Blog Post Winner!!!

As promised, I had Emily pick a random number for the $31 in Free CTMH products. She chose #17. The 17th comment posted during February was......

OLENA on February 9th. Congratulations Olena, email me at angiehighland@gmail.com and let me know what you would like! You can browse the products online at www.angiehighland.ctmh.com

Here is another page I made during my scrappy weekend this past weekend. I used sketch #197 from The Creative Scrappers blog over on the left. This one also fits into the color challenge on the creating keepsakes site. The challenge was to use Red, White, and Brown. I would have never chose this color combination, but absolutely love the results!!!

I must say, I love the technology of phones nowadays. Silly me, I forgot my camera when we were visiting family over Christmas. This picture was taken with my phone. I think it turned out pretty good, especially since it was printed in 5 x 7.

These papers from the Pebbles Fresh Goods line are so addicting, I love the Kraft background. All of the other supplies are CTMH. The Heart and Label are the Irresistibles Persnickety Journaling Spots. They have the coolest resist on them. They start out white, sponge on some ink in whatever color you choose and the pattern shows through. FUN!! Here is a little picture of them before inking.

Sorry, the picture is a little wonky (is that a word?).

The only stamping on this one is the faux stitching with the Stitched Together stamp set (C1459). Much easier than pulling out a sewing machine.

Today is the beginning of spring break. Emily is already making plans for each day. I have a feeling the food bill will easily triple this week. She has 6 friends coming over tomorrow for a hiking adventure. Normally it is still quite cold during spring break here in Michigan. We are about 40 degrees above average this week. Crazy!!!

I had better run and start packing for tomorrows crop / workshop night at Scrapbook 101. Looking forward to catching up with everyone!

Finally a page

Thank you for being patient while I had to take a break from the blog. I haven't forgot about the blog candy for February and will be drawing a winner tomorrow. I am going to have Emily help me make the drawing slips and do the drawing. She likes to do the drawings for me and I am happy to have her help.

I finally was able to squeeze in a little scrappy time this past weekend. Of course, I printed off a slew of challenges to take with me and went to work. I did manage to make a dent in the pile, but have several more on my to do list for this weekend. Yay! It looks like I finally have a nice little pile of artwork to share with you over the next few days.

This page of sweet little Hazel was inspired by the Imaginisce sketch contest over on the page maps blog. If you have never checked out the page maps blog, it is surely worth your time. www.pagemaps.com is the place to go.

I used papers from the Close To My Heart Lucy line. Love the pinks and greens in this set. Perfect for girl or Easter pages.

The doily and border were cut with the AP cartridge then edged with a little stickle bling. The stamped doily image and the quote in the bottom right hand corner are from the Beautiful Friendship set (B1400).

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your evening :).

I'm Back!

Thank you for being patient while I was under the weather. The past few days have been very busy. It's no wonder the upper respiratory crud going around got the best of me. I won't bore you with to many details but here is what we have been up to.

Thursday 2/9... Massage after work, came home a walking zombie, went to bed.
Friday 2/10... Up at 3 am to prepare for the Rock The Block workshop at Scrapbook 101. Arrived back home at 2am.
Saturday 2/10... Up at 7, drove 2 1/2 hours to Cadillac during a snow storm for Ivy's birthday party. Mom had terrible asthma attack, so began the trek back home after just 1 hour and 15 minutes. Spent the evening hanging with the family around the house.
Sunday 2/12... Started sorting tax paperwork at 10am, stopped at 11pm.
Monday 2/13... Filed our taxes and a co-workers, went grocery shopping, spent more precious time with my hubby and kiddos while they kicked my butt playing Life.
Tuesday 2/14... Took a sick day with massive headache, exhaustion, and head congestion. Not the ideal way to spend Valentines day.

Wednesday 2/15.... I'm back!!! Yay! So happy to be feeling better and back to blogging. I truly missed my little posts each day and hope to jump right back in with the daily posts.

Here is the page I did tonight using the latest sketch from My Little Sketchbook for inspiration.

I used papers from the CTMH Footloose paper line. They scream beach and water! With spring around the corner, we are ready for some beach days. I thought they worked well for these adorable pictures of Elli in the bathtub. They will be here visiting in just a couple weeks! Whoop Whoop!

For this fun little Seahorse, I stamped him in Creme Brulee ink then sponged a little Lagoon and New England Ivy on the stamp to get the different colors. Very cool effect!

