mambi: Instant Love

Hi friends!  I want to share another page I made with some mambi products with you today.  I used a really cute 3-D pocket page card from the Baby Girl pack (with glitter!  oh yeah! - you can see it here) and a cute chalkboard sheet from the chalkboard paper pad (which is here)  for a backing paper -- and really, the rest came together so easily.

Love that glitter on the Pocket Page card!

I just drew a heart on cardstock, cut it out, and put it on foam tape.  Love the dimension! 

Today is my birthday and I asked for a cookie cake -- we'll see if I get my wish!  Have a great day!  :)

mambi: Love This

Hi and Happy Middle December!  Oy -- I can't believe that it's already the middle of December!  Today I wanted to share a sweet little layout I made with this awesome little mambi kit!

You know I love a kit -- and I loved the page that I put together from this one!  How cute is this -- lots of fun, bright colors and craft.  And it came with an album.  I always need albums.

 

I think my favorite park is the little flags I stuck out from under the "love this" sticker.  It makes a fun focal point.  

And love that stitching too!  

Hope you all have a happy Monday!

Paper Camellia: 2013

I'm here today with another layout from the December Paper Camellia Kit!

I love a big photo, and I used this page to do another one of my sweet girl.  Gold rub ons around the edge provide a neat frame, and the frame of layered paper keeps things focused on the center of the page.

Love this cluster.  I put strips of washi on a piece of scrap card stock and punched out the butterfly.  

Love these little chipboard banners -- they match the banner from the Bundled Up sticker sheet perfectly!

Today on the Whimsical Twist Blog

You can see my layout, and the layouts by the other fantastic women on the Whimsical Twist Design Team, over on the Whimsical Twist Blog today.  It's all about negative space, and I think you'll like it!

Oh Baby

Today I'm sharing another layout made with Glitz's Finnley collection.  I've almost got this collection down to tiny scraps and a few spare stickers, that's how much I've loved using it.  I love how a baby theme isn't blue or pink.  As someone who is scrapping a lot of baby pages lately, it is so so so refreshing.  This is (so far, I have a page or two left before the collection is killed) my favorite page I've made with it.  I love that triangle on white background paper.  

I mounted the "oh baby" die cut on foam to pop it up off the page.  There is also some stitching for a little textural detail.  I set my sew machine's tension a little low to give it a a messier, more home made sort of look.  Imperfection can (and should!) be on purpose sometimes.  

You can get this amazing collection at the Whimsical Twist store.  It is so usable!  

Today on the Whimsical Twist Blog!

There is a new challenge going up on the Whimsical Twist blog today -- and it's all about TEXTURE.  I love me some texture and dimension (don't even ask how many rolls of foam tape I go through!) so I was excited to create an inspiration piece using burlap (so autumnal!) and the new Family Traditions line by Adrienne Looman for Webster's Pages.  The full layout is up on the blog -- so go check it out and be sure to enter your own creation for a chance to win a Whimsical Twist gift certificate.

Intro to Edisto

Today I'm sharing a layout made mostly with my latest Citrus Twist Kit - with a bit of stash thrown in for good measure.  Use it up, Wear it out!

I have quite a few instagram photos I'm scrapping right now because I sent a few to walgreens via the Printicular app to see what the quality was like.  I don't usually do prints at Walgreens because they only do glossy photos, but these are sorta a pearly matte.  Not too bad, but not ideal for taking photos of without glare.  (Glare on photos of photos -- #scrapbookingproblems)

I abused the sides of my paper with my scissors which was pretty fun.  I'm doing a lot of sewing on my pages these days -- I no choice on this page, though; my Thickers kept falling off.  Sigh.

I'm loving this page, though.  It really fits the mood of getting to the island.  It was pouring rain; Orli had a cold and had screamed a good portion of the trip.  (We, of course, stopped lots to soothe her!)  Our 2.5 hour trip ended up taking 4 hours.  But we drove across the bridge and the rain slowed down and Orli was asleep and I just exhaled and took in the prettiness on the grey, stressful day.

And that was the start of vacation.

*   *   *

If you haven't already, make sure you comment on the blog hop post below -- lots of fun prizes! I'll post the winner of my prize pack on Monday!

Whimsical Twist Blog Hop!

