Are you up for a real life challenge?

My friend Pamela aka: EssenseVibez is hosting a really awesome challenge on her blog here.
She is challenging us to 'Photo your hours'. For instance, on a typical day, take your camera along with you and take one picture an hour to basically document your day. I think this sounds like fun and a great way to see your daily life activities, whether it be a walk, the grocery store, a stoplight - warning, this may be dangerous though ;) So please head on over and check it out. She's a sweetheart and welcomes new friends like I welcome double chocolate chip brownie ice cream....with love! Much love!
I will be posting my pictures as soon as I get this done! I hope you join us!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

JuJu Bee's Dec & Jan Kit preview

Today I have previews for JuJu Bee's January & December Kit that are available NOW to order! Both kits feature some yummy Pink Paislee and are just pack full of wonderful product to play with! Julia always wants her customers to be satisfied and you can definately tell by looking at these kits!!

January Kit

Featured paper is by Pink Paislee Amber Road.

CONTENTS

PAPER

1- Pink Paislee Amber Road Fall Festival (Die-Cut)

2 - Pink Paislee Amber Road Postcards

2 - Pink Paislee Amber Road Bonfire

2 - Pink Paislee Amber Road Apple Cider

1 - Pink Paislee Amber Road Harvest Hayride

1 - Pink Paislee Amber Road Autumn Blossom

1- Pink Paislee Fascinating Spectacular

1- Basic Grey Pattern Paper Granola

1- BoBunny Double Dot Cardstock Paprika

1- American Crafts Cardstock Black

1- American Crafts Cardstock Stone

EMBELLISHMENTS

1- Package of AC Fabric Thickers Patchwork Black

1- Package of Prima Flowers Alabaster (6 pieces)

1- Package of Prima SIIP Mixed Crystal Black/Red

1- Package of Basic Grey Designer Half Pearls

1- Package of Maya Roads Vintage Pearl Pins (30 pieces)

1- Package of Pink Paislee Captivating Petals

1- Package of BoBunny Chipboard Swirls & Brackets Wild Berry

1- Yard of May Arts Crochet Lace Ivory

1- Yard of May Arts Ric-Rac Black

1- Yard of May Arts Ringlets Burgundy

2- Yards of May Arts String Burlap

10- Prima Leaves Ivory

1- Exclusive Sketch by Trisha (will email to you)

December Kit

Featured papers from Pink Paislee's Mistletoe Collection.

CONTENTS

PAPER

1Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co Reindeer Games (Die-Cut)

1- Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co Postcards

2 - Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co Joyeux Noel

2 - Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co Naughty or Nice

1 - Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co North Pole

1 - Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co Santa's Workshop

1- Making Memories Mistletoe Flocked Snowflake

1 -BoBunny Jack Frost

1- Basic Grey Figgy Pudding Glacier

1- American Crafts Cardstock Straw

1- American Crafts Cardstock Pomegranate

EMBELLISHMENTS

1- Pink Paislee Mistletoe & Co Punchouts

1- Pink Paislee Fascinating Chipboard Alphas

1- American Crafts Thickers Darling (Chestnut)

1- Fancy Pants Clair de Lune Titles & Tags

1- Fancy Pants Clair de Lune Rub-ons

1- Fancy Pants Glitter Cuts Lace Border

1- Package of Basic Grey Buttons Boxer (66 pieces)

1- Package of Prima Say It In Pearls

1- Package of Maya Road Felt Beaded Blossoms Cream & Brown (6 pieces)

1- Package of Jenni Bowlin Chipboard Buttons Wallpaper (12 pieces)

1- Yard of May Arts Ric-Rac Brown

1- Yard of Fancy Pants Daily Grind Ric-Rac (Cream)

1- Yard of Fancy Pants Christmas Magic Ball Trim (Powder)

1- Package of Handmade Crochet Flowers by 62cards (Cream -3 pieces)

1- Exclusive Sketch by Trisha (will email to you)

If you are interesed in one or more ;) of these kits then make sure to head on over to the store and pick one up for yourself! With a membership they are only $32.95 a month. Without a membership they are $35.95 and those prices INCLUDE the shipping!! That's a pretty great deal!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

BlueMoon Scrapbooking

This month over at Candy Shoppe Designs we have an AMAZING sponsor that I wanted to Spotlight on my personal blog as well. BlueMoon Scrapbooking. I have been to their website and Oh my goodness, let me tell ya, they have it all and plus some! Not to mention they also have one fantasic Design Team, a blog and Gallery full of endless inspiration to feast your eyes upon, and kits that are definately drool-worthy. I really can't say enough about this Site. You just need to check it out for yourself!! If you want to get your hands on some BlueMoon goodies why not come on by the Candy Shoppe Designs blog and play along with our current challenge. It's always wonderful to see new faces :)

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

Necklace Tutorial

First off I have to appologize for the dark pictures. I always think it's a great idea to do my tutorials at night and no matter how awesome my camera is the person behind it needs to learn how to operate her flash indoors :)

Remember this Necklace:

Today we are doing a tutorial on how to recreate it!

