CHA ... was a blast...

I'm so tired...yet so excited - after going to the CHA show today-its midnight and I just got home and I want to go craft and scrap. There were so many great new products out there and loved all the make and takes... cant wait to try doing some of them with all my new purchases. And I met so many wonderful Cricut ladies afterwards for pizza from all over the states. I can't believe how far people will travel for scrapping!  I made a cute little mini book the other night before I went to the show for all my new friends to sign which was great-now I can put a face to their names (hopefully I will remember) I do know that I will be going to St Charles in August for the scrapbook-expo, which I found out about tonight, thanks to my new Cricut friends. This sounds like it will be another fun weekend to Shop- Crop and Roll!

Well I'm glad I went to my first CHA convention- I had a great time and saw lots of great ideas and new products. Maybe I'll be traveling to wherever next year-this is addicting-but it's great therapy! For all my new friends that are checking out my blogsite- Welcome and it was nice meeting you and hope to run into you again. I have a seperate page on my scrapbook room and my crops here in my home -twice a month on Saturdays, go to the right side of my blog- if you would like more information, and sign up to be a follower for my blog candy while your here in my Frugal Friday posts. Well its been a very long day and I have a birthday party with the family tomarrow so I'd better get some sleep---sweet scrapping dreams.

Welcome to Frugal Friday #13

     Its all about CHIPBOARD this week- and I have lots of it. My aunt who use to work in a bank saved me all kinds of chipboard years ago and she thought I would be able to do something with it someday. Well she was right and I'm glad she didn't just throw it away. So you might check with your local bank, or even school (which I have the school where I work) save this thicker cardstock board for me, now. Because all they do with it is throw it away after they open the packages or rems of paper. I also found some thicker chipboard already cut into circles at a garage sale, a whole bag of it for $1.00-what a find that was.

With all this chipboard I can make my own mini albums at any time, any size and any shape. I have used my Cricut Expression for more detail cuts or a pair of scissors will cut basic shapes pretty easily. Add some paper and embellishments- and there you go a nice mini album- it's a perfect gift for any occasion. I have some chipboard patterns in shapes, words or Letters, so I dont have to keep refiguring them when I want to make one. Once you get the mini album done you can add jump rings, ribbon or lace to tie them together, or use a binding machine if you have one. That is the next tool I have on my wish list.

 As I said earlier I can make a mini album at any time -so last night I made this cute little book for the CHA in Chicago,( I live only 30 minutes away) that I will be going to this weekend...its a little mini album for all my new scrapbooking friends to leave me there names and addresses, so we can keep in touch.  There are about 70 or more of us meeting afterwards Friday night to meet and greet over at Giordano's Pizza, I can't wait to see all the new fun things coming out in the scrapbooking world. My pocket book will be feeling this also..lol  Don't forget to leave a comment on my Frugal Fridays for an entry in for my Blog Candy giveaway on August 31st.

My Boys- experience Nature

This is a sketch done from a new blog I found the other day called Sketchabilities #20. I will be applying this layout towards this challenge. Materials used are the following: The Angel Company papers "Willoughby" precut tags, brads, yellow cord for stitching, green cardstock to cut out the words and leaves from the cartridges -Graphically Speaking and Storybook. Used brown ink and a brown Zig pen for journaling.

All Together

Here is another wonderful sketch by Liz Qualman over at her blog My Little Sketch Blook that I did this week. I did a pretty simple one with just a few embellishments yet I used several items on this page also, they add up quick. So I will be applying this layout over at Practical Scrappers also for using more than 7 items on a page.

Materials and supplies used: My Mind's Eye papers, pink cadstock, misc papers for flowers, Ek Success floral punches,Making Memories floral brads, inks in moss, lt green, orchid and pink, Thin glue dots, rhinestones in 3 different pinks and white, Glimmer Mists in Frost, green zig writer and a green stardust gel pen,journal with Zig pure pink, adhesive spray and Stampendous Glitter called sunflower. I used the Cricut cartridge Gypsy Font and welded the title with my Gypsy.

