52 Sketches...52 Weeks - Sketch #51 Reveal & Sad Goodbye

Hello lovely ladies out there in Blogger-land! I hope you are all having a wonderful Holiday thus far. Are the kids all hyped up on candy canes yet? Mine sure are! I think them just thinking about candy canes gets them hyper. Ok, I won't lie, mommy likes them too!! Today I have my reveal for 52 Sketches...52 Weeks. This will be my very last reveal for this DT. As many of you probably already know Julie Bonner is shutting down the site for this coming year. I wish her nothing but Good Luck and Happiness in her future endevors, for we all know she is mega-talented!

Here is Sketch #51:

And here is my take on the sketch. This LO is all about my DD Kayla. She is (one of) the lights of my life. My first born, my Kayla Belle, my beautiful young lady. In all honesty I have no amount of words that could even begin to describe how amazing she is. Right now she is 9 years old which can be a very awkward age for girls. With this LO I just wanted to tell her how proud of her we are. She is growing into a fabulous person, and mom and dad couldn't ask for more.

Check out that flower!! I am totally in love with making these. My dear friend Kristin has a tutorial here if you are interested!

I know this post is a few days late. That's because I had such a hard time coming to terms with it all! I know, I know...how can you be 'that' attached to a position on a DT. It's not so much the position on the DT as the story behind it, that and it was the first ever DT I applied for!!

About 11 months ago I started having very serious migraines and back pains. Pain that was so bad I couldn't get out of bed on some days. After what seemed like hundreds of tests and Doctors visits I was told I had a blood clot in my brain and Spinal Cysts. There is no idea what could have caused these and why they happened at the same time, but all I know is it hurt and I was worried!! Surgery was not an option because neither of these problems were considered a serious threat, however I now have a pantheon of medications I take on a daily basis. With the help of medications and Physical Therapy, I am now as of last month living almost completely pain free and the blood clot is gone for now! Thank Goodness.....

It was a few months after I started having these problems that I found 52 Sketches...52 Weeks. I needed something to keep me busy and keep my mind off of the pain, so I did a random search for "Sketch Sites" and 52 was the first one I came across and I have been hooked ever since. I guess you could say Julie Bonner's Sketches helped me regain my mojo, not only my scrapbooking mojo, but also my mojo for creating in general! I would like to believe that through my passion for Scrapbooking it helped heal me. I know that may sound corney to some, but I feel it to be true. A few months after I joined the site I saw a thread for a DT search. I chewed around with the idea, but in my head I wasn't good enough. My DH told me to just go for it! It would be something to keep me busy after he deployed....so I went for it. When I got an email saying I had made it, I was over the moon with excitement. Sometimes all you need is someone you look up to letting you know that you are good enough. So thank you Julie Bonner for all you have done for me, even though you didn't know. This is why I am sad to see 52 Sketches...52 Weeks go, but I truly appriciate and will forever hold dear in my heart the time I have spent there.

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

JuJu Bee's Blog Hop Winner!

It's just another Manic Monday here in the Oxford household. The kids are home for Christmas break and driving their mommy absolutely bonkers, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Today we were talking about what kind of cookies to make for Santa. I suggested reindeer cookies...and wouldn't you know, this is what I heard "Moooom, Santa would never eat his own reindeer. That's just mean!" Ok, so no reindeer cookies!! We have settled on sugar cookies with vanilla icing decorated with pretty sprinkles. Santa LOVES sugar cookies ;) I wonder if I can convince them that Santa would also love a lovely Chai tea as opposed to milk! Probably not.... Ce La vie!
2 days ago my husband calls me from Afghanistan and tells me the wonderful news that we got orders for Germany. As excited as I am about this I have NO idea on earth what to expect, good thing I have 10 months to prepare. I am a country girl (Mo) currently living in a decent sized City (WA) and I thought that was me branching out! Well this country girl is getting ready to become a globe trottin' fool! ha If anyone knows anything about Germany please let me know!!
JuJu Bee's Blog Hop & Crop was a lot of fun. We crafted our little hearts out while in good company. I am still hoping to get to an actual real live crop one of these days. Can you believe that I have never been to one?! Crazy right! Reading all your comments made me love this time of year all that much more. As silly as it sounds I think Winterish drinks are part of what makes this time of year so special. There is nothing as amazing as a cup of Hot cocoa with the people you love most. Winter drinks have heart and soul :) We do have a winner from my blog. I used Random Generator and came up with #19. So congratulations to:
Alison Day said...
Hi Amy! I became a follower - you're projects are awesome! My own DD's would LOVE a neclace like that! Do you have a tutorial on it?My favourite wintry drink is an Eggnog Latte. Yum! My second favourite drink is a "special" hot chocolate. Bailey's yumminess!!!Thanks for the opportunity to win!
December 18, 2009 11:07 AM
Alison, please send me your address and I will get this postal. alaurelpo@yahoo.com
Thank you ladies for Hoppin' our blogs this weeekend. You truly made this hop fun for me with your awesomeness. Oh, Don't forget to head on over to JuJu Bee's and check out the amazing KITS!! I promise you will not be disappointed!
**And Alison, I am currently working on a tutorial of the necklace! I will be posting it as soon as I finish and find the time over the crazy Holidays!
PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

