Announcement & The Sound of Music!

Probably not what you think this is going to be...

I am not going to be a production of The Sound of Music or anything,

I just have some good news and of course, a little movie musing to go along with it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My term is ending with Little Black Dress tomorrow but, I get to announce

that I am going to be on the Design Team at Love My Tapes!

I am super excited!!  I mean, hello...washi!!!  And lot of other fun stuff!

You can check out their blog, and the other talented ladies I get to design with HERE!

Seriously!  How cute is this??

And for my Sound of Music reference, it might be a little cheesy, 

but, it was the first thing I thought of when I got the happy mail from Tina...

Maria (i.e. Julie Andrews) quotes the Reverend Mother: 

"When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window".

( and it is such a great movie...lots of happy memories associated with it

and, yep, I did have the big double soundtrack on vinyl...right next to Thriller! )

And the Winner IS........

Thanks to everyone who hopped along and left comments!

In fact, this was so much fun that I am going to do a little giveaway myself!
So check back soon for that!

AND the winner is...

TrishaMarch 28, 2013 at 5:51 PM

What an awesome layout. You are very talented as a designer.

Congratulations!  Email me your info ASAP!
* The email button is in the sidebar at the top :) *

My Gramma always said...I won't say goodbye...

Sadly, this is my last month on the DT at Little Black Dress Kit Club.

It has been such an educational, inspirational experience...

making new friends, inspired by new products, challenging myself creatively

and lots & lots of projects to remember and cherish in the future!!

I want to thank Valerie for giving me such a wonderful opportunity...

& SarahBeth for being such a positive, warm voice, that I never actually heard,
but feel like I know!  And lots of loves to the amazingly talented designers I had
the chance to work with and will continue to be inspired by.

( I kinda feel like this is an acceptance speech and someone is going to start playing exit music 
and yank me off stage...but this is MY blog, so my exit speech can be as long as I want it to be, 
or as long as my children will not "be bored" )

So, in lieu of remembering the past 9 months and thinking about this post, 

I remember what my Gramma always said...

My mother is from Ireland and all of her family still lives there or in other parts of Great Britain.  

We used to go at least every other summer or so to visit for a month at a time.  

We would end up having to leave around 3a.m. to drive to the airport in Belfast to

be able to catch another flight, get thru customs with my Dad's 300 camera bags 

(that is a little exaggerated)  and fly home.  

My grandmother always got up with us, but always said she wouldn't say goodbye. 

It must have been hard to see her daughter only once a year, or longer.

I do have to say goodbye, but, I'll be stalking the website and FB page &
keeping up with the LBD folks!  And so I thought I would repost my top 10 favorite
projects from this term, some of which are on my list of favorite layouts ever! :)  

( There are actually 2 which I would have included, but are 
going to be published soon and I can't show those!  )

 Loved the color combos in this kit! 

Mmmmm copper paint AND gold embossing powder??!  Yum! 

I can't say anything b/c looking at this makes me want to cry... 

 Love me some MME!

I love that Studio Calico mask and really, are these boys not so cute, they are almost pretty! 

 Love that Glitz paper...it motivated me!

I did this LO in about 45 minutes, no lie, and I hated it...until the next morning

and I loved it!  So out of my normal anal retentive self that it was inspiring to myself! 

Another LO that makes me sad and sappy, but happy! (heh, I'm a rhymer!) 

 I just love this photo and the quilt in the background...makes me warm.

My sweet baby...had to include him.

 Kind of hard to narrow it down!  But that is it...
Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Friday!

cherry...& Process VIDEO (on the clock! March)

So, I decided I am going to do a little monthly series called "On The Clock!"

where I time myself while doing a Start to Finish video to see how short

of a time I can do a Scrapbook layout!  

Here is the first one, at the end of the month, but still...

My daughter has been trying to get me to do this, mostly because I think

she wanted to fool around with my phone! ;)

I used primarily the March Scrapbook Circle kit, part of which included 

these pink feather from Bella Blvd. and are part of their current challenge HERE.

I also used an awesome sketch from Scrapfriends you can see HERE.

Here is the YouTube video which is a quick one, not real time since the page

took me 49 minutes, which actually is pretty fast for me!

This photo is of a cherry tree we planted in our backyard either 3 or 4 years ago.

I kept thinking it was 3 but I just realized we have been in our house for almost 6 years!

Man, time is flying past!!  Anyway, it is special because we planted it 

with my Mom on the day my Dad died (which will be 9 years in June)...

as a memorial to him...Every Spring when it starts to bloom , we take a photo

of my Mom with the kids in front of the tree and it is already neat to

see the growth in all of them, well the kids and the tree...not you Mom ;)

Not that is feels anything like Spring here now, but I took this photo of some of the 

first opened blooms on St. Patrick's Day...I need to document a page of those 

photos in a series!  Something else for my ever growing "to be scrapped" list!

*BLOG HOP* Elle's Studio Serendipity (& GIVEAWAY!)

Elle’s Studio is excited to announce the arrival of their new line,
that is perfect for spring, called Serendipity!
This new collection includes 12 x 12 papers, journaling and embellishment tags,
and a stamp, and we’ve put together a blog hop today to celebrate!

