AWDML Blog Hop!

A Walk Down Memory Lane is having a blog hop right now to showcase some sneak peaks of the design teams August 1st reveals.

So HOP, don't walk, to the {AWDML Forum} to find out where to go each day.

Here is my sneak!

Now for the fun part: when you leave a comment on the sneak peak posts - you qualify to win a RAK from A Walk Down Memory Lane. Winner will be drawn on July 31st and name announced on August 1st in the forum.

Sneaky Peaky

The new challenge reveal at Butterfly Crafts is only days away!

Here is a little sneak peak of what I created for the August 1st challenge.

Scrap That July Reveal

I am loving the weather in Chicago these last couple of weeks! No rain and low 80's is perfect for me. Most people wish it was a little warmer, but I think it is perfect. It has been hard to stay inside.

Even with the great weather I already finished two layouts for SCRAP THAT this week and it is only Tuesday. This month we were given the BG Porcelain collection to work with. I love the soft colors and designs of this collection. It's so pretty and perfect for these pictures of Frances.

This first LO I have had in mind for a while. Frances isn't a common name so I wanted to do a LO explaining to her why we chose that name.

Last night I was working on this LO and decided the tree needed a little something. So I decided I wanted to heat emboss the trunk. Well my scrapbook room is a mess and I haven't used my embossing stuff in probably over 3 years. So I went on a mission to find it. Oh and I have no lamp in the room anymore because I moved it into Frances's room Luckily I had a vague idea of where it was and found it pretty quickly. It was worth it. I love how the tree came out. I used a few layers of clear embossing powder, heated it and ran a toothpick though it while it was still wet to give the trunk some texture.

That's it for now. I have a few more LO's in the works that I will post later this week. Have a good one!

Two new layouts and a busy July...

Boy this summer has been busy! You would think that having the whole summer off would leave lots of time to do stuff, but NO! As Frances gets older and into more "stuff" our days have been filled. We have swimming lessons, FYI Moms group, lunch with Daddy, our morning runs, playtime, etc, etc. Luckily she still goes to sleep at 7:30pm so there is time to do stuff after her bedtime. And after a day of swimming she will sometimes go to to bed at 5:30pm! So here is what I have been up to in July...

I created 4 layouts and two cards. Two of the layouts and one card are for my August DT reveal at A Walk Down Memory Lane. The other card was for the Scrap That! Blog Hop and here are my two other layouts:

Frances starting eating food! Mealtime takes up most of our mornings now, but I think she likes it. Oatmeal and pears are her favorite. She's not so sure about chicken, but then again I tasted it and neither am I.




We started our swimming lessons. Frances just loves the pool. When we walk up to it she knows where we are and starts swinging her arms and legs. And you can see her two new teeth in this first picture.




My August kit came from Simply Obsessed. I love it! I can't wait to start playing with it.

I started playing around with photoshop. I went to the Jessica Sprague website and got some awesome tips. The first picture is the original of Frances in her 4th of July outfit and the second is the one I spruced up in photoshop. I love the way it turned out!



We took Frances to the petting zoo. She loved looking at all the animals. Look at that Llama. It's so ugly!



Whew! I am tired just typing that up. It's all so much fun though. Especially because almost everything we do Frances is doing for the first time. Imagine if we got that excited over everything.

TFL! Have a great weekend!

The 1st Scrap That! Blog Hop

Scrap That! is having a blog hop this weekend. The wonderful DT girls have each created a project using one of my favorite scrapbook supplies- BUTTONS!

One of my favorite ways to use buttons is to create a button border out of them. I use button borders on layouts and cards and I even used one a keepsake box I created for my daughter Frances's baby stuff. You can dress up your border using ribbon like I did below or adding other small embellishments to the top of the buttons.

Don't forget to visit the blogs of all the other DT girls and good luck to all participating!

Scrap That! DT:
Jodi
Mara
Amanda N
Amanda W
Sharon (GDT)

Wednesday Sale at AWDML

Every Wednesday A Walk Down Memory Lane has a sale. Today all stamps are 25% off!

One way I use stamps is for the sentiments on my cards. The sentiment on this card was created using the Hero Arts Elephants stamp set. Check out the AWDML DT Blog for more stamping ideas!

Challenge16 is posted at Butterfly Crafts

Here we go with challenge 16, thanks to Vicki for coming up with this great challenge!

This challenge is about scrapping your quirks and idiosyncrasies . Things that you do that make you special, maybe a pet peeve or a funny habit. Maybe it's weird maybe it's normal...it's up to you!

Please upload your LO's to the Butterfly Crafts gallery, leave a link in the comments of the Butterfly Crafts Blog or e-mail them to Butterflycrafts1@aol.com by 30th July to be in with a chance of becoming our August guest designer and this month the winner will also receive this gorgeous ribbon Kit from the July Sponsor Angel Crafts - A big thank you to Angela for sponsoring us this month!



