happy news: part two

and it just keeps getting better and better....

that's my theme for this week!!  :)

today, i am so excited to announce that i was asked to be a part of the glitz design team.  even though i have had a month or so to digest all this "amazing news", i still find myself in shock and awe when i think about all that has happened since january.  you know...when i started this whole "scrapbooking" journey.  pretty crazy!

i love documenting our life, there's no doubt about it.  but what i really love is the creativity that playing with paper allows me.  it's my little happy place.  it's my comfort zone.  it's my sanity.  

and i'm so thankful to the design teams who have asked me to come along for this fun ride!  

 and i love glitz.  who doesn't?  

the amazing women behind glitz design are just as amazing as their products.  and so are all of the other design team members.  

today i thought i would share some of layouts using the awesome glitz design products!

the current product lines are just amazing! 

(glitz design: love you madly collection: ampersand 12x12 paper, 6x6 paper pack, peek a boos, giant rhinestones, hearts washi; uncharted waters collection: rubber stamps)

(glitz design: color me happy collection: chalkboard 12x12 paper, happy stripe 12x12 paper, woodgrain 12x12 paper; love you madly collection: title stickers; uncharted waters collection: peek a boos)

(glitz design: color me happy collection: chalkboard 12x12 paper)

(glitz design: color me happy collection: happy polka 12x12 paper)

thanks so much for stopping by and sharing in my great news!  i truly am honored to be a part of glitz!!

happy tuesday everyone!

happy news: part one

i am beyond thrilled to (finally) be able to announce that i am now a part of the chic tags design team.  i am 100% in love with these awesome tags and cards.  the colors are amazing and they add so much fun to any project!!  today, chic tags is participating in a "blogapalooza" with social media butterflies.  if you are hopping over from the lovely shay's blog, welcome!!  so glad you stopped by!  

the chic tags "road trip" collection is being featured today on the blog hop!!  i had so much fun playing around with these delightful paper tags.  love love love the awesome colors!  

here is my layout and a few detail shots...

i love how these road trip "notes" tags are cut out so you can fold them right over your pictures.  love love love the element and texture it adds to a page!

be sure to continue on the smb blog hop today!  there are lots of awesome chic tag goodies being given away along the way.  your next stop is trisha! and don't forgot to head over to the chic tags blog for a chance to win the "grand prize"!!  

happy happy monday everyone!!

for the love of pink....

i was never really much of a pink fan as a child.  i think it has something to do with having red hair.  pink clothes + red hair = massive fail (for me).

but then i had my sweet little daughter and all of that changed.  i still can't wear pink, but oh do i love everything else pink.

recently, pink has been my inspiration.  i love how dreamy and soft and delicate it looks on paper.  

and today, i thought i would share my "pink obsession" with you!

love...

this layout was inspired by the ever talented wilna furstenberg.  her recent video at two peas and a bucket shared how she uses rub-ons and gelatos to create an amazing effect.  for my layout i used rub-ons and watercolors and the result really is dreamy.  i wish you could see this one in person!  :)

sparkle...

another "pink" layout inspired by wilna's art class at two peas and janna werner's "in the mood to scrap" video posted a few weeks ago at two peas.  the use of tulle really makes a soft and delicate look to a page, i think....ahhh

happy day, my love...

yep...another layout inspired by wilna (and yep....i want to be her when i grow up). one of the lessons in her art class is about using stencils and paint to create a fun, textured background. i love this look.  (and that cutie little girl).

what color is inspiring you recently?

and i wonder how many pink layouts i can complete???  ha!

thanks so much for stopping by my little blog!

hope you have a super duper friday!

xoxo

inspired by....

there is so much inspiration out there in the world wide web.

i love perusing galleries and pinterest and seeing all of the awesome ideas.

here are some beautiful things that seriously make me drool...

smile, by wilna furstenberg

oh wilna.  she steals my heart every time.  i love everything she does.  the butterflies here are just breathtaking.  and if you need more inspiration, i couldn't recommend her art class workshop as two peas and a bucket any higher.  it is the most inspiring and insightful class i.have.ever.taken.  so much goodness!

awesome, by lilith eeckels

again, so much inspiration from this talented little lady!  i love how she used gelatos to give a watercolor effect to this page.  and the paint splatters....mmmmm.  love everything about this!

