Tee ball and {sketchy thursdays}

I love this page! Just love it! Ever have those pages that you just love as you are making them—getting excited with each added piece knowing that it is just going to be fabulous?! Well, that is this page for me.

The pictures are a compilation of Nate's entire tee-ball season. They had some practices before they had uniforms and a few rain outs, but of the games that were sunny, I managed to snag a few really good pictures.


These pictures show Nate's intensity and just how serious he is about playing ball. He really did hustle for every play, hit the ball with everything he had, and cheered on teammates with gusto. I am so proud!

I used the current sketch challenge at Sketchy Thursdays. We have a double-page sketch for you, but as we always say, take what you can from it. If you make a single page, just let us know what part of the sketch you used when you write your blog post and share it on the Mr. Linky.


This is also one of the pages I was talking about earlier this week for Scrapbook Circle. I added in the baseball stickers and journal spots, but all the rest of the page is from the July kit.

Thanks for stopping in today. I know we're all getting into the swing of summer, so I really appreciate you taking the time to visit here. Hope to see you playing along at Sketchy Thursdays. This week is sponsored by Inspired to Scrap with a FABULOUS prize!!

Stop back tomorrow—I'll announce my i-top winner! :)

Holiday pages & journaling ideas

Hello there! I made these two pages for the December Journaling Class at Inspired to Scrap. Now that the class is over, I can share the work I did for those lessons.

My first lesson was to use multiple spots on a page to tell your story. I used digi spots (which I made and were an exclusive download for the class), punched out handmade spots, stickers and a notebook-style spot.

I even used two different colored pens to show that there were two ideas to the journaling.


This next page was for the lesson on using something else for inspiration, such as music, news, poems, etc. I used the song "All I Want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey. I put my headline digitally onto the photo before I printed it out. And I journaled on a die cut area.



I'm excited to be able to play along over at Inspired to Scrap now that my DT term has ended. The classes are well put together and packed full of fun for 15 days each month. If you want some guidance and direction to your scrapbooking, I recommend these classes.

Thanks for stopping to see my pages today!!

Snowman soup

Here is a great little idea I got from Valerie at the Inspired to Scrap site. She posted Snowman Soup over there and I instantly saved it to my brain for Nate to make for his Pre-K teachers.

He did this all on his own! I cut the paper with the border punch and stapled the paper to the bags, but he did the rest—filled the bags, wrote the tags and did the stickers. (PS: The kraft tags are from {embellish*ology} and they are fab!)

If you need a quick gift for a party this weekend, these were super fast to make, even for a four year old!

And, today is Christmas Eve! I love today—Nate gets to see Santa tonight at our family party. This is also the first Christmas Eve that my husband has to work. Big bummer! But he does have Christmas Day off this year, so that's good. Last year he worked Christmas Day, so this is OK. Compromises, right?! :)

If you celebrate the season... Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!

Inspired to Scrap news and opportunities

There's some nifty things going on at Inspired to Scrap that you may be interested in.

First is that the Journaling Class started this past Wednesday with my post on journaling spots. I have designed and offered up an exclusive downloadable journal spots PDF for those taking the class. It's available in black & white as well as color.


This is a sneak of my sample page for the first day's challenge. Lots of goodness going on here! And it's not too late to join the fun. Head over to I2S to sign up for this month's class on journaling.

Second, there is a Inspired to Scrap Design Team call. I have enjoyed my time with Stacey and the I2S gang, and I believe you would, too.

The details are below:
Inspired to Scrap (www.inspiredtoscrap.net) is looking for designers!! No experience on a design team is required and everyone is encouraged to apply. Please join our message board so we can get to know you. The term will be for 4 months (January-April 2011).

Designers will be asked to help plan and create sample layouts for classes, teach techniques, create blog posts, participate in challenges, post regularly on the message board, and promote Inspired to Scrap on their blogs and elsewhere.

As a thank you, designers will receive the equivalent of two kits, free classes during their term, one free class following their term, and they will be highlighted on the design team page of the website.

Please submit the following information to stacey{at}inspiredtoscrap.net by December 20, 2010 with “Design Team” in the subject line.

1. Your name, mailing address and email address
2. Your blog and/or a link to your online gallery
3. A list of online communities you are active in.
4. Two layouts plus an additional project (layout or altered item) that reflect your current style.
5. A blurb about why you’d like to be a designer and what you can bring to the team.
6. Would you be willing to serve as a guest designer if we don’t have room for you this time as a regular DT member?

Thanks and we look forward to getting to know you and seeing your wonderful work.
Call is open to scrappers in the U.S. and Canada. Thanks!

