MOSD BIG BOY ALBUM!

Miss Gloria - one of my CropStop.com Design Team members introduced me to the wonder Midnight Oil Scrapbook Design products! This was my first shot at an acrylic album - and it's actually just the covers that are acrylic, the inside pages are chipboard. It was also my first chipboard album. I do LOVE the way it came out! It's a contest going on over at the MOSD blog.

There's a lot of supplies used in this project, so refer to the list below and if I have missed anything you want to know about, just let me know!!

As always, thanks for visiting!

• Album - MOSD
• Paper - Autumn Leaves Abby Collections (mostly)
• Cardstock - Autumn Leaves & CTMH
• Stamps - Unity Stamp Co - Dream Tree, Tiny Trinity, Butterflies
• Stamps - CTMH - Sans Alphabet
• Stamps - Pink Cat Studios - Apple from Limitless Limbs
• Stamps - Just Rite Monogram Stamper - All Things Grow with Love
• Lace Apple Paper - KI Memories
• Stickles - Chrismas green & black
• Flowers - Petaloo - white, Heidi Swapp - red
• Dew Drops - purchased at CropStop.com
• Ribbons - various
• QuicKutz Alphabets - Tangerine, Moxie, Chemistry & Dragonfly
• Boss Kuts Alphabets - Morgan, Totally Tall & Licorice Stick
• Boss Kuts Apple Die
• QuicKutz vine 12" border die & Dots die

Yes - Another double!!!

Color is slightly off, but it's the best I can do at 7pm after the sun has gone down! This is another two-fer. Over at the Color Throwdown blog, they are on Week #12 - and the colors are:

OLD OLIVE, REAL RED, & KRAFT! Okay - I know the olive doesn't look all that olive-y in the photo, it's actually Garden Green from CTMH. The ink, is definitely olive though!

Second challenge - CROPSTOP! Cropstop.com is now on week #5 of their weekly challenges. The challenge was a sketch, however there were stipulations. You had to use yellow, you couldn't use brads, AND if you used an octagon, you scored extra points and a chance to win EXTRA goodies aside from the normal weekly prize! Love love love it!!

As always, thanks for visiting!

• Card base - DCWV
• Kraft paper - A.C. Moore
• Ribbon - All That Scraps
• Dew Drops - CropStop.com
• Patterned Paper - CTMH (Let's Get Together)
• Red Cardstock - Prism
• Stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms - Kim Hughes Collection
• Die Cut Tree Trunk - QuicKutz
  

Nothing much right now...

I hope to be posting some stuff later. And I know from other blogs that people normally notice when you change your photo :)

That one over there <-------- is "titled" Me & My Amandas...are they both mine? - of course! :) They would tell you that anyway!! And yes, we're covered in frosting. The picture was taken at Amanda's birthday part in August. The girls thought it was great fun! Of course, they didn't realize that I would get them as covered in it as they did me, but...oh well! :)

Scrappy stuff later.
Thanks for visiting!

SUPER BLOG CANDY - FOR A GREAT CAUSE!!!

First - the most important part - this is in celebration of World Alzheimer's Day - we want to thank the caregivers!

Here are all the details of the blog candy. It is a VERY large prize. Go check out Cammie's entire post, but in short version, make a card, mail it to a caretaker of a person affected with Alzheimer's and MAIL! If you don't know anybody personally, send the card to:

The Staff at the Artman Home, 250 N. Bethlehem Pike, Ambler, PA 19002.

This is where the card you see above will be going. I have made two other cards to send, which I will post this weekend (they will be from my children and I don't happen to have the pictures on the comptuer I am working on) and the card above is a card I had made - I think it's the most favorite card I have ever made - the saying on it says "Scatter Joy". I feel these people can use the scattering of joy! They do wonderful work for people - and as Cammie says, it is often thankless!

So go make a card and enter the blog candy.

Thanks for visiting!

Altered Prima Packaging - Three Challenges Completed!

I love to combine challenges!! Thanks to all you guys that made it easy for me this week! (I know that was your intention!) I need to give the shout out to Lesa Rapp - I saw her Altered Prima Carton this week and decided to lift the idea. Althogh I just have tissue in mine, it would gift a gift card or just a little treat for someone!

Here's how it worked out for me in the end:

• Verve - Verve asked us to get krafty and use that kraft paper!
• All That Scraps - Color combo - Baja Breeze, Red Riding Hood and Kraft - I don't have much in the SU Colors, but I think I matched pretty close
• CropStop.com - Make anything but a card or a scrapbook page and use at least one die cut of some sort - well, all the circles and scalloped circles were punched or Nestabilities so I am good with that one too!!!

