Yep it's Hip Hop time at Unity Stamps! So get on over here and join the chatting and you could win some fabulous prizes for hanging out! Check out the fabulous new releases just in time for your special someone for Valentine's Day here. I'll be posting this week's Unity creations tmr for the hangover blog posts so check back to see what I came up with this week!

I got another award!!! This one's from my pal Denise. {Hugs to you for this!} So here's the deets:
As a winner of this Fab award I in turn have to name 5 friends who get the award and 5 of my addictions...only 5????

Friends are:
Jacquie

Linsey

Danielle

Amber

Nancy

Now for the addictions...

1. I {heart} Unity Stamps

2. Coffeemate Coconut creamer

3. Good N Plenty candy

4. Prima ANYTHING!

and....

5. Scrappy Blogs!!

************Blog Candy Alert***********************
And thanks to Jacquie for alerting us all to some Awesome Blog Candy!!! Check out this giveaway that Kerry at three Clovers Designs is giving away her Blogoversary here! What an amazing giveway I could hardly contain my excitement and zipped back over to my blog to show it off!
So have a great day today and stop by the Hip Hop!

Unity Addicts Challenge 19

Yep it's that time again, the day before Hip Hop! You know you are dying to see the specials for tmr's Hip Hop huh! Sara upped the ante and challenged us this week to create a card and embellish the inside too! So here's my card. I picked up a cute, cute, cute paper stack from Joann's last weekend and I got this adorable cupcake stamp in one of my Unity orders for free! Angela is so generous!! I also used my first ever jar of Shimmerz that I ordered from Jacksonbelle emebellishments. It's pretty cool stuff. I used the Angel Wings on the cupcakes to make them look frosted. It did curl the card stock a but but I love the shine.

and here's the inside

If you'd like to play along check out the post on Unity's Splitcoast Stampers thread here Just title your upload with USC19 and tag it with the word Unity so it goes in the right gallery. You do have to use a Unity Stamped image too.

Have a great day!

Some gifts I made for Christmas revealed

I couldn't post these before the holidays because I didn't want to spoil the suprise for my mom. I made this cute Family chipboard album for her and embellished it in a winter theme with her favorite penguins.

I am really please with how this tag turned out. I used a K & Co tag and inked it then used paint over a cuttlebug embossed piece of cardstock. I cut out the Unity stamps and used pop dots to add dimension and finished it off with some blingy brads and felt.

Mom totally loved the gifts.

It's time for a new challenge at Scrapping Out Loud!

We had some new players in last week's Resolutions challenge and the Design Team really rocked the challenge with all their amazing layouts as well. I am so excited about the introduction of the word of the week and sketch of the week! Come check out what's happening at Scrapping Out Loud and play along for your chance to win a totally cool RAK this month!


So this week's challenge is "2008 Taught us What? Tell us what you have learned from the past year."
For me it was the gift of Humility. I realized after a tough struggle with the holidays this past year and finances that it's not really what I don't have but what I DO have that really matters in my life. I am so thankful that God gave me this awesome gift this year because I really have a different outlook on my life now and I am just so excited about what the future hold for myself as well as my beautiful family.


So here's my layout.






I chose a simple photo of my daughters hands holding a Plumeria flower. I liked the simplicity and I felt it symbolized the meaning of Humility in my layout. My journaling around the photo is a few different definitions of humility found in Webster's Dictionary.


It reads: The characteristic of being humble-humbleness in spirit or deportment-the state or quality in being free from pride or arrogance-A freedom from arrogance that grows out of the recognition that all we have and are comes from God.


Pretty powerful stuff.
I also created this card for the word of the week Beginnings

Now head on over to Scrapping Out Loud and check out what the other Design Team members have for you.

One Year Ago...

What a difference a year makes...I can hardly believe that we've left 2008 behind and 2009 is in full swing! I frequent alot of blogs and Stephanie Howell at the Studio Calico Blog suggested a blog post showing pictures from one year ago and today. So here's a few of mine...

One year ago...
Lily was 6 months old and playing in her little car Nana and Grandpa got her. They had just moved to Arkansas.

One year ago...

Big brother Scott was trying to help sissy learn to crawl

One year ago...
Lily and her first friend Sam who moved to Portland would stay put inside the Pack and Play. We love and miss you Sam!!!

And today....

And here she is at Christmas getting her first purse. if she's anything like he mommy she'll have them color coordinated and hanging in her close just like mommy does. Yep I hang all my Nine Westies on hangers by their handles.

Today she is walking all over and playing at her first Indoor Play place in Santa Monica called Giggles and Hugs

And here is Scott at Christmas, his Lego obsession hasn't changed a bit from last year tho.

I really enjoyed this post idea! I think it's something I will be doing each year now.

