*MLS Assignments for November*

I am IN LOVE with IN BLOOM! There I said it? I must confess I really did enjoy playing with this line. The colors are perfect for my little Angels pictures since she is always wearing pink. Here are 3 LO's I did using the In Bloom line from My Little Shoebox. Hope you all enjoy looking at them as much as I have enjoyed creating them.

My Angel

I really did go to town with my embellishments with My Angel. I have been hoarding these mesh flowers and sparkly butterflies just for the perfect LO. And this was it! It was just perfect for all the colors. They go so well together.

My Girl

I used my fancy lace trim for this LO. I bought so much goodies from downtown LA that I have not wanted to use in just anything. But with this LO it was calling my fancy lace and I am so glad I used it, it made the LO stand out. This is by far my fave pic of my daughter.

Bikini Girl

This is a pic of my daughter on her 4Th birthday party in Georgia. She got this bikini as a present from my cousin Rose and she is just in love with it. In fact to this day this is her fave outfit to go swimming in. It has a matching dress and slippers and she just loves them. I had to create a LO just for that. Hee!

Just for me!

I created some pages this week (but just finished the LO's tonight) while participating in an online crop at AMM. It felt so good just to create something for fun. I really just tried to relax and have fun with it. Finally my mojo came back! I have been sick for a while and now my kids are getting sick too, so no scrapping or mojo anywhere near me. So I am definitely thankful I got to make these pages. I am off to create some more pages and cards for my MLS assignment for the month of November. Will try and post those as soon as I can.

12 yrs.

Book Worm

Pumpkin Patch

I am so proud of this LO! I really wanted to create pages using some of my old stash and I have also been trying to use up old pics that otherwise would still be sitting in my box. Weee! I am slowly chipping away at all those stash, baby! This is an old Making Memories Halloween collection pack. It's a simple page, but I like it cuz it was just for fun!

MLS/ MLS+Hero Arts Stamps Assignments

My Little Shoebox + Hero Arts Stamps

I was so luck to get to play with some Hero Arts Stamps for this month. They go perfectly with the MLS Lines. I got to play with the set of Clocks and butterflies (thanks to Emily), big block of butterfly and set of 4 owls not seen here. Thanks so much HA for sponsoring the DT this month!

My Little Shoebox Robots Line

Got to play with the Robots Line and it was so much fun trying to create some fun ways to use it on my pages. I also used some of the Hero Arts Stamps in my projects.

Much needed update!

Wow! Time goes by way too fast. I cant even tell you how many times I have said, I am gonna update my blog and share things as they happen. RIGHT! But life has a way of getting in the way and there's just not enough time in the day to do all the things that need to be done. Unfortunately my blog happens to end up being at the end of the list. Sad, but true! No excuse here. So....sit back cuz I am about to give this blog a much needed update with all the things that are going on right now and what we have been up to.

Scrap happening

I have so many pages and cards that I have to share with you guys. This month My Little Shoebox DT got the opportunity to work with Hero Arts Stamps. Did I have fun playing with their stamps! I got to play with the set of 4 Owls and butterfly. I also got to play with the Robots Line and In Bloom. I will upload my LO's and cards as soon as I edit them. I hate putting up dark pics, but that's when I end up getting behind on my blog cuz I have all the good intentions of posting them and then I get overwhelm and not posting as I should.

Besides finishing my assignments for MLS, believe it or not I have not touch my scrap goodies at all. My table is clean and organize but no scrapping yet. My mojo has left me and I cant find it. I really do need to get some work done, aaah it's frustrating. Dont you hate it when you need to scrap and nothing happens. I do not like to scrap when I am not feeling it. I never ever create a page when I am not in the mood. Otherwise I will hate what I make and I don't like that. So anyone that has mojo to spare, send it my way please!

Home front

Hubby just left for San Antonio Texas last night. He will be gone for a whole week doing a competition (Expert Field Medical Challenge). Poor thing, they had to take a red eye so he is tired. I just spoke to him a lil while ago and they were able to get dinner and now in the room getting all their gear in order. Funny cuz, when he gets ready to leave for these things I always end up helping him pack up all his gear. He is not too good in the packing department. Well, not that he's not good but just that I am better and he likes it when I help him. Nothing like quality time packing military gear together. hehehe I don't mind really, what ever time I can pack in there to be with him.

