This month Elle's Studio has a challenge and you could win a $30.00 gift certificate to the store! Scrap up your holiday memories in a layout and make sure your journaling sums up your holiday season. Link your creation to their blog post here. That's it!

Here's my layout and 5 of our recaps with December's Paper Posies kit. I love the holidays and I love that my husband is a family kinda guy. We had a wonderful holiday together as a family this year.

Next I couldn't fall asleep last night {and now I'm paying for it this morning...} Lily had gone to bed with a fever and I wanted to be close in case she woke up in the middle of the night. So I created this card for this week's sketch at Mojo Monday

Supplies: Pink Paislee Cupid line, Martha Stewart bakers twine, American Crafts chipboard heart with micro beads. Provo craft embossing folder

Lily still has that fever but no other symptoms so I'm keepin an eye one her. Thanks for stopping by!

Bling it Baby!

Hello friends! It's Tuesday and time for another Jacksonbelle Embellishment challenge. This week we're featuring Basic Grey products from the store. We've got the the new cute clear stamps, Origins line and other fab Basic Grey goodies here in the store.
Now for this week's challenge, we want you to Bling in the New Year! Create a card or project and add some bling to it. Link up your creation to the Tuesday post at the Jacksonbelle blog or if you post if to a gallery please tag it with JBE088

For my card I used my new Slice to cut some stars from the Basic Grey Sugar Rush paper and layered them. I added the Basic Grey Birthday clear stamp and a snip of May Arts ribbon and finished it off with Some Zva Creative crystal flourishes

I'm excited to see the way our Rockstar Design Team bling'd out their cards this week. Be sure to stop by and leave them a comment. I know I love reading all the sweet comments you leave me here!

• Amy Turuta
• Carly Robertson
• Dawn Lusk
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Heather Pulvirenti
• Jill Dunn
• Julie Lacey
• Lynda Benden
• Pam Varnel
• Stephanie Severin
• Tobi Crawford
• Windy Robinson

Thanks for stopping by!

a little bit of Sunday fun

I've found a new past time. Besides making a few cards today I spent some time playing on Picnik and I think I'm hooked. Here's a little fun I had with Lily's pout photo from the park.

She really looks angelic and so pretty. Oh and those eyes...hope you had a great Sunday!

I found something else pretty fantastic I must share

I must confess I really want to win this candy because you all know how much I love Hero Arts stamps, but to win I need to share. So head on over and take a peek for yourself at Kathy's blog The Daily Marker
Lots of crafty things happening this week. I'm ready for some fun are you?

2 Sketches 4 You Challenge 43

Hello friends! I have been so busy lately getting some samples ready for CHA and meeting other deadlines that I haven't had a chance to check out the sketches at 2Sketches4You! After my daughter went to sleep last night I snuck into my craft space and created a card based on this week's sketch. Here's Kazan's fab sketch for this week, Sketch 43

And here's my take with one of the new Hero Arts sets that arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon

I stamped the background of the Kraft paper with Hero Arts flourish stamp and used white pen to color in the dots. I used red micro beads on the hears and a little bit of Stickles to make is shine a bit.

Here's a close look.I love finding unusual ribbon and buttons to add to my cards.
Hope you have a great Saturday whatever you do. I'm gonna stop by a local scrapbook store to meet a friend this afternoon and then I hope to scrap up some layouts and finish the January challenge at Elle's Studio.

Seriously addicted...

Hi friends! Hello Friday!
I am really fortunate to have a scrappy friend who lives 15 minutes from me. Heidi's work has blown me away since the first day I found her blog. A few weeks ago we were scrapping together and I was checking out some of her recent layouts and noticed this fab embellie that she had on one, so I asked her about it and that's when I learned about micro beads. She told me how to use them and I picked up my first bottle with a coupon of course from Michaels. Well I'm hooked! I got the color pack that Martha Stewart has and they are just awesome. I used them to create this week's Get Sketchy card!
Here's Sketch #20

This week's sponsor is...

You can win a fabulous prize pack if you play along with our sketch. Now here's my card.

Here's a close up of the beads. I simply used MONO Aqua Liquid Adhesive to trace the bare heart wood accent I picked up at Micheals for $1.00 and sprinkled the micro beads all over and they shook off the excess. This glue dries super fast and the result is beautiful! I also used Grafix pink and black vellum to layer behind the heart accent and MONO Permanent Adhesive. It works great on vellum and card stock. Oh and isn't that brad I made in the center of the flower to finish the sketch fab! I made it with my Itop tool! You must get one of these, seriously!

And this pic is just to show off my Nikon 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G lens

I have a feeling this photography thing is gonna suit me just fine...Thanks for stopping by!

