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.

One of those days

I started to feel it coming on last night, the body aches and scratchy throat and I keep telling myself, nooooooo. I don't want to get sick. Unfortunately today I woke up completely sick. Grrr. I have an event tmr eve that I really hope I will feel up to going to. I tryed to get to my scrap space today just to tidey up cause the Hubbs gets on my case since it is our hallway and to get to our bedroom you have to walk thru it...lol Not happening today or tonight that's for sure. I am hitting the sheets after I post this entry and hoping to wake up tmr myself again. I did get some goodies in the mail today. My circles nestabilities came!!! YAY but I am too sick to even play with that. So I will post the altered tin I made from Beate's challenge from the CafeMom group I am an Admin in. I think it turned out cute for a tin I would have otherwise thrown away. Have a great weekend!

Scrapping Out Loud Challenge

So here's this weeks challenge for Scrapping out Louds challenge to use your felt. I don't have much but I was able to dig some up. I took some pictures of Lily reading her book last week and decided to scrap those. This isn't the direction I set out with when I started the layout but this is what I ended up with. it's funny how sometimes you have an idea in your head and when you are done you've scrapped something completely different. Lily loves to read and I love that she loves it so much. I have been loading her up with books wherever I can get them. Thank goodness for friends who's little ones have outgrown their fun books and passed them onto us. I've got the Usborne books on my list to purchase next. I love the touchy feely ones and I know Lily will too. I can't stress the importance of reading just 20 mins a day to your little ones. I swear by it because my son Scott who's 11 actually sets his alarm 30 mins early each morning to get up and read before school. How many kids do you know that do that!

I'd really like to thank Denise from Scrapping Out Louds Design Team for all the kind comments she leaves on my blog. I feel so special to be making my blog interesting enough to have repeat visitors. Thanks to everyone who leaves comments and kind words. You are all greatly appreciated!

Top Designer Week Three!

Here's my submission for this weeks Top Designed week 3 at Bad Girls. The class challenge focuses on the less is more aspect and white space. This really was a challenge for me since I love to clutter up my layouts. Wish me luck in getting thru to next week!

I never knew this was inside of me...

Creativity, and it speaks thru me in the colors, techniques and patterns I choose for my scrapbook pages. I never knew that this was inside of me until I found the love and support I have from my husband. I remember saying to my mother when I was 5 "mom, what am I good at?" She answered, "lots of things" and rushed out the door to work. I remember thinking to myself after she'd gone, she just said that because she was in a hurry I don't think I am good at anything. I always remember wanting to fit in and being awkward around the other girls who were wearing pretty dresses and bows in their hair. I wore jeans and they were always short because I had long legs and a t-shirts,scuffed up tennis shoes and my hair was messy. In high school I took art and pottery classes as my electives and my projects were OK, but I always worried like when I finished my chores at home that I'd done something wrong and it wouldn't be good enough. I stopped doing anything artistic at all.

It was only after I had Scott that I began to open myself up again to try things that were outside of my comfort level. I stuck to playing tennis with friends, and going out dancing alot because I knew I was good at those things and felt confident when I did them.

But only in the last 3 years have I really felt like I could express what I was feeling when I looked at embellishments in stores and papers on the rack. I would be at work and during the day I sat thinking of pictures I'd recently taken and how I could arrange them with certain card stocks I had in my stash. As I sat there arranging and creating layouts in my head, I could not wait to get home and put them together.

Now when I finish my layouts I still have that feeling inside that maybe it's not good enough or I didn't get it just right, but then my husband comes down the hall, looks at my work, smiles and says "it looks great baby" and I feel ..."finally am good at something".

HOOORAY!!!!

I just logged onto the Bad Girls site to see if I'd made it to round two and I did I did!!!! I am so thrilled beyond words right now. Sundays are becoming quite nerve raking for me now that I decided to give Top Designer a try thanks to my friend Danielle's encouragement. If it weren't for her I'd have never even tryed but she made me feel like my scrappin was good enough to try. There is so much amazing talent in this group and their work is really amazing! So I can't wait to see what tmr has in store for the next challenge.

Here's a cute pic of my hubs and dd all dressed for the big event here in the Smith home on Sundays...yes Football! My husband needless to say is simply ecstatic over the Dolphin crush of the Patriots this morning. I don't think I've seen that big of a grin on his face since the day Lily was born and he held her for the first time.

Saturday Blahs

Ahh it's Sat and I am being so lazy. I haven't scrapped a thing! I did create this little card for Lisa's Sketch Me If You Can contest this morning. I am so excited Halloween is almost here!!I hope to get the crafy itch this afternoon...I found another blog giving away blog candy. Yay!! Check it out here at http://bevscrafts.blogspot.com/2008/09/its-candy-time-whiff-of-joy-candy.html

Hula Girl

Here's my entry for this week's Top Designer at Bad Girls. I hope I make it thru to the next round but honestly if I don't I am just excited that I created two awsome layouts. There is so much talent in this contest, it's amazing to browse the gallery!Have a great weekend everyone!

