Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 31th:

The Final Challenge:  choose a project from the Couture Cardstock Gallery and scraplift it.  

I chose to use Broni Holcombe's card from the Seduction Gallery.  I used the card as my inspiration for my page today.  This pic of my daughter was just taken Saturday for her graduation photo shoot.  I knew right away I wanted to use red.  Since I have a wonderful package of Couture Cardstock reds from a previous challenge,  all I had to do was choose the bling.  I went with Prima "Say it with Crystals" and Prima Watermelon flowers.  Instead of a circle, I went with an oval, which I think worked better with the black and white paper from Autumn Leaves Pretty Poppies collection.  

My daughter was very happy to have a page full of bling...lol.

I would love to thank Couture Cardstock for the awesome month long challenges, inspiration and all the tutorials.  I had a great time!  I'm happy that I actually took a big chunk out of my stack of pictures too!

It was a great feeling to work on some pages and have a chance to win a prize.  That's one way to get a girl motivated!  

Looking forward to the Reader's Gallery on the blog!   

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 30th:

Couture Cardstock suggested for today that I use a color I wouldn't normally use.  

Choose a color I wouldn't normally use??  I had to think about this one allll day!  I love colors, I use everything!   I had to have a rainbow themed wedding because I couldn't decide on one color!

Okay...so I started looking through all my cardstock and these "neon" colors jumped out at me.  Not because they are so bright....I just don't use them.   It's really, really hard to find the right pictures to go with these colors, but I just couldn't bear to get rid of them.  So.....I made a simple layout using a few of these loud colors.  I also found in my stash (I really need to look through my stuff more often), these really cool chipboard flowers!  I felt really lucky that I didn't have to pull my hair out all night trying to put this page together.   A little ink on the autograph tag, a little extra bling on the smaller flowers....and another successful challenge completed!  

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 29th:

I was so happy to see today's challenge!  I was working on this page last night and got stuck on the embellishments.  I really don't care for "blank" space on a page and out of everything I have, I just couldn't find the right stuff.  So Couture Cardstock's challenge for today was to use stamps on your page.  Lo and behold, while searching the small stash of stamps that I have, I ran across a set of alligator stamps!  I totally forgot that I had even bought these!  I know I was lucky enough to find them in the dollar section at Michael's.  So I decided to make little tags using the stamps.  Then I mounted the tags on mulberry paper, added fibers and buttons.  

So glad to be using my stash!  I need to start going thru it more.....

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 27th:

For today's challenge I chose to celebrate my daughter's upcoming milestones.  She will be graduating from college in May and celebrating her 20th birthday.  We decided this year to combine both parties.  The papers are from PineCone Press.  I thought the colors were perfect and fun to mix up both celebrations.  I had to handcut the little mortarboard.  Then I added a brad and some fibers.   I love these alphas from Basic Grey too!  I need more colors!  A little ribbon, flowers and pearl bling....TADA!  An easy peasy card and the color scheme for the party is set!  I'm going to use the same set to make the grad announcements too!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 26th:

Today's Couture Cardstock challenge was to use a different medium as in Mod Podge, Glimmer Mist or Glossy Accents.  I'll admit I have never tried Glimmer Mists or Glossy Accents.  But I can tell you the hubby will not be happy with this weekend's checkbook results.  

I have ModPodged a few items around the house, but I really wanted to work on another page.  

So I broke out more beach pictures!  I wanted to use real sand on my page, but I had a little helper today, so that was not going to happen.

I took these squares of patterned paper and added a few buttons to them.  Then I went over the outlines of the design with....STICKLES!  I love the look of this stuff!  I've used it on lots of snowflakes and snow pages.  I'll also admit I only have one color.  But I am REALLY intrigued with Glimmer Mist.  

And the wishlist grows....

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 25th:

Today's challenge was to use only cardstock!  Holy Cow!  This was so difficult to do!  I kept getting distracted from the main goal and reaching for my ribbons, buttons, stickers, brads...I love Fall, so I have tons of stuff I could have used on this page.  

Solid cardstock background paper.  I had this border already stamped with the leaves laying around.  I stamped the letters "FALL FUN" on the border and then filled them in with my markers.  I then took pieces and scraps of solid cardstock and tore them into different shapes, inked the edges and placed them randomly on the background paper.  Solid cardstock for photomats.  I'm happy with the way it turned out, but WOW!  That was hard!  Great Challenge!

Welcome Aboard!

Here is a page for the Stuck on Sketches challenge.  I mixed it up a bit.  

