Has 2 weeks really passed.....

since I last blogged?? Well, the weather has just been so nice that I haven't been doing much updating here, so that's probably why. We had a mostly rainy weekend though, but had enough of a break to get in Brooke's soccer game Saturday morning. Then I took DH out to dinner & to a concert by an Eagle's tribute band that was actually VERY good! This was a birthday Eve celebration for him and Sunday was his 45th birthday & it was totally rained out, so we went shopping!

I finally got to check out the new scrapbook store that sort of re-opened under new ownership a few months back up in South Bend/Mishawaka (never sure exactly which city Grape Road resides in, if you're from the Notre Dame University area). I didn't get to check it out completely, as we had other places to go on DH's list & the mall. I definitely want to go back there & see more! I like Pages In Time Forever & they have very current stuff & the layout is not overwhelming. If you're in the area, go check them out!

I don't have much of anything new yet to add for inspiration on here yet, just some little things, but I have been working on some stuff! There's so many ideas screaming through my head to do, I can't quite keep up with all of them AND my other duties around the house & now yard! I love flowers & gardening, but I plan to keep up on my scrappy projects through out the summer this year! I've been doing much better this year with that & I'm really proud of myself up to this point.

Here is a little notebook I made from a small cereal box using my Bind It All. I got the idea from a either a book or a magazine, but when Charity, one of my DT homies at The Memory Zone made some, I totally flipped over them & haven't forgotten the idea.


















Here is the inside to show that it's filled with paper. I have a ton of this old feeder holed computer paper that my MIL had, so I cut it to fit & filled the booklets with it. I think this is a way cool & very "green" idea!










This is one of those cute little gumball machines that the local Walmart was selling at Easter. My daughter isn't fond of gumballs, so I replaced them with M&M's (I actually used the pastel ones) & then personalized it with her initial & some swirlies in hot pink vinyl. How cute!

















This is a very simple birthday card I made for my DH using my Cricut Expression with the Wild Card cartridge that I just got, His 45th birthday was on Sunday, the 25th. I thought it was simple, but he thought it was over the top. It's made only with card stock, but the navy blue is a shimmery (not glittery) type from Canson & it's really cool! I just embossed the white inside with the star folder from Cuttlebug & added stickles to the green star frame & the white title. Inside simply says "Celebrate."












This Saturday is National Scrapbook Day. Do you have any plans to celebrate the day? There is going to be a local crop locally, but since Brooke has soccer every Saturday, I won't be able to participate in that. It is supposed to rain all weekend, so maybe I will actually get some scrap time in to honor the day! I'm sure I could even find something happening online too!

And, last but certainly NOT least....I am getting one of my layouts published in the Scrapbooking.com online publication for June!! It's titled "a sprinkle of fun" & I'm so excited about that! It's the 2nd time I've been published by them & the last time, I even made the cover! I don't think they do a cover page with a layout anymore, but I'm still happy about the pub!


God Bless & have a great week!

Out of my comfort zone.

I just got this new line from BoBunny called Paradise Collection and I have to admit, the colors are typically not colors I'm drawn to, but it was the perfect color pallet to match my pictures that we took of a beach we heard about in Florida. I think I need to tweak my pictures because they don't do the color of the ORANGE beach justice. I didn't do that when I had them printed, since I just requested a mass printing at Walgreens when they had a special.










I hope my little idea works out OK without any problems on the close up of the page below, but that remains to be seen. Ya see, I took the cool clam shell packaging that the buttons & bling comes in with the domed cover & used it like a shaker box for some of my daughter's favorite sea shells & some of the "sand", which is actually crushed sea shells & they must be stained like they've been in rusty water. That is what creates the orange look to the beach. I'm not sure what makes it rusty or what crushes the shells, but it was interesting to see!

Another cool looking trick I tried (which I only did because I already had quite the dimension going on with that shaker box! *snort!*) but I even layered my bling jewels. I used the Orange ones that come in this collection and I used the deep turquoise ones that come in the Flutter Butter collection. The center stones are the great big ones that I placed a smaller stone of the opposite color on. They don't look great in pictures, since the top stones seems to shade over the bottom stone, but they create quite an impact in the light!

**I updated this photo from the original post because I needed a better color quality photo of the beach, but since everything is stuck in place, I just cut the new photo a bit smaller & did a 3 dimensional layer over the old one. The old photo is like a frame for the new one!

















