Always Share Your Secrets {Pink Paislee: Prairie Hill Collection}

Hi there! Yes, I have been crafting with paper lately, but I've been finding it hard to get all of my projects blogged :) I was excited to see a fun sketch on PageMaps blog with a deadline of today...it's been a long time since I've entered a layout into any contests! I enjoyed working with the sketch and my new kit from Birds of a Feather.

A couple of my regular challenge sites are no longer up and running so I'd love some suggestions on where you all go to participate in challenges!

Thanks for stopping by! I should have more to share after next weekend since I'll be participating at the "Back to School Crop" over at BOAF. You should come join us!

Project 12 - October

We are on the downhill slide for another year documented with Project 12! I finished Sept just a few days ago *blushing* but was feeling more motivated for October. I love Halloween so that helps, but also, because 10 months done out of 12 feels awesome! 

 It was fun to include a 5x7 picture this month. I think I'm going to go back and doodle some around the title circle to fill in the black areas.

 I was worried about using the 3x6 pictures but it turned out to be a really good size!

 This is my favorite picture of the month :) My niece so excited to be carving pumpkins and getting all of the "gunk" out.

Thanks for looking and if you would like to know more about project 12, check it out here :)

Birds of a Feather Birthday Blog Hop {Basic Grey: Out of Print; Pink Paislee: Soiree}

 Birds of a Feather Kit Co is having a birthday party! 

Amy started her company one year ago this month and she is also celebrating her very own birthday today ;-) What better way than to celebrate with a crop, right? To start the crop off, the design team and a few of the guest design team alumni have put together a blog hop for you! If you arrived here from Linda's blog, you are headed in the right direction. If you came to my blog first, be sure to head back to the BOAF blog to get started so that you don't miss out on any eye candy!

I have two birthday theme layouts to share with you - both using the August kit (there are still 3 kits left in stock!).

The first layout is using the sketch from October's sketch challenge which is posted in the forum here. Did you know that completing all 5 monthly challenges puts you in the running to be a guest designer? If you want to try one of Amy's kits, this is a great way to do it! 

The pictures are from mine and my sister's joint birthday celebration from last year. We celebrate our birthdays just 3 days apart so we took ourselves to lunch and then for cupcakes after. We even repeated the tradition just a few months ago but without my daughters in tow ;-)

I created the banner by fussy cutting from one of the Pink Paislee papers in the extra patterned paper kit. The twine, tiny type alphas and paper clips are from my stash... but everything else is from the August kit.

I also fussy cut these flowers, outlined them with my white signo pen, layered with embellishments from the kit and then added bits of bling. The bling is in the kit as one piece, but I cut it into pieces and still have some left for future projects.

This next layout is based on a Pagemaps Sketch. I loved the cake piece that I fussy cut from the same Pink Paislee paper and thought it would be perfect for this picture of my daughter's princess cake from her 4th birthday.

I used mixed pieces for the banner, added the same twine from my stash and added a couple of pins as well.

I contracted a case of Stickles sneeze on this layout! Amy included a bottle with the August kit and then I also added a couple of other colors from my stash. I outlined many of the flowers on the busy background piece, but I also added Stickles to most of the other embellishments as well.

Hard to see all of the stickles in these photos but ALL of those green dots were accented!

One of the many reasons I love the August kit is the Core'dinations cardstock. The first layout was with the white back so when I filed the edges, a white frame develops. But this second layout, I used the pink back so all of my distressed edges are pink. Love that!

What is a birthday celebration without presents, right? I've got a present for one lucky person who comments on this post...a $10 gift card to scrapbook.com! We are cropping all weekend long and the entries are due by the 12th, so I will post my blog candy winner on the 13th. You do not have to be a follower of my blog, but if you like what you see, I'd love for you to stick around! 

All of the crop challenges and games can be found in the forum here. The grand prize is going to be a kit of your choice! Oh, and the boutique will be having a BIG sale this weekend! 

If you've made your way through the blog hop, you'll want to keep going so that you can be entered to win a prize package of Bella Blvd products valued at $50! You'll need this word to add to your collection for the mystery phrase: 

and then you'll want to hop on over to Kayla's blog here to continue with the celebrating. I hope to see you in the forums cropping with us this weekend! 

First House {Pink Paislee: Twilight, My Mind's Eye: The Spider's Web}

I created this challenge for the August sketch challenge at Birds of A Feather. Here is the sketch:

And I saw that Janet made hers into a 8.5x11 layout so I decided to copy her ;)

Of course now I see her little strip on the right and wish I would have done that too! But this is what I came up with:

I'm already looking forward to fall weather and deciding on what the girls will be. Can't wait for the first house this year!

