National Scrapbooking Day Projects

I have already completed a couple of challenge for the NSD crop at Challenge Masters! The first was a Card Challenge. The challenge was to make a card with a button and a butterfly on it. I made these four Mother's Day cards for my mom, mother-in-law and two grandmas yesterday morning so I could get them in the mail in hopes that they would receive them today.


The second challenge was the Ice Cream Sundae Challenge. The challenge was to choose vanilla or chocolate ice cream and three toppings from this list: peanuts, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, cherry, sprinkles. I chose vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, with a cherry on top. (I know, my mouth is just watering thinking about it too!) Those ingredients then translated into scrapbooking "ingredients." Mine ended up being sewing, ribbon, flowers, and buttons. I made this layout with our pictures from last Easter. I scraplifted a layout by Suzy Plantamura in the October 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes.


The sewing is around the edge of the circle patterned paper, there is a ribbon border using two different ribbons, flowers all over the place and buttons as the center of the flowers and to add some dimension to some of the circles.

I hope to get a few more done before the Thursday deadline!

National Scrapbooking Day!

Actually, National Scrapbooking Day is tomorrow, but there are lots of festivities that have already started! Challenge Masters is hosting a crop in our forum. There are 10 different challenges posted and tomorrow night we will be playing some games.

I have posted a "Progressive" Challenge. For this challenge, I created a layout and then wrote step by step instructions. However, you are to only look at the instructions one at a time as you complete them. So you have no idea what is coming next! Someone else had done this last year and I thought it was so fun and it actually makes for a pretty quick page because you don't have the opportunity to sit around and debate what to use and where to use it. Here is my first direction:

Gather your supplies: 2 4”x6” ish photos (I have one vertical and one horizontal), 1 sheet of cardstock, 3 different patterned papers (one should be decorative edge)- these may be scraps, tag or quote, 1 ribbon, one round ~1 ½” embellishment, 3 similarly sized embellishments, 3 small metal embellishments, letter stickers in various fonts or paper to cut title.

If you would like to complete the challenge, go here. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Also, Frosted Designs will be holding an online crop on our blog and Facebook page starting tonight at 5. I am hosting a 1 hour scraplift challenge on Sunday at 1.

I hope you have a chance to be creative this weekend!

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #14

Today a new sketch was revealed at Frosted Designs. This week's sketch included 3 photos and I stuck pretty close to it. I used pictures from our family photo shoot last Easter. Thankfully Rick bought a remote for our camera so we just had to stand there and he just kept hitting the button until we thought we had a good photo. I used a couple of the outtakes as well as a good shot on this layout. If you would like to see what the other ladies on the design team did with this sketch, you can check them out here.



Don't forget, Frosted Designs is hosting a crop this weekend in celebration of National Scrapbooking Day. I am hosting a challenge at 1:00 on Sunday!

Project 365 Week 37

I am posting my pictures for the week on Sunday, this is early for me! I did forget to take a picture on Tuesday, but the rest of the days are accounted for!

4/25 Will sleeping in the car on the drive back from Illinois. He fell asleep with his hand like this, isn't it sweet?


4/27 Will standing next to the ottoman sucking on a toy mustard bottle like a baby bottle. He loves standing next to furniture, he thinks he's pretty hot stuff!


4/28 Addy making a giraffe headband at ECFE.


4/29 Ellie by the koi pond in the conservatory at the Como Zoo. If the whole experience of going to the Como Zoo could be as calming and beautiful as this scene, I would do it all the time. Sadly, it is not, that zoo is not at all stroller friendly so it is exhausting to take 3 small children there.


4/30 Addy "styling" Rick's hair. I'd be a little afraid if my stylist was laughing like that, but not Rick, he's a brave guy. :)


5/1 Cake for the "Beatification Bash" that we attended today celebrating the Beatification of Pope John Paul II. JP II, We love you, pray for us!

Project 365 Week 36

I slacked a bit in the beginning of the week and ended up taking photos right before bed of whatever I could find. The end of the week had an abundance of photos since we spent Friday through early Monday in Illinois with Rick's family for Easter.

4/18 The beginning of the Easter goodies. The cups are pretty fun, they flash different colors for a minute or two when you press a button on the bottom.


4/19 Ugh, the living room after a long day. We really need to work on getting those kids to pick up their toys!


4/20 No, your eyes do not deceive you, that is SNOW! We may need to move if this continues...


4/21 Will laughing with Addy


4/22 Ellie and Addy panning for gems at Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin. We stopped there for a tour on our way to Illinois.


4/23 Michael showing off one of the cookies he decorated.


4/24 Will (9 1/2 months) and Matt (11 1/2 months) These two were pretty funny to watch together. They were fascinated by one another's presence.

Exciting News!

A few weeks ago I was asked to join the "Sketch Along Tuesday" design team at Frosted Designs! Today was my first reveal. This week's sketch is for a single photo, so I pulled out this photo of the girls taken by JCPenney's a couple of years ago. I used a screen and did some misting with the larger purple photo mat. Once I had everything attached I felt like the purple background paper was too stark so I drew the scrolls with a white colored pencil to match the scrolls on the bracket paper. Click here to see what the other designers did with the sketch.



We are hosting a crop with challenge and games for National Scrapbooking Day. Come check it out!

Frosted Designs is having their first ever Online Crop to celebrate National Scrapbook Day, May 6th - 8th! There will be games, quick scraps and challenges with plenty of opportunities to win some great prizes!! Mark your calendars... you won't want to miss any of the fun!! Please friend us on Facebook since we will also be playing there. Stay tuned for more details coming soon!! Feel free to grab the button and share the news on your blog! The more people who play along, the more fun we will have!!

Project 365 Week 35

Here are my photos for the week:

4/11 Back at the zoo. The aquarium on the Tropics Trail may be my new favorite photo spot. This is our friend Max, completely enamored with the diver in the aquarium.


4/12 Will is 9 months old! Here is a picture from the shoot I did of him.


4/13 Ellie decorating a rock. She has a nature craft book and this was one of the projects. (Actually the project was to make animals, but that is kind of advanced so I just let the girls color on them.


4/14 Today the girls made paper snakes. Here's Ellie teasing Will with hers.


4/15 Will eating peas. We a trying to get him to eat more finger foods. He is good at cereal and crackers, but other foods seem to be more of a challenge.


4/16 We went mini golfing at the black light course in the local mall. The girls had a blast hitting their balls around.


4/17 We celebrated Easter with my family. Here's Addy blowing bubbles with my aunt Karen.