Little bit crafty!

Man, it's been SO long since I've been crafty! Crafting used to be my life. Then life got in the way! I'm not complaining because I've been very busy with Kaitlyn being in Kindergarden and helping alot there, Girl Scouts take alot of time, keeping Kassel entertained, etc etc, I do miss scrapping and crafting but theres been lots of other great things going on!
I joined a die cut swap on my scrapbook message board, which I have been badly neglecting. These are the goodies I made for that. I still need to work on one more category but having problems coming up with something. I don't love the lollipops, but the rest of them I'm really happy with! Oh I just noticed you cant see the details on the mermaids face! there is a face on her! lol


Then I decided to make something for myself! I love crafting but I very rarely make stuff for myself or my house for some reason. I love giving gifts to people so besides my scrapbook pages I don't usually make stuff for myself. Since I'm going to be teaching (I still cant believe I'm saying that!) I decided I needed an altered clipboard! I used to make and sell them, usually around the holidays but sometimes for the beginning of the school year, but this one is for me! I was aiming at doing the colors in our classroom (pink, green and blue) but then it was going to be pink and green, and then turned into black, white and pink. I LOVE it! Here's the front (that will usually be covered and cant have much detail or makes it hard to write on)

and the back (the pretty side that people will see when your holding it)

What do you think? Theres one thing I wish I added to it, but of course I'm my own worst critique!
Now don't go on expecting to see more crafty stuff! I don't see when I will have time, but thats defiantly where my heart is and I hope to eventually balance my life so I have more time for it! Until then, theres my craftiness.... signing out!

Rise to the Challenge

The scrapbook board I am on had a challenge while ago and I'm not sure if I ever shared the layouts or not, so here's a little blast from the past. Why? Well, because were doing it again and its so much fun, really pushes me to do more, less, or just plain something different.

Rise to the Challenge Round 1 Challenge 1

Simon Says
You all remember how to play right?! Have fun!!

Simon Says to use CS as your LO Base
Simon Says to use 3 PPs
Simon Says to use Buttons
Simon Says to use anything to attach your items to the paper
Simon Says to Distress your photos
Use ink to distress it
Simon Says to use ‘White Space’
Simon Says to Use 2 Photos

Sounds like fun right? HA! ok, so these aren't fun... well.... kinda! Its hard to explain, I have a love hate relationship with these kind of challenges. So this one my problem is that I DONT DO WHITE SPACE. I just dont, I love other peoples white space layouts, me I think I have done like 3 and yes all for challenges! lol I just dont do them! This is what I came up with:

and my score: 37 out of 50
Judges Comments:
~Cute LO, I like how you cut circles from the 3rd pp. The while space got covered up by all the buttons though, so not really ‘space’ anymore. The picture of your family is too cute!
~Kat - I love how you placed your buttons and pp circles around your pics, like champagne bubbles! I think this is one of my favorite LO's that I've seen of yours. Great job!!
~Love the circles and buttons. I think you should have had more white space, though. There isn’t much on this LO. Great choice to use the Celebrate pp.
~Love your overall creativity on this LO. The buttons and circles really flow well and help balance the white space. Love the bright colors and your use of a title. Glad you tried the distressing technique; however, it really doesn’t stand out and set your photos apart. Overall, it’s a really creative and neat LO!
~Nice work!!

Chellenge 2
Add Challenge!
Take this add and copy it in your layout.

And:
You must include a clear object on your LO (ie. recycle some plastic packaging, ghost shape..etc)
You must use at least 1 punch on your page (be creative!)
You must treat the Ad as a LIFT (not just inspiration of colors etc.)

I REALLY don't like add challenges, but I tried my best to 'lift' every aspect.
Here is my layout

And my score: 40 out of 50
Judges Comments:
~Awesome job. I love the flowers!!!!!!!! Great use of the punch too creative!
~Cute flowers and great job following the ad as a lift. I think the pictures are way too small though. Cute title!
~I like how you layered the pics on top of the flowers! Very cute. I would have liked to see more contrast between the middle pp and the bottom pp. Love how you layered the flowers and placed them on either side of your title.
~The greens don't seem to match in this LO. I like how you used the pics as the flower centers. Cute title.
~Very sweet LO!

Challenge 3
Focus on the picture!
Create a LO that the Photo(s) are the center of attention! Make sure your Photo is the focus of the LO. Higher points if you can add close up detail to your Photo by focusing in on one area of the main photo with an additional close up photo.Other requirements:
Technique - Doodling, you must doodle on your page....be creative!
Your page must include a pocket
Must include an arrow on your LO

Ok, Doodling is not my favorite thing to do but besides that I dont have much to complain about this challenge! Shocking huh?
Here is my layout:

My score- 34 out of 50
Judges Comments:
~Very cute LO. Perfect use of the close up pic!
~I love your arrow! The distressing and coloring, and the ribbon and pins on it, are perfect.
~love the papers, love the 2 different Thickers you used. Like the stick pins. The pocket seems out of place, however. I think the circle picture should have been matted.
~You did a great job on the arrow!