For this hop I’ve created a layout using the 12x12 paper called "Chevron",
appropriately titled!  I cut out a piece of the "Lucky" paper for the top as a
header and added couple tags on top of that.

I wanted to create my own bokeh effect on the background paper, so I made
couple masks with scrap cardstock and a few circle punches...
I misted the circles in colors to match the papers and overlapped them a bit.

 

I stamped on a couple tidbits and snippets with stamp sets from  the You & Me and
Day to Day collections.  I stamped some more circles and connected them with a black pen to 
mimic the cute "stitching" around the tidbits & tags!

  

I had to add some gold glitter, because gold glitter makes everything better! :)

Serendipity is a wonderful addition to the new collections...they all work together,
but the color wave in Serendipity is bright, springy & still super versatile...

it can be for either gender or non-specific & includes lots of neutrals too!

I gravitate towards more neutral patterns or plain cardstock for the main background

and the wonderful thing about these papers is that most include a bit of each,

some neutral & subtle patterns, and some bolder bits too!

If you are looking for the Serendipity collection online,
you can purchase the entire collection at: 

Two Peas in a Bucket

Scrapbook.com

A Cherry on Top

Blue Moon Scrapbooking

and of course, at Elle’s Studio. 

{ You’ll also want to check your local scrapbook store, too! }

Elle’s Studio also has a fun surprise for this launch!
They have stocked a special, LIMITED EDITION PACK
that includes two sheets of exclusive printed vellum and 5 fun tag designs that 

would make a great spring mini book and more!

 Once these are sold out, they will not be restocking!

Also, don’t forget that for the entire month of March, Elle’s Studio is celebrating 

their 6^th birthday and all orders ship with a free gift!  ( Woot, woot! )

And if all this loveliness hasn't blown your mind yet, there is more...no, really!   
I get to give away my favorite piece of the Serendipity collection 
(& all the new stuff) and I chose...the journaling tabs!  


There are two different sizes, perfect for Project Life, 
(even though I don't do it) and they are great to cut down for just the 
tab and save the journaling bit, use as a photo mat, or use as the base
for the entire card (as shown HERE on the blog recently!)

Please leave a comment to be entered to win and check back here on

Saturday, March 30^th to see if you’ve won.

** Don’t forget the other stops of our hop today! **

At each stop you’ll get to see a fun project that was created just for this hop 

and a chance to win everyone’s favorite part of the Serendipity collection! 

Elle’s Studio
Christa Paustenbaugh
Holly Humbert

Jenni Calma  (you are here)

Jenni Hufford  

Kate Vickers  

Katie Gordon  

Keri Babbitt  

Megan Klauer  

Sarah Webb  

Thanks for stopping by and remember to comment, hop along and have a great day!!

April Elle's Studio DT Gallery Sneaks!

Some sneakies going live on the Elle's Studio Inspiration Gallery

April 1st...no really, no fooling!  (sorry, that was cheesy )

More exciting new things & other fun stuff...more to come!

 

CLOUD NINE &*Video*...Glitz/Gossamer Blue Entry #2

A second LO I did for the GDT Challenge sponsored by Glitz & Gossamer Blue!

I went back and used some older collections from 'Love You Madly' and a couple

of the new stamps from 'Hello Friend' and the new chevron roller stamp (yummy)

I had this idea to emboss the cloud stamps and use them to resist 

a distress "stained" sky in the background.  I thought it would go with the 

photo and the colors in the main striped paper and the tiny chevron line

in between the pink stripes in that main paper...

And that I would use the roller stamp to be the sun rays coming down.

You can see how I got there and why I made things more complicated for myself,

as usual, in the Start to Finish video here:

Well, I like the end result, but I went a long way around for a less powerful effect.
I probably should have used the ink very lightly inside the clouds so you could
actually see that they were in fact embossed...Oh well!  Next time...

a quiet place...Glitz/Gossamer Blue GDT Challenge

This is my first entry into the Guest Designers Challenge sponsored by

Glitz and Gossamer Blue.
It wasn't easy for me to cut into some of these new Glitz papers, 

they are fanning the hoarding fire!!  So cool!

But, this did fit into my quest to sift through some of the contents of the last 9
months of kits from the Little Black Dress Kits, since my term is ending.

I am appalled at the amount of beautiful, unique pieces I didn't use or meant to use
and forgot or just plain forgot about.  I am seriously need of Spring cleaning!  

There were such a wonderful variety of Glitz products included in the

kits that I had a lot I could pull from for this Challenge, as well as some

pieces from the newer collections, and my all time favorite, the stamp sets!!

I had used the stamps a little here and there but really focused on

the Polaroid frame stamps in the 'Yours Truly' set, and how cool these stamps
look layered that look like bits of torn washi!  I was very pleased with the result

and of course, kicking myself for not using them earlier this way!

At any rate, this is a photo of my daughter propped up next to the fire place

this past Fall reading a book.  I loved the grainy look of the Instagram and 

how it matched the mottled look of the ink I used.  

