I hold monthly workshops at my home for CTMH on Fridays at 6:30 til about 9 or so. We have a small but fun little group. I have great support in my business venture with my friend Dominique, her mom Elaine and Aunt Althea. My friend Janene, who is also a CTMH rep comes as well. It's a night of crafty fun, lots of laughs and creativity. I designed 3 cards and lifted one from the the new catalog but modified it in my own way as always. I cut the papers and put them as well as any supplies we are using in bags for each girl. I use baskets to spread around the table to hold the stamps and inks we'll be using. It's a pretty Scraptastic set up!! Here's the cards I came up with for this month's workshop.
This first card is my lift from the Winter Catalog with the creepy cobwebs stamp

This next card is the spotlight technique with the Spooky Night set. I made the moon 3-D and the fence using foam dots.

This next card I stamped the orange card stock with cobweb from the Creepy Cobwebs set and then cuttlebugged it with the dots dye and then cut the strips into 1 inch X 4. I stamped the ghost from our Boo-ti-ful set and then stamped another image and cut out the trick or treat bag and colored it orange and used a pop dot to add dimension.

Lastly, here is my Spinner card. I used the cobweb dye from cuttlebug and cut out a circle and used dental floss to position the stamped circles in the center of the larger circle punch out. The other side says BOO and has googly eyes in the center of each O's.

I was really pleased with how the cards came out. Unfortunately I got home about 6 from my son's soccer practice last night and got a message that Dominique and her mom could not make it to the workshop and had to cancel. I called the other ladies and they preferred to cancel too if the others could not join us. Guess October hasn't been my month for crafting it seems. With Halloween next Friday we really can't reschedule but I have some cool cards to send out last minute!

So I gathered up my little girl and picked up Janene and went on a run to Micheals. I found a great way to store my $1 stamps with this album I found for a for $1 too! Purple flowers and so girly...love it!

Look how easily it stores those mini stamps and you can quickly flip thru the pages. I love little functional bargains like this!

DH is heading out to watch the UFC fights at his buddies so it's Lily and me for the night. Hmmm...scrap time! I almost have a Halloween layout from last year, Lily's 1st Halloween. I'd also like to take a walk around the neighborhood and check out the decor! I love this time of year
Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Sign of the times...

I don't know about any of you but things have been pretty tight around my house the past few months. I think everyone in some way or another is feeling a crunch and having to find ways to save here and there. With the upcoming election and the government take over of banks people are really watching their spending. It was pretty evident on Saturday at my Craft Fair. Seems alot of the vendors did not see as many of their items as last year. I was up til 3 am on Saturday morning still making cards because I was afraid I would not have enough stock. I finished with about 65 cards when I finally went to bed. I was then up at 6 and out the door by 7:30 with my family to set up over at the Joslyn Senior Center in El Segundo. My son Scott wanted to help me out til his soccer game so after we finished setting things up my DH and daughter headed back home. My father in law helped me by making a few poles he placed in buckets of cement so I could create a clothesline of cards to display. I envisioned the idea in my head and he was able to create it for me. SO COOL! Here's a pic of my table at the fair.





My place card

My little helper, my son Scott.

Me on 3 hours sleep YIKES!

Halloween Chipboard Album

I created this cute for the Scrapping out Loud challenge this week as well as a swap I am in so it's not a keeper :) It was a lot of fun and super easy. If you haven't tryed one yet, I highly suggest you give it a try!

I have a thing for foamies these days

I also love laser cut paper

Thanks for looking, i was up til 3:45 making cards for the craft fair today and I am so beat. I'll post pics and info about that Monday :) have a good weekend everyone!

Fall is here

One of the things I regret about living in Southern California is that we don't see the leaves change when Fall comes like on the East coast. My parents just moved back to Arkansas and have a few acres now on their property and when I talked to my dad the other day he mentioned that the leaves were starting to turn. I told him take lots of pictures since I am sure I won't be visiting til next year.

I still remember growing up in the central coast we had this beautiful tree in Templeton that would drop TONS of leaves in our front yard. My dad would rake them up just for my brother and sister and I to dive in. The colors were so pretty, burnt orange, green, and yellow. It's amazing the beauty we have all around us in nature but sometimes we get to busy to notice. Don't get me wrong, there is beauty in the city too, it's just different.

