Happy Earth Day

Welcome to Thursday!  This Thursday is extra special because not only do I have this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch to share, but I'm also participating in an Earth Day blog hop with the Torendi team!!!   I'll start with the Sketchy Thursdays stuff so that when you get to the end of the Torendi blog hop part you can immediately hop off to your next destination!

Update - The I ~heart~ San Fran layout can be currently seen in its entirety in the July 2010 Scrapbook News and Review magazine. 

I can see myself using this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch over and over again for multi-picture layouts:

I incorporated the current These Are a Few of My Favorite Things challenge into this one:  favorite city. 

I love everything about San Fran.  The food, the weather, the food, the various cultural areas, the food, the fun attractions, did I mention the food?  Interestingly, all of these pics were taken on our trip that began August 31, 1997 - the day Princess Diana died.  Needless to say, the beginning of that trip was pretty surreal. 

With the exception of the "San Francisco" base paper, all the other embellishments and papers on here are from the Crop Suey "Gelato" kit I won a few months back.  I felt like the mist in the upper corner didn't quite stand out enough so I drew in a little flourish. 

This week's Sketchy Thursdays challenge is sponsored by Crop Chocolate.  The prize up for grabs for this week's winner is a 36" Ribbon Organizer by Simply Renee!!

Isn't that AWESOME???!!!!! 

Please check out the Sketchy Thursdays blog to see what the Design Team made for your inspiration and to play along with us!!!  Entries are due by 10pm EST next Wednesday, 4/28.

**  OH!  Don't forget!  The May Guest Design Team Challenge is still open until Saturday night!!!  You know you wanna play with us! **

OK, now on to the Torendi Earth Day Blog Hop!

If you've arrived here by any means other than BR-T's blog, please CLICK HERE to hop back to the Torendi blog to start the hop from the beginning. 

Be sure to check out each of the Torendi Design Team's blogs and COMMENT on each one for a chance to win an awesome prize.  (See the Torendi blog for official details.) 

I'm sure you'll all agree that when you get scrap kits, you invariably end up with a few extra things.  I had some solid cardstocks left over from various Torendi kits, as well as a bit of the Cosmo Cricket paper from this month's "Fresh Mix" kit.  In the spirit of Earth Day, I dove into my leftovers rather starting up on some new paper. 

I also used a couple of papers from the 6x6 Sassafrass Wee Bundles Apple Jack and Nerdy Bird from the Torendi store.

The base of the layout as well as the trunk of the tree are made from the shipping box my current kit arrived in.  I tried to give the whole thing a bit of dimensional interest so I used many different colors of Delta Texture Magic which have been sitting in my craft room for years.  Truthfully I was surprised they were still usable.  I expected them to be all dried up.  (Texture Magic is basically colored spackle.) 

I hope you enjoyed my little ode to Earth Day.  CLICK HERE to hop on off to Jenn's blog for your next bit of Torendi Earth Day goodness!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Earth Day!!!

- Heidi

The Cool, The Random, and The Lovely

Some cool things...

I made the Scrapfreak newsletter in the Member Spotlight with THIS layout!!

I got the most AMAZING happy mail from Tessa at Precocious Paper!!!  Just lOOk at this amazingness:

I won this yummy haul from Scrap That Poetry for THIS layout!  I can't WAIT to play with it!  Even the packaging is too stinkin cute!

The random...

We had our own "V" (visitor for those of you who don't watch the show...) yesterday:

A days-old baby duckling in our pool.  No idea how the little bugger got into our pool all by himself because he clearly couldn't fly yet with his stubby little downy wings!  But I soon discovered that he was born in our neighbor's backyard and he has 8 siblings!  It was like a Benny Hill skit trying to capture the little guy.  (Can you hear the music?  Is this reference too old?  LOL)  Did you know eeny-weeny little baby ducks can dive like freakin submarines??!!  And a word of advice...don't try catching one with a pool skimmer.  Too shallow.  They JUMP!  4 times as a matter of fact.  He was finally wrangled, though...

Awwwwwww.... 

And returned to mom...

The lovely...

Another card made with the gorgeous Lawn Fawn Stamps "Sew Lovely" set.  The colorful measuring tapes paper is from the Cosmo Cricket "Material Girl" Mini Deck that I got in the Torendi store. 

We spent the day having fun with the kids.  The boy had another basketball game this morning and he's coming along great!  He is having so much fun!!!  (Did I tell you he made his first basket in a game last week??  ~beaming mom~)  Then we spent the afternoon at a birthday party playing round after round (after round) of mini golf, eating pizza and sno-cones, and getting entirely too much sun again.  Tomorrow we have another jam-packed outdoorsy type of day planned with a trip to a local olive farm where they serve the most amazing food.  Maybe I'll have some pics to share. 

