POT LUCK, Day 5, MINI ALBUM FROM DAWN

"I was trying to think of something different to send and found this in my files. This was a mini album that I made for my nephew out of CDs! I used a Crop A Dile to punch the holes in the CDs, covered them with patterned paper, pictures and rub ons and that was it. Simple and easy! Since he is a musician (drummer), he thought it was really cool that it was made out of cds." - Dawn

POT LUCK WEEK, day 4, Post 2

It looks like Carrie wasnt the only one with fantastic scrapping inspiration. This is from Dawn. Here is her story about this layout. "I wear this necklace almost every single day. My husband gave it to me on Valentines Day 2008. But I need to stop and think more often about what it really means. The amethyst is Tama's birthstone; the emerald is Travis'. Precious stones for the two most precious things in my life. The diamonds will always endure, just as we will. The circle represents endless love; Love for our children, love for each other, love for the life that we have built together. When I really stop to think about it, it is one of the most beautiful gifts that I have received, both physically and metaphorically. I love it."

POT LUCK WEEK, Day 4

This is the CUTEST thing ever!! Carrie , CLICK ON BEE TO RIGHT, sent this over to me. Please visit her site to get the whole story. Her card is above and her inspiration is below. Her 9 yr. old made this picture for her penpal and Carrie used it for inspiration to make a card. I just absolutely adore this idea. I'm soooo pulling out my kids artwork! Thanks for sharing!

POT LUCK WEEK, Day 3

Here is a page I did back in the day I did it Pre-cricut and hand cut that fishing net. That dang thing took me all day.. LOL. I could have just cut out the background of the net in solid brown.... put pics down, then did the "weave" part.. but .. umm.. Nope.. I cut out the fishing net background then cut out the whole middle.. LOL. I was soo silly back in the day.. LOL. I had seen it in a magazine and copied the idea. I used a punch to cut the tree tops. The letters are precut chipboard. Back in the day I thought chipboard was thinking out of the box.. LOL. P.S. did NOT use a paper cutter to cut tree trunk strips ... you can soooo tell.. LOL . By the way.. back in the day was only like 2 1/2 yrs. ago.. LOL

I INTERRUPT POT LUCK TO BRING YOU THIS

Here is the Cricut Imagine!

POT LUCK - WEEK 1 - DAY 2

Good morning!!! Here is a page I did Sunday night. This is my son fishing. He caught these little fish, maybe 3 inches long and couldn't stand himself. He was soo excited.

I used two Cartridges on this. I used Graphically Speaking for the Dream Big title, cut that 2.5, page 32. I had to ink the word big and I outlined dream in white ink because it was hard to make out.






I used Child's First Year for the little boy fishing, I just love him, page 38, I cut him at 2.5. I also used the fish cut on page 38, cut the fish at 3/4 and 1/2 inch.


I am sorry these pictures are turned sideways, I tried to fix them, sometimes these blogs have a mind of their own!!! I had to get a close up of the borders. These are from K&Company and they are self adhesive and the are called Handmade Borders. I love, love, love these. They come 20 to a pack!! Fantastic!!!










And of course a close of the fishing boy!! So cute!!!!

A BUSY BEE....

has got some yummy candy.. check sidebar here for her lil bee and give it a glance

I have returned

Hello Ladies - I have returned from Mexico and we had a blast. I had to to post these two pictures our of son swimming being kissed by a sea lion and a dolphin!! I think his face says it all. He wants to be a vet when he grows up.

It is good be back in the US!!! I can't wait to scrap these pictures!

WELCOME BACK LAURIE!

Hope Mexico was a blast! Can't wait to see pics

ONE LAST AGES AND STAGES!

Now if this doesn't make you want some cake..then I don't know what will.. LOL. Love this layout of Dawn's lil guy enjoying his bday!! These times are the most yummy milestones in our kids lives! She did a photo collage to get all the great pics of that day on one page! Smartie Dawn, because they are great pics!!

TRY THESE FOR THE FIRST TIME, OR AGAIN!

Cut out your title letters in patterned paper!
Pair colored photos with black and white!
Use ribbon or string around your focal point photo!
Print your pictures with a white border around instead of matting in color!
Lay velum over patterened paper to mute the colors a bit!
Tilt your photos slightly to creat "movement" on your page!
Use some "fun scissors" (ie: pinking shear..zig zags) and cut a strip of paper then use that as a template to trace a border!
Use brads for bullets on your pages!
Have fun!
Thank you
Scrapbook Tips You Can Easily Apply to Your Scrapbooking Layouts for these tips!