Elegant Clutter or Just a Mess?

Wendy from bad girls has a blog called Elegant Clutter so I thought I'd use that as a title for today's entry and showcase my scrap space. I had to stop myself just now and take a picture of my working conditions. What do you think? Should I go on strike til management does something about this! I mean really, how can an artisit such as myself work in such conditions! Oh wait, I AM the management!

It's amazing anything good can come from this and I am currently working on a card but I stopped and said "Enough" when I couldn't find my pop dots. I said to myself "this is really bad". But, I know I am not the only one....You know you're out there you messsy scrapper you. So let's see you space when it's clean and when it's messy. Messy Scrappers Unite and come out of your crafty spaces and air your dirty laundry...ahem...I mean scrap spaces here.

Scrappin Out Loud Challenge

This is the layout I scraped for this weeks challenge over at www.ScrappingoutLOUD.com. The challenge was to scrap a regular picture with your Christmas papers you have in your stash. Here's my take

P.S. Friday I'll be posting my Bad Girls entry for Week Two of the top Designer Contest!!!

Bella Bella Bella...

I am so lucky that my friend Jenn hand stamped so many Bella images. I got my first Bellas before I left for Hawaii and I still have not been able to stamp with them because I need special EZ Mount to mount them on my acrylic blocks. So until I get some I've been playing with the ones Jenn stamped me :) Here's a birthday card for my friend Janene's birthday that was Monday. I am sure she will never tell how old she is but if I had to guess I'd say she was 27 :) Hope you had a fantastic birthday Janene!! I am so proud of her, she is a teacher which I think is the most important job anyone could have these days. I am proud of her because she is finishing her Master's degree to become a school guidance counselor and still working! WOW!!!
So I made it thru round 1 of the BaD GiRLs Top Designer Challenge and this week's challenge is using pattern papers together. I finished my layout and will be posting it tmr so stay tuned!
Last night I got this idea with the K and Co. tags I had gotten in my Bad Girls kit from Wendy for August. If you haven't checked out Bad Girls head on over www.badgirlskits.com. I have a 6 mos subscription to her amazing kits and love them! I happen to have picked up the same tags at Micheals a few months back for 2.00 on clearance...man I love cheap scrappin stuff! anyway, I decorate these vintage looking tags with what little Halloween embellies I had on hand to sell for my craft fair in Oct. Too Cute! I want to get to Micheals cause they are having an amazing sale on ribbon this week! 1.89 per roll when it's normally 3.99 a roll. I was hoping they'd have some funky patterns.

If you love Shabby Chic then you'll love Melissa Frances's collections of papers, embellies and ribbons!Spend a little time looking her projects on her Blog. All i can say is amazing! http://melissafrances.typepad.com/ Happy Scrapping!

Some cards for a few challenges

So I am switching gears for now scrapping some cards. The first is a sketch challenge for Lisa's blog to win some blog candy...

The next card is for the Card Makin Mamas challenge, my Cafemom group that I haven't been able to participate in lately. I'm back Cass!!

And here are a few cards I made for my Craft fair coming up in Oct

This is the last time I'm going to do a challenge the day it's due...My HP photo printer froze and I had to reboot my computer to get my layout photo uploaded for the challenge and I did not make the 7:00 pm cut off time.This weeks challenge was to scrap your fears. When I discovered the lump in the back of my arm in Jan of 2005 a fear immediately grew inside of me. Comeing face to face with that fear when i was diagnosed with cancer was one of the most frightening experiences in my life. At the time I was datingmy husband and being a single mom to my son Scott. The fear that took over was that I would not be there for my son. Now 3 years later I still live with that fear even though I've overcome the cancer and am healthy. But there is now a new fear inside me that my cancer could return. I chase that fear far away from my life now because I know I am stronger now. So missing the deadline is ok because I feel good about finally scrapping that chapter of my life and the Design Experiment challenges are weekly, so there's always next week!

Workshop Project Complete!

I am finally getting back into the swing of things with my workshop and the ladies are looking forward to this Friday's project. We're making these cute little note cards and boxes to put them in using the new Winter paper kit Perfect Day by CTMH. The patterns are so soft and the colored are rich and make a perfect choice for these fun little box, I couldn't stop at just one...





Also a few cards I made for my upcoming craft fair




And finally another card for my Bella folder, I just looooove these stamps!

There is a challenge on the Design Experimenthttp://thedesignx.blogspot.com/ I really want to scrap today and hope I can get my entry in by the deadline, we'll see. I also found another amazing challenge blog from a friend who sent me their link http://scrappingthemusic.blogspot.com/ I love their idea of scrapping to song titles! Totally 80's this week's challenge to create a layout with the title Girls Just Wanna Have Fun..I have just the right pics for this one and the paper kit! Time, Time do I have enough to make 2 layouts???? Gotta love being a Football widow, now I have Sunday afternoons to myself to scrap in between Lily's naps. Have a great Sunday everyone!

