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!!!

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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!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas from our home to yours. The Smith family Mat, Shemaine, Scott & Lily!!

Ho Ho Ho!!

We went to see Santa yesterday at The Grove. What a great afternoon we had, I only wish that Scott was with us but he is staying with his dad for the winter break. So here are some pics of our day.

On the way to Santa's house

Outside Santa's house with Frosty

Mr. Gingerbread keeping the kids happy while waiting to see Santa

Lily was scared of him...lol

My shameless Paparzzi moment faking a shot of the family

to catch a pic of Mark Wahlberg.

Another shot of him walking around to the back entrance to see

Santa because people were beginning to recognize him and approach him

in line.

After he saw Santa someone had tipped off the Pappers and they

were all over him. So sad. Here is a Paparazzi site that posted pics my

friend Jacqueline tipped me off to

http://x17online.com/celebrities/mark_wahlberg/marky_mark_and_the_family_bunch-12232008.php

OK so enough of the celebrity sighting and back to the family...

Here's a shot of Santa's house and we are about 15th in line

We're next to see Santa!


So we finally made it to see Santa and Lily was not too hip to sitting on his lap
so I let her keep her Leapfrog doll Lily for the pic. Santa was SO sweet! He

1st try, she's not looking...

This is the best shot we got of Lily and Santa, she started

to cry but the lady taking the photos was ringing jingle

bells which distracted her enough for us to snap a few

quick pics.

Family photo

Here's Lily and Dad on the bridge at The Grove, Mat proposed to

me on this bridge December 2006. There is a beautiful water show

in the pond at night and I still remember walking along and suddenly

feeling him tug my arm when we got to this spot. We love the Grove

and try to visit as often as we can.

My scrappy present from my wonderful hubby!

First I'd like to thank all of you that left comments on my post yesterday about my pictures. It meant so much to me that you all were SO supportive and I really and truly appreciate that you even visit my blog. I was very humbled when I received an email from someone offering to have their husband help me get my pictures back. We did get them back and I burned them all to disc. i still can not get my HP photo printer to reload back onto the computer but I am sure I will get it all solved. So a very BIG thank you to all of you out there that read my blog!!!!

This weekend I traveled to Chino for a Masters class at Prima Marketing Inc. My sweet and wonderful hubby gave me this class for Christmas. Thanks babe! It took me only about 45 mins to get there which was nice for future classes! This class was about a mini album and was taught by Adrienne Looman. She was really sweet and so very talented!

Here's my album, I chose to use pics from Lily's birthday party with our friends and Douglas Park in Santa Monica.

Aunt Dominique

My great friend Roxy and Tata with Hanah and Scott and Lily and I

Miss Lily enjoying her birthday cake

Mom and Lily, those fingers!

I really enjoyed creating the book, I used paint and white card stock as my base as Adrienne suggested and then I chose to distress alot thru out the book. She pointed out with the Say it In Crystals that you can stretch your dollar by making the crystals go further by cutting some of the flourishes off and using them more than once. A great tip!

Here's a couple shots of the classroom

I had so much fun. The ladies I met were super classy and sweet. We were totally spoiled with access to extras we needed to make our books. Lots and lots of scrappy flowers, ribbon, pop dots and food!!! Notice my oatmeal cookie and my wallet out ready to shop!!!

Here's what I came home with !!!

I had such a blast! I am totally looking forward to my next class, after all my birthday is just around the corner in March and this year's gift will be a snap for DH!

It was so nice meeting everyone at the workshop and Adrienne! Check out her blog, OMG she's an amazing photographer!

We're off to see Santa today since DH got home early so enjoy your day whatever you do.

I am beyond upset right now...UPDATE!!!!!!

Words can not express how upset I am today. I am trying to just let it go and say that stuff happens and what can you do but I am so so bummed..I was gone all afternoon and when I came home DH said the computer was acting up. I shut it down and went out to pick up a few last minute items for Christmas since I was given a couple of gift cards from friends. When I got home I wanted to upload my pics from my Prima class and blog a bit but the computer would not start. It would stay stuck at the windows xp start window and this happen over and over again. So me thinking I am so smart decided to do a system recovery. I figured this would solve any problems I was having. I did not understand tho that it would erase ALL my files. When I say ALL my files I am talking about ALL my pictures. YEP every picture I have since Mat and I started dating, Lily's birth, Scott's soccer game. Numerous events I haven't even scrapped yet because I am a messy scrapper and never scrap in order. I just can't believe that they are all gone but I can not find the files anywhere and I am really upset over this. I saved some stuff to Photobucket and I am not sure if I can retrieve it back. if i can it would have to be one by one....UGH! Oh wait! I think Lily's birthday may be there.
I do have one disc that thankfully Mat copied to clear up space a few months back and Lily's birth and first Christmas is on there. I am so thankful for that.
So no crafts today just a rant. Word to the wise, copy your pics to disc or backup your files.
I'll post about my workshop tmr and have pics of my project, this hullabaloo took the wind out of my sails a bit today.
Happy Sunday!

