Scrap Your Stash

Here is a link to the Project Scrap Your Stash 2011 from Lala's World. This sign up is only for the month of February. If you want to do it again in coming months, please remember to go back and sign up for it again.
I don't know about you, but I've got plenty of stash to scrap with. I could probably scrap for years without buying anything new.
But, realistically, I'm not going to say that I won't be buying ANYTHING.  What I will say is that I will stick with buying paper and cardstock (but only if I have absolutely nothing that can be used with my photos or project), adhesives, and replacing things that have been used up. Like say, I need an ink refill for a black stamping pad or my journaling pen runs out. That's reasonable.
Here are my goals:
1. No major new purchases (such as tools, Cricut cartridges, or embossing folders). Stampin Up Club purchases are an exception. I've already agreed to make those purchases, so I can't back out now. Teehee
2. Use papers and embellishment that I have rather than going to look at fun new stuff.
2. I will use my Cricut more.
3. I will use the 20 or so dies that are lying around still in packages in my craft room--mostly Nestabilities.
4. I will donate items that I know I will not use. Even if I think I love it :(
We'll see how this goes. 

Random

I keep wanting to make a blog post, but all of the projects I'm working on or have done are DT projects or other things I'm not allowed to post yet lol. I have no updates in my personal life really. Just living life one day at a time as usual.
Still haven't heard back from American Crafts, but I'm hoping that is because they are super busy with CHA this week. And, they were moving buildings, so that could be part of it. I sent a thank you email and a voicemail, so I don't want to be any more pushy than that.
Let's see, hmmm, I do have a card I can share. I did this one for the heart hop over at Crafter's Digital Art Center. This is a community for digital stamp enthusiasts.
I did this card for the color challenge (Dark Pink/Plum, Light Pink, Light Brown, and Sage Green). I added a little bit of yellow because I didn't read the colors and the light brown looked yellow to me. Oh well. I got the brown on the card base. The image is from Heart Song Designs.

Cute huh? There is still time to play on the heart hop if you're interested, but it ends today. There are tons of cute free digital images at the end if you participate in the hop. Guess I should have made this post earlier :) 

Updates

Just a couple of updates:

I did decide to take the DT position with the new digital stamp company. There are some really cute images, and it won't be very time consuming. Plus, I get any images that I want for free for being on the team! I can't reveal which company it is for yet. But, I will be making an announcement on February 1st with a bunch of samples. So, check back for that.
I've been working on things, but I can't share them right now :(

Also, I had a really good interview with American Crafts on Monday morning. I'm really really hoping I get this one. AC is a papercrafting company, so it keeps me in the industry that I love. And, it's for customer service, which is something that I would like to get some experience in. Seems like there are always CS job openings out there. Although, I'm hoping that if I get this one, I won't be looking again for a while ;)  I know the Vice President from working with him at Roberts, and he likes me. So that's got to get me some brownie points, right? And it seemed like I got along pretty well with the guy interviewing me.
Please pray for me! I need this. I think I could be good at it, and unemployment sucks!
Ta ta for now.  

New DT Member here!

I'm so excited! I've just been notified today that I will be a brand new member of the Let's Scrap Design Team! Let's Scrap is one of the challenge sites I belong to that give you sketches and fun challenges to boost your scrapbooking mojo.
I've been wanting to be on a DT for a long time, and now I'm currently a member of two Design Teams!
And, I have another invitation to be on a DT for a digital stamp website. But, I'm not sure if I'll take that one. I want to make sure that I have the time to commit to it. If I get a full time job soon (crossing my fingers), I will have to be sure I can handle it. So, I had some questions that I need answered before I will answer that one.
More details to come. I want to post the layout that I used for my Let's Scrap DT submission, but it hasn't been posted on the site yet. So I have to wait.

