Parents Day Challenge - Are You Up For It? :)

Thank you for joining us here at Craft Lovin Challenge Blog

 

Our Challenge for the next two weeks is 
 

Parents Day

Begins July 13th

Ends July 26th @ noon

How To Play

Winners Found Here
will be post on 27th

Sponsoring is

Tabitha's Designs

Winners choice of 1 digi pack:)

Hope you all like commenting because

3 blogs listed in this post, will have a random comment winner at the end of the challenge. 

Each winner will get their choice of 

1 Digi Paper Pack from 

Tabitha's Designs

You will not know what blogs it 

will be so happy commenting:)

 

Also, for those that have my papers and or 

digi stamps you have an extra chance

at winning a prize if you use them in the challenge:)

Put a "7" at the end of your name please:)

For this challenge, I used Tabitha's Basics Brights digital paper pack, which you can find here. As many of you can probably relate, I'm a "pinner" and found some great parenting quotes to include on my layout. This challenge was also coupled with a quote challenge at Two Broke Girls Challenges - and will be linked up to Unity Stamp Co's "Friends with Flair" Friday.

Patterned paper (Crate Paper [background], Tabitha's Designs), white cardstock (The Paper Co), twine (Martha Stewart), brads (Making Memories and Joann's), flower jelly sticker (Me & My Big Ideas), "Family" buttons (Joann's), glue dots, distress ink (Tim Holtz - Tumbled Glass), stamp (Unity Stamp Co)

Here's a Christmas card to make you feel a bit cooler in hot July. I used Sweet Christmas Wishes from Unity Stamp Co, along with some cool red, white, and blue papers for both last week's Cocoa Creations challenge and 2 Broke Girls Challenge "Mini-Treats Card Challenge".

Patterned papers (Echo Park), cardstock (Bazzill & Crafters Companion), brads (Making Memories), Stickes (Platinum), markers (Spectrum Noir, Distress Ink (Tim Holtz - Tumbled Glass), ink (Memories, Inc), stamps (Unity Stamp Co)

 

Patterned papers, diecut stickers (Echo Park - Paradise Beach), bling alphabet stickers (Making Memories),
marker (American Crafts), washi tape (Pick Your Plum)

And here is my Cocoa Creations entry for this week - using washi tape. I decided to couple it with 2 Broke Girls' Word Challenge ("Sunkissed"). As you can see, I had some serious fussy cutting fun!

And guess what! The girls chose to go to the Prima Marketing outlet, instead of the waterpark today! Yes, they do enjoy shopping with their allowance money. They had a blast! It was so nice to shop leisurely (versus grabbing things frantically, before somebody else snagged them) and under a roof (it used to be held outside and wow, it's mighty hot here in July!)

So here are the girls at the front of the store... what you can't tell (I should have taken pictures while I shopped, I know, but I was distracted) is that there are several aisles of boxes. Those two you see in the back right are the $0.99 aisles. The girls were happy, they purchased quite a few pendants there (yes, manufactured by Prima!).

 

I love these paper dresses! I need to find myself one of these wire mannequins so I can build one!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog - hope you all have a crafty weekend!

Two Broke Girls - Sketch #11

 

One of the things I love most about the 2 Broke Girls Challenges blog are the fabulous sketches! Here's my take on this one...

 

Patterned papers, alphabet & diecut stickers (Crate Paper), white cardstock (The Paper Co), brads (Making Memories),
ink (Memories, Inc.), stamps (Unity Stamp Co)

Don't forget to come and join in on the fun! Upload your creations here! Friends with Flair peeps - why not use your Unity stamps on a layout or card to fulfill one of these challenges?

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Craft Lovin' "Anything Goes" Challenge + 2BG Sketch #6 = One Buggy LO

It's the "Anything Goes" challenge at Craft Lovin' Challenge Blog! Woot, woot! Fun, fun for everyone. You have until June 28th to submit a project. My favorite things to craft are 12x12 layouts, so I found myself a sketch and got to work.