JuJu Bee's A Very Merry Blog Hop

The time is now here!! I am so excited too. Today marks the beginning of JuJu Bee's A Very Merry Blog Hop & Crop and I am so glad that you decided to join me! If you haven't already visited JuJu Bee's please go there to begin your Hopping Experience! We are celebrating JuJu Bee's 2 year anniversary as well as this Awesome time of year. You know, the time of year when you can spend all day snuggled up on the couch with a fuzzy blanket and some hot cocoa watching Christmas movies. Yep, I love this time of year. But it's also the season for giving...and in a lot of us scrapper's worlds we give what we create from our own blood, sweat, and tears. (Ok maybe that's just me being clumsy with my Xacto knife again) But none the less, we craft our hearts out! I would like to take a few moments to share with you a few projects that I have created for the Blog Hop. All these projects were created using past JuJu Bee's kits. I loved mixing them all together, it brought out a sense of rebelness!!

This is a 'Piggy bank' that I created for my DD. She insisted that she needed one, and I know better. So I humored her and made her this little thing, but I added favorites to the front because I know that all she will end up putting in this can is misc random stuff that she collects from Lord knows where. But to her it's special randomness. I was so excited to make this in all honesty. I ended up using a formula can that I have had stashed forever because one day I just knew I would use them....and look, 2 years later I did! Go me!

That very same DD is such a good sport. She models for me even when all she want to do is go read her book! This is a necklace I created using little scraps from the kits. I used a button maker and instead of using fabric I carefully used paper. I think it's cute, and definataly looks like my daughter!

Here is a close up of the actual buttons I covered. Who said you can't wear your scrapbook paper?! I believe you should!

Aww, here is a card I made for my DH. We are celebrating our 9 year Wedding anniversary on the 28th so I made this to send to him. Darn I wish that handsome man could be here with me!


Ok, Ok, we will get to the Blog candy now! Up for grabs are 10 packs of rub-ons and 2 packs of Christmas thickers...and a little suprise :) If you would like to be in the drawing for these all you have to do is:
1) Become a follower
2) Be Awesome -I already know you are!!
3) Tell me what your all time favorite Winterish drink is!


Personally my favorite Winterish Drink is Chai tea or Hot chocolate. Hmm, maybe Eggnog too. Ok, I can't make up my mind...I like them all!




Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! Your next stop is the ever so beautiful Trisha's blog. She will have some more amazing eye candy as well as blog candy for you to feast upon!!

Oh, and don't forget to join us in the FORUM for a bunch of fun challenges, gift ideas, rockin' games, awesome ladies, and well....just fun! Hope to see you there :)



PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Tutorial - Make your own Mist Sprays

Hello beautiful ladies! I have a really easy tutorial for you today. It all started about a month ago when I reached for my Glimmer Mist and realized I was almost out...Oh NO!! I went to my local SB store and they were sold out as well, and I had no patience to wait for some to be mailed to me. I had remembered hearing somewhere that you could create your own, this got me thinking...HOW?! So I researched it a bit and found so many different ways to do it. The problem was that I didn't have the inks they say to use, so I just did it my own way figuring it out as I went along. I would like to share with you a few tricks I have figured out.