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you soon!!

• Verve Stamps - Phrase (from Beautiful You)
• All That Scraps - CC Designs Stamps - (Froggie & Friends)
• kraft paper - stash
• Cranberry & Breeze cardstock from CTMH
• Ribbon - stash
• Nestability scalloped circle, Marvy Scalloped Circle, CTMH circle punches
  

Color Throwdown

I will again apologize for the not so great photo. I am hoping to replace it - funny thing happened though - I somehow LOST the card! So as soon as I find it, I will get a new picture up!

Onto the details.... this week on the Color Throwdown blog, the colors are:

Of course, I don't have many of the "official" SU colors, but I did have Olive and Chocolate brown cardstock. The ink is actually CTMH Breeze! It's all good. I really like the how the card came out, but I really need to give the *Shout Out* to Ryann. She won my Birthday Blog Candy last week and upon looking at her blog, I found this lovely card and CASEd it!

• Stamps - Unity Stamp Company
• Cardstock & Ribbon - CTMH
• Dew Drops (flower centers) from CropStop.com
  
  

No More No Less

Over at CropStop.com, we have weekly challenges in our BRAND NEW MESSAGE BOARD! This week's was called No More No Less. The challenge was to use One patterned paper, two ribbons and three brads. Of those three supplies, that was what you HAD to use! Is using a huge Unity Stamp cheating?? I didn't think so! lol

Anyway, head over to the message board to check us out! Gallery is relatively new too, but filling up nicely! I apologize for the not so great photograph! What you can't see is that all the hearts on the trees are sparkled up with my Sakura gel roller! I will try to replace the photo - probably this weekend. And if you are reading this on Friday, there'll be a new challenge up today so head on over to the forum and check it out!!!!

Thanks for visiting!

• Stamp - Unity Stamp Company (So & So Loves)
• Ribon - CTMH brown organdy
• Ribbon - gold (a gift from down under)
• Brads - Doodlebug Sugarcoated from CropStop.com

It's a Boy!!!!

Lori over at Apron Strings Designs had a bouncing baby boy yesterday! Being part of her Yahoo group, I challenged the girls to make Lori a card, using an Apron Strings Designs kit and mail it!! Here's mine and I apologize for the not so great photo, but I want to get it into the mail ASAP, so I don't want to wait for the perfect picture.

Thanks for visiting and Congratulations to Lori on her new son!!!

• Apron Strings Designs September Smaller than a Breadbox Kit (still available!)
• Apron Strings Designs card kit (May or June)
• QK Bottle & Pacifier 4x4 die from CropStop.com
  

BLOG CANDY WINNER

Okay - Birthday Blog Candy goes to.......................

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:15
Timestamp: 2008-09-17 12:02:45 UTC

RYANN!!!!!

Ryann - send me your snail mail address and I will get your goodies out to you ASAP!

word.picture, Scrap Schemes & Libby's Closet

A DOUBLE TWO-FER!! I love it when I can do that!

First - the Layout - For the September challenge over at word.pictures - they give you a set of instructions to follow to make your layout - this was the BEST!! I will be going back in their archives to check out earlier ones! The layout is made using one part of my Apron Strings Designs kit - which was perfect for this Instruction Challenge.

Second - the card - Libby's Little Addiction - Courtney's Closet. Little Courtney is wearing a cute pink and brown outfit with cupcakes on it!! I just grabbed the pink and brown and went with it! Got the little frill of ribbon on the edge and called it good! :) You should also note that there is a transparent portion above the ribbon. My thought process on this is to stamp a sentiment there - when I decide to go ahead and use the card!

**EDITED TO ADD - I totally forgot that the card is based on a sketch for CPS! So I think it makes the card a three-fer and the layout is still a two-fer!!

Third - I just recently found a relatively new challenge blog called ScrapSchemes and this is scheme #6! The challenge is to use polka dots.

• So for the card, there are polka dots on my paper, and I stamped the polkadots onto the cardstock using my Unity Stamps Distressed Dots background stamp.


• On the layout, not only are their polka dots on the large square patterned paper but there are polke dots on several of the stars as well!!

As always - thanks for visiting!!!

