Hopping Again and a Giveaway

Good morning! It's time for my second hop of the weekend. Hope you have a cup of coffee in hand and are ready for some LIGHT (hint) reading. We have some fantastic inspiration for you and a prize that makes me wish I could play along!

Welcome to the first

S.W.A.T Design Team Blog Hop

Today S.W.A.T is welcoming our new team with a Blog Hop & Challenge! We are so excited we have a great group of ladies that are ready to wow you with their talent! Here is just a peek of what they have in store for you today!

On to the Challenge!

Here in the USA its almost the 4^th of July so everywhere you look you will find Red, White & Blue, as people plan their celebrations! So we thought what could be better than a Color Combination Challenge so here is your palette, lets see what you do!

Create something using the colors Red White & Blue and link it up to the right for a chance to win this pretty Pink Paislee Kit. All entries must be received by July 28th 11:59PM EST.

As you make your way along our hop you will find lots of Red, White & Blue inspiration to help inspire you for our challenge. But that's not all you will find...
On each S.W.A.T. Girl's Blog you will find a Clue Word. These words will be in bold print or in a picture, no worries they will make it clear what their word is. (see my hint above!)

Once you have gathered all the words you will have our Blog Hop Quote! Which is great news because that's all you need to be entered to win a Webster's Warehouse Box!
Just send us the quote & your name  to: swatscrappygirl@gmail  and let us know you did in the Rafflecopter below :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winner of the hop will be randomly selected and will win a huge Webster's Warehouse Box (which is now sold out!)  packed full of beautiful fun from Webster's Pages! ($131 value!)

****Exact embellishments may vary, picture for representation only.

Now for the Fine Print!

1. You MUST be a follower of each S.W.A.T Girl’s blog and leave a comment on each blog and;
2. You MUST also be a follower of the S.W.A.T blog.
3. You must email your quote answer to: swatscrappygirl@gmail by Monday July 1st at 11:59PM EST

It’s finally time to announce our new Team!  

Here is our New Team & Blog Hop Order

Alison

Becci

Bev

Claude

Deborah 

Doris

Lisa  THIS IS ME!

Michele

Nicole

Nicolle

Venetia  

Lanette 

Please make sure you visit the entire team today as some members are hosting additional blog challenges during the hop and offering their own extra goodies for you.

Here is my red, white and blue project. You can see I went with the traditional colors, stars and stripes that make any layout truly American but I put a little twist in it by using family photos and some journaling about our family rather than any of the holidays or things you would generally gravitate towards these colors with.  I love that I finally got to use some of the Little Yellow Bicycle burlap star embellishments that I've had sitting in my stash and I love the look of the washi and ribbons that I used as well. 

Thank you so much for hopping along with us, I hope you have fun! Remember that you have until Monday July 1st at 11:59PM EST to send your answer to: swatscrappygirl@gmail.com. 

Please check out my hop with Practical Scrappers that is going on here this weekend. To celebrate a weekend of hops I will combine comments that I receive from both of my hop posts and pick a winner next week who will receive a 6x6 paper pad and some fun scrappy embellishments. If you comment of both you will have two chances. Yeah!

Also, don't forget to sign up to follow my blog with the bloglovin button on the left hand side of my blog. Google Reader is almost gone so if you already follow me  you will need to switch your options in order to keep getting my posts. If you want to follow by email or network blogs those options are available as well. If you are a new reader welcome! 

Have a fantastic weekend!
Lisa

It's A Great Weekend to HOP!

Good Morning! It's Friday and the start of a great weekend. I am participating in not one, but two blog hops this weekend. Both of the fabulous blogs I design for decided to host hops and both are offering incredible prizes. Today I start off with Practical Scrappers. You can read through the information below and then check out my somewhat unconventional "Project Life" project at the end.

Hello and welcome to the PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS and SCRAPTOWN LADY Blog Hop!  We thought it would be fun to combine forces and share projects with you that have our design teams’ takes on one of the hottest scrapbooking trends around:  Project Life. 

