My Top 10 Favorite Layouts

Which one is your favorite?

Shooting Hoops

I am finishing up the childhood albums for my 30 year old sons.  This is a page for my oldest Matt's album.  He was always on the basketball team of his grammar school and was a decent player.  Wasn't he cute in his little uniform????  I used Little Yellow Bicycle's new collection "Get Your Game On" and this sketch:

I made the chevron design myself once my husband helped me figure out the correct angles that I needed to cut the paper in.  I was never any good in geometry and it showed today so thanks for your help Dave!  I have been involved in a year long challenge with some of the gals in Scrappin'-n-Chattin' (the scrapbooking Yahoo group I am involved in) It was a challenge to create a layout per week for 52 weeks and the prize is $210.  Well...I DID It!  This is my 52nd layout.  There are 7 or 8 of us that look to finish this challenge and it will be really exciting to see who wins the $$$$.  Good luck to everyone!

I am also entering this page in Little Scrap Pieces Anything Goes challenge.

And to all a Good Night.......

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is relaxing now that it is all over......

Me? All I can say is that I am REALLY not looking forward to going back to work on Tuesday....

SO EXCITED!!!!!!

I am soooo excited and can finally announce that I will be staying on The Paper Variety's Design Team through June of 2012.  This has been so rewarding and fun for me and I am very excited about some of the new challenges and things we have in store in 2012.  Challenges will be posted on the 1st and 15th of every month and will run for 2 weeks.  There are some awesome sponsors lined up with great prizes.  We will have guest design team members, tutorials and loads of fun and inspiration.  There will be something new nearly everyday.  The fun starts January 1st but join us everyday from now until them to meet out team members.  Check out all the details HERE

Christmas 2011

I am on a roll.  I am also on vacation and although my dad is visiting us from out of town I have been able to find little snippets of time to sneak into my scraproom and work on some projects.  Last night I used the Sketchy Thursday sketch from this week to scrap some pictures I took yesterday with my Instax camera.  I recently was gifted some Christmas Wishes papers by Bella Blvd. (thanks Abby!) and I couldn't wait to use these fun and whimsical papers on this layout.  Here is the sketch I used:

I am also linking this layout up to ScrapFit's Workout #58 -- Mini Pics and Wee Memories Anything Goes

DCWV Stack-a-Holic Challenge layout

I was able to carve out some scrapping time for myself during this very busy holiday season and create this layout with some beautiful paper from my DCWV  Mrs. Claus' Kitchen Stack.  The paper is beautifully glittered which is the perfect backdrop for these pictures of our home last Christmas.  Rest assured we have added even more lights this year. I used this sketch from DCWV (I flipped it to accomodate horizontal pictures):





I am entering it into their Stack-a-Holic Template challenge.  You can see the details HERE.



I also made this rosette flower with my Martha Stewart Score Board. My friend Theresa won it and had it sent to me ----how sweet is that? I have the sweetest, most generous friends.

I am also entering this at Wee Memories Anything Goes Challenge which runs until midnight on December 30th so you have plenty of time to link a project up.

Gift Tags

I made all my gift tags this year but did not take pictures of many of them (what was I thinkin'?)  These were 2 of my favorites so I took a picture of them and I am entering them in Challenge #38 over at The Craft Spot....Tag You're It; Wee Memories Anything Goes and Blog Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #10.

Gift Card

I found these little paper bags on clearance at Michaels for $1 and would have bought every package they had but unfortunately they only had one.  I just love them and plan on using them for all kinds of things and they are perfect gift card holders.  I just decorated one up for my daughter-in-law and I love the way it turned out.  I am linking it up to Little Scrap Pieces for their Winter-Holiday challenge and the Terrific Tuesday Challenge -- It's in the Bag over at Scrappy Moms Stamps (who's stamps I LOVE!!!)

Izzy Time

I have so many new collections that I haven't even touched yet and this was one of them.  I used Simple Stories Baby Steps to create this page with my oldest son Matt and Baby Isabelle or Izzy as we have all taken to calling her. This was taken in September when she was only about 3 weeks old and I hear she has really grown up recently and changed.  I am looking forward to receiving some professional pictures of both of the granddaughters that were taken last week in what my daughter in law Amy describes as the photo shoot from hell.  LOL

Having fun on the Slopes

I used my brand-spanking new Echo Park collection "Winter Park" for this layout.  I got it a couple of weeks ago when we went to Archivers in North Carolina while we there visitng Dave's brother and his family.  I love the trendy chevron pattern on the paper and the picture of my grandsons with their rosy cheeks is priceless.  I have been missing my family this week and scrapping their pictures helps me deal with being so far from them at the holidays.