These cards were inspired from my friend Janene's Blog http://janenespumpkinpatch.blogspot.com/ She posted a "simple elegance card" the other day on her blog using an embossing folder from Cuttlebug, card stock and ribbon to create a quick but elegant card. I thought I would scrap lift it with my own twist. Thanks Janene!

I used the new cuttlebug embossing folder Autumn Type. For the card on the left I used pencils to color the leaves and the word Autumn. Then I went over the top of each colored item with liquid glass from Close To My heart and used our sassy strands to add a little more color. The card on the right I used ribbon and some Prima leaves and a pumpkin button with waxy flax curled to look like vine.

I'm so excited, i won some blog candy on Nancy's blog, Inkcicles http://inkcicles.blogspot.com/

She's got the cutest card posted today so head on over there and check it out! then head on over to Scrapbook & Cards today for their Freebie Friday http://scrapbookandcardstodaymag.typepad.com/scrapbook_cards_today_blo/

and finally the Queen of Paper's blog also has a Freebie Friday post! http://queenofpaper.blogspot.com/

Have a great weekend and take time to stop and see the beauty of nature around us.

Cards Cards and more Cards!

My craft fair is this Saturday and I have been a card makin mama! LoL, I stole that from the name of the Cafe Mom group I am an Admin in. I've got a pretty good variety of Halloween, birthday, thank you and blank cards. i just can't seem to make Christmas cards. I mean I have no desire yet. I am not worried about it tho since a gal I know who owns the local scrapbook store is putting together a winter craft fair in December and asked if I was interested in having a table. I figure after Halloween I can Christmas card it up!
I got this paper from Sonja's Scrap Spot, the friend I mentioned above scrapbook store. I love the flamingos but don't have a flamingo stamp so I figured a toucan would do. The paper is by Scribble Scrabble http://www.scribblescrabble.net/ from their Circus baby collection. These two cards are the same but I wanted to show how the inking and a little bling makes a big difference.









This is a baby girl 6x6 Accordion Album I made. I only have 5 of these made up for the fair but I figure I can take special orders if someone really likes them. I have several friends that special order them from me for gifts.









These are the inside pages



The back pages



Finally I am so excited I found out this am that I won a prize for my hybrid card challenge and Hope layout challenge at Ready, Set, Create. http://www.readysetcreate.com/ What a great community of scrappers there. Come on over and scrap with us sometime! And last but not least those that know me well know that I'm as 80's music nut. So when you stop by my blog enjoy the tunes I've picked out, some of the best layouts I've done were created to these songs.

Have a great day everyone!

Sunday scrappin!

This weekend I have been participating over at Ready, Set ,Create's Crop! There are lots of great challenges and they've just extended the crop til Weds! Check it out here http://readysetcreate.com/

Challenge #1 was sketch challenge. I came up with this layout of my daughter and her first friend Sam snacking it up!

Next challenge was a Hybrid card challenge where you had to use a digital image and a traditional image. Here's my card

Challenge 3 was to create a layout using pictures as your background. No patterned or solid card stock could show.

Challenge 5 was about inspiration or hope. I chose to scrap a layout about my hope for a cure for cancer. I lost my dear friend Marcela and I miss her everyday. I still have her number in my cell phone and can't delete it. Someday we will find a cure!

So in addition to finishing these projects so far I also finished a baby girl mini album, 10 cards and am in the middle of a little boy mini album for the craft fair this Sat Oct 18th in El Segundo. This is my first ever craft fair and I am really looking forward to it. My father in law has helped me create a way to display my cards in a clothes line fashion to help make it easier for people to see them.

Challenge #5 Halloween Favor. I decided to make a little treat holder for Lily.

10 things about me

This week's challenge at http://scrappingoutloud.com/ is to create a layout with 10 things about yourself. You still have time to create your layout if you'd like to join in! I've been creating cards with September's SOTM with Close to My Heart this week and wanted to make a layout using this stamp set. I started first with the flowers stamped on the background page in the right bottom corner and then it sat on my scrap table for a few days. I finally found time to finish it today. My journaling reads ...

