Card swap ~ "One of a Kind"

Here's a card I did for my first splitcoast card swap. I've done card swaps before but never on sps. I'm *so* looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with! The swap theme for this one is "Cutest Card". People always seem to enjoy getting this kind of card. Maybe cause it's not a *regular* card. So that's why I chose to make this one. And this is the first time I've played with the Jersey Shore DS papers, so I had to try them out! I seem to be on a card making kick lately, don't I? Probably because my desk is covered with so much stuff with reorganizing my scrap room that I don't have room to do any layouts!! (and it's killing me by the way!!) I'm hoping to have my room done tomorrow, but we'll see. I think I have a touch of a sinus infection from my allergies (have I said how much I hate allergies??!!) so who knows how productive I'll be tomorrow. Wish me luck :)

Oh, but back to the card...I used several stamp sets in this one. The orange scallop flower is from So Many Scallops (SAB), the dotted circle is from "Think Happy Thoughts" and the flowers are from "One of a Kind" stamped in Night of Navy and Bashful Blue and punched out with the Boho Blossoms punch. BTW, I love that Stampin' Up! has come up with stamps and punches that coordinate so that you don't have to hand cut the image. So great!

Supplies:
Stamp sets ~ So Many Scallops, One of a Kind, Think Happy Thoughts
Cardstock ~ Pumpkin pie, Whisper white
Ink ~ Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie
Other ~ Jersey Shore DS papers, Scallop, circle & Boho Blossoms punches, brads, Pumpkin Pie striped grosgrain ribbon

Allergies, turtle crossing, and a card...

Ok, when is the pollen going to go away. Seriously!! I'm done with this stuff. I spent yesterday afternoon in bed. And after a sleepless night I went to my allergist today who prescribed me all new meds along with a steroid to get me back to "normal" (whatever that is...don't think I've ever been considered "normal"! lol)

Anyway, on the way back from the allergist, I saw something in the street in front of my house. At first I thought it might be an animal that was hit by a car but as I got closer I saw that it was a turtle. As soon as I walked up on him he tucked into his shell....as my son is saying "awwww mommy, look how cute! poor turtle!!" So I moved him back to the grass in hopes that he'd find his way back to the creek that runs down the side of our property (we live in a heavily wooded area).
I haven't been doing any scrappin' the last couple days between my allergies and reorganizing my scrap room. It started with just redoing the closet. My hubby put in some new shelves in my closet so I could have more storage and that somehow led to redoing the entire room. So this is what my dining room looks like right now:

I know what you're thinking...you're wishing your dining room could look like this!! lol I will be so happy when everything is back in my scrap room. I know it doesn't look like it but I'm about halfway done. I think I have a serious problem...

So friends, I will leave you with a card I did before the room redo.

I was inspired to make this card from this card. I thought the style and colors would look so cute with the "Very Punny" stamp set from Stampin' Up! I believe this was a set that was in the Sale-A-Bration mini last year. I've barely used the set so I thought I'd pull it out. Anyway, have a great day everyone!

Diaper cake

My friend Elizabeth just posted something on her blog about diaper cakes. This is the one I made for a friend last year. Let me tell you, if you've never made one of these they are a *lot* of fun and not super difficult. You basically roll up each diaper and secure with a rubber band. Place them in a circle and secure the whole big circle with a big rubber band. You then cover that up with blankets, netting, ribbon, toys, whatever. And you can tuck toys, washcloths, lotions, etc in the sides. I had a pretty cake plate so I displayed the diaper cake on that. I decided to put a Care Bear on top but you can also leave room in the center of the diapers for a bottle or something like that. The best thing about this cake is that everything is functional!

There's lots of ways to create and decorate these. Just do a search on "diaper cake" and you'll find a ton of ideas!!

Disney on Ice, sandcastle cake #2

We had a very full day yesterday. First we went to Disney on Ice and the kids had *so* much fun (of course!). On the drive home they said "can we drive to Disneyworld today???". Oh, how I wish I could have said YES!!!
After Disney on Ice we went to birthday party and then to a bbq. For the bbq I made another sandcastle cake. This time I put it on a larger platter so that I could add some "water". The kids thought that was pretty neat with the "fish" swimming around. Then my daughter promptly asked if she could taste test the water. Mmmm!!
Now I'm in the process of redoing my scrap room. Right now my hubby is at Lowes buying some shelves to put in my closet. I've been battling my scrap room for months and so far the room is winning...so wish me luck!!

Fruity Thanks

I can't get enough of this stamp set (can you tell?!) I made another simple yet cute thank you card with the Summer Picnic DS papers. These papers make it *so* easy to create a card! I'm thinking I may be ordering a few more packs of it before the new catalog comes out...just in case it's not in there! Anyway, hope you're all having a great weekend!

Stamp sets ~ Tart & Tangy, Make It Count
Cardstock ~ old olive, bashful blue
Ink ~ old olive
Other ~ circle & scallop punches, old olive grosgrain ribbon, white gel pen

Card Challenge

I'm not sure why but I'm really into doing challenges lately! I found a card challenge on Taylored Expressions blog and immediately thought the layout would be cute for the new Tart & Tangy stamp set from Stampin' Up! I came up with 2 for the challenge. I coupled the stamp sets with the coordinating paper, added stickles to the fruit to make them sparkle and the middle image is popped up to give dimension. I'm having so much fun with these stamps! They make me happy every time I stamp with them :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

This is a little notebook I made for a friend. We had her going away dinner the other night because she's moving next week and I thought it would be cute to give to her along with her card. Then she can jot down all her moving notes in one place! God knows I had a million notes written down the last time I moved! We'll miss you Kelli!!