CARD

• CTMH Hollyhock Cardstock, flowers & chocolate ink
• Background stamp - Unity
• Patterned paper - stash
• Ribbon - Apron Strings Design Kit
• Brads - Doodlebug Sugarcoated
  

LAYOUT

• Ink - Chocolate Roan Colorbox Chalk ink
• Stamp - CTMH
• All else - Apron Strings Designs kit
  
  

Casing Jennifer Buck

Angela over at Unity Stamps put out a challenge for us to case Jennifer Buck as Jennifer just became one of the newest members of the Splitcoast Dirty Dozen. I, personally, am not surprised - I love her work and am subscribed to her blog. I am also NOT the best stamper - but I did give it a shot.

The butterfly is a case of this card that I found on her blog. And this card is what I based the crown card on.

As always - thanks for visiting!

CROWN CARD

• Papers & ribbon - Apron Strings Designs
• Crown Stamp - Unity
• Rhinestones - Michael's

BUTTERFLY CARD

• Patterned paper - stash
• Card Base - DCWV
• Ribbon - CTMH Chocolate Organdy
• Markers - Stampin' Up
• Ink - CTMH Chocolate

Cuddle Up With Tammy!

I am a big fan of Tammy H. of Stamp Happy. I love her blog and visit it daily. So when Sharon, of No Time to Stamp, featured her and asked us to case her - I knew I had to participate! I have actually cased her twice above, the first is actually a double casing of Tammy based on the items here and here, as well as this week's challenge on the Color Throwdown blog!

The second item is a case of this piece and I LOVE IT! My daugher is a cheerleader this year and our cheerleaders are each assigned a football player to give treats to on the days of Home Games. When I saw the piece Tammy made for her daughter's volleyball secret sister, I knew it would be perfect for her to give her assigned football player a treat in! (P.S. - My daughter's school "mascont" are the Hurricanes - they generally go by 'Canes)

And don't forget my blog candy below - I just added the picture!! Thanks for visiting!

Eagle Card

• Bazzill Cardstock
• Doodlebug patterned paper
• CTMH White Daisy organdy ribbon
• Cornish Heritage Farms Eagle & Freedom stamps
  

Treat Box

• CTMH Cardstock & Go Team! Stamps
• Gina K. shirt & numbers stamps
• Stampin' Up Brilliant Blue & Yoyo Yello markers
• Ribbon from stash
• Letters cut from QuicKutz Chemistry alphabet

BLOG CANDY!!

Well - I haven't posted all week - and today's MY BIRTHDAY!!! It's been a rough week and I am glad to see it end - truth be told. (see post below)

But, in honor of my birthday and my counter hitting 5,000 (woooo hoooo!!!) I am going to give away some blog candy!!

All you need to do is reply to this post, and tell me when YOUR birthday is! If you can't tell me your birthday, I am sorry, but you will not qualify for the candy!! You also need to provide me with a way to reach you.

So here's what you get:

• Unity Stamps - a single and a Lovin' from the Oven set
• Inspirables Canvas Labels
• Coral-red Ric Rac
• Fuschia/black Checkered ribbon
• Ka-Jinker Jems

Thanks for visiting and good luck!

Rest in Peace

The young man you see here, so obviously full of life, took his own life this week. He hung himself on September 10th for reasons unknown to me or my daughter.

His name was Mike. He served our country. He called me Mom. I considered him one of "my boys". He was one of the group my daughter hung with regularly and he's gone. Never to be seen by us again.

Over on Apron Strings Designs, we go through a "journaling" exercise for the 10th of every month, normally posted on the 11th. It's the "snapshots" of what happened that day. This month, I went slightly off due to finding out about Mikey. Here's my post to the Apron Strings Yahoo group....

It's actually 12:15 on the 11th here in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, on the 10th of this particular month, I got the news that one of MY boys - one of my daugther's many friends who call me Mom - hung himself this evening...So I apologize for what should be something fun, but on this day - the 10 moments I remember best for Mikey....

1. The high five with Jimmy over Amanda's head at her birthday party.

2. Trying to throw Amanda into the garbage can

3. Losing his "beep beep" - no phone signal

4. Being the middle of the human tower

5. The adventure of getting into the huge tree over at the park

6. Have the axel on the car break - the whole wheel was actually off the car with about a foot of the axel

7. Coming within two inches of my back bumper trying to park his huge Cadillac in my driveway

8. Going up and down and up and down and up and down 6 streets to get to the beach when he only needed to take one!

9. Being stranded in the gazeebo in the pouring rain!

10. And unfortunately - truly truly last...the news that he had taken his own life.

I need to put it here on the blog. I needed to do it for me. It's not scrapbook related and that's generally what I have here. But it's a scrapbook of some sorts and in this case a small tribute for a young man who probably didn't realize how many lives he touched and what he meant to so many people by just being himself.

May you and yours never have to deal with anything like this....