dear mr. grouchy

I have been doing the antsy pants dance dying to share this page with you. It's for the next prompt at Get Meaningful: Dear...

You are to write a letter to someone you would never otherwise write a letter to. I chose to write to Mr. Grouchy, the monster Nate says lives under the pillow. He said he was tall like Daddy and had a big mouth. My darling husband, with all of his room-clearing, police training happily went into Nate's room and swept it for monsters. Nate followed, and Mr. Grouchy has surfaced less since then.


I am so happy with how this turned out! For one, I love how the Monstrosity line from Sassafras Lass was just so perfect for this moment. No other paper would have done this topic justice!

Supplies: Sassafras Lass Monstrosity (pp), Making Memories (felt letters), Making Memories (sticker letters)


You have a couple weeks (until Oct. 13) to work on playing along with us. And, because I'm really interested in seeing who you would write a letter to, I am offering up a prize.

If you complete this prompt, link your page to Get Meaningful and then come back here and tell me you played. From the players' comments I receive here, I will pull a random winner for a RAK. Let's see those letters!

sketchy surprises... on a tuesday?!

What, it's not Thursday? Is that a new sketch?

Well, Heidi and I can't stop giving away prizes over at Sketchy Thursdays. This time we're gonna make ya' work for it, but still... it's a chance at a really cool prize. This sketch is brought to you by Scrapbook Kit Club. Up for grabs is a chance at their October kit, seen here. (Oh yeah, and it is filled with Halloween goodness!)

All of the details are over at Sketchy Thursdays, so head on over there to see what Heidi cooked up for this challenge. Here's the page that I did. (And it possibly gives you a hint at what the challenge may be...)





Supplies: Pink Paislee (pp), Sassafras Lass (small dot pp), DCWV (large dot pp), American Crafts (Thickers), American Crafts (bird cages), K&Co. (bat and rub ons), Making Memories (wire)


I can't wait to see what you all come up with. I absolutely love blog hopping to all of your sites when you play along with Sketchy Thursdays.

a quick mini

Ever have a sketch you love and just want to repeat it over and over again?! Well, this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch is definitely that one for me! Here's another idea on how to use this week's sketch.

The newest prompt over at Spunky Scrappers is Love of Books. My son is a big reader. He likes to take a book to bed with him every night, and he will memorize the story and read it back to you. He's done that since he could talk. This mini shows off some of our favorites.



Thanks for looking! I'm glad that I took the time to make this, it looks really cute hanging in the scrap room. This book also met the criteria for the week #4 challenge at Scrap Freak: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Check it out! There's still some time to play.


Supplies: Jillibean Soup (pp), Bo Bunny (pp), Sassafras Lass (chipboard), Luxe Designs (rub-ons), October Afternoon (journal spots), American Crafts (Thickers lettering), Making Memories (sticker letters)

a happy layout

I love me some birthday cake! Birthdays are the best, aren't they? My son turned three this past May, and we had a party at home for him. Plenty of family and friends came and it was a blast (for me as much as for Nate).

I did this page using a sketch challenge from Scrap Freak (again, if you aren't over there, you are seriously missing the boat!), the week 3 challenge from Scrap Freak (alter your lettering), and the September prompt at Scrap The Boys (a birthday page and journaling).

(This is the part where I say "Jazz Hands" and you all spit coffee at your monitors—you know who are, ladies!)



Supplies: American Crafts (pp), Sassafras Lass (pp), American Crafts (thickers), Maya Road (party chipboard), Tim Holtz Ditressing ink (on chipboard)


Thanks for stopping by! If you know me, you know that this layout was probably pretty tough for me to do (way outside my comfort zone with so many images involved), but I really do love how it turned out.

How are your Sketchy Thursdays layouts coming along? Can't wait to see what you all have cookin'. And... you may want to make sure you work on them now, because come Tuesday you may have something else you want to work on (I'm just sayin'.... lol, Heidi's gonna kill me for leaving all these hints!)

yeah, so excited to share this!

So, earlier in the summer I had submitted to Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine for their call for submissions for a grandparents feature.

And my page was picked! I was, and still am, so excited about this!

The feature isn't in the printed publication, but in their online feature section. Here is the link to that section, thanks for checking it out!