I used stamps on the background paper, Prima flowers with buttons, and of course, Disney stickers!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 24th:

Here are a few cards I made for the March Family Birthday party this weekend.   Nana and Aunties...I hope they like them!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 23th:

Couture Cardstock Challenge - stitching??  Really??  I don't even remember where my sewing machine is, let alone know the first thing about stitching paper...lol.  I used my Crop-a-dile to punch holes in the edge of the paper and then I threading my fibers through them to try to make it look like baseball stitching.   I have to admit this was not one of my more favorite techniques, but I had to at least give it a try.

Off to watch Casey on American Idol!

More GREEN fun!!!

Shamrocks, leprechauns and Prima Products Picks...besides each having a magical touch, they also share that great color, GREEN! Just look at these gorgeous GREEN Prima products! There is everything from Lilliput flowers to Times Chipboard alphas to Say It In Pearls Ferns to Temple Leaves! We encourage you to pull out your lucky green Prima products just in time for St.Patrick's Day and have some fun!

Still thinking Spring!

Here is a page I did to get in the mood for Spring!  This is one of my favorite pictures of my daughter.  

I dug through my stash and found all my old Tim Coffey goodies.  And believe it or not I snatched my deco scissors back from my daughter to cut the mat.  (She has since taken them back!).  This is my submission for the Tombow adhesive challenge.   I love the permanent adhesive rollers!  I stock up every chance I get!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 22th:

Think Spring!!!!

Today's Couture Cardstock challenge was to use red.  I used more from my Tim Coffey collection to work on some spring pics.  These tulips are really red, but my picture taking needs some work...lol.  I like taking pics outside with natural sunlight, but spring has left and it's too cold out!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 20th:

Happy Spring??!!!  Geez....how long did I sleep?  I went to sleep when it was 60 degrees yesterday, and when I woke up, it was 35 degrees and snowing!  Did I sleep right through summer??  

Today's Couture Cardstock challenge was to do something "vintage".   I was so happy to get my pictures delivered yesterday with our trip to the Old Graue Mill over summer.   At the Mill, there is a small museum.  We were able to see how they made corn meal with all of the old equipment.  Up on the third floor, there are artifacts that represent life many years ago.  We were able to see furnished rooms with lots of antique furniture.  We were also able to see how a spinning wheel works and we watched them spin real wool!  

On the second floor were the costumes.  We had a total blast dressing up and role playing.  

After we toured the museum, we took a walk around the ground which hooks up with the Forest Preserve.  

I'll get to those pictures tomorrow...I hope!

I used a lot of my Nostalgiques stash for this challenge.  Scrapping today was a lot of fun!  This is what happens when the weather turns bad overnight and I'm too chicken to go out!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 19th:

Couture Cardstock challenge for today....masks!  I haven't really tried this technique before.  I used a sheet of "lace" paper that I bought...cuz it was pretty.  I used a 2 inch edge of the paper for my mask.  Then I went over it with my cat's eye pewter ink.  I have to admit...it was a little messy.  I'm heading over to Archiver's tomorrow to buy some misting sprays.  And glitter mist...and more masks....and more bling....and.....

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 18th:

Today's Couture Cardstock challenge:  use markers on your page.

I had to do a quick one today...my little guy is feeling a little under the weather.

I chose to use markers on my white paper flowers to customize them to the colors I needed for this picture.  Unfortunately, I didn't have the right shade of purple!  It was hard getting a decent pic of the page, but the centers of the flowers have blue bling on them.

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 17th:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  

Today's Couture Cardstock challenge was to use popdots.  I love all these little circles from Reminisce.  I added die cut embellishments from K and Company using popdots.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but they pop right off the page!  

Can't wait for this year's pool parties!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 16th:

YAY!  Another challenge...another page done...more pictures into the album!  

Today's Couture Cardstock Challenge....circles!  I broke out the Curvy Cutter to make my circle outline.  The background paper is from Core-dinations, which was sanded.  Then I added my newest Prima bling!  Love this stuff!  Also added in the new Prima flowers...  :).  

We're started to talk about our next trip.....come on summer!!!!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 15th:

Today's challenge was to use teal or aqua on your page.  Keeping in the spirit of finishing up our Disney Cruise vacation pics,  I pulled out more snorkeling pics.  I wish we could go back soon!  It's stinking cold in Chicago again!  One day in the 60's and now back in the 40's.   These pics aren't the greatest.  They were taken with a disposable underwater camera, so editing them was difficult.  The hubby was the one who swam way out there to get these pics....I wimped out.