Oh! On that note, I do want to share how proud I am of my hubby. He was nominated to received the MacArthur Award. Oh my gosh! What an honor and a complement to all his hard work. I know that he is in the running with ALOT of other people and it's not guaranteed that he will get it, but none the less I am SOOOO PROUD OF HIM. He was nominated anonymously by his peers, which makes it better. He did not see it coming at all. I just wanted to share that, cuz really... not becuz he is my husband but, I do think my hubby works his butt off and does a great job. Just to be nominated is enough for him really, cuz the biggest compliment of all is that his peers respects, appreciates and believes in him so much they nominated him. Make's me so happy!

Halloween sleepover party

My son has been begging me to throw him a Halloween sleep over party. Man! He wants it big too. So now I am in the process of creating his invitation for his sleep over, planning meals and games. He is sooo excited and happy, he cant wait to decorate the house. I hope I don't disappoint him cuz I think in his head my whole house will be transformed into a haunted house. I think he thinks its gonna be a huge party. Don't tell him but that's not how its gonna be. Bless his heart! I am excited for him though cuz this will be his first sleep over party and it was something that he had planned himself (with my help of course).

Where the Wild things are

We took the kids to the movies Friday night after hubby got off of work. He was leaving for Texas Saturday so we wanted to do something fun with them before he left. He took us out to dinner and a movie. We saw Where the wild things are. It was a lil too deep for my 5 year old girl but they both enjoyed it in the end. Both of them cried at certain parts of the movie and laughed a lot. The song was stuck in our heads until the next day...hehehehe. It was a really cute movie but I did not expect certain scenes to be so rough. All in all we had a great time. If your kids are older 9 and up I recommend taking them to see it. We could have waited for it to go on DVD via Netflix but we wanted to see it in the big screen. LUV those characters! They did a great job with the characters specially how big they were and how realistic...well I dunno how to explain that, those huge costumes looked real or life like. HA.

Fall has finally reached Washington. I love it! It's getting really cold here and has started to rain as well. I have had so many different take on the "SEATTLE WEATHER". I was a lil worried before moving here, but happy to say that I love the weather here. I am a home body and we love to watch movies. So this place is heaven to us....well close to it. I have picked me up a couple of new sweater jackets and has started to pull out my cozy sweaters. Cannot wait for the snow! Really, I cant wait. Hopefully with all this rain we are getting and no choice for me but to stay in doors I will get some much needed scrapping time. Sorry for the long post, I tend to blab on. But hey! You are now officially updated when it comes to my life. HAHAHA

Went THRIFTING today!

Ugh! I have been stuck at home all weekend long. I got sick all of a sudden, with a horrible headache and thought I had an ear infection but thankfully disappeared the next day. So today, before it go too late I had the urge to just go out and walk around. I went to this place called Value Village....it is a second hand store. I had never been there before and for some reason wanted to check it out today and see what I could dig up.

Wooo.....weee! I score big time. (Will edit this post with pics, too dark now so will take pics tomorrow)

I spent $37.00 and here's what I got:

For my son:
4 long sleeve shirts (Quicksilver and Old Navy brand) $2.50 each
1 collard short sleeve shirt (Quicksilver) $2.50
1 jean pants $3.50
1 almost new Athletic Wear Snow jacket for a WOOPING $1.50

for my daughter:
1 brown pants Childrens Place $2.50
1 white tank Childrens Place $1.00
1 white skirt Childrens Place $1.50
2 Bratz dolls with clothes $1.50 each

for me:
short sleeve sweater from The Limited $3.50
Nice wire basket $2.50
3 vintage dress pattern .69 cents each but with 50% off
1 stamp set for my neighbor teenage daughter with her name $1.00
I also got these brushes looking things but made with metal. They are heavy, I have seen alot of scrappers use them as card holders. I got 3 in a bag for $2.50.

Oh man, I am soo happy I got some really good deals. I got lucky enough that I checked VV today becuz they just happened to have 50% off on everything. Whew! Gotta love good deals. Will edit this post with pics.

Teresa Collins Mini Album, Cards & LO

Created these projects last October for a display at my LSS. I never got around to posting them so I am trying to catch up and post some of my work. I got to use all of Teresa Collins xmas line from last year.

Mini Album: Photo Shoot '07

Pics of my kids at the xmas tree farm near our house in Georgia

The flowers I made from my circle punch using tissue paper and red & green tattered angels glimmer mist. I sewed on the white buttons by hand. Easy peasy! All the gold glittered embelishment I covered in glitter myself, besides the AC glittered alphas of course.

I use my own handwritting for all the journaling. I find it faster for me to write than to get on the computer and figure where and how things will fit. LOL!