Whether you are a “Project Lifer,” are interested in Project Life, or just want to find out ways to use all those fantastic Project Life types of products and ideas on your own projects, we have a hop FULL of inspiration and creativity! 

We’ve got a fabulous prize, too - a $25 gift certificate to Scraptown Lady’s shop, which is stocked with awesome scrapbooking supplies!  What do you have to do to be entered in the drawing?  It’s easy! 

1.      Be a follower of Practical Scrappers; and

2.      Be a follower of Scraptown Lady; and

3.      Visit all the blogs, starting with Practical Scrappers and ending with Scraptown Lady, and leave a comment at each blog along the way.  

We will be hopping until Sunday, June 30^th, at 11:59 p.m. CST.  The grand prize winner will be announced on Tuesday, July 2^nd! 

If you get lost along the way, just check the complete list below to get you hopping in the right direction:

Practical Scrappers: http://www.practicalscrappers.com/

Christine Freet Meyer: http://scrappingwithchristine.blogspot.com/

Erin Morehouse-Kislingbury: http://girlpaperscissors.blogspot.com/

Charissa Miller:  http://www.akihasmommascraps.com/

Nicole Laha: http://www.shezigzags.blogspot.com/

Claude Campeau: http://www.imzadi481.blogspot.ca/

Lanette Erickson: http://stacksofscraps.blogspot.com/

Malika Kelly: http://www.malikakelly.blogspot.com/

Danielle de Konink: http://picsandcheesecake.blogspot.nl/

Lisa Peeples: http://www.snappinandscrappin.blogspot.com/  THIS IS ME :)

Mary Pat Siehl: http://siehledwithakiss.blogspot.com/

Wendi Robinson: http://scrappydayinparadise.blogspot.com/

Julie Comeau: http://lepetitmondedeglamotte.blogspot.ca/

Kim Ryden: http://www.rydenkim.blogspot.com/

Ruth Bonser: http://scrapmachine.com/

Krissy Clark McKee: http://krissyclarkmckee.blogspot.com/

Marcia Dehn-Nix: http://onescrapatatime-bymumsie.blogspot.com/

Cathy Harper: http://www.alteredplayground.blogspot.com

Rhonda Van Ginkel: http://snapwhiz.blogspot.com/

Scraptown Lady:  http://scrap-town-lady.blogspot.com/

If we have inspired you so much that you “need” to do a little shopping now, SCRAPTOWN LADY is offering 20% off all orders during the hop!  The sale runs from now ‘til midnight Monday.  Enter “code20” to receive your discount.

Now, I have to ask you to give me a little room here. Several years ago when Project Life and a picture a day really took off I jumped on the bandwagon with my scrappy buddy and was gung ho to delve into this new world of scrapping. I was going to do it in addition to my regular scrapping because I couldn't give up the creativity a blank sheet invites. Well I made it to almost the end of January when I realized this just wasn't for me. I don't like to quit and I hate feeling like I failed on something, but the whole thing felt more like a chore than fun for me. I loved the concept of getting more everyday memories in and letting go of the event based scrapping, I just had to do it differently. In the last couple of years I have begun to scrap more freely. I scrap out of order sometimes (HUGE for me!) and I have been better at capturing personalities, everyday stuff, the stories etc. This year I  was really pulled into the one word stuff and decided that would be my "project life" for the year. I wanted to document me, the ins and outs of something I can personally work on and document for me and for my family. So while this is a little out of the box and not traditional project life, this is my project life...documenting the real story of us.

My One Word is Connect. Through the year I have been working on opening myself up, connecting with those around me, with myself, with my family in a way that I've needed to with all the change that has happened in our life recently. I recently pulled out a book that I have read each time I have moved, After the Boxes Are Unpacked by Susan Miller. This was a life changing book for me after my first move and has been a good reminder and has helped to pull me up and forward each time since. While reading it this time I realized that in order for me to connect to our new home and life I need to bloom where I am planted. I can't stay hidden in the dirt letting life pass me by and still think I'm going to make the connections I so need right now. I have to grow and bloom and let others see who I really am. This got me headed in a direction I have NEVER gone until now... Mixed media canvas painting. I dived in and this is what I came up with.

