I'd like this if I like Twilight that I would like this and I did. I have since bought "Linger" and started it but then loaned it out to my sister. Hopefully I'll get it back soon and can finish it.

The next is a corner bookmark. I found this spider image and just printed it off and did color it a little. Then I just glued it on on a corner bookmark that I made.

Now check out what the other DT's did at The Sisterhood of Crafters. They made some great projects this week.

Ling Love - Lollipop Challenge

For our 3rd challenge over at Lollipop Crafts, you are to create a project that is pet related.

I did a LO with my daughter Kaitlyn and our cat Ling. The paper is a line from My Mind's Eye. I used some sparkly stickers to make the title. They were pink and I took a Copic marker and colored over them to get them to a color that matched. It worked perfectly.
I probably need to journal a little bit on this to explain the title. My husand will get Ling if one of the kids is upset and say "Do you need some Ling Love?" Well, Kaitlyn likes to get Ling love a lot and will go and get it on her own! Not sure if you can tell but Ling doesn't really care for it at all. : )

Now go check out what the other Lollipop DT's did at Lollipop Crafts.

Baby Shower Blog Hop - Lollipop Style

Lollipop Crafts is having our first Blog Hop. It's kind of early for us to do this since this is only our second week running but we are doing it in honor of one of our own - Kris - who is going to have a baby. Well by the time you read this she may have already had him. We are making this a Baby Shower Blog Hop. Now if you didn't arrive here from Barbara's blog then be sure to start at the beginning of the hop at Lollipop Crafts.

For this hop/challenge we all made a baby boy project. I made a LO with my son Austin and his cousin Zakkary. It's a pretty simple LO but the boys were so cute I didn't need to do much to the page. It's hard to read the titles because of the glare but it says "Austin meets Zakkary". Then on the left side it's "X Y Z" and the right side says "BOYS". The stickers are blocks just like the paper behind the picture.Now we couldn't have a Blog Hop without offering a prize. Check it out below:

If you want to get in on this prize then be sure to leave a comment on each blog of the hop and a winner will be chosen at random.

Your next stop on the hop is Danni.

Stamp by Step - Guest Designer

I'm going to share a few more things that I made for Stamp-By-Step as their Guest Designer for July. This first one is of my daughter and it was a school picture from this past year. It's pretty simple design for me because I usually don't leave so much blank space but since I really liked the pattern of the paper I didn't want to cover it up too much.

"Kaitlyn"
Paper: Fancy Pants Clair de Lune
Embellishments: Flora Studios flowers, Ric-Rac Ribbon,
Flower Brad Accents

This next one is a friend of mine's daughter and neice. I loved this paper and wanted to use it for LO but did not have any pictures that would work for it. I was scrapping with my friend and she had these pics that went well so I scrapped this page for her.

"Cousins"
Paper: Fancy Pants Clair de Lune
Embellishments: Sheer Organza Ribbon, Twill Tape
Buttons by American Craft, Flowers

Covered Composition Book
Paper: Fancy Pants Clair de Lune
Embellishments: Flora Studios flowers, Ric-Rac Ribbon,
Twill Tape

I've got a few more projects that I will share next week. Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out all the cool products that Cheryl has over at Stamp-By-Step. : )

Ideas for Kids Schools Pictures

After my last post for the SSDS design team, I took a little break. But I'm back now and have several things to share that I did for Christmas gifts and never posted.

I have made these frames in the past as gifts to the grandparents. I take the wallet size of the kids school pictures and mat them with coordinating paper and slide into a double 5x7 acrylic frame. It's quick, easy and inexpensive.
The buttons and the flowers in the corners are attached on the outside of the frame but the rest is protected under the acrylic. So far these have been a hit when I make them for the family. This is good if you don't have enough of the big size pics to go around. It makes the wallet size look more substantial.

Kaitlyn and the Possibilites!

My daughter, Kaitlyn on the first day of school this year. She is 9 years old, is in third grade and has Down sydrome. This has absolutely nothing to do with scrapping or stamping but everything to do with my life. I just watched this video and had to share it. It's about 25 minutes long so be prepared if you are going to watch. This may give you just a little insight into my life some of the joys of having a child with special needs. Oh it has it's challenges too and kids with DS aren't all happy go lucky like people think they are but this video shows a very positive aspect of DS.

Back to School Challenge @ Simply Scrapping

Earlier this month at Simply Scrapping I participated in The Back School Challenge.

Guidelines YOU MUST USE EVERYTHING ON THE LIST

* Must use all 4 colors posted (You can add others if you want)

* Must use 1 recycled item (example something from a wrapper-for instance candy bar, school supply wrapper/price tag, product tag, I know you can think of something

* Must use a SHOE LACE from a shoe

* At least one paper clip

* The word School must be somewhere on the layout using chipboard letters, if you do not have chipboard, make your own letters using cardboard

* Must use one rub on

* Must use 3 buttons

* Must use 1 circle

* Must use 1 Brad

I thought this was kind of a hard challenge. I got everything on there from the list but not sure if I'm overly pleased with the results though. I almost forgot the circle so I punched out a small circle and put it in the middle of the "o" in school. Also the recycled item it a bottle cap, it had a button on it by the tag with the date. The rub on is "first day of". I think the rest you can see pretty well. The only product name I can tell you is the pp and that is from the Grade School Pack - Die Cuts With A View.

