Hello, hello, happy Tuesday

I keep thinking it is Wednesday today! I usually take Frances to music class on Wednesdays, but for this session I switched to Tuesdays and today was our first day. So now all day long it's Wednesday in my mind. Weird how we get so used to things and how hard it is to change. My little guy Bacon (our beloved mini-dachshund) passed away last August and I still call him for dinner or wait for him to come to the door when I get home. It happens much less frequently now and I can imagine it will go away all together one day, but I do it enough that I find Frances reminding me that, as she says it, "Bacon doesn't live hear anymore Mommy, he lives at the doctor now." She is such a little sweetie. Anyway I am remembering Bacon because I am in the middle of creatinng a layout about him that I have been putting off. I want something to remember him by and want it to be special so it is taking me a little longer than anticipated. I will share it soon though.

In the meantime, I have a card that I created with the April Double Shot Kit from The ScrapRoom. It is a little mixture of Prima Madeline and Cosmo Cricket Upcycle. All supplies are from the kit except the twine. It's very spring like and I will take all the spring I can get right now!

Thanks for coming by today and have a Happy Day!

Oh summer...

Where are you? Just when the weather starts to get warm it gets cold again. It's like a mean trick. Yesterday we were out all day playing and having fun in our t-shirts and today it was freezing. I just can't wait for warm weather!

So speaking of summer...

Here is another layout I created for the My Little Shoebox DT call. It is my sweet Frances doing what she loves best- going down the slide. Boy she can go up and down that slide a hundred times and isn't even the slightest bit tired. I love these photos because the smile on her face shows exactly how she feels about sliding.

There's still time to enter the Sassafras giveaway too. Just scroll down to yesterday's post and leave a comment.

Have a great night!

a new adventure (and a giveaway)

 Today I am very excited to share a secret that I have been keeping! I was invited to teach a class for Miss Art's Papercrafting School (formerly stash to treasure). So what is Miss Art's do you ask? Here is all the info from the website and facebook page....

Have you ever wished there was a school which only taught your favorite classes, that had the best teachers and where tuition was so affordable it left you plenty to buy the most stylish school supplies? Miss Art's Papercrafting School is a virtual academy for every student who wants to learn the latest techniques from the paper crafting industry's leading experts and it is opening its doors for the first time in 30 days.

Subscriptions to our monthly classes start at $5.00 and include live online chats and personal email responses from your favorite designers. Consisting of 2 - 12 videos with unlimited monthly access each class is the perfect blend of individualized crafting and supportive learning. You may purchase our reasonable kits to compliment your course or pull items from your own stash using our detailed supply lists.

I was so honored and flattered when I was invited to teach a class for Miss Art's. Here is a little preview of my class:

Now that's all I can show you for now... but there are some more sneaks of my class and other classes on the Miss Art's Facebook page. There's also lots of fun and giveaways that you don't want to miss. Please go on over and "like" the page.

To countdown to the grand opening select teachers and staff will be participating in a month long blog celebration starting tomorrow. Be sure to check out Alyssa's blog as she will be sharing information about the hop and Miss Art’s classes with you.

Here are the stops on our Blog Tour:

Monday: Bethany Kartchner
Bethany is the current teacher at Stash to Treasure, and her class (and your subscription if you are already an STT subscriber) will transfer to Miss Arts, so you'll be able to continue viewing her class after Miss Art's opens!)

Tuesday: Heidi Kelley
Heidi is our Program Director and is also one of our talented teachers. One of her classes is available at Stash to Treasure and will continue to be available at Miss Arts.

Wednesday: CarrieAnne Deloach
CarrieAnne is the Miss Art's Marketing Director. She is a fantastic addition to the team, and we are thrilled to have her on board.

Thursday: Stacy Cohen
Stacy will be teaching a class in May at Miss Art's. It's called "The Secret Garden" and is a gorgeous layout class. Keep your eye on her blog every Thursday in April for sneaks!

Friday: Alyssa McGrew

Also- Each week day (Monday-Friday) in the month of April Miss Art's will be giving away one free monthly all access Extra Credit (we'll be explaining what that means soon!) subscription to a lucky winner who leaves a comment on the staff member of the day’s post and posts our count down blinkie in their sidebar (see Alyssa's blog for details or snag it from my sidebar)! The winner will have access to Bethany Kartchner's class NOW at Stash to Treasure, and ALL 6 of the classes coming to Miss Art's in May!