Ok so after spending the entire trying to fix all my progams and such DH comes to take a look because he was watching football and finds all the pictures!!!!!!! Of course I have bow to him and chant that he's the world's greatest husband but he did it! Now I am hoping when he comes home later because he just left to go watch the late game at his buiddies that he can recover all my Itunes downloads that I had too! Only problem left is that my HP photo printer will not reinstall. Something is wrong in an EXE file which is Greek to me but Dh says if they reboot Windows it should fix it...OY!!! What a mess but I just want to tell everyone that left me love that I appreciate YOU ALL SO MUCH! Thanks for being there for me in my panic! Ok...back to trying to save all my bookmarks again.

Joy to the World

I can hardly believe that Christmas is around the corner! Last night we spent the evening at my husband's mom's with his uncle and cousin. It was a pre Christmas celebration because they have to travel to Arizona during Christmas. Uncle Lou is always a treat! Lily got her gift early from Nana and if you are looking for a last minute toddler gift run out and get this little guy. Elmo is amazing, he sings, he dances, he tell you he loves you. He has a little stool that he sits on and he stands on one leg. We adults were mesmerised by this little toy. He told jokes too! I could not stop laughing and Lily was pretty impressed too!

I love Hero Arts blog and visit almost everyday. There is almost always something going on and this week it was sketches and Basic Grey paper. I used Basic Grey paper to create this sweet layout of Lily in her first party dress. I also had to used a Hero Arts stamp and I only own two right now but I found a clever way to incorporate the one that would be appropriate for this layout. I stamped the image and use emboss resist and inked the colored circles in blue, yellow and pink. They are behind the flowers and the butterflies. I also used rub ons from Me and my big ideas. Those were pretty good rub ons by the way.

I am off to my Master's class at Prima Marketing and I am SO excited. I looked it up on Map Quest and just as I figured it's about an hour from here. I am dropping Scott off at his dad's house first for vacation. I will miss him but I know he is really looking forward to seeing his dad for a good stretch.

Have a great Saturday and go create something!

Hip Hop hangover...last one of 08!

Well the Hip Hop was fab yesterday and there was lots of giveaways and fun. I won a prize (yay for me) and chatted it up with all my new Unity friends. I missed chatting with Angela tho, she is so sweet! Run over to Unity to see all the deals cause when they're gone that's it. She's retiring some stamps and you don't want to miss out! So for this week's Hip hop hangover I've got plenty of Unity products to share.


First up is my submission for the Hip Hop Challenge, Don't distress, distress with Unity challenge. I love this paper. I distressed all the edges of the cardstock and made my own accent with a floral pin using a stamp from the fanciful dots set. It kind of looks like a peppermint candy huh!






Next is the Unity Christmas Pie Color challenge, for this one you had to use the color cream and brown and then whatever filling you like. I used Unity's fanciful dots to wallpaper my cardstock and Wish Sticks






This next item is a little project I started a few years ago to save all my holiday cards in from year to year. The size is 8 1/2 X 11 and I used Unity's Trinity trio stamp for a little festive decor. I made the pocket from patterned cardstock and scalloped the top. I used staple to secure it to the white card stock. you simply slide the card inside the pocket and then I put them in my scrapbook clear page protector.



Next up is a card I made for Ashley's Etsy inspired challenge she does weekly. Check it out here on her blog, she's a sweetie! I used Loopy flowers from Unity's Oh Happy Day set. I chose these earrings as my inspiration

Here's my card

Last but not least I get to show you Christmas gift I am making my DH's cousins who are both in their 20's. We had to make gifts this year for our friends and family so I was tryinf to come up with unique ideas. I picked up these wooden unfinished boxes at Michaels for 2 for 1.00 and painted them with making memories paint which dries super fast! Then I used clear modge podge to seal them and embellish. Finally I stamped images from Unity's Flirty Flowers and Oh happy day set. I then embossed the carstock and stamped an additional flower and cut it out and popped it off the card over the stamped image with a foam dot and added bling. I think this gift turned out really nice. I know I would enjoy it as a present.

So that's it for today. Thanks for sticking with my long post today! i really enjoyed each of these projects. Last but not least, I am really excited that Saturday I will be attending a Master's class at Prima Marketing in Chino, Ca. I found out thru the Prima blog I follow that they hold classes at their site and I was totally excited to be able to attend. It's about a 45 mins drive but so worth it. So Monday I will have my completed project to show off! We're doing a mini album and afterwards you can stay and crop and shop. Hmmm...that could spell trouble for my hubs pocketbook.
Anyway a huge hug to my hubbs who gave me the class for my Christmas gift this year early of course. I luv you babe!

So lucky!!!