 

[By the way, I love these 2 Broke Girls June sketches!]

 

 

And I had double the fun, using "Bumble Bee" papers from Tabitha's Designs. I tried something different this time and had her digital papers printed as photos - the colors were much sharper and brighter than that produced on my printer (which seems to inhale ink like there's no tomorrow).

 

Patterned papers (Tabitha's Designs, - "Bumble Bee"), cardstock (The Paper Company), silver glitter paper (Fancy Pants),
glitter alphabet (Making Memories), Quickutz dies

I don't know about you, but I was really happy with how beautifully the digital papers contrasted with the black paper. And obviously, I was tickled pink with Tabitha's "bee" papers - they're so cute!

Okay, remember you have until June 28th to get a project submitted for this challenge. The winner gets some free digis from Crafty Sentiments Designs or a digi pack from Tabitha's Designs!

Challenge Friday at 3MG

I'm here again to present another wonderful sketch from 2 Broke Girls Challenge Blog.

I love their sketches! You can join in their month challenges at the 2BG forum (you'll have to register before you can join in, but it's all free!) - and don't forget to check out my {Cookie Cutter Challenge}, which challenges you to fussy cut! You can see my sample layout at this blog post.

 

 

And here's my take on it...

 

Patterned papers (Trinity Paper Arts "Making the Team"), Thickers (AC), epoxy stickers (Colorbok), distress ink (Tim Holtz - walnut stain)

Since I'm trying to use up my stash, I decided to use a "vintage" piece on the layout - I had purchased a bunch of epoxy stickers a few years ago on Ebay, when they were the rage.

 

 

Cardstock & kraft (Bazzill), felt border (Queen & Co), chipboard (misc), bling (MME "Dear Santa"), distress ink (Tim Holtz - Festive Berries and Walnut stain), black ink (Memories, Inc)

Last but not least, it's Friday, which means it's time for Unity Stamp Company's weekly "Friends With Flair"! I used  stamps from the "We Treasure You" (the hearts) and a sentiment from "How YOU doin'?" sets. This week's submission was my entry for Cocoa Creations' Challenge #3 "Raspberry Dessert" - I'll also be entering it at Seize the Birthday, since I used their sketch. In the meantime, don't forget to check out the terrific garage sale at Unity!

Love Sketches?

It's an exciting weekend for me, since I'm debuting my first projects as a Design Team member for two challenge blogs. I've posted here for Craft Lovin Challenge Blog. This particular post is to showcase 2 Broke Girls Challenges - their design team call caught my eye, because the forum provides four sketches for inspiration. Let me tell you - these sketches ROCK! Each of the DT members (we are called "Decorators", but the two head honchos are "Bakers") also post their own monthly challenge - most provide a RAK, so those of you who love challenges AND sketches should definitely check this forum out! June challenges are here.

 

For my 4-month term, I chose fussy cutting as my theme and Tabitha made this incredible challenge header for me... I love it!!!

 



For June, my challenge is for you to incorporate fussy cut swirls or flourishes into your project. For full details, check out my thread here at 2BG. You should also post your projects at that thread (not here).

 

Here is my sample project... I hope you'll come and play with us at 2 Broke Girls!

 

 

Patterned papers (Bo Bunny Jazmyne collection), stickers and bling (Making Memories)

 





Challenge Friday - Cocoa Creations #2 & Friends with Flair

Cocoa Creations Challenge #2 was hosted by the famous DeeDee Catron, owner of the blossoming UmWowStudio. DeeDee is an amazing artist AND entrepreneur - and a former fellow CC DT member, so naturally, I'm especially fond of her. One of the things I love best about DeeDee is her fabulous sketches! Here is the one she designed for this week...

 

 

And here's my take on it...

