Sketch #42

I am a little late for Valentine's Day, but it was just before then that I was working on the latest sketch from Sketchabilities. I used some old pictures from 2008 and some papers from Fancy Pants that I have been hoarding! I just adore that little monster, don't you??

Supplies: Fancy Pants paper, Technique Tuesday hearts, misc polka dot stamp, Ali Edwards stamps, Fancy Pants rub-ons, Basic Grey tag, Fiskars punch, embroidery floss

Knocked Out

Two weeks ago, as my daughter was finishing up her gymnastics class, she and another girl collided. With blood gushing from her mouth, she ran out of the room with a HUGE SMILE on her face. Her loose tooth had been knocked out. Yipee, a tooth I would not need to pull out!

Not even two days later, my son comes running into my office with a tooth in hand. Apparantly his little sister decided to punch him in the face (and for those of you who know my childen, it was not the daughter you would have guessed). Another tooth knocked out....and the tooth fairy a lot poorer!!

I couldn't possibly not scrap that right? Creative Scrappers had a sketch reveal last week (#144)that I thought would work perfectly with this picture of my two toothless kids. [you can't tell from the picture but ds is indeed missing one of his teeth]



Supplies: Paper - Crate Paper, Studio Calico; Frame - Technique Tuesday; Chipboard - unknown; Buttons - Bo Bunny; Alpha - Pink Paislee, Basic Grey, and American Crafts; Banner & Bingo Card- Jenni Bowlin; Journaling spots - Basic Grey; Stamp - 7 Gypsies; Number Tag - Elle's Studio; twine

Happy Homemaker

I am certainly not a "happy homemaker" -- in fact, I hate to clean, dislike laundry, and except for the expense, would gladly eat out every night of the week. However, I do so love the Modern Homemaker line from October Afternoon. I love the bright red, yellow, and green colors of the line. I adore the polka dots and the vintage designs. They provided the perfect combination for documenting my birthday breakfast in bed....a breakfast my children thoughtfully made for me.



**and you can't see hidden behind the main section are the homemade cards the kids made for me!

Life and Drama

It has has been a crazy few days in the Greenspun household! We have had our share of tears and laughter, happiness and excitement, surprises and well....life in general. Let's start with some of the happiness --

My youngest turned 5 1/2 yesterday. 5 1/2 you say? Nothing special, right? Except that it is a big deal. For the first time ever, dd got to celebrate her 1/2 birthday since she is in kindergarten and has a summer birthday. It was HER special day at school. Then, we decided to surprise her too...we celebrated at home with HALF of a birthday cake and a HALF wrapped present. :) She LOVED being the center of attention! She was a little disappointed with her present as it wasn't an iTouch but she'll get over it.



Now for the rest of the emotional rollercoaster ride....the kids had their first experience with death. Sadly, they lost one of their pet hamsters over the weekend. I think it had something to do with being dropped from 4 feet in the air days before but I think I'll keep that to myself. Middle daughter was beside herself. She LOVES her pets -- animals in general really. Seek will be sadly missed. So, as a "pick-me-up" we went and picked out our goldfish that were won at the school fair. It took the kids' minds off of the hamster for oh, say, a day.......goldie #1 left us a few days after arriving. Note to self: never try to replace a hamster with an animal with an even shorter life expectancy! I should know better, seriously, how long did I think that fish would last?! So, more tears were shed.

Plans for this weekend --- replace hamster AND fish.

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Now on to my weekend happiness --- with no work on Monday, I did a quick run over to Michael's. There was a 25% off entire purchase coupon in honor of our Presidents --- think any were scrappers?!?! Well, I certainly couldn't let the coupon go to waste so I ran over and grabbed the Martha Stewart Double Border Punch. And with that, I came home and immediately went to work.

I don't know what made me think to use red and yellow on a holiday layout but I think it works. I had these scraps of OA Homemaker paper sitting on my desk left over from a previous layout and couldn't bear to part with them. Glad I put them to good use.



Don't you just love that punch?? I can tell I am going to get a lot of use out of that one!! Of course, as I got about 1/2 way finsihed with the holiday layout, I realized it was looking awfully familiar....a lot like this layout that I created and shared with you a few months back.