The things you may need:

*Clean empty spray bottles

*paints/powders (I used some PearlX that I have had forever)/food coloring

*water

Start off by getting your desired amount of powder into your bottle. I was using the end of a crab pick that I had bent to work for what I needed. Hey - I was using what I had around! lol I used two 'spoon' fulls of gold.

Then I added water. I was using a medicine dropper, this made things so much easier - for me!

This is what it looks like after I shook it up.

And this is what it looked like after sprayed onto white cardstock. Notice the pretty shimmer!! Now on these examples I sprayed the mist really heavy to show the colors.


Another thing I played around with was making paint sprays. Just add water to your bottle and I added 4-5 dropplets..ok more like paint gobbs straight from the bottle. On some of my mists I have used just paint and it looks pretty, but if you want it to shimmer then add your powder in a like color.

This is what the brown paint looks like. I didn't add the PearlX powder to this one just to show you how a paint spray looks.

Try adding food coloring to your mister! It looks awesome! The color of your mist will depend on how much food coloring you add to your water. I typically add about 6 drops. I like my colors to be bright! Again you can add the powders to this, but it looks great as is.

Here is that the blue food coloring spray looks like. I also didn't add any PearlX powder to this...all Food Coloring!

Here is a little sample of the colors I made today using these techniques. So fun and versatile and I can make ANY color I need to go with my LO's!! Now that's exciting!!

Here are a few recent LO's that I have created using my homemade mist sprays!

I know you have seen all these very recently, but I just wanted to show what these sprays can do :)

I hope you will give them a try and show off your work using your very own Homemade Mists!! I can't wait to see them!

Also I added a tutorial section over on the right hand side of my blog where you can now find all my tutorials in one easy to locate spot! Thanks for taking a look!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

52 Sketches...52 Weeks reveal #50

Week #50 is here for 52 Sketches...52 Weeks. Julie Bonner has such an amazing sketch this week...well all her sketches are amazing, but I truly enjoyed working with this one. I had so much fun. Probably because I was playing around with one of my favorite boy lines ever: October Afternoon's Night Light Collection. I say it's one of my favorite lines because it's the first line that got me excited to actually scrap LO's of my son. I was so used to scrapping girly LO's that boy LO's intimidated me. I can honestly say that's not the case anymore though. Without further ado please have a gander at Sketch #50:

This LO is all about my son and his "Monster" tendencies. He truly is a good little boy, but all kids have the little monster show sometimes. This day was going along just wonderfully...for awhile :) These pictures show him happy-go-lucky, but not long after they were taken he decided he had enough of the park and was throwing the biggest fit. That's the part I remember everytime I look at these pictures of him! lol He's such a cutie!!

Here is another LO I completed this week but forgot to post. This was done using sketch #101 from Sketch Inspiration. Trisha has some beautiful sketches and I love working with them! This LO is a bit different for me, but I like it. I used glittered paper...something I didn't think I would ever do. But I won the My Minds Eye -Laundry Line -Flirty kit from Color Me Miki and had to use that beautiful paper!
This is my beautiful daughter Kayla sitting in our favorite tree in the backyard. We just love taking pictures in this tree which is good because she loves to climb it!!

Thank you all so much for stopping by to take a look at what I have been up to, it really means a lot to me!! Now I am off to snuggle up with some hot Chai Tea and watch some more Christmas movies. I love this time of year when no matter what time of day it is you can find a good movie to watch!


PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

JuJu Bee's - A Very Merry Blog Hop & Crop

I would like to invite you to join me for JuJu Bee's 2nd ever Blog Hop & Crop. We had so much fun with our last Crop that we just HAD to throw another one :) We are celebrating this Wonderful Joyous time of year as well as JuJu Bee's 2nd Anniversary. There will be games as well as Scrappy & non-Scrappy challenges so everyone has a chance to win a prize even if you don't have the time to participate in some of the more time consuming challenges! We know it's a busy time of year ;)

Some of the Challenges/Games you will be seeing:

-Gift card Holder
-Cards
-Ornaments
-Year in Review
-Handmade gifts
-Stamping
-Bingo game

-Steal that RAK game

-Scavenger Hunt game

I hope you will take time out of your Crazy Christmas Schedules and join us in our FORUM for some much needed relaxation amongst Scrappy Friends!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Zoolander - For Reals

So, I played along with the current challenge at Candy Shoppe Designs again. How could I not play along with a challenge such as 'The Bold and the Beautiful'?! You were to incorporate 3 completely different clashing papers and have a bold title. This was pretty easy for me as I love to use odd paper combinations in the first place :) The colors you were to work off of were Black, Pink, White, and Yellow-Orange. I threw in the other colors just for fun! Oh, and I used a sketch! The sketch I used was created by the fabulous Trisha of Sketch Inspiration. I just flipped it on it's side to work with my picture.

This is my sweet niece Heather'Lea. She is always posing for random pictures and I like to think of her as a little Zoolander - only much cuter!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Need some Sketch Inspiration?!

A dear friend of mine Trisha, the DT coordinator and Sketch artist for

JuJu Bee's Scrapbook Cornerhas officially started a new Sketch site called:Sketch Inspiration

Sketch Inspiration is a scrapbooking community with weekly sketches available to inspire the creativity within yourself. Every Sunday Trisha posts a beautiful new sketch that is just waiting for you to work your magic with. I hope you will come join and show Trisha your support :)

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Dotty Divas Blog Dive - We have a Winner!

Whew, was that a fun Blog Hop or what? I want to thank all you beautiful ladies for taking the time to stop in and leave a comment. It really means a lot to me! Hopefully you made your way through the entire hop and got a chance to see what the rest of the Dotty Diva's DT has been up to as well! To choose the winner I used Random.org. It just keeps things simple because I hate choosing!!! Here are the results:
True Random Number Generator Min:1 Max:21 Result: 6 Powered by RANDOM.ORG
So congrats to VEL
Please send your address to me at alaurelpo@yahoo.com and I will get your RAK postal!
**Also I would like to add that Dotty Divas is currently holding a Design Team search. Check out the Dotty Divas blog for details. This really is a fun DT to be a part of and I encourage you to go for it!!
PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

52 Sketches...52 weeks - Sketch #47 Reveal

It's Sunday and that can only mean one thing! Ok, it can mean a lot of things, but for me it means the reveal of Julie Bonner's fabulous sketch from 52 Sketches...52 Weeks! I hope your as excited as I am. Julie creates some of the most amazing sketches and I am truly blessed to be a part of her DT.

I mean seriously...check out this sketch:

And here is my take on Sketch #47. I chose to base this LO around the song 'I Hope You Dance' by Lee Ann Womack because it holds such a special place in my heart. There is such a powerful meaning behind the words in this song and as soon as I saw these pictures of my daughters I just knew they were meant to be put together to create this LO. In life I hope for the best for my children, and I truly hope they choose to dance their way through it!

This week 52 Sketches...52 Weeks has an amazing prize up for grabs sponsored by Work in Progress Kits. All you have to do to be eligible for this prize is complete a LO based on Julie's sketch and upload it to the gallery by Midnight Nov 29th. Easy enough right?! I hope you join us over at 52 Sketches. I can't wait to see your take on this sketch!


PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Dotty Divas Blog Dive & DT Reveal!

Blog Dive is below :-)

This month's challenge at Dotty Divas has been a lot of fun for me. We had the privilege of having Magic Mesh sponsor the DT this month. Thank you Magic Mesh. I loved working with your product! And we had a very colorful Advert to work with. Have you had a chance to check out the Dotty Divas blog yet? You really should, we always have some of the most amazing Sponsors that want to give you prizes for your beautiful creations!
Check out the Ad for the month:And here is my take on the Advert. I took inspiration from the colors mainly and the fabulous Magic mesh!! I wanted to use as much mesh as I could so I created this entire bg out of it, plus added it to my title, arrow, and put little accents of torn mesh here and there! I just love how this LO turned out! Of course how could I not....have you seen that little cutie in the picture?!