Live , Love and Laugh

Here is my take on this weeks sketch over at Practical Scrappers Sketch Fridays, titled Live, Love and Laugh. I used papers from SandyLion on black cardstock, cut flowers from paper and crumbled them, sprayed with frost glimmer mist and used thin glue dots to attach them. Some of my chipboard covered with paper to journal on in black 3-D writer gel pen and white gel pen for hand srawn stitching around the edge.

Growing Up

I had a great time doing this layout this week for the sketch at  Sweet Peach Crop Shop. This photo is all 4 of my kids during my  second daughter's 8th grade graduation back in 2001-and that was awhile ago and they are All growing up- so fast my baby is almost 20 years old. Materials used in this sketch are the following: K&Company papers, Prima flowers, from Sweet Peach Crop Shop are the vellum and die cuts,and green ribbon,stickles in green confetti and teal, glimmer mists in frost, pearl, lavendar, and candy apple red, brown and aqua ink, brads, scalloped punches, fiskar edged scissors, black and brown Zig writers, and chipboard letters. I also used a rubber stamp with the words celebrate to stamp on the flowers before I misted them and tied scrapper's floss to the brads. I will also be applying this layout to Practical Scrapper's for using more thatn 7 different items on a layout

A=Adventure is Worthwhile

Here is a sketch that I did on my own this week and applying towards Practical Scrapper's challenge to use 7 items or more on a layout. These are pictures taken on my 2 DS in Marquette, Michigan out on Presque Isle by Lake Superior. It is so beautiful up there with the blue lake, birch trees and all the high bluffs with all the rocks for the boys to be so adventurous for hours on end. I used the following items in layout: Several papers, cardstock, a die cut from Sweet Peach Crop Shop-cut in half and used in top and bottom, Vellum for title, Dragonfly rub-ons, Royal E-Z rub on words, Chipboard letters, scalloped punches, gold brads, brown ink, couple colors of chalk for the hand cut birch trees, and brown Zig pen for journaling..

Make a Wish

This is layout of my DS and some candid pictures during his 12th birthday -years ago. They were really hard to work with cause they weren't very good pictures, so here it goes and this will be from the sketch over at Sketchy Thursday this week.

Materials used in sketch:  DCWV-Far Eat stack papers, Me & My Big Ideas value pack, cardstock in teal ,glimmer mist in chocolate brown and teal, brown ink, and Cricut cartridge Wild Card for all the cuts.

Iceless Hockey layout

Another blog that I really like, when I was blog hopping the other night is The Playdate Cafe...so here is my first entry for this challenge which is a color challenge to use black, white, grey and tan. This is my DS in Iceless Hockey when he was 11 years old-boy has time flown by he just turned 21 the other day. I used DCWV papers, black and tan cardstock, black ink, circle punches, a zig writer for some journaling. I used Wild Card cartridge to cut out the title and date.
 This layout also qualifies for another challenge over at Chop Suey to pick any date on the calendar(no holiday) and use that on your project, so mine is the first day of iceless Hockey which was Jan. 5, 2001.

The Parade

This is anew challenge blog for me this week over at Sassylilsketches-it is a sketch layout. I did three pictures of my sons in "The Parade" in Michigan back in 2001. They were the head mascots all decked out in red white and blue for the kids parade, they loved all the attention they received that day. I used red embossed cardstock,blue and red polka dot paper, and white ribbon that I hand stamped in Azure Staz-On ink,lazer cut stars, and cricut cartridges Wild Card for the 2 big stars and A Child's Year for the title.Also used some sticles in diamond and waterfall. and inked all the edges in brown.

For the Birds

This  layout is for a new challenge  I found over at embellish magazine blog called Embellish Ric Rac Color challenge. The colors were turquoise,dark brown, tan and orange, what a great color combination this was to work with. The sketch I used is from Creative Scrappers #114 this week and I had a great time with this sketch also. I will be applying this layout also over at Practical Scrappers to use more than 7 different items on your project this week, which sounds hard, but so easy once you start working on your project they add up very quickly , this layout has 8 different items on it.

