Kiki-Art Giveaway!!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that Kiki-Art is having a giveaway!  Kiki is a hot, up and coming company with really fun products you're sure to love!! Go to my Design Teammate, Sarah's, blog to learn more and to enter.  You have until January 28th to leave a comment on her blog and if you spread the word about this giveaway you'll get your name entered into the prize drawing FIVE times!!

A Happy Scrappy Day!

Yesterday the unimaginable happend...I finished two layouts in one day!  I was so proud of myself and I had such a blast!  The stars must have been aligned just right because the creative juices were flowing and I made two layouts that I just love!  Working with summertime photos may have had something to do with my crafter's high.  It was a real mood lifter playing with bright cheerful colors and summertime pics.  If the winter blues have you down, I reccomend pulling out some Spring and Summer photos and get cropping!! Here are the memories I scrapbooked that really made me feel like I'd just been to the beach...

Notice here the bubble? Well, it's actually part of the packaging that some buttons came in.  I love it when I can reduce, reuse, recycle!!

CHA Online Crop at Scraptivity!

Scraptivity is having an online Crop! Great fun, great challenges, great prizes!

Come and join us on Friday, January 22nd as we launch our CHA Online Crop. We will have multiple challenges posted throughout the day on the 22nd. Then, more challenges will come up during CHA to be posted Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The crop will run until Friday, January 29th, so don't worry if you can't join in on a certain day.

You'll find all of the challenges in this forum right here where you will also find a challenge posted by yours truly!  My challenge for you is to create a "CHA" layout in honor of the great event going on down in California this weekend. The idea is that you need to create your layout using elements on your page that begin with C, H, and A. For example:
C-cork, chalk, cardstock, cupcake, Cosmo Cricket, chipboard, crown etc.
H-hot air balloon, hats, hot pink, Hambly, Heidi Swapp, heat embossing, the letter "H", etc.
A-acrylic, apples, angels, acorns, animals, American Crafts, Anna Griffin, etc.

Here is an example I made for you using my stash of Sassafras. Don't make it too hard, your letters can stand for anything. Here is what I used...
C: crystal brads, core'dinations cardstock
H: hearts, "Happy"
A: arrows

I hope to see you all come over to http://www.scraptivity.com/  for some fun and don't forget to post your completed challenges in the Online Crops section of our gallery.

American Crafts Weekly Challenge

One of my favorite manufacturers is American Crafts.  They have so many great products and everyone knows about those fabulous Thickers we can never get enough of!  And have you seen the sneak peeks of their new Dear Lizzy line?  I for one can't wait to get my hands on that one!  Elizabeth Kartchner is one of my scrapbooking idols!  Check out her new line on the American Crafts blog.

Now onto American Crafts Mini Marks Challenge for the week of Jan. 15th - Jan. 21st.  The challenge: use two or more mini marks on a card or layout.  This is the layout I came up with.  The pictures here are of my husband and I as toddlers in the bath and the middle photo is of our daughter in the bath around the same age. I have this layout framed and hanging in our bathroom now.

Supplies:  Cardstock: DCWV; Patterned Paper: American Crafts "Moda Bella", Crate Paper "Spirited"; Rub-ons: American Crafts MiniMarks; Ribbon: American Crafts; Maya Road Kraft Journaling Spot; Hambly Transparent Overlay; Recollections Pearls; Don Juan Cricut Cartridge.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a looksie!!  Have a great week!

Treasured Scrapbooking's January Kit

Happy Friday my Paper Trail friends!  Can you believe the first month of 2010 is halfway over already?! It sure is going by fast, or I guess I just don't notice time flying by when I'm busy in my own little scraptastic world!  Especially when I have fabulous kits to play with like Treasured Scrapbooking's January "Resolutions" kit.  I'm having a blast being their Guest Design Team member this month and I have two more projects to share with you today.  First off, I made this irresistibly cute sewing notions box out of a cheap recipe card box that I picked up in the $1 aisle at Michael's.  I only used supplies from the January kit with the exception of a chipboard birdie, the tiny alphas, black fabric that I hand stitched into a pin cushion, and some tapestry beads (for the feet) that I had in my craft stash.  Isn't it just "Sew Cute"!