Welcome to Whimsical Twist's first challenge! We thought it would be a lot of fun to also have a Blog Hop to celebrate our first challenge! How does that sound?
During the Hop you will be visiting blogs from several of our fabulous design team members. You will find so much inspiration on the way, that your head might explode!
The hop will start at the Whimsical Twist blog and end at Sharm's blog. You should have arrived from Kimmie Rishebarger's blog. If you are just joining in, be sure to go to the Whimsical Twist blog to start. If you get lost along the way, just look at the list below to get you hopping in the right direction.
And you can't have a Blog Hop without giveaways and this one is no different! In order to be entered into the giveaways, you will need to be sure you leave a comment on each blog on the hop. Whimsical Twist will also be giving away a $15 gift certificate to the shop to one random hopper! We will be announcing the winners of our giveaways on August 12th, so be sure to watch for the announcements.
Without further ado, let's get this celebration started!
Our first challenge is inspired by summer!


I hope you're enjoying all the great layouts by my fellow design team members - aren't they great?

Here is the mood board we were all inspired by:

For my layout, I was inspired by the bright pink hue of the watermelon photo for its cheerful, summery feel. The former art major in me says where there is orange, though, you need a blue - so I chose a photo with lots of blue to focus on like the puppy in the float. And here is what I came up with:

I used water soluble crayon for the background color and the border, plus a little Tattered Angels Shimmer Mist for extra color. The stars are punched out of a background I painted but didn't like (I think it looks great as stars, though!) and the paper is Webster's Pages Sweet Notes by Allison Kreft. That binder clip in the corner I had attached to my shirt when I came home from the office, and it was yellow and cute -- so on it went! Throw in some twine, stickers by My Mind's Eye, some enamel dots and a few sequins and you've got yourself a layout!

My motto: Use It! Use It! Use It!

Speaking of, I used: Sweet Notes by Allison Kreft for Websters Pages, MME Tiny Label Stickers, MME Tiny Word Stickers, Travel Girl Tidbits, MME Enamel Dots (are you addicted to these?  I am!), Sequins, water soluble crayons, some Martha Stewart paints, a fiskars star punch, Thickers, a riverbank revels doily, twine, a Citrus Twist Kits exclusive stamp, some washi tape from a Citrus Twist kit, and I think that's a Dear Lizzy roller date stamp.  I have like one million of roller date stamps, so I'm not positive.  Oh, and the dolphin paper clip is from a japanese stationary store.  And the binder clip is from my office, which I accidentally wore home the day I made this layout.

I love that little dolphin paper clip -- isn't it cute?

Leave me a comment and keep on hopping for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to the Whimsical Twist store. Subscribe to my blog too because I'll be giving away a sweet little Smash prize pack next week to one of the people who comments on this post and/or subscribes to my blog and/or friends me on facebook! (You get two entries if you both comment and subscribe.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway


In case you've gotten lost, here is the order of the blog hop:

Lisa Lahiff 

Alexandra Polyzou  
Sandi Pressley 

Amanda Johnson

Ashley Hamm 

Taniesa Vlasak 

Charissa Miller 
Kimmie Rishebarger 
Sharm Nidyanandan 

YOU ARE HERE >>>  Laurie Danielle 

Lisa Wilkinson 

Next on the hop is Lisa Wilkinson! Thanks for visiting me!

Yam Tastic!

Hi All!  I've been on vacation this past week, so I've been busy making memories instead of scrapping them.  It's been a blast, though!  Tie Dye, Watermelon, fireworks on the beach, family family family -- so much to record and remember.  Today, though, I wanted to share something a little older -- a page about the food I'm feeding baby Orli.

We took some great photos as we offered her new solid foods, and this set of photos of her eating yams was special to be because it included a photo of my husband feeding her -- but I already did a page about her eating solids.  So I decided to do a page about how I make all of her baby food myself here at home.  (BTW, I highly recommend a Cuisinart Baby to anyone who's looking to make baby food at home -- that thing is fantastic!)

(Our TV is not usually on ever, much less during dinner.  We were having some severe storms, though, so I was watching for storm warnings.  I feel so lame that the TV is on in that photo!  Bah!)

I hand stitched a frame around the photos and also drew a border to make it pop a little.  Add a little washi tape, some brads (I'll never be over brads) and some glitter Thickers and we're good to go.  The paper is Sweet Notes by Allison Kreft for Webster's Pages.  I haven't used a lot of that collection yet, but I love it, so I'm sure more is sure to come.  Gotta use it up with all my summer photos!

I won't be at the beach much longer, so expect more regular updates soon.  Until then, enjoy some summer!

Welcome Sweet Baby!

I like to think of myself as a little bit Warhol.

Well, you can tell whats going on in my life by recent layouts, can't you?  Really, baby is life -- those are the only stories I have to tell right now.  I'm not complaining though - the days are long but the weeks are short and she changes so quickly that I'm glad to document things while they're fresh in my mind.