I love Scrapbook paper. Like many people I hoard the stuff. We always glue it down and put it in an album, why not wear it and let everyone see that pretty paper we love so much?! This necklace is just the begining of my wearable 'scrapbook' ideas :) I can't wait to share them all with you!

Supplies Needed:

*Dritz Button cover kit (size 3/4 #14)

*Dritz Cover Button refill (size 3/4 #14) You will need a total of 10 buttons.

*Scissors*Felt (Stiff felt works best)

*Hot Glue Gun

*Bead Strand/chain/something to use for necklace!

*Hook & Eye or choice for closure

*Needle & Thread (Not pictured)

*Choice of papers (not pictured)

On the back of your package you will see a circle (I have highlighted it in the picture) You need to cut that out. It is your pattern.

Use this pattern and cut out your desired chosen paper for your necklace. You will need 10 circles. These can be different, the same, just have fun with it!

Now these are the next pieces you will need. A top & bottom button piece, your paper circle, your rubber piece, and the blue piece (I know...I am SO technical with my terms!)

Take your circle paper and turn it over to the negative side and lay your button on the top center. I added a double sided photo square to help keep it in place. This helped out a lot.

Next you want to scrunch the edges of the papers up over the button.

Using your thumb gently push the button into the rubber piece. Make sure to be gentle because this is actually made to be done with fabrics and paper can tear easier.

This is what it looks like when it's securely down into the rubber piece.

Next place the buttons bottom piece onto the open part of the rubber.

Place the blue piece on top of that.

Now using your thumb push down (really hard) onto the blue piece until you feel it snap into place .

Here you see it has been snapped into place and is ready to come out!! All you need to do is bend the rubber back and the button will just pop right out!

And here is out and ready to be used!

And here is a close up of the back side of the button.

Now continue that process until you get all 10 buttons covered.

Cut a piece of felt just a bit smaller then the size of your triangle. Mine measures 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 x 2 3/4. If you are using the 3/4 size buttons then this size felt triangle should work for you as well.

Next you need to lay your buttons on top of your felt to figure out placement. Unless you are an eyeballer like I usually am!!

Now we start to Hot glue our buttons down. I always start at the bottom, it's just easier to make things align better that way. (for me)

Here is what it should look like after it is all glued down.

Next we are going to work on adding the actual necklace part of it. I got ahead of myself (happens a lot with 3 kid helpers) and forgot to take a few pictures....

I was making this necklace for my daughter so to determine the length I just used a necklace that she already owned that we liked the length of. I used embroidery floss and beaded the beads onto one side and the reason I used embroidery floss was so that I could do this:

I thought it would add stability to the necklace to stitch the necklace part directly onto the felt. And then I jut went on from there and kept adding beads to the other side....very easy!


And here is what it looks like when I completed it all....

And I can't forget my precious little model, now can I?! :)

I do have a few little tips/side notes to add....*If you don't want to hot glue the buttons onto the felt then it's just as easy to sew them onto it as well.*On the first necklace I made for the blog hop I added Glossy accents to the buttons - it looks so pretty! Definatley something to try!*Try mixing fabrics, ribbons, and papers into your necklaces...the different textures look great together.
PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

CSD challenge- It's All About I

The first challenge of the year is now up at Candy Shoppe Designs and it's all about 'I'. That's right, you are being challenged to dream up a sweet paper creation that revolves around yourself. Take the word 'I' and incorporate that into your creation any way you see fit.

This was my first oficial LO for the DT and Oh boy was it fun to create! I based this LO loosley on a sketch from Sketch Inspiration that you can find here created by the wonderful Trisha Hill. The bg was created using inked torn booked pages that I mod podged down and then lightly painted over with a misty white paint. I like the random effect it gave! Oh and the picture...I created it using photofunia, they have some pretty neat effects that you can add to your pictures.

Check out this Awesome prize offered up by BlueMoon Scrapbooking.com for the month of January. How yummy does this look?!
So what are you waiting for? Come on over and play along! We would love to see your sweet design!



PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

I'm a Lollipop Girl!

I am so excited to announce that I am now a Lollipop Girl for Candy Shoppe Designs! CSD is a Sweet little Paper Crafting Challenge Blog that hosts bi-weekly challenges and sweet tooth tutorials in-between. They always have killer prizes and an amazingly awesome good time!! We were asked to create an 'About Me' LO featuring our new Lollipop nickname. I chose my nickname to be 'Snap Crackle Pop'. I thought is suited my personality fairly well, a little off the wall. :) I used a wonderful sketch by Julie Bonner that you can find here.

Here is my 'About Me' LO:

The Journaling reads:

Hi. My name is Amy. I live in a crazy factory. One day a boy came up to me and said "Are you busy?" I said "No" He said "Let's get married, have 3 kids and live an insane happy life together." I said "I do" And we are living happily ever after. The End!

I hope you will all stop on over to Candy Shoppe Designs. Check out what the rest of the new DT has created and play along with us in some challenges. There is a new Challenge going live very soon, and it's a great one!!

PeaceOut-ScrapOn-LoveAlways

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