Hope the rest of your weekend is awesome!

Heidi

charity:water

Meet charity: water.

Have a good look around, get to know them. They are doing wonders in areas that don’t have what most of us take for granted - clean water. Just think about it for a minute… imagine what it would be like to be without this necessity. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? It’s hard to imagine being without something that is always there. Something you never have to think or worry about. But a lot of people do worry. One billion people do, in fact. They face every day without that life giving luxury that we throw around like, um, water.

Now meet Amanda from The Studio.  She started talking to everyone she knew. And everyone she didn’t really know. And everyone they knew. Soon she had something incredible going on. And now, SHE NEEDS YOU!

Starting at 7pm (GMT) on Friday 13th November they will be hosting a BIG scrapbooking event. It will last for 48 hours and there will be games, challenges, special guests and PRIZES! A new challenge will be posted every 2 hours for the whole weekend! And there's an unbelievable grand finale:  Cathy Zielske will be setting the final challenge!!!! 

For a while now Cathy Z has used her online voice to reach the thousands of scrapbookers who frequent her website and started this pretty cool campaign: Scrapbookers for clean water. Her campaign supports charity: water.

There will be a prize for each and every challenge they post over the weekend and a prize for the overall winner of the event! More details will follow on how it will all work. For now, they need to get everyone signed up and ready to go! Of course, they are starting off as they mean to continue – with some prizes! Everyone who signs up to play and makes a donation before 20th October will be entered into a random draw to win one of five of these cool kits from Cosmo Cricket!

Now you’re paying attention!!  ;o)

Here’s what you need to do to play:

1. To sign up for the event click here. You need to register and then join the charity: water event to start the ball rolling. If you’re playing for fun, that’s all you need to do.

2. If you want to be in to win the prizes you need to make a donation. Whatever you can spare. They aren’t into pressure at all. There are 2 ways to donate, here on Cathy’s page OR here to The Studio's charity: water Paypal address. If you donate directly to Cathy’s page you MUST enter the following into the comments box: “My donation for thestudio.scrapbook-101.com charity: extravaganza” so they know you’ve donated and can include you in the prize drawings.

3. Once you’re signed up and have made your donation leave a comment on the wall in the event area letting them know that you’re ready to play! If you are unable to donate they’d still love to have you play along anyway but, sorry, the prizes will be off limits! There is a chat group set up here for you to start getting to know your fellow players!

4. Sit back and watch the fun unfold. The Studio will be having prize giveaways leading up to the event and then the real excitement begins at 7pm (GMT) on 13th November! It’s going to be fabulous!

Be sure to check out the list of sponsors so far that are donating for this wonderful event for this wonder cause.  It's a very impressive list and it's only going to get longer!!  Be sure to keep checking back for updates!!  (I'm guessing you'll see a sponsor close to my heart showing up soon.  I'm just sayin'...Stay tuned!)  If you would like the opportunity to sponsor this amazing event The Studio would love to hear from you!  Drop them an email to Amanda@scrapbook-101.com and do something great today!

So now, go forth, tell everyone you know. And everyone you don’t know. Just like I did!

 

It's Monday!

Good Monday morning everyone! 

No projects to share with you yet today (I have a few in the hopper that just need photo editing, etc.) but lots of beginning of the week "business" to disseminate.  I'll do it in a couple of posts since not all of it has been revealed online as of writing this...

SKETCHY THURSDAYS Grand Opening Giveaways continue...

Today's is sponsored by Unity Stamp Company again.

Click HERE to leave a comment or become a follower (if you're not already!) on Sketchy Thurdsdays to win this adorable and huge Unity Stamp Company set "Little Me":

Aaaand, since we know it's sometimes hard to get online on the weekends (I have this problem) we wanted to give our Sketchy Thursdays friends just one more chance to win the amazing double Cosmo Cricket prize revealed as Sunday's prize:

Jolly By Golly

Mr. Campy

Sooooo, we're extending the giveaway for that prize through TODAY!!  Click HERE to leave a comment, become a follower, etc, etc. on Sketchy Thursdays for your chance (or another chance) to win the CC prize!!

See how much we love our followers??!! 

I'm so excited for how well received our Grand Opening has been going.  I can't wait to see all the creations from this week's sketch!!

Get 'er hooked up to Mr. Linky in the ST sidebar by Wednesday night for your chance to win a great prize from Evalicious!!

OK, off to work on some new fun stuff to show y'all soon!!

Heidi

Sketchy Thursdays Giveaways Continued...Cosmo Cricket!!!

Good Sunday Morning!

Scroll down 2 posts for the Unity Friends with Flair post.

