Happy Halloween!!!

I hope that you have a fun day with lots of treats, but not too many tricks!!!
smiles,
christi

Mourning the Loss of my Morning Routine...

Long time, no blog! I am so sorry that it has been so long since I blogged and thank you so much to those of you that have emailed me to check on me. Everything is fine. I have simply lost my morning routine and haven't quite figured out another one that doesn't involve sleeping the morning away. LOL!

Before I got pregnant, I would turn on the computer and start my gorgeous red 12 cup coffee pot with my wonderful German coffee and then I would proceed to sit here at the computer until all 12 cups were gone which allowed me ample time to get all my computer stuff done.

Now that I am pregnant, it's just not the same. I still have my German coffee (just decaffenated), but somehow the very fact that I don't have to have it (so that I don't have a vicious headache all day) has taken some of the joy out of drinking it. Add that to the fact that most mornings when DS leaves for school, I have gotten where I simply go back to bed (I forgot just how tiring this first trimester is), and there have been days (in fact, there were three in a row) where I don't even turn on the computer. *shock-horror*

But I am aware of the fact that I need this *me* time esp. as I only have a few months to continue it so I promise to try better. Overall, I am feeling pretty good and gaining lots of weight (something about sleeping all the time is NOT doing good things to my hips and I cannot blame that all on baby yet!!!)

I miss you, all my blogging friends and to make it up to you, how about a creative prompt?This is a piece called Spilling Over by Stacy Dynan. I love the color combination on this piece!!

I have a layout almost done laying on my scrap table so I should have it up within the next day or so. I also have a couple of cj's that need to go out on the first so they should be showing up soon too. I have lots to do over the next couple of days!!!

Happy Monday!
smiles,
christi

Happy Birthday, Mia!!!

Today is my niece, Mia's, 1st birthday. Happy Birthday little one. This is one of those things that is so difficult about being a military family...being so far from home. I have never gotten to meet this little cutie and I can't believe that she is already one!?! But I am lucky in that her mom and dad keep me supplied in these gorgeous photos (just wait til you see the ones of her eating her birthday cake!) Thanks, Kara and Dan... I love having the photos!!!

The papers are Prima (which Shannon just happened to upload to the cart today.) They are from the Erie and Odyssey Collections. What you can't see in the cart is that these patterned papers are double sided with another pattern on the back...gorgeous!!!

Inspired by Mou Saha's incredible painting, there are lots of custom paint details on here. The Heidi Swapp chipboard 1 was red, I just painted it with the yellow and green to make it coordinate. I also dry-brushed the edges with the same paints. The lettering is hand done.

I hope that you have a good day, Mia!
smiles,
christi

Feeling Better

Well, yesterday I was feeling much better than I have the last couple of weeks...dare I say that I actually felt normal, so I was able to do some fun scrapping. I am now at 38 layouts done for my 100 layout countdown til I can buy new stash (although I did have a minor setback last week in my buying.) I am back on track now and determined to use some of this old stash esp. as it looks like I will be losing my scraproom when the baby arrives (I have NO IDEA how in the world I will ever make that work!!?!!)

This layout was just a random shot that I took of DH one day when we were out. I love it because it is just so naturally him. This entire page has lots of old Heidi Swapp on it. Love pulling out these old products and using them.


I did another really cute layout yesterday, but it will have to wait til tomorrow because I did it for my niece, Mia's first birthday which is tomorrow.

BTW, for those of you that are hoping that this baby is a girl...I don't think so...I feel almost exactly the way that I felt when I was pregnant with Jacob...just older. :p

Happy Wednesday!!!
smiles,
Christi

Playing with K-ology & SURPRISE!!!

My LSS just got in this gorgeous K-Ology in and I was the lucky one to get to make the store samples with it. I think that I could create with this line forever...it is so gorgeous and even right now when I am not inspired to create at all, this was super-easy to work with...

BTW, I have no idea why blogger is cutting off the bottom of this layout, but it continues to do it so I am just going to leave it as is.