The layout I did is called "There's no one like Papa." Scroll down the page and you'll see mine showcased at the end of the page.

I'm a big fan of this magazine, so check out the latest issue (you can download it for free) and follow their blog.

Today is also a big day at Sketchy Thursdays! We are announcing ALL OF THE WINNERS from the past two weeks of giveaways. Did you win? You better head on over there today and take a peek!

AND... we have another great twist for you next week at Sketchy Thursdays. Make sure you are checking back in early next week (Tuesday may be a good day ... I'm just sayin').

i love this next sketch!

Have you ever just had everything click into place? I did with this page. When I made this new sketch for Sketchy Thursdays a few weeks ago, I knew it was going to be one that I loved. The ideas were churning right out of the gate. Here's the page I came up with.

The picture is from Nate's birthday party this past spring. His Dad was tickling him, and he was giggling uncontrollably (if you know him, you know the giggle that I am talking about). I'm so glad that I caught this moment with a picture.




Supplies: My Mind's Eye (pp), Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy (fussy cuts), Pink Paislee (sticker lettering), misc. button and twine.

Here's the next sketch! Scoot on over to Sketchy Thursdays and play along with us. The prize for the winner of this challenge is a sampling of goodies from A Scrappy Design.

Psssttt: Don't forget that winners will be announced tomorrow for all of the drawing we held over the past 2 weeks. Are you one of the lucky ones? Check in tomorrow for that announcement!

can hardly wait to show you!

I did my all-time, most favorite page this week for the next Sketchy Thursdays reveal. Here's a little snippet of it. I think I may frame this one!

If you haven't played yet, get your entries in for this week's challenge by 11:59 p.m. (EST) tonight. The sponsor this week is Evalicious. Read more about Eve and her store here. Trust me, you don't want to pass up a chance to win some of these amazing items!

card mix and match and more giveaway news

Hello! Today I am sharing with you some cards I made this weekend. They are made with this week's SPCC challenge in mind as well as Scrap Freak's September class: Card Mix and Match. Combining these two challenges was pretty easy to do with this amazing paper from Basic Grey.

If you are new to my blog and are coming here from this week's Scrapbooking.com newsletter ... HI, happy to have you here!

I run this blog as well as the Sketchy Thursdays weekly sketch challenge site. I hope you'll stop over there and check it out. Today we are giving away a set of Unity Stamp Co. stamps as well as having extended yesterday Cosmo Cricket giveaway. Head on over there to play and have a chance to win!

Before you go, though, leave a comment here or sign up to follow. I'd love to hear you stopped by!

giving away some more Cosmo Cricket!

We're still in giveaway mode! Head on over to Sketchy Thursdays for a chance to win these two packs of paper goodness from Cosmo Cricket. One winner will receive both Mr. Campy and the new Jolly by Golly lines.

Good luck! Enter here at Sketchy Thursdays!

my scrapjacked collection

Here I go, combining challenges again! Pink Ninjas is up with the prompt: Collections. Now, whenever I'm asked what I collect, I always first think 'scrapbooking supplies.' True enough, but what I actually hunt for within that are buttons.

I love the buttons that I have found at antique shops and flea markets. A whole bag of fabulous buttons for $2... um, HECK YEAH I'll take them!


Scrapjacked! this week has some wonderful inspiration from Vanessa. You can see her layout here. Play along over there, the creativity is mind blowing! My buttons page is a jack of Vanessa's page.

And (I'm not done yet) a site I just found out about is ScrapFIT. The new prompt is to do a page without people. This prompt helped me come to my 'buttons' conclusion. The first idea I had for the collections challenge at Pink Ninjas was going to be that I collected hugs from my son (...cheesey, but adorable).


I think this turned out pretty well, and I'm happy that I have another page for me (I don't do a lot of those). Thanks for looking! I have to say that this is one of my favorite pages lately. So girly for the girl that usually scraps a boy!


Supplies: Pink Paislee (pp), Pink Paislee (sticker lettering), Tattered Angels (tag), Jenni Bowlin (chipboard), Creative Chaos (journal spot), Half Full Martini (scallop spot and phone fussy cut), Prima (pearls), misc. ribbon and buttons, twine

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Don't forget to check out Sketchy Thursdays today! There are more Unity Stamp Co. freebies, as well as the sketch sponsored prize from Evalicious this week. We'd love to have you join us over there!