1. i love chocolate but hate chocolate ice cream

2. i have two beautiful children

3. i play tennis when i can

4. i collect 9 west purses

5. i quit my job of 10 years to stay home with my children a year ago

6. i love baseball! Go Dodgers!

7. i hate having my picture taken

8. my favorite food is pizza

9. i love good n plenty candy

10 i love my one hour crime dramas

Crafty Stuff

Spooky Stuff!!!!

Yesterday my son was home from school for a holiday so the night before we headed down to micheals to get some crafty supplies for a project I dreamed up a few days before. I thought it would be fun to make our own Halloween decorations and fairly inexpensive too. My mom is coming the 30th to stay with us and I laso have my Close To My Heart Workshop on the 24th and I always decorate the house for the holidays. I love Halloween because it's usually the kick off to decorating! So we decided to make spiders from styrofoam and pipe cleaners to put inside the spider webs we could hang in the dining room. The paint took a few coats to cover the foam but once it dried it was really easy to stick the pipe cleaners in the foam and then use glue dots to put on the googly eyes and Voila! It was an easy and cheap project.

A few supplies we picked up

Here's Scott putting some legs on his spider

Here's a pic of our finished project hanging from his web

Next I had gotten some wood decorations that were a 1.00 and decided we were going to paint them. I found this tree for a centerpiece and got a few wood bats and ghosts to hang from the tree. I have never been really great at painting things, that's my mom's department but i figured I'd give it a try.

I also picked up a few wooden decorations to paint and display. I love the sparkle modge podge. it adds a great texture.

Found another great Blog!

There are just sooo many out there!! This one's called So Sketchyhttp://sosketchy.blogspot.com/ Here is my card inspired by Jen's card Birthday Wishes. Awesome take on the sketch! I used my scraps from this month's Bad Girls Kit. I really like how it turned out so much I made two!

Today was a card making day. I still have a few up my sleeve on my scrap table right now. I was playing with Close to My Hearts SOTM for September.

I am mixing some ink colors and I found that the new Sorbet and Tulip colors look really cool together. I'll post the card I am making tmr. I am too tired to finish it tonight! I got my RAK today from Scrapping Out Loud I won for September. Wow! It was so great getting a treat that's really awesome in the mail today!! Please check out the site and get in on the challenge. This month's RAK is awesome too!!!

Satisfaction does not come with achievement, but with effort. Full effort is full victory Ghandi

Well sadly I did not make the cut with my layout this week for the Bad Girls Top Designer Challenge. I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed but a wise man (my DH lol) always says that it's not your successes that you learn from but rather your failures. I did learn a lot! And quite a few of my competition were already established design team members from scrap booking manufacturers and websites as well as published artists. I feel so lucky to have held my own for 4 weeks against talent like that! I know one day I too will realize my dream of being a Design Team member or Published Scrapper. All in good time!

Now for some good stuff. Here's my layout for this week's challenge at Scrapping Out Loud. I can hardly believe that I won the RAK for September over there. I am sooooo excited and can't wait to get my scrappy stuff in the mail! Wow Wow Wow! This week's challenge we had to use a quote from Dr. Suess in our layout somewhere. you've still got time to play along. Click the link on my blog and come join us, the designers are so sweet and talented! For my layout I came across this quote that was perfect for some pictures I had been wanting to scrap of my friend Elise's son Sam and Lily playing together on the day before they moved to Oregon. We miss them so much!

I also completed a couple of sketches for some blog candy entry for World Card Making Day over at Little Paper Shop blog. With Halloween approaching I've been making a lot for my craft fair coming up on Oct 18th!

And finally here is my entry for Lisabee's sketch me if you can challenge. I won a cute Cuttlebug embossing set I've already put to use a few weeks ago! Thanks so much Lisa!!!

Dodgers Sweep the Cubs!!!!

