Live from CHA

it's the Nikki Sivils booth! Nikki just posted these photos on her blog yesterday and I looked through each and every one of them to find my projects. Although small and a little blurry, I am still so excited to see my work hanging in the background of Nikki's booth.

Here's a few that I can see my projects in. You can see the rest of the photos on her blog. There's also a challenge going on to create a project about your goals for 2011. You can win some of this goodness if you play along! Check the blog for details and beautiful examples from the Design Team.

The little bird house and card the white arrows are pointing to 

I created with the "We are Family" line.

And in this one you can see just off to the side the 'Rain, Rain, Go Away' 

altered frame I made for Frances and in the center a layout of the little girl herself.

See the love mini-album hanging and the heart with the ice cream cone? 

Those are mine too. I used Maya Road chipboard albums from the Nikki Sivils-Maya Road product exchange. 

Here's the bird house and card from the first picture. I had a lot of fun making this little house. I had never altered a bird house before. This little guy will be out as one of our spring decorations very soon! 

I also owe you a winner for the Pink Paislee "Sweetness" goodies. It is.....

Rebecca! Thanks for stopping by my blog Rebecca and for your sweet comments. They are really appreciated. Please email me your address (scrapcetera@aol.com).

Thanks for coming by!

Thinking of Summer

It is snowing here again. The snow plows woke us all up this morning. Well the snow plows and the two dachshunds barking at the snow plows. So I thought this would be the perfect time to post some projects using the brand new, being debuted at CHA right now, Nikki Sivils line- "Summer". I am in LOVE with this line. It is so cute and definitely just my style.

Up first is this layout of my Frances playing around in the car. I buckled her in and then she started laughing and fooling around so I had to grab my camera out of my purse and take a pic. Good thing I always carry my camera in my purse! The little cameras on the bottome right I cut out of the cutie cut ups paper and they were perfect for this one.

And this card makes me long for summer even more. I love ice cream in the summer. There's a little ice cream shop called Grahm's in downtown Geneva Illinois that you can find us at most Saturdays afternoons in the summer. They have the best Tiramisu ice cream.

Also Nikki Sivils is the guest blogger on the Creating Keepsakes blog today. How cool is that? Hop on over to the blog and check her out!

Thanks for coming by today ~ Sarah

***Snow, snow, snow***

It is always snowing here. Everyday it snows. It sure looks pretty today, but I am getting a little tired of being inside all day! Poor Frances always wants to go out, but Isabel is still just a little too young to spend the day outside making snowmen and throwing snowballs. So inside we stay.

A few weeks ago Grandma came over and Frances and I were able to spend a few hours outside. She loves the snow! And she looks so cute all bundled up. I created this layout for the Bo Bunny blog's "Sew Dang Cute" post. I love these papers, especially the background one, and they looked great with these pictures. I like how the pictures stand out because they don't exactly match the papers.

I used the Bo Bunny Winter Joy Collection and the Cricut W

inter Woodland cartridge to cut my tree and snowman. I hand stitched the snowflake flourishes with embroidery floss and machine stitched around the background paper. To create my letters I used a clear embossing stamp pad to ink up the top of the chipboard, poured some white embossing powder and a little glitter over it, shook off the excess (so the powder just sticks where I used the embossing pad) and then heated it with an embossing  heat tool. Instant snow!

Thanks for stoppying by! ~ Sarah

My sweet girls

I have two layouts to share today of my sweet girls.

First is one of my darling little baby Isabel. She is getting so big! She doesn't even look like this anymore. Her little legs and arms are so chunky now! I use Sassafras Indie girl papers and stickers and some leftover Sassafras chipboard I had in my stash.

And next is my "big" girl Frances. She just gets cuter by the day! Things she says and does keep us laughing daily. She is super shy around strangers, but has a huge personality around friends and family. This picture captures her spirit perfectly. She is my happy go lucky girl. I used Sassafras Indie Girl and Amplify papers and some Sassafras stickers and chipboard. The big chipboard letters are Bo Bunny. They were white, but inked them all up with some pink ink and then ran through my cuttlebug to emboss them.

Thanks for stopping by today. There is still time to enter the giveaway for the Pink Paislee Sweetness line. You can win two each of the papers, a package of rubons and a package of letter stickers. Just comment on THIS POST. I will pick a winner on Saturday night.

Thanks for stopping by ~ Sarah

A "Sweet" Valentine's Giveaway

Hi all,

I have a Valentine's Card to share today.

I created this shaped valentine's card using Pink Paislee Sweetness paper and stickers (except the little butterflies). I am so addicted to shaped cards these days! I used the Cricut Songbird cartridge to cut my shaped diecuts and then adhered them to the front of a plain old regular cardstock card base. A plain boring card turns into a cute shaped card in no time!

And I think I promised a give away a few weeks back so here it is. I will pick a random comment from this post to win some Pink Paislee Sweetness papers, rubons, and letter stickers.

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In other news... Have you heard that Bo Bunny is having a facebook contest? You can win some Bo Bunny products by liking their facebook page. Once 10.000 likes are reached some lucky followers will be chosen to win a prize pack. Plus there is lots of Bo Bunny inspiration and fun stuff to look at over there!

Good luck! ~ Sarah

Two give aways!

I have two give aways to share today...

First up Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker. You can win the entire Sugar Cookie collection shown below. And it's just in time for Valentine's Day photos too!

Just go to THIS POST for details.

The second give away is on the Bo Bunny blog. Come on over and check out their new cardstock designs. I am super excited about these. I love that journal paper. And you can win it!

Check out THIS POST for details.

