(diva)logues

"Turn up the music, I need it in my life yeah... turn up the music, just turn it up louder..."

 Happy Monday! 

I've received a several emails from out-of-town friends about the storms in our area over the weekend, since it made national news.  The weather was different for everyone around here.  My parents, who live a half hour away, only had rain.  We had 2 separate hail storms on Saturday night.  The first one happened around 6pm and shortly after that a tornado siren was sounding.  No tornadoes touched near our home, thankfully, and we were only under the warning for an hour... which was good since we had dinner reservations for Bob's birthday.  LOL  The 2nd hailstorm happened around midnight that night.  Very unusual to have hail twice in the same day. 

Bob's State Farm office is in a different area of St Louis and that area probably sustained the worst hail damage of anywhere.  Needless to say, he & his staff will be very busy taking claims today & probably all week.  The airport is also in the area & my sister's car was parked in an uncovered lot over the weekend while she was out of town.  She came home to a badly beat-up car.  Add that to the list of claims from Bob's policyholders...  ;-)   

Bob turned another year older yesterday.  We celebrated his birthday on Saturday night at a restaurant and then again on Sunday night at our house with family.  Bob also went to the Cardinals game with my dad yesterday.  They each got a mini replica of the 2011 World Series trophy with their paid admission.  Their seats were in the Champions Club (an all-inclusive area with food + drinks) which was a Christmas gift from my sister.  Fun day for them, except the Cardinals lost. 

In addition to celebrating his birthday, I also managed to get quite a bit accomplished.  I finished choreographing a new Zumba routine that I'll be using in class today and finished 4 new scrapbook pages.  Slowly trying to get through old photos from last year that I still haven't used yet. 

Like this event.  My friend's daughter & I share the same birthday.  And I always tell her we're cool girls.  Well even without the shared birthday we're cool girls, but that's beside the point... 

I used a random mix of Echo Park paper & letter stickers, Nikki Sivils scalloped border strips, SRM border stickers and American Crafts + the Twinery for my "balloons"...

Time to put on my dancing shoes & go teach ZUMBA!

Have a great week, everyone! 

Resolutions...

I haven't really made a list of resolutions yet, but have a few in mind.  Like disconnecting from my phone more often & being more "present" when everyone's home.  Bryn gets on me about that.  I'd also like us to get back in a routine of going to church.  Seems that the busier the weekends get for us, the easier it is to sleep in on Sundays.   

Creatively-speaking, I have some goals in mind too... since I've been feeling uninspired & somewhat burnt-out for awhile now.  I want to get back to creating, just for the sake of creating so I can get photos & memories into the books.  I have so many photos of so many events that are piling up.  And then by the time I get around to doing something with them, I just can't remember the details as well for my journaling.  As far as I'm concerned, that's the most important part, so I feel like I've been failing there lately.

Like these photos for instance.  This night happened back in June.  And it's just one of many pages that I want to get to, but haven't yet... either because I've waited for the right product or I simply just had other things I'd rather do.  Either way, I want back that feeling of doing this because I LOVE it and it's important to me to document our lives... NOT just because I've made commitments to do it.  So when I'm not creating for one of the manufacturers I design for... I prefer to just use what's on hand.  I love to use a mix of products & manufacturers.  Is it the "right" way to design?  I don't really care whether it is or not!  It's me... and it's easier to stay true to me, than to force something else...       

Another page in the book! 

Off to my annual doctor's visit.  Had to say NO to shopping with a friend today because of it.  Now THAT sucks.  LOL

"Sleep with one eye open, gripping your pillow tight..."

... or sleep with 2 eyes open, as I've been doing a lot of lately.  

Aging is fun.  LOL

Anyhoo... been creating quite a bit lately but since I have nothing I can post for awhile, I thought I'd make something for fun using a combination of left-over stash that's been laying on my craft table.

Just bits of Echo Park, Bella Blvd, Bazzill Basics, Pink Paislee, We Are Memory Keepers, a SRM sticker sentiment & a Jolee's Boutique roller coaster sticker...  

 

 

TGIF and have a great weekend, everyone!

"I'm glad it's your birthday... happy birthday to you..."