Uh Oh! Looks like I lost an asterisk somewhere. Murphy the wonder dog lays under my desk when I am working, he's likely wearing it.

One of the things I like most about white core paper is the sanding abilities. I wanted to be sure my little letters stood out, so I sanded a little area for them.

Stamp sets used.....

Chocolate Alphabet Large (E1010) for the "eek" in the title.

A Typeface (A1117) for "the grown ups are at it again". I love this little set for word blocks like on today's page. Draw a little frame around them for a little extra pizazz!

The stamp set that is exclusive to the Footloose WOTG kig (G1036).

I need to add the journaling, but haven't decided on what to say. Maybe tomorrow :).

Thanks for stopping by and being patient during my little blog vacation.

MoJo Monday 227

Here is the card I made for the MoJo Monday sketch this week. I started out simple, then kept adding, and adding, and then added yet some more.....

A ton of texture going on here.
I did a couple techniques shown in past Technique Tuesday posts.
The first being, I cut the "we can't thank you enough" stamp from the February SOTM set to seperate the sentiment from the frame. I then used the frame to stamp the 2 smaller squares of pattern paper.
Once the pattern papers were adhered to the card base, I stamped the stars randomly, running some of them off the edges of the squares.
Next I embossed the entire card front with the Cuttlebug and a SU embossing folder. That's the second technique, remember the strips?
Then added the striped ribbon, sentiment, and lace.
That still wasn't enough for me.....
I hand stitched around 3 sides pulling it all together.

A very vintage feel to this card. Lots of texture and layers, just my style :)

Papers are from the CTMH Stella line and all the stamps from the February Stamp of the month set (Thoughtful Tidings).

Don't forget about the blog candy giveaway this month........

Happy Crafting!

It's Blog Candy Time!

Welcome to February! The new Spring / Summer 2012 Close To My Heart idea book is live today! To celebrate the new wonderful products and 31 days of blogging I would like to give someone $31 in new products!

All you have to do is comment on my blog posts. For every comment you leave during the month of February, you will get one entry in my drawing bag. On March 1st, I will draw one lucky winner. The winner will get to pick out $31 in free products from the new book!

On that note, here are some more examples with the February SOTM set. These were copied from the examples in the book, only I switched up the paper to both Pemberley and Florentine just to mix it up a bit. All of the boxes and pieces were cut from the AP cartridge.

Have a happy February!

Five & Feisty

With Valentines day just around the corner, a layout with hearts is in order.

I used papers from the CTMH Roxie line. Such a feisty paper line, perfect for a feisty five year old. How about the fun little stamped accent in the upper left corner? Not to many stamps say "we" on them. This one is from the February Stamp of the Month set Thoughtful Tidings that will be available tomorrow along with about a gazillion other fabulous scrappy items!!! Okay, maybe not a gazillion :)

If you are not familiar with the Stamp of the Month. Each month CTMH features an exclusive stamp set that you can get for just $5 with a $50 purchase. This one is perfect for little personalized gift bags and boxes. I have a few fun ideas rolling around up in the noggin for this one.

Notice the little fold down journaling book to hide the stories about how feisty Emily was at 5. She's still full of spunk at 12! I didn't feel like there was enough space on the layout to say what I wanted to say. When all else fails, make more room!

I know I usually do a Technique on Tuesday's, but the little technique I am working on isn't quite ready for posting yet.

Since today marks day 31 out of 365 with keeping up with the blogging, I have a little surprise tomorrow. Keeping up for 31 days is a HUGE accomplishment for me, considering I only posted 62 times in 2011.

It is 3am........

Why oh why do I start creating at 11:00 pm? I should know better. It seems my creative juices always flow better in the middle of the night.

I did manage to finish up the layout inspired by a sketch from My Little Sketchbook. I recently discovered this blog and am loving her sketches. The blog is over on my reading list to the left. I am looking forward to starting the latest sketch posted. After I sleep of course.

Here is the sketch:

My take:

For the background I used a piece of pattern paper by American Crafts I have had in my stash for a while. The banner and border are cut from the AP cartridge, then stamped with one of the pennant stamps that come with the Elemental WOTG kit.

