Photo Shoot Friday

It was just me and the girls this morning so I decided to dress them up and take some pictures. It sounds a lot easier than it actually is!!!

I must have took a hundrend pictures and this is the best one of the bunch:

Heres's some that didn't quite make the cut:

I just have the pictures of the girls today although, I have been working on lots of scrappy projects this week. I created two layouts using some Bella Blvd Lovey Dovey paper that I had been holding onto and another with OA Campfire. I also finally dug into the February kit and made some cards with the Webster's Pages paper. Then I cracked open the brand new Bo Bunny and worked with the Ad Lib and Gabrielle papers. They are both just amazing lines.

So I will have lots to show in the next few weeks, just not right now. I also have some fun news to share in next week too!

Have a great weekend!!!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

This is not only one my fave new lines from Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker, but describes the weather perfectly here today too! After days and days of snow and temperatures in the single digits now it is raining and almost 60 degress. Go figure. Chicago weather is CRAZY!

The raining theme seemed appropriate given the current conditions so I have two Rainy Day projects up on the Nikki Sivils blog today.

First up is this card:

and this is a little frame I made for Frances's room. She loves singing this song (I think it has more to do with it being sung on Dora, than the fact that I sing it to her :) and she loves turtles too. When I showed it to her she said "Mom that's a turtle. I want that." And I can see why. Tubby the Turtle is adorable!

Both of these projects use the Nikki Sivils It's Raining, It's Pouring line.

It's also two page layout day on the Bo Bunny blog. I love two page layout day. I just don't see enough of those. I scrapped this pics of Frances "helping" carve our Halloween pumpkins. She mostly just played with the slime and seeds! 

I used the Bo Bunny Whooligans line for this layout. Still one of my favorites! I also used the Mini Monsters cricut cartridge that just so happens to be another of my favorites!

Thanks for coming by today.

Card Inspiration Challenge

Hello sweeties! I hope everyone had a great Valentine's day!

My husband and I don't exchange gifts so I was surprised to receive from him two frames (one with a pic of us and one with a pic of the girls), a box of Fannie Mae Pixies (I quickly figured out they were 3 points each on the points plus system) and two bouquets of flowers. He told me now they would fill up my vase better. Besides the yelling and tantrums from Frances that have become our usual routine now I would say it was a pretty good night :)

This weekend I found out that my card was chosen for the member appreciation challenge at My Scrapbook Nook. Yay!!! I don't think that I mentioned that I was chosen as a guest designer during their last design team call yet. I am super excited to be a guest dt member because their kits are the BEST! Not only was my card the inspiration, but the guest dt'ers were asked to create examples. So I was able to create an example card too.

Here is the card that was chosen. I created this for Nikki Sivils using the "My Friend Birdie" line a few months ago.

And herer is my  lift on it. I used the February Nook kit and this was my very first time using Webster's Pages. The paper is so pretty I almost had a panic attack cutting it! Everything was from the Feb. kit except the ribbon and jewels.

You can play along with this challege and see the rest of the DT's cards on the message board. I would love to see your take on the inspiration card.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's my little Isabel wishing you a Happy Day!

Quick Valentine's Treat Bags

There's still time to make some super cute Valentine's treat bags for your child's classroom or Valentine's Day party. These cello treat bags can be made super quick just in time for Valentine's Day this Monday.

All you need is patterned paper, stamps, ink, paper punches and ribbon. That's it! Quick and easy and the kids can help make them too!

I used the Bo Bunny Crazy Love collection to decorate these bags. The little bee is one of the acrylic stamps that I stamped onto the patterned paper and then cut out. I punched the scalloped circles, circles, hearts and tags and then pieced everything together. Tie a ribbon and some twine to close the bag and you are done.

You can see some other very cute treat ideas on this POST at the Bo Bunny blog.

And you can't have a party without some napkins. I went to a friend's house yesterday and she had these adorable napkins for her daughter's Valentine's party. They are so cute I had to take a few home for Frances.

This is the front of the napkin:

This is the back of the napkin:

And when I opened up the napkin I got this cute surprise!

I believe these are available at Target if you want to pick some up for your party.

Thanks for stopping by today!

My Little Artist

Yesterday I shared a picture of my little dinosaur. Today I have a picture of my little artist. Frances is my crafty girl. She loves all things crafty. She is constantly asking to scrapbook or decorate something. She even has Daddy scrapbooking with her when I am not home. I guess she inherited my crafty gene. Lately she has been asking to paint. I am not sure why. Maybe she saw someone doing it on tv or painted at school. So we bought her a little paint set. Here she is painting what she told me is a cat. Gotta love the imagination of a two year old!

And an artisit is born!

I also have a few layouts using Nikki Sivils new "Max and Mollie" collection. I just love those little skunks!

Here's my little Isabel. Only a fe weeks old and smiling already. That's our happy girl!

And here's the two girls together. Isabel was only a few days old here. You can't see me, but I am on the side making sure she doesn't fall over!

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

My Little Dinosaur

On Saturday I got the girls all dressed up in their winter clothes and took them out for some cupcakes. We call this Isabel's Dinosaur outfit. Isn't she a cute dinosaur?

Have a Great Monday!!

