Finally a Post!!!

I know I always say this, but things get crazy here and the blog seems to be the first thing to go! I am hoping to get a few posts in today, I have so much to catch up on. Our family and friends around us have been dealing with loss. Loss of loved ones is always so difficult, but a friend lost her husband in a plane crash while he was on a fishing trip and she's been on my mind. I was thankful when I found the Splitcoast color challenge that inspired this card. Colors for the challenge were Soft Sky, River Rock and Very Vanilla. I stamped the swirly from "Doodle This" in river rock on river rock cardstock. Then I added a layer and the card base is the swirl again on Soft Sky stamped in Soft Sky Ink. I sponged the edges to add depth and then I cut out the watercolored flower from very vanilla. I embossed the dye ink really quickly so I could watercolor it. Then I added the touches of silver with the hodgepodge hardware. The heart on the sentiment is stamped from Moose You and the saying is from Small Sayings. I wish the watercoloring would have shown up more vibrant from the scan, but alas, the scanner is smarter than the operator!

Home Sweet Home

It's been a while since I have had time to blog, mostly because we have been in a bit of a spin here! My mom and dad bought a house in North Carolina about a month ago and they left Sunday to head down there to finish it. I am excited to be leaving on Saturday to be their laborer. I was trying to think of something for Mother's Day for my mom and I decided I wanted to be the first person to give them something for their new house. I came up with this. I got the shadow box from Michael's and the rest of the goodies I had. The stamps are from Stampin' Up (Letterpress Alpha).

Sharing a Slideshow

One of my sweet bible study students gave me an awesome birthday present last fall. We went to see the live show for "So You Think You Can Dance". It was a great experience and we took some amazing photos. Some I took, some Emily took, so it's really a collaborative work. These are some of my faves. We took two CD's worth of pictures. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Slowly but surely...

I am learning this blog thing! I have added some of my favorite links in the right hand side bar for you to check out if you've got some time to burn. They are mostly links from my favorite artists, both paper and digital. I am sure I will have more to add soon.

I think this is the last post for today...

As you can see from the variety of birthday cards lately, we kind of drown in birthdays during the month of April. Oh well, I guess it gives me an excuse to stamp! I did one more birthday card with my cute little crab! I think this one will be for Jakey. I also used the Rough Texture wheel with it. The colors are Ruby Red, Creamy Caramel and Brocade Blue. Here's the blog where you can see the technique: Scrapnextras

A Leisurely Evening

This layout is pictures from a beautiful beach front walk at sunset. Can you tell I am just enamored of the ocean? It was so peaceful and serene. These pages use a kit called "Melon Sorbet" by Maria la France. I need to get some of these babies printed and into my album! I am behind on the printing, go figure.

Just a Stroll on the Beach

More vacation pages! These are photos of the kids strolling the beach and playing in the waves. I used a kit called Two Little Pixels by Sharon K Designs (another amazingly talented designer!!!)

Cabana Shores

A completed another layout for our vacation scrapbook. I am in a creative groove this morning! This layout was created using Sweet Serenity from the Shabby Princess (I adore her stuff, she is so talented!) Two more layouts and I will be done with 1/4 of the photos from vacation!

Time Well Spent

Stampin' Up sent us this wonderful stamp set, which is a level 3 hostess set back in December as a thank you to demonstrators. It is a great floral set and I decided to make a card using it and splitcoast's TLC163 Challenge which is "Stacked Ribbons". My inspiration started with the adorable striped ribbon and then I remembered I had a gorgeous wide satin ribbon from the Holiday Mini. This satin ribbon has the most luxurious feel to it, I love it! I stamped the focal image on Confetti White and then watercolors using the watercolor crayons and then I trimmed the image. I used a thin paper stump to roll the petals and then I put small pieces of dimensionals under the petals to make them stay 3D. I sponged the punches (scallop and key tag punches) and then added 2 little circles (1/4") to make the brads pop a little more. Paper colors are Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink and Confetti White. Ink is Chocolate Chip and Timber Brown Stazon (for the water colored image). The pink curvy piece was cut with the SU cutter kit perforater. I love that little kit!!!

Moose You!!!