Apparantly I must really like this style :O)

Chop Suey Challenge

It is always fun to sit down at my desk with a scrapbooking challenge. It really gets my creative juices going and forces me to think out of the box a little. Chop Suey always has some great challenges going on....this time around, they challenge you to use 9 different items on a page (multiples count as one). Nine sure does sound like alot!! Except when I sat down with the challenge in hand, it came together quite quickly!



My nine items:
1 - Sass Patterned paper
2 - Cardstock
3 - Tag
4 - Lily Bee Rub-ons
5 - Chipboard
6 - Stickers (dimensional and alpha)
7 - Kaiser gems
8 - Decorative tape
9 - Paint/ink

I've been Awarded...

The Leibster Award



My sweet friend Colette gave me this wonderful award on her blog, A Gift of Memories. I was introduced to Colette shortly after I started scrapbooking. I happened to join a kit club, Scrapbook Obsessions, where she was a designer. Her work was/IS FANTASTIC! She has a style all her own and she has this unbelievable talent for layering, detailing, and mixing elements. Even years later, I am in awe of her!!

Now as part of this award, I am given the honor of passing it on to other deserving bloggers out there.

First, I will pass this award on to my bestest college friend ever, Cheryl. While her blog is currently under construction, she does have some FANTASTIC tips for "Keeping Things Simple" HERE. I have never met a more organized person in my entire life....and somehow, she is the one woman in the world who became a mother and her organized home and organized life didn't skip a beat!!


I will also pass this award on to Mara . She is so sweet and always leaving me love here on my blog. She has a YUMMY blog!! She is either posting delicious recipes and mouth water pictures or she is posting some fabulous craft/scrap goodies. Seriously, does it get better than both chocolate and scrapbooking?!? Thank you so much for all of your comments Mara!!

I also want to pass this award on to two scrapbookers I have met over the past few months though my work with 3 Scrappy Boys and Sketchabilities. Kim and Yara. Kim, your work is so inspiring! I love the rustic feel of your layouts...your love of distressing and ability to add just the perfect amount of detail is amazing! Thank you for sharing your talent! Yara, it has been wonderful getting to know you and your work over the past six months. I can't tell you both how much I appreciate your sweet comments!!

So a final round of applause for Colette, Cheryl, Mara, Kim, and Yara....You Gals are AWESOME!!


And Here are the rules for the Liebster award:
1) Accept it, write a post about it and display it.


2) Pass it on to 3-5 fabulous but yet unknown blogs [not ones with large amounts of followers] and tell them they have been awarded the love blog award.


3) Link back to the person who awarded it to you.

Sketch #41

Since February is a short month, the Sketchabilities reveal is being posted one day early. I think we are all just anxious to get this month over with so we can dive into spring! It has been awfully cold in these parts the past few weeks so I know I am certainly anxious for some warmer weather!

I love when Karan releases a sketch that is a bit out of my comfort zone. I don't know why but this layout challenged me a bit. It is linear enough, which blends with my tendencies but I rarely ever create in the middle of a page...is that odd? Once I sat down and started working on this sketch, it actually started to flow rather nicely I think. The pictures aren't great....they were taken with my phone with my arm extended out trying to capture the shot. LOL. Oh well, the tender moment was captured even if we had to recreate it like 6 times to even get these shots!!







Supplies: Studio Calico kit, Bo Bunny Chipboard, Lily Bee rub-on, Cosmo doily sticker, SC white mist.

Together

Two posts in one day ... wow!! Don't get too used to it, I certainly can't keep up this pace!

A friend of mine recently told about a kit club that she adores ... Sweet Peach Crop Shop. I went over and checked it out this weekend. They have some really amazing kits over there. They also run some fun challenges, so I thought I would play along. The latest challenge is to create a monochromatic layout with a splash of color. I didn't do so hot with my splash of color, I guess I will say the dark brown is my "splash" --- oh well, at least a few more pictures have been scrapped and a few supplies used.

Scrapping the Old

I found a bit of time last night to whip together a quick layout...and when say quick, this layout took all of 30 minutes, seriously!! Of course I had sketched it out in my mind so I knew where I wanted to go with it in advance. It took longer to get the picture files from my dh than it did to put the whole layout together.




These pictures are from my DH and DS's annual baseball trip. Each year, they head to a new stadium. So far, they have been able to arrange their trips based on the Phillies schedule and towns in which we know people so it keeps the cost down. In 2008, they headed to Chicago and stayed with a childhood friend of DH. I think they were able to catch 2 of the 4 games of the Cubs series that year. Go Phillies!

