Special Thank You Today To Terry and Judy!

My first thank you goes out to Judy....I won this wonderful MS punch in her recent blog candy giveaway and I received it yesterday.....I am so stinkin excited and can't wait to use it. Please check out Judy's blog....she has some amazing projects to share with us. Judy is super talented and very generous. She shares lots of links and cut files so hop on over and pay her a visit!

One of my super sweet blogging buddies passed this really awesome award to me. Terry should be a writer, her talent for expression is amazing along with her talent for creating. I am so blessed to have added her to my list of cyber friends, she has a kind heart and a gentle spirit.

Terry is one busy girl...she has a couple of blogs I would love for you to check out.....Tellen's Place is a wonderful challenge blog and has some really amazing digi images to share and a fantastic DT to inspire. Terry also has her personal blog, Challenger's Delight is where she shares all of her own great creations and a piece of herself with all of us. Challeger's Delight also shares some fun inspiring challenges. I hope you will pay each blog a visit a check out the wonderful creative mind of my sweet friend.

Now.... I am to list 10 things that knock my socks off and pass this to 3 blogs that do the same....I am going to color outside the lines a bit and pass it to 4. The four blogs I've chosen to pass to are all super talented ladies who have only recently started blogging....I want to tell them how happy I am that they have joined this wonderful world and how blessed I feel to have them in my life....

Sheila

Barb

Debbie

Holly

10 things that knock my socks off....

1. God...because no matter what life has in store He provides the reason for celebration or the strength to endure.

2. My Boyssss...because no matter what, being a mom is the greatest blessing God has given me.

3. My Mom...because she was my lifeboat.

4. YOU....because you are a part of my life that has become one of the greatest healing experiences I have ever had.

5. Scrapping....I love, love, love it!

6. SOUS....the blog and the DT have become a second family to me. I love the challenges each week and don't know what I would do without the constant friendship, support and encouragement from Sandi, Nanne and Leah.

7. Fridays....because I love the feeling of the week coming to an end, renting a movie, grabbing some snacks and hangin out with my sweet DS, Mcauley.

8. Snow days...because they make me feel like a kid again.

9. Memories...even the ones that bring tears to my eyes, because no one can take them away and each moment in my life has helped me become the person I am today.

10. My Cricut....and Mike for giving it to me last Christmas....it has opened up a whole new world for me.

Precious MOMents....New SOUS Sketch

Happy Friday! It's reveal day at SOUS and we have an amazing sketch by Liz Qualman http://lizqualman.blogspot.com/ . I absolutely loved doing this layout...the sketch was so wonderful to work with. I chose a picture of my oldest DS and myself on my very first Mothers Day. I love his sweet little tux and used it as the inspiration for my papers and colors. The red pattered paper is from the Winter Wonderland stack from K&Co. The b/w patterned papers are from Me&My Big Ideas. I also used some plain white, black, silver and red card stock and a page from an old book.
The circle is cut from Lyrical Letters, marquees/rectangles A Child's Year, birds Home Decor, scallop Plantin, the tag and photo corners are from Sweethearts. The ribbon is from Offray and I have lots of misc bling and stickles all over the layout.

This flower was created by layering 2 each of 3", 2 1/2" and 2 inch blackout cuts of the snowflake from Home Accents. I dry brushed the edges of the flower with black acrylic paint and fastened it together with a brad. The little butterfly is the shadow cut from Stamping, I love using book pages to embellish my layouts and my cricut cuts them beautifully. I added some adhesive pearls for the body.

I have to give a crafty shout out to Barb (AKA CrafyGirly) @ http://barbcraft.blogspot.com/ she used these wonderful Life's A Beach flowers on her Cancun layout, when I saw them I knew a smaller version of them was just what I needed for this layout. They have some fun silver pearl centers and are surrounded by this lovely flourish from Home Decor.

The little chipboard frame is from Precious Paper www.preciouspaper.etsy.com and holds the quote, "A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take."

This is one of the butterflies I created for the tutorial @ SOUS from the 1st of January. The red glittery feather is a clearance find from M's. I adore these little rosettes.... they are my version of the tutorial @ http://mycreativescrapbook.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=1743
Instead of a punch I used the 7 petal flower from Home Decor on the shadow cut....I added ribbon and button centers, but the basic steps are the same. If you have never checked out any of Gabi's work I encourage you to, she is amazing and these were very simple to create.

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the DT came up with, their projects are fabulous.

http://stuckonusketches.blogspot.com . We really want to see your creations.....McLinky is waiting for your take on this gorgeous sketch!

I Hope You'll Dance......

Hello everyone and happy Sunday evening. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We are headed back to school tomorrow after only 2 days last week following our long winter break....don't know how I'm going to get through a whole week....LOL...These pix are from last summer....some warm thoughts during these cold months. Mcauley makes me smile, he is such an entertainer. The background paper is K&Co....the brown is from a precious metals pack from M's....one side is dark and the other is metallic....I really like them....the off white is just card stock and the blue is the reverse of the background paper. I used the frame and border cut from Mickey and Friends....it was fun to use a lot of pix and the border cut was perfect for that.

