I MADE IT!!!

I am so excited to be able to announce that I will be joining the Design Team for Making Memories for You!! I am so thrilled and honored to be chosen...this site is so much fun, and I am truly enjoying the friendship of the members here as well as the amazing talent that they share! I can't wait to get started. My "term" on the team will start in September. I will have the pleasure of working with kits from THIS shop - I can't wait, these kits are ROCKIN' and I hope to really be able to do my part to show them off! I will be anxiously awaiting my first shipment - it can't get here soon enough!! Did I mention that I am excited?? I hope that you will join me in the fun over at MMFY!!

We're leaving on a jet plane...

Woo hoo - taking the red eye tonight, going to New York! I have never been, but my SIL is getting married on Saturday, so we are going to celebrate her nuptuals, and enjoy a week of fun and excitement! We will be in upstate NY, and plan to visit Niagara Falls. I simply can not wait, I think this has got to be one of the most beautiful and amazing places on the planet! We have a few other things in mind to do on our trip, as well as a must stop plan for some wings while in Buffalo! I have the camera packed, and am hoping for some great scrap photo opportunities! Everyone have an amazing week!

I'm still SCRAPPIN!

This week has been filled with lovely things like birthday parties, sleepovers, BBQ's, fireworks and fun by the pool with friends. But I still managed to get in a little scrappy time!!

I have decided to try ONE MORE TIME for a design team spot - I am determined to keep at it until I find the spot for me! This time I am in a DT contest for MakingMemoriesForYou. I love this place, so hopefully it turns out to be a great fit, but even if not, I am having a wonderful time challenging myself and have created a layout that I absolutely love.

Of course, this is my beautiful daughter Lauren. I LOVE this photo of her, captured at her preschool graduation ceremony... looking up at me with that special "I love you mommy" look. The CS is Bazzill. The patterned papers are Prima, as is the rub on. I distressed and inked the edges, and then I exacto cut the flowers. I applied a Glitz pearl in each flower center. I had a hard time finding the right flowers for this layout, and ended up cutting most of these from an arrangement in my bedroom (how's that for recycling!) The vintage buttons were a gift from a LOVELY lady from one of my classes that let me pick through her grandmother's collection - THANK YOU SHELLEY! They are just gorgeous! The chipboard keyhole is Melissa Frances and the alpha is Creative Imaginations. The tiny alpha is Making Memories, the tiny key charm is Heart & Soul, Lace is from Joanne's.

Here are some close up shots for detail:

I also made a card for this call. I had a lot of fun with this one - The flowers are hand cut circles that I distressed, inked and doodled. I hand stitched the stems and leaves. The papers are Fancy Pants, and the Rub On is American Crafts.


AND I even had time to get one more layout done just for fun. I have been wanting to capture Ethan's adorable little freckles in a layout for awhile, and finally snapped some pics this weekend that really showed them. His sweet little face makes me smile!

CS is Bazzill, Papers are My Mind's Eye, Creative Imaginations and BoBunny. The Rub On is Glitz, and the Chipboard is Scenic Route. The buttons are from my growing stash.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE BUTTONS!! I think I may be working through a little addiction on this one. I just can not get enough, and seem to use them on EVERY layout. If anyone else has a grandma's collection that they want to share, you know where to find me!!

I am off to get the kids to bed so that I can veg out and watch some reality tv...yep, tonight is the Bachelorette Finale (lol YES I DO watch this stuff!)

I hope to get some scrappy time this weekend, but we are gearing up for a big trip, so who knows how much play time I will get. It all depends on how organized I am I guess...keep your fingers crossed that I get a little time, so I don't go crazy!
Have a WONDERFUL week!!
HUGS, KP

A fun layout to share

I had SOOO much fun making this layout. I love working with circles, and of course everyone knows I love LOVE buttons, so this challenge was right up my alley. For the last round of the Last Scrapper Standing contest that I am playing in, the challenge was to use circles for the layout - we could do anything we wanted, as long as circles were the focus. I created this layout using a 12x12 acrylic sheet as the base...I love how this turned out and will be doing it again for sure! I think it is fun and whimsical, and love how the buttons are floating on the page!


The patterned papers are Creative Imaginations, We are Memory Keepers and BoBunny, the transparency is Hambly Screenprints, the mini alpha stickers are Making Memories, and the chipboard alpha is AC Thickers. I don't know the maker of the felt circle strip, and the miscellaneous buttons are from my collection. The other entries this round are fantastic!! You should check out these AMAZING ladies work HERE! I feel so honored to be playing amongst this talent!!

Thanks for Looking!!

What else is new with us? Not a lot - we are busy, and finding time to scrap is as always my biggest challenge. The kids are done with school, but the little ones will be starting CDI (childcare at the school while off track) for the summer since I am working every day -- it looks like they make it pretty fun for them...I sure hope so! We are gearing up for our trip to New York - my SIL is getting hitched. We are looking forward to a week in a hotel with a pool, and we are planning to see Niagara Falls (and who knows what else we may have time for) while we are there.

As you know, my favorite thing to do (next to scrapping of course) is to visit scrappy sites and message boards looking for inspiration. I love to share ideas and the general love of all things scrappy. I have been sharing a few of my favorites lately, so I wanted to share another NEW FAVORITE!! Making Memories for You has become a new daily visit -- the people there are SO friendly and fun, the chat is lively, and the talent is fantastic!! The gallery is in transition at the moment, so you have to wait a bit on that, but join me over there and jump in the fun!

Well, that is all for now...I am off to clean the scrap area and maybe try to work on a project before bed -- I have been in the sun all afternoon though so I may just read a book instead. Have a WONDERFUL weekend!!

