Busy, Busy! (and giveaway reminder)

What a busy week and even busier weekend. Did anyone think to warn me what life with teenagers is like? I feel like my biggest job title is chauffeur as I drive my little sweeties and many times their friends to and fro, never really leaving the 5 mile radius of my home yet spending hours of my day behind the wheel. How does that happen?

The other consuming piece of life?? Football. I love it, but I am glad that we are finally at playoff week and it is winding down. Chris' fall play is in full swing as well and this is their final week of practices before they have their shows. He will be spending a lot of time at the school for that.

I have to share a couple of photos I was able to capture at some recent games. I love watching Nathan out there doing his thing. He is really developing into a great player, but as quarterback I see a lot of leadership skills developing as well.  It is so fun to see.

Can't wait to get some pics of Chris on stage. I love seeing my boys shine at what they do!

I would love to have you check out the giveaway on this post here. It will close soon and I have some great things in the goody bag including an American Craft 6x6 pad. Comments are few so your chances are great!! :)

Hope to get some scrapping in this week.

Lisa

Guest Design- Express the Moment Part 2 and Giveaway!!!

Hello and welcome back to Part 2 of my guest design projects with Express the Moment. I promised you some cards and another cute project and I am here to deliver! Unfortunately, I was not able to get to any more projects as my night was overrun with it's usual busyness that teenagers tend to create.

Let's get started. I made two cards. The first is for a friend who's birthday is right at Halloween. I usually don't try to send her cards that embrace the traditional colors and theme, but with the kit this year I decided to embrace the season. I'm thinking about going back and adding a bit of sparkle to the web tag...

The next card came together after I created the tag using my Cricut for one of the layouts I showed yesterday. It ended up not fitting and who wants to waste such a cute haunted house??  I couldn't get the black to show up so well in the photos no matter what I tried. It looks much sharper in real life. I am seriously in need of some photo and editing classes with this new camera!

The last project I have to share are some treat toppers I created for something special for my kids. We have a bit of a tradition with Pez dispensers and I couldn't resist some cute Halloween ones. I know they are getting older and celebrate less when it comes to this time of the year, but I am POSITIVE they will be okay with this. I'm going to make them ooh and ahh over the cute tops before I let them get to their treat!

I am so thankful for the opportunity to create with Express the Moment. Please make sure you take time to visit their website and stop by their Facebook page and say hi as well.  And because you made it through both days with me, I would like to treat you to a giveaway. I have some fun Halloween scrapping goodies for some lucky person!  Just become a follower of my blog and leave a comment telling me what your favorite project was that I showed you from the kit. (and if you don't have a favorite, just pretend...lol) I will pick a winner at the beginning of next week.

Lisa

Guest Design- Express the Moment

I am so excited! I have the privilege of guest designing for Express the Moment, a scrapbook company that also produces monthly kits for their clients to purchase. Kim, the owner, sent me October's  kit of the month to play with and I have had tons of fun. I will be taking today and tomorrow to show you some of the fun projects I was able to create with her kit.  So far I have completed 6 different projects and still have enough paper and embellishments to keep going.  The kit was full of double sided pattern paper from Authentique, We R Memory Keepers and Pink Paislee. There was a good assortment of embellishments including ribbons and twine, tags, embossed stickers, buttons, and sticker letters from Echo Park. It was mainly a Halloween kit though with creativity the papers could be used for other things as well.

Today I am going to concentrate on the layouts I created. I had some pictures from a couple of Octobers ago, while we were still living in Ashburn. I have been waiting to scrap these pictures because I was able to get some fun ones and I knew right away the papers in this kit would be perfect since they weren't cutesy Halloween papers but could give a little more of a spooky look.

This first layout was pictures of the kids as they set out for trick or treating. We had such a great "hood" in Ashburn. The neighbors were awesome and there always seemed to be some kind of block party going on. I used twine from the kit to create a spider web design. I was really struggling with the left side of this layout for awhile.

The next layout is of our good friends Kirsten and Mike. You couldn't get a better picture representing these two. Mike is such a goof ball and he loves to taunt Kirsten. I had to get these pictures scrapped.  I have to say I love the little spider by Kirsten's head, but I know she will hate it even though it's not real. I used a stamp from a Pink Paislee set included in the kit.