Guess what!

We have a new product that was sneaked today via Twitter from Imaginisce...Magnet Itop brad daddies!!! We had a friendly little contest with the whole Design team to create a project with this fantastic versatile new product and here is my entry

Magnetic butterfly note card set!

Supply list:
Sweet Cheri pattern paper, rub-ons, Itop tool and small and Large brads and flowers from Imaginisce
Tin: Stampin Up!
Silver Stickles
Floral Wire
Hero Arts Designer Block Stamp
Hero Arts Versa Mark ink
Hero Arts holographic glitter
Martha Stewart Punch
Spellbinders butterfly die-cut

I'm so excited to share with you that I WON!!! Woot Woot! I could hardly believe it when I got the email. Our Design Team is so VERY talented! I could not believe they picked my design from all the amazing entries that we submitted. You can also see my project here in the idea gallery at the Imaginisce website!
Oh and guess what! I got a great prize too!

An Imaginisce 12 x 12 Urban Memory Album and a 50.00 gift card to Target! Pretty sweet :) This album is amazing!!! It's really well made and stylish. It seriously looks and feels like real leather. I highly recommend you pick one up if you are shopping for an album.

So there you have it! I had an exciting day today. My new years is really shaping up to go in a great direction and I can't wait to share more of what I have ahead.
Thanks for stopping by!

A warm welcome to the new Jbelle girls!

Hi friends! You should be arriving from Julie's fabulous blog! If not then head over to the Jacksonbelle blog and start your Tuesday blog hop.
Today we're throwing a fun blog hop introducing the new Jacksonbelle Embellishments 2010 Design Team members. I'm really excited to get to know each one of them. Their talent and blogs are amazing!

Here is our sketch for this week's Tuesday challenge

Here's my take on the challenge using the brand new Imaginisce line Lucy Bird. I also used the Lucy Bird Snag Em stamp. These little acrylic stamps really stamp crisp images.

Here's a close up of the Tim Holtz clear tag I embellished with a rub on also from the Lucy bird line

I made a second card from my scraps. I'm really trying to use up all of the product I used to create a card to help limit unused scraps.

We'd love for you to play along with this weeks sketch challenge so just link up your take on the sketch to the blog here or if you post on SCS or PCP use the tag JBE087 and don't forget to visit each of the all of DT member's blogs today and leave a comment. Lindsey has hidden a prize on one of the blogs today and you could win!

Now it's with great pleasure that I have the honor of introducing the next new designer to the Jacksonbelle Embellishment team...

Amy Tsuruta!!!

Amy lives in Washington State with her two gorgeous kids and works full time to fund her hobby.

I asked Amy what her favorite embellishments are and she said...

"I love glitter, bling, buttons, ribbon & stitching.. Who doesn't?"

Amy's work is amazing and fresh. She is so talented and recently made the top 5 at 2 Sketches 4 You challenge blog!
Please visit her blog Tsuruta Designs next on our Jacksonbelle blog hop and be sure and leave a comment!

Thanks for stopping by!

and the word is...

Time

After reading Ali Edwards blog I was inspired to join the One Little Word challenge. Then she posted a link to Christine Kane’s blog and I watched her video. WOW…so powerful and encouraging. You too can see her short video and download her free Word of the Year Discovery tool here.

TIME is my word for 2010. I have chosen this word because this is an area in my personal life I have struggled with for years.

I never seem to have enough time to accomplish things that are important to me. I do not take time for myself personally and have really let my health suffer because I do not take the time to improve it. I do not use manage my time wisely throughout my day and things I would like to accomplish aren’t done at the end of the day.

I feel that I do not spend enough quality time with my children often because I feel overwhelmed with projects and tasks that need to be completed but I have put off until the last minute.

I am encouraged and excited to be learning more about time and how to make it work for me in 2010. I’ll be sharing layouts and thoughts about my journey throughout the year and I hope you’ll join me to in choosing your “One little Word”

Holiday wrap up

I just love these...

You must get some, Mary Jane slipper socks now available in Valentine themes at Target. Perfect for those with wood floors like me so you don't slip and fall on yer arse...lol

Happy Sunday! Today is my wonderful husband's birthday and he's currently enjoying it crashed out in his Lazy-boy with football in the back ground. For him, it's a perfect birthday. What would have made it even better is if the Dolphins would have won today but we won't get into that.
With the holidays behind us I feel like I am finally catching up around here. It was a really fantastic Christmas this year. I got way more that I ever expected. Mat bought me this

And his mom gave me this




So now I can take photos like this one I took at the Grove...