23 mini album, by portable michelle

i love mini albums.  and this one might be my favorite ever.  there is just something about holding a little book of memories that's so amazing.  i love how detailed, yet soft and sweet michelle's mini album is.  stop what you are doing now and go right to her blog to see more awesome pictures.

right now (march), by corrie jones

i love that corrie does a layout about HERSELF each month.  i totally need to do this.  i love her style. i love her designs. yep....you guessed it...i love everything.

what about you?  what's inspiring you right now?  i would loooooove to see!  if you stop by and have time, link up your favorites in the comment section, or a similar post if you have one!  can't wait to see!

happy wednesday everyone!

xoxo

project life: week 16

already on to week 16.

it was really weird not posting my spread from week 15.  but.....if you wanna see it, you just have to sign up for the pop it off the page 2 class at studio calico!  my week is featured, as well as soooo many other awesome projects and layouts.  seriously....you need to sign up!!

ok...

week 16....

here is a look at the week together.  nothing too exciting from us.  pretty much the same as most weeks.  outdoor play time, park visits, playing at home, painting, crafting...typical week.

the die cut with confetti is a "peek-a-boo" window from last weeks page.  i love how you can see through to the previous/next week.  that's probably one of my favorite things to add...

i added a little more journaling this week, i think.  i wanted to include something about the boston bombings (so so sad), so i typed up my reflection on a little 3x4 card from the studio calico snippets collection.  the "make something today" transparency card is from tina aszmus at life.love.paper. i grabbed a pack of her cards at christmas and i have been hoarding it since!!  

and look at that little baby bottom....seriously.....

let me know if you have any questions!!  i'm happy to answer them!  thanks so much for stopping by!  have a great tuesday!

linking up with the mom creative.

color combos galore: love, always

it's the 22nd, which means there is a new challenge at color combos galore today.

i love love love these challenges!  it's so fun to have a color inspiration board, as well as layout inspiration ideas.  the colors for this challenge were great!  and for some reason, i knew exactly what i wanted to do as soon as i saw the inspiration board.  that's pretty unlike me....i usually print it out and leave it on my desk for a few days until an idea comes to mind.  sometimes it takes fooooorever for me to commit to something, but not this time!  

here is the inspiration board "love, always" for this challenge

the reds popped right out at me so i knew i wanted my reds to do the same....

and here is my layout for this challenge...

Main Inspiration: Focus on Trend (clothes pinned photos)

Other Inspiration:

Photo #4: Focus on Photography (blurred background)

Photo #2: Focus on Design (repetition of hearts on background; repetition of layered photos)

Photo#4: Focus on Photography (heart on picture inspired heart background)

i love this picture of my two cuties.  and i love the "me+you=family" card from crate paper.  the hearts background is a cut file from envisages and can be found here.  i made it a little smaller so it would fit behind my photo and papers.  i love how this layout turned out!  

be sure to hop on over to color combos galore and check out the challenge, as well as the amazing inspiration from the design team.

if you aren't already a member, shoot me an email and i will send you an invite!  it's a great challenge and i'd love for you to play along!!  

happy monday, everyone!

more loveliness from the little black dress kit...

i just can't say enough wonderful things about the little black dress april kit don't worry be happy.  it just screams happiness and fun.  the colors are vibrant and beautiful.  and they just make you want to play around with paper.  

here are a few more of my layouts from this month's kit.

a...

i built this layout around the pebbles "hello" pocket and card.  i loved how it went with the other papers and really wanted to try to highlight that card.  i used some of my leftover papers from the kit to create a grid on this page.  the little extras (alphabet card, freckled fawn 'you' arrow and the vintage 'happy' tag) finish this page off lovely, i think!