Have a great weekend! ~ Sarah

New Bo Bunny, Nikki Sivils Sugar Cookie and more

Still no computer here so I don't always get to update the blog as much as I want. I can't believe I have gone all week though! I am going to cram everything into this post so it might be a long one!

First up- the weather! Brrrr, it's cold outside! Only 6 degrees here in Chicago today. I really cannot wait until I can take the girls outside to play. I am getting a little tired of being stuck in the house. Hopefully it is warmer where you live.

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Next, since I still have not gotten my new laptop (that was supposed to be my Christmas present) I decided to buy a Christmas gift for myself! This is what I chose:

Aren't they darling? My neighbor had some with her childrens' names and I fell in love with them! Mine will say Frances and Isabel and have their birthstones on them. You can find them and all kinds of cute silver stuff at The Vintage Pearl. I have already left some hints about other stuff I want for Mother's day too!

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It was Maya Road week on the Nikki Sivils blog and to celebrate the last day there is a give away today! I created this wall hang from the cover of the Maya Road scallopped heart chipboard album and the Nikki Sivils Sugar Cookie line.

There's a ribbon to hang it, but I couldn't get a picture of it hanging anywhere and when I set it in the light box the ribbon fell in the back. I used the rest of the album to make more wall hangs that will be in Nikki's booth at CHA. If you are there stop by and take a peak. I also made a mini album with the Maya Road LOVE album and Nikki's new Summer papers that will also be in the booth.

Nikki also revealed here new birthday line- "It's Your Day". I loved working with this line and it was perfect for Frances's 2nd birthday pics. I just can't wait to show you all my projects with the new lines after CHA!

Here is a peak of "It's Your Day" and you can see the full line and some of the DT's work on Nikki's blog. I chose the cut ups paper because it's always my favorite sheet of paper in every line.

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And I have to share the new Bo Bunny lines!!! You can still win some too by going to their blog and leaving comments on the posts. I won't show you the complete line, but just a few of my favorites from each.

Blast Off- I have a serious addiction monkeys so I am in LOVE with this little guy. Even with two girls I can see the projects I'll make with this one.

Vickie B- What can I say? I love it all! The colors, the flowers, I see some Mother's Day projects here!

Ad Lib- OMG!! I just love everything about this one! So hard to pick just one thing!

And last:

Timepiece- I don't really do vintage, shabby that much, but now I see some shabby layouts in my future!

This is just a small taste of the new lines. The rest is awesome! I won't have my hands on this stuff until the end of February, so you might receive it before me if you win one of the give aways- LOL!

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And lastly- Did you hear that Sassafras is having a DT call? Oh my word do I love Sassafras! When Frances was first born I discovered them at Michaels and bought everything I could. All of Frances's first scrapbook pages are using Sassafras stuff. Oh how I would love to be on that team. I can dream right?

I have been working like a busy little scrapper bee creating some new layouts to send in with my application. Can y'all please keep your fingers crossed for me?

Well I am not going to show you my new projects or what I am submitting just yet, but here are some of my very first layouts of Frances. Not my best work for sure, I was just starting out, but Frances sure does look cute doesn't she? Amazing how different my layouts look in only two years! Plus I discovered how to use photoshop so my pictures and photos of my layouts look a lot better too.

Stay warm!! ~ Sarah

New Bo Bunny and some photos

Hi all,

This week Bo Bunny is revealing all their new lines. The first one up is Gabrielle. It is so pretty. I love those butterflies! I can't wait to get my hands on this one!

Here a few sheets of the papers:

and some of the new embellishments:

a butterfly chipboard album- LOVE THIS!

Puzzle Pieces

Buttons

Trinkets

You can see the full line HERE and enter to win some too.

Before I go I just have to share these new pictures of Isabel. The other day I noticed that I hardly ever take her picture. I think I took a picture of Frances everyday when she was this age! It's a little easier to do that with only the one! On Thursdays Frances goes to school so it is just Isabel and I at home. So last week we started photo shoot Thursdays. I dress her up in cute little outfits and take a bunch of pictures. It is soooo fun! Now I am not a photographer at all, more a point and shoot kind of girl, so these aren't the best. Little Isabel looks adorable though so that's what matters anyway.

I bought the little tutu at Baby Gap and she wore it for Frances's second birthday party back in December. Can you believe I don't have even one picture of Isabel from the party? Not even of the two girls together! So I thought I would break it out again for the photos.

She is such a cute little chunker already!

Thanks for stopping by! Sarah

{We are Family}

Nikki Sivils has a few sneaks up on her blog! First up is the {We are Family} line that I am absolutely in LOVE with! The little trees are my favorite. I created this layout with the line, but that is all I can show you of this line for now.

This is Frances and me walking on the path by the river. It doesn't get better than this. Looking at how small she is compared to me and her hand in mine, this photo makes me tear up everytime I see it. I can't believe how fast she is growing up and soon she won't want to walk with me and hold my hand. I just have to cherish these moments now.

My journaling says: No matter where the path may lead you, I will always walk beside you. I love so much. Love, Mommy.

You can find full reveals of two of the other new lines on her BLOG. Here is a little preview of each.

Max and Mollie

It's raining, it's pouring

More Valentine's Day Treats.

It's altered day on the Bo Bunny blog. You can see some altered projects HERE.

I altered these mason jars into cute little treat jars for my girls and husband. I will fill them with candy on Valentine's Day to give to them. Of course I may have to eat Isabel's candy!

I used Bo Bunny Crazy Love papers except for the little critters on the front of the jar. Those are from the Bo Bunny Love Bandits line from last Valentine's day. I just love that paper so much I couldn't resist pulling it out again this year!