Guess what today is? Yep, it the beginning of the Dotty Divas Blog Dive! How exciting, huh?! I would first off like to say Welcome! If you haven't already you should go check out the Dotty Diva's blog and start there. That way you have more chances at winning some great prizes :-) And who doesn't love winning a prize every now and then!

All you have to do to be in my drawing for the prize below is answer this one question :-)

What makes you a diva?

I want to hear all about it so spill those beans!
Then head on over to my dear friend Emma's blog for a chance to win yet another prize. She's waiting for you!

---------------------------------------------------------

*EDIT - UPDATE*

Blog Dive ends MONDAY night at midnight so you have until then to get in on this Drawing!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Twilight - Vampires go chic

Happy Thursday beautiful people! Do you love the Twilight movies? I love them. I love Edward, that man makes being a vampire extreamly dreamy. Vampires are a family obsession around our house....to the extint that my oldest daughter, Kayla, chose to be one for Halloween this year. That is why I can honestly say that I am totally in love with this challenge presented by Candy Shoppe Designs. It's called Team Edward vs. Team Jacob. You had to choose a team to be on and complete a LO based on that teams critera. Well, as you can probably already tell, I chose Team Edward!

Here is my LO based on the challenge:

Thank you Candy Shoppe Designs for such a wonderful challenge!

And don't forget about the Blog Dive for Dotty Diva's starting tomorrow. I will be offering up an amazing prize, so make sure to come back and visit my blog for your chance to win. Hope to see you back here!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

MOSD - Nov project Reveal - Expression Word Book

Hello lovelies! I am here today to share with you my project for MOSD! This project means the world to me and I will tell you why. A few of the ladies on the MOSD DT have decided to focus on a '10 things' theme this month. I was trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with this theme and was talking it over with my husband on the phone one evening. We went over several ideas and in the end I was still undecided. The next morning I woke up to an email from the DH titled '10 things I love about Amy'.... I was so over the moon at his thoughtfulness and decided that his list would become the subject for this month's project!

So here it is, my album, 10 things he loves About Me:

The base of the album is an MOSD Expression Word Book with custom Stick Ons to go on the edges. I love how the stick Ons give the letters such beautiful definition.
12 years ago we found each other and have been going strong since! He too was my first love.

We compliment each other very well. He is strong in places where I am weak and vica-vera. It's rather corney to say but this man completes me and without him I would be lost!

Our children are our everything. He loves me because I 'gave' them to him, but babe it was a combined effort. So thank you for 'giving' me our 3 beautiful children as well!

He thinks it's cheesy scrapbook things, but totally supports my hobby. We believe that hobbies are extreamly important in life. They allow us to have an outlet, which everyone needs.

Yes, I complain!! That is a downfall that I have and I am working on it. But it makes me feel better that he loves that about me!

My husband is terrible about remembering special dates. I am constantly reminding him of his own families birthdays and whatnots. He blames it on old age, I blame it on the fact that he works so hard and has to remember so many important things for his job that sometimes the little things get put into the back of his mind. And I don't mind reminding him!

It's true, sometimes he thinks it's silly that I love the little things in life. But to me all those little things add up into bigger things and that's what makes life so special. Like him taking the time to write me this list, to him it was a little thing to do, but to me this little thing means the world!

Kids are the sweetest when they sleep, that's why I love to watch them. No matter how rotten they are during the day when you watch a child sleep they are all little angels. What my DH doesn't know is that I love to watch him sleep as well. It's a peaceful time for me and it reminds me of the love I have for these special people in my life.

Boy does my husband have some hobbies!! He loves to build things, tinker with the cars (even though they don't need tinkering). His recent project was building a Harley from scratch. He did such an amazing job. What he doesn't realize is that I adore his hobbies, it's a bonding time for us. My scrap room is the room that leads into the garage where he works. So we prop open the door and chat while we are both creating.

I feel the same way about him. But I suppose WE make our family complete together. I added the little Maya Road envelope to this page to hold a copy of his email. Thank you Travis for writing this for me and giving me he inspiration for this Album. I love you babe!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways