CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS ARE SUGARY SWEET

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the inspiration behind this RCS challenge.  I'm one of those seasonal scrapbookers....I don't scrapbook chronologically; I go with what motivates me at the time.  And with my gazillion Christmas pictures right now, that's what motivates me!  And I knew just the pictures I wanted to use for this challenge; our structurally sound gingerbread house!  It's been a tradition for my girls to build a gingerbread house every year.  Now, this isn't your normal, edible gingerbread house....this house can withstand all sorts of natural disasters ranging from an accidental dropping to an attack by the dog.....Why you ask?  Because Daddy uses the caulking gun instead of icing.....So while it looks deliciously good, it would really do a number on your teeth and intestinal tract.  Once I decided on the pictures, I searched through my growing stash of paper and found the cutest Doodlebug design Christmas paper with gingerbread men & peppermint sticks on it; perfect for this challenge!  So that is the story behind this layout!

THE SANTA CLAUS CHALLENGE

As I look at this picture for the latest RCS challenge, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude that my children are alive.  I was trying to finish up this page when the horrific news hit the TV yesterday about the tragedy in Newtown, CT. These girls are my life.  I remember their first day of kindergarten.....they were so excited to ride the big girl bus.  They came home with little tags attached to their clothes that said, "I live at.....I ride bus..." in case they got lost.  As the weeks progressed, they came home singing silly songs, showing me beautiful pieces of artwork they created....My younger daughter even started reading on her own very early into her Kindergarten experience.  It was magical to watch them grow.  At Christmas time, they were so excited to visit Santa in their lunchroom (a tradition being featured in this layout).  As they progressed through the grades, my overwhelming sense of worry began to subside.  Nothing bad could happen to them at elementary school, right?....That all changed yesterday.  In summary, this was an extremely bittersweet page to make for this challenge.  I am so thankful that this morning I got to wake up with my two beautiful little girls alive and excited for Christmas.  I am so heartbroken for the innocence lost in this country.  And mostly, I am so incredibly saddened for the families who are facing the unimaginable in the upcoming days, weeks, months, years ahead......I guess in the words of the sticker found at the bottom of my page, we have to believe......Believe that something good will come from this sickening act of violence.  A colleague of mine posted this on her facebook page yesterday, and I think it's a good way to end this blog entry:
"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world.”
— Mister Rogers

SEASIDE ESCAPE

For this challenge for Red Carpet Studios, we were asked to make a movie based on "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."  I remember the first time I watched this movie.....I was in High School, I was at a basketball game on a Saturday night, my Dad picked me up early for some reason....I came home, plopped down on the couch, was flipping through the channels, and found this movie on HBO.  Little did I realize that a Christmas tradition began for me and my family.  It's not Christmas in the Thompson house (my parents) until this movie is watched at least once.  (And it already has been watched at least once this year and it's only November!)  I think we all can relate to Clark Griswold wanting his family to have the best Christmas ever, and it turns into a disaster.  While we have had some Griwoldesque Christmas' in my family (the worst was when my Dad went into the hospital on Christmas Eve with a kidney stone, my husband backed his truck out of our driveway to hit our neighbor's relative visiting from Washington, and our Christmas Eve dinner that we spent the entire day cooking being ate in another location because of all the mishaps....), I chose to focus on the "vacation" portion.  I took this picture of my daughter this past summer during our family vacation to Panama City, Florida.  We had a terrific time and fortunately, no Clark Griswold moments.  Before my old scrapbook store Simply Scrapbooks closed, I stocked up on this Fancy Pants beach paper.  I loved the swirly ocean water on the paper and decided it would look great with the picture of my daughter hanging out in the Gulf of Mexico.

LILA

This is the latest challenge I did for the Red Carpet Studio blog.  Our challenge was to create a layout based on famous movie animals.  Well, the most famous animal in our household is our chihuahua Lila.  She is a Diva with a capital "D".  She pretty much thinks everything revolves around her.  If you are sitting still, she will snuggle right up to your face making it impossible to type on the computer, play with the iPad, watch TV....Cesar Milan would have a field day with my Lila....So for this layout, I used Basic Gray's "Max and Whiskers" line of dog theme paper & found some of my favorite pictures of Lila doing what she does best; posing for her Mommy paparazzi!

THE TURKEY TOE BLOG HOP

Welcome to the Turkey Toe Blog Hop, brought to you by the design teams of Made Especially For You and Red Carpet Studio!

Today the design teams of Made Especially For You and Red Carpet Studio have teamed up to share with you all sorts of turkey-themed projects to help you get ready for Thanksgiving!

 If you've come from Tara's blog, you're in the right place.

 

 

For today's hop, I made...

 

For my turkey project, I decided to make a scrapbook layout of my favorite turkeys.....my two daughters.  I found this wonderful fall theme paper from Bella Boulevard at my local scrapbook store The Paper Cottage in Beavercreek, Ohio.  If you are a local, go check out this wonderful new piece of scrapbooking heaven in the Dayton area!  I hope you enjoy this blog hop, and wishing you all a safe, happy Thanksgiving!

We also have some wonderful sponsors giving away prizes to those who comment on every stop of the hop!

Paper Piecings by Nikki

$15 Gift Certificate

My Thoughts Exactly

$15 Gift Certificate

Floppy Latte Designs

$10 Gift Certificate

Prize Package from Scrappin' Fab Pam

Participants have through Sunday evening to hop. The winners of the blog candy will be announced on Made Especially For You on Tuesday November 13th. Please make sure to leave your contact information when commenting to be eligible to win!

Your next stop is Candice's blog.  Here's the complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:

Ashley - http://especiallymade.blogspot.com
Robin - http://www.thecricutscrapper.blogspot.com
Chas - http://scrapinlizards.blogspot.com/
Eileen - http://scrappingactuary.blogspot.com
Tara - http://craftindesertdivas.blogspot.com/
Stephanie J - http://sthom97093.blogspot.com/
Candice - http://stampinpearls.blogspot.com/

Kristy - http://scraptasticalkreations.blogspot.com
Dawn - http://dawnsworldnz.blogspot.com/

Laura - http://scrappinaroundtheclock.blogspot.ca
Cyndy - http://arcyscraps.blogspot.com

Pam - http://scrappinfabpam.blogspot.com
Jessica - http://craftinandstampin.blogspot.com

Happy Hopping!

1ST DAY LAYOUT

This is my latest Red Carpet Studio layout.  The theme was "Independent movies" or movies not made by a big studio.  So in the spirit of independent films which are typically low budget and not filled with special effects, we were to create a clean and simple layout.  No frills; just the scrapbooking essentials.  So for this layout, I used We R Memory Keepers "Hall Pass" double sided paper, a 5x7 picture of my girls on the first day of school, my Chestnut Roan cat's eye ink pad, letter stickers, adhesive, and that was it.  If you haven't tried one of our challenges yet, I encourage you to try this one.  I know that I sometimes get bogged down in trying to make grandiose layouts for every event I scrapbook. And when I get all frustrated when I feel like my page is lacking something, I stop and try to remind myself that I'm documenting the life of my children.  In 30 years, they aren't going to care if they had sparkly beads and 3-D embellishments on their pages.  I'm not saying never go all out on a page.....that's one of the most fun things about this hobby.  But sometimes, it's okay to be clean and simple. And this challenge really brought this home to me.

Welcome to the ABC Ransom Blog Hop, 

hosted by Red Carpet Studio!

If you've come from Candice's blog, you're in the right place.

The Red Carpet Studio designers thought it would be fun to host a mystery blog hop while showcasing projects that can be made using all those leftover letters in your stash - hence where the "ransom" comes in. Ransom notes play a huge role in mystery/suspense films, and are often created out of random letters cut from magazines, newspapers, etc. in order to disguise handwriting. 

While we won't be doing any kidnapping or holding anybody ransom today - we do have some creative projects to share with you!

For my project using leftover letters in my stash, I created...

 

When I learned about our "ABC Ransom" challenge, the first thing I thought of was text messaging.  Since words are abbreviated in texting, you don't need a whole lot of letters.  And luckily, many texting words/symbols use letters that are left over in my stash of alphabet stickers....

 

So, after I thought of text messaging, I remembered a picture of my daughter I took on my birthday two years ago.  She was sitting at my kitchen table with my cell phone, sunglasses perched on top of her head, acting like a big girl sending a text message to some random person in my contact list.  She thought she was hot stuff.....

 

This page actually came together very fast.  Since texting is so symbolic, I decided to pick papers for the project that are symbolic of my daughter.  Her favorite color is hot pink and almost everything she picks out for her room has a peace sign on it. That is how I initially started to build this page.  I had wonderful black chevron paper from Jillibean soup that is double sided with black dots, and I love black and hot pink together.  This paper then got added to the mix.  And to make my "text message" pop, I decided to use left over white American Craft thickers from my stash. 

 

When I showed this page to my husband, he said, "This may be my favorite page you ever made."  I asked him why.  He said, "Everything you did here is so Abbey....You couldn't have captured her better."  This made me feel pretty darn good since most of this project was made from leftovers in my scrapbooking stash.  It is possible!

 

Enjoy our Blog Hop!  We have some great prizes, and you may be shocked at what you can make from what's left over in your stash!

 

 

We're also holding some blog candy ransom! However, the blog candy is hidden, and only certain stops of the hop are hiding it. The only way you can win is if you comment on those blogs! Now, we're not going to tell you whose blogs those are (that would be too easy) but we will tell you what the prizes are!

Lettering Delights

$20 Gift Certificate

Floppy Latte Digital Designs

$10 Gift Certificate

Freckled Fawn

$10 Gift Certificate

There will be three winners. Please make sure to leave your contact information when commenting so we can contact you if you win. You have until next Saturday, November 3rd, to hop and comment. Winners will be announced with the start of our next layout challenge on Sunday November 4th at Red Carpet Studio.

And don't forget to check out this week's challenge at Red Carpet Studio! Our challenge this week is inspired by "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and the challenge is to create any fall or Halloween card.

Your next stop is Anneliese's blog.

Red Carpet Studio - http://redcarpetstudiochallenge.blogspot.com

Tara - http://craftindesertdivas.blogspot.com

Sandra - http://crea-sandra.blogspot.com/

Georgie - http://georgie-hornpuddinnpie.blogspot.com/

Dawn - http://dawnsworldnz.blogspot.com/

Tonya G - http://scrappingfunwithtonya.blogspot.com/

Chas - http://scrapinlizards.blogspot.com/

Stacy - http://www.vampirecraftin.com/
Stephanie G - http://www.luvscraps.blogspot.com/
Robin - http://www.thecricutscrapper.blogspot.com/
Candice - http://stampinpearls.blogspot.com/
Stephanie J - http://sthom97093.blogspot.com/
Anneliese - http://queen-of-the-crop.blogspot.com/

P.S. My letters are...P

If you can put all the letters together from each stop of the hop (they're in order), you have a chance to win a mystery prize! Once you've figured out our hidden message, email it to redcarpetstudiochallenge@gmail.com. The mystery prize winner will be announced with the other winners on Sunday November 4th. HINT: The message is a clue as to what our next layout challenge will be. :)

ABC BLOG HOP; LOL TEXT ME!

This is my first ever blog hop!  This should be interesting and lots of fun!  And I certainly loved the theme!  What to do with those random leftover letters......As I kept thinking of this challenge & my oodles of leftover letters, I kept thinking of texting.  And then I thought of a picture of my daughter when I caught her with my old cell phone.  She thought she was hot stuff texting away to some random contact of mine....Since then, I've upgraded to an iPhone, and I'm pretty sure she is more knowledgeable about the phone than I am...That is how this project came together!  I used left a bunch of my left over American Craft "Thickers" of different styles to put together this "text message" for my page.  Enjoy the blog hop!

THE RING; SOCCER PAGE

For this week's Red Carpet Studio challenge, we were asked to make a layout based on the movie "The Ring."  In other words, lots of circles.  I absolutely LOVE dot paper!  When I was on Simply Scrapbooks design team, Bo Bunny dot card stock was pretty much a staple on most of my layouts.  But I also wanted to use pictures that were circle themed as well.  My little girl tried soccer out for the first time this Fall, and had an absolute blast!  The new local scrapbook store that just opened in Dayton had a huge soccer ball sticker that I thought would be perfect for this layout as well.  So here it is!  Fall Soccer featuring my little "Mia Hamm!"

BOO! TRICK OR TREAT

This is my latest project;  the "Child's Play" challenge for the Red Carpet Studio blog.  The theme for this week was to create a layout based on the Child's Play movie title.  Only the title...no homicidal dolls...just a layout that either featured a child or a child inspired theme.  Well, I must admit, being the paperaholic that I am, I have a thing for Halloween paper.  It's my favorite type of paper to buy!  And I fell in love with the Pebbles Inc Tricks or Treats line that came out this year!  So I was looking for any excuse to use it....And I think my little witch getting ready to trick or treat on Halloween qualifies as a "Child's Play" themed project!

DISNEY CHALLENGE

For this week's Red Carpet Studio challenge, we had free reign to do anything we wanted as long as it was Disney related.  That was a challenge....because my girls absolutely LOVE all things Disney.  We have Disney channel on most days.  We've been to Disney World for their "Not So Scary" Halloween Party.  And  both girls have dressed up as Disney characters for many Halloweens.  So I had a plethora of Disney pictures to chose from for this project.  Thankfully I found a stash of my October Afternoon Sasparilla double sided paper and knew exactly what I wanted to do for this challenge; Toy Story!  When my oldest daughter was six and my youngest was two, they decided to be Jessie and Woody for Halloween; a perfect match to my October Afternoon paper!

SEEING STARS RCS LAYOUT

This is my latest layout layout for Red Carpet Studios Blog.  The layout is based on the sketch found below. This one came together much easier for two reasons; one because I was allowed to use words!  That and the fact I love having sketches to follow...(Although I typically tweak them a little which I did for this layout).  When I saw the stars, my thoughts immediately went to this past April when my daughter competed at a Figure Skating competition.  She was our "star" that day because she earned two gold medals; one in Basic figure skating elements and the other in her freestyle skate.  I was so incredibly proud of her!  Since the competition took place in April, I wasn't feeling winter themed paper....But Jillibean Soup's "Game Day Chili" was exactly what I had in mind.  It contained cute star paper that was perfect for my skating star.....And the Jillibean Soup "Soup Staples II" had the exact shade of green I had in mind when I was mentally laying out this design.  As a result, a star layout was born!  Enjoy!

SILENT LAYOUT FOR RCS

Here it is!  My first official layout for Red Carpet Studios!  Every challenge is movie related, and this challenge was inspired by "silent movies."  This challenge required making a layout without any words.  I knew this would be a tough one for me; I tend to have a lot to say....But that is what I love about this blog; it requires me to think outside the box.  So my first step was finding a picture that said a ton without saying anything at all.  And I found it....My daughter when she was two years old sound asleep with her beloved "Lamby."  The next challenge was finding the perfect paper that spoke volumes and yet contained no words....My choice was October Afternoon's Woodland Park double sided paper line.  Now I know I'm a bit biased, but I think my little girl is just the most angelic creature on Earth when she sleeps....and October Afternoon's cloud paper looked like what I imagine heaven looking like.  And then it came together....My silent layout!

RED CARPET STUDIOS PREMIERE!

I am so excited to be part of Red Carpet Studios Design Team!  This has been such a positive experience from the get go!  I've met so many talented paper artists who have created just amazing projects!  I'm so proud to be a part of this team!

To kick off our blog, Red Carpet Studio designers made projects with a "Premiere" theme.  When I applied for the design team, I talked about my love of all things Twilight.  And I can not even explain how excited I am for midnight on November 16, 2012 when Breaking Dawn Part 2 premieres.  (Even though I'm highly disappointed in Kristen Stewart's antics and hope I can look at Bella the same way......but this is a scrapbooking blog, not a gossip blog....)  Anyway, I thought about how much fun it would be to have a Twilight themed premiere party for all my fellow Twi-hards.  So my creative juices started to flow.......

So, for my first Red Carpet Studio project, I made an assortment of goodies for a Twilight premiere party; specifically an ode to Edward Cullen, my favorite immortal....My goodies include an invitation to my party, a votive filled with twilight inspired objects (apples, roses, crystal pebbles), a paper vase covered in twilight inspired papers from Die Cuts with a View, and a "swag bag" for all my friends attending the party.  Once I got started, I could not stop!  I kept thinking of Twilight goodies I could make like maybe altering a band-aid box for any freak paper cuts that could provoke Jasper.....decorating a "Sparkle" paper towel package, or perhaps spicing up the outside of the "Eclipse" gum wrapper....I eventually had to shut my brain down.

If you have any questions about how I did something, please feel free to send me a message.  And if you haven't already done so, follow Red Carpet Studios blog.  We have some great movie related themes coming up with prizes for award winning layouts!

HAVING A BALL

Add caption

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind....It's amazing how fast the last few weeks of summer fly by before the start of the school year.....The good news, I'm on a design team called Red Carpet Design Studio!  I am so excited!  It's a challenge blog where participants use movies as inspiration.  I can not wait to get started!  I am so happy to be back on a design team.  I love talking/working with people who share my love of all things paper!

So this is one of my latest pages I did for Child's Play prior to finding out about Red Carpet Studio Design Team.  The challenge asked for the designer to make a page with a beach ball theme.  I have a pool in my backyard, and  I have zero pictures of my girls with a beach ball......So I went with the circle/ball idea.  (As you can see; having a ball!)  This is my daughter on her 4th birthday; she was dancing with her friends, and I caught an action shot of her cool moves.

If you are following me, go on over to Red Carpet Studios.  For the premiere weekend, a Cuttlebug die cut machine will be given away to a lucky follower.  It's going to be a great blog; lots of fun and inspiration!

GO FISH SCRAPBOOK PAGE

For the final Child's Play challenge for the month of July, the card game "Go Fish" was the challenge toy.  I tend to over think scrapbook pages....this time, not so much.  I had the perfect pictures and paper for Go Fish challenge.

My daughter absolutely loves sharks; why....I have no clue.  Me, not so much.  Last year, we were in South Carolina for vacation, and a couple of fisherman caught baby black tip reef sharks off a pier near our condo. This scared me to death since sharks were obviously hanging out where we were swimming, but my daughter thought it was the coolest thing ever getting to hold one.

As for the sketch design, I got the idea from Sketches in Thyme website.  Once again, another awesome place to go for design ideas!  I tweaked the design a little to fit my needs & this is what I came up with for "Go Fish!"

RAINBOW ROW WATERCOLOR CHALLENGE

This challenge for Child's Play was posted while I was on vacation.  It always seems like my creative juices work overload when I'm away from home.  Probably one of those "absence makes the heart grow fonder" situations with my scrapbooking supplies....Anyway, my initial thought was doing a layout about a beautiful sunset.  Every once in a while, I capture one of those stunning sites in a photo where the sky is every shade of pastel imaginable.  I had every intention of doing a page involving a sunset, and began  thinking about colors to incorporate in the layout; specifically pastel colors.  And the more I thought of pastels, my mind began to shift gears.  Now I had visions of Charleston, South Carolina creeping into my mind.  And then the page was born....Rainbow Row on East Bay Street!

I tell my students that when I retire, they will find me in Charleston, SC.  It is my favorite city in the USA.  I love the history, the colors, the amazing food.....It's really like stepping back in time when walking around the city.  I love scrapbooking anything about my time in Charleston, and the papers I found to do this page reminded me so much of what I imagine the inside of those row houses looking like.

In addition, for this layout design, I used a template found on one of my new favorite blog spots; "Creative Scrappers."  So between the awesome sketch design I found on that blog and the inspiration derived from watercolors, this was the end result!

GOODNITE ABBEY LAYOUT

It's been a while since I've posted on here!  It's been a crazy couple of weeks between swim meets, parties, doctors appointments, vacations, etc., etc., etc.!  I'm glad things of slowed down a bit enough that I have time to scrapbook some and enjoy these last few weeks before school starts back up in August.

For this project, I used the Child's Play Challenge that used the classic book "Goodnight Moon" as inspiration.  I must be honest.....I have never read this book.  Being the creature of habit that I was (and still am), I tended to go for my tried and true favorites at bed time.  I guess I probably should read this book since I made a scrapbook page in honor of it!

When I started thinking about the challenge, I kept thinking about the mountains of pictures I have of my daughters sleeping.  I'm a sucker for a sleeping child picture.....So the Mommy paparazzi sometimes works overtime when they sleep.  As a result; I came up with this layout for the challenge this week.

SNO KONE PAGE

This is the latest page I did using the Child's Play Challenge as a guide.  It asked to make a page using the Snoopy Snow Cone machine for motivation.  Well, definitely had the perfect picture to make a page for this!  My brother in law loaned my girls an actual Sno Kone machine he bought at a baseball park.  They (with the help of their Dad) drag it down to the corner and sell Sno Kones to our neighborhood.  Definitely make more profit selling Sno Kones than lemonade

RUSH HOUR CHILD'S PLAY CHALLENGE

I made this page for the Child's Play Challenge blog yesterday.  It's so stinking hot here that going outside is just not an option....so scrapbooking and playing with paper has been our activity of choice at my house.  Not having a design team that I'm part of anymore (sniff sniff), I need some jumpstarts to get me going and inspired.  So I've been checking out the Child's Play challenge blog.  The first challenge for the month of July said to make a page using the game "Rush Hour" as inspiration.  I'm a child of the 70's-80's, and I don't remember this game.....But it does look like fun!  Reminds me of Tetris on a board.

 

Anyway, I had the perfect picture of cars that fit the challenge.  We went to the American Girl store in Chicago 4 years ago, and being from the Midwest, my husband and I had zero experience flagging down a taxi.  So my fearless 7 year old did it for us!  And was successful!  She not only stopped the taxi, but we took the one pictured back to our hotel!  Thanks Caitlin!

THIS IS TOO MUCH FUN!

So I've become a Pinterestaholic.....I love that site!  So does my daughter.....We've tried a variety of things featured on Pinterest which I will attach below.  But also, I found a site that showed how to make coasters for drinks out of bathroom tiles using scrapbook supplies!  OMG!  My younger daughter and I have been up to our elbows in mod podge in my scrapbooking room making coasters out of scrapbooking supplies!  We are having a blast; attaching the pictures of my patriotic coasters below.  (I'm a History teacher....inspired by the 4th of July....)  Have a safe holiday and Happy Birthday America!

Coasters!  Directions of how to make these are located at www.cottagehome.blogspot.com/2011/01/tile-coaster-tutorial.html

The Veggie Person.  I made this for my daughter's swimming/slumber/birthday party a few weeks back.  Idea came from Pinterest, but I altered slightly.

Rice Krispee sushi!  My daughter having the party said we just had to make these!  And the even cooler thing about them, they were safe to eat for my food allergic younger daughter!  I went outside and said, "Anyone want sushi?"  Of course, all the little girls yelled, "NO WAY!"  Until they found out they were Rice Krispee treats!  Once again, THANK YOU PINTEREST!

FINAL PROJECT FOR SIMPLY SCRAPBOOKS

  

This was my last project for Simply Scrapbooks' Design Team.....Sniff sniff.....I was scared to death of this project because I had never used Graphic 45 products before.  I like Graphic 45's paper, but honestly, it intimidated me.  So I decided to get out of my comfort zone and tackle this project.  And out of many of my kits for the design team, this one came together the quickest!  But the store was closing, and they didn't need it to display, so it's in my pile of "to file" scrapbook pages.  I liked it so much, I ended up making a similar page for a retirement gift for a teacher.  And then I ended up getting the Graphic 45 Wizard of Oz paper to scrapbook my "Wicked" pictures, tickets, and playbook.  I think I've successfully faced my fear of Graphic 45 paper!

CHILD'S PLAY DESIGN TEAM CALL

Today  was a bittersweet day in my paper life....my scrapbook store, (actually not mine but the scrapbook store that I loved and was a member of their design team) officially shut it's doors.  I've dreaded this day since I learned of the closing.....I loved being a member of the design team at Simply Scrapbooks.  I loved getting a kit and trying to figure out what to do with it.  I loved the creative outlet.....My scrapbooking hobby has been for the store for so long, that I've kind of forgotten how to scrap for me.  So I took a little scrap hiatus during my grieving process for the store.. The last page I made was on Mother's Day (I will post it tomorrow).  

So today, as I was perusing the Design Team Calls website, I found one for Child's Play Challenges.  The site gives you a toy, game, book, etc. (something child related), and you have to make a page based on the toy.  To be considered for the design team, the designer had to create a page based on my Dad's favorite toy from my childhood; the popcorn popper push toy.

My Mom always told me the story of how I would wake my Dad up on his only day off by going into their bedroom pushing my popcorn popper toy.  I was an awesome alarm clock evidently!   (My Dad didn't appreciate it, but I'm guessing he does now).  I'm really not a primary color kind of girl (which is basically the colors used in the popcorn popper push toy).  So I thought about it all day, and came up with the idea of the noise the toy makes.  And then I thought of  a picture I took about 2 weeks ago of my girls jumping into the pool... And then the creative juices started to flow again!  Pool bubbles/popcorn balls.  Noise from the toy/shouts of joy my kids make when school's out officially for summer.  So the scrapbook page below was born!  Make some noise!

I really enjoyed this challenge using a toy.  I needed something to get me out of this funk I've been in since learning of the store's closing.  So even if my design doesn't make the cut, it's my farewell to Simply.  It's been a fun ride!

STARTING MY PAPER TRAIL

Welcome to where I share my love of all things paper!  I've loved paper since I was a little girl.  I remember being at my Grandma's house and cutting little swatches of Christmas wrapping paper out from her rolls, organizing them into a binder, and calling it my "Paper Catalog."  Imagine my joy when I walked into a scrapbook store for the first time......I have definitely left a paper trail along the way, and I'm going to start leaving one here on this blog.  I hope you all enjoy my work!

This was one of the more fun paper lines I've worked with in the past few months; Paradise from the Little Yellow Bicycle collection.  I loved the colors, but what was the most fun was the flower kit.  I'm not the most mechanical of people, and I actually had to get my husband involved in figuring out how to secure them together.  It's always nice to watch my terribly manly husband playing with my scrapbooking stuff....Thanks to some clamps in his workshop, I made the flowers found throughout the double page layout, and used one as the "grass" in my "Hello" card.