Now if the giveways above weren't enough, I also have my own BIG giveaway to share with you! Just leave a comment on this post telling me a technique you would like to learn (because Miss Art's is all about learning something new!) and I will pick one comment at random to win ALL OF THIS....

A box of Sassafras including over 48 sheets of patterned paper, diecut sheets, chipboard, 12x12 and small sticker sheets, rubons, and 6x6 wee bundle.

(The winner of my Sassafras giveaway will be announced next week on Wednesdy)

And I can't end without sending a big Birthday shout out to the sweet, sweet Nikki Sivils. Happy Birthday Nikki! To celebrate her special day the DT divas created some bday cards for her that are on her blog HERE. You can't have a birthday without presents so there is also a special giveaway.

Thanks for coming by!

The ScrapRoom April Blog Hop

Welcome to the April ScrapRoom blog hop!

Hello everyone!! It is April 1st, and you know what that means...KIT REVEAL!! And it is a good one. Take a look...

As the double shot designer I got to work with the double shot kit that is filled with the new Prima Madeline. It was perfect for this sweet picture of my dear Frances. She is growing up into such a beautiful girl. I think all the traces of baby are gone now- sniff, sniff.
In celebration of our April kit, we are having another BLOG HOP!! You know the way this works, right? Here is a list of the places you will be visiting...

Lan Amphone
Melanie Call
Sarah Eclavea - that's me!
Jenny Moore
Aphra Bolyer
Frances Sylvia
TSR Facebook Page

The hop begins at Lan's blog, but all of the blogs are linked in case you get lost along the way. Just follow along the blog path, and keep hopping until you reach your last destination which is The ScrapRoom Facebook Fan Page!! Make sure you become a follower and leave a comment at each blog telling our wonderful designers what you liked about their project! When you reach The ScrapRoom Facebook Fan Page, leave a comment letting us know that you finished the hop.

One blog hop participant who follows the rules, will be chosen at random to win a $5 gift certificate to The ScrapRoom Store! Whoot! Whoot! Check out the blog Wednesday, April 6th for our winner!

Good Luck!

My Little Dinosaur Layout

Hi everyone. Today is the day that the My Little Shoebox team is being announced. So I guess since I didn't make the team I can go ahead and post some of my projects. My husband said my projects were cute, but boring, and I guess he was right.

Anyway, this is my favorite of the bunch so I will share this one today. I may be a little biased because of how cute Isabel looks!

Thanks for coming by. Tomorrow is reveal day for The ScrapRoom and as always we will have the reveal blog hop. I would love to see you hoppin' along!

Card Challenge Tuesday

It's card challenge Tuesday on the Bo Bunny blog. This week's challenge is to create a card usig this great sketdch by Bo Bunny's very own Frances Sylvia.

I used the sketch to create this card-

All the supplies came from the Vicki B card kit. If you haven't seen the Bo Bunny card kits they are great! There is everything you need to create several cards including pre-scored bases, envelopes, rubons, chipboard, diecuts, jewels, etc. They even come with a set of directions so if you don't feel creative you can make one of the preset cards. I chose to make my own card and not follow any of the directions. It took less than 15 minutes to make this card since all the supplies were right there in one handy package! Plus all the faux stitching and doodling were done for me. Definite time saver! I did add some jewels to finish my card off, but everything else came from the kit.

You can play along with the challenge too on THIS POST. Good Luck!

Days are long, Years are short

Hello, hello. I have two sick little girls here today. It is no fun being sick so I feel so bad for them. Especially little Isabel who can't even blow her tiny little nose! It is cold again so we are not missing much outside anyway.

I have a new layout to share that I created using some Jillibean Soup Pasta Fagioli. I had this idea for a while. Last summer I created a similar layout about all the words Frances mispronounces. I wanted to to do an updated version of all the funny things she says now almost a year later.

Here is the original in which I used Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker "My Friend Birdie" line. This is one of my all time favorite layouts.

Here is version two using the Jillibean Soup papers. I wanted to keep the same title and some of the same design elements. So on this layout I made the "YOU" in a bigger font as in the original, took the photo of Frances looking down at her, used two birds in the lower right corner and stitched on my three hearts. I also created a border using the journaling sprouts and tied a bow around the bottom like my original layout. Although in my original the border is a little smaller.

I can't believe how fast my little girl is growing up! I am reading the book "The Happiness Project" and in the book the author says- "Days are long, but years are short." That is so true. As these long winter days drag on and on 2 1/2 years have passed in a heartbeat. I can't imagine my little girls not hanging off my legs anymore, but it will be here sooner than I would like. I have used this reason to put off doing laundry, the dishes, cleaning up toys and I think that is ok. I have take all the time I can get with them.