FIRST 8x8 CHALLENGE SUBMITTED

I'm ending this week with an 8x8 challenge sent in by ABUSY BEE. You can read more about these layouts at -> DoubleClick Connections - AKA Abusybee . I LOVE this.. awesome work!

AGES AND STAGES WEEK 2, Day 4

Beautiful Dawn.. Simple...bright colors..pefect!

AGES AND STAGES WEEK 2, DAY 3

A friend took this shot of my son getting his diploma and sent it to me. I was in the mood to get messy. I didn't go into this with any ideas..I just grabbed some Modge Podge...grabbed a $1.00 frame I had and then just grabbed the closest paper stack and started tearing. I kind of tossed it on without thinking to much and came up with this :) I used my fingers..no brushes and just had fun with it. I found these number stickers.. dotted them with a white pen and called it a day! On pieces and parts of the frame that I didn't cover with paper, I just touched with an inked q-tip. It was fun... just tearing and sticking.... here there and everywhere!! I suggest that ya go get gucky and mucky and sticky and make a mess, see whatch come up with. Have fun!

CHECK IT OUT

Go on over to Pieces of Me Scrapbooking & Paper Crafts Judy has listed 100 ways to use stickles!

AGES AND STAGES, Week 2, Day 2

This is an adorable 12x12 by Dawn. Her lil guy gettin his hair cut..awwww. ALong with a snipit of his hair.. Fantastic idea Dawn.. Love the bright colors.. Thanks for sharing. This is definately a great STAGE in a lil ones childhood to capture!

YOU HAVE TO CHECK THIS OUT

WOW.. over at bumblebee creations There are 10 awesome cards using the die cuts from our swap! What fun! They came out awesome!

AGES AND STAGES, Week 2, Day 1

OMGOSHNESS this lil guy. Here is a cute 12x12 from DAWN. She told me that her idea behind this was to take a picture of her child in the same spot every month for 12 months. Some people she's seen do this put a stuffed animal beside them to see how they change. FANTAB idea dawn, Thanks for sharing!

HELLO SCRAPPERS

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Our friend Laurie is on vacation this week. She and her family are in Mexico...woohoo! I'm going to continue AGES AND STAGES week into next week as I have a few posts and Dawn has got some nice ones too we didnt' get too.

WELCOME GABBY

Nice to have you come by and check us out. I hope you'll come back often. Have fun & hopefully get inspired! Welcome

YOU MAY WANT TO JOT THIS DOWN

HSN
Monday, July 19, pretty much all day will have scrapbooking! Big Bad Martha will start things off at 12:01! Get those DVR's going.. lol.CLICK to check it out here at HSN Program Guide - HSNtv

AGES & STAGES - By Laurie (Besthobbyeva)

Good morning Scrapping Ladies - Happy Friday. I wanted to show my thought process for this page, start to finish. My eldest son ask to have a pool party on the last day of school. First time having a boy/girl party. It was such a year for all these kids, I said yes. It was their Freshman year in High School.

I had so many pictures I wanted to get on two pages I pulled out my scrap go to, Sketches, Volume 2 by Becky Higgins, I made a copy of the sketch I used. As you can see from my pages, I made it my own. That is great thing about sketches, you get a general idea and you run with it.









Page one the word Freshman, I used K&Company letters, the "no more" where just white letters that I colored in with a blue glitter pen. I doodled around the entire page, it just looked empty to me. To the left of the large picture I used my small Cuttlebug folder to make the wave.

Page two I cut out the squares on the Cricut using George and the Basic Stone, 1 1/2". The arrows on both pages come from Accents Essentials and shadowed . I believe they are cut at 1 inch.





The words Water and Got kids? are from Graphically Speaking both cut at 1.5". Those words were not easy, because they are so small, but I was determined to get them on there. I pop dotted both words.

Of course the blue paper is StampinUP!

CHALLENGE GIVEWAY

Hello fellow Paper Engineers! Well, me and Laurie got a bit carried away with this giveaway.. and turned it more into a challenge. We Serenity Scrapper gals here in Mass. mostly do 12x12 layouts, occassional cards, and hardly ever any 8x8 layouts. So...we thought we'd challenge ourselves as well as our followers with and 8x8 challenge/giveaway. The prize is a cute new 8x8 scrapbook that I filled with coordinating papers and some surprise embelly's! We're big on surprises..can you tell? LOL. Here are the rules and regs:

1. Have fun!
2. Do a two page 8x8 layout
3. The theme is "someplace you like to visit/travel"
4. Submit by August 15th at 9 p.m. EST
5. Have fun!