 

 

Echo Park Happy Days paper & diecut stickers, Bazzill cardstock, Sassafras Lass diecut flowers, Little Yellow Bicycle diecut flower border, AC Thickers, Recollections ladybug brads, MM pewter brads, heart clip (unknown), stamps (Unity Stamp Co), marker (Spectrum Noir & Micron)  

And by the way, since I'm linking this up with Unity Stamp Co's "Friends with Flair" Fridays, I'm posting a picture of the prize (grab bag of 100 stamps) I received earlier this week (some peeps had requested a picture). I have quite the growing collection, so I was very pleased to discover that 90% were totally new to me. :) That just goes to show you what an incredibly vast collection of stamps that Unity Stamp Company has! Which reminds me... there's another great promotion going on this week - as always! Thank you, Unity Stamp Co!!! :)

 

Happy Friday, everybody, and hope you have an amazing weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

 

P.S. Tomorrow is my first Craft Lovin Challenge Blog project post - I hope you'll return later to check it out! There will be two challenges a month with fun prizes!

 

Unity Layout Challenge (again)

If you're looking for Julie's Celebrate Friendship Blog Hop - it's the next post, or you can click here.

 

Hi, folks! Sorry for repeating myself, but apparently I can't use the same link for two separate Unity {Inspiration} challenges, so I am re-posting the layout I created for it. Here is the original sketch...

And here's my take on it!

 

 

Patterned papers (Cosmo Cricket Little Boys Biography), kraft paper (Carta Bella), cardstock (Carta Bella), Quickutz License Plate alphabet, Tim Holtz distress ink (festive berries & walnut stain), MM colored staples, Stickles (icicles), AC Precision Pen (black), Unity stamps, Spectrum Noir markers

 

Love the look of the stamps against the kraft! I'm going to have to get used to this background stamping idea!

Welcome to Julie's Friendship Blog Hop!

Hello and welcome!  I've joined forces with my fellow CC DT member and friend Julie, to "celebrate friendship" this weekend - along with the anniversary of her blog. Woohoo, Julie! Visit each of her friends along the way and if you leave comments, you can win blog candy from some.

You should have arrived here from Angeline's blog. If not, you will probably want to begin at the first blog, as not to miss any scrappy goodness, which is Julie's blog. She has organized this fantastic "friendship-themed" blog hop to inspire you - and conveniently, it starts on a Friday. And why is this important...?

 

Friday's are known as Unity's "Friends with Flair" day, where people link up their Unity Stamp projects. Unity has also begun a new monthly challenge - you can submit projects following a card sketch, layout sketch, or a selected color theme. For more details, check it out here.

 

So here's Unity's card sketch...

 

Here is my take on the card sketch. For me, it was a big step to stamp directly on the background paper. I hate to make mistakes! I love these washi stamps! 

 

Patterned papers (Carta Bella Paris Girl papers), journaling block (CB Paris Girl diecut sticker), Tim Holtz distress ink (Festive Berries & Walnut Stain), bling (MME "Dear Santa" rhinestones), Unity stamps, Spectrum Noir markers

 

Ever since I started doing the Seize the Birthday challenges, I've been trying to make more masculine cards as well. So, here's my take on the same sketch, but with a masculine twist. I also tried clear embossing on this card - I like how it adds a subtle touch to the background!

 

Patterned papers (Authentique Loyal), Tim Holtz distress ink (walnut stain), Cosmo Cricket rub-ons, MM pewter brads, AC Zing! embossing powder (clear

finish), Unity stamps, Spectrum Noir markers

 

 

And here is the sketch for layouts...

I love to make 12x12 layouts - but I've never really stamped on the background paper before, so this was really a challenge for me. I did end up stamping the top washi stamps on paper first, so that I could staple them to the page (it wouldn't have had the same effect, had it been stamped directly).

 

Patterned papers (Cosmo Cricket Little Boys Biography), kraft paper (Carta Bella), cardstock (Carta Bella), Quickutz License Plate alphabet, Tim Holtz distress ink (festive berries & walnut stain), MM colored staples, Stickles (icicles), AC Precision Pen (black), Unity stamps, Spectrum Noir markers

Why did I choose my little girls for a friendship page? They are separated by two years (they both had the exact same due dates!) and extremely close. They truly are each other's best friends! I hope they feel that way about each other forever, but who knows?

