Scrapping with Cut Files

Hi everyone!

Just bringing you this quick post with some more new pages I’ve created. I am really embracing using my Silhouette and cut files, especially from The Cut Shoppe! Last week I won the October challenge and was rewarded with several new cut files. Yay!!! I am also a big fan right now of Paper Issues, and recently purchased a lot of the new Stitched line by Amy Tangerine and some Gossamer Blue product (both of which you will see in the following layouts).

I also stumbled upon a few layouts I randomly created at the beginning of the year using Echo Park papers.

Here are the latest pages:

Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

Scrapping the Pumpkin Patch!

Hi everyone!

I’m continuing to have fun creating new scrapbook pages. We recently took a trip to our local pumpkin patch and I got some great photos of the kids. I’ve also been hooked on the Paper Issues group on Facebook and have started participating in some of their challenges.


This layout was created for the Woodn’t You Know It’s Fall challenge at Paper Issues.. I used woodgrain background paper and products from Bella Blvd.


My next challenge layout is for the Die Cut Saturday challenge, also found on the Paper Issues blog.. I downloaded the free cut file and used it as a mask on my background. I used Lindy’s spray ink which has a nice glittery, metallic sheen to it. The papers used were from We R Memory Keepers.


This layout was created for The Cut Shoppe’s Cut It Out October challenge. Ashley Horton is a dear friend of mine and an awesome designer and scrapper! Since I’ve gotten back into scrapbooking I have downloaded and used several of her cut files. You can view her shop here. I knew right away the Leaf Love cut file would be perfect for these photos. I used papers and items from Bella Blvd and my Paper Issues October swag bag (love!).

These two layouts are just for fun. I did use the Words to Live By cut file from the Cut Shoppe in the top layout.

Thanks for taking a look! I have more work in progress 🙂

Back to Scrappin!

Hi everyone!

It’s been forever since I’ve posted on my scrapbooking blog. Been forever since I’ve scrapped actually….

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been realizing that I really missed memory keeping. I dabbled in mini albums and Project Life, but I missed creating layouts. I’ve been so caught up in my mixed media projects that I lost interest in scrapbooking for a while. If you’d like to see my other artsy endeavors, you can visit my other blog HERE.

But for now I’d like to keep my scrapbooking and my art work separate. So today I will share just a couple of things I’ve been working on, easing myself back into the scrapbooking world 🙂

I’ve always loved Heidi Swapp stuff, and digging into my stash I found a bunch of blank Memory Files and related product. I stitched the files together like a book, and have been adding random photos to make a mini album.

I also created this layout using a cut file from The Cut Shoppe and using the Sketchy Saturday sketch from Paper Issues.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to be back soon with more fun layouts 🙂

Scrapping My Little Man :)

I took some time a few weeks ago to create a few layouts of my little man. I will keep this post short and sweet, just wanted to share the pics. I used all Echo Park papers on these. They are my favorite line to scrap with for Weston. The first layout was done based on a sketch by Ashley Horton.



I hope you all have a great weekend and a Happy Easter!

Working Through My Stash and Tales of De-cluttering….

Good afternoon! In December we decided it was time to turn our office/my craft space into a bedroom for Weston. This was great for him, not so great for us in some ways. We had to find a place outside of our home to office (we’ve officed out of the home for 10 years now!) and I had to give up having a dedicated craft space. In order to do this, I had to really go through and purge a lot of stuff and get back to the basics. That means having 2 closets that contain two Ikea Expedit 16 cube shelving units. I had to be able to close those doors and have everything crafty contained in there. Plus, I had to move my beloved stainless steel top desk out to the garage 😦 So now I work in his room in the corner on a folding table, which I have pretty much ruined with paints and ink already. OK, not ruined in my opinion, but maybe in someone else’s 🙂 This would also explain the fact that I rarely use my Silhouette Cameo I got for Christmas. For some reason it’s in my bedroom on the other side of the house. It wouldn’t fit in the closet.

The reason I tell you all this, is that I need to publicly acknowledge that I may have a hoarding problem. 🙂 I have kits going back almost 2 years full of cute papers, neat-o embellishments, stamps, stickers…you name it. Tons of really cute stuff that I just put in a box fully intending to use, but never got around to it. I did an honest evaluation of my stash and determined first of all that all of those paper stacks (you know…the K&Co, DCWV, etc. stuff you get at Hobby Lobby and Michael’s) needed to go. There was no way I was ever going to get through them all. Plus, I once had hours on end to mix and match and coordinate different products and manufacturers. I have since learned the beauty of buying stuff that is already pre-coordinated for me. It takes the guesswork out of having a really well designed and cohesive page.

So that brings me to the point of this post. I have recently purchased some new goodies like the Maggie Holmes stuff from my last post, but I am seriously working on getting layouts done using those old kits. I have picked through some of them, so I may have to mix in a few new goodies. 🙂

That said, please don’t judge when you see (gasp!) paper lines from 2010, 2011, and early 2012. 🙂 I think that good design can trump the use of older products, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself!!

Here are a few pages I have been working on. I continue to struggle with 2 page layouts, but sometimes they just have to be done.

So go ahead and dig through that stash, who knows what you’ll find!! Have a great week!

Crate Paper + Maggie Holmes = Cute Mini!

