You Already Know How Much I Love Banners....

What will I do with yet another banner? I plan on hanging this cutie up above my girls' retro play kitchen. I have been meaning to do a little photo shoot of the two of them playing in there, I think it would be perfect for the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird line...or Cherry Hill from October Afternoon.....or both, I 'll make a mini album and a few layouts....and I haven't even snapped a single shot yet....and the banner is laying on my desk...to be continued!

Page Maps Rock

Page maps is a fantastic site that offers up monthly sketches for all your layout needs. Becky Fleck has created layouts for cards, tags and different sized layouts. I used a 12x12 layout sketch from may 2009 to make this lo of Lily Grace. This was her Easter dress. Emma matched. I thought I was brave to stick the girls in white and the dresses are still white!

Everything in this lo is from the Studio Calico May kit. The little ledger tag and middle flower piece are from the Sassafrass brad packaging, cut with dies and my cuttlebug.

I am still into the hand stitching. I have started using crochet string instead of embr. floss. I think it is easier to manage and the spool of string lasts forever.

I loved this sketch and you will for sure see it again from me. Maybe backwards.

Journaling...

promise you will always be my sweet baby, cuddle with me and hold me tight...i promise to hold you~love you with my whole heart. xo mommy 5/09

Let Me Count the Ways

I just love October Afternoon paper. The colors and designs make me so happy. I like how the different lines from different seasons match each other, love the vintagey look to them and I also enjoy the splash of whimsy here and there.

Over on the October Afternoon blog, there are 3 fresh and simple card sketches to help you boost your card supply~I always need a few more. There are also lovely examples to feast your eyes on made from {Cherry Hill}. I am ordering the whole line tonight!

Head on over to Purple Cows, 3 design team members were just introduced, Tanisha Long, Robin Gibson and Cristal Hobbs .

There is also an amazing sale on the rotary blades for the trimmers over on scrapbook.com! Right now my favorite fancy blade is the postage stamp edge.

My Monday Mojo

I always have fun with the sketches over at Mojo Monday. The papers here are K and Co. I also used some diecuts from that line. The sparkly crown is Maya Road dusted with Pink Paislee glitter. I LOVE GLITTER!

CPS 116, All Sass

This card was made with the lovely sketch over at CPS. The designers there have some fabulous examples up I just love the one by Kandis Smith. A few weeks ago at Reflections 2009, I purchased these stamps from Sassafras {Quack, Quack}. The Sassafras gals were very generous and gave me this little pack of paper, it's called a "Wee Bundle", it's 6x6 and perfect for cardmaking. This line is Sunshine Lollipops, isn't that sweet? It's hard to see, but the scallop stamp is from Studio Calico, my always generous friend Katie gave it to me.

Love these Two

These two little girls are my inspiration. I am sooo glad that I have girls to scrapbook! Here we have more photos from the flower fields. I used the great sketch over at 52 Weeks, 52 Sketches to help create this layout.

Today we had some little friends over and "B" doesn't like to go to the bathroom alone so Emma escorted him. Afterwards she had to tell me, "B's pee came out and he was standing up!"

I used a little craft paint as a border around each of the photos. I made some more flowers from fabric scraps~I love making these yo-yos and posies.

Just a Little Something

My friend Katie recently gave me a bunch of crafty goodies and she included this sweet little gift tin, big enough for a gift card. You can see Katie's adorable tin here. I made mine with the b sides of My Little Shoebox paper, October Afternoon rub on and the Martha Stewart butterfly punch. I glued the butterflies to some rusty wire and stuck them all in a piece of floral foam so they wouldn't move around. The picket fence was left over from my townhouse and I just layeres it right on. Oh- the shape for the tag is the actual tag that came from the tin. I glued the polka dot paper right on to it and used a craft knife to cut it out.

Sew Fun

Yeah, I am still stuck on the wood grain stamp, I am just breaking it in baby. And this week's obsession looks like it is going to be hand stitching. Made this little card from the sketch over at CPS, the weekly sketches are well done and they have a great design team with amazing examples. That cute paper is from My Little Shoebox, I had just enough of a scrap to make this. My Little Shoebox also makes those versatile mini alphas that I just can't stop using, I really need to get some more colors.

Julie is a talented sketch maker over at 52 Sketches, 52 weeks, I have made a couple of lay outs with her sketches and I find them challenging and fun to complete, plus I am getting my photos scrapped! This LO was made with this week's sketch and a bunch of October Afternoon paper, I can't get enough of those colors together. The 3 rectangles of text to the left of the photo are from an old children's book-and I stamped over them with the woodgrain.