The last layout I made uses a picture of my youngest son, Chris from that night. I wanted to use the kit to do something besides traditional Halloween.  My best friend and scrapping buddy got me going with an idea from one of the stickers in the kit and I decided to create a layout that journaled how I was feeling with my youngest turning 11 and hitting the tween years. I used a sketch from the Authentique blog to go along with their October sketch challenge. I turned the sketch because I wanted the picture to be on the left side of the layout. I loved the Enchanted line that was included in the kit from Authentique and used several of their papers including the Bewitched, Glowing and Spellbound papers.  I represented the tween years with the circle over the numbers 11 and 12 on some washi tape I already had.

Be sure to check back tomorrow. I have some cards and another cute project to share.  There may be a little giveaway involved too...hmmm. And who knows?? If I get some more time in between schlepping kids to and from their various activities I may try to sneak in some more with the leftovers I have. But for now I must run...mommy duty awaits.

Lisa

What a Week!

Goodness I have neglected this blog! My week was a whirlwind of activity. I spent last weekend in Estes Park surprising my sister in law with a 50th birthday girls get away. It was so much fun and very relaxing. We spent much of it staying warm by the fire while watching movies and eating tons of candy (no judging!) from our amazing candy island everyone contributed to.  

Surprise! It took a bit for it to register that her hubby had deceived her and we were her dinner dates.

MMMM......

The mountains were gorgeous and the elk were plentiful. We had one elk just steps from our car and saw herds of elk on the golf course in town as well as by the river. It was a girls weekend that was much needed and a time away from all the crazy October madness that seems to come every year. What is it about October??

On Sunday I headed home just in time for my best friend and her amazing family to show up for a visit from Nebraska. The whole family has been missing our Kuszaks terribly since we've moved. It was good to reconnect. Our kids have been together since they were tiny and they are the best of friends. Their time here was short, but we were able to get a short trip to the mountains in and saw some beautiful views.

After cleaning and remaking the guest beds, our friend Rick flew in from Florida. David and Rick were old roommates while we were dating and it was super fun having him around. He is a favorite of Nathan and Chris' because he's an absolute nut. Now he is gone and I am resetting and preparing for next week. Fall break is over, the kids are back in school... life resumes. I have several scrappy projects done and prepared for the blog this next week. Working on some more for a guest design spot with Express the Moment, a great scrapbooking company that also puts together and sells monthly kits. So excited to show you what I did with their October Kit.

Have a great Sunday night!

Lisa

Sketches

One of my favorite things is a good sketch to get my mind started. I love to use sketches and have created a book of sketches I've found on different web sites, blogs etc. There are many times I can just start in on a layout and the design comes naturally for me. Then there are those times where I am stumped or just can't seem to figure out a set of pictures. That is when I will turn to a sketch. The best thing about a sketch is that it is just a starting point. It is a place to jump off and start my creativity flowing. Sometimes my layout will turn out looking exactly like the sketch, sometimes you won't even know I started with the sketch in front of me.

My layout today was created with a sketch from the blog Sketches in Thyme. They are actually hosting a design team call and with my love of sketches I figured why not give it a shot? Being a Sketch Maven would be so fun for me. I have only recently found this blog so I have only used a couple of their sketches so far, but what I love is that they provide a new sketch each week and they do both one and two page layouts.  Score! As a two page junkie, I love this option!

The sketch they provided for the design team call was this:

I decided to use a picture of Chris that is one of my all time favorites. He was known for his one eyed smile and every time he heard someone say smile or saw a camera, this is what we would get. I have had this My Mind's Eye collection on hand for awhile and knew this was the perfect paper and the perfect sketch for this picture.

I switched the strip going down the side to run along the bottom of my layout. i felt that this grounded my photo a little better. I added the banners on top to bring a finished feeling to the top of the page as well since the strip was no longer there.

I wanted to show a close up so that you can see the layers and the way that some of the layers have popped off the page. I will often use several layers of glue dots to get a little lift and make the page more than one dimensional. I also used foam dots to give even more lift to the title tag.

So how many of you like to use sketches as a starting point? Do you find yourself following the sketch exactly as it is or do you tend to go crazy with it and end up with a different look?

