SANTA CRUZ BOARDWALK - LO

Here is a quick LO of our trip to Santa Cruz last year for my birthday. This trip was incredible, it contained three of my most favorite things...my family, the beach and light houses.

All of the paper used is from Cloud 9 Design, the Cinnamon Stick pad. The circles were cut with my coluzzle and I used random buttons from my gigantic button jar and some Primas I had laying around. The word "Santa Cruz" was cut using the Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge and the words "boardwalk, march and 2007" were all cut using my Quick Kutz Calvin font.

I am sooo ready to go back!!

SUMMER FUN (MY FIRST TIME WITH MY NEW COPICS) - CARD

Okay here it is...my first card made with my new Greeting Farm stamp and my new Copic markers. What do you think? Any constructive criticism is definitely appreciated! I am very happy with my purchase of the markers. I will say there is a definite learning curve...particularly for someone like me...let's just say I never won any awards in kindergarten for my coloring skills and leave it at that. They will take some practice in regards to shading and adding depth and so forth. If there is anyone out there that has some tips for me I am all ears. Now back to playing...I mean practicing. Thanks for looking!

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO?

Not so much when you have these cutie stamps to console yourself with. I have temporarily said "bye bye" to da Bellas and have fallen in LOVE with The Greeting Farm stamps!!! Aren't they just the cutest? I have two new loves now (some might call it obsessions), Greeting Farm stamps and Copic Markers. After much deliberation and research I decided to see what all of the hoopla was about in regards to these markers. I love them and do not know how I stamped before them. They are fantastic. They are a little pricey (which is why for now all of my stamped images will be colored in pinks, greens, blues and aquas, as they are the only colors I own) but well worth the money and will last a lifetime. I am off to practice with my new stamps (got them last night) and I will be back later to show you the results.

TO A PERFECT PEAR - CARD

This is a card that I shamelessly scrapjacked from the April edition of "Stamp It!" magazine. Wendy Johnson actually created this card using the stamp kissing technique. Since I do not have a pear stamp I had to improvise. I also do not have any of the Cricut carts suggested for the pear shapes (thanks to all that suggested what carts to use...unfortunately I do not have any of those carts.....yet) so I hand drew one...okay actually several until I got one the way I liked it and used it for a template. I ran my yellow cardstock through the cuttlebug using the argyle embossing folder. The heart is a punch from Posh Impressions and the sentiment is a rub on. Two anniversary cards down and one more to go.

TOGETHER FOREVER - CARD

Here is a quick card that I made for one of several family members' anniversaries I have coming up. I can't remember who makes the stamp I used to make the background squares. I used SU inks (certainly celery, pretty in pink, and almost amethyst) for the background and a SU stamp from the "Fun and Fast Notes" set. This card was quick and easy to make. The only hard part was trying to line up the background squares evenly.

MY FIND

Isn't this just the cutest? I found this little goodie at Marshall's today. I think it is a bill/letter organizer but it is now the new home for my stamp supplies and Copic markers. The added bonus besides new storage is that it holds pics of my cutie patooties. Can't go wrong with that!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUPCAKE - CARD

Can I just ask....how cute is the Hello Kitty Cricut cartridge?! This is not a cartridge that I own as the girls and I are really not into the whole Hello Kitty thing. I borrowed this cart from a friend to see what the big deal is, and I have to say it has some cute cuts on it such as this adorable cupcake! It also has the most adorable strawberry, cherries and other big chunky puffy shapes. My only complaint is that I tried the "card" feature on one of the cuts and did not like it at all. My card looked lop sided and slanted on the hinge side. I don't think this is a cart I would purchase, but if I could get a cart with just the cupcake and fruit shapes I would be in LOVE!! Speaking of fruit shapes...anyone know which cart I can find a pear shape on?

I whipped up this card for my mom's birthday tomorrow. The background paper is from the DCWV Sweet Stack. I cut the cupcake at 6" and stickled the frosting. I used a random button from my button jar and cut off the cherry stem. The word "birthday" is a rub-on and the word "happy" is cut using my Quick Kutz Calvin font. Pretty simple. Now off to look for a pear.

CUTE LIL' SPOOKS - LO

What can I say? I was on a roll this weekend. Actually I had a good friend come over Saturday and I was up until 3 am scrapbooking. This is another kit from Scrapbook "Fun"addicts. I did tweak it just a little and took out some elements they had included and added my own. The brads, metal spiders and spiderweb embellishments are all from Oriental Trading. This kit did not have nearly the amount of small pieces that the Christmas one did, thank goodness!!!