hello beautiful...

for this layout, i wanted to play around with a starburst shape and decided to use the pink ombre paper from dear lizzy's lucky charm collection.  i misted some studio calico taxi and boss lady onto my background to give the effect of "sunshine".  i added my photo onto top of my paper layers and added the freckled fawn "hello" speech bubble and the word beautiful cut with my silhouette as my title.

love always...

i was totally drawn to the glitz design "color me happy" dots paper and wanted to make this page colorful and fun.  for my background, i splatter different colors of watercolor paint all over my paper to give the look of confetti. then i decided to create some circle garland using my 1" circle punch on the glitz design paper and the yummy vintage book paper.  i sewed them all together with my sewing machine and layered them down on my background.  i layered my photo onto more glitz design papers, as well as some dear lizzy lucky charm papers.  love love love all the colors!!

what are you waiting for???  hop on over to the little black dress kit club and sign up today to receive this awesome kit!!  

color combos galore: boudoir fantasies

it's the 15th, which means there is a new awesome challenge up at color combos galore today!  

and i have to admit....these colors scared me just a little.  i don't think i have ever scrapped purple before....nor did i have anything in my stash that was purple.  uh oh!

i finally found a piece of lavendar cardstock and a "purplish" ombre tag and decided i would run with it.  i ended up recoloring some journaling cards and quote cards in photoshop to finish off my layout.

here is the inspiration board...

here is my layout and inspiration for this challenge...

Main Inspiration Photo#2: Focus on product (frames…I framed my layout onto a lavender piece of card stock)

Inspiration Photo#1: Focus on trends (wood pieces)

Inspiration Photo #1: Focus on trends (flowers…reminded me of my daughter's lavender tutu)

Inspiration Photo #4: Focus on accents (jeweled charms)

Inspiration Photo #3: Focus on pattern (stamping above cards)

the colors are a little hard to discern after photographing.  i did decide to go with more of a "muted" color scheme with little pops of the teal, plum and lime green.  i used my typewriter to type my journaling at the bottom of my page and the awesome amy tangerine remarks stamp to stamp some sentiments along the top part of my picture.  

the amy tangerine rub-ons add the perfect amount of detail to the page without being overwhelming to me.  

and funny enough....this is maybe my favorite page ever.  and it's purple.  who would have thought!!

this week...

this week has been pretty crazy.

tuesday, i had two sick kids with that awful stomach bug.

wednesday, my little man ran into the corner of a table and slashed his head open.  dermabond to the rescue...

thursday, my little lady woke up lethargic from dehydration.  (by far the scariest of them all).

right now, both are resting on the couch watching a movie.  i'm forcing popsicles and liquids like it's my job.  my heart has done flip flops this week watching the two of them be sick.  we don't get sick, usually, so this is waaaaay out of the ordinary for us.  so thankful for our health and our fighting immune systems.  praying for a speedy recovery for them both!

hoping the rest of this week and the weekend are sunshiny happy for us!!  

have a happy weekend everyone!!

project life: week 14

you know...i start every.single.week. thinking "this week is going to be awful" or "this week isn't going to come together smoothly".  but you know what....it always does and i always love the end product.  this may even be my favorite week yet!  i shouldn't be so hard on myself!!  learning, learning!!

anyhoo...here's week 14 of my project life album.  my album is getting pretty thick now, but i am determined to get a few more months in there.  i ended up with two albums last year and would love to have two this year, but we'll see....

here is a look at my week together...

i wanted my "extras" to be soft, but fun colors.  we have been dreaming of spring lately and i think the colors i choose seem to reflect that.  

and here's a better look at each side...

the top left card is a scrap piece from playing around with some masks and mists this week.  when i saw it, i thought it would look awesome in my album.  and of course, the colors were perfect!!  i added the "spring break" title using amy tan woodgrain thickers.  the remaining cards (except for the lovely transparent heart card on the bottom right) are from studio calico.  the heart transparency is from elle's studio recent vellum papers.  love. love. love them.

