Snow Day

I worked on a few layouts this past weekend, nothing terribly exciting. After all, it's winter and my brain is frozen, oh well.  While I was doing something for the Color Room, Lydell's sketch inspired a quick layout you see here. 

One thing that I really loving about coloring is that you can really alter the look of a stamp image by the colors you choose.  Here I wanted to go with the overall blue color theme of this layout. For that matter, First born was wearing a blue coat, so I colored my Pure Innocence gal (Snow Day) in mostly blues.  I dare say that she looks so cute :) 

These photos are from two years ago. The quality of the prints were ghastly at best!  I know the kids are half Asian so their skin has a yellow tint, but seriously, it should not look close to orange!  Needless to say, I will never go back to that printing service again!


We are getting more snow today.  I am so not excited to drive in that stuff, especially snow that comes after some rain, oh the misery of winter... only five more months to go...  but who is lamenting, eh?

Brightly Yours at the Color Room

This week's palette at the Color Room is bright and fabulous :)  I have a lot of stuff in my stash in these colors :)  These color challenges are really good for my personal stash reduction. 

I am still very much in love with the new Martha Stewart deep edge punches.  I actually punched the green cardstock just to see how it looks and got tired of it sitting on my desk so I used it on this layout even thought the green isn't exactly the shade of bright this palette calls for. 

I stamped the "inspired by - caged bird" stamp onto a sheet of thick Hambly transparency with Staz-on Ink and then cut out the cage.  I like it this way because it has that "real birdcage" look by being transparent, I can "hang" it anywhere on a page. 

I did a little video on making the background paper, you can check it out at the Shimmerz education team blog.  I clustered some Prima flowers with some handmade flowers from patterned paper using an MFT die-namics die: rolled rose. I love that die as it makes rosette making extremely easy!! 

This was not my first attempt at this palette.  In fact, six months ago, I did a layout with this palette when Lydell first put the colors together for the palette.  As the time neared to the actual release of the palette, I just couldn't send this to her because it is just a bit too square and too boring, lol.  However, this is a true scrapbook page as I had recorded a specific memory about our cherries that all died prematurely thanks to a spring frost :)  So it isn't all bad :)  I even put some symbolism into my page... see the cherries in the heaven in the sky?  LOL!!!

Well, that's it from me for now, I hope you stop by the Color Room and try out this fun and bright palette!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Today we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the U.S.. Happy Happy Thanksgiving to You!

I give thanks for my beautiful family and my wonderful friends, that include all of you, my sweet blogging friends and readers! 

Most of all, I am thankful for the One who saves me, daily, and eternally...

My Jesus, I love thee, I know Thou art Mine...

Published in August 2010 Scrapbook Trends:

Happy Thanksgiving!  Eat up :)

The Rest of the Roosters

I can't say enough about the unusual and yet utterly delightful color combinations in the Midnight Rooster's November Whippoorwill kit. I would have never thought to put these papers together, but how thankful I am that I received this kit that asks me to think outside of the box!  How I wish I have a whole pack of that green cardstock! 

I started this layout simply by cutting into the MME sheet of paper.  These clothes patterned papers are popular and I wanted to just cut into it without having any plans :)  That's a bit unlike me to be planless :)  Then I realized that First' Born's jacket matched a strip of Fancy Pants paper, so I went with these photos. The doilies in the Crate Paper is too pretty not to cut up, so snip snip snip.  Added some Pink Paislee embellishments painted in Shimmerz and a Prima flower, voila: a layout about two crazy girls cut from the same cloth :)

Again, I love this green cardstock. I would love more of this color!  I used the Purple Onions stamp and the two custom flowers from the Whippoorwill kit.  The sentiment is an SRM Sticker.  I think this is going to be auctioned at next year's United Way auction.

Thanksgiving here in the U.S. is almost here! I am totally ready for the big meal on Thursday.  I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving!!

The Color Room Bunnies

This week at the Color Room, we have a very soft color palette...  I have been teasing people that these are awful pastels... :)  I actually don't mind these colors at all, in fact, they are kinda pretty...

Soft and cute colors lead me to this bunny photo.  Gosh, they are such cute creatures in photos, but in real life, I did not have the courage to touch them!!  According to my parents, it started with 7 or 8 baby bunnies, eventually, they all went on their merry ways.  Some found their ways into our fenced-in gardens and grew very very large, lol.

I am pretty excited about the deep edge Martha Stewart punch I used in this layout.  I saw it at CHA this summer and of course, it was love at first sight. I had the extreme good fortune to find it at a not-so-nearby M's with my 50% coupon on hand. 

That's about it for this little short post.  I wish you a great weekend wherever you may be. 

New Winner for Midnight Rooster

I had to hit the random.org again for a new winner of the Midnight Rooster mini-kit, and the lucky gal is Deana!  C'mon down, you have before the end of the day Thursday to contact me with your information. 

Here is another layout using the Midnight Rooster November kit.  I really love that sheet of Bazzil cardstock: such an unusual color, but absolutely beautiful!  I think it contrasts so well with the Crate Paper papers from the kit.  Second Child sure looks like she's enjoying her apple no?  I think she threw it on the ground after that bite, lol.  I stamped the MFT Pure Innocence gal "apple for you" for accent.  How cute is that gal?  WAY WAY CUTE.  I'm a sucker for cute :) 

The Color Room Palette 32

This week at the Color Room is all about fall... well, to me, a palette like this says all about fall, so I'm going with that, lol.  I was pretty happy to get these colors as I know they are perfect for a pumpkin layout!  I decided to layer several sheets of patterned papers and follow the sketch otherwise.  I used a sheet of core'dination cardstock and embossed it with a Tim Holtz folder that I got from Tim himself at CHA summer!  After sanding the embossed cardstock, I then layered it with a sheet of Crate Paper from its Restoration line. I thought the end result looked quite lovely. 