The floral cut with the dragonfly along with the flourish is all from Home Decor. I used some buttons and stickles, fiber and ribbon. The K&Co mini frame holds a quote that I love....."Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain"....hence the title....I Hope You'll Dance.

The silhouette is from A Child's Year....I did not like the full length little boy with the umbrella so I welded the umbrella icon and the little boy holding the clover to get this cut and just trimmed the little clover leaves off.

This pic shows the dimension of the floral cut. I cut the shadow, base, and then individual pieces. I cut the separate pieces in two sizes....one slightly smaller and added inking and pop dots...buttons for the centers and some stickles.

The dragonfly was cut in two more smaller cuts and I added bling to all three to for the bodies....inking and stickles again. Part of the title is computer generated and the alpha's are from K&Co.....thanx for stopping by on this frosty night and my wish for each of you......I hope you dance!

Future So Bright....Gotta Wear Shades!

Hey hey hey....and happy Friday. We are back to our regular weekly sketch at SOUS, this is a fab one by the talented Becky Fleck @ pagemaps.com. For this layout I wanted to use these wonderful pix of Mcauley I snapped at the beginning of the school year....he is growing up so fast....and has a 'future so bright....gotta wear shades'! These are once again K&Co papers, some plain card stock and pages from a book. I did some distressing and used some craft stain on the edges as well.

These sunglasses are cut from Ocean of Words, I find the educational carts have tons of fun cuts, lots of hidden little treasures. I used some of my fave lace accented with some bling. The Believe and butterfly brads were part of my Christmas scrappy goodness from my sis and are by EK success. I also added some buttons and wire.

I used 3 pix and did some cropping and enhancing in PhotoImpact. The 5x7 has a blurred edge, the 3x4 I made b/w and the 2x2 is from a larger pic.....I wanted to crop out almost everything but his face. I love the little lock and key charms I found at M's, I tied them with a bit of twine

My photo mats are cut from A Child's year and all the hearts are from Plantin. I really like the look of the mix of patterned papers and the pages from the book. The tiny dragonfly is another brad from EK.

The sun is cut from Graphically Speaking and the font from Lyrical Letters. The quote...."Walk toward the sunshine...the shadows will fall behind" is computer generated. I found it on one of my fave sites for quotes and titles....scrapbook.com.

It's so good to be back with the weekly sketch challenge....you have all been such faithful and encouraging followers...thanx so much for that~Hop on over to SOUS and check out the other designs from Sandi, Leah and Nanne.....can't wait to see what all of you come up with as well!

I want to thank all of you for leaving such touching comments on my blog. Tears literally come to my eyes when I read them. Your thoughts, prayers, and support are so dearly appreciated....you have all become such a wonderful part of my scrappy life....I look forward to everything 2010 has in store for all of us!

Don't count sheep...talk to the shepherd.

Good day ladies....This is another page for the album of Me...another promise to myself in the new year. I am a big worrier and I try very hard to let go and let God....this is one of the things I used to say to my mom...a big worrier too....Don't count sheep, talk to the shepherd....so when I wake at night and my mind is full of thoughts that I cannot control....I promise to give it to God and pray about it. I know he can do lots more with it than I can.

All of the patterned papers are from the K&Co classic stack, I used some chalking and stickles to add some depth to the cuts. The sheep are from Paper Doll Dress Up....

The font is from Winter Woodlands, the clouds from Zoobaloo. I added some lace along the left side of the pic and a bit of silver lining to the clouds. The frame for sheep is from Paper Doll Dress Up...the extra stars are from Plantin.

I used Sandi's emery board distressing technique on the marquee mats....love how they came out...the computer generated words are Ba tang and I simply cut the paper randomly around the letters. The moon and stars are also Paper Doll Dress Up.

My tree is from Stamping, the shepherds hook and fence are from Paper Doll Dress Up....I cut the end of the fence from the one on the cart. My mats are from Storybook.....Hope you are all having a great weekend.....I hope to get lots of scrapping done so see ya soon....Thanx so much for stopping by!

Happy New Year!! New Tutorial @ SOUS

Happy New Year everyone! Hope this day finds you happy and healthy! One more tutorial @ SOUS this week and then back to our weekly sketch next Friday. If you are interested in making your own transparency butterflies I hope you will click HERE and check it out!

Be Good..... to yours(elf)

Okay, we've all spent the past few weeks taking care of our loved ones and now it is time to take care of ourselves...something we probably all struggle with. So here is my tribute to that promise to myself. I wish this layout photographed better...these K&Co papers from the winter wonderland stack are really beautiful in person.

I decided to make this fun even though there is a sincere message in the layout to myself. So page one is a silly pic of me......with the title Be Good...cut from Blackletter. the snowflakes are a combo of A Child's Year and Winter Woodlands, trees and fence are from My World and red birds, holly, deer and sleigh are from Winter woodlands as well, the photo mat is from A Child's Year and the stars from Home Decor...I used my MS branch punch for the garland and some bling in the stars...the harness are tiny peals and the rope is some silver thread.