same thing here....more pictures and words.

i decided to add a little more "cohesive" journaling this week and typed up all my thoughts on a a 4x6 card.  i originally had it in the card in the pocket alone but it felt kinda "bold" for my spread so opted to add it inside of a little vellum bag to mute it some.  i stitched on those awesome little elle's studio tags to add a little dimension to the pocket.  love how it looks!!

and finally, here are a few close-ups of the spread....

i'm loving adding my typewriting directly onto my photo.  it saves time and i love the way it looks!

happy tuesday everyone!  thanks so much for stopping by!  as always, let me know if you have any questions!! 

linking up at the mom creative

color combos galore: 239

there is a new challenge up at color combos galore today and the colors are just lovely!  yellow, cream and pinks....so perfect for this lovely spring weather we are (finally) having!

and here is my take on this challenge....

i started my layout by misting a pale yellow and dusty pink onto my background.

i was inspired by the cascading flowers on the cake and wanted to try to include that on my page.  i also chose to add some fabric with my paper layers (inspiration photo #4) to add a little more texture to the layout.

and here is the inspiration board!

be sure to stop by color combos galore and check out all the inspiration from the design team.  if you aren't already a member....leave me a comment with your email address or send me an email and i will be happy to send you an invite!  

little black dress: don't worry be happy reveal

today is reveal day at little black dress!!

i loved the "don't worry be happy" kit this month!  so full of vibrant colors and fun patterns.  and the extras were amazing.....glitz design, freckled fawn, vintage papers, ribbons....sigh! 

here are a few of my layouts for this month.

my boy...

loved loved loved this woodgrain paper from crate.  such a subtle background even my "white loving" self could make it work!!  :)

i layered my photo using the vintage children's book paper and some of the pebbles envelopes (which i used the backside of not the pocket side).  i framed two corners of my picture to make the picture pop a little bit more and added the "today" banner from pretty little studios and the freckled fawn "you" arrow to finish my page off.

here's a few close ups...

(p.s. i love the way he sticks his tongue out when he swings)

love always....

see what i mean about the colors?  amazing!  they just scream fun!

for this layout, i knew i wanted to add some sort of circle banner.  i decided to cut some of the circles out of the glitz design color me happy paper using my 1 inch circle punch.  i also punched some circles out of the vintage papers to add a little more character to the banner.  then i sewed them all together using my sewing machine!  i layered my photo under more of that awesome glitz design paper and some american craft's dear lizzy papers.  the finishing touches were the banner tag and mini alphas as my title, as well as some colorful paint splatters across my page.  feels like a party!!  

here are a few detail shots...

(heart) this

i love this picture of my husband and son. this was my son's first visit to the beach and he was so tired by the time we got there for the first night.  love how he is laying on my husband's shoulder with his little hand wrapped around his arm.....

for this layout, i wanted to let the picture be the main focus so i opted to use this little grey woodgrain paper from american crafts.  before i layered on my paper and photo, i used a little polka dot mask (that i cut with my silhouette) and some black mist to add a little interest right about where i my photo would go.  then i added some ink splatters around my page.  to add my journaling, i created a little pocket using the ledger paper in the kit and added one of the pebbles journaling cards. i finished the layout with a little heart (punched from the glitz design papers) and the freckled fawn wood veneer.

here's a better look...

i made a few more layouts and a project life insert with the awesome april kit!!  i'll be back later in the week to share those!  be sure to hop on over to the little black dress blog for more details.  you can check out some of the stunning work from the guest designer, tara anderson.  i love everything tara makes....so dreamy and wonderful!  and stop by the other design team members blogs to see more awesome inspiration!!

valerie o'neall

alyssa mcgrew

jamie leija

brittany mcleod

happy sunday everyone!

xoxo