The "pumpkin girl" stamp from Pure Innocence stamp from MFT is new as of October.  She is so cute and will be perfect for these fall pumpkin layouts that involve my girls :)  This much is sure, none of the girls in my house can lift a pumpkin up like that, no one is that strong around here, except Daddy, lol.

Before I leave, the winner of the Midnight Rooster's mini-kit is... Twinkles11.  Please contact me here by leaving me your email address before the end of the day Monday, thank you! 

Midnight Rooster November Give-away

This month,  Midnight Rooster brings you "Whip-poor-will."  How is that for a funky and cute name? :)  Personally, I find the color selection of this kit bold and striking.  So I tried to work off of that initial feeling and created this layout.  The purple foam letters may seem unusual, but I love the look.  I painted the Pink Paislee elements with Shimmerz Pearls in Grammie Berrie.  Oh I miss our raspberries so much...

As usual, with the kit reveal, we move onto the giveaway portion of this program...   I'm kinda in a hurry to get out of here to the Body Pump class.  Tell me if you have checked out my tutorial using the Marvy border punch in the post below? Thank you!  A winner will be selected randomly before the end of the day tomorrow, and once announced, the winner will have 48 hours to contact me. 

Marvy Clever Lever Quick Borders Craft Punch Tutorial

I have been waiting for two months to share this layout and this little tutorial, so I'm a bit excited!!  The SRM Stickers design team members were treated with this fantastic Marvy Clever Lever Quick Border Craft Punch.  I was quite giddy over this tool and went to work immediately! 

I used Crate Paper's Restoration line.  It is beautiful beyond description.  Thank you for the papers, you know who you are ;)   I used two SRM stickers for this layout: We've Got Your Sticker - Sweet and Express Yourself - Recipes. I framed a few stickers using the Basic Grey chipboard letters, cute eh?

Now onto the tutorial portion of this post. I took pictures of steps taken to create this "around the corner" look.  You can click on the images to see the larger version and read the text better :)

Thank you so much for visiting my blog, be sure to check SRM Stickers' blog for a big Marvy giveaway!!   Four complete Punch systems and four complete Paper trimming systems are up for grabs!!

We Bought a Sheep!

This past weekend was an exciting one!  The annual Nickel family Thanksgiving get-together took place on Saturday.  The kids behaved relatively badly in the 1.5 hour drive to Bruce and Carrie's. How did we survive the drive to Yellowstone this summer?  I digress...

While we were out there, First Born found someone her age and wouldn't be parted from her new friend.  Second Child and I made our ways to the Barn to check out the sheep.  There were many sheep indeed and they all smelled badly, lol.  As I stood there watching, Bruce asked me what I thought of the sheep, and I said "Lamb chops."  So it was from that moment, 12 years into being a part of this family, I found out that we could actually purchase a sheep directly from Bruce's family farm!  The discussion and transaction that followed were done rapidly, so now we have a sheep!!! Turns out that there is one ram that needs to go very soon, hurray! I should left instructions to fatten it up more, lol, but can someone say "Leg of Lamb?"  I am so excited!

Before I go and dream of lamb biryani, I do have a scrappy project to share. Using Cosmo Cricket's Togetherness (heart it), SRM Stickers (Everyday Girl and Everyday Boy), and a really fun Bazzill loopy edge, I bring you her version of jump roping, lol.  This is how her mother feels like doing, jumping for joy, over the sheep, L O L. 

Bright and Cheery for Brazil

This has gotta be one of my most favorite color palettes ever!  Oh the greens, the greens...  and of course, the dusty pink, but I didn't do a good enough job matching to that shade of pink, but who cares, I love this palette, the sketch, and my layout!!!

This palette was featured in a Brazilian e-zine Scrapzine. The Color Room artists and the magazine editors all contributed to the issue.  I am on page 8, yay!  That was a lot of fun!  Now that we've been to Russia and Brazil, where to next? :)  Creating Keepsakes did do a half page feature of the Color Room in their October 2010 issue.  We didn't get to contribute layouts to that though, oh well :)

Second Child has such a personality!  She is that much more mischievous than her sister, and yet her sister is the outgoing one! 

Here is a close-up of the Fancy Pants chipboard swirls!  I have been steadily using those up recently.  I covered it with the most delicious paper from MME Quite Contrary. I will miss these amazing chipboards but I must say that hoarding, in this case, really "paid off" :) 

Carvé Diem

Over the last week or so, I've visited many blogs and seen many people's beautifully decorated for Halloween houses, front porches, gardens, etc...  Alas, we are not a decorating family. I cannot be bothered.  It's too hard.  We've lived in this house for five years, and there is a total of ONE thing hung up on the wall!

We did not even buy a pumpkin this year, LOL.  But three years ago, we did get a pumpkin.  After cutting out the top and realizing it was too small of a hole to reach in, DH cut a bigger hole. At that point, he realized that the top couldn't be placed on the pumpkin any more, it'd fall in :)  hee hee.

Here is a layout on pumpkin carving that was published in Scrapbooks Etc October 2010 issue.  This is my first and only publication with this delightful magazine.  I feel so incredibly lucky to have this project selected.  I haven't submitted anything to them since this because I just don't quite know how to go about doing it without specific calls from the magazine.  But I will seize the carver and rejoice over this one and say "hurray!"