Happy Friday! So glad it's the weekend again of course I have a busy schedule but still glad to see the weekend come. My son goes back to school on Monday after a week off for Spring Break. He's been visiting his Dad so it will be good to have him home.
Hubby and I are gonna catch the movie Date Night tonight since my sister in law and her family are hanging out at our house overnight because she has to take her hubby to the airport at 4am for a 6 am flight...yikes!

So I mentioned I was crafting up a storm with the new Imaginisce line and I was determined to get a card done for this week's 2Sketches4You challenge. Here's this weeks very classy sketch from Kazan.

And here's my card

I wanted to pop some color into the black and white patterned paper and I used rub-ons from the new To Love & Cherish line from Imaginisce.

Here's a close up of my background stamping on the card with white and black ink. I need to buy another new pair of Cutterbee's since mine are dull already. Have I mentioned how hard I am on scissors...lol

I'm teaching my second Scrapbook Design & You class at JoAnn's on Saturday and really enjoyed my class last Sunday. The two hours went by so fast and half the class are beginning scrapbookers that were so excited to be there.
I'll also be teaching some technique classes in the coming months.

I'd also like to mention that Sarah Martina Parker joined us this week on the Love My Tapes blog and created some beautiful cards with our Japanese Masking Tapes. Be sure and stop by to check them out here.
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!

Hello friends...it's been busy day for me today. I got this in the mail last week from Imaginisce

It's a beautiful new line called To Love and Cherish! So I got busy working on some projects today for next week's reveal party on the Imaginisce blog. The Design Team will be featuring our artwork on our blogs so make sure you stop by and see what we're creating. Until then here's a few sneaks...

Well this one's short and sweet tonight...I am really really tired tonight. I am usually the night owl around here but not tonight...have a great Friday!

Cleaning house and a vacation of sorts...

Happy Wednesday friends. I decided to clean a little house on my blog and put on a fresh face.
I found some fantastic finds at The Background Fairy and my new found knowledge of PSE helped me make the banner my own.
I've also been working on finding a functional scrapbooking space in our small home. We moved last September to get my son into a better school and out of LA Unified because frankly the entire system is a mess right now.
It was a great decision of course but I had to give up my super cool scrap space also known as our hall that had built cupboards on the top and bottom and the most awesome counter top ever...So the problem of moving my space into Lily's closet is that I do most of my scrapbooking in the evenings...I can't exactly retreat in there before Lily goes to be because there is way too much going on and I get called back and forth to deal with whatever she seems to be getting into so there's not really a better time than after the kids are in bed.
Now when we do put Lily to bed (at around 10p.m.) she doesn't fall asleep right away. No this girl must be nocturnal I swear so by the time I can sneak in there it's almost 11 p.m.!
So since September I have had to scrap too fast or wait til the last minute for deadlines and such (oh I get them done on time) but I have lost the relaxing part that scrapbooking used to give me.
So I told my hubby how I was feeling and he agreed that we had no choice other than to turn the dining room into my space.

I've been trying to work in my supplies because I can't bring everything into that area but I'm getting a little more comfortable. Of course if there was an award for the messiest scrap space right now I think I'd win...I'm getting creative with storing my supplies too! Hopefully in time I'll find a way to make it my own again.
Yesterday Lily was playing dress up with a few things I picked up for her recently. She loved the lei's and looked adorable! So I snapped a few pics of her cuteness

The slight blue in the background of this pic really makes it look like these photos were taken in Hawaii doesn't it!
Here's a few more








Well that's it for today...thanks for sticking with me on this post. I know it was a long one.

It's almost Tax time so this week at Jacksonbelle...

It’s almost the most TAXING day of the year so in “celebration” of tax day our challenge this week is to make a card using taxes as your inspiration. For example ~ money, green, numbers…anything that represents your view of taxes.
Here's my take

Supplies: Cosmo Cricket Material Girl, Prima flower, MFT stamps sentiment Other: misc tag, Glimmer Mist.
Yes this year tax time for us was a blessing. We got a nice refund! It's helped see us thru while Mat's been looking for a new job and for that we are extremely thankful! We'd love to see your take on this challenge so be sure and link up your creations to the the blog here.

