Beauty at the Butterfly Garden

    I love the new Basicgrey line "Hello Luscious." (LOVE!)  The colors and patterns are so happy!  I bought the whole collection pack from my LSS (Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA) a few weekends ago after begging the owner to go look in the back to see if she had received it but maybe it was still unpacked. I had scanned the store first and they had one lonely Hello Luscious embellishment, so I knew there had to be more somewhere.  So glad I asked!  

I made this layout using this sketch from Becky Fleck.

I'm not one to use sketches very often, but this one was so beautiful, I knew I could do something with it!  

I have some Easter cards in the works with some of the scraps from this page.  I'll share here when I finish.  

Happy Sunday everyone!

Leah Gerber's 85th Birthday

I was just looking through my blog and realized that I had never shared this layout of my great-grandmother's 85th birthday.  I made the layout with the February 2011 Studio Calico kit.  I had shared the layout in the gallery there, but wanted to share a little bit more about my great grandmother.

I don't remember a lot about my great-grandmother.  She died at the age of 99 1/2 and I would have been  about 13 or 14 years old.  I don't know that I ever knew her living anywhere except for the nursing home in New Richmond.  Our family would go to see her occasionally maybe on a Saturday or Sunday.  We would all go into her room to chat with her.  My mom would always start by saying who we all were - I'm your granddaughter Jeannie - Ruth's daughter - and this is my daughter Brenda, and my husband Marvin and so on.  So we'd be chatting with her for a few minutes - I remember how she would chuckle.  Then she'd look at us and say - now who are you?  And mom would go through the whole introduction again.  This is what I remember most about her and our visits.  It is a fond memory although I realize now that she had Alzheimer's at the time and it must have been hard for my mother to see her grandmother not know who her family was.

My mom actually hunted down all of the names of the ladies in the photo and even found out the house that the party was held at.  I think she enjoys when I send her on missions about old photographs.  I'm glad that she does this for me!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

A very pink layout

I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled when I saw the pink, glittery Thickers in the February 2011 Studio Calico main kit.  I'm not really a pink, glittery type of person and I couldn't imagine ever using them in a layout.  Then I remembered a very pink event that took place just a couple of months ago that the Thickers and the rest of the February kit would be PERFECT for!  Over Christmas, I took my nieces, their dolls, my sister, and my mom to the American Girl Doll Bistro at the Mall of America.

The ornaments and the pink strips of paper are actually two different sides of a patterned paper by Echo Park.  I cut out the ornaments by hand.

For the tops of the ornaments, I used a Making Memories bling frame that came with the December 2010 Studio Calico kit.  Again, the frame was another item that I didn't know if I would use - way too sparkly and blingy for me!  I cut the frame into pieces and used a piece on each ornament to look as if they were hanging.

Journaling reads:

For Kaylie and Olivia’s Christmas present, I took them, my mom, and my sister to the American Girl Doll Bistro for lunch at the Mall of America.  Their dolls both got to come along, too.  After lunch, Kalyie and Olivia each got to pick out an outfit for their doll from the store.  It was a very fun (and very pink!) day!   

                          December 26, 2010

Thanks for looking!  Have a great Saturday night!

Wanna Get Published?

Yes!

Love Cosmo Cricket.

Love Scrapbook Trends.

Why not give it a try?

Cosmo Cricket is having a sketch challenge over at their blog.  The winner gets published in the August 2011 issue of Scrapbook Trends!  What a fun challenge!

Here is the sketch from Cosmo Cricket:

Here is my take on the sketch:

I used lots of different Cosmo Cricket goodness.  I used some of the hot new "Salt Air" line that came in my March Studio Calico kit, I used some "Material Girl," and I even gave "Earth Love" some love.  The chipboard stickers are Cosmo Cricket also.  I actually won them in a contest on their blog a while ago!

The cat in the photo is my little Sumner.  He loves sleeping on the chaise lounge when it is sunny.  Doesn't he look happy?

Wish me luck and good luck to everyone else who entered!

Have a great Saturday night!

Finally!

I've been waiting since September 30th to see my first layout published in Scrapbook Trends magazine.  I subscribe to the print version, but as soon as I saw that it was available online, I had to buy it!  How fun to see my page in a magazine!  (I will not mention that my hubby got a little teary eyed!)  I wanted to see it in print though and waiting for it to arrive in the mail was torture, so I had to drive to my LSS, Absolutely Everything in Topsfield, MA, and buy a copy.  I rationalized that I wanted to send it to my niece in France who the layout is about anyway without waiting until I got my free issues in a few months.

So, here it is!  Please turn to page 41!  I can't share the layout here until April 1st so check back!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Happy Birthday!

I made a card this weekend for a friend of mine that is having her 29th birthday this week.  My inspiration for the card came from this post of the Scrapbook Trends blog. 

My general rule when I make cards is that I can only use scraps to make them.  The patterned paper and the ladybug are from the BasicGrey Lemonade line that I loved so much and have lots of scraps of.  I used my Slice to cut out the '29' and dangled them from matching embroidery floss.

I'm also sending her this little guy.  Isn't he adorable?  I made one for myself several months ago and he sits on my scrapbook desk holding pretty little Jenni Bowlin pins.  I had started another one, but hadn't finished it until last night when I decided that my friend would love one for her birthday! The pattern comes and the material comes from Heather Bailey and is available in her store here.  I love her stuff!

Happy Birthday, Jen!  

(I made her promise not to look at my blog until her birthday - I bet she sneaks a peek anyway!)

Super Simple Cards

I'm not a big card maker in general, but my box of paper scraps is getting bigger and bigger and I need to start using some of it!  I did some looking on Two Peas and came across this Finally Friday video that became the inspiration for my cards.  I kept it super simple, just using a few strips of paper, inking the edges, punching out a butterfly, and adding a rub-on greeting.  The Pink Paislee 'Queen Bee' line paper is so beautiful, it doesn't need much else!

I could certainly make a dent in my scrap box with these cards.  I would love ideas for more simple cards using scraps if anyone would like to share!

Enjoy your SUPER BOWL SUNDAY everyone!  Go PACKERS!!!!