Then after that I had no creative juices anymore and the craziness at home caught up to me, so I didnt continue. I plan on doing this current series of challenges to the end. But here I am with one due today and nothing even started! Hope I get some motivation to do it soon! Wish me luck!

Clear out the old!

SoCalScrap has decided to clear out about 90% of my store.
There are huge discounts! HUGE!
You don't even have to worry about the shipping because all the money you save will cover it and more!



Check out all of the sales categories.
EVERYTHING .25 cents !!!!
EVERYTHING .50 cents!!!

$1 bin - Everything is $1!

****20% Off Sale
****30% Clearance Sale
****40% Clearance Sale!
****50% Clearance Sale!
****60% Clearance Sale!

Even if something is not on sale, you will always save at least 10% off the MSRP.
You can't go wrong at SoCalScrap.us!
Come and get your scrap supplies now before someone beats you to it.

Valentines

Considering its Valentine week, figured I would change up the blog a bit... might help me get into the mood! lol Valentine Day isn't usually anything special. Ken isn't the flower, chocolate, card kind of guy. I've gotten used to that. I usually buy myself something I want and tell myself Ken got it for me! lol Not to mention my birthday is the day after Valentine day and since all the restaurants and hotels are usually way too crowded we don't usually do much for that either. This year at least I can try to create something for Kaitlyn's class's. Not too much into that kind of mood right now either tho! lol We shall see what I come up with!

What I'm hoping for Valentine day and my birthday is a get away to the Scrapbook Expo in Costa Mesa! I went last year with my friend Erica and Andrea and had a BLAST! Got alot of goodies, made alot of make and take and just all and all had a great time with friends. Last year tho the expo was right after my birthday so I had plenty of birthday money to spend, this year... not so much. So I don't know if I'm going or not.. I cant tempt myself and go with out any money!

Scrappy Stuff

I am hosting 2 challenges at SoCalScrap
First one is a Layout sketch challenge provided by my friend Andrea


I need to retake a picture of my layout from this sketch as the picture is really bad. I'll try to get it up soon!

Also a card sketch challenge sketch provided by my friend Shanna

This is my card created with that sketch, pretty simple but I had fun with it. I played with some felt and the fiskars edge punch, and some foam and a stick pen!


A few other layouts from other challenges:

Retreat Layouts

I want Candy! Blog Candy!

Stop by and say to Kim over at Crafty Makes she has an AWESOMe blog giveaway with some very cool Basic Grey paper and lots of embelishments!

Also Melissa has an amazing giveaway too over at Ink-Clinations!

More, More, More!

Angie over at 7 Clown Circus is having an amazing bracelet giveaway

thats all I got so far, but I will let you know if I find more! :)

ETA- One more!
The Crafty Crow has a great giveaway for a kids messenger bag! SO cute!!! Stop by anc heck it out and tell her Kat sent you!

Retreat

Friday morning I packed the car, we got Kaitlyn to school, showed Ken how to pick her up, kissed the kids, got some gas, and then after this is when the trip got started!


Then we got there and got settled, this was scraproom for weekend.

And this was our view

Can't wait!

MySpace Countdown Clocks

AND

MySpace Countdown Clocks

More Giveaways!

Scrapperlicious is giving away some mini clear albums on her blog! I cant wait to see what else they have at CHA but I would LOVE to win these, wouldn't you??

AND

SocalScrap is giving away some awesome Valentine goodies!

Productive weekend

I have been kinda been busy and not blogging lately, had alot on my plate.

This weekend was a very nice productive weekend. Sat was pretty kick back stuff we normally do. Sunday Ken had a kids birthday party that he took the kids to while I went shopping and attended my step sisters bridal shower. It was fun hanging out with old friends and family. And I was able to scrap some pages to complete my LOAD (layout a day) for January.

Then this extra day to the weekend I was able to finally take down, box up and put away all the Christmas stuff. Clean up the garage a bit, package up the recycling for my nephew. Then I made it back to the scraproom and worked on some layouts for Scrapper's Cafe so she could make kits. AND I think I finished packing kits for the retreat this weekend!

WHEW!

I'm BEAT!

NOW.... only 3 more days until I'm OUTTA here!!!