The DT did an amazing job with this challenge! Go the Butterfly Crafts Blog to check out their layouts.

2nd Reveal at AWDML and a contest!

My 2nd July reveal is up at A Walk Down Memory Lane!

The first one is my new favorite LO. I love Frances's expression in this photo! And look at those chubby little arms and legs- SO ADORABLE!

I used some more Cosmo Cricket products on these projects because they are our featured manufacturer for July. They are sponsoring our July contest too and have donated some great CC products to give away to two lucky winners. It's not to late to enter the contest and only a few people have submitted so your odds are really good. Here's all the info you need:

Create a layout using 75% Cosmo Cricket products

Please make sure to specifiy in your upload description what you used
for Cosmo Cricket products

The theme or concept for you layout is all up to you.
* Deadline July 31st at Midnight
* Submit 1 Layout
* Submit Your Project in the AWDML Monthly contest submissions
category in the gallery
* To upload into the gallery you must register in the gallery first.
* Then register at the forum to link it back to the contest
* A maximum of ONE entry may be submitted.

* All images must be no larger than 500 X 500 pixels
* The winners project(s) will be posted on the main AWDML website with their Name, as well as in our newsletter & blogs.
*Your entry must not be one already completed for any other sites,
contests or challenges. It must be made for this specific contest.
*There will be two winners for this contest

Good Luck to all that enter!

Zoo fun

I took a sabatical from scrapbooking this weekend. I finished up all my DT projects during the week and am now waiting for my next round of goodies to arrive. I should be expecting package from A Walk Down Memory Lane any minute now! Postman where are you????

Since the weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend we took Frances to the zoo for the first time. I absolutely love animals so this was HUGE for me. I could not wait to take her. She had about as good of a time as a 6 1/2 month could have I guess. I don't know what I was expecting, but it was fun. She looked at some of the animals and then fell asleep for the rest of the trip. There is this really cool dinosaur exhibit going on right now with these really life like dinosaurs. They move and make noises. It is pretty cool. These are some of my favorite pictures of the day-

Me and Frances posing by the fountain.

A view of a dinosaur.

Frances watching the polar bear swim.

A brown bear posing for the camera.

Hmmm, don't remember the name of this guy!

A stegasaurous smiling for the camera.

A Tyranasaurous Rex. She looks like she's smiling too! How do I know it's a girl? She had a baby t-rex.

A 2 year old female tiger. It was so fun to watch her. She kept jumping in the water after this ball.

Have a great day!

A Fun Candy Card!

Here is a fun card that holds candy inside! It's a great little thank you gift or teacher gift and can be decorated in any theme for shower or party favors. I am doing a tutorial on how to make this card on the A Walk Down Memory Lane DT Blog today. Hop on over and check it out!

Hershey's Minis all wrapped up. Don't they look cute?

Inside of the candy card.

Simply Obsessed July Kit

My July reveal is posted at Simply Obsessed!

I love the papers in the July kit because they are so bright and fun and I love the embellishments because they are so sweet. So I chose to put the fun and the sweet together to create some layouts of Frances.

The first LO My Silly Girl is a layout of my daughter being silly. She laughs and giggles all the time. She really is the happiest baby. She likes to make funny faces and when we laugh at her she just makes more. These papers were the perfect for the colors in the photos and the fun tone of the LO. I used the fabric swatch and sassafras flowers to make the flower embellishment on the bottom right. I hand cut a flower out of the fabric and then layered it with the sassafras flower from the kit. To make the brads pop a bit, I cut the prongs off with a wire cutter and then adhered them with foam tape.


My second layout So Many Reasons has pictures of my DD when she first sat up. I turned my back for a second and when I turned around she was sitting up. So I grabbed my camera off the kitchen table and starting taking pictures before the moment was over. The pictures are not perfect. They are a little blurry and there is a bunch of stuff in the background, but when I look at them I don't notice a bit I just remember the moment. It got me thinking how the little things like this make me happier than anything else. I added a chipboard heart, brackets and little accents from the addons to give the journaling and title more interest.


My third layout We Love You started off different, but this is how it ended up! I initially cut up the spinner, but then decided I wanted it whole again so put it back together. The spinner still moves too so if I get tired of "sweet" I can always change it to something else. Too bad cranky isn't on there!



Have a great weekend!

Simply Obsessed Sneak Peak

I have been working on my LO's for Simply Obsessed this week. I think I finally have the finishing touches just right! Here is a little sneak peak. I am going to reveal my three LO's on the SO blog Friday.



So it rained most of the day today. Frances and I had to stay in most of the day. Luckily we got our morning run in- 3 miles today. It started raining as soon as we got back on our block. We just discovered she is a ticklish under her armpits. It is so funny when we tickle her. Her laugh is so cute. Her new thing is she likes me to sing the song Rockin' Robin to her. When I sing the tweet tweet part (tweet tweet, twidlydidly tweet? I think that's how you spell it!) she laughs.