Under the family photo on the right hand page, I created a hidden journal tag that you can pull from the bottom that tells of our brief time spent at this beach. It was definitely interesting to see, but most likely not a place that we'd go back to hang out a lot. When we left there, we had what felt like a greasy film that was rusty colored (maybe the salt in the air?). You definitely would require a shower after walking on this beach. I will say that it was very private with NO solicitors for time shares, like you get when you're at Daytona! I recommend this place to visit at least once just for the cool experience. We even had a really nice local who offered to take our picture for us, but it was such a windy day that I had to hold my hair down & maybe it's really breezy along the ocean, I don't know, since I'm from northern Indiana. LOL!! That's what I used those cool looking chipboard swirls for, they reminded me of the wind & the waves.















The only thing on this project that isn't Bo Bunny is the small border punched strip above the family photo. I thought it sort of mimicked sea shells & it's from EK, but I don't remember what it's called.

That's what I have today.

God bless & have a greatly creative day!

One

This is the only thing I've gotten done for this posting & it's a nearly total scrap lift of the one done by Stmako111 at Scrapbook.com. About the only thing different from hers is that I used a bubble border punch along the striped velum at the center of the page & I used Goofy's head for the Cricut die cut instead of a full body, but only because I don't have the Mickey & Friends cartridge that he is on. I have the font one, which is really good to have too, by the way! My colored swirls are different & the "O's" in Goofy are a bit different than hers, but they're still the same effect. I'd still like to do a 2nd page for this, as I have another photo & his autograph that I'd like to include too. We'll see how far I get on that. I'm trying to clean my scrap room some so I can get around more. Geesh! It's never ending!






















That's it for today for me. It's sunny & a bit chilly after having the freezing rain overnight. Going to go outside & see how my flowers are holding up!

God Bless and have a great day!

I got it today!!

I was so thrilled to see the UPS man arrive at my door today with my prize pkg. from Pebbles, Inc. (American Crafts)!! I don't know if someone there was reading my mind or if I've posted some of my favorite lines somewhere on their site, but I received the full line from Lil' Miss AND lil' buddy - stickers included, coordinating chips for each line & coordinating candy dots & full sets of matching ribbons & rub ons!!! I probably forgot something in all the excitement, but I just can't wait to start going through more of my little miss & little buddy photos to create some pages that I'm desperately behind on. I really wanted the lil' buddy stuff because I didn't get any before my LSS closed their doors. It so stinking cute! So a HUGE THANK YOU goes to the people at Pebbles, Inc & American Crafts for a great prize!! It made a gloomy day so much brighter.

OK, now you all have got to go check out the new Cricut Cake give away on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog! Yes, they're giving away a Cricut cake machine and there's lots of ways to enter into the drawing!! While you're there, you also need to check out Provo Craft spokesperson Jinger Adams' video demo of the machine. She's also got some great tips for using the machine & other products. You don't want to miss out on this!!

I have been working on another Disney page, but it's a total scraplift of the lady on the Cricut messageboard who did 2 entire albums for Disney. I wanted to get something accomplished without having to try to think of something on my own & her one Goofy page is pretty cute & simple to complete, even though I don't have the Mickey & Friends cartridge, I'm improvising as much as possible. I do have the Mickey font & I'm really glad I have that one! I'll post it here when I'm done, but I'm not going to bother with putting on the Cricut site, since it is a nearly exact replica. LOL!!!


Now on to some spring flower pics, if that doesn't bore you too much. I just love spring & all the pretty flowers & smells they bring when they're in full bloom. They just make me happy! My small rhododendron is finally blooming the best it ever has in the 7 years we've been here. I'm lucky that it's even still alive after the deer chewed it to a nub one winter. That's why it has taken so long just to get to the point it's at today. I don't have a photo of it yet, but it's in full open bloom just today, but it's raining & I don't feel like trying to get a shot of it. I do, however, have this ginormous rhododendron that it taller than the gutters of my house! I just love this beautiful beast, but after it blooms this season, I will HAVE to cut it back hard because it makes it too difficult to clean those gutters out for my DH. I wish we could move this big thing without killing it, but that would be a challenge in itself. I hope to get some shots of it when it goes into bloom.



This is just a small section of daffodils that circle a huge boulder in our yard. I love the variety here. I just love spring & the more earlier the flowers, the better!





I just love daffodils & this particular variety is really pretty, but don't ask me if it's my favorite, cuz I don't think I've met a daf I didn't like!





This is my only Hellebore plant & this is the first year that I've gotten a bloom from it in the 3 years I've had it! The blooms are bigger than I thought they'd be, but that's a good thing!

Well, I think I'll go work on my Disney page & relax for a bit. I'm a bit tired from the yard clean up yesterday.

God Bless & have a great day!