Supplies usedMy Mind's Eye, Daisy's D's and Recolllections paper. Circle punch ,turquoise beads, cream ric rac, chipboard, white gel pen, brown ink & marker, and stickles.

Water Spouts

This is a page done for my DS scrapbook Titled "Water Spouts" when we were in Michigan on the 4th of July in 2001. He was in the water all day long either swimming, tubing, on the pontton boat, riding a jet ski, on the paddle boat and learning to water Ski -his lips were purple. This is a sketch that I turned on its side from Creative Scrappers #113 this week.

Materials used in this layout are: white cardstock, inked edges in sky blue, papers from DCWV Fun in the Sun summer stack. Cut the water spouts out from photos, fiskars circle cutter and LePlume Steel blue marker for tracing the water spouts and black pen for journaling on teal cardstock strips.

Welcome to the Beach

This is a layout done for Practical Scrappers Sketch Friday. I used all papers from DCWV Fun in the sun Summer stack, my own chipboard with cut out designs from paper adhered to chipboard and then I put glossy accents on top and then cut out and used yes paste. I also flipped the sketch on its side to accommodate my photos better.

How Time Flies

I was excited to do this challenge this week because it is for the August Guest Challenge at Sketchy Thursdays- so I really put some thought and time into this layout. So here it is- and it has pictures of Me- which I don't have many of those-cause I'm always taking the pictures (plus I don't like my picture taken). With this sketch you were to also have the color yellow somewhere and at least one handmade item on your layout. My handmade items are the flowers and the cut out of leaves from patterned paper and there is yellow in the flowers and the gold beads and the mats on the photos.

 Supplies used in this layout are: Bazzill Basic- Ocean Breeze for background cardstock, Autumn Leaves patterned papers, Paper Boy-clubhouse( yellow). Several floral punches, brads, brown and aqua inks, Glimmer Mist in Pearl sprayed on the flowers, Rhinestones on the butterflies, blue and green shiny ribbon, embossing powders in blue and gold, stardust glitter pen, gold metallic marker, teal ,gold and silver beads, and black fine marker for my own title and journaling, exacto knife and glass cutting board, fiskars circle cutter, heat gun and yes paste.

Siblings

This is a picture of all 4 of my children back when my 2nd daughter was graduating from 8th grade, taking these photos outside in the front yard -a serious one and a goofy one- which they were known to do. I turned this sketch sideways to fit my photos better from the sketch at Sketches in Thyme #6 and this will also be applied over at Practical Scrappers to use some items in your stash that is over a year old, which alot of this page is.

Misc papers were used and some scrap strips that I have saved, Fiskar edger scissors, scalloped punches, cream paper flowers chalked and attached with buttons and some older scrappers floss by Karen Foster tied on each of them. Matted the photos in a lt. lavendar cardstock to pull out the colors in my one daughters shirt, which this layout is going in her scrapbook. The title "siblings" is from an old book by Hot off the press Artsy collage letters, which I pop dot them to some scrap dark green paper. The journal tag is new from Sweet Peach Crop Shop which I just received in one of my prize packages I won a few weeks back, for the journaling which I still have to do.

Time to Ride

Here is my take on this weeks sketch at Sketchy Thursdays Titled "Time to Ride" which is of my son Eric back in 2001 in Michigan going for a all day trip on the backroads with his great Uncle during the fourth of July weekend. As you can see he was ready and waiting to go. I used both sides of American Crafts designer paper and other misc scraps of paper for the flags and strips, brown coffee ink on edges, square brads in bright colors and some black letter brads for the title, a black marker for journaling and some doodling zig-zag stitches.