Well, it's Monday... and also my sister's birthday which means that the celebrating continues on!  Looking forward to dinner at my parent's house tonight to celebrate.  She'll just be driving in from a weekend in Nashville, so we're keeping things tame tonight.  Which is good considering Bryn has school tomorrow!  And speaking of school, I added up how many more days are left for Bryn this morning & came up with 14.  She's looking forward to summer.  I am too.  Hopefully she's also looking forward to spending most mornings at the Y and to "crazy" lunches sometimes afterward... because really, she'll have no choice but to enjoy it!  LOL

In addition to having lots of fun over the weekend, working out, going to church & enjoying the yucky weather... (or not)... I also needed to make a handful of birthday cards to send out this week and managed to make this page just for fun.  I wanted to save one of the many, many notes I get from Bryn... along with some ridiculous photo booth pics from our recent "girls day out."  For some reason, she loves those booths.  I'm thinking it's the dorky poses we come up with while we're in there...

 

Anyway... the page is a mix of Echo Park, Bella Blvd, a SRM Stickers 8x8 calendar page, EAD Designs stickers, some Nikki Sivils & a few other odds + ends.  That green patterned paper was the last of my Playground paper kit.  So aside from some leftover stickers & journaling spots, I have now officially used the whole thing.  Boo. 

Have a great week! 

I ♥ Echo Park...

... but I think you already knew that.  ;-)

I've been in love with their products since they came onto the scrapbooking scene last year.  I love their fun, colorful, playful designs...totally my style... and I find it easy to get inspired while creating with them. 

 

While I've been creating with their products since their debut, I recently I won the adorable Playground line when I submitted a page I made using the For The Record line during their Facebook contest.  I love, love, love Playground.  I only have 1 sheet of paper left from the kit and some random scraps.  I've used almost every single bit of it.  Here's my most recent page about a DVD I helped make with my friends...

 

The little records on the top are actually cake toppers.  My ribbon-shaped paper underneath my DVD photo was cut to size from the cover sheet packaging included in the 12x12 Playground paper pack.  I used that same cover sheet to punch out a star on the right side of my page.  I'm telling you... I haven't wasted one bit of this package!  My journaling was printed from Word onto the polaroid print cut-out.  I covered up the heart with a punched star.

As for my film strip at the bottom of my page... here's a fun idea I learned from my friend, Jing-Jing!  Using a black piece of cardstock, I punched both sides of my strip of paper using my EK Success binding edge punch.  Don't throw away your long piece of left-over black cardstock though! 

 

Just adhere it on top of your binded edge and you have the look of a film strip once you add your photos!  Love it! 

 

I always try to make cards with my left-over scraps, when I finish creating scrapbook pages.  It leaves less to file away or throw in the recycle bin AND I end up with cards on hand when I need them! 

 

 

Here are a few more pages I made & posted recently using the Playground line...

 

Details here.

 

Details here.

 

Details here.

I've just ordered some pieces from the Summer line and currently have my eye on the Splash line as well.  So look for more Echo Park creations coming soon!  

"Watchin' you watchin' me we go all out..."

In addition to celebrating Bob's birthday over the weekend, we also enjoyed a special day for granddaughter, Olivia, yesterday with her First Communion in Illinois.  She looked beautiful, as always, and even had a speaking part during the service...

 

Had a fantastic late lunch/early dinner at a local Mexican restaurant afterward.  I will definitely be returning and really wish it was closer to home.  Seafood molcajete... YUMMO.      

We ate some ice cream once we made it back home last night, studied for Bryn's spelling test & then Bryn watched the Karate Kid with Bob, while I made this page...

 

I used a 2nd print of the 4 of us & just cut us out as silhouettes to make the page a little more 3-dimensional by adding pop dots underneath.  Why conserve ink?  LOL...

 

The page is a mix of the Echo Park Playground line, a KI Memories calendar page, some record cut-outs from the old Nikki Sivils' Dan The Record Man line, a couple SRM sentiment stickers, and a few Crate chipboard stickers.  I thought the calendar page was appropriate for a background because if I could dance with those girls every day of the month, I would.  Plus... let's face it... the color worked.  LOL!  And for the record, I will clarify that the Zumba cut-out on the page is there because the four of us were wearing our Zumba gear that day... NOT because we were doing Zumba.  We were doing Latin Hip Hop.  Ahem...   

And one last thing!  Would you like the chance to be a guest designer for Nikki Sivils?  Check out all the details here!

It's Monday morning, so I'm off to my Spin class! 