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 14th:

Couture Cardstock challenge for today:  create a project that reflects your style or yourself.  This is it!  I made yet another journal for our next Disney Vacation!  The Hubby said we are starting a fund to prepare for the trip and I am super excited!  Which means I can start the planning now!  I have lots of journals and notebooks around and I usually just scribble on the covers what it is being used for.  Today I decided to embellish it and really make it "ME".   All the kids really got a kick out of it and even asked my why I never did this before...lol.  The added ribbon will be used as a bookmark...instead of the usual paper clip.   I was able to clean up some more scraps too.  Time to make a countdown calendar!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 13th:

Another very busy day around our house today.  Luckily, I was able to at least pick out pictures before we left!  

Today's Couture Cardstock challenge was to give an embellishment some "WOW" factor.  At the end of summer last year,  I scored these little wooden pieces for about 8 cents each.  So now that I finally have all our vacation pictures printed,  I was happy to work on these little guys today.  

I was going to use paints, but decided to use my Zig Zag markers instead.  My 8yo daughter was more than happy to help.  I had a ton of these cool little googly eyes to bring the pieces to life.  And to give them "WOW" we added a little glitter to them all.  I helped that I had glitter foam flowers and some awesome tropical papers with glitter on them too.  I think I have a glitter addiction lately...

Bo Bunny Challenge

Here is my page for the Bo Bunny color challenge.  I think there is enough aqua and white in this layout!  Gee...I wish I were snorkeling right now....come on Summer!!!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 12th:

 Today's challenge for Couture Cardstock was to "Think Spring".   I decided to take a break from my Disney pictures and use last year's spring photos.  I took these in our backyard with some dandelions that my daughter had picked.   For my birthday, my boss had given me a bouquet of spring flowers and I pulled out the daisies for her to play with.  I was happy to use up my whole stash of Tim Coffey's Daisy collection.  Now I have an empty spot in my stash for new stuff.  I did  2 pages today because I'm planning on doing some major retail therapy this weekend and wanted to stick to my promise to myself to get a page a day finished.  

It's supposed to rain all weekend, so I'll just keep thinking Happy Spring and wait for the showers to pass.

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 11th:

Today's Couture Cardstock Challenge....use buttons!  

BUTTON, BUTTON....Who's got the button??  Oh wait...I do!  They're all over this page!  Love the way this turned out.  The bright colors really made me happy while I was fighting with my glue dots.  And it was a reminder that I need to add more buttons to my shopping list...

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 10th

Today in Chicago, it was 60 degrees and sunny!!! Come on Spring!! Yesterday in the mail I recieved another huge package from Artscow with the rest of our Disney Cruise pictures. Luckily, things were slow today so I had time to play around and sort through them. I finally had a chance to make my little sand shaker box. Oh, to be back on the beach.....unfortunately, it wasn't enough sand to sink my toes into.

Today's Couture Cardstock Challenge was to use pastels. This backgr0und paper had the perfect elements for the challenge, and also a really good feel for the beach...the tons of seashell stickers I used helped too! The big seashell was a wooden accent piece from the clearance bin at Michaels. I tried to run some colorful fibers along the bottom of the page, but my picture barely shows that.

Okay, off to enjoy dinner and maybe a nice walk while the temps are still above 50!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 9th:

Guess who got some new bling today!!!??? 

 I was so excited to open up my package!!  I had an idea for today's Cardstock Couture Challenge, which was to use 3 different shades of the same color. 

 I spent most of the day sketching out ideas, taking notes, picking different shades of blues.  This whole page was going to be nothing but blues.  But then....I saw the pumpkin bling and thought it was PERFECT for this page!  There is so much shiny stuff on this page it was very difficult to take a decent picture..lol.  But I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.  I also tried to ink the edges of the die cut (which I had to cut out by hand) in silver ink, but that didn't take too well.  Then I tried to stamp silver images on it and THAT didn't work!  So I decided to stick with the shiny stuff.  A girl can NEVER have too much bling!!!~

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 8th:

Today's challenge:  Paint somewhere on your page.

I chose to paint chipboard!  I hate naked chipboard and I love to ink it, paint it, glitter it...anything to take away the dullness of plain chipboard.  

Today I chose to go to my "Happy Place"....Cinderella's Castle.   I painted all the chipboard letters...twice...or maybe 3 times.  I lost count.  This chipboard just sucked up the paint and I had a really hard time getting it to shade I wanted.  Then I stamped silver glitter on them.  On Layout #1 - I painted the chipboard light purple, stamped light blue over it and stamped it with glitter.  

