I know I talk about Bad Girls alot on my blog but I just love the kits and all the goodies Wendy finds for us to create with. I am learning so many great techniques from the designers and stretching myself farther than I thought I could artistically. I am seeing a shift in my normally "clean" scrapping to a more shabby chic-ish approach and I love it! I have always been a fan of inking and distressing paper but I never thought to roll it so I gave it a try in the Apron Challenge layout. I think it has just the right amount of embellies without going overboard. I'm especially proud of the leaves I made from ribbon for the flowers. When I got my add on kit called Pixie Playground the one thing that drew me in fast was the ribbon from Artsy-licious and the purple prima flowers. I couldn't wait to put them to use.

This month's challenge was "all about junking your page up as much as possible"

I was in such a scrapping mood I scrapped up 2 more pages with my July kit and the ideas just kept coming. The perfect photo's also help :) We had given a Lily a bath and a friend of mine had a phone conversation earlier that day about how much my daughter's hair has grown. I decided to mark the occasion and what better way then soaped up at bathtime!

And finally A Brother's Love was fun because I love the Say It In Crystals by Prima and as you can see they look great on a masculine layout as well. The photo frames that came with one of the add-on kits are fun and funky, I can't wait to use the angel wings for a layout with my Lily. I have an idea of her in this little ballet tutu I picked up for her but that's for later...

Bad Girls Birthday Scraplift Challenge!

Wow it was FINALLY my turn for the Bad Girls BirthdayScraplift Challenge!! I saw the post last night at 1 a.m. so I couldn't start til the morning but I dreamt about my layout last night...too funny.

I had so much fun with this challenge and the girls in the group are so so talented I was nervous about how my layout would look compared to theirs but I just decided to stay true to myself and my style of scrapping and have fun. I found the cherry paper first and loved the skull and cross bones in the cherries so the other ideas followed. I was up at 7a.m. working away, here it is!

The party is in full swing, where's your party hat?

WooHoo The Bad Girls Birthday bash is in full swing and time is tunning out for you to get here! I've got my party hat and dancin shoes on! There are such fun things happening in this group and you've got to come join us! This weekend is the Crop a Thon and I for one am planning on some serious scrapping. Plus! It's almost my turn to scraplift!!! I can wait. Here's a sneak peek of my special stash I set aside for this project except the giraffe stamp and litle one stamp. They

aren't bad enough for this layout! I know I will hardly be able to sleep tonight!

A Royal Success!!

We celebrated my daughter's 1st birthday toady with a little Princess Party at a park near our home. It was a small party with a few of our close friends and Lily's Nana Virginia and Aunt Melissa. We had a really great time but I missed my parents so much and wish they could have been there. We are all meeting in Hawaii for vacation in August and plan on celebrating as a family then but still it's harder when these family events come along and thoise you love most can't be there. I also wish my best friends Tami and Suzanne could have joined us as well. We had good food, sandwhiches prepared by Nana Virginia and cake from Angel Made Bakery. We gave Lily her own little cupcake and she went to town.

She had a purple butterfly ring that she licked the frosting off of first.

Then she really started to shovel the frosting in her mouth

She pretty much finished off the entire cupcake in minutes.

The kids played at the park and Lily walked all over in her walker and enjoyed watching the other kids. When it came time to open gifts, she really cleaned up with lots of toys and books and alot of Elmo themed stuff. It was a great day.

I Just Love this Dawn Gal...

Ok I am such a fan of this Stampin Up Rep. Bless her heart for creating these awsome tutorials that you can watch and teaching us all how to make amazing and funcards. This is a card I did for a fun swap called an envelope card. Check it out here and make your own!http://dawnsstampingthoughts.typepad.com/dawns_stamping_thoughts/2008/03/envelope-card-v.html

Here's one I did with a beach theme...

A peek inside

And...filled with some goodies for my swap partner

Grrr, I hate it when things just don't go my way!