The saying is from the Take A Picture (C1440) set. Notice the ink stains, that means it is well loved. :)

Sneak Peak #1

Just getting home from a fun filled evening. It was great night spent catching up with old friends. I did manage to complete 1 full page and most of another. This is also for the Creative Scrappers challenge sketch #189. Love all the layers in the sketch, right up my alley!

As soon as I opened the box of new goodies that arrived today, I knew what pictures I wanted to scrap. These set of pictures of Elliana went perfectly with the new Stella paper pack to be released February 1st!. The Flower is stamped with a new set called Just For You that will also be available on the 1st. Best of all, it coordinates with the AP cartridge.

The butterflies are Flutter Paper Shapes with some inking, shimmer spray made from pearl paint and waxy flax for the antenna's. They really shimmer and sparkle in real life.

Of course since I had more pictures than the sketch called for, I used the Handy Dandy Flip Flaps to make a little flip book on the page.

I am exhausted, time to get some sleep. Good Night All :)

Heart2Heart and Mojo Monday challenge

Whipped this card up today for a couple of challenges. The Mojo Monday blog has a new sketch every Monday. Great inspiration! The challenge on the Heart2Heart blog was to use the colors Amethyst, Crystal Blue, and throw in some glitter.

I am normally not a purple person, so this was a nice challenge to mix it up a bit. The surface of the the Amethyst paper is covered in prisma glitter. Note to self....this stuff is messy, be more careful next time. I now have glitter everywhere and am pretty sure my shoes will be sparkling while I walk for a while.

Emily is always in need of fun birthday cards for her friends, she is thrilled with this one :)

Off to totally blow the diet today. We are having big juicy hamburgers and homemade fries for dinner. I will likely throw in some cauliflower or something to balance things out. YUM! Love burgers on toasted buns with all the fixings!

Creative Scrappers Challenge #191

When it comes to creating a page, I like to push myself out of my normal comfort zone. This is when I turn to challenges. I especially like sketch challenges. The sketches over at the Creative Scrappers blog do just that. They always make me think outside the box.

Here is my take on sketch #191. You can find the blog in my blogroll over on the Left.

The colors look better in real life. It is a bit of a challenge photographing pages at 12:30 am. I used a lot of different products here. All CTMH except the stitched ribbon. The little flaps at the top are the A-Door-ables that I recently discovered. These little buggers are FUN, FUN, FUN! Under the little flaps are little pictures. I love that you can color them any color you want by sponging on a little ink.

Aaaah..... These were the days. Tyler and Emily always doing something silly to make me laugh. Now, they are equally fun, just not in the same goofy sort of way. We are learning that teenagers are odd creatures that like to leave their clothes on the floor, drink out of the milk carton and lose everything from coats to phone chargers. You would think they would get tired of being told not do these things, but they must not..... I keep telling them I can't wait for them to have a house of their own because I am making a list of things I am going to do when I visit. Tee Hee :).

Enough Rambling. Sorry, sometimes I do that. Just ask Zane.

Sonoma B&T papers

Today's project was made with the CTMH Sonoma papers. I absolutely love these papers! They were perfect for these pictures of Emily from 2004. The design was inspired from the TA-DA sketch in the CTMH Magic how-to book. Of course as I worked, the page took on a view of its own.

The frame around the main picture is one of the border strips on the sonoma papers. Then I added some clear buttons to hide the corner seams. For a little more dimension I added a ribbon slide and stamped the "Amazing" title on a dimensional element. The final touch to pull it all together is a little faux stitching around the page.

The flower was made with 9 circles punched with the 1 1/4" circle punch.

Simply fold 8 of the circles into thirds form a triangle.

Then adhere them all on top of the 9th circle forming a circle. I sponged on a little Smokey Plum ink and added a wooden button to finish it off. So easy and so pretty!

Follow Your Dreams......

Moving on to the second layout with the You and Me kit. Emily had edited these pictures with all these great quotes she found online. I was so taken back when I found them. They speak volumes about her go getter attitude. She has ambition, goals, and determination, yet she balances her drive to be the best with a lot of fun loving personality.

I added a couple of things not shown in the kit quide to make the layout my own. The borders around the page and photo corners help to pull it all together. The Elemental journaling tags matched perfectly and a great way to hide my mushy journaling. I did a lot of inking around things on this page. This added a lot of dimension and contrast to the different layers.

Silly Girls..........