**We've also got new Stampavie in the store so stop by and check them out here.**

Also be sure and check out the other DT member's blogs to see their takes on this fun challenge!

Dawn Lusk

Julie Lacey

Heather Pulvirenti

Windy Robinson

Stephanie Severin

Amy Tsuruta

Pam Varnell

Lynda Benden

Tobi Crawford

Jill Dunn

Heather Lee-Reppen

Lindsey Botkin

Thanks for stopping by!

I proudly use Love My Tapes adhesive on all my projects

A bit of creative therapy

Ahh thank goodness for creative therapy. It really does soothe the stresses of motherhood, marriage, friendship and life in general. I think I really let myself get way to worked up over turning 40. We all have our stuff in life you know...my stuff has stayed with me far too long and it's caused me to lose sight of what is beautiful in life like birthdays. I mean how can I be so worked up over getting older when I was fortunate enough to survive cancer? Seems really silly when I put it into perspective.
So I sat down instead and made a list of things I'd like to happen in my 40th year. Some personal goals and some fun goals. I've also started a fun mini album to remember it all. I am really looking forward to filling it with these positive experiences and fun times. I'll be posting the cover soon so stay tuned for that.
I did find inspiration in this month's Page Maps from Becky Fleck and scrapped up a 8 1/2 X 11 layout to start my positive outlook on this year.

I used the Queen Bee line from Pink Paislee and some stamps from Hero Arts. I am working with a local stamp store on teaching some classes about incorporating stamps into scrapbooking layouts and I am really excited about this opportunity. I'll keep you posted on that too!

Next I got out my newest Unity Stamp KOTM and created this card. As soon as I saw this stamp I wanted to put buttons on that tree image. I also love the polka dot ribbon. This card makes me happy.

My friend Heather sent me this stamped image of the daisies forever and a day ago...lol. I finally used it to create a fun card for the Cards blog challenge this week. The other images are Hero Arts.

And finally I got out my Glimmer Mist for this card with Hero Arts stamps. I like the weathered look it produced on the friendship background stamp. I really like using Tim Holtz's distress inks for stamping lately. They really product nice images and colors.
So these are just a couple of the things I've been working on this week. I hope you enjoy them and be sure to leave a comment so I can stop by and see what you've been working on too!
Have a beautiful Friday!

I proudly use Love My Tapes adhesive on all my projects

Jacksonbelle Tuesday, a sketch challenge!

Hey there! It's Tuesday and time for another Jacksonbelle challenge! This week we've got a sketch to inspire you.

For this sketch I used some Pink Paislee and craft paper.

Supplies: Pink Paislee 365 Degrees, Stampavie Rachelle Anne Miller birthday set, Stickles, Copic Markers, Misc gingham ribbon and button.
If you'd like to giver this one a try link it up to our blog post here or if you upload to SCS or PCP tag your card with JBE100. Now be sure and stop by the Design Team blogs to see what they've created for you today!

Dawn Lusk

Julie Lacey

Heather Pulvirenti

Windy Robinson

Stephanie Severin

Amy Tsuruta

Pam Varnell

Lynda Benden

Tobi Crawford

Jill Dunn

Heather Lee-Reppen

Lindsey Botkin

Thanks for stopping by!

Right now

I'm...

• trying to be the best mother to my babies I can be
  
• letting go of stuff I can't control and grabbing a hold of what I can
  
• having hope instead of fear
  
• believing in myself again

Happy Monday!

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter! We enjoyed our egg hunt and the kids were excited to get basket goodies. Here's what the Easter Bunny brought them..

OK call me sappy but my daughter got her first doll, an Arial Mermaid doll that she can take in the bath with her. It was the first thing she grabbed from the basket and then she went for the wand and declared "Princess!" I love it!

