I Am Back - with Pretty Little Studio!

I am back with PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO, and I can't think of a better layout to lead with than this one featuring Lou, one of my beautiful daughters, taken during one of the happiest days of her (and my) life - her wedding.  I created this for PLS using the NEAPOLITAN, BABY JACK, and BIRTHDAY CAKE collections - some of the happiest collections I can think of!

Very quickly, let me apologize for not dazzling you with my brilliant scrapbooking abilities for the last month (insert laugh track here).  I had some serious family issues that took awhile to be resolved, and then I have spent the past few weeks playing catch-up with the rest of life that didn't want to stand still and wait for me while I was trying to get my "shiz-nit" together - pretty rude of life, if you ask me!  But I am back in the saddle, so to speak, and want to catch up - so grab some coffee and stay a little while.

Here are a couple of close-ups:

And - playing catch up, here are several other layouts that I created for Pretty Little Studio recently.  I have truly loved the way each and every one has turned out!

My Always layout (packed full of symbolism):

Two fun cards that I absolutely adore.  A little bit of whimsy always brightens my day:

This layout  - featuring a spring photo I took of The Huntress - and more of those fun Pretty Little Studio paper ribbons that I adore so much!

I had a lot of fun with the layering of this one:

And - finally - these two layouts that I have affectionately dubbed "twinsies" - why?  Because even though I created them weeks apart, they ended up looking almost exactly the same!  Clearly my brain likes something about this design!

Twin 1, or Smaty Pants:

I love this layout and have to share a few close-ups:

And...Twin 2 a/k/a This Girl.  Also notice how I have used the same "this moment" journaling card for my selfie layout.  Yep, I like that particular journaling card a lot.  Quite frankly, I have an obsession with ALL of the Pretty Little Studio journaling tags and cards.  

A couple of close-ups:

Whew!  I feel like I just ran a marathon!  Did you make it to the end with me?  Well, if you did, pat yourself on the back and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!  And thank you - thank you so much for sticking with me!

PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS - SCRAPPING YOUR STASH BLOG HOP

Welcome to the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop 

where we are Scrapping our Stash.

 If you want to see five darling, adorable notecards I made for PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO, then click HERE.   If you want to see the latest coolio sketch, and my take on it, by MY SCRAPS AND MORE, click HERE. 

This month we are focusing on scrapping our Valentine's stash, or at least stash that has to do with love. We are thrilled to have Kiwi Lane Designs sponsoring this month!  

Kiwi Lane Designs creates templates that help take the frustration out of scrapbooking!  And one lucky winner will get a border set and an accessory set from Kiwi Lane.  We are big fans of Kiwi Lane Designs and in fact have several members of our design team who either currently or in the past have been a part of their design team!  Details on how you can win this prize are at the bottom of this post!

Here is my layout that I created for this blog hop:

Now, I have a confession to make.  I don't have any Valentine's paper left in my stash.  I used to hoard collect Valentine's paper along with all the holiday papers, but then I realized I had lots of cutesy papers that I probably wasn't going to use.  So I gave most of it to a certain 4 year old in my family who was most appreciative!  

That being said, I am on the design team for PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO and have been very fortunate to get the new collections as soon as they come in.  And to make way for the new, I need to use up some of my older stash, including some appropriately-themed heart papers and lovely pastel papers.  I l-o-v-e these papers, which is why I held on to them.  But there is no better time to use them, I think, then on a layout about my youngest daughter and her daddy.  She is a Daddy's girl, through and through, and he has often said he would give her the world.  Unfortunately, he didn't realize "giving her the world" might include giving her his favorite Irish cap!

Here are a couple of close-ups.  I love the way the bright yellow hearts pop against the softer pastel papers, don't you?

I cut up my background paper and then layered it in angled strips, which I machine-stitched onto a piece of cardstock.  I added a little peek-a-boo strip of heart paper for fun.  I used rub-ons (also dug out of my stash), a label-maker, and alphas to create my extremely long title.

 Okay, back to the blog hop...we this is a huge list for the blog hop and would love for you to visit as many as you can...but we are not making that mandatory to qualify for the big prize.  BUT - many of the designers are offering prizes of their own so the more you hop, the more chances you have to win!

Here is the list if you are just joining in and want to hop along:

Practical Scrappers Blog Hop List

PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS

Krissy Clark McKee (YOU ARE HERE!!!)

Christine Meyer
Kim Ryden
Patty Selah
Charity Hotrum

Lissa Mitchell
Jennifer Haggerty
Alison Day

Bobbi Smith
Michelle Johns
Kerri Yarus
Cathy Harper
Nicole Laha
Lanette Erickson
Majken Pullin

Erin Morehouse

Lisa Peeples
Claude Campeau
Wendy Coffman
Lee-Anne Thornton

This is what you need to do to win the big prize! You can do any or all of the following for up to three entries! 

1) Become a follower here; or

2) Become a fan on our facebook page; or

3) Become a fan on the Kiwi Lane facebook page, and make sure to tell them we sent ya!

WANT TO WIN A PRIZE WITH ME?  IN THE SPIRIT OF VALENTINE'S DAY, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO LEAVE A SWEET MESSAGE ON SOMEONE ELSE'S BLOG ON THIS HOP.  THEN LEAVE ME A MESSAGE TO LET ME KNOW WHOSE BLOG YOU COMMENTED ON.  What's the prize?  How about a $15 gift certificate to my favorite store - Pretty Little Studio!

This contest will close at 11:59 pm CST on Sunday, the 16th.  

PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO - SPRINGTIME NOTECARDS

Happy Day of Loooovvveee (typed in my very best Barry White voice).  This is turning out to be quite a busy day for me since I have not one, not two - but THREE projects all due today.  BUT - I absolutely loooovvvee crafting so I am definitely in my happy zone right now.  If you are joining in for the PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS SCRAP YOUR STASH BLOG HOP, click HERE.  If you want to see the latest coolio sketch, and my take on it, by MY SCRAPS AND MORE, click HERE.  I would absolutely love it, though, if you would stay awhile and look at these adorable cards I made using PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO'S Lemon Sorbet 4x6 journaling cards from the Neapolitan Collection along with these super sweet vintage die cuts.

I used five of these six cards.  They are the perfect size for all you project-lifers and pocket-scrappers, but I wanted to do a little something different with them:

So, I mounted each one on cardstock that was just a little bit larger than the journaling card, folded it in half, and - voila! - insta-notecard!  I finished my notecards off by adding a diecut, which were just the right size; some sweet bunting flags; and ribbons and buttons.  These were quick and easy to make, and they are absolutely darling!  I cannot wait to send them out!!!

Here are close-ups of my notecards:

To see how I made these cards, please check out the PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO BLOG.  Have you used any vintage die cuts on your recent projects?  If so, please share with use on our FACEBOOK PAGE!

Color Challenge with Pretty Little Studio

My crafty mojo has definitely been vacationing somewhere (probably warmer) these past few days, so PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO'S COLOR CHALLENGE was exactly what I needed to convince it to come back to me!  Can you tell what colors we were challenged to use together?  If you guessed pink and red, you are correct!  This is what I came up with, using a fabulous picture of some even more fabulous women that I am privileged to call my friends:

If you are like me, you bought a lot of Christmas papers and didn't touch nearly half of them.  Well, it's time to think outside the box - find ways to use all those wonderful papers for non-holiday layouts, which is exactly what I did with my leftover papers, stickers, and journaling tags from the WOODLAND CHRISTMAS COLLECTION.  (I have a confession to make - I love some of the papers, especially the vellum papers from this collection, that I have every intention of using them year round!)  They go perfectly with the pinks found on the flags, die cuts and papers in the BIRTHDAY CAKE COLLECTION and NEAPOLITAN COLLECTION.

I used lots of layering and lots of pop dots to help the different elements on my layout to stand out.

I absolutely love the way the bright pops of red look against the white background and softer pink hues of my patterned papers!

That's it for me today.  Want to play along?  Be sure to upload YOUR creation to Pretty Little Studio's FACEBOOK PAGE.  We would love to see what you create!!!

