National Board Congratulations Cards! & a Thank You...

Well... This is a milestone. My National Board box was sent via FedEx, and recieved by the NBPTS people... Now, my last meeting with my NB cohort is this afternoon. I have spent the better part of the school year with these ladies, meeting once a month, reading, discussing, and eating snacks. It seemed to be a little bit of a let-down to just meet without saying something.

Also, my NB leader has been a big help! She read for us, even though she was working on her own renewal!

Here are my "Celebrate" cards. We will not know until about Thanksgiving whether or not we actually get our NB status... So, there really is no congratulations. YET! ;)

I used the Cricut to cut out the Celebrate and the <3felt Thanks. WildCard, I think. The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket's DeLovely line, the brown and white cardstock is American Crafts, the kraft is from JoAnn's (I'm not a fan of Micheals' kraft), and the pink pen is a Souffle pen from GellyRoll.

HINT: I've found that if I cut basic shapes out of normally more obnoxiously bright paper (I do love this though... don't get me wrong!), I can mix shapes to make card sets really easily!! Temper the brights with some neutrals, and VIOLA!

Sketchy Thursday May Guest Designer Layout

As summer approaches, the amount of work that I will be able to make increases! Good thing! It also means the amount of work in relation to 'work' increases. I may have to wait until mid-June to truly find my scrapping mojo!!

Anyway, I took a few minutes and created a layout using this sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.I liked the artistic bent to this, and LOVED that I got to break out my SewEasy again!!

So, here is my lovely layout!Cardstock: Black Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper, Emma's Shoppe (flower) and Prima Polka dots
Brads: MME Lost and Found
Thread: Micheal's brand floss
Lettering: Studio Calico
Pen: Gelly Roll Souffle
Spray: I made it with acrylic paint and water... NOTHING was as opaque as I wanted it to be... So I just dove in and tried it out. Works perfect!

Pieces of Scrap: Anyone for a Giveaway?!?

Pieces of Scrap: Anyone for a Giveaway?!?:
My dear friend Chloe over at Pieces of Scrap is giving away THICKERS!!! Guess how many flowered charms are in the cup!!!

LOVE IT!

I guessed 72. Who knows! I may be right...

DCWV Giveaway!!

Since many of us don't live in the area, DCWV is having a giveaway!!! Go to their blog and enter!

WINNER!!! (ps. 13 is a LUCKY number!)

I always felt that 13 was a lucky number, so have never shied away from it. Maybe it was because I was born on the 31st, and the numbers were simply reversed, or who knows.

Today was another time to prove this, as I used Random.org to choose the lucky winner, and it was 13!!!

Congrats Melissa! I hope that you have many travels to scrap soon! Check out her amazing blog by the way!!

And thank you to the rest of you!! I appreciate all of you! This has been SOOO much fun! I can't wait to do it again!!

Last Chance for Blog Candy!!!

Just wanted to remind you that you only have a few more hours to try to win some blog candy! Here is the link.

Make sure that you follow the blog! Enjoy!!

The Scrap Farm: Sweet Heart Giveaway

I love blog hopping. I love finding new things, and Melinda from TheScrapFarm is no exception. I was introduced to Melinda when I found her link on MoxieFabWorld.

Her layout is crazy-awesome! She included what looks like quilling, buttons, flowers, and AC Flair in her American Crafts Letterbox layout. Melinda also made this insane card that I would LOVE to get.

Neat thing, in addition to a few amazing projects, she's got a giveaway of her AC leftovers. LOVE!

Give her some love over on her blog, and tell her I sent you!

Congrats Sarah @ RedOakLines!!!!

Sarah, one of the fantastic bloggers that I follow at red oak lines (yes, I DO scroll through the blogs I follow!!) has a giveaway of Echo Park's Springtime to one of her followers. This is because she opened up a thriving business, and is doing well!

Congrats Sarah! Love your blog! Check it out here!

MWM #36: Adding a Graffiti Wall

Kristy, the Mojo Guru over at ScrapbookSteals.com created another fantastic Mid-Week Mojo! And of course, now that I'm done with NB's, I get to play (can you tell how excited I am already?!?!?!?)

The original sketch has a landscape 4x6" photo, a "graffiti" wall with stickers, rub-ons or some kind of other 'filler'. There is also a lot of space to journal and a title.
I changed mine up quite a bit. I used a portrait photo, did not include a title, and switch the placement of the graffiti wall. I did however get to use the monogram stickers that I bought for our wedding book... 6 years ago! Imagine actually using all of something that I bought so long ago! I loved them, but how many people do you know who's name starts with Q? Or Z?