Now onto something scrappy! Prima is releasing sneak of their new products for CHA on their Blog. Go Check it out here!

I am off to Makin memories scrap store in Newberry Park. Everything is 50 percent off due to them letting the lease for their store go. Can u believe the property owner raised the rent to 10,000. per month! That's insane!!!! That's living in los Angeles. I'll be back later with a pick of the goodies I got yesterday from Prima for my prize!

Hip Hop Hangover

Yesterday was great getting back into the HOP! The girls came up with some awesome cards and scrappy pages with the new releases. You can see them here on the Unity Blog and the specials are still good til Noon central time today! So run on over and check it out!'

Here's a layout I created for the Unity sketch challenge USCSS2 in Splitcoast Stampers

Next is Unity's Dazzle challenge

And Impress with Unity Challenge where we had to dry emboss a card

I really missed the Hip Hop during the holidays but I kept creating anyway. Here's some other Unity artwork I created

This was another Unity sketch challenge from Splitcoast

And finally this card was insired by my love og the candy Good and Plenty for my Cafemom group Card Makin Mamas

Thanks for stopping by and have a Scrappy Day!

I won!!!! I won!!!!

Holy Cow! I can't believe I won the Prima Marketing BAP (build a page) December layout

challenge. I am so excited to share this because I really loved the way this layout came out. Sometimes the right things just pull together and well, as I said in a previous post BAM! You've created a masterpiece!

I was so thrilled when I got the email in my inbox but it was the coolest going to the site and seeing my layout. I won a paper pack of my choice from Prima. Hmm now I just have to decide which one. What could be better than scrappy goodies?? Well maybe chocolate but not today!

No scrapping Monday just lots of organizing and cleaning

Here's my first layout as a Design Team member at Scrapping Out Loud. Our challenge this week is to Scrap your New Years Resolutions if you make them, if you don't, if you don't keep them etc. You know you want to make some this year so come join our challenge to scrap a layout about yours this week and be entered to win this month's RAK!!! Click here for the details.

So far I've come out swinging at my goals this year and I pray for the courage to keep my momentum to achieve the goals I have set before me. I have walked everyday and done my sparkpeople challenge day 2, watched what I am eating, drank more water, cleaned and organized my home. I am completely exhausted as I write this post because I spent the entire day cleaning, organizing and then my sister in law arrived about 8 p.m. with a steam cleaner for me to use. I love her so much. She cracks me up at times but is the most thoughtful person. She rented the machine to clean her carpets and couch and then drove it out to me and we live 45 mins from each other.

So I spent 4 hours last night cleaning my dining room and living room and halls. I can not tell you how good I feel right now. My floors look 150 percent better than they did this morning. We live in an apartment and the carpet is cream (SHYEAH RIGHT HUH) and cheap. Can you imagine how bad these floors were with a husband, 11 year old boy and a baby? Well not anymore! It was ALOT of work but SO worth it and quite a workout I might add. Now we'll just have to see if I can get out of bed tomorrow morning.

I love reading your comments on my posts so thank you for taking the time to leave them. I was reading Kristi's and she directed me to her blog for a surprise. Guess what it was??? This lil award I totally {heart}!

Thanks SO much Kristi, you are such a sweet gal! I met her over at So Cal Scrap.us and she's hosting a great sketch challenge this month so check it out in the Forum under challenges.

Now I get to pass this to 7 blogs I {heart} and here they are in no particular order

1. Denise

2. Melissa

3. Jessica

4. Heidi
5. Lauren

6. Laura

7. Danielle (she's just getting started but I {heart her} and she's got a great style of scrapping

so keep checking back to see what she's posting.

All of these ladies totally inspire me and i really do {heart} all your blogs!!!

I want to break FREE!!!!!

Notice the new song! I've started working on those resolutions baby!!! I am SO done with the way I have been living for the past 10 years! It's a new year and I am ready for a new me. I've been living with so much weight for so many years (physically and emotionally) that I finally feel like I finally have the courage to lift it off of me for good.

I have come to realize with great clarity that there are things I can and can not control in my life. I have spent too much time being upset about the ones I can't and not focusing on the ones I can. It's like being on a treadmill. You can keep going and going but you never go anywhere. I am ready to open the door and walk outside putting one foot in front of the other and believing in myself again. I may not get where I really want to go but at least I'll be trying. And the rewards will be greater than I expected I'm sure.

So the first of these journeys is to get fit and live a healthier life. It won't be easy I know but I'm ready to watch out! I started Jan 2nd. I have been walking 30 mins per day and I joined Sparkpeople.com. Free support and tools to help you reach your goals what could be better!

