Two Dollar Tuesday

It's $2 Tuesday at the DigiChick and I cannot believe the amazing deals today!!

Mari's latest kit, LuvBug, and the badge book set are on sale today for only 2 bucks each!!


Don't you just love the colors? Perfect for babies, but grown ups too, boys and girls alike!


This badge book is just gorgeous, and makes a great gift for grandmothers and friends. Just snap your pictures in, print, and you're done!

Go snag them right away because they're for sale today only!

Ooops..

I forgot to post this page from last week!! I did it for the latest Roadmap to Scrap at ScrapMatters and I'm really proud of how it turned out! ;)

Credits:
Spread the Wealth Templates by Denise Beatty Originals
Independent by Britt-ish Designs
Foam Stamp Alpha White and Foam Stamp Alpha Sorbet by Sahlin Studio
Fonts: Note this, My Own Topher

I made this cupcakes during my mom's visit, and she picked the US theme. ;) I'm very happy with how they turned out, because red is very hard to obtain when coloring fondant, but I think it turned out very nicely!

Project 365 and Other News

Last week I didn't do my P365 page because my mom was here and I didn't have time for it, but this weekend I did 2 weeks' worth of pages and I'm all caught up again. :)

Credits:
Hodge Podge #12 by Gina Marie Huff
Striped alpha from Independent by Britt-ish Designs
Alpha from Life's a Beach by Sahlin Studio
Photo stamps from Project 365 #2 by Sugarplum Paperie
Fonts: Note this

Credits:
Hodge Podge #10, 11 and 12 by Gina Marie Huff
Alpha brush from Children's Day by Amy Sumrall
Photo stamps from Project 365 #2 by Sugarplum Paperie
Fonts: Note this, Pea Olson

I love the summery colors of these pages! ;)

And, some excellent news: I made it through the second cut in the CT contest at Scrap Orchard and I'm now in week 3!! This cut was a big one and only half of the contestants are going on: I feel so lucky to be going on!

Page Done with Mini Sampler

The CT call for Mari Koegelenberg was different from the usual calls: she wanted the applicants to use a mini sampler of her designs to create a LO or a hybrid project. Here's what I did:

Credits:

Lovebug sampler by Mari Koegelenberg

Font: Pea Olson

I'm quite happy with the result, and what's more important it got me a place in her amazingly talented team!! :-)

W00T!!

Check out my new blinkie:

I'm so happy to be creating for Mari Koegelenberg!! She's so talented and I know I'll have lots of fun playing with her stuff! ;)

Vote for Me

It's voting time again at ScrapOrchard, so if you liked my page do vote for me here. :-)

Finally Friday

There's a bunch of new products out today at ScrapMatters and I used one right away to make this page:

Credits:
Girl Power by Chelle's Creations
Font: Pea Olson

I used Girl's Power by Chelle's Creations: it's a Girl Scout kit but it works beautifully for other pages too! ;) I fell in love with that blue background paper.. simply gorgeous!!

On another note: gosh, I miss my mum!!!! It was so great to have her here! I really wish my parents and grandmother lived nearby.. *sigh*

Giveaways

I cannot resist entering a good giveaway, and there's more than one out there! :-)

Some hybrid goodies at Doodle Palace that I'm drooling over..

And some very cute projects at The Hybrid Chick too! I'm in love with these little mini albums by Mari Koegelenberg!!

Another Contest

I got through week 1 of the CT contest at ScrapOrchard, but when I saw the kit for Week 2 I got worried because it's not my style of choice.. But I gave it a try and I'm SO glad I did: I love the page I did - totally my style! ;)
This page came together in no time: I downloaded the kit and started working on the LO last night before bedtime, and finished it this morning during breakfast! ;)

Starry Night by Faith True, Sherrie JD, Designs by Sine and Decrow Designs
Font: My Own Topher

So, I really hope I make it to week 3: we'll see! The didn't cut too many people last week (we went from 130 to 99) so I'm expecting more cuts this week, since it's a 4-week contest and we're almost half-way through..
I'd love to stay in till the end, because I'm having much more fun than I anticipated!!