You Are My World - Pretty Little Studio

Happy Thursday!  We have a new challenge over at PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO today.  Can you guess what it is?  It's a word challenge!  That's right, our challenge was to create something using the phrase, "you are my world."  Like all Pretty Little Studio challenges, you don't have to actually use that phrase in your project, it is just the inspiration.  I, however, chose to interpret it literally and made it the title for my layout about my very most-favoritest valentine - the hubster.  That sweet face of his still makes my heart go pitter-pat!

I am having a love affair with the color gold right now!  I may be a couple of months late to the gold party, but I prefer to think of it as being fashionably late.  Yes, I am Elizabeth Taylor-ing the gold trend - lol!  I can't help my obsession, though.  Gold is just so pretty!  It sparkles, and I am a lover of sparkly things (yes I am)!!!

I love, love, love all the vellum papers that Pretty Little Studio came out with in the WOODLAND CHRISTMAS COLLECTION, including this one with tiny gold stars.  And the cooler tones of my Starfish paper from the SAND CASTLE COLLECTION (still one of my favorites over a year later) contrasts nicely against my pretty sparkling gold!  

Speaking of gold, one of the very next things I intend to get from the PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO STORE will be their new gold foil stickers like these ARROWS!  I need them.  I think I could have found a space to squeeze one or two on this layout, don't you?

That's it for me today.  Do you like the gold trend?  Is there another new, hot trend that I should try out?  I would love to hear from you!

New Use for Old Stuff - Pretty Little Studio

PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO carries so many awesome things in its shop, including adorable little journaling tags that have calendars on them.  The only problem is - it's 2014 so the dates no longer match up with the correct days of the week.  That's a big deal if you are weird  slightly OCD like me.  How do you fix that problem?  (Note: the answer is NOT to throw the tags away)  If you are like me, you simply find a different use for them.  In this case, I punched them and cut them and created a cute little mosaic pattern on my layout.  See?

It looks great when paired with papers from the WOODLAND CHRISTMAS COLLECTION and NATURE WALK COLLECTION.

Add a couple of brads and a tag or two, and I call it done!

  

To see what papers and products I used, please visit the Pretty Little Studio BLOG or the STORE.

Do you find new uses for scrapbook products that may be considered old or out-dated?  Or do you just get rid of them to make room for the new stuff?

Shaking Off Those Winter Blues

Even here in the southern part of Texas we have not been able to escape freezing "arctic" temperatures.  So, to warm things up a little, I put on a pot of hot coffee and decided to use one of my favorite pictures taken this past summer in a layout.  PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO has the perfect papers to create a summery layout, too, with its dreamy NEAPOLITAN COLLECTION.  My inner girly-girl will always love hearts and butterflies and flowers, which is what this collection has in abundance!  

And this - this was the end result:

 

I've got to tell you that I am quite proud of it - proud of the subjects, proud of the moment that I captured with my camera, and pretty darned proud of my layout.  It's got a lot of white in it but doesn't look too empty at all.  (I love my tone-on-tone white sunburst that I started off with!)  It's got a lot of layers, but it's not too crowded.  It's got a lot of little pieces, but it's not too busy.  In fact, I would say it is j-u-s-t right!!!

Here are a few close-ups:

See?  Hearts, butterflies, and flair - all the things I love.  *sigh*

Yes, I did use journaling cards on my layout that don't have one single word of journaling on them.  They were used - gasp - purely for decorative purposes.  Don't judge.

Want to find out more?  Just check out the Pretty Little Studio BLOG!  

What are you doing to stay warm this winter???  Do you love the snow and cold temps or are you, too, dreaming of summertime and balmy weather?

WINNER AND DESIGN TEAM NEWS!

Well, color me happy!  You all left such wonderful comments on my blog during the recent BLOG HOP, and I am so grateful and feeling a little blessed for all the kind words!  If I could, I would give out a PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO gift certificate to everyone who left a comment (because I l-o-v-e their products).  But I am afraid that might cause a little marital discord between the Hubster and me so I had better stick to the plan and just give away one.  And the winner is....drum roll please...chosen by Random.org...

