Authentique Smile

I finally finished up a LO I started at Archivers a few weeks ago. I started with Authentique,  Crate, and Bazzill  papers from a Sweet Peach Crop Shop kit and Sketch #197 from Creative Scrappers. When I finished it, I ended up using none of the embellies from the kit (except a little twine) ; instead, I sued flowers and rhinestones from a Scrapabilities kit my husband got me from Costco 2 Christmases ago and an Avery shipping tag. I colored the tag with distress inks from TH/ranger and I re-colored the white flowers with TA Glimmer Mists. The journaling will go on the tag. Thanks for Looking!

P.S. Spring Break is almost upon us so I will have another week of scarce blog fodder. But, like the Terminator, I'll be back :P

A quick hello and a nice surprise!

My week has been insane- again! I spent 2 days visiting my 90 y.o. grandmother bracketed by 2 days of 12 hour drives to get there and home again. I barely spent any time at my hotel and wireless was nonexistent or pathetically slow everywhere else plus I was trying to work in-between visiting time. Anyway, I have been catching up with my family (my in-laws were here visiting and got deserted) and job. No crafting or even blog reading has occurred :(  Hoped to get to do both this weekend but watching the vids for my online class was about it  (I am taking Tim H's class at onlinecardclasses.com).

But, while I was gone, I got such an awesome surprise from Norma at Lil Honey Bee Studios. She does beautiful layouts and very collagey mixed media pieces. Her art is just beautiful! I'm totally honored that she sent this my way :)  Thank you so much, Norma - you made my day! :)

 "Liebster" is German for "Dearest". The award is a  "Share the love arrangement", given to inspirational bloggers with less than 200 followers. Here is the to do list for any of the  "Liebster" blog award recipients. 

1. Thank your Liebster Blog award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented you the award.

3.Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.

I am happy to now honor some awesome bloggers with this award...

I'd like to pass this award on to these inspiring ladies who may not be necessarily new to blogging but are under 200 followers and always inspire me with their beautiful work:

1. Krista Wells at confessions of a 20 something artist
2. Aubree at Scraps of My Life
3.Katherine Sutton at fruit of my scraps
4. Marelize at my creative footprints
5. Angie Gutshall at my little blessings


These 5 are really the tip of the iceberg. I subscribe to a ton of blogs and there are so, so many incredibly talented scrapbookers/papercrafters out there

More oldies but goodies

 Here are a couple more layouts that never got posted here but I still love. The first is a copy of my mother's bridal sitting photo and was made with an old SPCS kit. Really simple LO again but I think it suits the photo.

Supplies: Bazzill CS; BG bling; Prima flowers and journal card; Imaginisce brads

The second is still one of my all-time fav 2-page spreads. It was made with my hoarded Scenic Route and lots of fussy cutting, crumpling and layering

Supplies: SR PPs; Stickles; twine and buttons from my stash; MME journaling card

Echo Park - Brave Boy

A couple weeks ago, SoapHouseMama posted some of her unblogged layouts and challenged her readers to do the same.  I didn't think I really had much of any that weren't already in albums but found some LO pictures on my computer the other day and decided that, while they were done a while ago and my style has changed a bit, I still like them quite a bit and consider them blog-worthy.

Both of these are super simple but make me happy :)

Supplies #1: Echo Park PP, Bazzill CS, CM letters, MM epoxy words, AC foam photo corners


Supplies #2: EK Success punch, Archivers CS, BG ribbon, AC thickers, CC tiny type, Jenni bowlin labels, Maya Road pins, misc unknown

Sassafras - surprise

I had a milestone birthday a year or so ago and my sweet husband threw a surprise party for me which included a few friends that flew in for the occasion- it was awesome and explains the horrible expression on my face *LOL*

I used an old kit from the now closed Sweet Peach Crop Shop kit club and a sketch from Creative Scrappers

Supplies: Sassafras PP, Stickers; Bazzill CS; paper lace unknown; AC Thickers

Friends - Bo Bunny and Starting Points

I used Shimelle's latest starting point for this LO and I challenged myself to use these BoBunny scraps. Those deicisons up front should have made this pretty quick but my mojo was completely blocked and it took me forever to do this LO. Oh well. Please pardon the fingerprints and glare on the photos- I am leaving town for a few days and have been running around like a mad woman today so forgot to clean up the photos and had to take pics inside :P