We're in week 2 of the Sketchy Thursdays Grand Opening Giveaways Extravaganza!!!! 

To start the week off right, we've got SOME MORE Cosmo Cricket.  Can you believe it??!!

Jolly By Golly kit

~AND~

Mr. Campy kit

Yes, you read it right...the winner of today's drawing gets BOTH kits!!!!! 

Head on over to the Sketchy Thursdays blog to enter for your chance to win. 

And PLEASE, don't forget...play along with us on our sketch challenge.  Just look at the amazing sketch Miss Diana has created for you this week:

Link your creations up to Mr. Linky in the Sketchy Thursdays sidebar by midnight Wednesday, September 23 for your chance to win a gorgeous prize pack from Evalicious.

Don't forget...daily giveaways on Sketchy Thursdays through 9/24!!  (Psssst...more Unity Stamp Company to come!!)

OK, off to recover from The Boy's birthday party yesterday.  Then life can get back to "normal".  Today's his actual birthday.  I can't believe my baby is 6-years-old!! 

Heidi

Jump!!

Happy Sketchy Thursdays!!!!

Congrats to the winner of last week's sketch and the Precocious Paper prize!  And, we starting up something new this week:  DT Faves.  Every week, in addition to the randomly drawn winner, the DT members choose those creations that caught their eye and those are displayed on the Sketchy Thursdays blog.  PLUS they all get to display a cool new "I'm a Sketchy Thursdays fave!" blinkie on their blog!!  Check out the post HERE for this week's winner and faves.

Although the "official" design team sketch layouts reveal isn't supposed to be until next Thursday, some of us played along with this week's sketch reveal. And, here it is...





Be sure to check out the Sketchy Thursdays site to see what deliciousness was created with this sketch to inspire you!

OK, so by now you know me...just can't take a sketch at face value. Gotta Heidi-ize it a bit. But, again, isn't that what sketches are for? They're a jumping off point...

Ha! Ha! Ha! Jumping off point. Jump! layout. Get it??!! I crack myself up. (It's late.)

So I have a sizeable stash of "old" Cosmo Cricket collections (this one's from *gasp* 2007!!) and figured I need to just use them. That's part of my new scrapping philosophy - JUST DO IT!! Use it, don't save it for that "perfect" layout. Place it then stick it, don't futz around. If an idea strikes, take the bull by the horns and GO FOR IT! Most "mistakes" can be salvaged, and sometimes the "mistakes" turn out to be the best discoveries!

So, OK. I had these pics of The Boy jumping on the trampoline so I got my borders all torn to size and immediately stuck them down. Then I placed and stuck the pics and letters quickly. Get 'er done! Of course, THEN I decide to simulate the inset patterned paper on the sketch with a stitched frame.

~stitching detail~


Okey dokey. Well...everything's already stuck down so, ok, I'll just stitch around it. So, I don't know if you can see it on this pic very well but everywhere you see the stitched border "go behind" a letter, border, or pic, I've actually stitched up to one edge of the element and started up again on the other edge. So, sometimes the "just do it" philosophy causes you some extra work.  LOL!



~p detail~

So, then I decide it'd look fun to stitch "jumping" marks. Here's where the "just do it" could have possibly caused some trouble if it didn't look right. I'd have ruined my pics, letters, and paper. But, I think it came out pretty cute.

At this point I was going to leave the layout as is, but it just didn't look quite right, so I added some "western" looking elements which I thought went with the feel of the CC paper (which is Halfway Cafe, btw).



~flip side detail~

Did you notice I used the bar code border (or whatever that's called) from the bottom of one of the CC papers? They always put such cool little phrases or pics at the bottom and bleed the pattern down onto it, too, so they just BEG to be used. I strategically covered up the CC logo with one of my pics.

Details: Paper and cardstock alpha - Cosmo Cricket; hardware and linen thread - Stampin' Up!; thread; unknown button.

So, what are we playing for this week on Sketchy Thursdays, you ask??? An amazing prize from our wonderful sponsor Evalicious!!!

Link up your creation to Mr. Linky on the Sketchy Thursdays sidebar by midnight, Wednesday 9/23 for your chance to win the cool Evalicious prize!!!

Oh, and of course, we're still having our Grand Opening celebration, so there's a random drawing prize up for grabs today, too! It's from one of my FAVORITE stamp companies, Unity Stamp Company!!!





(I still haven't figured out how to link up a pic with this new "improved" Blogger editing so you can't actually click on the logo to go to the Unity site. I apologize PROFUSELY to Unity. You can instead CLICK HERE to go to their site. And go you must!!! They make the most scrumptious stamps!!)