I ♥ party pics...

A couple nights ago I received a box from Cosmo Cricket... one I wasn't expecting.  I am always excited to see a Cosmo Cricket box on the front porch though!  It was a follow-up to the 3 new lines they'd sent back in January... a package of the Social Club chipboard stickers and a package of their new Glubers.  I don't think they were ready to ship at the time, so being the ever-generous-company that they are... they sent them out now. 

So... with "Social Club" back on the brain, out came more party pics that I have yet to scrap!  Since I hate to leave any photos out, my challenge is always coming up with a design that allows for multiple photos from each event + journaling + I want to keep the page from looking like a hot mess.  That and I really do try to not use the same boring design over & over again.  This is why I'm not a very fast scrapper... too much to think about...     

  

In addition to using the Social Club chipboard stickers, I used mostly their Upcycle line and some of my stickers from the new Life is Good SRM sticker set.  My lined journaling spot in the middle is paper from the Nikki Sivils' Summer line and the pink paper I used behind my photos & journaling is from the Echo Park Playground line (I did say you'd see it again!)  I drew & hand-cut my cloud for my title using some left-over Studio Calico paper.

I added some glitter to my "ice" in the ice bucket cut-out just to add a little more interest... great for the photo, not so great for the scrapbook.  LOL

 

Thank you, Cosmo Cricket, for always being so generous with the SRM Stickers team!  You are the best!    

"Don't stop... keep it moving... put your drinks up..."

Hopefully you're not tiring of seeing the Playground line yet, because this is now the 3rd page I've made using the 12x12 paper pack I received from Echo Park a few weeks ago.  If you are tired of it, I'm sorry to say there will probably be more.  I still have more left & I can't help myself.  I'm finding the bright colors & patterns of this line to be highly inspiring.  And since that doesn't always happen for me, I'm rolling with it.  :-) 

 

In addition to the Echo Park products, I also used both sets of letter stickers from the Nikki Sivils' Summer line, some SRM Sticker birthday sentiments and two Bazzil Just The Edge cardstock border strips.  I also added some of my bakers twine for my "balloons"... because I have to reduce my lifetime supply a little bit at a time, you know.  

And can I just say that was one fun night?  Friends that I love, never-ending laughter, dancing & singing like crazy people... the perfect night as far as I'm concerned!  

Must do it again soon...  

Just please do not create a scene...

 

We spent some time at a nearby playground on Sunday.  It was a beautiful day & Bryn had a new kite she wanted to try out.  I'll have to save the kite photos for another page, considering I took about 50 photos the other day during our trip to the park.  Try as I may, but I can only fit so many photos + journaling on a 2-page layout without making it look like a complete disaster!    

 

This design is one I tend to use over & over again... even on single page layouts.  Scene at the top, photos at the bottom... done.  Now if only the whole process for me went as fast as that sounds, all would be good.

 

I had no intentions of using anything on here except what was in the 12x12 Playground package, but after staring at the finished page for awhile, I decided it needed some SRM Stickers!  So I used sentiments from the HELLO set across my grass & also on my little flag stickers by the monkey...

 

I had a brief fleeting thought of doing some hand-stitching across the grass, but thankfully that moment ended & I used the sentiments instead.  I think it made the grass stand out a little more. 

 

Let me know if you try out this design.  I'd love to see what you create!

Bryn & I are off to the dentist after school today and then we're all going to Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  Since our dentist is located in Bob's office building & since it's such a late appointment, I suggested we stop and eat on the way home.  Yay for one of my favorite places to eat and yay for not having to make dinner! 

"Shake it like a Polaroid..."

 

When I received the new Playground line from Echo Park recently, I had intentions of using it for the obvious... playground photos!  I'm currently working on a 2-page layout doing just that, but got a little side-tracked when I noticed the fun little Polaroid cameras & photo cut-outs included in this line.  Additionally, all the little hearts got me thinking about "date night" photos!  The contact print size is perfect for cutting down to fit into the little Polaroid prints & I even made it appear that one of them was coming out of the big camera sticker...

 

Thank you again for your generosity, Echo Park!  I do LOVE your fun products lines!   

And speaking of Polaroids... I heard the best cover of "Hey Ya" in Spin class yesterday by Obadiah Parker.  You can listen to it here.  Love it...