I have no one to blame but myself really but I placed my order for supplies from CTMH for this Friday's layout workshop last Thursday and nothing has even shipped yet. Apparently with the Stampaganza promotion they were flooded with orders up until the last day of June and they just prcessed orders placed on the 30th today. Luckily the girls are understanding and willing to reschedule to next Friday eve. Still irritates me but I'll get over it.

On another note, an altered container I made may be published in an online craft mag. I will keep you all posted as I am uber excited! I also submitted my 2 Sweet page to Creating Keepsakes magazine for their cool technique editorial. I thought my glitter technique on the black and white photo to add a touch of color was pretty cutting edge.

S0 tonight I am working on a 12x12 layout for my friend Elise. I snapped a few pics of our kids playing together awhile back and since she's moving away soon I wanted to add a creation of mine to Sam's scrapbook. Man that kid is cute! I am so into scrapping girlie girl right now I am hitting a slight creative block with a more masculine page. He just turned 1 and thank goodness I crafted his birthday card(pictured below) some time ago. I'll post my layout later when I finish.
I don't know why but the last couple of days I just haven't felt like scrappin. Of course I am sure that feeling will change when I get my July bad girls Kit with all the fab goodies she's got in store for us this month.
I also saw some stinkin cute Making Memories stamps on Overstock.com I want. Right now shipping is only 2.95! So cool. They are these adoarble owls. I am really into the owl thing.

How do you scrap with an 11 mos old at your feet?

Oh that one's easy! Fill two containers with embellishments and just shake, shake, shake... I worked on the DDD in Bad Girls today and it really was a challenge. You had to use only one product once. This is what I came up with using Heidi Swapp flowers, prima flowers, making memories brad, doodlebug glitter words...you get the idea. Only problem was I am out of ink for my photo printer so I had to use a photo I had printed awhile ago. I like how it turned out. I like the black in the layout.

So this is good for the contest but to me it just looked unfinished and I would seriously go to bed tonight working in my head what else needed to be changed or added. Well I just couldn't do that! So here is Always my Baby revisted...

A new card technique I learned

I finally had the time to do the two weekly challenges in CMM's (card makin mamas) on CafeMom. The first was a pop up card that had to be a summer theme. I just got this stamp set as part of my free stamp from the Stampaganza promotion. I really like the way it turned out.

The second card was a sketch challenge also on CMM's. I decided to use my cuttlebug and colorbox ink to ink over the embossed images. I also used dimensional elements chipboard for the scalloped circles on the card and used brads to adhear the flowers to the chipboard.

Scrappy Saturday, my favorite day of the week!

I hope you all had a great 4th! The Smith family enjoyed the 2nd Annual Charbonnet-Love BBQ in Playa Del Rey. Alot changes in a year, I was still pregnant with Lily at last year's BBQ and anticipating her arrival. Here's a few shots of the fam and cute little Lily stealing the show...

Mommy and Me

Cutie Pie!

This Friday is my workshop and I have been designing this month's project, a two page layout with Blue Ribbon Paper. I scraplifted a layout idea from the cover of Scrapbooks Etc. one of my favorite magazines. Here's a sneak peek

Happy Independance Day!

Happy 4th to everyone. I hope you are all out enjoying your day with your families and BBQ'in!We are relaxing here at home before we head out to a BBQ with our good friends Will and Dominique. We'll be enjoying Will's expert BBQ'in and a great view of the fireworks show in Marina Del Rey. It's Lily's first 4th and of course mommy got her a cute outfit to wear. I even found a really cute pait of baby flip flops at Target, too cute! Now if she only would have smiled for mommy it would have been picture perfect. Her 1st birthday is fast approaching and she really is getting more independant. She likes to feed herself off our plates and snack her stars and wagon wheels. She has 7 teeth now and I think # 8 is coming since last night she kept us up from 2-4am. She wasn't cranky, she just wanted to play...

As for scrapping, I have been pretty busy this week. I got my add-on kit ordered from Bad Girls and can't wait to play with it. They usually ship between the 10th and 15th and since I already subscribe to the monthly kits, I am really going to have lots and lots of goodies to enjoy.