Here is baby Orli just a week or so old as seen in four shrunken versions of her birth announcement.  Because I'm a nerd, several different colorways of the announcement were mailed out and I wanted a way to highlight them all.  Again, we have Dear Lizzy Neapolitan paper and banner (which UHHHG photographed like a parabola instead of a nice swooping banner!) and a little bit of machine sewing.    This was, I think, the first layout I made after Orli came home so I was getting my sea-legs back.  WHERE ARE YOU SEA LEGS? I KNOW I PUT YOU AROUND HERE SOMEWHERE.

Ikea Organization

A lot of hex keys went into this project

And here it is, a thing of great beauty!  There are two new Expedit units in this new, updated, better than ever version of my crafting space.  The 4x2 on the left with all the baskets is brand new as well as the 2x2 that has my blue photo box on top of it.  The chair is fresh as well.  Before I was working at just the desk and the tall bookshelf on a rickety old second hand dining room chair.  It was not awesome.  There were also two rainbow rolly carts that were, while somewhat effective, mostly not effective and pretty darn ugly.  So, 4 hours in a car, 350 dollars (ugh), and a few blisters later -- here we are!  Lots of green boxes, 8 baskets (over $100 in baskets.  That almost makes me sick -- but I guess they'll last forever.  When I was getting my new iPhone a few days ago (I AM SPEWING MONEY RIGHT NOW SOMEONE PLUG ME UP) the lady I was dealing with told me that her grandfather told her "I'm too poor to be cheap".  I know that as someone who just bought a ton of stuff from Ikea I should probably not be quoting that, but it struck a chord with me.  Just spend the money and get something that will last.  So that is the justification on the nice baskets.  They will last, or something), and a rail, some hooks and other rail stuff later, I am good with a place for everything and everything in its place.  Which I love, even if I am only good about that sort of thing 85% of the time.  And there is room to grow, which I should probably not do but probably will anyways.

I also would like to tell you about my sewing machine that you can see in one of the cubbies someday (because it is awesome and runs by using a GAME BOY!) but that day is not today.  But just you wait.  It is so. freaking. awesome.  A Game Boy, no joke!

BPC: Design Challenge #6

Let's not tell my mother in law I posted that photo of her on the internet, shall we?

Still loving Design Challenges over at Big Picture Classes.  My craft-space is all organized and ready to go (I'll post details soon), so I worked on this today.  This started as a two page layout, but it was looking SO. BAD. that now it is a one page that actually looks decent.  I'm going to play around with the base of the other page and see what I can do to salvage it. 

As you can see from the picture, I am hereby claiming the correct way to spell that 8-day holiday with the candles is H-A-N-U-K-K-A-H.  I'm not really one for spelling it with a "C", but I guess my only real hard and fast rule is that any spelling of Hanukkah must have 8 letters.  Why?  Because 8 is important in Hanukkah and it is the only way I can tell if I have actually spelled it (any version) correctly.  It is true -- I am not such a good speller.  (Want proof?  On the post a couple down I have, in my page's journaling, spelled "pose" (like a group of people) as "posee" which I'm pretty sure isn't even a word. I should probably fix that.) 

Don't judge!

Okay -- you can judge a little. 

BPC: Design Challenge #2

My (c)ankles were swollen from the flight.  I do not have elephant ankles normally.

Design Challenge number 2 completed.  I learned:

1.  Sam's Club prints 12x16 for, like, $3.50 -- and they had a free trial membership weekend last weekend so you didn't have to be a member to have prints made.
2. The prints from Sam's club are matte and slightly rubbery to the touch, so they do not go smoothly through your sewing machine and you have to spit on them a little to keep them gliding under your sewing machine's foot. (I learned the spit trick from my days as a costume designer)
3. My paper trimmer is all sorts of wonky and will not cut in straight line at a right angle
4. RAD LAB is, in fact, totally rad and I see myself making a major purchase in the next month to buy it once my trial runs out
5. I am totally digging using a big picture as the base of a page

BPC Design Challenges: Project 1

Hooray for first layouts of new classes. I'm taking Design Challenges over at Big Picture Classes, and this was my first layout of the class. I love a fast paced class with no real rules (ugh, I ESPECIALLY hate step by step tutorials -- I want to be FREE!) so I'm digging this already.

I had a 6x6 paper pad that I picked up a while back to try out that I used for my pie chart. I learned that I tend to like bigger pieces of paper than just 6" on my layouts, so the pad hadn't been getting much use -- but it was perfect for chopping up into wedges for my chart.

Did a little experimenting with Tim Holtz distress ink, which is a new material and technique for me. Next time I'm going to tone it down a little, I think.

And of course my layout has my one true love of WASHI TAPE all over it. I tell you, I could eat that tape for breakfast lunch and dinner. Its perfect for all occasions.

Can't wait for the next challenge to be released, and I'll post what comes of it here, of course!