There it is. My first attempt at working with a canvas and I am pleased with how it turned out. This will be hanging in my scrap room as a reminder for me to open up and let my true self show.

I added some depth and dimension by painting one of my chevron embossing folders and using it as a stamp. The letters didn't quite stick out enough so I cut them several times on my Cricut and layered them so they didn't just blend into the canvas. The same was done with the leaves.

Don't you just love these Enamel Dots from My Mind's Eye? I knew they would make a perfect stem. I used the Echo Park Here and Now line for the flower petals and love the beautiful, happy colors.

Thanks for joining me on this long post. I hope that I have helped you see that even though I'm a Project Life failure I can still use the concept of it in a way that better suits me and allows me to do what it was meant for... tell my everyday story better. I know there are others who are like me.  You want to jump on the bandwagon, you want to like the traditional project life but it just isn't you. Find freedom in taking the concept and making it work for you.

Please don't forget to join me for my second hop tomorrow with S.W.A.T. I am offering up my own little prize to celebrate the fun of hopping. I am going to combine all comments that I get from both hops and choose a winner who will receive a 6x6 paper pad and some yummy embellishments to go with it. Thanks for hopping.

One more note, if you would like to follow my blog or if you currently do through Google Reader I would love for you to sign up to follow through bloglovin. The button is on the left side of my blog. Most of you may know that Google Reader will be no more after July 1st and I have chosen to move to bloglovin. You can also follow by email or networked blogs.

Lisa

Wedding Inspiration with Practical Scrappers

Today is the first official day of summer and the perfect time to talk about weddings. There is nothing better than a summer wedding. David and I were married twenty summers ago so a summer wedding always captures my heart. This year was a big one and though the celebration was a little stifled since I was recovering from surgery, the looking back and sharing with each other and the boys the different memories from that long ago event was an extremely special time. I had the boys dig out our old pictures intending to make a mini for my husband that chronicled the twenty years of our marriage, but the pain killers must have been clouding my head because I quickly realized that being up and trying to create a full album in one afternoon with my head reeling and my body hurting was not an option. I did manage to make a 12x12 layout that expressed to him what my feelings were and presented it to him on our anniversary. We plan to frame it and hang it as a sign of our commitment to each other. I thought with the theme over at Practical Scrappers today (which I will share that project later in the post) I would share with you what I made.

I wanted to make this a perfect mix of both masculine and feminine. I don't get to use pink very often so I knew I had to sneak a little in there without making it too girly since I was making it for David.

Here is a close up showing the little bit of misting I did on the background as well as the Thickers that I altered with ink in order to make them fit the layout. I love the canvas texture of them. The Artisan hearts by Pink Paislee were the perfect simple embellishments to finish off the layout.

While we are busy celebrating twenty years, my niece Ashleigh and her husband Lee are celebrating their first year together. I was really excited when they asked me to help them with several of their wedding decorations. She also asked me to make a guest book for her guests to sign. They had just had some fabulous engagement photos taken and I wanted to make sure to use them in some way in the book. Their theme was Rustic Romantic and their colors teal and purple so I set off to figure out the best way to incorporate these into her guestbook. Below are the photos of the entire guest book. On each double page layout I featured one of their photos on one side and a pocket page on the other that held some journaling pages which were easily removed and laid on the guest table for guests to leave a note for the couple.  The Simple Stories Documented collection was absolutely perfect for this project and I finished off with Bazzill cardstock and various flowers and embellishments from Prima and Maya Road as well as ribbon I had in my stash.

I also made a few signs and banners for them. Here are a couple of pictures. Unfortunately we were so crazy setting up and getting everything ready I got sidetracked and forgot to take pictures of the rest! :)

Thanks for hanging in on a long post! There are a lot more wedding related projects on the Practical Scrappers blog today. Head over there and take a look and be inspired.