I also have another layout to share with you today using the TS January Kit.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend!

Playing Catch Up!

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I last made a blog post!   I certainly have a lot to catch you up on.  I've been one busy girl, and I don't know about you, but I have had one hectic holiday season.  I'm relieved that the holidays are over, and we're settling nicely into the New Year of 2010.  On the other hand, I can't wait to do it all over again in eleven more months!  2009 brought me into a whole new realm of scrapbooking when I earned my first design team spots, started this blog, and even got my first publishing on Scrapbooking.com with not one, but two layouts!  I have to say it was a successful year for me scrappy wise, and I'm so thankful for all the great opportunities that came my way.  This is just the beginning of a new decade, and I have a feeling great things are going to happen!  On that note, let me catch you up on all thats been happening in my little world...

NEW YEAR, NEW SPACE

For starters, with the New Year came the always popular bug to get yourself organized, and that's exactly what I did!  I have to start by explaining that we got rid of our desktop computer because we found ourselves never using it, we only needed our laptops.  The desktop computer had become one giant chunk of clutter atop a large desk covered in an accerssorizing mess.  So out the desktop went, and we moved our giant computer desk to the upstairs room where my craft space is.  That caused such a tornado of displacement, and the fact that we did it over the holidays amid decorations and gift wrap didn't help either.

It began to feel as though we were living the life of hoarders with little goat paths through the house.  It was such a mess and it drove me crazy!  Finally, with the holidays over we were able to get everything put away and the house back to normal.  Long story short, now we have a beautifully organized craft space with a desk that is new to the room and brings much needed storage and surface area.  Now I can have the printer and my laptop in the same room as my scrappy things!  To show you just how bad my space had become, I took some before and after pics.  Now that it's all nice and neat, my scrap space is constantly calling to me, whispering sweet nothings in my mind... "pssst, hey Carole... don't you wanna come scrap with me?!"

BEFORE

AFTER

SCRAPTIVITY'S JANUARY KIT

I design with Scraptivity kits on an every other month basis.  This month I had the pleasure of working with the January Kit.  It has some great papers from Teresa Collins and October Afternoon, including a great stamp set from 7 Gypsies!  Have a looksie at what I created with Scraptivity's January Kit

TREASURED SCRAPBOOKING GUEST DESIGNER

I came across Treasured Scrapbooking's kit club and message board during their recent design team call.  I imediately fell in love with them!  There is always so much to talk about as well as so many fun challenges and crops!  Their board is a happening place, and I dearly wished to be a part of their team.  Unfortunately I didn't make their permanent design team, but I did earn myself the Guest Designer spot for January.  Working with their January kit has been a blast, and it's full cutie patootie goodness!  Check it out and have a peek at what I created with it.  On the 15th I'll have a couple more projects to share.  Don't be shy and come over to Treasured Scrapbooking to join in the fun and play with a challenge or two, or three...

My GDT January Challenge: "10 in 2010"  Your mission: to use up some of your stash and create a layout using 10 of something.  Here in my next example I used 10 different red and white ribbons covering the candy cane hearts.

My Challenge for the TS Resolutions crop Jan 7th-10th was to alter a photo frame for use as a message board to schedule myself some "me" time!

KIKI-ART

Okie dokie scrappy folks, this is the last update I have for you.  If you didn't know already, I am a design team member for the new manufactuer, Kiki-Art.  Their mission is multiculturism and diversity through scrapabooking.  We have design team members from all over the globe, and a blog in three different languages!  I'm of course on the English blog, and for the month of January the theme is China.  They have a great paper line called, what else, but... China!  I used this paper line to make some cute Chinese paper lanterns.  You can find out more on my first Kiki-Art blog post here.

Happy New Year!