Those Eyes

I know Austin is my son and I'm totally partial but I just LOVE his eyes!! These pics were back in 2006 but I have been wanting do a LO that focused on his eyes. My girlfriends tell me he's going to be chased by all the girls when he's older. I sooooo don't want to hear that! : O That's just too scary to think about. He's starting 1st grad this coming week and I'm hoping the girl thing is quite a long ways away!

I used Basic Grey - "Marrakech" paper, stickers, brads and rub ons. On the chipboard letters I used "Faded Jeans" Distressed Ink as well as 7 Gypsies rub ons, a white Gelly Roll pen to outline the letters and added a few brads in the holes of the letters.

I've got to get all the entries figured out for the blog candy and will announce the winner tomorrow. At least that's the plan. So stay tuned.

Carving Pumpkins

Halloween was 6 months ago but hey that's not too bad for me. At least it didn't take me a year to scrap this. Believe me I have things from several years ago that I haven't even started on. This is sad to say but this was the first pumpkin my kids have ever carved. : O I know, bad mom! They got these pumpkins from their field trip from school so we ended up carving them the night before Halloween. They had a friend over (Isabel - the blonde girl) so she helped out with it. I just watched and took a ton of pics. It was my idea to have the pumpkin "throw up". hehe Austin loved it.

Scrappy Boy!

I have been wanting to make a mini album with toilet paper rolls. So I have been collecting a few empty tp rolls. Austin kept seeing them laying around and asking what I was keeping them for. He wanted one to play with and this is what he made. He had the idea to put the yellow on the bottom so the tag wouldn't fall out and also to punch a hole and put ribbon (he said string but of course I had ribbon) in the hole. I helped him cut the tag out but that is about it. He wrote "Army Army Army Austin!" on the tag. I asked him why he put Army on the tag and he said because he is Army Austin. I'm so proud of my scrappy boy!

Fun in the Sun

At the beginning of summer last year I purchased this blow up water slide for the kids. I got it off WalMart.com and it was only around $200 with free shipping to the local store and I just picked it up. I got it very early in the season and it's a good thing because they sold out when I went and checked again only a week or so after I ordered mine. This was a great investment and the kids used it a lot. This was the first day we put it up so
I had to take pictures of them playing. The paper I used is called Kaleidoscope and it's an old line of paper I had but I had the matching embellishments too so it made for a very easy LO. I only had to find a few more letters to spell out the title and that was it. This is kind of plain for me because I didn't use any ribbon, flowers, brads or bling. This summer I will be taking lots of pictures of them playing in our new pool. I'm so excited I can't wait for the warm weather! Have a great weekend everyone.

Chalk Full of Fun

These are not colors I would have normally put together but I like how it turned out. This was a challenge in one of my CafeMom groups to use these colors and listed some of the products that had to be used. That's when I like a challenge when well, it actually is a challenge for me and this was.
The kids were playing in the water outside then started playing with the chalk. They found out that if you add the water to the chalk on the sidewalk it spreads real easy. Then one of them and I'm guessing it was Kaitlyn started painting themselves. They all pitched in and helped cover each other. It did wash off but Kaitlyn had a slight pink color to her cheeks for a day or so but they had fun and I got some great pictures to scrap from it.

Hot Wheels

This is one of the everyday pages that I really don't scrap often enough. Austin is really into Hot Wheels Trick Tracks right now. This time I actually thought about getting the camera and taking pictures while he played. Kaitlyn was in there and of course had to get in on the action too. I love the saying on the sticker, it goes perfectly with this. "Serious: def. Deeply interested or involved."

Lil' Kickers - Austin playing soccer

I've been so bad about blogging and I have so much I want to share. I went with my girlfriends to the lake weekend before last to scrap. We do it about 3 times a year. It's so nice and relaxing but also productive. This is one of the layouts I finished while I was there. Austin was in soccer this past summer for just a short time but of course I have to scrap it! I used the Cricut to cut out the title but I don't remember which cartridge. The soccer balls down the sides are the felt borders from Queen and Co. All Star and CHAMP were a couple of vellum words I got out of a quote book. Then all the white words, stars, lines and number came from a Heidi swap frame kit. The little soccer balls, I found at Hobby Lobby in the kids craft section and are felt with an adhesive back. I used pop dots to attach them. Can't remember where I got the paper or what company it is but other than that I think I covered it all. I'm pleased with how it turned out. : )

Camp Barnabas

I did this LO from a sketch challenge over at CafeMom. I'm really trying to expand my style and make it more free and not so cautious. I have always taken forever to do my LO's, think and over think it, and make sure everything matches just right. I'm going to stop it! I find that the people work I really like isn't all matchy, matchy and perfectly done. So I'm starting to try and be less concerned about it and more creative.
This is a picture that was taken at Camp Barnabas. Kaitlyn and 2 of her girlfriends (both also with DS) went to camp there last month for a weekend. They had a blast! It is an awesome camp for children with disabilites. We are sending her again in February for another weekend and her girlfriends will be going again also. I'm going to do a 2nd page for this LO with more pictures on that one.