The second journey is to be better organized so I spent my entire weekend going thru my scrapping stuff and organizing and weeding out stuff I just don't use. Sheesh I have wasted some cash on silly things I must admit. Anyone else purchase the Xyron Design Runner? Waste of money I am tellin ya. I am pretty good about recycling pasta jars for my Prima flowers and Stickles storage. I have a round silverware holder that serves as a great place to keep my glue pens, liquid adhesive and scissors.

For living in an apartment I have a pretty awesome scrap space in our hallway. It's a 3 by 10 foot counter top with cupboards above and below for tons of storage.

Here's my organized, clean space!

Now my resolution is for it to stay this way when I am not creating. I told my hubs that I was hoping to have it look like this every night before I go to bed. I am really going to try to live up to that promise.

So that's my start. Every day is a gift. The best gift of all is to be able to love one's self and then the rest just falls into place.

Happy Birthday to the World's Greatest Husband!!! I {heart} you SO much!!

Today is my DH's birthday and I want to wish him a very special day!! I'm not great at masculine cards but I think he'll appreciate this birthday card I came up with.

Here's a few pics of the last year...

Scott's Birthday, notice Lily has her eye on the cupcake LOL

Awww cute daddy, daughter moment Christmas morning

San Francisco airport after a morning of panic when we missed our 7 am flight to Lihue. Lily was a fantastic flyer!

A personal favorite of mine, my Dolphin fans WooHoo division champs!!

So here's to another year babe but don't worry you look great with that salt and pepper gray around your ears. {snicker snicker} Seriously babe, I am the luckiest woman to me married to a stud muffin (yea that's an 80's slang for your birthday) like you. Happy Birthday!!

Toot Toot for me!!!

Holy Cow I just had to post this today. I was checking my favorite blogs today and of course you all know how much I love Unity Stamp Co. and as I read Angela's post I was admiring the artwork she posted today and BAM! There was MY layout. I about fell off my computer chair when I saw my sweet little girls pics and my Grow layout. Wow! Angela picked it to go with the Team to CHA!!!!!!! OMG I am totally honored and humbled that Angela would feature my work on the Unity Blog! Click here if you'd like to check out the post!

Ok I'll breathe now...LOL

Here's what I scrapped last night for the new Inspired Blueprints Jan 1st sketch challenge. Let me tell you this was a challenge for me! I never use this many photos in a layout and it was tough for me. The sketch called for the photos to be 2x2 in size but I couldn't make them that small. I really felt the pics needed to be 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 so I switched it up. I like how this layout turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy New Year

I am missing the Hip Hops at Unity so I had my own scrapfest all day and made a few cards with Unity Stamps. We just relaxed and lazed around the house. My son had his friend over and they played games and Guitar Hero most of the afternoon while I stamped away. I made 4 cards and a layout. I decided to take my tree down Saturday insted of my usual New Years day routine since I put it up later. It's fake so if I wanted I really could leave it up all year..hmm wouldn't that be wild. LOL I'm just kidding. So here's what I scrapped for New Years Day. I hope you enjoyed whatever you were doing today.

This was for a challenge at So Cal Scraps. I was featured in the Jan newsletter Meet our Members spot. It was pretty neat opening the email and seeing my picture lol.


This is also for the Jan sketch challenge at So Cal Scraps


I made this card for the sketch challenge at the SCS Unity forum

These were quick 5 minute cards I made using these fun circle stamps from Unity

This was a card I made for the Page Maps contest but sadly I did not see that the cut off was Mountain time and I am in Pacific. Oh well...I love this card and I am sending it to my mom to cheer her up. We are really missing eachother these days and it's been really tough since my parents moved out of state. I love you Mom!!!

I finished my layout for the new sketch Blog Inspired Blueprints but I have to wait til I have good light to photograph it tmr.

TGIF thanks for stopping by!

How will you be ringing in the New Year?

It's that time again, some are getting ready to go out and paint the city and others like me are just kickin it at home with the kids. Instead of the black cocktail dress and heels I used to don on New Year's Eve I've traded in for comfy PJ's on and chenille socks!

Yep becoming a mother and raising a family definitely puts a new spin on one's New Year's Eve festivities but honestly I wouldn't have it any other way. I love relaxing at home, scrappin a little, eating a little more chocolate before I quit at midnight. LOL We are about to play a round of Pirates of the Caribbean Monopoly as a family and Lily is lovin her jello and whip cream treat in her high chair.

So out with the old and starting with the new. I made my goals and I am really going to try to stick to them! I have no idea what 2009 holds for us as a nation economically but I'd rather be broke than fearful of terrorists so I hope our President elect does all he can to make sure we as a nation will be safe. So many things are changing in the world around me and alot of it saddens me deeply. It makes me so mad to see our money spent to bail out companies who are still handing out fat bonuses and corporate perks being abused. The fact is though there is nothing I can do about it. No one ever said life was fair but I do believe that your life is what you make of it. It sounds corny but I recently purchased a great quote stamp from Unity that said "be the change you wish to see in the world" Mahatma Gandhi I am totally embracing that quote this year.