Heading up north along the coast for a nice weekend of friends and scrapping... my kind of getaway!!!! Then thats not the end of the awesome weekend, I have to leave early sunday morning to head to Anaheim Convention Center for CHA!!!!! If you dont know what it is then you probably wouldnt be excited for me, but Im SO VERY excited to go!

My friend Kelsy is doing a giveaway of some goodies from her etsy store. I hate when people do giveaways but want you to blog about them because that just lowers your chance of winning! lol oh well, I'll do it for her! Look at these awesome earings and cute charm! Love it all! Go give her some love!

Some holiday crafts....

Heres some holiday gifts I'm just now getting around to show off!
Picture frames for each of her teachers with a picture of the class. Picture frame for one of the school directors who oraganized yet another great christmas performance. Sillouette pictures of my friends 3 kids. I love how these look! I was torn on weather to leave them plain or add monograms. I left them plain and figured we could add monograms later of she wants them on. I think its cool being able to recognize each kids without their names or monograms on it!



I know I have more but I guess I didnt take pictures of all the crafts I made for people, oh well! Hope they enjoy them!

Year in Review

SoCalScrap is having a really cool challenge to make a layout with a picture from each month a Year in Review layout. I had never thought of it but I LOVE the idea! I might try to go back and do it for past years too! It was kinda difficult for me to fir all 12 pictures in but all and all I'm really happy with it!

Modpodging everything in sight!

Wow, how this last week flew by! I havent posted in a whole week! It's horrible! So I guess this post can work for Angie's Wordful Wednesday! WooHoo! If you have a chance check her out at 7 Clown Circus and show her some love!


I want to share of the stuff I did before but wasnt able to show off yet.
First of all meet Lizzy....

She is so cute and so sweet. She was made just for Kelsy I think she found a great home, even tho she is dearly missed!
Here are a few of the SS gifts..


Then I got hooked on playing with foam and felt. I even made some felt flowers into a really cute hair clip... but dont have a picture of it! Sorry!


I made a few notebooks, all a bit different. I think they were pretty cute.

I made some perpetul calanders to keep track of birthdays and anniversarys. I LOVED this idea! Bonnie showed it to me, she found it on a blog somewhere!


Then I got busy working on xmas and baby shower gifts! I started Mod podging everything! Made some cute wipe boxes for baby shower gifts, purses and craft kit containers for xmas gifts. Whew... what a day!


Im now out of mod podge and no pictures to scrap... guess its time for a Walmart trip...

Anyone Etsy?

I've been considering opening an Etsy store but when I make something its SO hard for me give it away! This are my most recent creation:
My Holiday planner:

I'm always so unorganized with gifts for the holidays, i buy and buy (or make and make) but then don't have a plan on whats for who and of course end up forgetting someone so have to run out last minute for supplies to make something for just a last minute gift. This year I plan on being more organized! I started this with the idea of giving it to a friend but I fell in love with it! So this one is ALL MINE, but if you need one let me know ;)The inside and the back is done to match and the inside of the front cover has a pocket.

Ok I was going to post my other two but one is for a SS and the other is a surprise, on its way to its new home. Once she gets to her new home I will show her off!

All Day Crop!

OMG, what a great time! We spent about 10 hours straight scrapping! I feel bad because I didnt socalize with many others but I was busy scrappin'! In 10 hours I got 14 layouts done! WooHoo! I did alot more prepwork for this crop then I did for the retreat and it really paid off! Here's what I got done!

Thanks for looking!!!

Croppin'!

WooHoo! Today is MY DAY...
Well, im a few hours early so if you read this friday night its not today, its saterday! lol

I'm going to an ALL DAY CROP hosted by the girls at SoCalScrap with my friend Andrea! So excited! Let see if I get any pages done! lol Maybe I will just go and relax! Naaa who am I kidding heeck yea I'll be scrappin!!
Hope to post a bunch of layouts soon!
Hope you all have a great weekend too!
Hugs!

Layout challenge

Grace on SoCalScrap is hosting journaling challenges each month. Octobers challenge was Your Life Long Dream If your interested in playing it isn't due until Nov 9th! Come play! Here is my entry. I had a hard time getting a decent picture, sorry!

This morning I woke up to a very cool email saying that I was selected for the Design Team for the local scrapbook store, Scrapper's Cafe! It was about a month ago that she made the Design Team call, and I thought 'What the heck I'll try for it!' I seriously thought there was no chance on being picked. I scrap for me, for my family and sometimes for friends but mostly just because I love to do it! So I sent in all my info, my bio, all the links to my online scrapbook galleries as well as my blog and then pretty much forgot about it! Then today, I wake up check my phone and BAM I got a very exciting email saying I was selected for the Design Team! I am very excited, very surprised and yet very nervous!

Stop over and say hi to Angie and check out other WordFull or Wordless Wednesdays!