We are going to have a judge for this after everybody submits. We figured it might be more fun than just a random winner.

AGES and STAGES WEEK, Day 4, layout by KEL

This is my lil guy..awww. He will be 18 in a few weeks and I cannot BELIEVE it..yikes. He was too cute at his 1st bday. He was serious about his business of gifts I tell ya.. LOL. IT seems like yesterday. The flowers are paper ones by Creative Memories, the cut outs are from a day by day scrapping kit a friend gave me and I did swirl stamps around edges.. Nothing fancy.. but I like the bright colors.

AGES AND STAGES WEEK, Day 3 Layout by Dawn

Well, omgoshness..how cute is this! It is great to get a picture of things like this. It brings me back to when my kids lost their teeth! It seems like yesterday..and at the same time, it seems like so long ago. FANTASTIC idea Dawn..thanks for sharing!

AGES AND STAGES, DAY 2 layout by TARA

Here is a fun layout by TARA. I love the purples and pinks.. and that cake.. too cute. Great cake!Nice pics, great layout, thanks for sharing!

AND THE AWARDS ARE PASSED TOOOOO

Scrapping Sweets by Abby
A Stamping Good Time
bumblebee creations
Two Scraptastic Gals
My Creative Time

Take a minute to visit these gals blogs and see their awesome talents!

AN AWARD

Hi, it's Kel and we got another award.. woo hooo

The rules for this award are:

1. Thank the person who gave this award to you Thank you Kate!

2. Copy the award and put it on your blog. To the right

3. List three things which you love about yourself. I'm friendly, I'm helpful and I'm kind

4. Post a picture you love. I love that pic of the dolphins, it was my kids 1st time to Sea world and those were the dolphins they fed.. makes me smile cuz the dolphins look like they're smiling. We had soo much fun!

5. Tag five people you wish to pass this award on to. I'll have laurie post her answers to the top four items above.. then we'll get together and chose 5 to pass onto!

AGES & STAGES - Day 1

Good morning ladies - Here we are Monday again!! Get the tissues out before you look at this awesome, awesome layout by JennyB.

This is a picture of her husband holding their daughter's hand (@ 5 weeks premature)!!!!

JennyB doesn't remember what she used, as this layout is about 8 years old!! But so worth sharing with everyone. I just love it!!!

Thank you JennyB for sharing. Don't forget to check out Jenny's blog @
http://scrapmommie25.blogspot.com/

Have a Marvelous Monday!!!!

GLAD TO BE HOME!

Hello fellow scrappers, its Kel, and I'm back from my week in Maine. It was sooo hot, but the cool beaches made it bearable. I was looking at all the fantab work you gals did for quotes and notes week. Bravo and nice work...very nice!. This week, I was thinking "AGES and STAGES" week. It would be great to see birthday cards and bday layouts, stages in peoples lives; like baby's first steps, 1st tooth loss, first hair cut, new glasses, a new car or your little one on their first day of preK, Kindergarten or even high school or college! Maybe a layout showing pictures of families showing 2 or three different generations! Have fun. As always, if you've got something you want to share, mail it off to me at ACHILDINMIND@aol.com.

NOTES AND QUOTES WEEK - DAY 5

Good morning. Today's Guest star is Dawn. She made this super cute Thinking of you card. I am soo loving the buttons in the middle of the flowers, they really make the flowers pop! Dawn cute this entire card on the Silhoutte and the words are a stamp from my favorite StamingUP!!!




















Here is a close up!




















I absolutely love this picture of Dawn's kids. If you haven't guessed already Dawn is a photographer!! We love her work. The reason why we put this layout up is because the journaling on this page are words from a Bon Jovi song, I'll Be There for You. What an awesome choice, for this picture of the big sister looking at her baby brother! The baby paper is DCWV Spring stack.

Enjoy, hope this inspires all to get out there and create.

There most likely wont' be any post over the weekend. Kel is still away and I am off to New Jersey for a fun family wedding! Have a great weekend!!!

