September is almost here…

Then that means Halloween is just around the corner!  I’m excited to tell you that I’ve gotten my hands on some of the New My Mind’s Eye “Haunted” Line to create some goodies for upcoming classes at Scrapp’n Savvy.  Here is what I’ve got to play with and there are a few other items that I plan to use to pump it up :)  On another note, if you are interested in seeing  and or buying this week’s “Weekly Layout” at Scrapp’n Savvy designed by yours truly head on over to Karrie’s blog here.  Hope you have a great week!

Utah Baby!

I am so excited to be going to Utah to attend Spark No. 2 can you tell?  There are just 14 days till Spark and 13 days till my friend Deborah and I board the plane for some Creative Spark’n Fun Times!  I have made some really neat friends thanks to this hobby and I’m excited to say that I will be meeting some of them at Spark!  I’ve been up late kitting up this coming week’s “Weekly Layout” for my LSS Scrapp’n Savvy so I’m keeping this post short! 

I’m thinking about my friends who were lucky enough to attend CE, I’m sure they are having fun!  Got to see some of the fun via House of 3’s Live show on Friday night late I might add as it’s taking place in Arizona.  Well, this is it for now hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Recipe Book Anyone? Lolly has done it again!

Be sure to head over to www.lollychops.com to get all the details on how you can learn for free how to make this cute recipe book!!  If you recall I drove up to Dallas a few weekends ago to take her “owl camera bag” class and it was Fabulous!!  She does NOT disappoint so be sure to visit her blog.  The class is free tomorrow the 24th at 6:30pm Central time via ustream.com so hurry on over and visit Lolly HERE.  For now here is a photo of her book, isn’t it precious!!

I had a full weekend, I worked on my layout that is going on sale next week at Scrapp’n Savvy using more of the MME So Sophie line.  I  hung out with the Fabulous Karrie Allen who is owner of Scrapp’n Savvy. Oh how I enjoy hanging out with fellow craft savvy women :)   Saturday was a “me” day so I stopped in at a few shops, while trying to avoid the masses of folks shopping the Tax Free weekend.  I went golfing on Sunday with my wonderful Hubby, I love that he is working in town full time and I love it even more that he LOVES spending time with me :)   So, sorry that I haven’t uploaded any new projects but I will soon I promise!  I bought some new Stamps from my friend Judy who sells Stampin Up and I can’t wait to use them so I’ll be back this week to share a card.  It’s been way too long since I stamped a card, that after all is where my crafting days started :)

Last but not least, wanted to share the second set of cards I ordered from Sweet Prints Shop whose link is on my right sidebar.  And in the background you will see a peek of the My Mind’s Eye Paper I am using for next week’s layout at Scrapp’n Savvy. Delish!  Excuse the mobile phone photo, my Blackberry takes great pics most of the time but not this time ;)

Have a great week!

Digital Brushes

I love using digital brushes, the brushes used  are by Ali Edwards via Designer Digitals.  What’s great about using brushes is that as long as you save the photo as a jpg the photos will print with the digital brushes on them just as shown in the photo.  What an awesome way to journal a photo don’t you think!

A few more of my favorites from our afternoon at Mercer Arboretum, you should be able to see them a little larger by clicking on them.

Sunday with the girls

Just had to share a few photos that I took today of my sister Gina and her beautiful girls Madison, Brianna and Alexa.  We headed to Mercer Arboretum for a fun photo shoot which happens to be where Andy and I had our engagement photo session almost three years ago.  My two older nieces are living with their dad in Austin for now and so while they were visiting they wanted to get some photos with their momma and their little sister.  Aren’t they all beauties!  I used Lightroom to process them but some look a bit too processed so will have to tweak them a bit.  Can’t wait to create a few layouts with these!

 

 

 

Digital Goodness

I bought the Summer Junque line from House of 3 and created this digital layout in celebration of my hubby’s 40th birthday this week.  He is truly a blessing in my life and I love him with all my heart!  I thought this photo from our wedding almost three years ago this coming October would fit this layout perfectly.  Isn’t he just so handsome, love my sweet love bug!

Make Mine Mini’s Creative Escape Keepsake

I am teaching a mini album class this month at Scrapp’n Savvy (link found on sidebar) and HERE and one of my students asked if I could customize it for her upcoming trip to Creative Escape 2010.  She will be able to take the photos taken at the event and simply add them to her mini album.  Also included in the album will be a pocket folder to hold the photos that don’t fit on her pages.   The mini album is made up of Bazzill Cardstock and My Mind’s Eye Meadow Lark Line.
The colors for this years CE event are Bazzill’s Navajo, Black and White and so it was easy to swap out the color cardstock from Pink to the Bazzill Navajo (Teal).  One of the things that I have always offered to my students is the choice of customizing my project with a color of their choosing.  Since I use Bazzill cardstock in all my projects this gives them an opportunity to choose from many, many colors as well as a varying texture of cardstock.
You can see a silver doilie peeking out, I love those, used one back during Valentines on THIS project if you recall.