Have a great day!

What's in your purse?

There's a fun challenge on the Bo Bunny blog today to scrapbook what's in your purse. I had an idea as soon as I saw this challenge!

Here's my bag contents and all! I took a picture of all the stuff spilling out to show how disorganized it is. I didn't stage that. I just put a hand in pulled some stuff out. I didn't mention everything I had in my purse and now that I look back at the journaling I wrote diapers, but no wipes. Wipes are like my number one mom esssential! How did I forget those?

Everything on this layout is from the Bo Bunny Ad Lib collection except the twine and staples. I even tried out some fun faux stitching on here, a technique I learned from fellow Bo Bunny DT girls.

You can play along with the challenge and win some Bo Bunny scrap goodies. Just check out the Bo Bunny blog for details. While you are there check out the rest of the DT's layouts too. It's fun to see what they have in their bags!

More Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe

Hello, Hello! I am so excited to say that I was "Soup Spotted" yesterday! My Hearts on Feet layout was featured on the Jillibean blog. That was a fun layout to make.

I have one more layout from the March My Scrapbook Nook kit. I wanted to use this photo of my girls to tell a story about something Frances says. I have a necklace with two charms on it. One says Frances and one says Isabel. One day she looked at it and asked "What does this say"? I told her what the words were and she asked "why"? I answered because you are my babies. So now whenever I wear the necklace she says that "That says Frances and Isabel because we're your babies". It is so sweet!

I still have lots of stuff left from my kit so you haven't seen the last of it yet!

Have a great day!

Birthday Card Day

It is birthday day card on the Bo Bunny blog and it the post was written up yours truly! There's lots of ideas from the DT for all ages and genders.

Here is my card using the super cute Blast Off collection-

Have a great day everyone!

Another Nook Layout.

Here's another layout I created for my guest design month at My Scrapbook Nook. I am loving the Emma's Shoppe kit! Perfect for little girls- of course.

This page I have had in my head for a while now. Well for the last couple months since her terrible two's phase started at least! I guess it just seems longer than it's actually been- lol! I love this age because she is so sweet and fun and learning so many new things, but boy. oh. boy.

She is into EVERYTHING! And I mean everything. Anything I am doing she comes right over and says "Mommy I want to ___________________ too". Insert cook, scrapbook, clean, wash dishes, feed Isabel, take a shower, etc. etc. etc. It is nice having such a great little shadow though.

I have a few more projects with this great kit so please come back!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday! I hope everyone is having a great start to their week!

I am excited to say that I am the guest designer this month at My Scrapbook Nook. I received the March Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe kit last week and have been scrapping away! I couldn't have been given a better kit to work with seeing as I have my two sweet girls. This kit is perfect for girls, but the Nook DT have created some great boy pages with it too. The message board is currently under construction, but you can check out all the DT's work on the facebook page.

Here is one of my layouts that I created with the kit- my sweet little Frannie playing mommy to a doll. It is so sweet how she takes care of her dolls. She is so caring and gentle with them.

I have some more work to share with this kit and will have a class when the message board is back up.

Thanks for coming by and have a great week!

Photo Shoot Friday and a layout

Since the only four month picture I had of Isabel was a just a quick shot in her bouncy chair on Friday I decided we needed another photo shoot. I dressed her up in this little dress I bought at baby gap and the pink hat her grandmother made her. We took tons and tons of pictures until she decided she had enough. Here are some of my favorites:

At her four month doctor's appt. the doctor said she was healthy and just a bit chunky- hehe! I love all her rolls! At four months she already wears 6 months clothing and is more than double her birth weight (which doctor said doesn't usually happen until after 6 months). We can't believe how cute she is and feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

Here she is a few months ago sleeping sweetly. I walked into the room and the first thing I saw were those hearts on her feet. The were too sweet so I had to take a picture.

Most of the supplies on this layout is Jillibean Soup.I used a mixture of Pasta Fagioli and some of the Christmas papers.  The small blue letters are Bella Blvd and the heart brads are Creative Imaginations.

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Check out the NS blog

Good morning! I am up and ready bright and early today because we are taking Isabel for her four month doctor's appt. When I say "we" I mean Frances and I so I don't know how this is going to go! I told Frances she had to be a good helper today and that Isabel would need lots of hugs and kisses after her shots :) I can't believe how big and how fast my little Isabel has grown! She is almost sitting up now and loves to spit and blow bubbles all over everything. She just gets cuter everyday! And I think she will have curly like me. Look at how it stands up all over!