Aubrey, Jayden & Kaylin

 How this for bright bold colors (hot pink, pink, green and black) that we were to use over at Ella's Pink Elephant  Sketch #16 for this week . These photos are of my second cousins back in 2001 The Twin girls and Jayden were the newest addition to our large family. I used Recollections green polka dot paper, Hambly hot pink screened acetate, black and lt. pink cardstock and a black and white gingham paper. I used several punches on this layout which also qualifies for the Frosted Designs challenge this week to use border punches. EK Success flower punch, Martha Stewart border punch, Fiskars edger scissors and a scallop punch. Pink and green buttons and Stickles and black fine pen for writing and doodling a bit.

Welcome to Frugal Fridays week #11

Now that were in the middle of summer and its getting pretty hot outside I don't mind going into my air conditioned scraproom and spending a few hours to cool off. So I've been making some of my own embellishments with old books, maps and misc scraps I have. I  grab some round, scalloped and floral punches and/or I use my Gypsy ( I just love my Gypsy) and start punching away on those pages from the old books or maps, old dictionaries work well. After I have punched out several shapes, you can either ink, chalk or spray the shapes and then layer them to make your own flowers and attached with button, brads or eyelets. With my Gypsy I make a template of the shapes in different sizes and save so when I need some flowers on a certain designer paper I just upload my template and cut away. As far as old maps, which no one ever uses them anymore, now that they have GPS, they work great for your travel/vacation layouts for your background papers or more details on your vacation spot if you have collected them for souveniers.

Here in the above picture I have used several punches /and my Gypsy to cut the petals from designer papers and plain white cardstock and used glimmer mists to achieve the colors that I wanted all attached with a brad which I heat embossed to get the shiny colors I wanted also. I just cut out of green scrap paper some leaf shapes and doodled with black marker and attached to the flowers.

In this photo I used several floral punches in all sizes and punched from an old book and then I chalked them several colors and then layered  4-5 of them and attached with heart brads, I have sometimes just left them the flowers black and white and they really look nice also. Well enjoy the summer and take some time to make your own embellishments.

Cute Clowns

How's this layout for bright and colorful...simple and easy to do also. This is my take from the sketch at Creative Scrappers this week #112. When I was looking thru my photos to scrap this sketch with- these pictures of my Eskies jumped right at me and said this would be perfect and it turned out great. I used a red  & white cardstock for the background-went thru my scraps and found 6 colors that were in their cute little clown costumes for Halloween and ink the edges in black and cut the photos to size and a few in circles with my Fiskars circle cutter and used chipboard letters painted with  6 colors of acrylic paints to match and added 6 colors of brads to page - whoola done.

Let it Snow- Izzy

I know it is summer but these photos of my Eskie "Izzy" worked well with this layout from My Little Sketch Blook this week and they happen to be when she was playing in her first snowfall. I will be applying this layout to Liz Qualman's sketch challenge and to Practical Scrappers weekly "embossing" challenge. I used  many papers from Recollections, DCWV(embossed squares), My Mind's Eye, and Stemma and solid colored cardstocks. I used my Fiskars circle cutter,  several snowflake stamps, inks in spa and coffee bean and white , clear stardust  and white gel pens, heat embossing gun and stardust & white embossing powders, brown zig pen for journaling.

Cheryl's 8th Grade Portrait

I just love it- love it- love it!!! My DD's 8th grade school portrait and I pulled the colors that she was wearing out in this layout and her golden hair. I am applying this layout to the Practical Scrappers challenge this week "embossing".This is also from a sketch at Creative scrappers a few weeks back both of these blogs really inspire me in my layouts. I used many papers from"Scrap Works","Blue Cardigan Designs",and "The Paper Loft" and golden color cardstock for matting, cream cardstock for stamping butterflies and a saying with a bit of journaling. Added a border of cream lace and embossed the butterflies in white, blue and gold colors. Stickles in purple, teal and diamond was used, gold metallic marker. Stamps are Martha Stewart "butterflies" and Heidi Grace for the saying, and some individual words stamped in lavendar on the background paper

Beach Bums

Here is another summer beachy layout for the Practical Scrappers Sketch challenge and their monthly challenge themed "Just Beachy"  I used We R Memory Keepers sun shape( half of it) and some teal background paper and some photo paper that I sprayed with 3 colors of glimmer mists and then cut out some water spouts, drew some highlights in with a white gelly roll marker and used pop dots to make them really pop.I doodled with black marker some frames for the photos and added a Fun in the Sun vellum and a chipboard letter for the Title Beach Bums. I then journaled in the middle of the sun and added some more doodling to that also. This layout is for my son Eric's scrapbook.