I also signed up for a half marathon today. It is on September 6th. I am really excited. I love half marathons. Hopefully the weather will be nice so Frances and I can keep going on our runs in the morning.

Good night!

2nd Scrappy Shack LO and a story...

I finished my 2nd LO for the Scrappy Shack last night. I know I have scrapped these pictures before, but what can I say? I LOVE them! Plus my husband was looking at my pages and noticed I didn't scrap any of the pics from that day with him in them. OOPPPPS! I used papers from my Scrapbook Circle July Kit. That kit is awesome. Lots of Early Bird to be had there! The diecuts I used are the cirlce flourish frames. They were really fun to use.

Ok now for the story- thought this was a good time to tell it because I have included pictures of both my husband and I in the photos below! So everyone always says that Frances looks like her daddy (this is where you can be the judge by looking at the photos below). I am a little jealous, but not too much. So anyway, we were at Jewel (a grocery store in the Midwest) and the same older lady was at the register as usual. So we get up to the register and she says Hello, blah, blah, blah as usual. Then she says- "What kind of baby is that?" Hmmm- what, excuse me? HUH? I was thinking in my mind. I don't get offended or angry very easily so I wasn't either. I think I was just kind of confused at first. I've had people ask if she was adopted before, but what kind of baby is she? There were so many things going through my mind- monkey, alien, I am not sure? I thought about messing with her, but then decided against it. So I went with the safe answer. I said, "Oh, she's a girl." Now I knew exactly what she meant when she asked, but I wanted to see what she would say next. She said, "I know she's a girl, but what nationality is she?" So I was nice about it and told her, well I am Italian and my husband is Filipino, etc, etc. My friends and husband still say "What kind of baby is that?" to get me to laugh.

It could be worse I guess, the guy at the park called her a husky little fellow the other day. And she was totally wearing pink. Men! Anyway- on a side note, she had her 6 month check up last week and she is officially off the charts on the weight. That's right she's like the 130th percentile. People always ask me what I am feeding her. I told one person cheesecake. And they were like really? Yes really, I feed my 6 month old daughter cheesecake for dinner. Ummm, no I don't think so. Ok I think I am out of Frances stories for the day. Have a good one!

My first Scrappy Shack LO

I just finished my first LO for The Scrappy Shack. You can also see this LO on the Scrappy Shack blog along with the diecut I used! I love these pictures of Frances as a baby. I guess I have been holding onto them for a while because I didn't want to scrap them yet. I do that with pictures I really like. I can't even remember her being this little! Now I just think of her wide eyed, alert and grabbing everything in sight. I can not believe how fast she is changing. These pictures were only taken 5 months ago and she looks like an entirely different person now!

I used the alphabet circle frame on this LO. I love how pink and orange look together so I chose orange to go with the die cut. The papers and embellishments are Sassafras Bungle Jungle.

This weekend we went to the Arboretum with Frances. She liked looking at all the flowers and trees. I am turning her into a nature lover already! We were taking some pictures of her when a gentleman walked up and asked if he wanted him to take a pictre of the three of us. When I looked up it was teacher I used to teach with! Small world. I probably wouldn't have even noticed him if he didn't ask about the picture. So here is our first family photo together at an outing! All of our other pictures are me holding Frances or Ron holding Frances. Not too bad considering Frances usually looks to the side!

On the 4th it rained all day so no fun to be had there. We stayed in and actually it was kind of nice to relax all day. I went to bed a 7:30! I hope everyone else had a fun safe fourth!

Challenge 15 at Butterfly Crafts and a contest!

Challenge 15 is posted at Butterfly Crafts! The design team has some amazing LO's this month!

For the next challenge we would like you to design a TRAVEL inspired layout. It can be anything from your favorite vacation spot, a fun road trip or a special day out with the family.

Please upload your LO's to the gallery, leave a link in the comments on the Butterfly Crafts blog or e-mail them to Butterflycrafts1@aol.com by July 30th to be in with a chance of becoming our August guest designer and this month the winner will also receive this gorgeous ribbon Kit from our July Sponsor Angel Crafts - A big thank you to Angela for sponsoring us this month!



Here is my take on the challenge. I chose to create a layout about my trip to Gunflint Lake in Minnesota. It was one of my favorite vacations. There was no cell reception, no tv, and no internet. We hiked, kayaked, and swam in the lake. On our kayak trip we saw a bear and her cub jump in the lake and swim right in front our kayak. It was the most amazing thing. I used bright summer colors for this LO because it was our summer vacation and it was 95 degrees when these pictures were taken! I used the June kit from Scrapbook Circle to create this layout.



And that's not all! Butterfly Crafts is having a blog contest. Karen noticed that the followers are up to 92 so she is holding a little contest. If by Sunday July
5th at Midnight (GMT) thre are 100 or more followers, she will randomly pick 1 follower to win a Guest designer spot for the August 1st challenge reveal!

I hope you will spread the word about this fun challenge blog and pop on over to the blog! Good luck to everyone that enters!