Thanks for looking...I'll be back tomorrow to brag on some manufacturers! :)

I Scrap Because... {Pink Paislee: Cupid; The Girls' Paperie}

I'm mainly posting this for Suzanne to see because I think she'll appreciate my title humor :). The title is split between the pullout journaling card and the two strips by the picture: "I scrap because...it's not hoarding if it looks pretty, right?" I have so many pictures to hold onto and if they were just all in boxes, I would look like a hoarder. But now that they are going into albums, I'm not hoarding...right? RIGHT? lol Linda challenged us to create a layout about why we scrap and the REAL reasons are hidden behind the photo ;) I'm kinda sappy with my journaling on this one so I'll spare you.

 Another layout I did for the crop was a sketch challenge (both of these layouts are based on PageMaps sketches) and it uses the same papers from the last layout I posted. Love the blues and greens mixed with the pink - it was a nice change from my ordinary papers!

So life is back to normal now, no more endless hours at the scrapbook table. Laundry, cooking and cleaning all are waiting for me now :) I hope to be back soon with my April layout - thanks for stopping by!!

5 Reasons Why I love a 15 month old {Pink Paislee: Cupid Collection}

So I'm pretty sure this all comes from the Cupid Collection from Pink Paislee but feel free to correct me in the comments! lol

I did this LO for the journaling challenge at Birds of A Feather - I loved all of Amy's challenges this month! Never has my December been such a productive scrappy month ;) Amy is great, she has sent me wonderful goodies from both of the two crops that I've participated in...you should definitely check out her site. My favorite thing about her kits is that she includes 2 of each of the patterned papers - that's a requirement for me!

We had to start the journaling (or title) as "5 reasons why I love" and then list the 5 items in list form. I dug way back in my pictures from almost 4 years ago! The 15 month old in these pictures just turned 5 (FIVE!) today! It's so hard to remember my life before her :-)

Also, I can't be 100% sure, but I'm pretty positive that this was my first time to scrapbook a black & white picture!

Like the butterflies? You should probably get used to them since they are from the awesome Martha Stewart punch that Santa brought me! ;)

February Project 12 {Pink Paislee: Cupid Collection}

As I was uploading pictures, I realized that I never shared my layout from January's project 12. I'm hoping this project will give me some focus each month for what to scrap. Basically, a sketch is posted each month and you scrap your month using that sketch. I think there might be contests posted somewhere, but I just want the sketch ;) Here's February's:and my layout:This was from January: I do NOT plan on using Pink Paislee's Cupid Collection for the whole year, but I had enough to do these two months and it goes so well with the pictures! The flowers are also very similar in both months and I wouldn't mind continuing that theme on to the other pages.

To be honest, I had "forgotten" I was doing this so I haven't even looked at the March sketch yet! But right now, I'm off to find the March & April sketch and then will print pictures....

Thanks for looking :)

First House - Sketch 47 at The Scrappiest

I had so much FUN making this layout. I totally scrap-lifted this page from Aphra...for sketch 47 at The Scrappiest. The only thing I'm not 100% pleased with on this lo is the button - it's a little large for the door! But I loved the color/texture of it...I think the fun part was this house - so stinkin' cute! Can you see the freshly applied stickles? shhh ;)

I'm not going to even try to give a list of the papers I used - I think it's one from every collection I own!

With this layout I decided that I think Halloween is my favorite holiday to scrap. I never would have guessed that but I'm pretty sure it's the most scrapped holiday in my albums!

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Don't miss one more photo here.

Batty For You {Pink Paislee: Twilight - Nightfall and Eclipse; Basic Grey Eerie Black Doilies}

It has been ONE WHOLE MONTH since I've been able to sit down and create something for myself and even then, it wasn't scrapbooking layouts. I've got to admit that while the countdown calendar sure is cute, it was very difficult to find a variety of treats that would fit inside the mini-muffin tins! Sweet treats were easy enough to find, but if you're looking to put little trinkets/toys in there you might need to upgrade to two regular size tins....

Since the last time I scrapped was over a month ago, the pictures left on my desk were Halloween. I had only been able to make one layout using the Scrap For A Cure Fright Fest kit so I broke into it and whipped up 2 layouts. My first experience with Pink Paislee paper - and I love it. Now, I've very excited that the newest kit from my scrapbooking club also has Pink Paislee - for Valentine's Day. I see what all the fuss is about for PP!

I liked the Basic Grey Doilie paper so much that I wouldn't let a single scrap go to waste. I took all of the scraps and pieced them together for the circle background in this layout:The only thing in this LO not from the kit was those gold thickers...Don't you love the little bat pin?So I feel a little odd scrapping Halloween in December but hopefully I'll get caught up soon :) Both LOs were based on a sketch (20 and 18) from 52 Sketches...52 Weeks. I was sad to hear that Julie won't be continuing to add to the site in the new year and I hope that she'll be able to keep the site open for us to go back and use old sketches.

Thanks for stopping by - I hope to be back to updating regularly now!