Everything on these two layouts is from K-ology except for the Bazzill cardstock.


In other news, you probably have noticed that I have been a bit lax lately about this blog. I actually have a good reason...Surprise, I am pregnant!

Needless to say this was all a bit of a surprise for me too and I am finally starting to come around to the idea. I cannot tell you how many ways this should not have happened, but obviously God has other plans for us and I am slowly starting to accept that. The only time I start to panic again is when I start to do the math (bit of trivia for you...When this baby is born~June 1st~ DH will be the same age that my parents were when DS was born (i.e. their grandchild)...see that is the kind of stuff that I have to stop thinking about!!!)
smiles,
christi

Catching Up...

Geez, I have gotten awful about updating this blog. I have been really distracted lately which is affecting all things creative, including the blog, but I promise to try and be better.

Today is my DT upload day over at the Croppers Cottage. Trace Industries were our sponsors this month and I wasn't sure what to expect since I wasn't really familiar with the company. Wow! I am a new fan!!! They have these incredible chipboard shapes and pieces that are really fun to work with. Lots of texture and really interesting patterns. There were a couple of products that I will admit that I wasn't really thrilled with, but then I started playing and fell in love! LOVE this stuff!!!

These gorgeous little file folders were part of my Trace Industries DT kit and I knew that they would be perfect for a journal. The swirl paper was originally black and white, but I sponged on the blue ink color as well as sponged the blue around all the edges of the chipboard.

Supplies used:
*Trace Industries Mini Chippers***
*Trace Industries Mini File Folders***
*Trace Industries Brackets***
*Trace Industries Natures Etchings Paper
*Technique Tuesday Petal Pushers Stamps***
*Heidi Swapp Schitzophrenic Alpha***

Trace Industries has a motto, Embracing the Past~Capturing the Present~Anticipating the Future, that they print on the bottoms of all their papers. The Embracing for the title on the journal was cut from this bottom bit of one of the papers.

***available from the Cottage


I apologize for the photo of this layout, but it was way too lumpy to scan without it all smudging.

I had a LOT of fun playing with these super-cool Trace products. When I opened my kit, one of the first things I saw was this beautiful embossed B and have since been trying to figure out what to do with it...so this is my neice, the Beautiful Ballerina. One of the fantastic things about Trace products are the awesome textures in them and I tried to highlight that on this layout by drybrushing everthing with the Making Memories Frost paint.

Supplies used:
*Trace Industries Perforated Paper- Antique Black***
*Trace Industries Embossed Monogram***
*Trace Industries Little Minis Chippers***
*Heidi Swapp Large Florals White***
*Biggie Brads

***available from the Cottage


This is a photo from Charleston, SC, but I could swear it is one of my photos from France. The styles are incredibly similar!!!


Supplies used:
*Trace Industries 12" Border Chippers***
*Trace Industries Canvas Postage Paper
*Trace Industries Mahogany Double Sided Paper
*Junkitz Long Bradz***
*Chatterbox Grafix Rub-ons***



I now have 34 of my layouts til new stash done.

BTW, if you were wondering, my crepes last week turned out amazing. They were so good...even DS ate them and he NEVER eats anything that I cook. LOL!

Happy Tuesday that feels like a MOnday!
smiles,
christi

I love Fall and Halloween Season...

I just realized that we are officially in October or as I like to call it, Halloween Season. I adore Halloween. I love the decorations, the night, the smell in the air. I love anything that looks vintage Halloween. I think a lot of it stems from my love of my black cats (if you have ever met a black cat, they are the friendliest, most outgoing cats...I personally think that it is because they have to make up for having such a bad reputation. It is all so much fun and is truly one of my favorite times of the year.

This fall has been crazy for us and I really thought about pulling out my halloween decor at the beginning of September, but I thought that may be pushing it a bit too early, but then life got crazy and October has snuck up on me. How did that happen??? So today, I am giving the house a good cleaning so that I can decorate it in style (and so that my decorations don't get lost in all the clutter! :D )

I also got started on my Halloween cards. This is the first prototype...I love that saying "It's all about the shoes..." Mom bought me a halloween towel when she was in town that says that and I absolutely adore it so I had to "lift it" for my card.