I splattered a little paint to break up the top PP (and I flipped the multi-color vs tone on tones from Shimelle's SP) and added a Pebbles paper for the photo mat and journaling base. I like the final result- just wish it hadn't taken so long to get there *LOL*

Supplies: Bo Bunny PP; Pebbles PP; Bazzill CS; AC Thickers; Sassafras PP; MME labels and journaling cards; OA sprinklers

Sketch Challenge - 3rd Cousins

I did this layout for the weekly challenge- sketch this time- at 2 Peas. I pulled out some truly ancient stash for this. This is Cloud 9 Designs- the paper was Cinnamon Stick, the die-cuts, stickers and chipboard flowers were Cocoa Mint. This is one of those layouts that was so much better in my head but I do still like it. I dressed up a few of the flowers with liquid pearls. It's pretty simple really but I guess that's good with busy paper :)

Anyway, I love this pic of my nieces and my second cousins' sons  and that we are close enough with our second cousins that the thirds will know each other pretty well too :D

Supplies: Ranger Liquid Pearls; AC thickers; CC Tiny Type; Bazzill CS; Cloud 9 Designs everything else

Basic Grey - Ready for their CloseUp

My not-quite 8 year old wanted a "real" camera for Christmas. I kind of had in mind a "cheapie" but my mother and sister picked out a canon that is technically nicer than my pocket digital *LOL* To his credit, he has been super careful with it so far. But, it is hilarious to me that the self-portraits have already started - along with pics of his so-willing-to-mug brother. Anyway, I printed these out thinking I might try PL this year (Ha!) and decided to scrap them instead of my 2 y.o photos for once :P

I used a sketch by Ashley Rock and pulled out my untouched (aka hoarded) collection of BG Boxer. I added a little misting with a mask, a little paint splatter for texture, and a few brads and a journaling card to the BG stickers, PP, and fussy-cut elements. I was thinking that this line would probably mix great with LYB Saturdays- now I wish I hadn't put myself on restriction for Lent *LOL*

Thanks for stopping by. I so appreciate all the nice comments on my posts. How do you all "reply" to comments? Do you reply in the comments (I figure people rarely come back to check for replies) ? Do you reply on their blog? Not reply at all unless there is a specific question?

Supplies: Basic Grey PP, die-cut stickers, alpha stickers; OA sprinkler; TA glimmer mist; Crafters workshop stencil; MME journaling card; CM pen; Brads unknown

MME - Playful

I was dying to play with the "Follow Your Heart" collection from MME some more so I pulled it all out and was a cutting fool :P

I ordered the LifeCrafts (formerly QK) hexagon nesting dies before I even got this paper in my hands! Love them!

I used my Glitz Designs star rolling stamp and 2 Jenni Bowlin inks to create a border beneath the photo and to create a fall of stars above the hexagon cutouts. I then went back with my orange Sakura Tiara pen and colored in several of he stars

Supplies: MME PPs, Chipboard, brads; Archivers CS; Twinery twines; Portofina buttons; Amy Tangerine washi tape; WRMK inker; CM pen; homemade resin stars (molds form Mold Muse on Etsy); Ranger/Jenni Bowlin inks; Glitz roller stamp; Sakura of Japan Tiara glitter pen; LifeCrafts Hexagon dies

Dear Lizzy - Scraptastic Friends

I have made a lot of friends trough this hobby of ours.... a couple of meetup groups have come and gone but some of the people I met thru those groups are my souvenirs :P We try to go on retreats a couple times a year and these pics are from one fo those weekends. There were 4 of us besides those pictured; but, apparently, we didn't bother with cameras a whole lot *LOL*

Anyway, I enjoyed making a "girly" page for once

Supplies: AC DL PP, alpha stickers, image stickers; MM buttons and PP; Sassafras buttons; MME ribbon; Marcella by K paper clips; zig marker; OA sprinklers