Hoping you have a fabulous weekend.
Lisa

Washi Fun

Washi...love or hate? Take on the trend or let it fly right by you? I have to admit that when washi first came out I didn't really jump right in, but after getting my first roll from a friend and trying it out I have to admit it's become a bit of an addiction. I love how easy it is to use and the numerous possibilities that it brings to my scrapping. This week we shared different ideas for using washi over on the Practical Scrappers blog. Although I would say that the majority of my washi use has been for layouts, I decided to take a different route for this challenge and create some coasters for my scrap room. I had some left over tiles from a different project easily picked up at your local home improvement store so I decided to put them to use and create something happy just for me.

I love how super easy they were to make. I just started layering different pieces of tape across the tiles. I finished them off with a layer of modge podge on top to seal the tape and keep the ends from pulling up. This also creates a good water barrier for spills or when your cup sweats and leaves that ring of moisture. Notice those happy colors too?? Yes, in  a houseful of boys I don't often get to have girly, happy things around so I made sure to go with the bright colors and fun flowery pattern.

Come check out the other ideas from the other creative gals. You won't be sorry. It may just inspire you to break out the washi yourself.

Lisa

I'm Back... Time to Catch Up

Woohoo, I'm back! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. I've had good reason, kinda. Since I've been gone I have had the surgery to implant my spinal cord stimulator. It has been an up and down and bouncy ride. I woke up from surgery with no movement whatsoever in my left leg and had a very scary two days worrying that I wasn't going to be able to walk. Long story short, they were preparing to go back into surgery to remove the implant and take pressure off the nerves when we decided to turn the stimulator on to see if it even worked. As they did I started to get some movement. It took several days and help with a walker (never thought I'd be using a walker this young!) to get my leg strength back but it's all good now. Still very restricted in movement and activity but feeling less pain each day and getting more antsy to get active. Still not sure how this will all work in the end. I do feel some relief from the pain when I can get the stimulation to my feet but that in itself is a process as the swelling goes down and the scarring starts and the leads move around. Hopefully we will get a good program going soon and get some real data to go by. Anyway, there's the update for those that wanted it. For those who didn't, it's too late to tell you to skip ahead... lol.

Today I am catching up on some posts that have gone live on the S.W.A.T blog and Practical Scrappers since I've been gone. I hate that I missed the live dates (so sorry team!) but don't want you to miss out on the going ons of both fabulous blogs.

First up is the second drill on the S.W.A.T. blog for the month of June. It's all about summertime, the time to kick back, play in the sun, eat some ice cream and make memories. The challenge is to show us your summertime.  I decided to create a two page layout showcasing a summer night spent making smores at our Aunt Shelly and Uncle Mike's house. Obviously these are many summers ago... I am working through old photos quickly. I used the Hey Boy line from Basic Grey that I found at JoAnne's. Love it! Fabulous colors and patterns. The embellishments are super fun too.

Love how it turned out and I was able to get 9 pictures on it. 9 without making it look too crowded!

Next up is a two page layout featured on the Practical Scrappers way, way back on June 5th. I wish I had been organized enough to get my posts done before surgery but hey, here it is late and all.

This layout was part of the graduation album I made for my niece. My son was able to go to a Bronco game on one of our trips back to Denver with his cousins and uncle. Anyone who knows my son knows he is a Bronco fan all the way! It was an incredible day and he got to watch a favorite of his, Tim Tebow while he was a Bronco. (By the way, this family still loves Tim, Bronco or not!) I didn't have much orange or blue around so I actually used all scraps from my scrap drawer and made it work.

There you have it. Head over to both blogs and see what else you've missed. There are so many posts with fabulous inspiration. Don't forget that there is still time to participate in both drills for June at S.W.A.T. with a chance to win some super prizes. Also, check out the basic training for June, try your hand at stitching and have a chance to be the featured designer for July. Oh, and most exciting, check out the design team announcement at Practical Scrappers and cheer with me as I get the chance to stick around for the next term. I will be changing teams from Ten Things to the On Trend team and will be stretching myself to dive into some of the newest trends hitting our scrapping world.

Thanks for sticking with me on this long post. I'll be checking in tomorrow with a super fun washi tape project...hmmm...

Lisa