That and I am making crepes! How about that for a bad segway?!? LOL! I have never made crepes before, but I adore them. When we lived in New Mexico (back when DS was a baby) we used to go to this little bitty mom and pop bistro (the kind where you can bring your own bottle of wine) and they served the most amazing crepes. I have always wanted to try making them, but worried about not being able to do it which would be simply crushing. But tonight is the night...we are having ham and mushroom ones for dinner and strawberrry, choc, cream cheese ones for dessert. Yum...my mouth is watering simply thinking about it. Wish me luck! I will try to remember to take pics so you can see my success or failure.
smiles,
christi

Art Inspires Me

This is my latest Circle journal entry. This is in Mou's Inspiration cj. Her theme is that she wants us to tell her what inspires us. For me, that is easy...I love to be inspired by art (I think that you all knew that didn't you? LOL) The left side of the page is the original (i.e. copied off the net) art piece. The piece is called Vineyard Garden and was created by Natasha Wescoat. The right side is my interpretation of the piece. The bird is the Dove of Goodwill stamp from Stamped in Ink. All of the papers are from Daisy D's or Making Memories. It was really fun to create this bright and vibrant piece...I may have to use it again for a layout!


Be sure to click on the photo to make it larger so that you can see all the detail.
Smiles,
christi

Today's work...

I managed to make it into my scrap room bright and early this morning so I got quite a bit done before noon. These are all samples for my LSS using a Creative Imaginations line.



For this layout, I used the creative art prompt from below as inspiration...I just turned it on it's side. I think that there are better ways to interpret this piece though so I will probably be doing a different version of it.




Tonight is a Gilmore Girls night which always means that I am going to get creative (mainly because DH doesn't want to watch the show so I watch it in my scrap room.) I have a circle journal to do and I want to have a play with some Halloween cards as well as that Dove of Goodwill stamp set.

smiles,
christi

Good Tuesday Morning!!!

Good morning! I am still trying to dig myself out from under my humongous "to do" list so this morning, I am simply going to share a creative prompt with you. It has been a while since we have had one of these and I know that I certainly can use some prompting! LOL!

This is a piece called Palm Serenity II by an artist named Judeen. I think that it would translate into a scrapbook page perfectly!


In other news, I now have 30 layouts done for my no stash challenge, but I do feel the need to confess. I have spent money on some supplies, BUT... they were for card-making and since my cards don't count on my countdown, I feel that this is a perfectly legal purchase. :D

Oh, and go check out the Stamped in Ink website! Sue has posted some absolutely yummy new stamps that are coming soon! Yippeee! And be sure to go check out the gorgeous new examples from Chris Jenkins using the Dove of Goodwill stamp set. I love this set and it is for such a good cause!!! I have it sitting on my desk just waiting for me to play with it!! So hopefully I will have some stuff done with it within the next day or two!

Have a great day! I hope to be back later with some art to share!
smiles,
christi

Finding time...

I apologize...life has continued to be crazy the last week and actually looks like it is going to remain that way for a while, but I will try to be better about blogging.

Well it turned out that DS had a double ear infection and spent most of the week last week home from school. He is doing better now although he still has a wicked cough which is absolutely awful to listen to.

I did manage to do 10 pieces of artwork for a couple of UK magazine articles. Now I just need to find the time to actually do the writing on those. That is on the agenda this morning after I finish a circle journal which needs to go out in the mail today and a layout that also needs to go out in the mail today.

I am also working on LSS work... these two layouts fall in that category. They simply feature Bazzill and Heidi Swapp products. It's been a while since I created something without patterned paper and this was a real challenge. I still have 2 more layouts and a card that need to be done for them so hopefully I will get those done in the next day or so...




Happy Monday! 29 layouts done, 71 to go til new stash!
smiles,
christi