I figured if I was going to break out the paints today, I might as well paint everything!   I'm still working on another page with painted paisley...not getting the right shade of orange that I want...GRRR!!  I feel like a mad-scientist...but at least I am an accomplished one!  lol

couture Cardstock Challenge - March 7th:

Today's challenge was to finish scrapping something you have been procrastinating.  A few years ago, a group of friends and I were lucky enough to attend CKU - Chicago.  We were super excited about the whole weekend.  We spent WEEKS planning, packing, shopping, chatting....

The day finally arrived....and that's when things seemed to fall apart.  Some arrived too late for us to participate in the team activities (stuff we had planned and prepared for).  Some decided they wanted to be in total control of everything (where we eat and when).  Some just didn't care to participate in anything we had worked hard for (but didn't decide that until we were there).  They always say that if you really want to get to know a person, go on vacation with them.  That was never so true before.  We were only together for 3 days!!  But those 3 days were the end to many friendships.  These group pictures were the last ones taken of all of us together.  Some we never heard from again....some we are slowly making contact with again.  

Scrapping these pictures was really hard because everytime I looked at them, I didn't want to think about the drama that unfolded that weekend.  There were faces I didn't want to see in my scrapbooks.  But...it was an experience that I will only be able to do once.  So I had the pictures printed, put them in a box and ignored them for 4 years.  So while scrapping, I focused on the positive and blocked out the negative.  We were all smiling in these pictures.  We did have a good time...in front of the camera.  It's behind the scenes that ruined years of friendships.  Oh well....the pages are done.  I remembered the good fun we had!  The contests we lost!  The people we met!  And I can lock this album away if I want to!  I have lots more pictures to work with, but we are off to a birthday party!  So at least I got a really good start!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 6th:

Let's just say that today's challenge was definitely a challenge!  I am NOT good at sewing anything!  So of course, today's challenge was to sew something on your page or add a sewing element.  So my FIRST attempt was to add a baseball-like stitching to my page.  Not exactly the straightest lines, but I measured it out, punched all the holes and sat back listening to my latest favorite music while "sewing".  This was another page that REALLY got me in the mood for baseball!  28 days till Opening Day! 

My second attempt wasn't really sewing.  I have all this scrapbooking wire laying around and wanted to try using it.  I added the fishing pole diecut at the top, added a brad and wrapped wire around it.  At the bottom of the page,  I added the fish diecut, another brad and ended the wire wrapped around that brad.  I found this really cute little hook in my stash!  

So I definitely feel accomplished today!  AND....we spent a good portion of the day at the zoo for Pig Day!  Can't wait to work on those pictures!

Have a great weekend!!!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 5th:

Wow...today's challenge was to alter or distress some scraps of cardstock.  I have TONS of scraps!  I'm afraid to throw away anything....you never know when you will need that one tiny, little piece for a punch or something.  And I have them all filed by color...lol.

These scraps I altered by stamping little images of paisley.  Then I traced the larger ones with glue, filled the smaller ones with glue and sprinkled fine glitter on it all.  Love the way they shine!  A really great idea for a quick, inexpensive little embellishment!  Thanks for the idea!

I'm off to chow down on spaghetti....YUM!!!

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 4th:

Couture Cardstock Challenge - March 4th:

I spent the day checking out this site and making a list of the paper sets I love!  I need a 12 step program for my paper addiction!

This was totally fun to do!  Makes me think of spring....Can't wait to get my hands on pretty pastel papers!  Making a list and checking it twice....

Couture Cardstock Scrap challenge for March 3rd:

Day three and I'm really feeling the "challenge"....lol.

Today's challenge was to use something printed from your computer.  I chose to print my own background paper using text on vellum.   I've had these "Sibling Rivalry" stickers FOREVER and was happy to find a use for them.  It helps to have a long ride home from work, so I have lots of time to think.  Time crunch for the challenge is over...now I can eat dinner!  Have a great night! 

A quick card...

another challenge completed!  Another idea came to life!  Really feeling inspired this month!

I just joined another scrapbooking group that has a DAILY challenge!!  I must be a glutton for punishment....day 2 and I'm already freaking out!  

Today's challenge was to use a border punch.  I only have 2!  It was fun to finally break one of them in...lol.  

Beautiful cardstock!

My lss just closed and I totally ran out of options for cardstock!  And then this site falls right into my lap!

and for inspiration to use yellows...here is my page for today's challenge.