Time to Say Goodbye

This is it, my very last Pebbles post. My two years of being on their design team has come to an end. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with the wonderful people at Pebbles. It really was a fun experience. Pebbles was one of the first manufacturers to give me a chance and I will always be grateful for that. Making chevrons was a little tricky for me, you can find the tutorial I made over at the Pebbles Blog right HERE.
Today is also my very last day of being a stay at home mom. (heavy heart). I will return to teaching tomorrow. I got a letter from my district yesterday stating that I should be prepared to answer the phone between 8 AM and 9 PM today. They will be trying to reach all unassigned teachers. It would definitely be nice to know where to report tomorrow!

I will not whine about returning to work. But gosh I am sad. If only the economy hadn't plummeted... but, I am grateful to have a job to return to....

I will keep you posted!

30 Minutes or Less, Can You Do It?

Over on the Pebbles blog, there are regularly scheduled themes like ''Dear Pebbles''-features cards and ''Product Parade''-features one particular product . This week I participated in ''Whip it Up''. We were asked to complete a project with our Pebbles products in 30 minutes or less. And yes, this is a challenge for me. I would say that a lay out takes me about an hour to complete. My strategy for this challenge was to use an old lay out of mine and just copy it! So I got out a couple of albums and looked for one I liked and that would work well with two photos. That was it, I picked out a few papers and just copied my lay out. The flags were a last minute addition.
When I am home visiting my parents, we always make time for a trip to Avila Beach. I love it there, it's a small sleepy beach town and the home of The Custom House, a fave restaurant of mine. I even bumped into a San Diego friend while I was having lunch there on this particular day. Small world isn't it.

Friendship Week at Pebbles and a Fabulous Giveaway!

Over on the Pebbles blog, we celebrated friendship, with cards, lay outs and mini albums. I would love for you to check out the amazing projects. While you are there, leave a comment on this POST,( Pebbles blog) the winner will win the Pebbles line of their choice!! This giveaway will close Monday, July 26 at 9 pm pacific time.
I made two cards for this theme, both with my new favorite, Floral Lane. I love the bright colors and clean patterns. Love! For this card I hand cut a few doilies and popped them up.
Have you checked out the new Pebbles Dots that are mini self adhesive buttons? I adore these.

I used the Martha Stewart embossed button punch for the polka dot button on this card. I think this punch is totally under rated, I think it is a great basic.
There is one more week to get your application in to Pebbles Inc.

They are having their design team call! This is a great company to work with and I have really loved my 2 years with them. Just do it!!!

Stars and Stripes Week

It's Stars and Stripes Week over at Pebbles, please check out the blog for great ways to use your paper with a stars and stripes theme. Emma participated in Field Day with her preschool. She loved it. We have some old pillowcases laying around and the girls love having sack races in the back yard. Sooo, Emma was a ringer when it came to the potato sack race on Field Day!

For the hand stitched banner, i used the We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy tool with the Banner head. Have you tried this tool out? I love it and it really is a time saver.
Pebbles has a preview of their new lines up right HERE, looks fabulous to me. They are also having a give away of the collection if you leave a comment on that post. If you have ever been interested in joining a design team, Pebbles is having a a call right now. I have loved working with this company for the last two years and they just keep getting better and better. Go for it!! if you have any questions about being on this design team, let me know.

xoxoxo

Samantha

Did You Know...

that the Pebbles Inc. blog is updated every single day Monday-Friday? Sometimes Saturday too. Did you know that many times a month, fabulous prizes are given away to readers who leave a comment? Danielle Flanders is today's guest designer and there is a giveaway as a bonus! Click HERE.
This past week had a Summer theme and I created this lay out of Emma. She is wearing my most favorite dress and we were in one of my most favorite places, Coronado. Lots of circles and that fabulous punch from Martha!
May Arts partnered up this week with Petaloo and I created a few gift tags right HERE.

By the way, did you know that May Arts is also extremely generous with their giveaways? Go ahead and LIKE May Arts on Face Book and follow the May Arts Blog, you could be the next winner of whole spools of the ribbons of your choice.

Have a beautiful weekend. xoxoxo

Dad's Day

It's Father's Day.................

and somehow my husband has slipped out the door and gone golfing. Hmm. Actually we went ahead and celebrated the day yesterday. The morning began with haircuts. Both dad and Lily got haircuts at Pigtails and Crew Cuts in Point Loma. Yep, they do adult cuts too! I noticed after poking around on their website that this is the most expensive Pigtails and Crewcuts in the country. For example a kids cut in Springfield, Missouri is $14 and here it is $20. But I suppose that makes sense...can't you get a house in Missouri for $150,00 and here that house would be half a million.

The card above was sent to my dear dad, made with love and Pebbles Inc. :-). I love the card, but the whole yellow/grey thing did not photograph well for me and I was disappointed with that.
Part of Emma's preschool curriculum was learning sight words. It was self paced and honestly I didn't push it. I think it is fine that it was a part of her class and we casually worked on it at home. She has plenty of time next year in kindergarten to get these under her belt. I pulled this list out of our puppy's mouth.