Did She Use Another Milkcap? Yep.

Cute vintage milk cap+woodgrain stamp+vintage bingo card+October Afternoon=a couple of fun and easy cards.

October Afternoon has a couple of card sketches up right now, I used them to make these cards. I also used a few OA rub ons and the smaller lined card is made from the rub on packaging. I thought the notebook lined package was too appealing to throw away!

Best Stamp Ever

This is the best stamp ever!!! At least for the month of May 2009. Hero Arts is the maker of this giant wooden block, named "Designer Woodgrain". I made this card for the challenge over at Caardvarks. I stamped the woodgrain onto a bingo card with sepia Archival ink by Ranger. I folded a couple of inches of baby pink tulle and tucked it behind the sentiment tag. Pom pom trim is Maya Road, paper and die cuts are K and Co's "Cut n Paste". The sentiment stamp is from Close to My Heart.

Moo Crew

Exciting News....I was introduced over on the Purple Cows blog!!! I am thrilled to design for them and be a part of a very talented team of women. We just got our fancy trimmers, which are fabulous! Can't wait for our first assignments. Please check out the blog here.

Lovely Crafting for Me

Kim Hesson makes papercrafting cute stuff so easy. This sweet little bird and banner were both cut from wood by her. The wood is light and super easy to work with. It is so smooth too, the kind of surface that you just keep touching. I used Jenni Bowlin paper, Maya Road ric rac, Pink Paislee alphas, diamond dust and leftover fabric from my apron project. The oval frame is from Michael's-it was a dollar! Lucky for you, Kim sells her wooden shapes along with vintage findings here in her etsy shop. She is working on restocking it very soon!! I would like to make another frame for Lily Grace.

Okay, this is so random. I just had to share with you my deal of the week. I bought all these veggies at my local market for only......$9.11. Can you believe it? Cilantro was 20 cents a bunch....radishes .20...butter lettuce 3 for a buck! It's all from North Park produce, they specialize in Middle Eastern food and have a large variety of hard to find veggies, even some of my favorite Chinese vegetables. {So maybe I have a little extra time on my hands. Yes, I took all the produce out of their bags to set up this photo, I couldn't stop myself.} { Please don't tell my husband, I would never ever hear the end of this and I don't think he has ever read this blog!}

CPS Weekly challenge & Something for Lily

Last week at Reflections 2009, I walked around and checked out all the amazing make n takes. There were a couple of ladies hosting a fun project that involved layering these colorful paper flowers and making a small bouquet. Later, I bought a Sassafras stamp set from them in the vendor area. I have wanted this set for months and it was just released. I 'll show it to you later. After we left the event, Katie informed me that those ladies were the owners of Sassafras! They were incredibly kind and generous with freebies. They were so young too!

I had a large scrap left over of this cute My Little Shoebox paper , so I made this sweet banner for Lily's room. The colors are perfect. I am going to try to take a picture of it in her room, it would be so much cuter in there, but the light is always poor. I used Spellbinders ovals on this and Maya Road chipboard letters. The pretty glitter is Pink Paislee.

Mojo Monday & My Little Shoebox

Is it Thursday already? Had to use the air conditioner yesterday, looks like we will need it again today. I think the weather in San Francisco would suit me much better than San Diego. I made two cards using the colorful papers from My Little Shoebox and polka dots from Amuse and Imaginesce (bottom card). The beautiful brown polka dot paper is from the B side of a MLS paper. I used a sketch from Mojo Monday to make the first card. Stamp is Prima

A Lovely Time

Okay, lots of photos today. I love this paper pad by DCWV, Whimsy. The colors are fresh and just right for spring and summer. These are old pics of Emma, they are some of my favorites of her. I can't believe how quickly she has grown, makes my heart a little sad.

Katie and I went to Reflections 2009, she designed a fun Make n Take for the gals to put together. Sorry no photos from me, we were too busy. I met some of my most favorite scrapbook designers. Melissa Phillips!! She was super sweet and simply lovely. I read her blog every day. I met Nora Griffin! She too had a make n take , she is sooo cute and very talented- another blog that I really enjoy reading. Right next to us was Laura from A Kiss on the Chic, she is the owner of one of the best kit clubs in the business-I would love to design for her someday. Her Make n Take was an amazing tiny mini book-that I was able to get, can't wait to put it together.

I met another fabulous artist, her name is Kim Hesson and she sells the best shabby chic wooden shapes and vintage findings. Birds, banners, teapots, lace, and the Eiffel Tower to name a few of my favorites. Hopefully I will be working with more of her wood cuts real soon!

Have a fabulous week!