In case you haven't seen these notebooks, you can get them at Target and Walmart and I think even K-mart has them. They're perfect for altering. The best part? You can use up your leftover patterned paper scraps to make them! Add some ribbon and stamping and you're done!

It's hard to tell in the photos, but I used my Martha Steward border bunch along the side.

Before adhering the paper to the notebook, I ran it through the Xyron so that there'd be adhesive in between all the little openings in the scalloped edge. After attaching the paper to the notebook I used my adhesive eraser to *gently* remove adhesive inside the holes of the design.

Try making one of these notebooks! They're really easy and lots of fun :)

Sandcastle cake

I have one more non-scrappin' thing to share. I made this sandcastle cake for my son's preschool class today. They had "beach week" this week and they were having a beach party at school today. So I decided to make this sandcastle cake.

You'll have to excuse the lighting in these photos...they were taken at about 1am when I was finishing it up. Unfortunately I didn't have time to take a better photo in the morning in between getting the kids to school. The cake turned out cute...with the exception of the little bit of "taste testing" my son did on the side of the castle! When he saw the cake he said "that's cool mommy!" Can't get any better than that!

Oh well! No time to make a new one! The sand is crushed Nilla wafers.I thought the color was perfect since there were lighter and darker shades of tan, just like sand! I'm making another one of these cakes for a bbq on Saturday and I'm hoping to put some "water" along the outer edge. I'll be sure to share another photo!

BTW ~ thanks to my friend Beck who gave me this cake mold as a gift a couple years ago!! It worked out great :)

New goodies, favorite things

Ok, so I've gotten some new goodies this week. What else is new, right?! I found a new kit club (well, new to me anyway!) called Studio Calico. As soon as I saw April's kit I *had* to have it! And there are lots of fun goodies in it. Take a look...

there's some things missing cause I've already been playing :) I can't show you, though, cause I'm sending that layout to CK...crossing my fingers!

I've also recently purchased some new 12x12 albums. I've decided to change my albums over to all the same style and color. I chose the leather albums from Making Memories. I got brown for the family albums, green for my daughter and navy blue for my son. I have to say I *love* these albums. They're really nice looking and one added feature I like is that there's velcro on the spine to keep it flat. I really wanted to get the D-ring albums from We R Memory Keepers but I couldn't afford $30 a pop for albums! I got these babies for $11.99 each on www.joann.com!! And free shipping!! Even better :)


One of the things I found the last time I went to Archivers is this Zig Photo Signature pen. It's *perfect* for writing on glossy surfaces like photos and cardstock stickers and it doesn't smear or take forever to dry.

Now I just need to get another one in white to write on photos! And last, I'll share one of my latest favorite punches. Next to my scallop punch from Stampin' Up!, this is one of my favorites. It's a border punch by Martha Stewart. LOVE it!

Have a great night everyone!

Blackboard Mini-Album

Finally, it's working! This is the little mini-album I made with Cosmo Cricket's new Blackboard albums. The theme for this one is my son's preschool highlights. Can I just say that these are *so* much fun to work with! It's a pretty simple album, just a little brag book that he can look through (which he already has several times!) I just used a few pieces of patterned paper here and there to accent along with a white gel pen, buttons, ribbon and some stamping. The last 2 pgs are left blank for his last few days of school.

I usually keep a few of these little books layout out because my kids just love looking through them :) It's nice when your kids appreciate your scrapbooking!!

frustrated...

Ok, not sure what the problem is, but "blogger" won't let me upload photos today. I've tried it a couple times and I either get an error message or it sits in cyberspace limbo forever. I had planned on posting a few pics of a blackboard mini-album I made. So, if you want to take a look at it I have it posted in my 2Peas gallery. Hopefully by tonight or tomorrow I will be able to add it to my blog. Until then....

Update ~ looks like I'm not the only one having trouble today. I went on blogger support and there were others posting the same issues that I had. So we'll see what happens!

mmm...cheesecake

I made these cute little mini cheesecakes for our last meeting of recipe club tomorrow. This month's category is desserts (my favorite!) I found the recipe on Bakerella's blog (see her link on the right). This recipe is super easy...and super good. I can't stop eating them! I think it's cause they're small. Fewer calories, right?!!

Fruity cards

I finally had a chance to sit down and make a couple cards with the new Tart & Tangy stamp set from Stampin' Up! I've had it for about a month now and it's been killing me not using it! This set is *so* cute! Ok, anyway, I was inspired to make these cards from a card in the latest Creating Keepsakes magazine. The first card
with the strawberry is very similar to the one in the magazine. They used a Quickutz
strawberry for their card and as soon as I saw it I immediately thought of my T&T stamp set. I then made another card with the orange stamp with the phrase "orange you so sweet". I also added stickles to the fruit. I'm hoping sometime soon I can break into the new DS papers that match the stamp set :) Til then...














Cardstock ~ Real red, Only Orange, Old Olive

Dino feet

This is a layout I did for my first 2Peas challenge. The challenge was "Be Square". I'm having so much fun with these new Basic Grey papers! I've done 4 layouts so far. You can check out my layout here. If you have a 2Peas account and get a sec, be sure and vote for me :)

I have another 2 page layout that you can check out in my 2Peas gallery. The link is on the right. I have more to post this week so check back later :)