And the strong pattern of lines in the patterned paper with the mosaic tile on the fireplace.
In other words, I just thought it looks cool! ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

B'day Card * Little Black Dress Kit Club March 2013 *

A quick B'day card, I did with this month's kit!
Totally forgot to post it...oops!

Obviously, for someone whose name starts with "R"!

OUR story TODAY...& multitasking!

Ok, so I have been really busy doing all that stuff I stay busy with and
then at the end of the day I can't remember what it was I was SO busy with...
But, I have had lots of projects I have been working on, that sadly
I can't show yet...(sneaks to come!) But, I really needed a little
break to just PLAY!
I love to just set a timer, have a photo and GO...

 This was one of those times, except that I started out with this photo

& I wanted to use the colors & theme for the Color-Me-Scrappy Challenge,
which you can find HERE...and then I thought, I love the sketch that
I thought I missed, (but didn't), on http://blog.scrapfriends.com.au
found HERE, so I decided to combine it all...

I usually do not do that, I kind of like to give challenges their own
 special loving, but it just all kind of came together and I thought
"well, if I hate it, it was just an experiment."
As usual with projects I limit myself on time, I loved the outcome!

 This was a bright, happy color palette to work with and so it was
easy to choose from lots of new and a couple older product lines.
The Color-Me-Scrappy challenge was also to include stitching and tags
and those are some of my favorite go-to's for a LO,
so that couldn't have been easier!



The sketch is a wonderfully artsy, lots of texture and room for interpretation
sketch that I love!  So excited about finding that blog!

So, that is my 1 hour Wednesday challenge and even my 9 year old
daughter (barely 9) said, "you're already done??"
They are used to me spending lots of time changing and re-changing
things and sometimes, most times, it really is better the first time!
If only I would remember that!!

CHARM.er

Finally got to play with my Scrapbook Circle March kit!
I still haven't done too terribly much with the February kit...
Just seems we have been busy, with I don't know what.
Birthdays, birthday parties, school projects, life and what not
(Life it not what not, btw)

Anyway, this was the March Sketch Challenge from
Scrapbook Circle.  HERE is their post!

This was Sam in desperate need of a hair cut!  I like it a bit long like that,
but it is so thick and grows so fast, it feels like we need a standing 3 week
appointment for him!  This was a quick progression of a smile that Shawn
caught and forwarded me...All this talk about Lucky Charms, paper collections,
Irish or otherwise, inspired the title...very fitting for this little man of mine!

I stayed pretty true to the sketch, mine was a bit bigger because I
really wanted that hot air balloon in the background.  I also combined
the title with my journaling which is hidden under the file tab.

Those are my favorite part of the kit!  Those and the Dear Lizzy die cut cards,
AND the wood veneer Polaroid frames...well the whole kit is awesome!!

Thanks for checking it out!

A {Belated} Happy St. Patrick's Day plus some...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Ok, so this was supposed to go out LAST night, but life happened.

Oh well...that's a good thing to happen! 

This is a card I made for my daughter's birthday on Saturday!

I absolutely LOVE the new Dear Lizzy & Amy Tangerine's Yes, Please!

They are so inspiring all on their own...

I also made another card for my brother whose birthday was yesterday,
Sooooo many March birthdays!!
And I made it with scraps from some LBD kits and
anything within arms reach and in about 3 minutes...2 of those minutes
were embossing this Jenni Bowlin stamp of calligraphy pen nibs...

Anyway, that is what I have been doing, making a million cards!
Well, not quite a million, maybe 10! ;)

My giRl...talkin' 'Bout & * VIDEO *

My little girl will be NINE years old in a couple days...

How in the world??  I know I can be scatterbrained but I am pretty

sure I didn't miss any major chunks of time...It just feels like I must have.

If I feel that way, then my husband feels that way times...well nine!

He is so sad, like there is an enormous countdown clock in our house,

counting down to either puberty or whenever she decides we aren't cool

enough to hang around...whichever comes first.

So, I had been digging thru old photos and came across these 

sweet ones of the two of them...Sofia has her Daddy's dimples and I 

love that you can see them here!  I knew I wanted to call this layout

"My Girl" (should have used some of that new MME collection) because Sunday 

is our big relaxing Italian lunch with either all the family or just us four.  

We usually listen to The Temptations Pandora station and will inevitably 

hear that song...and the piece of the AC Dear Lizzy paper with the  

'YOU MAKE MY HEART SING' cut outs was just too perfect as well!

I used this color challenge from the Scrapfriends.com blog that is really

cool and I am so excited about the sketches...I go into that more in the process 

video I linked below the color palette ( or colour, since it is Australian :) )

You can visit the original blog post here:

www.blog.scrapfriends.com.au - Colour Palette Challenge

* Start to Finish Process Video *

In fact, it was late at night when I did the voice over for the video

and I got pretty chatty while also being tongue-tied, if that is possible!

Here are some of the close-ups!  I had just gotten lots of the new papers
from Studio Calico, Amy Tangerine and the Dear Lizzy collections
and they are so pretty and had so many great matches for the colors.

Thanks for stopping by and check out the video!...
if you don't mind a couple yawns & my opinions (just opinions)
about the trending direction of scrapbooking...?