Whatever your Resolutions are or aren't just believe in yourself and be the best you that you can and the world will be a better place.

I wish everyone health, happiness and pure JOY in 2009!!!

***********2009************2009**************2009****

Now on to my Scrappy stuff! I completed this layout for Prima's Monthly BAP Challenge at 1 a.m. last night so technically it is my last layout for 2008 and by far my best. I really am in awe of the talent that is out here in Blogger land and I really want you all to know that your blogs inspire me and it's because of my scrapping community and friends that I have grown this year as a scrapper.

I'd like to acknowledge the following scrappy sites have really inspired me this past year and contributed to my growth. Cafe Mom, my first scrappy haven online. Bad Girls kits, my first ever scrap booking subscription. Scrapping Out Loud, my favorite challenge blog and now I am on the Design Team WoW!! Page Maps, the first sketch site that immediately inspired me. Becky you are SO talented! Unity Stamp Company for making me go back to Rubbah! Angela you are SO generous with the Thursday Hip hop giveaways, it's now my favorite day of the week! And finally the many manufacturer blogs out there that post tips and giveaways that keep challenging me.

I am so very thankful I have this online community, you really don't know how much you all mean to me. Sheesh I feel like I just won an Oscar and I am giving a Halle Berry style acceptance speech. LOL

Seriously tho, thank you all for your kinds comments to my posts and scrappy support. You are all fabulous and talented and I am so glad I know you!!!!

A new Sketch Blog I {heart}

I was checking out a few Design Team members blogs to get to know them better and when I came across Helen Salthouse's blog I noticed she's also on the design team for Inspired Blueprints. So of course I checked it out. It's a great Sketch challenge blog with great sketches!! I've already scrapped 2 so far!

Blog Candy**Blog Candy** Blog Candy**

This candy is amazing! Check out Life as Lou's generous giveaway. You've got til Jan 2nd to enter. What an amazing and generous giveaway. I hope I win!!!

Some Exciting News!!!

I am so excited to share that I was chosen for the Scrapping Out Loud Design Team!!! I must confess I woke up at 3 am the day of the announcement and snuck a peek to see if the results had been posted yet because I was really hoping that I could be part of such an awesome challenge blog. You'd think I was a kid on Christmas morning checking to see if Santa had arrived...LOL My heart sank when the results were still not posted but I went back to bed and my DH asked what was I doing up to which I of course replied "getting a drink of water honey" I lay there thinking of how fun it would be to challenge myself further in the coming months if I wasn't selected. My husband always tells my son Scott it's from our losses we learn more than from the wins. I totally believe that and am excited for what 2009 has to bring for myself as well as my family.

Well when I did get up the next morning and checked the blog again I of course had to blink twice when I saw my name. I can not tell you how proud I am to be a part of the Scrapping Out Loud Team and I am really excited to get to know the other ladies who were also selected! There were 6 of us!!

A big thanks to the Scrapping Out Loud girls, Jessica, Denise and Melissa for giving me the opportunity!!

So here is my submission layout. I am really proud of this layout. I really stretched myself to create this layout with techniques that I really feel are my style. I am big on distressing and tearing my papers and crinkling for a worn look. I am so lucky to have such a cute daughter that is so photogenic! All the stamped images are Unity Stamp Company and the paper is by Sasafrass Lass.

SO HAPPY!!!

It took me all day today but I finally figured out the problem with my computer!!! I got my HP photo printer set back up!!! I can't figure it out but the darn printer would not print the same quality of photos when it was not hooked up to the computer so these two layouts are not the best but I HAD to scrap ya know...bad photos or not.

This layout was for my Artistic Papercrafting group on Cafe Mom. It was a sketch challenge.

This layout was for fun using Unity

Stamps My last project was also for Artistic Papercrafting, Beate set a challenge to alter a frame. I decided to keep it simple. I am pleased with the result.

I got this Making Memories shadow box kit last Christmas at Target on clearance and meant to frame this photo in it. They have their Christmas scrappy stuff 50 percent off now so if you are a Making Memories fan you can get some good deals on the Fa La La papers and embellishments.

A tip I learned at my Master's class for Prima was that you can cut the say it in Crystals to help stretch your dollar, I used one Say it In Crystal swirl that they sell now for 1.99 for this project and the sketch layout above and I still have some swirls left. It doesn't take much of these babies to add a little pizazz to any project you are working on.

Hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend!