LUCKY CHARMS

This is my first official layout for my new DT "Let's Scrap."  With the date of this reveal being so close to St. Patrick's Day, I had no choice but to reach into my stash of pictures of my girls getting their green on!  My husband has Irish ancestry in his family tree; I don't.  However, I hate winter. WITH A PASSION!  I was designed for shorts and t-shirt weather; not sub-arctic temps and ice. Needless to say, I will look for anything to celebrate to break up the monotony of March.  So I would dress my girls in matching shirts, silly hats, and, of course, snap lots of pictures.  But one of my favorite things to do was have the leprechaun cause "mischief" around our house.  He would unroll toilet paper down the stairs, make messes of shoes around the house, dump toys on their beds...The girls always had fun trying to see what kind of antics the Leprechaun would cause.  I thought the Doodlebug "Happy Go Lucky" paper line perfectly captured the fun times we had celebrating St. Patrick's Day when my girls were little.

EARL GREY

This is my latest creation for RCS where the inspiration this week was the recently released, much anticipated movie  "50 Shades of Grey." Obviously, we were asked to use "grey" in our layout, along with a touch of red, (get it those of you who read the book/saw the movie) and a "technique" of our choice (mine was paper layering).  This one was a no brainer for me...my inspiration was my cat Earl Grey named after the tea because of his luxurious grey coat.  He was my first four legged love.  My husband and I adopted him seven months before our wedding. During this time, Earl Grey lived the ultimate bachelor life at my husband's apartment by himself until we were married.  Needless to say, Earl Grey really enjoyed his independent lifestyle. Once I moved in, Earl Grey tried to "assert his dominance." It was a rough road complete with an ambush in the bathroom one evening where Earl Grey tried to attack me.  After a long drawn out power struggle,  I won. During that first year of living together, Earl Grey and I slowly became friends and snuggle buds.  Although over the course of that year, I began to call him"Nugget" because he was such a butt nugget to me.  Two years after we became roomies, my furry friend Earl Grey/Nugget met the love of his life when my first born daughter came home from the hospital.  He never left her side.  I'd find him lying under her crib, on the edge of my bed watching her sleep in her cradle...No matter where she was, he was close by.  As she got older, she would dress him up, carry him around like a doll, use him as a pillow... Then in 2005, another woman entered the picture which is what is featured in this layout.  I think Earl understood that these little girls needed a protector, and he did his job well.  When they were sick, he would only leave their side to eat and use the litter box; otherwise he was right there.  When it was time to go to bed, he graciously would give the girls slivers of  their beds so he could stretch out and get his beauty sleep.  Sadly, Earl Grey went to the big bachelor pad in the sky in October 2008.  He truly was the greatest cat friend a girl could ask for; despite his need to "dominate."

SPOOKY LITTLE GIRL

So I got the GREATEST news a few weeks back!  And now I can share!  Right at the start of the new year, I found a DT call for an adorable blog spot called, "Let's Scrap."  The designs were gorgeous, and I loved how the designers took double page sketches and tweaked them for their needs.  Some people made cards; other's made

one page layouts.  So I decided to apply.  I love being on sketch teams!  I love taking the guess work out of where to place pictures.  And I love fresh ideas on how to use lots of pattern papers on a layout. I learned the first week of February that I was one of the fortunate people slected to join the Let's Scrap DT!  I was so humbled and thrilled!  I can not wait to play around with their sketches!  Not only are they beautiful, but because they are double pages.  I can get even more pages done for my children.  "Spooky Little Girl" was my submission for the DT based on the sketch below.  I have a slight addiction to Doodlebug brand Halloween paper, so I loved how the sketch used pseudo paper ribbons at the bottom of the page.  It was perfect for my overabundance of Halloween paper that needed to be used.  If you haven't yet, go check out Let's Scrap; it's a great place to surf around and check out fun, easy to replicate projects!

BEST MAKE UP

It's Oscar time at RCS!  It wouldn't be a movie theme blog if we didn't pay homage to the most prestigious, coveted award in the film industry!  The challenge was to use gold, circles, or anything Oscar related on our projects.  As you can see, I chose to use gold, circular bling, stars, and make up.  My daughter loves to give my chihuahua fake eyebrows. (I promise no animals were hurt applying make up). Her brows are purple Crayola marker, and if you are a Mom, you know Crayola is the bomb!  Why you may ask; it wipes right off!  So, true story, I had just arrived home from watching the Oscar nominated, outstanding, and my personal pick for Best Fillm and Best Actor Oscars, American Sniper, to see that my puppy is rocking the Joan Crawford circa Mommy Dearest look.  And with her sleeping unbeknownst at how silly she looked, it was a Kodak moment....So blog followers, who do you think will walk away tonight with the big award for Best Movie?  I'm pretty sure my Lila Lucille will walk away with the Best Make Up award though for my house....

NEW DESIGN TEAM!

So I got some good news at the beginning of the month, but had to keep it quiet until today....I MADE THE LET'S SCRAP DESIGN TEAM!  I am SO excited to be a part of this talented group of paper artists!  The sketches are stunning, easy to translate, and just plain fun to play with!  My first official reveal for Let's Scrap will be on Sunday, March 1!  YAY!

HELLO WINTER

This is my latest design for Stick It Down.  The inspiration was the sketch below.  I knew I wanted to use this lovely Bo Bunny "Alpine" paper line, but the problem was this....we haven't had a substantial snow fall here in my neck of the woods of Ohio since NOVEMBER!  Yes, I said NOVEMBER!  And it's February!  So, I'm guessing Mother Nature has decided to have mercy on us this winter in the snow department.  I totally expected to use this paper a while ago when we were saying "Hello" to winter as the title says....I used some pictures I took back during the freak November snowstorm of my girls playing with my dog Aro.  And in case you are wondering, I'm fully ready to say GOODBYE WINTER!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

This is my latest creation for RCS.  The theme for this week's challenge is the classic movie "Casablanca."  I have never seen this movie...I probably should put this on my movie bucket list...But because of the romance factor & Valentine's Day being around the corner, it was a perfect theme for the second week of February. The twist however was creating a project using only black, white, and a single color of your choice.  A few weeks back, I took this picture of my new puppy Penny playing in the snow for the first time.  I converted the picture to black and white when I uploaded this shot, and just loved it.  So because I "loved" this black and white picture so much, I decided to dip into my Valentine red papers to create a layout of my new snuggle partner!