DECK THE HALLS - LO

This LO is from a kit I purchased from Scrapbook "Fun"addicts (there is a link to the right of my blog) while at a scrapbooking expo some time ago. I actually started this LO a long while back but put it off as there were SOOO many little pieces!! I decided to finally tackle it and finish it this weekend. The kit comes with the background papers, all papers for matting the photos and all of the little pieces needed to put the LO together already cut out. You just add ink, chalk and pen detail and glue them all together to complete. There are supposed to be a lot more Christmas lights on this LO, but I kept losing them and finding them glued to places they should not have been glued to...like the bottom of my slippers, my arm sleeve and so on, LOL!

AMAZING - LO

Here is another LO of Brittany. I started this one at the Swarm last weekend and finished it up this weekend. It's a pretty simple LO as I really didn't want the pictures to have to compete with the LO itself. All of the papers used are from the SU Bella Rose Designer Series. I used various buttons from my button jar and various rub-ons for some of the words. The word "amazing" was cut from the Storybook Cricut cartridge (at the moment this is my favorite cartridge) and the word "sweet" was cut from the Street Signs cart. As I said, it's a simple LO but it's too the point and describes her perfectly!

YOU - LO

Here is another LO I completed at the Swarm. I scrapjacked the idea for this LO from a magazine. I can't recall which one as I tore the page out of it quite some time ago before tossing the rest of the magazine out.

The patterned paper (which I used very little of because it was so busy and I did not want it to distract from the photos) is from the Basic Grey Blitzen Collection. I threw on a little ribbon (from the dollar spot at Michael's) and some Primas. The word "you" was cut out from the Base Camp Cricut Cartridge. There was so much more I could have added to my journaling about Brittany but then I wouldn't have been able to fit it on the page.

THAT THING WE DO - LO

So what is that thing we do in our spare time? It's called geocaching. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. These pics were taken during our geocaching adventure in Monterey.

This is one of the LO's that I completed at the Swarm. The LO is pretty simple. I just cut strips of card stock and attached it to my background paper. Printed my journaling on vellum and cut the word "thing" with the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge.

NORCAL SWARM #4

NorCal Swarm #4 took place this past Saturday. Monique and her crew did a fantastic job of putting this event on!!! There were door prizes galore, the goodie bags were awesome and I had a great time with my table mates. I want to extend a HUGE "thank you" to Marci who took time out from her day and her own projects to give Shannon and I a lesson on Copic Markers. Now I am hooked!!

Here is a pic of my table mates and I. Casey is on the right and Shannon on the left. They are both great ladies and I had a blast chatting with them.

HELP FIGHT THE BATTLE!!

Please help me fight the ongoing battle of cancer. It is my hope that in my lifetime I will see a end to this disease. It is also my hope that none of my loved ones, friends, family members or anyone that reads this has to deal with this terrible disease. I have been fortunate that I, or my loved ones, have not had a personal experience with cancer, however I do not feel that you need cancer to come knocking on your door in order to do something about fighting back!! Please join me in the fight and visit this link for more information on how you too can make a difference in this ongoing battle: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/Deborah.Nuzum

#483

This year Scott's New Year's resolution was that he wanted to start training to run a marathon in December. So since January 1st he has been in training and he decided to run a small race a few weeks ago in Rocklin. The girls and I are so proud of him. He put his mind forth to do something and has not given up. His race number may have been #483 but to the girls and I, he is #1!! Here he is with Brittany and Caitlin before lining up at the starting line.

Here he is at the start line waiting to begin.

Scott approaching the finish line.

Scott with the girls shortly after his race. Brittany was SO proud of her Dad that she was practically moved to tears as he was crossing the finish.

HAVE A MAGICAL DAY - CARD

I have officially fallen off of the Bella wagon, but who could blame me after checking out this adorable stamp?!?! This is a birthday card for one of my daycare babies (HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDI!!) who just turned three yesterday. She loves the color purple and anything that has to do with princesses, fairies, mermaids and Hello Kitty. The stamp is called "underwatergoddess-ABELLA" and included the sentiment I used on the card. I used Gamsol and my Prisma pencils to color her in (in purple of course) and used my stardust stickles to give her a little magic. I just LOVE making cards for Andi. Even at 3 years old she always appreciates the handmade cards I make for her and asks me "what kind of card are you making for me this time Bebba"? She is too stinking cute!!!