Baby Gift Album

A good friend of mine, Autumn, is having a baby shower today. The last baby she had was a girl, and I had made her a mini scrapbook album for that shower. She loved it, and she asked me if she could pay me to make another one for her little boy this time. Well, I had been thinking about what to get her because I didn't want to get the normal everyday blankets or clothes. She got so many of those at her last shower that I was sure this time would turn out the same. So, I told her I'd just make it for my gift again. Win-win!

Believe it or not, boy pages are harder for me. There are just so many more options for girls out there. So I was worried about what colors and stuff to use. Autumn didn't make it any easier on me--she told me whatever I wanted to do was fine.
So, I headed to Archiver's.  I love that store! They always have the latest & funnest stuff.
Well, as soon as I walked in I saw the most adorable baby boy line ever. And, of course, it was made by my favorite scrapbook manufacturer, My Minds Eye. Seriously so cute. Here is a link to the Fine and Dandy Line. You have to scroll down past the girl's line to get to the boy's line. So CUTE!!
Anyway, so I finally finished the album yesterday. Let me know what you think.

and a card to go with:

Fun Valentine Frame

So there was a challenge over on Scrapbook Challenges to make some form of an altered item for Valentine's Day decor.  I immediately thought of an altered frame I had made for my niece's room a few months ago with patterned paper punched butterflies in it.  Too bad I didn't ever get a picture of that one. But I put this one together this morning in less than a half hour.  Isn't it cute?
I also bought some blocks at Roberts the other day so I could try to do a little "LOVE" block set. I'll post that one when I get it done as well.
Just as a side-note, Roberts has another "Freebie Friday" giveaway here on their blog today. Check it out.
I don't have many Valentine decorations, so this should be fun. Shane's going to be so excited to see yet another bin in the garage lol.

Locks of Love

This is a layout of my niece, Jordyn.  This past Monday she cut 10 inches (!!) off of her long blonde hair to donate to Locks of Love so that some other little girl might have a pretty blonde wig to wear while recovering from the effects of chemo therapy.  Isn't she just the cutest little thing?
I used Let's Scrap Sketch 2-24-10 for this layout.  I also used this layout to compete in two challenges for the blog hop going on right now.  The first challenge is to usea Let's Scrap sketch with black and white photos and blue and yellow embellishments on a layout or card--check.  The second was to do a layout (using a Let's Scrap sketch of course) about something that makes you smile. And, you should include journaling to remember what it was about it that made you smile--check.
Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Layout

These are pictures of my nephew's 8th birthday in August.  I wasn't able to attend his party because he was in Idaho visiting his dad's side of the family. But, it looks like he had a great party. His cousin, Kathryn, made the cool Spongebob cake. And, he got a Spongebob game for their Wii system. There were other pictures of the party, but they were blurry, so I got the best ones I could.
I created this layout for a challenge at Let's Scrap to use only cardstock (no patterned papers) on your layout.

Pinkalicious Birthday

These are pictures of Jordyn's Pinkalicious birthday party in November. I used sketch #1-12-11 at Let's Scrap. I also used this for two of the challenges on the blog hop going on right now. If your interested, the hop starts on Betty Anne's blog, and the rules are posted there as well. The two challenges I used on this were:

1.) Make a page with a banner on it and use a Let's Scrap sketch on it as well. And, 

2.) Make a layout with three different kinds of patterned paper and stitching. The stitching could be machine, hand, or faux stitching. So I chose to do faux stitching with my pen because it was easy :)

You can't combine any challenges into one page. But two page layouts can count separately as long as you have all of the required elements for one challenge on one side of your page.

First Lost Tooth

This is my niece showing off the gap in her front teeth where she lost her first tooth. Isn't she sweet?
I just realized that I wrote on the bottom that she was 6 yrs old.
Really she was only 5. She turned 6 in November. So I wrote an "almost" in this morning hee hee.
I used my new Sew Easy tool for the first time on this layout. It was time consuming, but I think it was well worth it.

I used sketch #236 at Scrapbook Challenges on this layout.

Temple Square

This page was made using sketch #1-12-11 at Let's Scrap.