Just add Water

Now how this for a summer beachy layout- at the beach, pool and rafting on a river all in one weekend a few years back up in Shawano Wisconsin on a family trip. I'm using this layout toward 2 challlenges this week at Practical Scrappers for the Just Beachy theme and Sketches in Thyme for their weekly sketch.

 I used papers from DCWV Summer Stack,sandpaper, colored cardstock,and acetate for the title and sub titles. I cut  from designer papers the flip flops, shells, and blue palm tree with summer beach words, cut my own waves to fit as the border and circle cutter for the one picture and journal spot. I then drew my title on with a vellum writer and painted with white and blue acrylic paints on the back and trimmed out and attached with pop dots

I torn some papers and the sand paper to look like the beach and used orange and brown inks on some of the edges. So lots of water does equal= FUN in the summer time, my kids had a great time that weekend.

My Father-Heritage

This is my first attempt at doing a heritage layout-which was a little different but I had a fun time doing this one. It is a picture taken of my father back in 1950 with his first car at the age of 18 I believe, I haven't journal on the memo tag yet because I want to get the correct information from my mom. This layout is being applied to  Ella's Pink Scrapbook #15 for a heritage layout and also over at Frosted Designs to use felt on your page. I used several different papers in tans, browns and greens and used my Cricut along with my Gypsy for the several different cuts with the Heritage cartridge-tree, car, light post, and fence. Sticker letters with brads, glitter for the light post and sprayed Glimmer Mist on the felt ribbons on fence, and used several colors of chalk. Attached some premade designs that I cut out from papers and added a felt "remember " at the top, and some laser cut floral paper also.

Michigan

I just love taking outdoor pictures of my kids especially at Presque Isle in Marquette, Michigan with the birch trees and Lake Superior. So here is another layout of the beautiful outdoors of my 2 sons back in 2001. I am applying this layout towards 2 challenges this week, one at FCCB#17-creepy crawlers/bugs and the color orange, and the other challenge is the sketch from Sketchy Thursday which really worked out great for these 2 photos. I spent about an hour figuring out papers which are  all different brands and inked the edges on all in coffee bean. I used a chipboard letter M and cut the rest of the letters from my Cricut using Lyrical Letters. I attached a chipboard tag that I made with 2 different ribbons in brown polka dot and a green stripes and another chipboard tag that says "tradition".

 I used several cartridges for the dragonflies Lyrical Letters, Doodlecharms and Gypsy Wanderings which I layered them added rhinestones (blue, green and white) and  Stickles copper glitter to each.

I pulled the rusty or orange color out in the matted photos and background and in the tag. I also found some light orange paper to journal on with a fine black marker and inked that up a bit to match the rest of the layout. Oh yeah I cut out the outline of Michigan from 50 States cartridge and attached to the letter M. I'm really happy how this paged turned out this will be added to my son's Eric's scrapbook..but I have another page to do for the other son...wish I could just copy this one.

Frugal Fridays week #10

This week's tip is for you to go visit your local library on a rainy day or take a nice summer walk if you live close enough like I do. Sign-up and get a library card and then you and your family can check out the books and take them home with you - or spend some time reading them there. You can find many books on the subject of scrapbooking from the beginner how to get started to the new and lastest layouts.  Some libraries even carry some old/current magazines issues that you can check out also. I like to check out the books on organizing your hobby rooms and tips and tricks for paper crafts is a great one as you can see here. I liked it so much I went out and bought it a few years back. Also there is a section for card making books, which has alot of good ideas in them also for scrapbooking. The library is free so why not take advantage of it when you can.