Good Morning! I have had the pages made up from the past You and Me kit made up for a while. The title "Celebrate" was perfect for pictures from Emily's 12th birthday. It is hard to believe she is already 12 years old. It seems like just yesterday, she was a wee little baby cuddled up in my arms.

I love the papers and stamp set from this kit. I hope to see them as a full packet in a future catalog. Doubtful, but one can dream.

Zane's mom showed up with these boots she found at a yardsale. Emily and Kylee giggled themselves silly trying to walk in them. Of course, they are for "dress up" inside the house only! They are silly girls:),

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge

I whipped up this quick little card last night for my entry into the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #127

The little flower stamps are from the CTMH Spring Up set. The sentiment is from PTI. The pattern paper is todays sneak peek. It is the new Typeset paper line by CTMH. Only a couple more days until the new book goes live! Yay!!!

I learned a new trick and it is amazing!!! To save your Cricut mats, spray them with the CTMH My Acrylix stamp cleaner, wipe them off with a lint free cloth. It is VERY important that it be a truly lint free cloth. Then let the mats air dry for 15 minutes and they are 90% new again. Trust me on this one! It truly does work! I could not believe my eyes, my very worn down mats were revived and full of life again. Amazing!!!

Pure Michigan

Today was a crazy day. We unloaded and brought the file cabinet downstairs. Wow! I knew I have saved a lot of school papers, book reports, etc. that Tyler and Emily have done through the years. It wasn't until I seen it all laid out on the table, did I realize just how much. It is going to take a few hours to trim it down a bit. Then we headed out for some new tires. There went my scrapping budget for a few months. Oh well, I REALLY needed them!

Tyler and I found some cream filled cookies for the dogs. They are now setting on the counter. We will see if any of the neighborhood kids sneak a treat!

One of the "Pure Michigan" commercials came on TV last night and provided the inspiration for this page. I am always scrapbooking pages about places we go, people we see, but have never made a page about the wonderful state we live in. After our busy day today, I finished up the page I started last night.

I used the Bless This Nest, Jubilation, and Miracle stamp sets for the stamped details.

While editing my picture of the layout, I seen these great quotes Emily has added to some pictures. I LOVE THEM! I thought I would share with you what miss Emily has been up to today while Tyler and I were getting tires put on the car.

Beautiful You

Last night I was all excited to do some of the VSBN challenges over at splitcoaststampers. I worked my butt off to finish this layout in under 2 hours, and had it all set to upload under the sandwich challenge. Yup, I did a challenge that was due last month. I guess I need to take my own advise and read things through a little better before jumping on the bandwagon. Oh well, another page is done and I had a great time wrapping my page around a sandwich theme. Do you think it resembles a Turkey sandwich???

The thin borders represent the thin bread. The star of the sandwich is the Turkey or in this case Emily. The lace ribbon is the mayo.

The butterflies represent the lettuce, tomato, and cheese. They are from the Fill in the blank set. Which I LOVE!!! I just received this set, so I am sure you will be seeing more of it in the near future.

Are you seeing the sandwich yet????

Ok, now off to check out the correct challenges for this month. We have a busy weekend planned, so am not sure how I will squeeze them in, but I am going to try!

Retirement Card

A very layered card I made this morning as a request from my Mother In Law. She has a dear friend retiring and asked me to make something extra special. Since the card itself and flower have a lot of depth to them, I had to make a 1/2" deep box to put it in.

The birdhouses are stamped with Smoothie, Lagoon, and Gypsy inks and from the Bless This Nest CTMH set.

Thanks for looking and I hope you are enjoying my little crafty projects:)

Enjoy Every Moment

A quick and easy card using the Lily stamp from the Enjoy Every Moment set. I die cut label with a quickut die, then heat embossed the lily image, and sponged some pacifica ink over the embossed image. The embossed image resists the ink, so the white really pops out. A great way to dress up a card without having to color in an image.

Of course I had to add a little fake stitching around the label with a white gel pen and outline each of the pieces. I am sure you have figured out by now that fake stitching and outlining are my two favorite things to do!

April Stamp Of The Month - Blessed

This is the card I designed for a workshop a couple of weeks ago. I once again used Wings papers, and added a little fake stitching. I love the quote included in Aprils SOTM set. "If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever - Alfred Lord Tennyson". I had the ladies add a little liquid glass to the tops of the flowers, makes them look like they have little water droplets on them.