Oh, how exciting!!

I am so excited, I can hardly stand it!

I have been participating in the "Last Scrapper Standing" contest over at Create My Keepsake. This is an ongoing contest that the winner of the final round receives a Design Team position on their site. Now, I can tell you that I honestly feel that Create My Keepsake is one of the VERY best message boards I have visited, and it is filled with the most amazing and talented scrappy women I have EVER come into contact with. If you have never visited, I HIGHLY encourage you to check out the AMAZING gallery and visit the lively and fun forums. I am seriously inspired every single day by the work on this site.

Anyway, I have been participating in this contest, and am DELIGHTED to share that I have made it to the TOP 10!!!!! I nearly wet myself when I learned this morning that MY NAME was on the list with 9 other PHENOMENAL artists moving on to the next round. I am so honored and amazed, and DELIGHTED!!!

Here is the project that I submitted for this round -- yes it is a bit unusual, but there is a story (detailed below), and the result is one that is very meaningful to me.



The challenge for this round was to use a T-shirt slogan as inspiration to complete an altered art project or a card. I decided to use the slogan "GEEK INSIDE" found HERE as my inspiration. My son loves the T-Shirts at www.thinkgeek.com and any shirts related to computers and gaming. I thought that I would create an altered photo frame for a picture of my "geek". I decided that it would be fun to use the parts from our old computer as embellishments for the frame. As I worked through this idea, I really started an emotional journey which led me to this project.
The only reason that we still had this old IMAC around, is because it holds a LOT of sentimental value. It was the last thing that my father gave to our family before he passed away. This was his gift to my son on his 7th birthday -- and in fact I am quite certain that one of the main reasons that my dad hung on and fought to live for as long as he did was that is was SO important to him to see this gift given to my son. He passed away just a few weeks after my son's birthday. From the time that my son was born, he and papa were BEST friends, and in addition to this computer, he shared with my son an overwhelming love of and obsession with computers and technology. It has been his gift, and is now my son's passion. This computer was used as our family computer up until the end of last year when it finally died. It was really difficult to lose it, as it always reminded me of my father. So I decided what an interesting and meaningful project it would be to preserve this gift as an art project, and memory for us all of my father's gift and legacy to my son. Yes, it is unusual, but it will be treasured. My son helped with this project - he really enjoyed disassembling the computer and keyboard for the parts I used as embellishments, and sat with me through many of the hours I struggled with this to see how it was coming and offer his input - he has never taken an interest in my scrapbooking before, so that was quite a treat for me!


I used Pink Paislee papers. Ribbon is SU, Tiny alpha is Making Memories, chipboard is Basic Grey, transparancies are Club Scrap. I used computer parts and keyboard letters as embellishment, and the cool green strip at the top left area is from inside the keyboard.

The base of the imac is stained green with ink, and then I used reinforcement holes as a mask and inked with stazon for the stripe of dots around the base. I covered a vinyl pocket protector and attached it and put the "WHOLE" story inside so we will always remember WHY this computer is so special to us.


This was a really fun project, and I am so glad to have had this experience. AND I am so excited to work on the NEXT challenge.

You can see the work of the other competitors as follows:

Initial Entries
Challenge 1
Challenge 2

In other news -- I am planning my next STAMP A STACK! I am only doing these about quarterly now - life is JUST TOO BUSY to do more right now, but I LOVE doing them, and having a chance to see my stamping friends! I am really looking forward to planning one for the NEW CATALOG! I will be holding the class on Sunday, August 24th - making 18 cards using new catalog goodies! I can't wait to get my new toys and start planning some fun stuff!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in my great day! Hope your week is wonderful!
Hugs,
KP

One SWEET challenge!

I have been working on a layout for a challenge over at CMK. The challenge was to scrap my "weakness", which of course is SUGAR!! I actually have to work hard to avoid sugar, or my addiction can get pretty out of control. Working on this layout has led to several days of sugar frenzy, since I had to BUY all of this candy in order to use the wrappers for the layout...so of course, I had to eat the contents...MMMMM that was one sweet challenge!



I had a lot of fun with this one! CS is Bazzill and I used Bazzill edge, felt is Queen & Co, Foam letters are AC Thickers, and Sugared letters are Doodlebug, Chipboard letters are Basic Grey, Patterned Papers are My Mind's Eye and Pink Paislee. I used Licorice, Skittles and Mike & Ike's (sprayed with acrylic sealant) on the starburst wrapper flowers - hard to see but the other flower uses a punched gobstopper box and says "candy" on it.

Here is the page showing the hidden journaling: It reads "It is my weakness. Licorice, Dots, skittles, jelly beans...I love it all! I really need to avoid it completely, because once I have a little, I just can't stop!"

Thanks for looking! I am headed off to an afternoon at the pool...enjoy your weekend!

More Scrapping!

Can you believe it - I finished another layout. I did not get a great photo, will try again later and update if I can - i never seem to get good pics of 2 pagers...and I had to do a 2 pager for this one because I really loved all of the photos. These are more of Lauren in her hat (we made it together) for the Mother's Day Tea at preschool.


The patterned papers are all Paper Salon, the Cardstock is Bazzill, the Chipboard alpha is Basic Grey, the foam alpha is AC Thickers, flowers are prima, misc. buttons. I used my BRAND NEW Threading Water punch - yeah, it rocks!

I am off to do some serious lounging and a whole lot of relaxing today - maybe read a book. Yep, life is good!

Have a WONDERFUL day.
Hugs, KP