If you get a chance, hop on over to Sketches in Thyme and check out their new layout for this week. It looks fun and I'm excited to try it out. If you would like to try out for the design team, the call is open until October 20th. Here is the link to get the information from their blog.  http://sketchesinthyme.blogspot.com/2012/09/time-for-design-team-call.html

Catch ya soon!

Lisa

Layout Feature

Just dropping by for a little bit of self promotion, bragging... whatever it takes. :)
I follow a blog called Practical Scrappers. I love that it includes a lot of tutorials, tips and tons of layouts from their own team as well as followers. They have a running list of things they will be featuring  and encourage followers to email their own work. I recently sent one of my favorite layouts from my niece Mikayla's graduation album that I made for her. I saw today that it was on their fan feature post. If you want to check out Practical Scrappers you can follow this link: http://www.practicalscrappers.com/2012/10/fan-feature.html.

Have a happy Sunday. Our agenda isn't too terrible... church, Nathan is doing a volunteer project with his football team, I am taking dinner over to my parents, and of course the Bronco game!

Lisa

World Card Making Day Part 2

Hey there! I'm back for a second post today. Don't expect that to happen too often though. Today is special because it is World Card Making Day AND I had my house to myself and time in my scrap room. Love it!

I am going to share a couple of cards I made today. One I love, the other...eh. It happens though. Definitely can't love everything you make.

I made this card from a sketch posted at the Delightful Inspirations blog. I love the cleanness of the sketch and the cute banners. I used scraps of My Mind's Eye that I had left over from a layout I did earlier this week. I am going to be posting that later this week.

I also used My Mind's Eye for the next card. It is from the Miss Caroline line and while I had a design in mind when I started, I just couldn't get the card itself to match what was in my head. Maybe it was the migraine that was beginning to make it impossible to concentrate.  I took the photo to try to show the layering and depth that a head on shot just wouldn't show. It makes it look better this way, trust me :)

I'll be sharing the rest of the cards I made today throughout the week. Some of them need time to get to the recipients before I stick them on here... not saying who!

Signing off,

Lisa

PS. I am linking up my card to Paper Issues. They have a giveaway for linking any card you make. They also have a pretty fun blog with lots of ideas that I love to check in on.

World Card Making Day...Who's in?

Today is World Card Making Day and in honor of such a spectacular occasion I am going to share a few of the cards I made and sent out this last year. Cards are something I love to make because they generally come together a bit faster than a layout and give a sense of having completed something in the midst of my busy life! I do love putting a little extra love into the cards I send, a piece of me to those that I care about. 

This first card was one I made for my Mother In Law.  I used my Cricut to cut several layers and sizes of the flower so that it would stand out and add dimension to the card. I also cut the flourish and the butterfly using my Cricut. Handy little machine!

This next card was actually made out of fabric. I found a cute little set of fabric squares at Joanne's and since I don't sew but love the cute patterns I figured I would use it on a card. Both the square background as well as the bottom two layers of the flower are made of fabric. For the flower I took strips of fabric and ruffled the strip around a Gluber. Very easy.

 

Cards are an easy way to give a gift to a teacher. I always loved to find a different type of gift card to give to my children's teachers that I thought would let them have some fun spending on themselves.

I am off to my craft room to spend some time making what else??? Cards! I actually have the day to myself as my hubby and older son are at the Air Force game in the Springs and my youngest is at a friends. I am scheduled to play chauffeur in a bit for him and his friend but until then it is laundry and card making :)

Hope to check in with you a little later and share some fun cards. How many of you are going to make cards today or scrap anything?? What plans do the rest of you have?

If you make a card or project of any sort today I would love for you to link it up. I promise to come check it out and maybe some of my followers will too? Let's share the love!

Lisa

Winner!!

It is super late after a very busy day but I promised a winner today and I have a little over an hour left in the day!

The winner of the Simple Stories 6x6 pad and fall goodies is Norma R who said:

Norma R said...

What beautiful photos Lisa! I LOVE the fall colors and love seeing the trees turn and know that Thanksgiving and Christmas as just around the corner.

Congratulations Norma!! Cheers for you and a happy dance too :) If you can email  your mailing address to dpeeples1@hotmail.com I will get that right out to you. 

Goodnight for now.

Lisa