10 things i wish...

Are you playing challenges with all you've got? Are you playing everywhere you possibly can, and be inspired by the fabulous paper artists that you meet everyday? Does the idea of more than one challenge a week overwhelm you, but you just want to work them all in?

OK, well that describes me! I want to play everywhere and soak it all up! I love learning from and playing with all of the wonderful women that are out there in this industry.

So here is the crazy "I CAN'T BELIEVE I COMBINED 3 PROMPTS PAGE!" I can combine a sketch with a color challenge and then throw in a prompt. That's easy for me. But three prompts... whoa!

This page was built for:
• Get Meaningful: I WISH...
• The Studio Scrapbook 101: Summertime topic with a die cut page and long title
• Memories Always - Forever: Top 10

With all of that, I got this "10 THINGS I WISH WE DID THIS SUMMER" page. TA-DA! (jazz hands...)



Do you like the felt and button flowers on this page? They are made by Eve at Evalicious on Etsy. She is the sponsor this week at Sketchy Thursdays. We are so lucky to have her sending a prize pack to one lucky winner next week. All you have to do is play along with this new sketch. A winner will be randomly drawn from the players next Thursday.

Head on over to Sketchy Thursdays! Today we're giving away stamps from Unity Stamp Co. as part of our mega launch celebration.



Supplies: Little Yellow Bicycle (pp), Cosmo Cricket (bike), Evalicious (embellies), My Mind's Eye (tree), Making Memories (small lettering), American Crafts (Thickers lettering and flair), Karen Foster (white lettering), Creative Chaos (journaling spot)

9.17 reveal for sketchy thursdays

Happy Thursday! Today is reveal day for the next Sketchy Thursdays sketch. Here is the page I did for this week's reveal. I was piling on the challenges again!

This page is from the Scrap That! kit that I made for their September Challenge. For more info about that kit and the challenge, check out this post here. I also used the Spunky Scrappers prompt: What Makes You Dangerous?!

If you can't tell, this is a picture of the tattoo on my foot. It is two stars, one solid and one an outline with a 'n' in the middle (for my son: Nate).

My tattoo makes me feel dangerous. I'm an artistic person, but am far from having ever been a trouble maker, so having a tattoo sometimes feels like a complete contradiction to the persona. And... I have two of them! I also have a bunch of lilies on my right shoulder.



Supplies: Dotted Swiss (cardstock), My Mind's Eye (pp), Hambly (pp), Making Memories (flower), Creative Choas (journal spot), Pink Paisless (letter stickers), Misc. buttons, pearls and twine

Here's the next sketch! I hope you are playing along with is over at Sketchy Thursdays! It's getting pretty fun over there.

wanna win some precocious paper goodies?

How could you pass up the chance to possibly win some of these wonderful items from Precocious Paper?! Two chances to win... check out the details here on Sketchy Thursdays!

Don't forget to get your entries in! Here is the sketch for this week and entries are being accepted until 11:59 p.m. (EST) tonight. Thanks for playing! A new sketch will be revealed tomorrow as well as the next sponsor.

Oh, and I don't think I ever shared my reveal for this sketch! We were so busy with the launch of the new site, I forgot to share! Here's my page for this past week.




Supplies: Cosmo Cricket (pp), Vintage Plum (pp), A Scrappy Design (journal spot and polaroid cut out), Sassafras Lass (edge), Pink Paislee (pp strip), American Crafts (Thickers lettering), and Spiderman images are cut from Nate's new pajama packaging.

just a peek at what you can win today!

Love Prima? How about Maya Road and Upsy Daisy? Check out Sketchy Thursdays today to be entered to win a prize pack of Prima, Maya Road and Upsy Daisy product from Flamingo Scraps. You know you wanna!

i'm freak of the week!

So excited I had to blog twice today! (Click on the above image to read my interview.) If you aren't playing over at Scrap Freak, you are missing out! Thanks ladies, for making Scrap Freak such a fun place to play and share!

giving away some new Cosmo Cricket!

Check out Sketchy Thursdays today!
Cosmo Cricket's The Boyfriend and Earth Love lines are up for grabs!

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