It's Thursday and Hip Hop time at Unity! This week's theme is Unity rewind! The Design Team is creating stamps of the past this week for the blog hop. You can start your hop at the Unity blog here
Yesterday's Unity Addicts challenge was to create a card with your first Unity Set. Mine was Flirty flowers. Here's my card using this week's sketch at Card Patterns

And on another note...I got Angela from Unity to do an interview for my column. You can read all about it here

And finally, I've got some news!!! I'm the newest member of the Paper Posies DT!!! So thrilled to be a part of this FAB kit club. You can view this month's kit here

Here's a few sneaks of my artwork for July

See you tmr for the Hangover post and some creations with Unity! Thanks for stopping by!

Only two more Tuesdays left

Only one more Tuesday left for me on the Scrapping Out Loud Design Team. It's been a lot of fun playing along with the challenges. I've scrapped 24 layouts since becoming a DT member. I've got some amazing pages filling my scrapbooks for my kids to enjoy.

This week's challenge: Color Combo! - Scrap a page, using only brown, blue, and cream or white. Here's my take, a pic I took of my sweet Lily laying on the floor watching morning cartoons. I'm so thankful I get to stay home with her and capture these little moments

Now for my mini album I promised...

Love this pic...she did not want her picture taken but I bought that dress when i was 4 months pregnant with her just after I found out I was having a girl. The only size was 12 month. Do you know how long I waited to get her in it...lol

So there you have it. I sprayed the entire book with Glimmer Mist before embellishing with My Mind's Eye Bloom and Grow paper and Prima flowers and misc embellies. I also used stamps by Unity and Pink Paislee.

I wasn't really impressed with the vendor faire at the CK Convention. We walked thru everything in less than 30 mins. There were 50 booths if that. A few highlights were the $1 store. You got some great deals there and the Ribbon booth, 50 cents per a yard. Scrap mart was there and they had Thickers 5 for 10.00 which was a great deal too. I also liked Queen and Company's $1 store too. I did get some new plates for my Cuttlebug and saved $2 but I could have used a coupon at Michaels and gotten that discount. I also came home with a new Nestabilities and both the new lines from Basic Grey, Lemonade and June Bug. Here's my loot

Maybe it's because I went to Winter CHA and it was SO huge I couldn't even do it all in one day. I was really looking forward to this big larger than life convention and honestly it really didn't measure up.

Thanks as always for stopping by. Please leave a comment so I can come visit your blog too!Have a great day!

More Guest Designer news...

I was really blessed this month with scrappy opportunites. I was asked to be June's Guest Designer over at Little Red Scrapbook. Sara's kits are loaded with lovely papers and she always chooses amazing add-ons and stamps to coordinate with the kits she has each month.

I was so thrilled to have the opportunity to design with June's kit:

Pink Paislee - "Winsome Captivating"

I was so honored and I absolutely love Pink Paislee products! When I saw the kit and the add-ons I knew I was going to love designing with this kit!

A layout about our Sunday evening walks at Manhattan Beach boardwalk. Scott likes Sundays.

A card

Fairy Play with her Easter basket treasures

My Lily being Lily

I created this layout with this month's paper add on from My Mind's Eye

And here's Scott...well...being Scott. I love this kid's sense of humor!
I also created a cute mini album with this month's project add-on. If you like this month's kit and want to see all the add-ons available click over here to Little Red Scrapbook. Hurry tho cause they sell out fast!

I'll be back to post pics of that tmr and tell you about the Creating Keepsakes convention.

Thanks for stopping by!

TGIF! and some Hip Hop Hangover crafty creations

I am so excited it's Friday! I've been looking forward to this weekend for a long time.
Creating Keepsakes is in Pasadena this weekend at the Pasadena Convention Center.
My friend Heidi and I are heading out there Saturday a.m. for some fun times! I'm hoping to pick up some new scrappy things and few things for my mom. I leave to fly back East a week from this Tuesday.
It will be fun to finally see my parents new home and craft with my mom. Since they moved I really miss that!

So Hip Hop was fun although I didn't get to hang out as long as I'd like but I did get to make a few crafty cards! First up my take on the Kraft paper challenge. I wanted to use up some scraps I had in my stash.

Next it my take on the Paper Pieceing challenge. I made this card for my friend's cousin who needs a liver transplant and is only 29. I asked the Hip Hop girls to send their challenge cards this week to him as a kind gesture for a great guy who makes other's laugh around him. If you'd like to send a card as well I would really appreciate it. I asked the girls to include a positive msg or quote.
Benjamin Welch
2146 Patton Street, Birmingham, AL 35226

Now don't forget to check out the fabulous Hip Hop Specials and a new release Angela has for you here at the Unity Blog.
Have a fabulous Friday! Thanks for stopping by!