I am returning to teaching full time. Word on the street is that there will be 30 kids per class in the lower grades. The 8 years that I taught kindergarten, I had 20 students from 8 AM to 2:45 PM. Never any aides or parent volunteers! Umm...I really hope I get a first or second grade class! Not kinder!!!

Have a great day! Gotta call my pops.

First Timers

One of my favorite assignments from the Pebbles team is to use products from both Pebbles and their parent company, American Crafts. The two mix well together, both have bright colors and a clean graphic style. So with a huge stack of photos from our very first trip to Hawaii, I knew a mini had to be made!
Seems like it has been a while since I put one of these together, I love making them too.
I have something not smart to say....I was surprised at how hot it was at the beach. you could really feel the sun penetrating your skin....and yes, I live in So Cal.


Emma buried my bff's son....up to his neck. so cute.
Lily and Joshie, catching a break from the sun.
Emma and Ben again, these two often held hands and really enjoyed their week of playing together.
ahhhh.
My bff watched the kids so that we could go to Pearl Harbor sans kiddies.
All the kids slept together and they loved it. And they really did fall asleep, they were exhausted by bedtime!
Lily fishing at the Polynesian Culture Center, the girls loved the dancers there. No fish was caught to my relief.
Can't remember this beach, but they are building a Disney resort nearby and Angie took me over to see where the Pirates of the Caribbean's ship is docked! And it is AWESOME.

Loved the luau at Paradise Cove. Lovely , lovely trip and I can't wait to go back next Spring.

Fabulous Pebbles Giveaway!

Leave a comment right HERE for a chance to win the Pebbles collection of your choice!!

(click on the link to go to the Pebbles blog) You have until Monday, April 18, midnight eastern to leave your comment! Do it!

Spring Baby

~click on the photo to make the image larger, I think it looks way better~

This is my favorite line from Pebbles ever, I love the bright colors! My favorite paper might be the pink and orange polka dots, love that combo. Pebbles is featuring Spring projects all week on their BLOG, I love what the DT has showcased thus far. There is also a little helpful video of the entire line shown right HERE.

This is me sweet little Emma, about 1.5 years old. She was so easy to photograph back then.
I stitched a few of the clouds from the patterned paper. I used a paper piercer and punched the outline of the cloud to make the stitching go a little easier.
My photos came out a bit dark, I think the cloud paper is much brighter in person. That cute brad is also from Happy Go Lucky.
These tissue flowers are a new embellishment that I love! They aren't bulky, self adhesive, light, airy and darling. You can find them right HERE.
Okay, have you seen these flags yet? They are fabulous. The prints are downscaled for the flags, love these, I can't resist them!

Are you ready to start dying eggs? Is it really almost Easter? And it's a late Easter! I haven't picked out the girls dresses, hopefully there is something cute at Target!

The Mr. & Mrs.

Wedding season is just around the corner isn't it? In fact my 11 year anniversary will be here very soon. I think the card above will work nicely for my Mr. I used the brand new line "The Mr. and Mrs. "from Pebbles Inc. You can see a video of the entire line right HERE!

I added a beautiful ribbon from May Arts to complete the card.
I haven't been to a wedding for quite a few years now, we went through the wedding phase and the baby shower phase and now we are in the birthday party phase of our lives! Anyway, when I got married, a popular idea was to have disposable cameras at each of the guests' tables...so after all were developed, I had a few hundred photos. Well those photos are still laying around and. The Mr. and Mrs. paper is perfect to get those scrapped. I really appreciate the matching embellishments, took me a whole minute to stick on the pearls and gorgeous flower.

I used a photo of my darling BFF. She had recently become engaged to the love of her life and someone captured her on film making the announcement to a group of our friends.

There are many more ideas for this line of paper right HERE!

Thanks for coming by today!

Ever After

Ever After is one of Pebbles newest lines and I adore it. Can you see those tiny little pink deer? If you want to see every piece in this sweet line, you can watch a quick video right HERE.

I also used my Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio Epoxy 20 tool to make the the center of the "prize ribbon".
This gift card holder was made with a standard shipping tag and I used THIS border punch on the end for a little more interest. Again I used the Epiphany Crafts Shape Studio and I also tied a bright and sunny bow with pretty ribbon from May Arts.

Another One

Thought I would show another one of the cards that I submitted to Paper Crafts most recent sketch call. Amber started a fun blog hop for those of us that had cards that didn't make the cut. I have been very slowly making my way through the hop and it is amazing how many beautiful cards that I have seen that didn't make the issue. Tons of amazing card makers out there. I do think it is a fun process. I like making cards, I like the compact space we create in, mine are often 5''x7''. I think Paper Crafts is smart, the way they play up the acceptance emails on Facebook, it is a fun way to use that media.

This card uses both sizes of the Epiphany Crafts Round Epoxies and paper and candy dots from Pebbles Inc.

Looks like I have had a few new blog readers sign up, thank you for coming by leaving the kindest comments, I appreciate it!

Beau -dacious

Have a merry Christmas? Up to your ears in tiny toys? I fear that one day they will discover Polly Pocket. Speaking of tiny toys, found a couple of Littlest Pet Shop in the puppy's ummm "waste" the other day. Guess he likes em too. Come over and see my first lay out of our loveable toy chomper right HERE.