NOTES AND QUOTES WEEK - DAY 4

Good morning Serenity Scrappers - I hope everyone is having a great Thursday. Friday is so close!! As promised, here are some quotes. These quotes come from my son's baseball coach. Every time he sends an email he adds a quote on the bottom of the email. I love each one! Hopefully you have some baseball layouts you can use them on:

People ask me what I do in the winter when there is no baseball. I tell you what I do, I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~ Roger Hornsby

Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times of of ten and be considered a good performer. ~Ted Williams

I'm convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. ~ Tom Clark

There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ~ All Gallagher 1971

A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings. ~ Earl Wilson

NOTES AND QUOTES WEEK - DAY 3 - Part 2

Here is an awesome card that Kate did. Well, she did a few of them. They are so cute. It's a set of thank you cards. Kate used Nursery Rhymes for the main image and Ashlyn's Alphabet for the little frame. She also used her new gel pen and holder set and Cricut and Tear Drop to write the Thanks sentiment.

Thank you so much, Kate for sharing. I love the and the paper is awesome.

You can find Kate over at her blog http://smallbitsofpaper.blogspot.com/

NOTES AND QUOTES WEEK - DAY 3

Ladies, I will post an awesome card for Kate later this evening. Absolutely crazy day at work today and then off to my son's baseball game tonight. Thank you for your patience.

NOTES AND QUOTES WEEK - DAY 2

Good morning!! I am showcasing today, some work from JennyB. She sent me these two beautiful thank you cards and I had to post them today. She was also kind enough to send the directions. So we here go:

Paper: Very Vanilla (SU), layered with a scrap of Cottage Wall (DSP) and a scrap of Old Olive. Using the Scallop Trim Edge Punch (I love these edge punches, they really make a difference) and she added a simple knot using Stain Old Olive Ribbon (SU) The Thank you is stamped in Chocolate Chip Ink and is from the Very Thankful Stamp Set.

Card base is Very Vanilla (SU), layered with Real Red and a scrap of Sending Love (retired) Ribbon is Real Red Ribbon (SU) Same scalloped punch as used above. Same stamp set as above as well.

I do have to say I love both cards, simple directions, but very elegant looking.

Thanks so much, JennyB for sharing.

Don't forget to check out Jenny's Blog @ scrapmommie25.blogspot.com

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY - QUOTE & NOTE Week

Good morning scrappers!! We hope everyone had an awesome 4th, sharing with family and friends. We hosted a party it was great!!!

So this week we thought we would do quote and note week. So if you have any quotes, or thank you notes, or note cards that you made and would like to see them "on the big screen", send them to me @ lbaires@comcast.net. Kel is on a well deserved vacation this week in the lovely state of Maine!!!! Hope your having fun Kel!!

I will be posting a small little thank you card that I made for my son's birthday party. I put one card in each goody bag, and I didn't have to mail them out and the other Mom's thought it was a great idea!!!

Stay tuned!!

SWAP

Hello fellow swappers!!! I have received the last three die-cut swaps in the mail today! So excited for all to see. Thank you all for participating!! I had great fun making mine and then getting them in the mail and seeing what you all did!! I will get out in the mail right after the 4th!!! If I can get to the PO tomorrow I will try and get them mailed out tomorrow.

Look for some fun mail soon!!!

ANIMAL LOVERS WEEK - DAY 5

Happy Friday, and Happy 4th of July!! We thought it would be appropriate to save this page for last. It represents, family, as well as a great American past time. What a great 2 page layout!! Dawn thinks she used a Becky Higgins sketch, and was pleased with how many pictures she got on two pages. It looks like a BH Sketch to me, I love her sketches. Amazon.com has a ton of Becky's books.

Dawn made the elephants and the title on her Silhouette and shadowed both to make them pop. Dawn used DottaRific markers to make the dots on the title and on the page as well. Great pictures too!! Thank you Dawn for sharing!!!! You rock!

Thanks for ALL the pages you contributed this week!!! All were great!

WELCOME VICTORY!

NICE TO HAVE YOU!. You can visit our newest friend at UniqueMonique Gift Baskets and More

ANIMAL LOVERS WEEK - DAY 4

Good afternoon, as promised, folks that sent out their layouts, we are posting!! So here is a beautiful layout by JennyB!! Thanks for sharing!!

JennyB used the following:
Layout Design: ScrapsketchBlogHop
Rockability DSP (retired)
Kiwi Kiss Cardstock (retired)
Basic Black, Ruby Red and Whisper white all from StampinUP!
CuttleBug - Devine Swirls Folder
Bone was cute using Tombats 3 in SCAL, puppy was cute using 2peas Crazy Pooch in SCAL. Love was cut using 2pease Blocks-Love in Scal























Here are close ups of the page! I do love the title and the hearts!! I love this page, the colors are awesome!!

Thanks so much JennyB for sharing your work with us.

Jenny has a blog as well:
scrapmommie25.blogspot.com