Last week I made the 52 minute drive to Archiver’s and picked up several new items from the Maggie Holmes’ Crate Paper line. As I was browsing, I noticed her adorable clipboard style mini, already preloaded with some cute base papers. So I grabbed a 6 x 6 coordinating paper pack and lots of embellishments and brought them home. I’ve really been into my art journaling lately and my scrapping has been on the back burner, but this line really inspired me to create. 

Here is a shot of my haul:

Once I got rolling on this project it really came together quickly. That is the beauty of using pre-coordinated projects. It didn’t hurt that these products are just too darn cute too! I embellished some of the die cut tags and inserted them between the pages, and finished it all off with some pink tulle and aqua rickrak from my stash. 

I hope you enjoyed the mini and have a wonderful weekend!

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Well, well, well….

Guess who finally was inspired to get scrappy? 🙂 After a long drought, I finally found some time and scrapping mojo. I think with the pressure of no design teams I am feeling a lot more inclined to create. That combined with the LifeBook class that I am taking has really got me feeling inspired. For the past 2 weeks I’ve been knocking out some layouts. I can’t believe how fast some of them came together. Although like any other scrapper, I know that I will never really be caught up, I feel like I’m making some good progress. This is going to be kind of a picture heavy post, but this way I can share with you what I’ve been doing and get caught up on my blogging all at once. I have many friends’ blogs to visit and catch up with as well 🙂










The Pumpkin Patch and The Day You Were Born layouts were based on sketches from Creating Keepsakes Fast 4 x 6 pages
I hope you enjoyed the layouts are maybe found a little inspiration here as well 🙂
Take Care!

December Daily 2012…and other news

Good morning everyone! I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed your holidays 🙂 We had a great time the last few weeks, enjoying lots of family time together and relaxing. After Christmas, Sophie and Weston both got sick, then Ashley and her boyfriend. So I have been busy taking care of sick kiddos since then. On top of that, Weston is getting 6 teeth all at once so he’s been a bit on the crabby, clingy side. I am hoping everyone is well by the weekend and are able to go back to school on Monday. I really need to get back into our routine, and with all of the work that I have coming up I’m going to need every spare second.

With that in mind, and after doing a lot of thinking I have decided to step down from all of my design teams. It was a hard decision, but something I felt needed to be done. With Weston being so active, it’s really hard for me to sit and really focus and plan out and work on layouts. It takes me twice as long to create as it used to, and when you have a deadline to meet that can get kind of hairy! I also realized that I am more inspired when I can pick and choose which challenges I want to do. Plus I really want to focus more on my mixed media art this year (one of my 2013 goals). So…I will continue to create layouts, though it may be sporadically. I am also doing Project Life this year, which I am very excited about and will be sharing my pages of that here with you all as well. I am also doing LifeBook 2013, which you can learn about more on my art journaling blog. These two projects will be my main focus for the year and I am excited about them both. I think the PL will be a quick, easy way to maintain memory keeping without having to do big layouts (I ordered one of Becky Higgins’ pre-coordinated kits), and the LifeBook is two pages per month and is being taught by some really incredible artists!

This post is getting long, I’m realizing LOL….

Now that all of my “news” is out of the way, I wanted to share with you all my December Daily. I am feeling very proud of this, as this is the first year I’ve ever actually finished one!! Yay me 🙂 This project actually is what inspired me to do Project Life. I bought a Snap book and a Simple Stories kit to complete this project and it was just amazing to me how quickly I was able to put pages together and have them look cohesive. Right now I am loving anything that looks good and saves me time!!!

Click here to view all of the pages of my December Daily. I hope you enjoy and find some good inspiration there.

I wish you all a very happy, creative, and prosperous new year!!! 🙂

Challenge Me Happy 12.15

Good morning everyone. I would like to take a moment to offer my prayers and deepest condolences to the families who lost loved ones in yesterday’s tragedy in Newtown, CT. As I learned about what happened, I could not hold back my tears. I can’t imagine what those parents must be feeling today. I love my children so much, and even though they may drive me a little bit crazy I could not imagine living my life without them. So today I am holding them a little bit closer, having a little more patience, and thanking God that my babies are still with me. (even the big stinky teenage ones, because they will always be my babies no matter how old they are!) 🙂

This week’s challenge at Challenge Me Happy is a word challenge. We had to use the word “Little”. As some of you know, my Sophie is quite the little lady (or diva) and so with that in mind I created this layout of her in her fall school picture. (Photography by LifeTouch)



I’ve been working through my stash since I cleaned out everything and found this Farmhouse paper pack from Crate Paper. I totally forgot I had it! Now I am off to spend some time with my kids, feed them lunch, and enjoy the chaos. Right now Sophie is telling Weston that “he smells like a rotten tomato” and he is laughing his head off. I love these moments. Enjoy your time with your family today and make sure to tell them how much they mean to you 🙂

Challenge Me Happy 12.1

Hi everyone! This week at Challenge Me Happy we were issued a scraplift challenge. We were given a layout done by the very talented Annelie to lift.

Here is her layout:



And here is my lift, using the BoBunny Apple Cider line. It’s my pretty little Sophie in the pumpkin patch 🙂



Be sure to enter a project that is made EXCLUSIVELY for this challenge and link it up to Challenge Me Happy for a Guest DT spot!