This week I completed a layout for June's Apron Challenge. Apron challenge? What's that? (you say) It's a great contest Wendy has in Bad Girls where the winner gets a Bad Girls Swarovski embellished Apron to scrap it up in. I would just DIE to get one :)

This layout is very personal to me because I became overweight at the age of 20 when I had a terrible relationship that was abusive mentally and physically. I never had a weight issue and before we met I weighed a healthy 135. I had so much self confidence at that age but I had just moved to the city with him where I had no friends or family. Unfortunately I learned alot of life lessons fast. After gaining weight from being unhappy and dealing with the stress of his abuse and cheating I finally broke free from him and moved on but the weight stayed with me. Over the years I have yo-yo'd with my weight and diets and never really had the courage or determination to conquer my biggest personal issue with my weight. With the love of my husband and his constant support and encouragement and help in facing my life issues head on and taking control, I had an Ah Ha moment so to speak at the end of May. I realized that the young girl I once was is no longer who I am today. I finally see that I am in control of me and no one else. I was ready to take Shemaine back from Dana (the ex) and be happy in everything I do. So I started walking and going to the gym, eating healthier and I joined a weight loss support group on my favorite mom site Cafe Mom. Well I've lost 16 pounds so far and for the first time in my life I see the goal I have for myself in front of me and know it's totally within my reach. I wanted to scrap this feeling and this time of self discovery and motivation as my submission to the challenge. So here it is...

A close up of the dragon fly I made from cut out images on cardstock

Here I used paint by Making Memories and painted on a paper towel and cut it 8x8 to use as cardstock. On the left side of the layout I painted a piece of paper towel and wrapped it around an acrylic block and stamped on the cardstock using the design of the paper towel. I also used the paint to ink the outter edges of the cardstock and the chipboard.

I am pleased with the funkyness of the layout and chose to black and white the photos for contrast. I had alot of fun with this.

Ohhhh I have never been more excited for a Monday!

So I was turned onto the Bad Girls site thru my friend Danielle and I am hooked! Tonight at 10 pm the new kits are revealed and the add-ons are avail for purchase!!!! I save my commissions from CTMH for this since last month they all sold out very quickly. Also tmr begins the 1 year birthday party. If you haven't already, check this site out and join in the fun. There are free classes and all kinds of great stuff happening here!

I have officially finished my chores and it's time to scrap! I have to admit I am a little bummed I lost the card challenge in CMM's. I really loved that card and hate to part with it but alas I know the winner will enjoy it as much as I would.

And on another note I am pleased to share that due to this month's Stampaganza my sales were over 2000.00!!!!! Yay for me!!!!!!!!! I am pleased to have so many great customers and friends with CTMH.

I finished my waterfall card for the card technique swap in Advanced swaps non-stop on Cafe Mom, my first ever of this technique and it turned out pretty good!

I also finished up my Just Enough Swap in the same group and chose the embellished paper

clip this time. I hadn't tryed these before but they seemed relatively easy which they were. The theme was 4th of July and this is what I came up with using our July word puzzle stamp and my Cricut.

Sooo beside the sugar coating I am wild about I stumbled upon these adorable and CHEAP acrylic stamps at Making Memories in Newbury Park. (GASP! Me buying stamps not by CTMH) The brand is imaginisce and they're called Snag' em Stamps. Because at 1.50 per stamp they probably fly off the shelves! You can check them out at www.imaginisce.com. I now own 4, a cute bird, and Easter stamp and the Penguin Dude and Dudette from the A Shore Thing Collection.

I used the Penguin Dude and some cardstock sent to me by a gal in CMM's to create this adorable card. I sure love that glue pen and Sugar Coating by Doodlebug Designs.

Have a scrappy day!