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I hope you'll consider applying! I was excited to be able to plan so many great ideas and follow through on them in a class-style setting. It was a great experience for me (thanks, Stacey!!!)

I hope everyone is set to have a wonderful weekend! What do you have planned?! Anything scrappy? Holiday fun? Have a good one!!

Christmas memories for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Today I'm sharing with you my latest Sketchy Thursdays page. And don't fret... it isn't really a double page layout. I just decided to go all out and make 2 pages using the same sketch.

And it is a FAB sketch too! Make sure to head on over to Sketchy Thursdays to see the sketch and meet a brand new sponsor. I'm sure we'll all find some quiet time this week to whip up a quick page, right?! :)



These pages were made with the December Scrapbook Circle kit, which goes on sale Dec. 1. And boy... will you want this one!

There is such variety in this next kit. If you like pink, red, black... bright colors, muted colors... classic or fun patterns. Either way you trend for the holidays, this kit has it all! And wonderful embellishments in the kit, too.


Inspired to Scrap is running great challenges in November, and I made this page with Valerie's collage challenge in mind. I made my photo collages in Photoshop and printed them out on my home photo printer (Kodak ESP5).


These cutie Maya Road chipboard banners aren't in the Scrapbook Circle kit, but I had to use them (you'll see Heidi's sketch and know why!). They are 2 pieces each. The bottom one is sprayed with silver mist and then the top one is covered with papers from the Scrapbook Circle December kit. Follow it up by lacing them together with thin pink ribbon and the look is complete!

If you are celebrating Thanksgiving today, I send you my best!! Happy Thanksgiving from my family to yours!! Have a great one, and thanks for stopping by today.

Super Nate!

Another long-lost page I hadn't shared yet. I made it for one of the Fall Crop challenges at Inspired to Scrap. It was a lift of a layout from the Gallery at I2S.

These pictures are from when I took Nate to meet Iron Man at the Strong National Museum of Play here in Rochester. The kids were able to make their own capes during the event. Nate still has his cape and wears it pretty much every day—now having added a mask and a sword to the ensemble.



I hope you all are having a great day! And thank you to everyone who posted congrats and well wishes on my blog on Monday for my pages getting pubbed in CK. I was overwhelmed by your comments and thank you so much for taking to the time to share that moment with me!!

sketchy thursdays, digi and holiday inspiration

I've found that recently I have been playing along with Sketchy Thursdays digitally. I tell myself that it's to help fill the void of not having a dedicated digital artist on the DT (Shannon I miss you!!!!). And even past DT member, Antonia, got in on the digi there for a bit.

But in all honesty, it's just super fun to digi-scrap. There is so much out there now to choose from, it's just as much fun to shop for digi scrappy stuff.

I hope to see some of you playing along with us at Sketchy Thursdays this week. Check out the site for the sketch from the amazing Heidi, see the DT's inspiration for this week, and check out the prize from Pixiepetals.

Digi Supplies Blue graph paper: Marie Stones, Frames: BrandyBuffington 2PS, Paper, tie, journal spot: DS Lucky Me, Paperclip numbers: El Hernandez 2PS, Marie Stones Ladybug: red button and red stitching, Michelle Underwood: blue stitching, tag.

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For the month of November at Inspired to Scrap, the DT is posting nifty holiday ideas. This past Tuesday, I posted how to make a wreath ornament using your Prima stash.


Love to buy those pretties but never get around to putting them on all of your pages? Here's one way to use that stash (and your glue gun) in getting ready for the holidays.

I would love to see some of you all pop on over and join us. I promise... we don't bite! :)

Thanks for reading my blog today!!

A vintage card gets new life

When I saw that Amanda P. and her shop, Crafty Paper Girl, was the sponsor at Get Sketchy this week, I had to play along. I mean... her felties are adorable!!!

I'm here to show my support for her awesome shop and encourage you all to get on board with this super sketch challenge. Which... is also awesome! (Great sketch, Bree!)


It's hard to tell in this lighting, but the Parisian Anthology papers in the background of the card were misted with Maya Mist Silver Plated Metallic. I know those of us using these papers are all calling out how we colored them, so I wanted to be thorough with my blogging. :)

The angel is from an old Christmas card set. I highly recommend saving old cards. They make great vintage pieces for cards and pages.

The PP paper, tickets, and the mist can all be found in the Inspired to Scrap November kit-Glittered Wonderland. Which is awesome, too!

Thanks for reading my post! I have a bunch of card posts piling up as I'm busy-busy with the cards right now. I hope you can get some ideas from them!! :)

pumpkins, friends and hay rides oh my!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone is having a good start to their week.