The Creative Escape title that is found on the cover is one that was created by the ladies of House of 3, as you may know Bazzill Basics Paper is the sponsor of CE along with Heidi Swapp and many other fabulous companies.  This year the ladies of the House of 3 are offering up to their attendees a free download to create an autograph book.  This logo will NOT be included in my kit, I simply borrowed the circle to show it as an example.  However, it will be easy enough for my student to download the free autograph kit from the House of 3 and add it to her album.   You can see samples of their autograph book on Heidi’s blog.  It was created by the Fabulous Rhonna Farrer, one of the House of 3 owners whom I might add is hosting Spark in September, which I will get to attend.
The Creative Escape event is sure to be an incredible experience and I wish I could be there alongside some of my friends but couldn’t get the hubby to sponsor my trip, LOL.  If you are feeling generous and want to sponsor me drop me a line, LOL, only joking of course.  If you are going I hope you have an awesome time and give my friends of the House of 3 a big Texas hug for me!
If you are local I am teaching this class on Aug 17th and Aug 24th at 6:30pm on both dates.  If you aren’t local but are interested in ordering this kit simply email me at nct621 (at hotmail dot com).  I will have printed step by step instructions with photos so that you can put together this album at your convenience.
 

As always, THANKS for stopping in and I hope you are having a FABULOUS weekend!

*Should you decide to recreate this album, I would LOVE to see photos and it would be great if you link back to my post should you blog on it.

It’s the little things that make us happy

Hope you had a great week, mine was a bit stressful but now that it’s the weekend I’m ready to decompress and creating in my studio is just the way to do that!  I’ve started putting together my instructional for this month’s “make mine mini” album class and hoping it helps my students create with a little less stress.  After all playing with paper and ink shouldn’t be stressful, right!?

So, on to the little thing that was delivered today that made me happy……..   My new blog networking cards, I LOVE them!  There is one other card design that I was favoring so I might end up adding a second card to my stash but for now this is my new card.  Aren’t they adorable!!  I ordered them from Erica of Sweet Prints Shop you can find her Etsy shop by clicking HERE.

I probably should have waited to take photos with some true day light but I couldn’t wait, I might retake them but you get the idea, right?

They came boxed in cute clear boxes, love it! The cards are double sided, the front has my name and blog address and the backside has my phone number and email address.Here is a close up shot of the front, love the teal and the background is a grayish/taupe/brownish color which compliments the teal well.   And did you notice that I tied the colors into my blog design?  I’m thinking about having Erica designing me a matching blog header.  I usually like to design my own header but I think it would be neat to tie in the elements she used in the cards to tie it all together.  What are your thoughts?I plan on handing some of these puppies out at Spark this coming September.  I’ve met some really neat ladies via the internet who are planning on attending Spark and I hope to make more new friends while there too.

Hope you have a great weekend planned! Hope to post again over the weekend, hugs for now.

35 Days and counting

I'm so EXCITED, seriously over the top EXCITED to be going to Spark No. 2 this year with my friend Deborah!  I am in countdown mode and then today Rhonna shared music by Mindy Gledhill on her blog and a video of last years Spark event and it got me all giddy all over again! You see we get to see Mindy sing Live on friday night at Spark under the stars!!  So, I am eating lunch at my desk and downloading Mindy's music to my ipad so I can enjoy her music this afternoon as I finish out my work day!  So, go and check out Rhonna's blog by clicking HERE and if you get the Spark it's not too late to join me at Spark, click HERE to go to the official Spark the event Blog! Come on! You know you want to!!

Happy Birthday Jingle!

Today is my friend's 2nd Blog Birthday and so how about you go over to Just Jingle and wish her a happy blog bday and she even has a giveaway going on so you could win but more importantly you will get to see how creative she is!!!  Happy 2nd Blog Birthday Jennifer!!

Check out this cute card she made for us to celebrate with her!!

Still finding my way…

…to a finished project!  I chose a paper from My Mind’s Eye So Sophie Line called “We Are Family” Loop-de-Loop Paper to work with the frame.  I printed out a larger frame and used some Tim Holtz peeled  paint on it and also took some glossy accents to add a little dimension to it.  It’s still drying so it isn’t clear yet but it will be soon and I think it will look great.  I’m starting to think that a photo of me with sweet Lolly Chops would look nice in the larger frame and then I think i will create a little jewel like piece to put in the smaller frame.    Slowly but surely it will come together, I haven’t had time to sit and give it my full attention and so this one is definitely a work in process.

 

Work in progress

Hope you had a great weekend, I did!  Did some shopping yesterday for one of my nieces and I may or may not have bought myself a new FAbuloUs purse ;)  Today the hubby played golf with friends and I decided to re-arrange my craft studio AGAIN and watched a movie.  I had been having issues with my task lighting so decided to move one of the work tables and I think I am going to like it, maybe ;)   After all the organizing and a little purging I decided to create something.  I pulled out some of my new Tim Holtz Texture Fades and Tim Holtz Distressing inks and played.  I printed out some frames from my House of 3 House Warming digital set and then put the ink to work.  I then decided to make a flower to add to the frame, which by the way not sure what I am going to do with it.  I think I might make a small mini album and I’m thinking this would be cute on the cover with something in the frame of course.   Too early to tell what I will end up doing with it but for now this is what I have,aren’t the colors absolutely yummy!  I know my friend Lolly Chops would approve!  Hope you have a great week!