These are pictures of my family visiting the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.
Although I am not Mormon, this is always a beautiful site to visit during Christmas.
They have a large model of the Nativity scene and tell the story of the birth of Christ.
In the visitor's center, there is a room that is painted like the heavens with a huge white statue of Jesus in it. That statue has taken my breath away ever since I was a little girl.
And the light displays on the grounds are just stunning.
I didn't have any room to journal this down, so I wrote it on the back of the layout. That's what I do when I have no room. I need to come up with some way for people to know if there is journaling on the back without it being unsightly.

Blog Hop Winner! **UPDATED with Prize Picture**

So, I have a randomly selected winner for the prize on my blog during this weekends Scrapbook Challenges blog hop. The winning post was by Sandie (blogger title: itchifingers). Please email me your home address so that I can send out your prize! I left a comment on  your blog as well with my email address.
I used the random.org number generator tool to pick my winner. The tool generated #17, so I counted down 17 posts from the top. Good thing it didn't do something like 83 lol.
Congrats Sandie! Now, I need to go find a suitable prize................
UPDATED**
Your prize is pictured above. It includes:
2 6x6 mini albums from American Crafts
1 set of acrylic letter/number stamps from Autumn Leaves
1 set of acrylic flower stamps from Close to My Heart
5 ink pads from The Paper Company--specifically formulated for acrylic stamps
1 set of blue chipboard flowers from Sassafras Lass
1 journaling notebook so you can write down your ideas for scrapping (or whatever) wherever you are

Thanks for playing along!

Blog Hop! And Some Exciting News!

Welcome to the annual Scrapbook Challenges blog hop! If you just happen to have stopped in on my blog, please join us and start at Pamela's blog. If you're arriving here from Amy's blog, you're in the right place!

I'm so excited to announce that I'm a brand new member of the Scrapbook Challenges Design Team for the first term in 2011. This is my first DT and my first blog hop!

A little about me:

My name is Shelly, and I am a 35 year old mother to a 13 year-old son named Garrett and a 7 year-old female Labrador mix named Angel. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Shane, for just over 13 years. And we have a small home in Spanish Fork, UT.

I love scrapbooking, reading, camping with family, riding 4-wheelers, and going to the movies.

I've been scrapbooking in my current form since around 2002, but ever since junior high school I've always liked to cut out pictures and paste them to cute paper with fun things written on it. So, really I've been doing it for around 23 years or so.

Scrapping is an outlet for me. I love the process of picking paper and matching it with pictures. I love the products and the techniques. It relaxes me. The fact that I'm documenting memories for generations to come is a great bonus.

Onto the challenge!

This is the sketch that we were given to play with for the blog hop:

Or for those who'd like a 2-page layout:

And hear are a couple of layouts that I came up with based on the sketch:

There are prizes involved in this blog hop, so don't miss out on your chance to win!

1. For one person who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop, they will get the new Spring Market collection from Webster's Pages, including chipboard buttons and twine. To see the entire collection, click here and here.

2. For one person who does a layout based on the sketch, they will get the Be Mine collection from Echo Park Paper Company. Just go to the Scrapbook Challenges site and load your layout into the Hop On section.

3. For inviting people to join the group, one person will get a collection of adhesive from Helmar.

4. For one new member over the weekend, they will get some new release stamps from Unity stamps that coordinate with the Spring Market line from Webster's Pages.

5. For one randomly selected person who leaves a comment on my blog, I'll mail a surprise gift!

Now it's time to hop on over to Amanda's Blog. Have fun!

Thanksgiving 2010

This is a page I did for our Thanksgiving of 2010. I didn't manage to get a group shot this year, and I didn't get any pictures of guests that came later. Bad camera girl! Oh well. I was busy cooking. Kim should have been taking pictures lol. Anyway, the journaling says:

This year Kim and Andy spent Thanksgiving at our house. Shane's dad, my dad, Diane, Katy, Leena, and Dace joined us later for some pie.

I used Sketch #213 at Scrapbook Challenges on this layout.