If you know me at all, you know I rarely make double-page layouts but that when I do I love the finished project. This page is no exception. I made this to go with one of the sketches from last month's 15/15 Sketch Class for Inspired to Scrap.


These pictures are from a trip to a pumpkin farm with my dear friend, Theresa. Not only is Theresa one of my bestest friends, but she is also one of my biggest fans when it comes to my cards and layouts.

I don't think she's given anyone a store-bought card since I offered to start making them for her. In fact, later this week I'll be showing here on my blog a birthday card I made for her last week. :) (Thanks, T.!!)


At the farm, we took Nate on the "semi-haunted" hayride. On the trails were ghosts, skeletons, spiders, scarecrows, witches... lots of the scary stuff. Nate seemed to love it while we were there, and even thanked the hayride driver as we got off, exclaiming that he had a great time and it was so fun!

However, when we looked back on these pictures and went to make the page, he changed his tune and said it had been scary. Silly boy! :)

Thanks for reading my blog today. So, what are you working on this week? Any great challenges I can check out? Link 'em up in the comments section!

October was super busy!

October was my first month working with the team at Inspired to Scrap on making a 15-day, 15-sketch class. And wow, was it a fabulous experience!

These are only a few of the pages that I made for the I2S Sketch Class. Actually, these are all of the 8.5" x 11" pages that I made. They go together as a collection of fall pictures and events, so they match as a series of pages in Nate's book.


I especially love this first page. I cut corduroy American Crafts flowers in half to make them look like clouds. Then I traced the outline of a different flower onto matching pattern paper and made coordinating clouds to layer. As you know... I love me some clouds! :)


This page was fun title work and use of older rub-ons I had been saving. The brick rub-ons are from Basic Grey Archaic and the stitches are from Hambly.


This page was made with some of last year's Halloween collections from Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey. Again... I was hoarding it. So glad I finally used these.



And this page was so fun to make. These are Nate's two best friends. We were at the Pre-K pumpkin field trip, and these 3 were hamming it up something fierce for the cameras. They are definitely all boy!! I had fun with the embellishment clutters and torn paper on this page.

So there you have it! Most of what I was doing in October that I couldn't share with you. I also have a double-page layout from the class that I want to share later this week. It's one of my all-time favorite pages—can't wait!!!

The November Challenges and prizes are posted and ready at Inspired to Scrap. I would love to have some of you join us over there.

Thanks for stopping by my super-long blog post today. :)

Glittered Wonderland kit

The Glittered Wonderland kit from Inspired to Scrap is gorgeous! It is full of wonderful, glittered and non-glittered papers from My Mind's Eye and Pink Paislee.

The flocked alphas, as well as the second tiny alphas and a third set of alphas as banners help to make the kit perfect. I just love a kit full of lettering!


If you missed it before, here was my post a few days ago with the details on the Glittered Wonderland kit and how you can reserve one for yourself. (And a steal of a deal to score the Fall Kit, too!)

I just have to say that I loved how well the Maya Mist covered the chipboard pieces. It dried quickly, wasn't too messy... I highly recommend it!

And isn't the handmade red flower from Stacey at I2S just wonderful? The perfect addition to the kit. I even put a fine detail of silver mist on mine for sparkle.


Here I made an altered 4x6 picture stand using pieces from the kit. Once I have the perfect picture, I'm going to stick it under the embellishments and onto this framed mat.


This little cluster of embellies just makes me smile! So sweet, love the white flower and the crystal trinket pin.


There you have it. Some of my projects with the Glittered Wonderland kit from Inspired to Scrap. Let me know if you scoop one up!!!

PS: The new Nov. Challenges at I2S are live on the forum. Hope to see some of you playing along over there!!

great kit for holiday and everyday available now!

The Nov./Dec. kit for Inspired to Scrap is now available for purchase!

This kit is chock full of wonderful papers from Pink Paislee and My Mind's Eye. If you love glitter, this kit—Glittered Wonderland—is for you! There are also wonderful Maya Road chipboard pieces as well as mist.


And I have to say, I love how well the mist covers the chipboard. It dried quickly and had full coverage—very pleasantly surprised.

There's also a really great combo deal if you get this kit and the first kit right now in the store. (There's only a few left of the first kit, which you saw my work with HERE on this post.)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Any plans for Halloween? Would love to hear about them!!! Who's dressing up with their kids?

pun'kin painting, a kit to win and a new sketch

Hello! I'm so excited to share this page with you! A little while before I was on the DT for Inspired to Scrap, Stacey scooped up a week to sponsor Sketchy Thursdays. Little did I know that by the time the sponsorship came around, I would be using the very kit she is giving away on ST to make that week's reveal page.

I just love when things work out like that!

This latest Sketchy Thursdays sketch is posted and ready for you to play along. And I know you'll want a chance at the I2S Nov./Dec. kit up for grabs. As well as the choice of class prize, too. In working with Stacey, Valerie and in Oct., Angie, to build the classes, I know this is an opportunity you'll want to scoop up.


You have until 10 p.m. (EST) on Wed., Nov. 3 to link up your entry to the Mr. Linky on the Sketchy Thursdays blog. Scoot on over there to see what the DT has for you this week. Fabulous, as always!!

Inspired to Scrap fall kit

Happy Monday!

When I got the "Monster"ously Fun fall kit from Inspired to Scrap, I was immediately drawn to the bright colors and fun patterns. Rumor has it there are still a few left, I believe, so if you'd like to get one all for your very own, head on over to I2S and claim one of your very own!


Here is a page I made using the kit. I used this past Thursday's Design Dollies sketch. Check it out!! Those girls have some great stuff going on over there.



And I have to tell you about the journaling. I was having a mental block, so I asked Nate, "What do you love about your Legos?" His answer: "It's when I get to play with Daddy." Melt my heart!

I also made some cards with the kit. This is a birthday card that's about to be mailed today. Can't say whose... he may read this post, never know! :)


And this card will probably be for Thanksgiving. The I2S fall kit has fabric swatches, sheets of Kraft, great textures and flowers. I think this card does a great job of showing the feminine potential in the kit aside from the fun Bella Blvd and Jillibean Soup that's in the kit.


There you have it! Hopefully if you're in the market for a kit you'll consider one of the remaining I2S kits. And this week I'll also begin showing you the Nov. kit. If you love glitter, misting, My Mind's Eye, Holly Jolly... (just as a hint)... this is the kit for you!

Have a great Monday!

9 weeks to go and a sketchy peek

There are only nine weeks until Christmas! Fewer if you are mailing your cards and gifts. YIKES!

I've been working on holiday items for the gift shop that sells my handmade cards and gifts, so here are some pics of an ornament and tag set I have available for sale at La Bella Mela.



And here is a cutie card I made for the Inspired to Scrap Weekend Warrior Card Class a few weeks ago. The reindeer image is downloaded from Squigglefly.



And speaking of Inspired to Scrap, below is a sneak peek at a page revealed over the weekend for the Sketches Class. There are exclusive Sketchy Thursdays sketches there are well as 3 other sketch artists making some amazing sketches. I have the print out of all of them and WOW! If you need sketches this is the place to be.

We continue through until the end of the month, so there is still time to join us. Click here for details about the class. We've revealed sketch #4 today, plenty of time to still jump in!


Hopefully I didn't panic anyone about the pending holiday season, but rather inspired you to make some simple and fun handmade items. If you are making something for the holidays, I'd love to hear about it. Leave a note in the comments section!

Halloween and Spooky Town

Hi all! Today I am sharing a card I made with the Scrapbook Circle Spooky Town extra October kit. I absolutely love this kit (and it looks like it's already sold out). I can't seem to put it away—it is perched on the side of my desk and I keep going to it project after project.


I made this card using a sketch from Inspired to Scrap. The Weekend Warrior Card Class went great last week, and the Sketches Class that starts this coming Friday promises to be just as awesome. Trust me—I have all of the sketches already and they are awesome! I think I'll be going to them over and over long after the class is done.

Join us! I'd love to see you over at the class. The details can be found HERE.

Have a great Wednesday everyone! And thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday. I had a wonderful day from the start to the end of the day, and all of the messages from Facebook and my blog were just icing on the cake. :)

a skully scary birthday

Happy Friday, all! Believe it or not, this very scary, skully card is for a 50th birthday. My dear friend is celebrating her main man's 50th with a wonderful treasure chest and pirate-themed birthday. I was so happy to be helping her with the card.

Thank goodness his birthday is in the fall. This project could have been so much more difficult to put together in the spring!


I made this card using the Sketchy Thursdays 10.7 sketch and my Spooky Town kit from Scrapbook Circle. Plus a few goodies from Michael's for the skull and pirate hat.


And of course, another cloud. Sheesh!! I am seriously going to need to get over this trend or I'm going to become known as That Cloud Girl. :)

Thanks so stopping by today, and have a wonderful weekend!

I hope to see some of you over at the Inspired To Scrap Weekend Warrior Card Class!! It started today!! :)