Some fun news to share

I'm so excited to share with you that I was asked to Guest Design this month for Scrapbook Sussies.
Lara's kits are so adorable and I was totally honored to be a Sussie for June! If your kit shopping be sure and stop by her site to see past and upcoming kits.

Here's a few things I created with the June Sussies kit.

I'm really trying to do some different things on my layouts and get more comfortable with crackle paint by Tim Holtz. I cut a piece if cardboard into the shape of a tree trunk and tore the layer off to expose the corrugated piece and painted it with the crackle paint and then used a heat tool to dry. The circle with the owls is an exclusive embellie created for Sussies by Adorn It!

This kit was alot of fun to work with! Thanks again Lara for the amazing opportunity to be a Guest Designer for Scrapbook Sussies this month!

So he rest of my news...this summer all summer long Angela is having a garage sale at Unity Stamp Co! Here's the deets straight from the Unity blog!

GARAGE SALE WEDNESDAY - all summer long!
Each Wednesday, I will put the Kits/Stamps that are showcased on my blog on Sale for ONE DAY ONLY!
If a Kit of the Month is showcased it will be $35.00
ALL OTHER Kits/Stamps showcased on W.O.W will be 50% off!
BONUS:Shipping only $2.00 on Wednesdays for ALL ORDERS
(USA Only!)
COUPON CODE: WOW Not to be combined with any other offer.

Now that's a deal!

Tues reveal and a prize you won't wanna miss out on!

It's Tuesday and that means a new challenge over at Scrapping Out Loud. This week the challenge is to scrap the one thing you would grab if your house was on fire and your family were safe and had already gotten your scrapbooks and scrappy stuff out.

For me that's an easy one. I could never leave my African Violets behind that belonged to my friend Marcela. After my friend lost her battle with cancer, I helped her family pack her apartment and Marcela had a beautiful bookcase filled with potted flowers that she loved. Her favorites were the African Violets that she had cared for and when her mother asked me if I'd like anything to remember her I asked to take those home. I have always felt that when they bloomed, a part of Marcela was still here with me.


This month's prize for Scrapping Out Loud was donated by me from Paper Posies. It's the June kit and it's loaded with awesome embellies and papers! All you have to do to have a chance to win this fabulous prize is play along with our challenge each week and post a link to your blog or online gallery so we can see your layout!

Paper Posies is a monthly scrapbooking kit club dedicated to bringing you the newest and hottest scrapbook products out there!
Sign up for you sub today! June's kit

It's been a really busy month so far and I've got a sneak peek for you. More to come about this soon...

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Weekend Activities

Hope you've enjoyed your weekend so far. We had a fun evening Friday night going out to hamburgers at Rally's. I haven't eaten there since I lived in San Diego 16 years ago. I snapped a few pics of Lily enjoying her own Strawberry shake on the way to the look out spot in Playa Del Rey where we ate our dinner in the car and enjoyed the sunset. We used to go to the plane spot but with Sept 11 and airport security we can't watch the planes land at LAX anymore.

Ahhh...

It just doesn't get any better than this...

Saturday Mat's mom came over for breakfast. She just got back into town from Italy and after we headed over to Playa Vista's 1st Farmer's Market.

Lily checking out the lemons

Lily and her flower the vendor gave her

She loves to touch

She's just adorable

And finally a few cards...

I made this one the Unity's Hip hop challenge last Thursday.

and this one for Hero Art's background challenge. Can you tell I fell in love with the white, black and red color combo. Oh and isn't this ribbon from Michaels fantastic!

Thanks for stopping by!

A night out with the girls

Last night our City Mommy crew met up at Pink Taco in Century City for drinks and chit chat! It's always fun getting together with these girls. We all try to connect at least once every 2 months and usually hit the hot spots on either the West Side or the Valley. Last night's meet was at Pink Taco where Heather's friend, Booke is the manager and always takes great care of us. thanks Brooke! We talked it up so much I hardly had a chance to snap any photos but I did have Alexandra take a pic of me with my sweet Aries sista Kate! I absolutely adore Kate, she's always been so supportive and she really gets me but it's probably because we're both Aries girls. She's an amazing floral designer. If you live in LA and need flowers for your wedding or whatever check out her site Kate Baker Florals

It's always nice to see these girls and really special when everyone can make it. We had 11 of us and a few new ladies too! I always love seeing Alexandra. She's such a southern belle. I love visiting her design blog and reading about her and "the critter" And no night out with the girls would be complete without chatty times with Roxanne tho last night we didn't get to chat all that much because there were so many ladies there.
It's nice to have a group of friends you can laugh with and get tons of support. These ladies are my biggest fans and have been pushing me to do something special with my cards that I make. I'm gonna do it girls, I will because of all your support!
Alexandra has also been a big supporter buying cards from me for awhile now. I really appreciate your business gorgeous!
It really means alot to know they care and want to see me succeed in my crafty hobby. Thanks girls! Can't wait til the next one ladies!