The journaling reads, "Having a sister is like having a best friend you can't get rid of. You know whatever you do, they'll still be there." I thought the quote was a perfect way to describe their relationship. They may fight like crazy at times, but their love for each other is intensely fierce.

Hey, did you know that it's cropchocolate.com's 4th anniversary? They're celebrating by giving you $10 crop credit (to spend on your next order) if you order by March 2nd! Free shipping over $60!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog! I hope you'll become a follower & leave a comment about whether or not you prefer to make cards versus layouts! Your next stop will be Brenda's blog.

Goooooaaaaaal!

We had a tremendously busy week, since both of the girls had their soccer games during the weekday evenings (rather than on Saturday), in addition to practice. We are very proud to announce that Miss Marika scored her very first goal ever on Thursday! Woohoo! We think that offering her $10 for her first goal (the others will be less!) might have had something to do with it, but - whatever works! She was on fire - I swear, we didn't know she could run that fast or that hard - she was all over the place, chasing the ball and being shockingly aggressive. There was one unfortunate moment where a little girl on the other side decided to shove Marika (after the ball had gone out of bounds) for fun. "Hey, " I said to her. "That's not nice! Don't push!" Marika, of course started to tear up. I told her after the game, that the best revenge against mean soccer people is to get the ball and score! Yay!

The worst thing about night games is... it is impossible to take any good pictures on our camera. Bummer...

Here's Marika enjoying a few minutes of relaxation... (no, she did not fall off)...

We've had a huge bumper crop of tomatoes this summer (all from renegade tomato plants - I didn't have to plant ANY this year) and finally, we got around to making some capellini pomodoro using this recipe. Instead of canned tomatoes, I grabbed a ton from the garden (along with some basil) and - despite having to peel all of those tomatoes - it was pretty darn good!

Cardstock (Bazzill, Remember When, the Paper Company), rhinestones (Creative Cafe), bling butterflies (YSS), acrylic black square (American Crafts), sheer ribbon (Maya Road), buttons (Autumn Leaves), diecut title (Quickutz)

YSS had their biannual blog hop and FINALLY, I won a $10 GC today. Woohoo! So, I'm off to go shopping. But before that, here's my submission for their September sketch challenge. Their guest designer was Julie Bonner, who is an amazing sketch artist. She previously created a challenge site called 52 Sketches 52 Weeks. If you hurry, leave a comment on her 9/25/10 post (by tomorrow night) for a chance to win a $10 GC to YSS!

One Mother's Dream May Be Another Mother's Horror

Yesterday, the girls and I finally had time after my soccer game (a miserable defeat, I confess) to rush over to Daddy Dude's baseball game. There he is, leading off first base after hitting a single (his team, too, ultimately suffered another miserable defeat). I was kind of hoping he'd try to steal a base so I could get some good pictures, but alas... he did not do so... =P

The girls usually don't watch Daddy Dude very closely, although Mika is starting to pay attention to the finer details of baseball games. Here is my littlest one, rummaging through the grass for ladybugs. I know I'm one of the few, the lonely, the proud, but it makes me so happy to see her searching intently for insects. I'm so glad neither of my girls are "girly girls" and that they both enjoy playing outdoors for long stretches of time - you know, the way we used to when we were kids! After the game, the girls played outside with their pool - and new water launchers. Yeah!

But slowly but surely, the girls are growing up. As you can see, we allow them to exercise full fashion freedom (well, maybe 98%). Regardless of their attire, though, they never let it stop them from doing what they want.

Burst of productivity...

It's been a little busy over here (Daddy Dude is having a work function party here tonight - at least it's catered! - but we've been frantically cleaning the house) but I managed to get a couple of layouts done over the last couple of days... thank heavens for sketches! Both sketches are from yourscrapbookstore's blog.

I rotated this one CCW 90-degrees...