I had a chance to stamp it up Sat and Sun so I created some cards over the weekend with Hero Arts stamps. This month's theme is

I picked up some 6x6 Pink Paislee paper pads from Jacksonbelle Embellishments a few weeks ago and wanted to use them for my cards. I am really drawn to yellow lately. Maybe it's because it's a cheerful color or just because I really love the Queen Bee line from Pink Paislee.

Other Supplies:Zva Creative pearl bling and flowers, Stickles, Hero Arts Stamps and Paper Tray ink ribbon

For this one the ribbon was in the $ bin at Michaels and I used the Hero Chandelier stamp with Stickles

This one was made from leftover scraps and a random butterfly in my stash with a Hero Arts sentiment.

and the inside.

You can stop on over to the Hero Blog for more inspiration with this month's theme here. Thanks for stopping by today!

2 sketches 4 You and some projects just because...

I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far. I can't believe tmr is Easter Sunday..Wow! Time has really flown by this year so far. My son doesn't have spring break until April 12th so one more week of school for him and then he'll go visit his dad. I wish I got to share a few of those vacation days but I'll have to wait til summer.

This week's sketch at 2S4Y is brought to us by the lovely Kazan

I knew I wanted to use my newest collection from We R Memory Keepers, Vintage Blue to create my take on this week's sketch. I love the pattern, colors and textures of this beautiful line.

Next there is a new challenge over at my second home the Hero Arts blog. This month's theme is Home and Mother's Day. I picked up this cute Happy Mother's Day stamp by Hero Arts last night at Stampin from the Heart in Los Angeles. They were having a Stampin Cafe night and I packed up my stuff, kissed the kids goodnight and went to stamp it up. Didn't know anyone but I didn't mind. I needed a night to myself and it was so fun :0 Here's a peek at a couple of cards I created.

I think it's time to buy the Corner Chomper since my corner rounder is leaving these dot marks on my card when I am rounding the edges or am I doing something wrong?

I was inspired by Tami Hartley's card on Alice's win a day on the Hero blog. She used hearts on her car but I don't have those images and instead made mine with flowers and couple of butterflies.

Oh and did I mention I agreed to make 60 Thank You cards for my son's school. They are having a teacher appreciation week at the end of April and since I can't really get out to help at school I signed up to make the cards. I have a goal of 10 cards per day and have 5 done so far...lol

Last is a layout I scrapped on Thursday night with the Vintage Blue line as well and some letter stickers from K&Co and American Crafts and of course my most favorite embellishments from Prima. My husband was a little upset I scrapped this layout of my daughter sucking her fingers with the index one up her nose. I thought it was a great shot and it's who she is right now.

Tmr is our Annual Smith family Easter egg hunt at Nana Virginia's. Scott and Gavin are excited and I am curious about what Lily will think of the festivities. We'll see. I am wishing that I was able to spend the day with my own parents. My mom is never far from my thoughts on a daily basis and thank goodness she is just a phone call away.
Whatever your Easter plans may be I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with your families!
Thanks so much for taking time to stop by and visit my blog today.

I proudly use Love My Tapes adhesive on all my projects

April Sketch challenge @ Imaginisce...no foolin!

Good morning! If you haven't heard, Imaginisce has been posting a new sketch challenge on the 1st of each month. No April Foolin either it's true! The sketches are created by our very talented DT Members and... if you link up your take to the Imaginisce blog here you are entered to win a prize package of your choice of either the i-top Tool package or a $75 prize pack.
Let's get to this month's sketch which is brought to us by Aphra Boyler.

I really loved the sketch design. Here's my take on the sketch...I did flip it and made it my own and I apologize that the pic isn't as good as it could be but I ended up staying up into the wee hours to finish my layout.

For this layout I used the new Live Loud line from Imaginisce and some American Crafts thickers. I used the itop paper punches to create my flowers by ink'n them up with Distress Inks from Ranger and finishing them off with some coordinating buttons. I also used some Japanese Masking Tapes from Love My Tapes.

Now be sure and stop but the other Design Team members blogs because you may be chosen to win a prize package just for leaving some blog love on each team member's blog! Start at the Imaginisce blog here and good luck!

I proudly use Love My Tapes adhesive on all my projects