New challenge posted at Scrapping Out Loud and a super fabulous RAK up for grabs

It's Tuesday and time for a new challenge at Scrapping Out Loud! This is the last month I'll be designing for Scrapping out Loud and it's be a great experience getting to participate in such a fun blog full of inspirational ladies. I'm really going to enjoy these last 5 weeks.

So the challenge this week is to scrap a layout with a Rub On right on yor photo! There are so many awesome rub-ons out right now. I chose a Basic Grey Bling it! They are the coolest run-ons because 1st you rub on the design and then you Bling It! Sweet huh! Here's my take

Now here's a pic of the fabulous prize up for grabs if you play along this month sponsored by Paper Posies!

Look at all that scrappy goodness yo could get your hot little hands on! You've got 5 chances to win this great June kit from Paper Posies.

Paper Posies is a monthly scrapbooking kit club dedicated to bringing you the newest and hottest scrapbook products out there!

New Page Maps are up!

I wanted to share the card I contributed to the June Page Maps blog. I got to meet Becky Fleck at the Scrapbooking Expo in San Diego and she asked me to contribute a card based on her sketch. I used the new Cosmo Cricket Early Bird line and stamps by Unity!



You can view the card maps for June here and see the new June Page maps @ pagemaps.com. Be sure and check out her blog, Becky is giving away some great prizes for a sketch contest from Basic Grey and you still have time to enter!

Crushed...

I'm having one of those days... you know the one where you are so proud of a project and think surely it will be good enough but it isn't. And you're left wondering why? Where did I go wrong? What didn't I do right? I know it's part of the creative process but it still stings. That's the kind of day today is for me...

Paper Posies Online Crop Day 2

Day 2 of the Paper Posies online crop and more fun and games are in store for you! Join us here

I hosted a mini album challenge yesterday that will run the next 4 weeks. Last night I revealed the cover and every Friday evening over the next 4 weeks I'll reveal 2 more pages so you can play along over the weekend and create your own book.

I've been wanting to create an album about me for my kids to have when they are older. I want them to be able to read and share it with their kids. I always loved listening to my grandmas stories of when she was a young girl and wish I had something she'd created to read and remember her by. Plus with some some recent losses in scrapbooking blog land it made me think that I really wanted to have something to leave behind for my kids to know that it wasn't just being their mom I enjoyed in my life and how thankful I am that I'm a part of their lives.

So onto my reveal...

Cover, lots of distressing

My handmade Posie flower

I used pop dots to raise it off the page

Finally here's a card challenge I posted in the online forum today. I used the sketch from Card Patterns this week and challenged the girls to make a layout or card with a handmade Posie on it using the sketch and a link to Card patterns to submit their card for this week's challenge over there as well.

Here's the Sketch

Sketch 16 at the Card Patterns blog

My take

So thanks for stopping by my blog and come on over and join us today for more games, fun and PRIZES!!!

http://www.paperposies.com/

Paper Posies Anniversary Crop!

Hey there friends!

Today at noon Pacific time we're kickin off the Paper Posies Weekend Crop and will conclude on Saturday, May 30st at 9pm PT.

Please make plans to attend and plan to have a TON OF FUN!! We have plenty of challenges, games, PRIZES and other fun things planned to last throughout the crop. You won't want to miss it!

If you're not a member of Paper Posies you can still enjoy all the fun! Click here to sign up for the forum!

Here's a list of what we have planned for you today

12 Noon Welcome to the Crop and sign in :)

Song challenge- layout MaryAnn

1:00 game time hosted by Michele

2:00 Border Punch Challenge- Sonda

3:00 game Paper Posies/Scrapbooking Bingo words called approx very hour

4:00 Card sketch challenge with a twist- Shemaine

5:00 game #2 game of 4's- MaryAnn

That should be enough to get you excited. I'll be posting more games and I'm also hosting special project tonight at 7pm Pacfic time.

Hope to see you there! http://www.paperposies.com/