Anyone that knows me knows that besides my love of scrapping I've got a love for baseball. Especially my home team the Los Angeles Dodgers! When my parents came to town in August I went up to Dodger Stadium to pick up tickets for a game while they were visiting. Normally there is 2-3 people in line buying tickets when you go during the week and when I got there I saw a huge line. I wasn't sure what the deal was but I unloaded the kids and we got in line. After standing there for a few minutes I learned that the Dodgers had signed Manny Ramirez formerly of the Bosten Red Sox. This was pretty huge since over the past few years there were rumours of the Dodgers being interested in big hitters but never being able to aquire the batters we needed. Finally the McCourts get a handle on a great player and to top it off we've already got Joe Torre!

When Mat and I started dating the Dodgers won the division title after Steve Finley hit a grand slam home run against the Giants. It was definately an unusual year as many great players were traded one being Paul LoDuca. He was a fan favorite and the trades didn't seem to make sense but the fans rolled with it hoping for a great post season attempt to the World Series. It didn't happen...the Cardinals took us down and the season was over.

Now in 2008 after the 3 game shutout over the Cubs who had the second best record of the year I am believing that we might just be able to see a World Series run at Dodger Stadium.

Who knows maybe this little gnome brought us the luck we needed??? At this point I really don't care what got us here. GO DODGERS!!!!

Here we go...

Here's my submission for week 4 of the Bad Girls Top Designer Contesthttp://badgirlskits.com/ The lesson this week was accessorizing creating unity and balance, flow and texture. I chose to spotlight the flower in my daughters hair with a burst of color with an acrylic block used as an accesory against the same photo in black and white. The flowers follow the flower and the opaque doodling for texture. Here's to another week I hope!!

close up of flower I cut and colored in with colored pencils

Kicken off World Card Making Day!

Alright so the challenge begins...click here http://www.worldcardmakingday.com/create/project.ihtml?idx=2&project_idx=39#details to see one of the cards in World Card Making Day's website. Since it's October 1st and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, I thought we'd start with a Halloween card. Now you don't have to copy the card exactly but you do have to spell BOO with chipboard, use Halloween colors and buttons! So have fun and post the link to you card here. I'll create a list of names in the order that you post and place it into randomizer.com to pick the winner of the small prize I am giving away from Close To My Heart. Have fun!

Psssst Guess What????

I made it to week 4 of the Bad Girls Top Designer Contest!!!!!!! But wait that's not really my big announcement.....Sunday October 7th is World Card Making Day!!!
World Card Making Day began in 2006 as National Card Making Day. Founded by Paper Crafts magazine in an effort to bring card makers together at the busiest card-making season of the year, it was first held on October 7, 2006. The initial celebration involved the Paper Crafts magazine audience only; however, due to the positive response it received and the worldwide popularity of card making, Paper Crafts recognized the need to expand, and the holiday transformed into World Card Making Day.Now in its second year, World Card Making Day has been expanded to include a dedicated web site http://www.worldcardmakingday.com/; a wider, more inclusive level of sponsorship; and a marketing campaign designed to get the word out at the grassroots level. These steps were taken in hopes of uniting the card-making community (hobbyists, retailers, manufacturers, and more) and celebrating the connection and creativity that is at the heart of card making.
So in honor of World Card Making Day I'll begin on Wednesday with my first ever card challenge! I'm excited are you??? Check here Weds morning at 6:30 am pacific time for my challenge and post your creation by midnight Oct 1st to win a small prize from me. Then continue to visit my blog til World Making Card Day, Sunday October 7th for a different challenge or technique post related to Card Making. I want you to have fun and send your cards to a friend or loved one during this time to celebrate and on Sunday Oct 7th I'd like all who are interested to post here if you'd like to exchange cards with another poster, make a surprise friendship card and then I will assign partners and send you their addresses after you email me yours at shemainesmith@yahoo.com Pls title your email World Card Making Day Friendship Exchange.
Let's celebrate together and brighten someones day with an awesome card!

Design Experiment Challenge

I finally found time to complete this weeks Design Experiement challenge http://thedesignx.blogspot.com/ It was all about Indulgance and when it comes to my coffee creamer I'm all about that second cup of Joe! My journaling reads

I can't start my day without my cup of Joe. And if it doesn't have a splash of cocnut creamer it's undrinkable! It's my sweet indulgance.