"... my mind's dirty and it don't need cleanin'..."

 
Had a perfect 2 days of scrapping (well, one day & one very late night, that is)... and for just one page, too.  But it was great to create something just for fun... no assignments, no requirements... just a mix of my own stash.  And it was MAJOR stash reduction on this one, too.  Gotta love that.  Quite a bit of Pink Paislee's Soiree line they sent me, My Mind's Eye, Doodlebug Designs, Echo Park, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey & SRM Stickers... just to name a few! 

Just a few photos & journaling from each day of our trip, put into a calendar-like format.  Nevermind that Bob has to wear his reading glasses to actually read the journaling.  It all fit without having to make a mini book, so that's all that matters... ;-)

 

(you can click on the images for a larger view)...

 

Mixing & matching of old & new products will always be my favorite way to scrap.  Need to find the time to stay true to that.  It makes me happy & inspired to create.

Speaking of things that make me happy... I'm off to Zumba!  Migraine & all...

Headed for the playground...

I had some FUN news yesterday!  I was one of the winners picked for the Echo Park Facebook Fan contest .  They posted a contest to create something using their "Springtime" or "For The Record" lines.  So I posted 2 of the pages I made with the February HIP 2B SQUARE kit & they chose my "Date Night at Copia" page.  I got to pick one of their new lines for my prize & I went with "Playground..."  Woot woot!  Had my eye on that line since it's debut! 

 

Looks like a trip to the park might be in order! 

Off to run & then to the eye doctor.  Trying to read street signs at night is getting a little sketchy these days...

... and some HIP cards from February...

On Wednesday I posted the pages I made using the February HIP 2B SQUARE kit.  If you missed the post, you can see it here!  Today it's the cards!

This first card was made using the packaging from the Jillibean Soup corrugated frames as my background.  I cut the rest of the card around it, to make it flower-shaped...

 

And another card using Echo Park...

 

... and Studio Calico...

 

For more information on the HIP 2B SQUARE kit club go here!

As I announced the other day, I made the decision to make this my last month designing for HIP 2B SQUARE.  It's been a FUN 2 years with them, but the time feels right to move forward... especially since I have more going on with Nikki Sivils these days.  Very excited about that!!!  Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you to Kimberly for the opportunity to be part of your team these last 2 years!  It's been much appreciated!   

And thank you, everyone, for always being so kind & having such positive comments!  It really means a lot to me!  Big hugs to you all!  

Have a great weekend!

FEBRUARY IS TRES HIP...

The HIP 2B SQUARE kit for February was filled with lots of fun new product... mostly from Echo Park, Studio Calico, Lily Bee & Jillibean Soup.  I managed to make 5 new pages & 3 cards before leaving town, but still have plenty of product left for when I return! 

The first 2 pages were made almost entirely with the new For The Record line from Echo Park (minus the letter stickers).  For once I decided to create without mixing lines... LOL! Speaking of the letter stickers, they are really cute, but I think I was a bit cross-eyed trying to find the letters I wanted to use! Heehee!  And yes, Bryn is picking me up on this first page.  It's an oddity, I know.  She's been doing that for almost 2 years now & I finally decided we really should get a photo of it... 

 

Just paper-pieced some buildings using paper, word strips & journaling blocks on the next one...

 

Almost all Studio Calico on the next page about my finger.  As a side-note, I'm feeling like I'm moving toward recovery.  I was finally able to run that finger under water & soap without yelling on Sunday.  Bonus!  Still have major tenderness & a bit of throbbing, but all in all... less grief.    

 

Just a couple more pages that are pretty basic in design, but in the end... photos + journaling =  a very happy me! 

 

 

Go here for more information on this month and all the HIP 2B SQUARE kits!  You will not be disappointed! 

I'll be back tomorrow with the cards I made using this month's kit! 

Just like the dollar bin at Target... I couldn't pass it up!

 

I love all the new Echo Park lines.  (I love the old ones, too!)  "Playground" is adorable... have you seen it yet?!  And even though I don't have a little boy at home, I think the "Litte Boy" line from Echo Park is so cute!  I almost bought it at Archivers the other day, but decided I had too much new product that I hadn't used yet & I should maintain some sort of control.  So unlike me... LOL 

Anyway, I think it's versatile enough that you could use it for travel pages, too.  I love the little airplane, clouds & train.  I'm on Jessica Sprague's email list & have often thought of purchasing from her website even though I'm not a digital scrapper.  Today though, when I received an email about the Little Boy downloads for $1.00, I decided to buy... and downloaded the Element Pack.  I was hoping I could just print & cut.  It worked great!   