Scott got his ipod Nano and was thrilled




And Lily got her Dora the Explorer talking backpack

Mat was happy playing with the Flip and the little things he recieved. What a guy {smile}

The holidays were hard without my parents here but my Mom told me that it snowed there in Arkansas Christmas morning and she like that.
Tomorrow Scott goes back to school and Mat goes back to work. I have another week off babysitting so Lily and I are gonna walk to the park on Kansas and I'm taking my new camera of course. Happy Sunday all, hope you had wonderful holidays too!!

New Imaginisce

Hi friends! Hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend. I've been enjoying this week with my hubby home because I've had lots of time to spend in my studio. It's been nice having someone else around to keep an eye on Lily. I've been crafting up a storm.
Here's a couple of cards I created with the new Lucy Bird line. I was so excited to get happy mail from Imaginisce on Monday I dove right into my new goodies.

The first card I created for this week's sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You. I flipped the sketch.

The second card is for this week's sketch at the Mojo Monday blog

I love the colors in this new line and the cute birdies. My favorite embellishments are the Chubby Chickie Stickers. Too cute!

Happy New Year ...now Get your Sketch on!!

Happy New Year! Hope you rang in the new year with those you love and had tons of fun!

Hello 2010!

It's time for a new sketch, actually the first one of the new year at Get Sketchy and we are starting this year off in first class style with this week's sponsor!

UNITY STAMP COMPANY!

If you haven't heard of Unity then you must be new to my blog. So stick around and I'll show you a stamp company that "will change the way you stamp!" Check out the Unity blog for daily inspiration here. The Unity DT rocks and Unity's owner Angela is one of the sweetest gals I know. I had the pleasure of meeting her and her Unity Crew at Winter CHA in 2009 and I am looking forward to seeing them again this year.
Play along with us this week to win not 1 but...3 stamp sets from Unity!!! A huge thanks to Angela for sponsoring us this week!!


Now here's this weeks sketch

Unity gave each of the Design Team members a set to play with, here's mine

Folk inspired, don't you love it!

Here's my take using the new Cupid line from Pink Paislee. Love it! Hope to see your takes linked up at Get Sketchy with Mr. Linky! You don't want to miss your chance to get some fabulous RUBBAH from Unity!
Thanks for stopping by today ;0

Best of 2009...

I think this quote sums it up best "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" Charles Dickens

2009 seemed to have it all. It was a tough time financially for many of us. In the scrapbooking industry we bid farewell to 2 magazines, Simple Scrapbooking and Memory Makers. In the entertainment industry we said goodbye to the King of Pop way too early. There are times in your life when things happen and you'll never forget where you were or what you were doing. The day Michael Jackson died will be one of those for me. I grew up to his music, learned Thriller in my best friends dance room and was excited when he announced his comeback tour.

2009 brought many exciting things to our family, dreams were realized and goals were met. We moved to El Segundo over the summer and got my son in a better school district, something that seemed unattainable with finances being so tight with me quitting my job to be a stay at home mom but we did it! I was able to travel with my children back east to Arkansas this summer and visit my parents home. It was a trip that made me nervous because I was traveling alone

My dream of designing for a scrapbooking manufacturer was realized in November this year and I'm proud to me a member of the 2009-2010 Imaginisce Design Team. I also started writing a scrapbooking column, designing for Jacksonbelle Embellishments and Paper Posies. I am so thankful for every opportunity that has come my way.

I've made lots of new crafty friends online, found a scrappy friend who lives near me, {yes I'm talking about you friend} and I got meet Angela and her Unity crew at winter CHA. I love the sisterhood of the scrapbooking community. I am in awe of all the talent I see daily on my favorite blogs and inspired to believe in my own talent. Thank you to everyone that stops by my blog and leaves comments. I really appreciate you taking time out of your day to visit my scrappy blog.

So here's to the best of 2009...

Best Anniversary gift...Colplay in concert at Irvine Meadows. Thanks again babe!

Best email I got this year...inviting me to join the team!

Best stamp set...Love is in the air by Unity Stamp Co.

Best road trip...ScrapExpo in Del Mar with my scrappy pal Heidi

Best scrapbooking tip I learned...using a nail file to trim paper on altered projects from the fabulous Kelly Goree!

Best out of town guest...a visit from my Dad. Thanks again for the fish and chips Daddy!

Best day of 2009...watching Scott ride off to his first day at El Segundo Middle School

Best photo I took with my Fuji Finepix... Lily on our front porch in a dress Uncle Lou sent her

Best card I made..I won 1st place on the Hero blog for this one


Best Halloween costume for under $10.00...Lily ladybug!

It's been a great year and 2010 is shaping up to be even better! Happy New Year to family, friends and you!!!