TGIF; Thankful Friday #101

Better late than never...

I'm thankful this week for a three day weekend! All my kiddos will be over on Saturday so I'm looking forward to it.

It doesn't get much better than this...Friday, Payday and the beginning of a long weekend!

WOYWW #534

Happy WOYWW, Wednesday, Hump Day, whatever you want to call it! Today is the day where I get to share what's on my desk on the Stamping Ground blog along with many, many others. Come take a peek!

My desk is cleared off since I needed to take photos of one of my DT projects. But I decided to also take some photos of different angles of the Command Center.

 Looking from the doorway to the right:

 Looking from the doorway to the left:

It's definitely not clean and clear, but not too bad...at least I can walk around. Hee Hee

Click on over to Julia's blog, Stamping Ground to see more desks!

Let's Scrap!

I had a great "do nothing but craft" weekend. I'm almost done with 2018 so what that means is that I'm working on Christmas!

Pretty interesting working on Christmas pages while the A/C is cranking in the 100 weather, but it's all good. I'm also in Season 5 of The Office. The addition of the tv in the Command Center is awesome!

I'm following the sketch on Let's Scrap and it is a fabulous one!

This is a great way to use up scrap Christmas papers which is exactly what I did!

After I took the photos, I added journaling on both pages.

I am also adding these to a Face Book I'm a part of which for the month of August, we are to use pulled prompts. For these layouts, the prompts were:

TGIF: Thankful Friday #100

100!  Whoop! Whoop!

It's Friday and I'm thankful for the power of prayer. One of my good friends was in the hospital and now she's home. She is loved by many and I know many, many people have been (and continue to)praying for her.

The thing about living in a small town is the amazing connections we all have through work, personal and family relationships.

I hope everyone has a great week and remember...no matter what, there's always something to be thankful for!

WOYWW #533

Hello there! It's Wednesday and time to share my desk. Please click to Stamping Ground to sneak into the other deskers' workspaces and to add a link to your own work area.

Here's my desk:

I completed another layout last night and actually cleaned up after myself. Whoop Whoop! These are photos from Christmas Eve 2018. I actually have a free weekend and hope to finish the 2018 album.

Here's a close up of the finished layout and a close up of the cute penguins. They were cut from the Simply Charmed cartridge and my Cricut.

Don't forget to click over to Stamping Ground! Have a great week!

BBTB2; Female Birthday Challenge

The current challenge at Bitten By The Bug 2 (BBTB2) challenge site is FEMALE BIRTHDAY.

The choices are endless when it comes to birthdays especially female. I decided to share a card that I made for a friends' daughter's first birthday.

This is the first time I've made a square card. I was gifted some 5.5 x 5.5" envelopes so I thought I should use them. Wow! I loved how it turned out.

I used my Simply Charmed cartridge for the cupcake image and standard font for the "1". The two mats were cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge from CTMH.

Here's what I did:

• I cut the polka dot patterned paper at 5x5 and then realized I didn't like the large white border it left on the cardbase so I cut a piece of black cardstock at 5.25 x 5.25 to mat it.
• The "1" is cut at 5"
• The cupcake image is cut at 4". I used clear Wink of Stella to add sparkle all over the cupcake image. I started only coloring in the flame, but then decided the whole thing needed to be sparkly!
• The mats were cut at 3 1/2 and 4. I cut the smaller mat first but thought it needed to be bigger. I cut the larger one and then thought to stack both to add interest. I used a black marker to add the faux stitch lines.
• Added some enamel dots and viola!
• Oh, I also adhered the cupcake with foam adhesive to add more depth.

Now it's your turn...click on over to the BBTB2 site to link up your birthday inspired project. Check out the inspiration by the DT - so awesome as always!

TGIF; Thankful Friday #99

FRIDAY! YAY! I so need it to be Friday. This has been a crazy week both at work and at home. We're having a birthday party for my daughter and granddaughter plus it was the first week back to school.

This week I'm thankful for sleep! I have been sleeping like a rock all week and it has been wonderful!

Have a great weekend! And don't forget to leave a comment on what you are thankful this week!

Catching Up on 2018

It’s been a crazy busy week and I meant to post this earlier. I’ve been trying to scrapbook more and finish my 2018 album. I’m in December so I’m almost there.

Here’s another layout I did with photos from when we made gingerbread houses.

I used these prompts:
3 of Anything (patterned papers, trees and photos)
Staple Something to Your Page (I stapled the photo collage)
An Older Photo or Event (well it’s not actually that old, but still...)

I bought this Christmas line from Tuesday Morning and the embellishments I bought later but match the line!

TGIF: Thankful Friday #98

It has been a busy, busy week at work due to school starting on Monday. Staff is rolling back in and the phone calls and emails are nonstop.

School starts on Monday which means the Summer Reading Marathon is coming to a close. The last day to read for this marathon is Sunday. I just finished my 19th book and started my 20th with the hopes of finishing by Sunday.

This week I am thankful for peace and quiet at home. All is well and that is fabulous!

Scrapbooking The Day Away

Scrapbooking The Day Away is the name of a FB group I'm a part of. The members of this group are all so amazing and positive AND boy are they literally scrapbooking the day away. My ol' Paper Pajama Party founder (AnnMarie who also has a blog)started this FB group and it is thriving! If you are a FaceBooker and want to join a great group, search for it.

For August, she had a list of random prompts that we cut out and put in a box. Each time we start a layout, pull two or more of these prompts to incorporate into your layout.

Here are mine for this challenge:

And my layout:

Close Up of the Cluster:

I went pretty literal with the "use circles" prompt. All three patterned papers have circles on them. I also added circle embellishments to the cluster.