I used this sketch from My Scraps and More:

I am also linking it up to Lasting Memories where their challenge this week is Winter Wonderland and to include snowflakes on your layout.

Believe

This is my grandaughter Isabelle's ("Izzy") first Christmas and I wanted to make her a special card.My good friend Suzanne gifted me this adorable Santa and I had to use him right away on Izzy's card.   Isn't he absolutely adorable??  I used the sketch this week from Card Patterns:

In addition to that challenge I am entering it over at Wee Memories Holiday challenge and Paper Sundaes Challenge #99 Anything Goes.  I am getting REALLY excited about the upcoming holidays now that I have most of my holiday tasks completed and I start my vacation at 3pm tomorrow....woo hoo!

Anything Goes Challenge at The Paper Variety

I cannot believe how busy this holiday season has been for us....in fact this whole year has flown by.  My six month term on The Paper Variety design team is coming to an end and sadly this is my last project.  I have had a wonderful time and loved getting to know all my fellow teammates.

Abby and Suzanne are awesome to work with and I would encourage you to hurry up and submit your application for the next 6 month term.  C'mon....you would be a great asset to the team and have a blast. Deadline to apply is this Friday December 16th.  See more details HERE.

For this week's challenge we have Anything Goes.  I decided to make a card for my grandson Cole with a little peek-a-boo window to see the cute lil' snowman.  Enter your project...it couldn't be easier this week as "anything goes"....just make sure your project includes paper.  You could win this:

Echo Park is one of my favorite paper companies and I have nearly all their collections but I do not have this collection.  What a GREAT prize....what are you waiting for? Check out the challenge this week at The Paper Variety and create, post , WIN!!!  It could be just that easy!

Challenges entered:

Paper Sundaes Challenge #99 Anything Goes

My First Owl -- Flashback Friday Challenge 18.0

Flashback Friday has a new challenge up -- to post a picture of your first owl project.  This is the birthday card I made for my husband's Uncle Charlie and I made it in October of 2009.  Sorry for the bad photo....that was before I inherited my awesome Canon from my husband and I was only using a little Sony Cybershot.  Who wants to join this challenge with me?  All you have to do is a new blog post featuring an old project and they offer great prizes -- so go for it and good luck!

Non-traditional color holiday card

Don't you just love something unexpected?  I loved making this Christmas card in some non-traditional holiday colors. And lo and behold one of the December challenges at Burlap and Buttercups is to do just that.  I used my Hero Arts Winter Messages stamp set for the sentiment and included a handmade crocheted snowflake that my friend Kim made me.  I dry embossed the background using the Cuttlebug Sledding folder.  This card was so stunning and quick and easy that I think I will mass produce them this holiday season.

Tags, bags, boxes and cards........

If you are a regular visitor to this blog you know by now that my sons and their families live in the midwest (Illinois and Indiana) and I live in Florida.  So this time of year I am shopping, wrapping, boxing and shipping my gifts to my family members.  I tried to make most of my Christmas cards this year and did pretty well.  We did order some picture Christmas cards this year to supplement my card making but I am proud of the 50+ Christmas cards I made.  I also am currently in the process of making my gifts tags which is something I really enjoy doing as well as decorating gift bags.  So here are some of my recent creations and wouldn't you know I was inspired by some of the current challenges out there as well.

Here are a few tags that I made for my husband's darling niece and nephews:

Challenges entered:

The Paper Variety Falalalalala challenge

Frosted Designs Music Challenge

My Craft Spot Challenge #36 Christmas Treat & Gift Packaging

Simon Says Stamp Photo Montage Inspiration (I was inspired by the sheet music)

Wee Memories Anything Goes Challenge

Merry and Bright

Start with a great sketch and some well coordinated supplies and making a card is easy peasy.  I put this card together in under 30 minutes.  The supplies were sent to me by my friend Abby as part of a challenge I mentioned last week.  I belong to this awesome Yahoo group called Scrappin'-n-Chattin'.  We had a cool swap this holiday season where we sent supplies to another gal in the group and she had to make a card out of the supplies.  I used this sketch from Frosted Designs:

I also used Glossy Accents on the chipboard poinsettia and I love the result.  It was the first time I used it but it will not be the last.