A simple frame

Happy Friday! It is almost the weekend and I hope everyone has a great one planned. I have to do a little shopping. The regular household kind of shopping (we go through two BIG boxes of diapers A month) and for a new dress for Isabel's baptism. It is in a few weeks and I am getting nervous because I still have nothing to wear. My husband suggested wearing one of the 'many' dresses I already have in my closet, but obviously he has never had a baby because then he would know that none of that stuff fits and by the way, thanks for bringing it up.

Things are great here and we are enjoying spending time with our two wonderful girls. Here is a simple altered frame I made with the brand new Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker line "We are Family" that pretty much sums up exactly how I feel.

supplies: Nikki Sivils We are Family patterned paper, pocket full of stickers and burlap buttons.

 Other- white cardstock, frame, computer

I bought the frame at Michaels. It is actually a frame to hold a CD. I just the insert out that you would put the CD into and then cut white cardstock to fit. I measured the cardstock and then set the page settings in microsoft word to that size to print my journaling. I practiced on  white sheet of paper first though to make sure it would line up.

Have a great weekend!

Groundhog's day, Valentine's Cards, Feb. Pagemaps and more

Happy Groundhog's Day! Unfortunately our groundhog was snowed in it's hole under 18+ inches of snow this morning so I guess that means more winter for us :( My husband spent all morning clearing up the snow with our neighbors and now we are all inside enjoying our snow day. I hope your morning wasn't as snowy and messy as mine ;)

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Today is Valentine's Card Day on the Bo Bunny blog. I made two cards to give to my little girls. This first one is for Frances. She is addicted to Pandas right now.

(supplies: Bo Bunny Crush papers, Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstock,

Bo Bunny Crush 12 x 12 chipboard, bling and ribbon, Cricut Pagoda cartridge.)

I made this one for Isabel. We have two dachshunds to I thought this little guy was perfect.

(supplies: Bo Bunny Crazy Love papers, Crazy Love 12 x 12 chipboard,
Crazy Love Noteworthy, ribbon and bling, Cricut Paisley cartridge)

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Yesterday I received the February Pagemaps newsletter in the email. I was super excited because the Nikki Sivils DT was asked to contribute for February and I was one of the lucky girls to create a layout. I received this sketch from Becky and I love it! I was so happy to be able to contribute I volunteered for any size. This was my first time making an 8 1/2 x 11 page, but I didn't mind because Isabel's baby book is this size. I created this layout for the front page of her book.

(supplies: Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker Something For Everyone papers, stickers,

buttons and brads, thickers, Jenni Bowlin butterflies, ribbon, pearls, Cricut Give a Hoot cartridge)

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Lastly the other day I received this super sweet blog award from Paula, aka 'The Scrapbook Speedway'. I can't thank her enough for thinking about me and am more appreciative than she knows. You have to check out her blog too because she is one awesome scrapper!

Along with this blog award I am to tell 8 things about myself so here goes....

1. I love Chai Lattes. I could drink them every morning if they weren't so darn expensive.

2. I love to watch tv. My DVR is always at 99% though because unfortunately I have no time to watch tv.

3. My dream vacation is to go to Alaska. I will make there one day when the girls are older.

4. Pizza is my favorite food and I could eat it everyday. My favorite pizza topping? Pepperoni and spinach of course.

5. Frances was my grandmother's name and is also the patron saint of animals. I love animals and my grandmother took care of me as a little girl. That is where my Frances gets her name.

6. I am terrified of elevators. I will always take the stairs if I have a choice.
7. I go to bed around 9pm every night. I would go to bed earlier if I could, but Frances doesn't always cooperate.
8. I am only 5 feet tall. Yep, I am very short! The shortest in my family. Except for my Grandmother who was shorter than me.

Now I am supposed to pass this on to 8 other bloggers, but honestly I can't choose! So let me think about this a little more.

Thanks for coming by today!

A mini album and a frame.

Hello all. Are you getting ready for the blizzard too? In Chicago it is supposed to snow 18 to 24 inches in under 24 hours. YIKES! That's a lot of snow! All the schools are closing early and will be closed tomorrow, plus lots of businesses are doing the same.

I am kind of torn about this. I am tired of shoveling and driving in snow, but it will be fun to stay home tomorrow and play in the snow. I remember making snow forts and having snowball fights when school was cancelled and it was so fun! Plus Frances keeps asking to go out in the snow to play so tomorrow may be the perfect day.

All this talk of snow has be thinking about summer again. Are all these posts starting to sound the same??? I just can't help it. I love summer and can't wait to get outside again. I created this little mini-album of all the things Frances loves to do in the summer. I used the Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker "Summer" line and a Maya Road chipboard mini-album. The pink flowers are from Maya Road too.

This was really fun to make and the "Summer" papers have so many cute little sayings and critters.

I also have one other project to share today. This altered frame I made is on the Nikki Sivils blog today. It is currently on display in her booth at CHA. The picture is of my sweet baby girl Isabel only one day old. I used the "Max and Mollie" collection to make all the flowers, punched some butterflies and then cut out the 'Heaven Sent' sentiment from the cut ups paper. She is heaven sent for sure.

The frame and easle are from IKEA. They come infinished so I just painted them with some brown acrylic paint. They are only a dollar each too!

Thanks for stopping by today. If there is snow expected by you stay safe!

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