Patterned paper (Heidi Grace), cardstock (unknown), flower (Prima), rhinestones (Bazzill), rick rack (Bazzill), foam (unknown), alphabet stickers (Making Memories), mirror (unknown), diecuts (Quickutz)

I shifted things around just a little bit... but I was still troubled by this layout. I never liked the orange/black color theme for the Orioles (too-Halloweeny looking).

Cardstock (Bazzill), diecut border (Bazzill), diecut frames and letters (Quickutz), epoxy stickers (Colorbok), baseball sticker (Paper House)

Silly Is, As Silly Does

Sometimes, the girls are just a bunch of goofballs... but I sure do love hearing them chortle with laughter!

Patterned paper (Basic Grey - Obscure), newspaper flower embellishment (Junkitz),
twill ribbon (Provo Craft Et Cetera), cardstock stickers (S.E.I.), ink (Cateye chalk),
sequin ribbon (unknown)

The other entomologist in the house...

Today, Marika and I went to volunteer at Mika's library and on the way back through the front office, found a new friend to bring home. He was missing one leg (obviously not a good sign) and when we got home to google information on how to keep him alive, learned that he was probably on his way out anyway, due to the time of year. Even as I type, he is on his back, suffering through the throes of death, the poor thing! That was really too bad... I've been thinking that I should help Marika create some sort of terrarium to house critters and teach her a little bit about plant biology... a project for the future! Oh, but did I mention that I cannot keep plants alive unless they're being watered by automatic sprinklers...?

Marika came to me this evening and said that next year, she wants to be a butterfly. Not just ANY old butterfly, but that Mika had kindly MADE her a butterfly costume. And here it is... they are upstairs coloring it right now... gee... I wonder how long it will stay intact (it is being held together by tape and staples!).

As a scrapbooker, it warms my heart to see my girls being creative with paper, scissors and glue/tape. They could play in "the fun room" (that's what we call where the scrapbooking/crafts supplies and work area is) for hours! Of course, it's always a mess afterwards, but... I look forward to their scrapbook creations - they'll get their first ones to work on this Christmas!

What we do around here for fun...!

Today was the day Mika's fund-raising products came in. Inside our box was Mika's "prize" - a pair of "funny glasses". The girls chortled quite a bit when they saw themselves wearing them... what a bunch of goofballs!

And speaking of fun, Daddy Dude's baseball team played their first playoff game on Sunday - soundly whipping the third place team (his team was in second place). Next Sunday is the championship game for first place!!! And then... the next season begins.

I'm kind of bummed, because the girls and I will probably miss the game, since I'm playing soccer at the same time. When Daddy Dude doesn't come to the games, I end up playing soccer while frequently glancing at the sidelines to see what the girls are up to (every once in awhile, I have to holler, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP THAT!" but for 99% of the time, they are great). They have a lot of fun, because another player has two girls that are close to their ages and they play together very nicely.

We won last Sunday (yay!) but it was a close game. That same referee who threatened to throw me out the first game officiated our game again, which made me very nervous. He didn't call a foul when somebody whacked me over (one second I was running down the field with the ball and the next thing I knew, I was flying through the air). He later came up to me and admitted that he botched the call. I've NEVER heard of a referee admitting to a mistake. WOW. I was floored. How could I resent him after that? =)

Double Trouble

Supplies: patterned paper (Me & My Big Ideas), diecut letters (MAMBI), epoxy stickers (Joann's), stamp (Autumn Leaves), white embossing powder (Hero Arts), white pen (Uniball Signo), ink (Versacolor)

My sister-in-law once told me never to dress my girls in matching clothes. We were very careful to heed her advice, since she had suffered through this during her childhood. You could imagine our surprise when she started giving our girls matching clothes! She said she just couldn't resist. Well, at least she has good taste in clothes... =)

This summer especially, the girls LOVE to match. It's not our doing, really! I love that they're so close and love each other so much... hope it lasts forever! I can't tell you how many times people have come up to us and asked, "are they twins?" Whuh?! Usually, of course, the girls are sitting down when people ask (otherwise the height difference is a dead giveaway!),

Let's see how long this phase lasts...

What a beautiful sight!