A LO using more photos from the xmas tree farm in 2007

Teresa Collins Card Kits using my own embellishment. I never did get these cards back. I left them at my LSS for her to keep since I was moving away. I hated saying goodbye and having to take down my stuff.

I have other projects that I was unable to post so I will be sharing more projects soon. TFL!

God's Garden

Dedicated to our dear friend who lost his battle with cancer.

God's Garden

God looked around his garden and he found and empty space,

He then looked down upon this earth and saw your tired face.

He put his arms around you and lifted you to rest.

God's garden must be beautiful, He always takes the best.

He knew that you were suffering, He knew that you were in pain.

He knew that you would never get well on earth again.

He saw that the road was getting rough and the hills were hard to climb,

So He closed your weary eyelids and whispherd "Peace be thine".

It broke our hearts to lose you, but you didnt go alone,

For parts of us went with you the day God called you home.

Author: unknown

Rest in peace friend!

My *FIRST* Tutorial/ MLS Sept. Projects w/ Pencil Line Sketch

How to make your pattern paper work for your style

Have you ever told yourself that you cant play with certain papers due to their colors or style? Sometimes I find myself saying that, even though I am looking at a paper that I LOVE and must have. But it ends up sitting there in my stash cuz I am afraid to touch or cut into it or I just don't buy it....which breaks my heart.

So while playing with My Little Shoebox products for my assignments for the month of September, I thought I would give a tutorial for those of you that are afraid to try something new or out of your comfort zone. For example: My Little Shoebox is known for CUTESY papers. And not that its bad.... I know that there are people out there that will just say "oh no, that's not for me!" Are you one of those people? Well I want you to check this out and I will show you, that no matter what kind of paper you are working with...you can make it to work for you and your style.

I will be using this line as an example for today's tutorial, because it just happens to be my line to work with for the month of September. LOL

I wanted to create something vintage, romantic or a grungy looking page. And my dilemma was that the papers were too bright and cutesy. But I thought with a little distressing, inking and tearing I can make it work. So here is what I did:

1.) I picked a pattern paper that I wanted as a back ground. Used my scissors and distress the crap out of it, to make the all the edges of my paper get that torn up look. Crumpled it up and distressed through out the edges with my brown Chalk Ink to age it. I actually created a rip page on top and on the bottom and added some vintage ribbon trim for more depth as you can see below. I thought it was sweet lookin!

2.) I wanted to create more depth in my LO so I used a Heidi Swapp Flower Mask to add to my background. Of course you can use what best suits your page.

3.) I tried using my ink directly to the mask but it was coming out too dark. But I didn't have Tim Holtz tool (ink blender thingy).... so what did I do? I went to my laundry room and grab a used fabric softener sheet right out of my dryer. YUP! They work just fine as you can see below. Not that I want to take any business away from Tim (he is the MAN and I bow down) but, just in case you don't have one and you don't want to go running to your LSS and buy one in the middle of creating your page, you can use them and they work perfectly.

It created a soft color over the mask. You can make it as dark or as light as you want and the tool is free and you are recycling. Cool huh? Picture below is what the page looked like after finishing all the masking technique.

4) I added a couple of rub ons on each corner for added interest and depth.

5.) I knew I wanted some leaves or vines in page. But if you look at the entire line, I didn't have that option. I usually cut out designs from various PP and add to my pages. But since I didn't have that, I created my own. Using the same HS flower mask....I traced it with a pencil in a coordinating paper and cut it out.

Below picture shows what it looks like cut out. I didn't trace everything in the mask. I just chose a part of it that I liked and used that. Besides I wanted to save some time from all that cutting. I kept one long and the other apart. If you look closely you can tell they are the same pattern but that one is longer than the other.

And that's about it as far as the background paper for your page. You can now play with your picture, mat it, pick some embellishments to add to your page and just play around until you are happy at where everything is.

I happened to used a distressed corrugated board with cream paint as mat for my picture. Matted that with another PP from Imagine a Forest Line and inked all edges to match my page. Put my journaling on a Maya Road sheer journaling spot and used my own handwriting for my journaling. Added a couple of flowers to finish the page and I'm done!

Here is my finished project with detailed pictures:

Here are my other projects for My Little Shoebox for September.

We are so thrilled to be working with Pencil Lines for this month. They have provided all of the MLS Design Team with Sketches to work with. Here is my take on the sketch. Check out Pencil Lines and see all of the MLS DT's work as well as their DT's for this months sketches. Great inspiration to be seen.