 Enjoy reading!

Young Lady

 I was excited to try some new paper flowers which I saw done by Crafty Girl- Barb on her blog and also on She's a Sassy Lady's blog -what a great tutorial they have -so you should check it out- I love to work with papers since I have so much of it. Well this is a sketch from Paper Poppy Kit for July and this will be applied toward this challenge.

 I used K&Company paper and some misc papers that matched in colors, eyelets,  ribbon, K&Company lady bugs, blue and green rhinestones, stickles in green and blue and chipboard numbers and a fine black marker for some doodling. I torn the edges of the main background paper and then burned the edges a bit(what a mess this leaves)

On the tags to the left I found paper that already had the letters I wanted stamped on, so I just cut the area that I needed which are my daughter's initials and then wrote her name on them, inked the edges and added a rhinestone, eyelet & ribbon to them.

Victory Lap

This was a fun page to do with all the bright colors and the first time I did the flags on a page-I think I will be doing a few more pages for my other kids scrapbooks with flags. I'm doing this layout for My Little Sketch Blook from the sketch for July.

 I used papers from We R Memory Keepers the "Nonsense" pad,vellum saying,circle punches,bright orange and red polka dot ribbon,chipboard letters for the title, stickers letters on the flags for the town we were in and the state of Wisconsin, and teal ink and white acrylic paint dry brushed on.

Goofy

This is a few of those silly/ goofy photos that you're not quite sure what to do with but want to keep them. So here is my entry towards Practical Scrappers this week for animation, character, cartoon on your layout. I used Goofy from the Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridge to cut it out and the name Goofy as my title and found some misc scrap papers to use. I hand stitched a circle in black thread and journaled on the right side of pictures in black fine marker, and also inked the edges in black.

Ball Park-FUN

Here is my entry for this weeks sketch over at Creative Scrappers #111-I just love there weekly sketches gives me inspiration to get another page done each week. I used several We R Memory Keepers designer stack papers from"tiffany's" and their embellishments also on this layout -so it was pretty easy to do since everything was right there in the paper pack.

I inked the edges of some of the papers in Staz-On brown and cut my own borders around the photo to represent the front of Wrigley Field a bit. Cut out some flowers and layered them with pop dots and used the sticker letters for the title and Go Cubbies on top, and outlined them with a fine black marker. Made a journal tag and used a white gelly roll pen to journal with.

Fireworks-4th of July

This is my take of the sketch over at Practical Scrappers- Sketch Friday. I used several scraps of holiday red, white and blue papers for this layout and inked all the edges in a "latte" brown  with red and blue cardstock for mats on photos and dry brushed the light blue mat in blue paint. Used 2 vellums and painted stripes on them also, along with 2 hand cut tags with journaling and a red star brad on each . I used rub-on letters for the "fourth of" and chipboard letters painted in "regency blue" acrylic paint for July, with some doodling  to make them stand out a bit more. I also journal on the red paper the events of the day at the Ishpeming Parade in Michigan. This is my DD pages from 2001 and she played with this new little black lab puppy all day at camp (which is hard to see) in the photo.

The Ishpeming 2001 Parade

 Here is my take for the challenge over at Sketchy Thursdays..It was a 2-page layout this week and these pictures of my DS back in 2001 worked out great. I inked the background white cardstock with "latte" ink and used some scraps in red cardstock and blue cardstock andcut some stars from a patterned paper and found some striped paper in red, white and blues to go with. I used edger scissors and had cut the red scalloped edge  and wrote on them in a white gelly roll pen the title. Added a small journaling tag also inked in latte brown and did some doodling in white on the pages.

My DS all dressed like the all american boy for the kids parade in Ishpeming, Michigan. Both of my sons lead the parade on their roller blades all decked out in red, white and blue. They had a great time and loved all the attention they received that day for their costumes they came up with at the last minute.