The Santa and pine tree are cut with my Cricut and the Doodlecharms cartridge.

When I make Christmas embellishments, I usually make more than I need at the time and keep them in a Christmas embellishment container. I pulled both of these from there.

The metal "Merry Christmas" circle is something I had f.o.r.e.v.e.r. 

These photos of are from the Santa Crawl we participated in last December. SO FUN!

WOYWW #531

Happy Wednesday and Happy WOYWW! Today is the day we get to show off our desks, but I have something else to share this week.

I waited until today to post the video of the wedding album flip through. I love having a themed album project but I gotta tell ya, I'm really glad I'm done with it.

So, sorry...no desk photo, but please enjoy the video!

A list of products that I used:
Paper Pad:  Pretty as a Poppy by Paper Studios (Hobby Lobby)
Cardstock: Bubblegum, Tin Pail, Whip Cream and Black Licorice from Fun Stampers Journey and Ballerina from Close To My Heart (CTMH)
Embellishments:  Tulle Blossoms, Bulleye, Spirals by Queen & Co. (I also used some pink pom pom flower things, but didn't keep the packet so don't have the name.)
Cricut Cuts:  The fancy cursive words (bride & groom, etc.) are from lovesvg.com.  Other fonts used are from the Nifty Fifties cartridge.  Flowers were from Cricut Design Space - many of them free.  Silhouettes are from Suburbia cartridge.
Other Cartridges Used:  Calligraphy Collection and Art Philosophy
Flip Flaps, Photo Overlays and Pocket Page Protectors are all from CTMH

I reference RTS Scrapbooking who is a YouTube channel that I follow and got many of my design ideas from.

Before I officially started the album, I made multiple "base" pages so I didn't have to start from scratch when I started adding photos & embellishments. That was a huge timesaver! I did the same thing when I made my other son's wedding album two years ago.

Another thing I did which I highly recommend is instead of printing all the photos 4x6, I went through and chose to print many in wallet size (2x3) and some even smaller than that. I allows more photos without the need for adding more pages. I also printed some in 5x7!

If you have any questions on what I did or where I purchased something, send me an email or leave a comment.

If you're curious about WOYWW, click on over to Stamping Ground's blog to take a peek into others' desk areas - be inspired - be awed - and more importantly, be nosey!

BBTB2 Challenge; Beach

Do you love playing with your Cricut? If you answered yes, click on over to the Bitten By The Bug 2 (BBTB2) challenge site to join our current challenge! August is a great time to show off your beach themed projects and just happens to be the current challenge subject.

My son and DIL were married in February, but were finally able to go on their honeymoon in July. What better to represent BEACH than Hawaii?!

I made two sets of tank tops just for them:

Back of the shirts

I made the mistake in purchasing a polyester/rayon blend and realized that I had to purchase the Sports Flex Iron On material. But good news is that I got to work with another type of material with the ol' Cricut machine. The flex iron on works pretty much the same as the regular HTV (iron on) vinyl but it works best with the stretchy fabric.

I used the Mickey Font cartridge for the Mickey heads and the Life's A Beach cartridge for the flower. The pineapples and words were downloaded from lovesvg.com. They have spectacular SVG files for all kinds of occasions and they are free for personal use. I used the slice feature to cut the words in the middle of the pineapples. I used the Suburbia font for the "just married".

Now it's your turn...create your own BEACH inspired creation and share it on the BBTB2 challenge site.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #97

Happy Friday!

Wow! I had a great week. I had two - yes, I said TWO - ETSY orders this week.  WOO HOO! I had a ladies' night out on Wednesday with coworkers, lunch with my bestie and passed my daughter in our Summer Reading Marathon competition.

So what am I thankful for this week? This week I'm thankful that I'm happy. I know that sounds kinda lame, but I really am happy. Is my life perfect...heck no! But I'm blessed and that's how I chose to view my life. Good, Bad and Ugly, I still choose to be happy.

What are you thankful for this week? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear all about it.

Creative With Stamps; August Challenge

The Creative With Stamps August challenge is...

I went with the masculine choice and made this baseball card. The stamp set is from Graphic 45 and coordinates with their sports line.

The birthday sentiment/circle is from Fun Stamper Journey and was popped up with some foam tape. The stars were an afterthought because I though it needed a little something more. I also added a little bit of green stamping to add some color.

Be sure to click over to the Creative With Stamps challenge blog and link up your dad/masculine card. Be inspired by the other DT members!

LTSCB; August Challenge

August is here and it's time for another monthly challenge at the Love To Scrap Challenge Blog. This month the challenge is Shape Shift (a shaped project)

and I get to play with an image from The Paper Shelter who is this month’s sponsor:

Oh my, what an honor! These digi stamps and papers are amazing! The winner receives three (3) digi stamps from The Paper Shelter!

Here's what I did with the Bride image from the sponsor:

 The close ups:

I’ll be the first one to admit, I am horrible at coloring images, but I am happy how she turned out. I wasn’t sure how to color all the white parts so I didn’t. I used a light gray alcohol marker to outline the dress and veil and then a gold marker for the lace details. Then I added some shimmer by using a clear Wink of Stella marker.

I added some gold color silk for the gold splashes, two “wedding” washi tapes and then pearls to complete the card front. To accentuate the card fold, I wrapped some gold thread to the crease. The “Mr and Mrs” banner was stamped with a Close To My Heart set and popped up with some foam adhesive. Hint: I used my MISTI to stamp this since I wanted a dark solid impression.

Be sure to click over to the LTSCB to see the DT projects and to link your project as well.