Scrappin the night away

You know every so often I get a burst of scrapping energy and burn the candle at both ends. Tonight was one of those nights and I know I am going to pay for it tmr but it's been soo worth it. I finished my first Bad Girl submission for the Malibu Pop Shop sketch contest. I loooove this sugar coating by doodle bug designs, have I mentioned that? LOL

So here is my first submission. I used to glitter on the birds and cut them out and used liquid glass on the pink flowers. I took the green peice of cardstock and used navy colorbox ink to ink the entire thing and then crinkled the paper to give it the worn look. I used blue bling in the trees and white sugar coating on the chipboard and then inked it blue. The title reads My Big Brother and above the right corner says loving, protective, funny, special.

This second layout I also used sugar coating on the leaves of the flowers in the cardstock and cut it out. You'll see this pic is familiar, it's my new technique I tryed on the black and white photo with a glue pen and sugar coating as posted earlier. This is my submission for the DDD#17 over at Bad Girls. I painted the bare chipboard (another fav technique right now) and then used liquid glass. It says Lily 11 months at the botom right corner.

What a Scraptastic Day!!!

Friends I have such great news to share, my DH had his oral interview this morning with the Los Angeles City Fire Dept and made it thru to the background check! When he called me I started screaming on the phone. All that planning and memorizing his opening statement and visiting Fire Depts and taking the EMT course at UCLA paid off today. He was so confident and elated when he called to say he's made it and I couldn't help but feeling like the proudest wife in Los Angeles!

We went out to lunch to celebrate with his mom at Islands in Manhatten Beach. It was a nice time with the family and he of course crashed in his power chair (a.k.a. the lazy boy) from mental exhaustion. I am so happy for him, this really is a wonderful acheivement.

I also have been working on some projects for some challenges on a site called Bad Girls (check it out, you'll be addicted like me. http://www.badgirlskits.com/ I am pretty pleased with how they are coming along tho I am not quite ready to reveal my masterpeices yet... I did come across an awesome technique I'd like to share with you all tho. One of the challenges is to take a black and white photo and add a touch of color. Now I can not afford the photoshop program that does that so me being me, I thought outside of the box and with a glue pen and a little sugar coating by doodle bug designs, Voila!!!

I traced the glue pen along the design of her hawaiian print tank top and the barrett in her hair. I think it looks way cool!

Here's a tighter shot so you can see better. Now I just need to create the layout to go with the awsome pic.

This week's card challenge in CMM's was a fun one too. I had won the challenge a few weeks ago and one of the gals sent me a few scraps of beautiful printed cardstock. I took a liking to the green and here is my submission for this week. I stamped the image on vellem paper and then used holographic embossing powder. The paper was double sided so I used the other side and window charms from CTMH to make the center of the flowers. I also added a bit of the velvet in a cream color that was scraps in the left corner and some glittery yellow chipboard and lots of bling baby!

Stampaganza is almost over!!!

Wow I can hardly believe that it's the end of June. Where has the time gone? Although it is just the beginning of the summer, this year is already half over.

As you can see in this picture my daughter loves to play at my feet while I scrap in my supplies. Maybe it's a sign of a future scrapper? She gets the embellies and shakes them and has to put everything in her mouth...lol

I can hardly believe that she's turning 1 less than a month from now. I am planning a family Princess party for her at Del Rey Park in Playa Del Rey. I am going to order her a very special princess cake and make sure there is lots of pink. Iam trying to convince dad to let her have her own mini cake to get into and have fun. I am sure I can persuade him by diggin out my old photo albums of Scott eating his 1st birthday cake.

So what I most recently worked on was a card using my Cuttlebug to emboss the scraps of transfer paper and it turned out great! Here's the finished product!

I also used some felt border that I cut the

dragonfly out of. The Paper is CTMH's Silhouette collection and a Big Pinks flower.

I picked up some great glitter from Sonja's and some graduation papers so I guess my next project should be Scott's Graduation pics. I want to scrap tonight but I am so busy with wrapping up my CTMH orders from my gathering last Friday and yesterday. I am close to a 1000.00 in sales between the both parties and I still have a book party open til the 27th. My mom called today and mentioned placing an order again as well. It's such a great deal buy 2 and get one free. I even ordered a few that I have had my eye on to play with. I love it when the order comes to my home and the UPS man knocks at my door to let me know it's arrived. Boy, will he have his work cut out for him this month. I am really excited to get this month's Stamp Of the Month. It looks like such a great stamp! I am sure I will be staying up late when that order arrives.