The papers are from various lines of MyMind'sEye. Beloved and Quite Contrary. The buttons are from American Crafts's Love line. I bought them at Big Lot's for $1. Yeah, I know! The monogram stickers are K&Co. It was when I was still buying everything at Target. Enjoy!

A few cards: Some sentiments and a Hot Air Balloon!

Over the weekend I made a few cards! Now that I'm done working on my NB's, I can take a break and actually enjoy myself! One I made for MoxieFab's Challenge: In My Beautiful Balloon.

For this challenge, we needed to create something that included a hot air balloon. Now, I do have some American Crafts paper and embellishments that do have hot air balloons on them, but they didn't fit what I really wanted to do. So what else, but make it!! I hand paper-pieced the hot air balloon from both MyMind'sEye paper in Little Miss Muffet: Delight (B side) and AC paper Heat Wave: Cherry Cowabunga, with some kraft paper from JoAnn's.

The basket is kraft paper, and the ropes are actually a bent black and white paperclip. All of the pieces were inked using my Chalk inks. The background is AC Heat Wave in Creamy Coconut. The sentiment is a Pebbles Inc. rubon that my lovely friend Kristy sent me!!

Overall... LOVE!!!
This card was not as involved, but I love it. I used kraft paper, AC cardstock, some bling from my iRock, the B side of some MME paper and more bling on the butterfly, and some May Arts ribbon that I won from one of their Facebook contests! The "Remember" is from the Gypsy Cricut cart.
I know that I need to get together with some of my girls soon, and some aren't the wine type... So I know that this mug (Cricut) will be perfect to ask one of them for coffee soon. Some MME Quite Contrary paper, with AC cardstock and kraft paper. A little bit of bling sets it off!
And last, but not least, a sweet Dream (Cricut: Gypsy) sentiment with some AC papers and cardstock from a page kit from AC Letterbox, with some matching buttons, ribbon and some AC Flair.
Overall... I love the four cards that I made! I know that I have to find the best recipients for them. Enjoy!

REMEMBER!!! I am giving away an American Crafts Page Kit in Travel! Become a follower and make a comment on this link.

My Scrapbook Room

I know that I've posted on this topic... But I was checking in with some of my favorite blogs, and was looking at KWernerDesign, and Kristina Werner was blogging about 90% of Crafter's have messy craft spaces. Usually... Mine never looks this good, but I was taking photos for ScrapbookSteals.com and cleaned it up a bit.

I think that if I had a room however, it would be in a perpetual state of messiness. :)

Here is my overall space. Labeled for easy peeking!

My favorite embellishments! In a neat basket for easy reach.
A girl can never have too much paper!!
And I reused a lidded container for scraps. They make the best cards.

Here are my inspiration photos, projects, tools, and other important stuff :)
The things I usually try to hide. Stamps, glue, stickers and MORE stickers, Thickers (I would rather not have to explain why there are SO many of them!), and other stuff.
And because I don't have a devoted craft room... I usually take a lid and go "shopping" in my space so that I can work on my kitchen table. Notice the mat... I ALWAYS use a mat to line up stuff.

The only reason I can't show the messy... I have to clean up always. Grr... Someday!

LET'S CELEBRATE!!!! w/ Blog Candy!!

So. I finally finished my National Boards for Professional Teaching Standards in Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood-Art. Mouthful, huh? Longest 10 months. Teaching full time, wife/mom full time, trying to have life... Ugh. But it's over!! So let's celebrate!

I was shopping a few days ago, looking for something to give my brain a break from writing and watching videos, and trying to snag some good scrapbooking steals and deals, when I came across this fantastic! American Crafts Page Kit in Travel. I bought 2. One for me, and one for YOU!!! There are 8 patterned papers, 2 cardstock papers, 6 photo mounts, Thickers, stickers, Flair and ribbons! Everything you need to make a few fabulous travel pages!!


Now that I can relax, I really want to build up my blog, get some more exposure, and add some more followers (currently there are 19 lovely, wonderful people!). So, I'm having a giveaway!!

Rules are: become a follower, and make a comment on this blog!! If you want an extra entry (which would be awesome!!), blog about this giveaway or post on FB and comment with the link so that I can check up on it! I'll use Random.org to choose a winner next Friday (4.8.2011) so get those comments in and start following by 11:59 PM Thursday 4/7!!