Thursday, June 26, 2014

Practical Scrapper: Scrapping our Stash Blog Hop

Hey there! Welcome to this month's hop. It's time to bust out that stash and use it up.This week has flown by and it's hard to believe it's already Friday. Summer is in full swing and that means a lot of activity around our house. I haven't been able to find tons of time to get into my craft room and scrap lately, but I actually dug into my stash earlier in the month to create a layout for my nephew's graduation party. I used an old Simple Stories line that I had which was absolutely perfect for a layout about Jeff. The Hello My Name Is Awesome tag pretty much sums up this boy for sure. He is full of confidence and really... he is pretty awesome! I also had the fun wood veneer pieces which I believe are all Studio Calico. Don't you love wood veneer?



I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop. Your next stop is Cheryl's blog where you will find some amazing inspiration. I have the entire list posted below so if you are just joining me be sure to go back and see the fabulous projects from the designer's before me.


Here's to using that stash!
Lisa

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Footloose and Fancy Free with SWAT!

Happy first day of summer. It feels like we've been there awhile already with the kids out of school and busy with activities but today is the first official day of summer. It's a great day to share my latest layout made for the S.W.A.T. design team. Our latest challenge is to create a layout featuring feet. I decided to take a picture in my backyard where I love to put my feet up and read a great book in the summer. It is such a relaxing place with the waterfall going and the beautiful flowers everywhere.


I actually used a mix of older Bella Blvd. lines I received recently after winning a contest on their page. I was so lucky to get one of their warehouse boxes they put together each year and had an incredible time looking through the fun stuff that came. I thought these papers accurately depict the feel I get of happiness and contentment while sitting with a great book.

Join us with your take on our challenge and you can win a gift certificate to Creative Embellishments, an incredible online store with amazing products for your pages and creations.

Lisa

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Selfie Time! New SWAT Drill with a Fabulous Prize.

Hey there! Making a quick stop to drop off my newest page. This one was a hard one. The new challenge for S.W.A.T. is to scrap a selfie. That means I have to scrap about myself! Not an easy thing since I'd rather scrap the ones I love. I snapped this selfie over much teasing and laughter at my niece's wedding. Oh how my boys and nephews and nieces thought it was hilarious that I couldn't snap a good selfie and kept trying and trying. (Especially when they tried to get me to make a duck face... we'll save that for...um, never! That is long since deleted!) Anyway, of the million I took I did come up with one I thought wasn't too bad and put some of my thoughts down from being 40.


The journaling may be hard to read so here it is:
What I Know at 40 I Wish I Knew Then-
1. The things that seemed so big then don't matter now. Learn to relax and breathe.
2. Losing my faith is not an option. There is no way I'm doing this on my own. God has the reigns.
3. Give grace. You never know what someone else is going through. Let go of judgement and just love!

Oh, how those life lessons seem so simple but they are hard to come by. This last year has been a tough one for me personally as well as the family as a whole. Some days I wonder exactly where things are headed and how we are going to take the next step forward. It's those times I find myself clinging to God and his promises. It would be easy to let go right now, but my faith keeps me hanging on.

Thanks for stopping by. Creative Embellishments is sponsoring this month's challenges. You don't want to miss that. Snap a selfie today and join us. We'd love to see what you create.

Lisa

Saturday, May 17, 2014

May Flowers!

Another beautiful Saturday and another fun challenge with the SWAT girls! This time it is all about May flowers. With a late snowstorm hitting over Mother's Day I am worried I won't be getting all the flowers to pop up and be beautiful in my yard. Hopefully some of them are hearty enough and will pull through. Since I'm not seeing many blooms outside I took the challenge of creating blooms in my craft room this week. It is really a simple looking flower and was made with two heart punches and a little brad. Easy peasy. Check it out.


I took two different size heart punches, one plain and one scalloped, punched out five hearts and started laying them down and gluing them. The paper was scraps left from another project so it was a fabulously easy and inexpensive embellishment. Who doesn't love that? I know there are so many creative and easy ways to make handmade flowers for your pages and projects. Take on the challenge and join us for this drill. Link up a new project using homemade flowers to the blog by the end of the month and you will be in the running for a $20 gift card to The Flying Unicorn. (Details on the blog)


Thought I would drop this cute thing off too. It doesn't have handmade flowers but it definitely shouts spring. Since I had all the stuff from this cute Pebbles line out on my desk already I decided to throw another fun card together for my mom. She really loved the bird. Anything to see a smile on her face!



Have a super Saturday. I am heading out this afternoon to try to find my mom something she can wear to my niece's wedding which is happening in two weeks! Can't wait.

Lisa

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Color Challenge, NSD and Winner!

Happy, happy Saturday. I was supposed to be hanging with some friends in Lincoln, NE while my hubby ran the 1/2 marathon, but a back injury prevented him from running and kept us home. Really bummed about that. I decided to take advantage of being at home though and spend some time scrapping and joining in on some fun National Scrapbooking Day fun. Now it is 3:00 and I am just getting into my scrap room...of course! It never fails that my best laid plans tend to fall apart. That's ok, I've got an hour and I intend to do something!

I am sharing a card I made for S.W.A.T'S newest challenge. We are beginning May with some happy colors to inspire your scrapping. Spring is here and it is time to feel bright and cheery. Here is what I did with our color challenge.

 Beautiful colors, right?

My take:

I decided to create a cheery card for my mom for Mother's Day. The flowers in the picture reminded me of the flower washi tape I had and I added in from there. I love the feel these colors give and added a little bling in there too because who doesn't need a little bling?! I felt like a plain white background was a little dull so I embossed with a chevron embossing card and my Sizzix Texture Botique. Perfect!
How about joining us and creating something fun with these colors. You have all month to join and there is a fabulous prize up for grabs. Come see what the other members of the design team created and feel the cheer of spring!

Before I go I promised a winner from last week's hop. The random winner of some fun embellishments is Angela! Angela please contact me at dpeeples1 at hotmail.com and I will get this fun prize out to you. And you are right! We may be neighbors. You'll have to let me know where you live. I love meeting scrappy friends.

Have a super weekend and get creative!
Lisa

Friday, April 25, 2014

Scrapping Our Stash (with a little giveaway!)

Hello, hello and welcome to April's Scrapping Our Stash blog hop. I almost didn't get a project done this month it's been so busy here. I started the month out completely packing up and getting my scrap room ready to paint and redo. My plan was to get in there, get it painted and get the new furniture set up all in just a couple of days.  Ha, ha, ha! Yeah right! Unfortunately life around here likes to stay unpredictable and crazy  so it took a little longer than I thought to get the walls fixed, primed, painted and looking good. It took another week to get a free day with David to get the furniture assembled and installed. Now it's all about the organizing and deciding where to put everything. It's usable but not exactly like I want it quite yet. Anyway, pictures will be coming later, but for now I'll move on to what you are really here for...

When I started getting things unpacked and ready to set out I ran across this beautiful picture taken in Estes Park last year. I was reminded again why I absolutely love living in Colorado. I have to say every place I've lived in the last several years has it's own kind of beauty, but growing up in Colorado with the beauty of the Rocky Mountains right in our backyard spoiled me. To me there is nothing that can compare with a sunset over the gorgeous mountains and this particular evenings sunset did not disappoint. I pulled out some old My Mind's Eye that I had sitting in my stash and found the colors to be perfect for complimenting the gorgeous colors of the sunset. I also used buttons from my stash and a couple of brads from an older Echo Park collection. I love how it came together. Simple yet the photo stands out.


Delicious, right??! I love My Mind's Eye. As a matter of fact, as I've been unpacking and organizing I found that I have quite a bit of it hanging out in my stash. I even found a Follow Your Heart button pack and a few other fun items I would like to give to one of you. Just leave me a comment below, and if you don't already follow my blog just choose a way to follow on the left hand side and you will be entered to win.

Thanks for stopping by.  Next on the list is Alison's blog and you won't want to miss it.If you are just joining me here today and want to start hopping from here feel free. Make sure you hop backwards too. You don't want to miss any of the fabulousness being shared today.

Practical Scrappers http:practicalscrappers.blogspot.com
Monica Bradford http://scrapinspired.com
Wendy Coffman: www.stampingrules.com

Have a super weekend.
Lisa





Saturday, April 5, 2014

BINGO!

Happy Saturday! It is a new month and we are starting it off at S.W.A.T by challenging you to mix up your supplies and techniques and pick a row to create your project.
 




I am hoping you will join us for this challenge. When you do be sure you let us know what row you used and remember this challenge can be combined with any challenge so have fun but please don't forget to link back to us here at S.W.A.T.

Now let me share what I created for this challenge. I chose to use an arrow, number, rub-ons, doily and two photos (vertical line #4) as my bingo. The two picture part was easy since I had these two photos of my sweeties laying on my desk ready to scrap anyway. Oh for them to be this little and cute again!



I miss the days of them dressing like cowboys and playing together. Nathan had a long period of time where he was obsessed with his cowboy boots and his little brother liked to follow and do anything his big brother did so this was often how I would find them. Now for the bingo part. The arrow is pretty easy to find. The numbers are in the top right corner on the mail stamp. This is also a rub on as are the brackets under the title. Finally the doily is  the mat that is behind the photos. I first wasn't sure that this would be ok since it is not what we traditionally think of when we think of Grandma's lace doilies, but the definition of a doily includes any small, ornamental mat so I figure this diamond mat that I cut using my Cricut would qualify :)

That's it for me. Working on my craft room today. I have been painting it all week and am ready to get the furniture put together and the space organized.  Have a super weekend!

Lisa