Just mixed in some random coordinating product... Nikki Sivils, We Are Memory Keepers & a Bella Blvd word bubble... and the page came together pretty quickly.

Now that I've done this, I may be back on "One Buck Wednesdays" more often.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that "Playground" is on there soon...

You want to meet when? Let me pencil you in...

I'll pencil you in on my new calendar, that is! 

Today on the SRM Stickers blog, they are featuring calendars!  I, along with a few other designers, decided to tackle one.  I have to admit, it did take me a few days to complete this calendar.  But, I left it on my craft table & would work on it as I found free time.  It was fun to make & now is the perfect time to make one for yourself before the holidays are upon us! 

To make my SRM Stickers calendar, I started with the 8x8 size.  They also have 6x6, 12x12 and Baby's First Year calendars! 

And from there, I used some old stuff + some new stuff and LOTS of SRM Stickers!  I mean seriously, I think I may have used 1 sticker from every single SRM Sticker sheet ever made to complete this calendar.  Ok, maybe not really.  But there are quite a FEW!  If you have any questions on a particular product though, just leave me a comment & I'll let you know what I used!  

 

With the holidays quickly approaching, these calendars would certainly make a great gift!  You could personalize them even more by adding photos!  Check out the SRM Stickers blog today, to see how the other designers created with their calendars!  I swear the SRM girls provide ENDLESS inspiration for me every single day! 

I'm blogging here today if you have a chance to hop on over!  Have a GREAT week!

It's HIP to have Echo Park in your HIP 2B SQUARE kit...

FINALLY got to play with the June HIP 2B SQUARE kit & I have only one thing to say.  I will be hunting down the ECHO PARK BOOTH at CHA.  The end. 

This kit is so full of CUTE product it is now deemed my favorite HIP kit of all time.  And I loved the new Echo Park stuff so much, I ordered more of it that was not in the kit.  So... you think you've seen a lot of Craft Fair on here?  Get ready to see a lot of Echo Park.  I'm hooked! 

 

Here we go... starting with a 2-pager.  I had this idea in mind before I received a sketch from Melanie for this month's 2-page layout.  I wanted to put a large portion of our Arizona photos on a 2-pager, rather than make a mini book.  No time for a mini book right now!  It looks nothing like the sketch, but with everything I have going on this week... it's a 2-pager anyway.  So that counts for something, right?  ;-)

On the next one, I hand-cut my heart from a double sided Lily Bee paper, using both sides of it.  I used some of my Sassafras Lass packaging for my journaling card.  I'm so loving the color combos in this month's kit.  So fun, happy & summery...  

Another page with lots of photos... went with the contact sheet size this time.  The journaling spot for this page came from the Basic Grey felt flowers packaging.  I ♥ Echo Park...

And... surprise!  Another multi-photo page!  LOL  My thoughts are, if the entire scrapbook is full of one-photo pages, then I don't have enough room to put an entire year in there.  And since I'm essentially a chronological scrapper, it's one book per year for Bryn, with everything in order by date.  That way if the page isn't dated, it doesn't matter.  I'll know approximately when it happened when we go back through them at a later date.  Then we have other books for Bob + me, as well as other random memories... all chronological as well.  Hi... I'm anal.  Have you figured that out in the past 2 1/2 years yet? 

I made a couple cards... 

Love the Jenni Bowlin crepe paper ribbon...

And finally, Melanie asked us to make an altered project.  I went with a wall-hanging that Bryn has confiscated for her room.  So much for trying to sell that at the craft fair this fall...

I've been using that Martha Stewart lace border punch a lot lately, haven't I?

Oh & ps... I really don't have it hanging in her room on that big honkin' screw.  I had to take down the kitchen clock to photograph it.  There's not enough natural light in Bryn's room.  LOL

So, that's it for this month!  Although, I am hoarding a bit of the Echo Park to use with the additional Echo Park stash I just purchased, so like I said... there shall be MORE! 

For more information on this amazing kit, as well as becoming a monthly subscriber (it's worth it!), contact Kimberly at HIP 2B SQUARE!