Schools out for Summer

Today my son Graduated from 5th grade at Loyola Village Elementary. It was a nice Culmination ceremony and at the end the students sang You Raised Me Up and presented their mothers with roses. It was so sweet and touching. I can hardly believe my little man is growing up and going to the 6th grade. I am very pleased with Scott's grades this year, the best yet!

My monthly workshop metts here tomorrow night and I am very excited to be having a special guest. Christina (the owner of Scrapping with Friends) is visiting Los Angeles from Washington State this summer and is attending my workshop. I am really looking forward to meeting this special gal. Just after I had Lily I saw an ad for Cafe Mom after checking my Yahoo email. I checked it out and her group Scrapping With Friends, was the first one I signed up for. I loved the QPMU (quick pick me up) challenges. They really helped me get my scrapping going again. When Lily was sleeping I would scrap and it really helped relieve the stress of being a new mom with a newborn baby and all the crazyness those first few weeks bring. I always tell people that SWF saved me from the baby blues!

I am really excited to have won the card challenge in Card Makin Mama's last week with this card. The technique was a really fun and original card challenge. I got my first card today from one of the gals that competed. Such an awsome prize! Win the challenge and get all the cards submitted for the challenge as your prize.All the ladies in this group are very talented ladies! I especially love the group owner Cass, another creative and classy Cafe Mom!

So I chose the challenge for this week and for me it was a challenge as well...stamping on transfer paper and creating a card. This look is definately the ultimate in classy cards. Perfect for weddings and anniversaries~! Thanks to the awsome site Spiltcoaststampers for posting such creative and cutting edge tutorials!

So I am gonna head to the store to pick up some ice cream and toothpicks to create my own cup cake graduate decor, I was shocked there were no cup cake decorations for graduations. Not to worry, anyone that knows me knows I can always make my own... Oh and anyone else celebrating a Graduation, Congratulations Graduate!!!

It's official! I'm in Yellowbook.com

So I was heading out to buy a cake platter for my daughter's first birthday next month and I got a call I didn't recognize on my cell phone. A sweet lady said "Is this Scraptastic?" For a minute I was like...huh? Then it hit me and I said "Yes it is" She went on to tell me she was looking for someone to make a scrapbook with her pictures and papers for a friend's 60th birthday. I had totally forgot that Mat had taken out an Ad for my Scrapbooking biz. It took some time to get up and running but it's now official, you can fine me on Yellowbook.com.
http://www.yellowbook.com/profile/scraptastic_1820677250.html?addressId=1

Happy Scrappy Day!

Am I nuts or what, I have like 5 projects on my scrap table right now! I always do this, I start one then get side tracked by another and another and another...LOL It's never ending. I have a workshop next Fri the 20th that I haven't even designed yet. I am not that worried since I've designed the workshops the day before say... a dozen times.

I am really pleased with my Cafe Mom group Scraptastic! We have an awsome group of fun and talented ladies that love to learn new techniques. Here's the layout we are doing. It's made with the Boom Di Ada Level 1 kit and assorted embellies and stamped images.

Monday Morning Blues

Lily is waking earlier and earlier. This time it was 6 am. No sleeping in for mommy and when I am a night owl it really makes it had to get up. Thank goodness for coffee and Coconut creamer! I finished a 6x6 Accordian graduation Album for my ETSY store last night. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5799604 I really need to get some books made and posted they are such fun and unique ways to preserve your memories. It's hard being home all day every day. After awhile you kinda just sit around and the hours just go by. I know there is laundry to be done, dishes in the sink and bathrooms to be cleaned but I rebel against the thought of it somedays and just SCRAP! I have never been fond of lists but I think I better start making a daily list for myself so I can get some things accomplished.

I finally got a suignature created for my Cafe Mom account. I wanted to showcase the groups I am in and promote my own Scraptastic group. What do you think?

Here's also the slideshow for my Graduation Book