Rain! Beautiful, beautiful rain! And lots of it! A thunderstorm rolled through our area this afternoon... hopefully enough to put out the Oak Glen III fire (I think the Yucaipa one has been extinguished).. and hopefully it rained a lot on the Station Fire as well... keep your fingers crossed!

And here's another peek into the mind of a preschooler. The shoe store was out of flip flops (are we the only family to wear them year-round?), so Marika chose these blingy silver shoes instead (her previous pair had been glittery pink). They're so shiny! I can tell that when she wears them, she's noticeably happier. Ah, the wonders of pretty shoes!

Isn't this duck cute? You wouldn't believe the hassle it was to get him! Mika's school already began its fundraising and each family had 2+ weeks to return the forms. Every day, Mika would ask, "When are you going to turn in the order form?" Of course this got to be annoying and finally I asked, "Why? Why do you care so much?" Apparently, once you turned in your order form, you got at least one duck on a lanyard - the more you sold, the more ducks you got to wear. To further entice students to guilt their parents into selling more, the principal would randomly select people (wearing their ducks) for more prizes.

Well, last week I finally turned in the order form, sealing everything inside the given packet. And then, we waited. And waited. And waited some more. But... no duck! When I asked Mika, she said she no longer cared about the duck (?!) and then she'd say, "Oh, I'm sure I'll get it tomorrow." Well, after almost a week and no duck, I finally asked the teacher, who said she had sent the entire packet (with the duck coupon) up to the office. So, we trudged on to the office, where all the PTA people had already left. The office people were very kind, though, and instructed me to write a note explaining my woes. So, I did.

I looked up when I heard the secretary gently reprimanding somebody for standing up - and there was Miss Mika, standing on the bench inside the office! I was so embarrassed! Then (even though I was writing as quickly as I could), the girls disappeared from sight. Totally. Utterfly. Completely. Just gone. Although... I could hear some giggling and knew they were somewhere nearby. Then I heard a bystander say, "oh, you're hiding from your mother?" Yup, my children were hiding in the office, while I was doing my best to get her that silly duck! Talk about being ungrateful - and bad!

Anyway... all is well that ends well. When we picked Mika up this afternoon, she sauntered out happily, swinging her duck lanyard. Never mind that she later madly swung it around and let it go so it whacked onto the pavement. Never mind that she put it on the doorknob and accidentally slammed the duck with the door. *sigh*

And oh yeah, did I mention that Mika was supposed to take the duck coupon and turn it in during recess for her duck? And that she KNEW that? But didn't do it? Or tell me that that was protocol?

*sigh* Well, at least it's a cute duck...but this school stuff is making me tired. Yesterday, the teacher told me Mika had cried during class... because she said she missed her little sister! I was sure something bad must have happened earlier during the day to make her more sensitive, but nope - Mika insisted that she had had a good day and just missed Marika. Well, that's sweet, but... *sigh*

Opening Day (Softball)

Today was "Opening Day" for Mika's softball league. Her first game isn't for another week, but there was a lot of hooplah today - the teams just got their uniforms a couple of days ago - so everybody got dressed up in their team finery and met at the ballpark for a long ceremony. WOW, there sure were a lot of kids. There are different levels (based on age) within the league, so there were at least 3-4 other teams with the same uniform - they were just bigger or smaller!


Because S. had to leave for work early (and is stuck there until 10 pm), I took the girls to the ballpark EARLY because I hate to parallel park. I suppose I could, if pushed, but I don't want to risk hitting someone else's car... oh, could you just imagine the utter humiliation?! So we parked way far away in a perfect spot, so when it was time to leave - we just zipped outta there. Yah!

But because we were there early, the girls had to occupy themselves... I liked this picture of Mika because you can read the writing on the ball...

I only brought one chair (for Marika) because I wouldn't be able to survive the morning if I had to carry her and a bunch of other stuff. As things turned out, the girls had so much fun playing with the chair - that they broke it. *sniff, sniff*

So more softball pictures next Saturday! Woohoo!