I am really excited to share with you today that I won the Method Playground Challenge prize this week. A Studio Calico RAK for my flock submission. Earlier this week I also won the 12 days of Christmas giveaway at Scrapbook and Cards today. And I won the RAK for November from Scrapping Out Loud. Santa is sending me great gifts this year. All the scrappy goodness I can handle!! I truely feel SO very very lucky! Speaking of Scrapping Out Loud, this week's challenge is stitching. I don't own a sewing machine or even a needle! What to do??? I punched holes in my layout using my paper peircer and threaded some sassy strands that lool like yarn on the top of my layout and then stitched the buttons onto the trees printed on the cardstock. That's it! I did it :) Come on over and join in, you could win this months SUPRISE RAK!!!!!!


Here's another take on the Hero Arts Stamp I have been using for Christmas cards. I got the red and gold paper as gift wrap at my Mommy Christmas get together and knew when I saw it that I could use it for cards. I also got the poinsettia flowers for .89 a bundle at Michaels and then rubbed glue on the petals and sprinkled them with glitter to dress them up!



Unity's Hip Hop is in full swing come here and join us! Check back tmr for the Hip Hop Hangover post. I'll have some great cards and a project posted all made with Unity love...


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Spellbinders is looking for you for their Design Team! Click here to read all about it!!! Best of Luck if you apply!

Unity Addicts Challenge

Happy Wednsday everyone! I finally finished a project I was dragging my feet on yesterday but I can't show it to you because it's a Christmas gift. I am sure the recipient will love it :) Mat's uncle is coming into town tmr evening instead of during Christmas as planned so my dead line for his cousins gifts has been moved up. I will be working on completing those gifts today. I am making note cards and a decorated holder for them both. Luckily I have already painted and sealed the wood noteboxes. I hope they will like them.


Today I got my Unity Addicts challenge completed. It's the last one for the year. I can hardly believe that this year is drawing to a close. This week's challenge was a monochromatic card. Here's my take, sorry for the bad pic but there is no sun here today :( We have a storm coming this way today and it's very cold and gloomy outside.

That's it for today, don't forget about the Hip Hop tmr at Unity Stamps. Join us in the Splitcoast forum here and let us know if it's your first Hip Hop. So much fun!!!

It's the the most wonderful time of the year!

It's one of my favorite Christmas songs! When I hear it I feel a little skip inside me and I always have to smile. The Smith family decorated our tree Friday evening and had our annual dinner. As always it was wonderful. I remember years past it being Scott and myself in our little apt in Glendale. He would get so giddy over each of his Hallmark Ornaments but this year I realized my boy is becoming a young man. He had little interest in his Blue's Clues ornaments and even his entire collection of Hallmark Toy Story ornaments I've collected especially for him. Well at least he still loved my hot chocolate.

Lily was mesmerized by the tree lights and the colorful decorations. She enjoyed touching some of the non breakable ornaments and Mat as always was just happy for us to be enjoying family time together. It's what I love most about him and why I knew when I met him he was my kinda man. Love ya babe!

Here's a few pics of the family decorating the tree...

Lily and daddy

Me

Scott

This is my favorite ornament this year, it's called Nick and Christopher and Mat gave me this series our first Christmas together in 2004, sadly this year is the last of the series so I am sure these guys will find their way into my stocking.

Scrappy Goodness that arrived today in the mail!

Goodies from some dear friends I met on Cafe Mom. The card on the left was designed by Danielle my scrappy friend from New York. I totally LOVE it!!! She has a totally unique style of scrapping that I absolutely admire! She also made me an adorable snowman ornament that I promptly hung on my tree and forgot to take a pic of.

The card on the left is from Beate and she included some crocheted flowers she made herself!! I love them so much!! There are just beautiful!

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Finally my favorite part of the holidays is getting a little holiday cheer in my mailbox! Who doesn't open a card from a friend and smile! And my friends can make some amazing cards!!!Thanks to all mine that have sent them so far, let's hope that they keep coming!!!

Hip Hop hangover

Yay it's Friday, the Smith family tree decorating celebration is this evening!!! Hip Hop was extra cool yesterday because Unity went live!!! It was so awesome chatting with Angela. She's exactly as I imagined she would be. Sweet and cheerful! Too much fun. Today for the hangover I am posting a recap for the week of my Unity Stamp projects. Be sure to check out Angela's special deals at Unity good til noon today!

So here's all the projects I made with my Unity Rubbah this week!

First is my Unity stamp Kristin's Snowflake for the Christmas one layer challenge

this is the card I created casing Jennifer Buck's card for the Unity Addicts challenge
That stampin chick inspires me!!

Another take with the snowflake

my Tim Holtz inspired tag

my Birds of a Feather banner close up

My favorite card I made this week!

So that's my Unity artwork, I'll be back later to post a couple more projects I've got on my scrap table. Have a great day!