 There's lots of inspiration from Nikki Sivils DT on her blog today. I am still loving the new lines! I created this card using my cricut wild card cartridge and the "It's Raining, It's Pouring" line. It reminds me spring!

I also have this "older" layout that I never posted for some reason. I used a mash up of October Afternoon and Nikki Sivils "Tree Love".

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hi everyone! Hope you are having a great day! It is almost 70 in chicago and I have the back door wide open. So it is a great day here!

Here is a little card to wish everyone a great day, week, month, year ....... filled with luck and happiness!

I used some of my My Little Shoebox scraps I had out on my desk for this one. They are having a challege right now on their facebook page to create a St. Patrick's Day card.

Now I am off to run on the treadmill so I can gorge myself with soda bread, corned beef, cabbage, green rivers and cupcakes tonight!

Have a great St. Patrick's Day!

3, 2, 1- Blast Off!

Today Bo Bunny is featuring their new Blast Off line on their blog. It is so stinking adorable I just had to use it for a picture of Frances. I love monkeys and she has inherited my love of them too. I actually found some monkey clings that were meant for a boys room before she was born. I knew I had to use them in her room so I thought how can I make brown monkeys fit in a girl's room? Paint it pink! She has pink walls with brown monkeys on them. It is sooo cute!

When I saw the blast off line I thought - how can I make this work for Frances? I thought about using pink (this is usually what I do with boy papers that I like), but didnt' think pink cardstock would really "work" with this paper. So I decided to use it as is. This title works with boys and girls so here it is.....

I used the Blast Off paper, stickers, chipboard, embellished chipboard, buttons, wraps and dimensional stickers. I also used some of the Ad Lib stickers too. I love that I can mix and match the collections!

More super cute layouts by the DT can be found on the Bo Bunny blog.

Have a great night!

My Little Shoebox Sketch Challenge

Hello all,

Did you know that My Little Shoebox is having a sketch challenge? Here is this month's sketch-

And here is my take on the sketch-

I had a lot of fun creating this layout. I have been "saving" this picture of my husband and daughter and I finally found the perfect paper and sketch!

If you want to play along you can find the details on their blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Bo Bunny Ad Lib

I hope everyone is having a great Friday! I am happy for the weekend to be here and spending time with family.

Here is a fun layout I created using Bo Bunny's Ad Lib line. This is my favorite of the new lines that just came out at CHA winter. I love them all, but this line is so fun and bright it makes me happy just looking at it!

This is my little artist at work. She loves anything crafty. Everyday she asks to paint, color, draw, scrapbook, etc. I chose this background paper because it looked artistic and fun. I thought about splattering some paint on the page too, but I am not that brave yet!

There's lots of little details on this one that are hard to see in the photo so here are some close ups:

Thanks for coming by and have a great weekend!

Card Challenge Wednesday

It's card challenge Wednesday at My Scrapbook Nook! The challenge this week is to create cards with chipboard. I have to say that Danni has blown me away. Again. Her cards are oh, so adorable as always. I am so grateful for her inspiration because well, my cards always kind of stink! But as you can tell I have been practicing a lot lately. I think they are getting better, but I still have some work to do- lol.

Actually the Nook's message board is currently "under construction" so all the action is taking place on their facebook page. You can see the challenge and Danni's cute cards HERE. Just scroll down a bit.

Here is the card I created for the challenge. The little chipboard bird, paper, and stickers are Crate Paper Snow Day.

It seems like all I have been posting lately is cards, but I have done lots of layouts recently too! I just can't show any of them yet. They will be up soon though.

thanks for coming by today!

I Love the Simple Life

I created this card using My Little Shoebox "Simple Life" Papers (and a few Green papers too). I think those little sheeps are sooo cute! Frances does too because when she saw it she said "Mommy, that's a sheep. I want that." I am loving this line and have my farm pictures out and ready to scrap with it.

Also it's Mardi Gras today! Is anyone celebrating? I bought Frances a cupcake to eat after dinner, but that's as crazy as it gets in this house! She is loving this book right now- "Penguin and the cupcake". It is such a cute book.

We took it out of the library last week and have read it about a thousand times already. So I bought her a pink cupcake just like penguin wants in the book. Of course I bought one for myself too (hehe).

Happy Mardi Gras everyone!