Yes, another challenge. I think I am addicted!

Here's my submission for another challenge this week on Scrapping out Loud http://www.scrappingoutloud.blogspot.com/ We had to stamp with something from around the house. I used my trusty plastic spatula and then used the cap of a highlighter to stamp the center of the pink flowers in white daisy ink by Close To My Heart. It was fun but my husband looked at me strange when he came down the hall and saw the generously white inked spatula in my hand...hee hee Oh, and could not resist adding the angel wing on the back of my sweet baby girl.

Top Designer Week One!

Well I did it, after 3 hours of hmmm and well...and maybe this....I finished my first class for Bad Girls Top Designer 2008 contest The class, CLASS 1: LAYERING PERSPECTIVES by Miss Cari Fennell was to start from a simple idea of layering and build a layout. I chose the August Bad Girls kit to create my masterpiece and I am so pleased with how it turned out. In addition I used the ivory big pinks CTMH flowers and I stamped the burnt orange bazzil using the Decorative Danities My Actylix(tm) stamp set as well as the petals with Autumn Terracotta ink also by CTMH. I am definately framing this one since shelving it in a scrapbook just doesn't seem right. Here's a few close ups of the flowers I stamped and the Melissa Frances cameo and the velvet flower. I love being BaD!!!

I love these girls!

Today was Heather's baby shower and Roxy (our lovely hostess) out did herself! It was absolutely the best baby shower I have ever been to. I am serious! Food was great (we had it at Marie Calender's and yes we had pie) conversations were hilarious and the games were a blast! Lisa walked outta there with 3 prizes, you go girl! Heather got loads of great stuff and Georgie even made it coming all the way from Palm Springs!
I am so thankful to have met such an amazing group of talented, crafty, compassionate and funny women. I love that I get to know each one more and more every time we get the chance to get together and have really grown to appreciate all of their amazing qualities. It's so hard to make good friends when you get older as tho I have no idea why that is since I welcome everyone with open arms always and on top of that in Los Angeles. We always have a great time together and it's nice that we support eachother the way we do.
Our Momma Heather looked amazing as always and it was so great to meet her Mom too! Thanks for the fantastic day Roxy and the body butter too! Shhh.. Lisa don't give my secret away with what I do with that stuff...hee hee

OUr Mommy Heather and our Super Hostess Roxanne

Lisa,Me,Lisa and Kate

All the Mommies and Andrea's new baby boy!!!

Cute Cards!

So I woke up early this morning and had to make a couple of cards, one for a baby shower I am going to tomorrow for my friend Heather (she's having a boy) and a card for our friend's daughter Olivias 3rd birthday. I forgot to photograph the birthday card I made for Oiliva...bummer. I really enjoy working with this stamp set right now. I get on my little kicks and I guess this weekend is all about adorable animals. On the lion card I used stickles and just love the way it made his little mane pop! if you don't have some of this scraptastic product get some! You'll love it!! I didn't have any cute baby themed Close To My Heart paper on hand to coordinate but I used a scrap pad I got from Joann's a few weeks ago. A few of the shees are glittered with animals on them. Too cute! Now to work on an album for my friend's shower that I am giving as a gift. Happy Scrappin!

So I mentioned I loved Contests right...

It starts with one contest and then I like to look at the other submissions and check out new blogs and I come across a great blog with a link to yet another scrappy challenge blog and Voila! I have to create a layout to enter! So here's my submission for Scrapping out louds Challenge. Great blog too Check it out!www.scrappingoutloud.blogspot.com

A First For Me

So one of my favorite sites for inspiration is www.pagemaps.com, Becky's sketches are a great way to cure scrappers block and release your creativity. She's recently started a Blog with contests (YAY! I love contests cause the motivate me to really push the envelope) This week there's a half map contest and I've never done a 6x12 layout before. So here's the sketch and here's my entry.


The journaling reads "Children are the anchors that hold a Mother to Life"

Absolutely Delighted!!!

So I got an email from Ken with a few pics to hold me over from our family photo shoot in Kauai. I couldn't wait to open them and of course I knew I'd be wowed!!! Of course I am just delighted with what he sent and I can't wait til the nice wall space above our television in the living room is filled with that perfect family photo marking our first family vacation to Kauai. So here's a few sneaks for my family and friends!

More pics from Hawaii

I've unpacked and put things away, cleaned up the house and the baby is down for her nap! Mommy time! I am currently working on a few Accordian Albums for the upcoming craft fair I am doing in October so I won't be rambling too much today. I just wanted to post some more pics of our vacation and the kids. Time to get scrappy!!!
A cute boy/girl twin book I made before I left for vacation...




Here are some more vacation pics