While in Chicago, they also hit the Sears tower but the sun was so bright that day, all of the pictures that included DS were of a dark silhouette. Oh well, I think this layout really says it all anyway. There are city shots from the tower and plenty of pictures from Wrigley.

Supplies: Basic Grey pp, Bazzill Kraft cs, Maya Road tickets & chipboard, Sassafras alpha stickers, colorbox chalk ink, SC mist, twine.

Guest Designer Contest

Have you ever wanted to be a designer for a scrapbook kit club? Well, here's your chance. 3 Scrappy Boys is hosting a Guest Designer Contest for March.

What do you need to do?? Create a Spring themed layout or project -- anything goes...spring theme, spring colors, basically anything to get us out of the winter doldrums!! Upload the layout or project HERE by February 18th. The current design team will then vote on who gets to be the 3 Scrappy Boys guest designer.

Benefits and Duties? If selected as the Guest Designer, you will be sent a March kit, free of charge. You will need to create layouts or projects with that kit which should be posted onto the 3 Scrappy Boys site. You will also be featured in the newsletter and forum throughout the month!

This contest is open to everyone. With all of the new products coming out of CHA, the March kit is sure to be packed with all kinds of new stuff!! So, what are you waiting for??? Get creating!!

Good Luck --

Aubree

3 Scrappy Boys Challenge

Rebecca Koeppel's February challenge over at 3 Scrappy Boys was to create a layout featuring 8 rounded corners....easy enough right? I'm sure you have a corner rounder in the bottom of your supply bucket somewhere!!

Here is my take using supplies from the 3 Scrappy Boys February Add-on Kit and the SC star I had left from the January kit. I also added a "9" from my stacks of grungeboard. I figured it was time to finally scrap some of my son's birthday party pictures....hard to believe he is 9!!!



The fringed trim was bright pink from MME's Fine and Dandy Line...clearly the pink wasn't going to work here so I spritzed it with some Peacock Tattered Angels mist and some Lunch Tray Studio Calico ink.

My Girly Girl

Sports, sports, and more sports...that is all my older two children care about. Baseball, soccer, hockey, basketball...you name it, they LOVE it!! I suppose I should "blame" it on my husband who is a bit of a sports nut himself (and saying a "bit of a nut" is putting it mildly)! I love that they are into sports, I am....but what mother doesn't want a little bit of a girly girl from her dd once in a while?!

Luckily my youngest dd is into all things pink and frilly. She would wear a dress every single day of her life if she could. Her favorite color is pink. She loves putting on make-up and having her nails done. She likes sports and will join in any game but so far, she hasn't become a die hard fan (yet). So, I am going to treasure this time, who knows how long it will last!



Supplies: 3SB January kit, Pink Paislee artisan chipboard, AC Thickers, EK Success punch, (unknown) decorative tape, baking paper doilies

Times Change

Have you ever just stopped for a moment and thought about all that has changed since you were a child? The price of gasoline has sky rocketed, televisions now hang on walls and range in size from a small box of raisins to the size of a car, information is availalbe to us at a moments notice with the stroke of a few keys....it is truly amazing! I am only 30 something and I am awestruck with the rate of technological change we experience every day.

All of this really came to light for me in November when we were in Disney. We were walking around Epot and my children came across the red telephone booths in England. "Mom, what is this?" they asked. It had never dawned on me that they hadn't ever seen a telephone booth....when is the last time you saw an actual telephone booth?? Even when I see a pay phone, it isn't in a booth these days.

About a month after we returned, Midnight Rooster released a scrapbooking kit with a telephone booth stamp. With only a little bit of begging, my good friend Jing-Jing sent me the stamp for this layout. It was too perfect not to use with these pictures.



It may have taken a few minutes to grasp the concept of a telephone booth but a few weeks later, we walked into the Apple store for the first time. In under a second, DS understood more about his new iTouch than I know about the phone I have had for over a year! Aaah, am I getting old or have times really changed? Unfortunately, it is a little of both!

February 3 Scrappy Boys kit

I can't even begin to tell you how much I adored the February Trio kit from 3 Scrappy Boys. Cosmos, Pink Paislee, American Crafts...how could you go wrong???? And this kit had so many goodies in it...I have already created six layouts and still have enough supplies for at least two or three more!! Go check out the kits -- and remember, everything else in store is on sale now as well and you can combine your shipping!!