After checking out what was going on over at Julie Buhler's Blog this morning, I found her color concoction and the colors just spoke to me. I made a card with Stampin' Up's Moose You stamp set. Now I have grand ideas about getting some more cards and hopefully some scrap pages done today so that I can send out some happy mail. Card Details: Stamps~ Moose You and Canvas. Papers~ Confetti White, River Rock, Ruby Red and Always Artichoke. Inks~ River Rock, Ruby Red and Always Artichoke. Accessories~ Sponge, Word Window, Rich Regals Brads, Tab Punch, Staple. I think this moose is just too sweet! I punched the word window punch and the put the punchout back in the punch from the bottom to make a shortened Word Window for the brads to go into. This can be seen in my gallery at Splitcoast.

CC161 Snappy Birthday

Two weeks in a row! I have not been able to do the challenges at Splitcoaststampers.com much lately but two weeks in a row now I have had time to complete the color challenge. This is a "Snappy Birthday" card for a friend using Stampin' Up's Crab & Coompany stamp set, the challenge colors of Real Red, Night of Navy and Glorious Green, as well as the No Copics, No Problem technique which can be found here: Julie Buhler's Blog

Finally Finished Another LO

And it feels like it took me all day to do it! I almost finished scrapping 1 of 4 CDs of photos from vacation. This one was some random pictures that just really leave me all warm and fuzzy feeling inside. One of the most special moments of our vacation was when we walked on the beach together, just Dale and I. I used the Coconuts kit by Jacque Larsen, Barcode Rubons by SVDesigns and Spring Break by Heidi Williams at Weeds & Wildflowers. Let me know what you think!

Sweet Daughter

I found this note on my desk a few days ago from my sweet little girl. Newspaper Alpha by Rikki Donovan, the gorgeous silver swirl is from the Christmas Brites kit by Sharon K Designs, and the remainder of the layout is from the Tonight kit by Jennys Scrap Place.

Splitcoaststampers CC160

I needed something to get my creative mojo back again after workout this morning. I popped on over to splitcoaststampers to check and see if the color challenge could pique my interest. The colors were Mellow Moss, Creamy Caramel, Apricot Appeal and Cameo Coral. Here's what I came up with. I used Bugs and Kisses and Canvas for stamps, Mellow Moss, Creamy Caramel, Apricot Appeal and a small piece of Designer Series paper and then added a ribbon and a ton o' sponging.

My New April Desktop

I have been using desktop templates since December to change the desktop on my computer each month. Well, I decided to try my hand at it this month and this is what I came up with. The paper, clip, rhinestone and ribbon are from a kit called Mediterranean by Laura Bozeman, the calendar is from Ellie Lash, and the frame is from Lindsay Jane Designs. The photos are some of my faves from South Carolina. I love the one from under the boardwalk, it shows so much dimension!

Just a Little Easter Funny...

I got a kick out of this picture. Things that make you go hmmmmm...

134 Paper Scrapped Pages, where are they?

I recently challenged myself to scrap all the photos I had actual prints of. I had about 3 weeks until I was going to visit my friend Gidget to do a Stampin' Up party and to scrap for the weekend. I really wanted to just bring the laptop and the hard drive and a couple of CDs of photos and leave the rest. I just couldn't think of how I would pare' down what I would need to bring into a few different bins. Well, 2 1/2 weeks into the challenge, I completed the layouts, with a whopping total of 134 pages. But why is it that I have yet to share any? It's been 3 weeks since I finished. I just haven't taken the time to set up the camera somewhere where I can photograph these 12" by 12" monsters! And I need to do that! What's the point of scrapping if you can't share any of it, right?

Beachy Fun Pictures

I had to redo this first page because I had first done it on the new laptop and I couldn't for the life of me figure out with the new program how to do drop shadows. It's really hard to switch programs and learn it all over again with a different program! So I gave up and made a new page and this one I love so much more! The whole layout was made with Inflor- escence by Carrie Stevens at Fish- scraps.com. I am LOVING this kit!

Beautiful Southern Homes

Here are two more pages I finished today. The arch- itecture and the homes were so striking and all I kept thinking when we'd see bright coral shutters or a seafoam green cottage was that color schemes like that would NEVER fly up north here! These were made with the Berlingo kit made by Fran Designs except the Green Glitter Alpha which was created by Vicki Stegall.

Heather and Glen

I just had to share the picture. I was going thru my photos from vacation and this was in the beautiful homes folder. We went house hunting one evening, just looking for what was available and at what price. This is the sign we just couldn't pass us. You see, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law are Heather and Glen and we just got a kick out of the sign!