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:11
Using my awesome college education, I was able to count and determine that Patricia is the winner of the gift certificate!  Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go Patricia!  Go Patricia!  You're the winner!  You're the winner!  I will send you the code for your gift certificate a-s-a-p.
Now, on to my newest happy news.  I have been wanting to join the design team for a kit club for a while now.  But I wanted to make sure the kit club was one that suited my style and was a good fit for me.  I have been drooling over THE PAPER BAKERY'S kits for some time now and...apparently they think I am a good fit, too!  (insert very big, huge grin on my face here!)

I am equally excited to be working with these talented crafty ladies!  Can I get a woot woot?!!
Be sure to stay tuned.  I have a little video tutorial to share with you...

Top 10 Blog Hop and Give-Away - 2013 Edition

Welcome to the Top 10 Blog Hop - 2013 Edition.  You should have arrived from Laurel Seabrook's BLOG.  I am thrilled to be hopping along with many of my scrappy friends this year and am so glad you are joining us!  In fact, I am so thrilled that I will be having a little give-away (more on that at the end of this post).  

I loved looking back at the projects I created this year.  I tried to narrow them down to my favorite 10, I really did!  But, the closest I could get my favorites narrowed down was to a "lucky" 13, which just happens to correspond with the year.  So, I went with it. I know - it's a Top 10 Blog Hop, and I am being a rebel and a rule-breaker; you aren't telling me anything my Grandmama didn't tell me at least a hundred thousand bejillion times growing up!  But the heart wants what the heart wants.  *smile*

So, without further ado, here are my Lucky 13 from 2013.  I included the link to each original post just in case you want more details or close-ups:

(HERE AND NOW created for a Practical Scrappers Frugal Finds Challenge, using American Crafts papers)

(THESE ARE THE DAYS created for the Two Peas CHA 13 Online Winter Social Challenge, using several Echo Park collections)

(HUGS AND KISSES created for the Practical Scrappers Pinterest Challenge, using Crate Paper's 14 Collection)

(LIVE INSPIRED created for a Practical Scrappers Sketch Challenge, using Studio Calico papers)

(PERFECTLY IMPERFECT created for a Practical Scrappers individual feature on using less-than-perfect photos, using Pebbles Seen and Noted Collection)

(THE JOURNEY created for Pretty Little Studio, using the Birthday Cake Collection)

(HELLO 13, created for a Pebbles Sketchy Thursday Challenge, using several Pebbles collections)

(FAMILY OF 4 created for Pretty Little Studio, using the Nature Walk Collection)

(BELIEVE YOUR DREAMS, created using Glitz Design papers)

(LIKE A SHINING STAR, created for a Pretty Little Studio sketch challenge, using Woodland Christmas papers)

(FOLLOW THE LEADER created for a Practical Scrappers sketch challenge using Pink Paislee's Hey Kid Collection)

(DEAR SANTA...PLEASE STOP HERE created for the My Mind's Eye "Dear Santa" challenge, using a couple of My Mind's Eye collections)

(OH CHRISTMAS TREE, created as a mixed media tutorial for Pretty Little Studio, using the Woodland Christmas Collection)

Whew!  Are you still with me?  If you are, you may have noticed that several of my projects feature Pretty Little Studio papers.  I have been extremely fortunate to be on the Pretty Little Studio design team and love, love, LOVE their products.  So, if you are a follower of my blog AND leave me a comment telling me which layout you like best from my Lucky 13, then I will choose a winner by random drawing on Monday, December 30th to receive a $20 gift certificate to the PRETTY LITTLE STUDIO STORE!!!

Ready to keep blogging?  Your next stop is KERRI YARUS. 

Here is the entire list (just in case you get lost).  Happy hopping!!!

Monika Wright  

Christine Meyer

Suzanna Lee 

Ashley Horton  

Jodi Wilton 

Lisa Swift

Cathy Harper

Marcia Dehn-Nix

Lynn Shokoples

Lissa Mitchell

Juliana Michaels  

Melissa Elsner 

Charissa Miller  

Kelly Jean 

Ashley N Newell

Jennifer Haggerty

Laurel Seabrook  

Krissy Clark McKee - THAT'S ME!!!!!!!!!

Kerri Yarus 

Rhonda Van Ginkel 

Malika Kelly