A Speed Scrap and 2 My Story Matters LOs

My mom left yesterday and I'm back to my usual routine. We all really enjoyed her stay very much and we're sad she left.. :(

I have some pages to show from these past few days.
This page I did for the daily Speed Scrap on Monday and I love how it turned out. These were the instructions:

1. Go to your favorites folder and find a layout to scraplift. It doesn’t have to be an absolute scraplift, though. You could be inspired by photo placement, photo subject matter, element placement, color scheme, title work, etc. Don’t forget which layout you’ve chosen because I’ll want you to link us up in your credits so the rest of us can see what inspired you.
2. Picture time!! You have to use a picture (or pictures) that you have taken this month. The month of June. The year 2009. :)
3. Use at least 3 papers.
4. Since this isn’t supposed to be an exact match scraplift, I can be a little bossy about embellishments, right? Put in some ribbon, some string, and some button(s).
5. For your title, use an alpha only. NO fonts in the title.
6. Journaling – be creative. Put your text on a path, on little strips, around the border of your page, etc.
7. Creativity again – Date your LO, but no boring dates just typed on the page in Century Gothic (what I do almost all the time lol). Add shadows and any other finishing touches.

I lifted a page by Denise, and actually used her template based on that page! ;)

Credits:
Spread the Wealth Templates by Denise Beatty Originals
From the Grab Bag #2 available until 6.30.09 before it's split up: Boy Wonder by gg digital designs and Button from The Cool Dad by Jeni Hopewell
Label Tape Alpha by Britt-ish Designs
Striped alpha from Independent by Britt-ish Designs
Font: My Own Topher

then there's two pages for the My Story Matters challenges at ScrapMatters. The first one is about my style as a kid:

Credits:
Ribbon from Independent and Label Tape Alpha by Britt-ish Designs
From the Mystery Mix Grab Bag #1, for sale until 6.30.09 (then it will be split up):
Most Awesome Templates Ever by Denise Beatty Originals
My Happy Life Mini Kit by Haynay Designs
Iconology: Everyday by Plum Dumpling Designs
Buds and Blooms by Mickey B Designs
Font: Note this

and the other is about my favorite toys:

Credits:
Life's a Beach by Sahlin Studio
Brown Town Alpha by Britt-ish Designs

I only have one more page to do about a holiday/trip when I was little, and then I'll be caught up with all the My Story Matters challenges. :)

Speed Scrap Today

There's a speed scrap at 2PM EST today at ScrapMatters and I might even be there! I stayed home today too since it's the last full day my mom is here - she's leaving tomorrow. :-(

Hope to see you there!

And.. did I mention there's a great partecipation prize by Britt-ish Designs?? ;-)

Vote for Me! :)

I'm playing in the CT contest at ScrapOrchard just for the fun of it, and after every week the community votes for their favorite page (yes, I do realize the grammar is way off in this sentence, but I'm not going back to correct it! LOL). The top 3 pages will be turned into QPs, and I realize that mine certainly isn't very suited for that, but still.. if you want, do vote for me here! :D

Voting is open until Saturday so don't wait, do it now! :)

Mystery Bags

Starting today, and available until the end of the month, there are 6 new grab bags at ScrapMatters and they are huge! For each grab bag, 3 or 4 designers teamed up and the bags are an incredible deal! Go check them out!

I love it because every bag has something to scrap about guys and something for girls, and much more! They're so versatile you'll be using them for all kinds of pages.

I used the grab bag #2 to create the page with the text messages my Dad is sending us, to accompany the page I did the other day. ;)

Credits:

The Cool Dad and The Cool Dad Journalers by Jeni Hopewell

Font: Arial

Well, I'm staying home from work today to stay with my mom, but this means I might also have some daily computer time.. We'll see! ;)

Summery Page

I was RAKed by Krista (Sahlin Studio) with her gorgeous Life's a Beach on Monday and I made a page right away, but couldn't post it until now because it's accompanying the I'll Pencil You in challenge at ScrapMatters.
It's one of the hybrid challenges and it consists of making one page a month so that by December we'll have the 2010 calendar ready. ;)
Since I'll have my calendar printed for me and won't be assembling it by myself, this is actually hardly a hybrid project for me.. :)

Credits
Life's a Beach by Sahlin Studio

I love this kit so much!! :)
I love the summery feel of this page. Actually, it's hard to believe this picture was taken only 3 days ago, while today is such a gray and rainy day! :(

Something New

I've been scrapping for well over a year now, and I've never done a page without pictures (excluding the little hybrid albums, but those don't count).. All this changed yesterday, thanks to the scraplift challenge at The DigiChick. The gallery of the scrapper we had to lift had many pages that didn't have any picture, so I decided to try this out myself:

Lift of excited by cherpea.
Credits:
Game On by Elise's Pieces
THE - Scuffed Up Alpha by Sugarplum Paperie
unexpected - Teeny Tiny Typewriter Alpha
POET - Torn Out Alpha by Sugarplum Paperie
Font: 1942 Report

Well, I liked this so much, that I did another page! :D I did this page for the CT contest at ScrapOrchard, for which we had to use a beach kit. Since I don't have any beach pictures, I didn't have much choice.. ;) So instead of using the beach kit for a non-beach LO, I did a beach page with no pictures. :)

Credits:
Beach Bum by Amanda Heimann, Lyndsay Riches, Wild Dandelions and Ziggle Designs
Fonts: 1942 Report, Painty Paint, SS Whimsy

Those little elements were so cute, and when I dragged them onto my page I got the idea of incorporating them in the journaling - I love how it turned out! :)

Whooops, I just realized I didn't date my beach page!! :-) Will go back and add that in. ;)

A Lift

It's only been a few days since I joined the CT team at ScrapMatters, but I'm loving it already! No big surprise... ;-)

I did a page to accompany the new Grand Theft LO challenge, in which the target to lift is the uber-talented melanie3boys.
I chose one of my favorite LOs of hers, Christmas Morning Catastrophe and did this page:

Credits:
Tropical Escape by Erica Zane and Mari Koegelenberg
Font: 1942 Report

The pictures were taken by my mom on Monday evening. My mom is no photographer and the pictures aren't top quality, but I figured it would be better and faster to have her take a few shots while we were grillin' rather than use the tripod. ;-)

Daily Download!

Sorry for posting this a couple of days late, but there's a new Daily Download at ScrapMatters and the kit is fantastic, so even if you missed these first couple of days you can still end up with a great kit!!
You just have to check in every day and download a portion of the kit, and you'll end up with a wonderful kit for those 4th of July pages!


Just click on the ad to go to the Daily Download forum, and remember to go back every day! :)

Speed Scrap Today!

There's a Speed Scrap today at ScrapMatters:

I'll be at work so I'll miss it :(, but I recommend going if you can!! It's hosted by Britt and it's bound to be super fun!! ;)

BBQ Night

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny but cool day (my favorite kind of day!), so we decided to grill. It was great, and my mom really enjoyed it too. ;)

Credits:
Template by Dana (missrubikscube)
Backyard BBQ by Pamela Donnis
Font: My Own Topher

And tonight we're trying a new, fancy restaurant. :)

Almost Forgot!

I forgot to post my latest Project 365 page this morning, so here it is:

Credits:
Paper from Lazy Days, Hodge Podge 11 by Gina Marie Huff
Photo stamps from Project 365 #2 by Sugarplum Paperie
Messy Stamped Alpha by wm [squared] designs
Glitzy Wordlettes 2 by Britt-ish Designs
Fonts: Note this, Pea Olson

Since my mom has arrived, I've been doing a photo of her every day.. Let's see if I keep this up for her whole stay or if I get some pictures I cannot keep out of my P365. ;)

W00T! It's Official!

Well, I can spill the beans because it's official now: I made it into ScrapMatters' Hybrid CT!! :D
I'm so happy to be creating for this great community and cannot wait to get started! Yaaaaaaaaaaay! ;)

Fridge Magnets

For a very long time I've wanted to try to make fridge magnets. I bought the fundamental material (glass marbles and magnets) months ago (at WalMart and Michael's respectively) so this weekend I decided it was time to give it a try.


First off, I printed out the designs for my magnets. I used Amy Sumrall's super cute kits, Oh So Happy, Berry Sweet and Little Bunny Foo Foo.


I printed on normal paper and cut the designs out. Then, I applied a thin layer of Mod Podge on the circles as I normally do for sealing, but this time I put a glass marble on top. I liked that you can still move around the paper to center it properly, but then the Mod Podge dries off pretty quickly as usual.


Then, I used some tacky glue to glue the magnets to the paper+glass marbles. I just put a drop of tacky glue on the magnets and adhered the paper+glass to them. These need to dry a bit longer than Mod Podge, but within 10 minutes my magnets were ready to go on the fridge!

Credits:
TOP: Oh So Happy by Amy Sumrall
BOTTOM: Berry Sweet by Amy Sumrall

The glass marbles magnify the design below and the final effect is so pretty! Even DH appreciated the final result! :)

Credits:
Little Bunny Foo Foo by Amy Sumrall

I put off this project for a really long time because I wasn't sure which glue would work for attaching the magnets, but in the end the glue I had worked beautifully! I'll be doing more of these for sure. ;)

Getting Ready

My mom is flying in tonight and will stay almost two weeks!! I'm so happy and I've been really looking forward to her visit!

This will mean I will have little or no time to scrap in the next couple of weeks, but I'll be taking many pictures. ;)

Last night I grabbed Pamela Donnis's new kit, Backyard BBQ, which is just perfect for my grill pictures! ;)

Credits:
Template by Juli Fish
Backyard BBQ by Pamela Donnis
Messy Stamped Alpha by wm [squared] designs
Summer Word Art freebie - Designs by The Werners
Font: Pea Roni Script

My Photoshop Elements has been really acting up since the latest update on my Mac. I started working on a page for a CT call last night but wasn't able to save it.. :-S So, this morning during breakfast I finished it up and if it still convinces me, I'll send it off this weekend. ;)

What a Scare!

Last night I finished working on my 2 pages for the May monthly summary. After saving them, I hit the Save for Web button and my Photoshop Elements crashed. Then, my computer crashed too, so I decided to go to bed. But this morning I had a horrible surprise: both my psd files were 10 MB of size and corrupted... :-S
After a few minutes of despair thinking I had to do both pages all over again, DH saved my day thanks to his backup system. He retrieved my files saved to almost the final version (I always save the file several times as I'm working on them and the final step that was missing in the backup version was only the addition of the flowers). So, I just added the flowers in again and my pages are safe and finished! Phew!!

Credits:
Template by missrubikscube
Tropical Escape by Erica Zane and Mari Koegelenberg
Acrylic numbers from Hodge Podge 9 by Gina Marie Huff
Screws from Summer Fling by Britt-ish Designs
Font: Note this

I picked up this gorgeous collab by Erica Zane and Mari Koegelenberg at the 2 Dollar Tuesday at The DigiChick - what a steal! It's such a gorgeous kit and I cannot wait to use more of it!!

Waiting...

I have a couple of pages to share done with Sugarplum Paperie's latest kit, Summer Delight. I love all of Nicole's kits and this one is no exception!

Template by Suzanne (sbaird)
Summer Delight by Sugarplum Paperie
Font: Pea Roni Script

I did this next page for a paper to digi scraplift challenge at The Digi Chick and I fell in love with the page I was scraplifting.. It's just perfect in every way!
I love how my lift turned out because you can still tell it's based on a paper LO, but it's totally digi.. ;) I did all the shadows by hand and spent all the evening on it, but I'm happy with the result! I even did the faux stitching.. ;)

Credits:
Summer Delight, ribbon from The Sweetest Thing, heart from Little Love Bits by Sugarplum Paperie
On the Dot Alpha (recolored) by Chelle's Creations
Font: Pea Roni Script

And then, I'm all caught up with my Project 365 as usual. ;)

Credits:
Hodge Podge 11 by Gina Marie Huff
Photo stamps from Project 365 #2 by Sugarplum Paperie
Font: Note this

I titled this post "Waiting" because I'm waiting, patiently or not, for many things this week! I'm waiting for the renewal of my visa (let me just say it's been an odissey this year, and I'll leave it at that..); I'm waiting for my mom's visit and she's flying in on Friday; I'm waiting for my 1 month CT guest spot at ScrapMatters (but that won't be until July 1st, and I'm so excited!!!); finally, I'm waiting to hear who was accepted for the hybrid CT call at ScrapMatters, hoping to get a spot.. that would be fantastic!
And this evening the winner of the SYTYCD challenge at didiscrapaddicts.com will be announced, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Amy!! That girl really deserves to win!

Keyholder Frame

I worked on a very cute little project this weekend, inspired by Mari Koegelenberg's project featured on The Hybrid Chick blog.

I showed Mari's post to DH before creating my own keyholder frame and this is actually the first project that got endorsed by DH! But I anticipated this would happen, since DH always loses his keys in the house and not once, but twice has managed to lock himself out of the house... :-/

So, I picked up Amy Sumrall's super cute Berry Sweet kit and prepared the digital bits and pieces.
I was super lucky because I found a white frame at the Dollar store and bought white hooks at Lowe's, so I didn't have to paint anything. Not that it would have been a big deal, but it saved me some time! :)
I used my favorite material, frozen pizza box, :) to create the backing for the tags.

I used Mod Podge to glue the tags on the chipboard and some ribbon and eyelets to pretty them up; I had DH help to screw the hooks in and the frame was ready in no time! ;)

Credits:

Berry Sweet by Amy Sumrall

Font: Scriptina

Here's the detail of the tags: I created one for DH, one for me, one for the car keys and one for the shed, plus an unnamed one. :)


It's really cute and I think I might make some seasonal changes too. I chose summery colors which are perfect for now but I would love to change it in the fall, and for Christmas!

(Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, but the frame is hanging in a poorly lit part of the house and today's a rainy day.. Since I added 2 glue dots to the back to keep it more stable when keys are hung/picked up, I didn't want to take the frame down just because I needed better pictures. :) )

Just A Sneak Peek

I worked on a very cute little hybrid project today, but unfortunately it was almost dark when I finished it so I couldn't take good pictures of it. I'll take a few tomorrow, and post more pictures of how I did the project, but for now I want to show just a little sneak peek of the final result:

Credits:

Berry Sweet by Amy Sumrall

Font: Scriptina

House Album

Well, it took me some 4 months, but I finally took some pictures of the hybrid album I prepared for DH for Valentine's day, so I can show it off at last! :)

It's the very first album I ever did and I'm so proud of it!

I wanted to do a house album but I couldn't find any chipboard albums in the craft stores around here, so I decided to build my own album out of cereal boxes, frozen food boxes, etc.

First, I started creating the pages on my computer and printing them out. I sized the pages so that I could print two each on a sheet of matte A4 paper I had at home.

Next, I cut the pages out and created a template from a cereal box simply outlining the printed page with a pencil.

Cut, cut, cut, cut...

I made 20 pages(!) so this means 20 printed pages plus 10 chipboard pages to be cut.. I did this over a few evenings: my hand would have hurt way too much if I cut them all at once! ;)

At this point, I punched holes and added flower brads to some of my pages. Then, I Mod Podged them to glue them to the chipboard. I punched holes with my Crop-a-dile to bind the pages.

I debated whether or not to add eyelets, because the front pages would look pretty but the back pages would have the back of the eyelets that aren't as pretty, but I ended up putting them.

I also printed a cover on a transparency and used an electric wire to bind the pages. I found this wire in my office and I thought the colors were just perfect for the album, so I used it to create a flower embellishment for the cover too.

And here's the complete album:

TRANSPARENCY (front)

Font: Scriptina

PAGE 1 (cover)

Paper by lilipruneau - ScrapMalin collab Enjoy Life

PAGE 2

Paper (recolored) by lilipruneau - ScrapMalin collab Enjoy Life

Key from Feels Like Home collab by B-Creative Designs and Ziggle Designs

PAGE 3

Paper (recolored) by lilipruneau - ScrapMalin collab Enjoy Life

wordart (recolored) by Veronica Hurly - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

PAGE 4

paper (recolored) by Erica Zane - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

key by Veronica Hurly - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

PAGE 5

paper (recolored) by Erica Zane - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

PAGE 6

wordart (recolored) from Home Sweet Home by Janelle Gustafson, Cafe J Designs

paper (recolored) by Veronica Hurly - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

PAGE 7

paper (recolored) by Veronica Hurly - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

PAGE 8

Paper (recolored) from Love Bytes Add On by Britt-ish Designs

wordart by Veronica Hurly - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

PAGE 9

Paper (recolored) from Love Bytes Add On by Britt-ish Designs

wordart by Brianna Cox - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is

PAGE 10

Element from Home Sweet Home by Janelle Gustafson, Cafe J Designs

Fairchild Add On (some recoloring) by Britt-ish Designs

PAGE 11

Fairchild Add On (some recoloring) by Britt-ish Designs

PAGE 12

Fairchild Add On (some recoloring) by Britt-ish Designs

PAGE 13

Fairchild Add On (some recoloring) by Britt-ish Designs

PAGE 14

Paper from Welcome Home by Erica Zane

PAGE 15

Paper from Welcome Home by Erica Zane

Birds rub-on from Electric Pop by Britt-ish Designs

PAGE 16

Paper from Harvest Spice by Shabby Princess

PAGE 17

Paper from Harvest Spice by Shabby Princess

PAGE 18

paper (recolored) from Shrubberies by Erica Zane

Element from Home Sweet Home by Janelle Gustafson, Cafe J Designs

PAGE 19

paper (recolored) from Shrubberies by Erica Zane

PAGE 20 (BACK)

Paper (recolored) by lilipruneau - ScrapMalin collab Enjoy Life

wordart by Eirene Designs - Snap and Scrap collab Where the Heart Is