 I can't believe how generous they were in helping us out with our Grand Opening prizes!!! There are SIX Unity sets or singles that we'll be giving away in the coming week, so be sure to check back again and again this week for you chances to win.

Oh, did I forget to tell you WHICH Unity stamp is up for grabs today?? It's actually TWO!!!

You're a Star




AND
Feel the Joy





Two classic and gorgeous Unity singles. (OK, so Feel the Joy is technically not a single - there are 2 stamps in thet set.)

So, whatdaya gotta do to win these? You get one entry for being a Sketchy Thursdays follower (although you are perfectly welcome and encouraged (ok, begged) to become one of MY followers, too!!), one for commenting on the 9/17 post on Sketchy Thursdays, and one for blogging or otherwise shouting about us and letting us know in a comment what you did. That's THREE chances to win these amazing stamps.

And, let me tell you, if you have not ever used Unity stamps, you are in for a treat. They stamp so beautifully!!!

OK, enough already today, Heidi! Let these poor people get on with their day.

Peace out!

Heidi

SKETCHY THURSDAYS CHALLENGE BLOG Grand Opening!!

Scroll down one more post for today's Friends with Flair post!

I'm sure it's been no secret as of late just how much I {HEART} the Sketchy Thursdays challenge Diana has been bringing to us weekly on her blog.  Well, guess what??  I {HEART} them so much I've (suckered) convinced Diana to partner with ME on a new dedicated Sketchy Thursdays challenge blog and she (fell for) agreed to it!!  Woooohoooo!!!

Every week we'll be bringing you the same COMPLETELY AWESOME Diana sketchy goodness, but on a new dedicated SKETCHY THURSDAYS challenge blog.  In addition to the sketches, which in and of themselves are the BEST reason to play along, we've assembled an AMAZINGLY TALENTED & INNOVATIVE design team to bring you that extra bit of inspiration weekly!!  Aaaand, if that's just not enough incentive to play along, every week we have a delicious prize for the winning entry!

So, to celebrate the new blog launchand DT, we're having a Grand Opening celebration!!  We want you to WANT to join us on the new blog and play along so there's going to be prizes!  LOTS OF PRIZES!  Here's how it's going to go down:

• Starting Monday there will be prizes posted.

• All followers are automatically entered into every drawing (yeah!! we love our followers).

• Every post you comment on, you have a second entry into that drawing for that day.

• Want us to really love you?! Leave a comment telling us you talked about Sketchy Thursdays' prize of the day on a forum, your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. and we'll count you again for that day.

Now, what are we winning? We'll be posting prizes from our launch sponsors, as well as still giving the prizes for the sketch challenge each week, until 9/24. All winners will be announced on 9/25. Do the math... THAT'S A LOT OF PRIZES!! And a lot of chances!

A big thank you to our launch sponsors!

Cosmo Cricket, Unity Stamp Co. and Flamingo Scraps! 

(For some reason I can't seem to link a picture anymore so the links on the pics above aren't working...I will work on fixing this today. I apologize to our sponsors. To go to their links, use the ones in the paragraph above. Thanks!)

Now, let's get to playing! This week's sketch:

Link up your creation(s) to Mr. Linky on the Sketchy Thursdays site HERE by 11:59 p.m. (EST) and you will be entered to win a prize from Precocious Paper.

Join us back here tomorrow for the Sketchy Thursdays DT reveal and on Monday for the first prize reveal!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Heidi

Mini Sweets and Pink Ninjas

I had so much fun making these two projects. Probably because they're both for me. So I think maybe I gave myself more permission, if you know what I mean.

DESSERT RECIPE MINI-BOOK

I mentioned earlier in the week that I'd started going through some of my Grandparents' pictures. I intend to get the pics all scanned and then scrapped properly. But, in the meantime, I think a tribute befitting of my Grandma would be a book of her beloved dessert recipes. Now, mind you, I was raised by my grandparents so I am all-too-familiar with dear ol' Grandma's cooking. Let me tell you, it wasn't that good. The woman could not shake two spice jars together to save her life. Blaaaaaaaaand. They were, afterall, from New England circa the Great Depression era. Enough said.

But, that being said, the woman could wield a mean pie pan (or muffin tin, or cookie sheet, or...you get the picture). She made THE BEST chocolate chip cookies, a dreamy lemon meringue pie, and some of the most scrumptious quick breads you've ever wrapped your lips around.

So, here's the beginning of my Grandma's desserts cookbook. I say beginning because I only have in my possession 3 of the recipes I want to get in there. The rest are tucked away in Grandma's well-worn, overstuffed, goldenrod leather cookbook which is in my mother's possession so I have to make the trek over to wrest those away from her.

So far, all the papers are from the Cosmo Cricket Early Bird line. so befitting of a retro cookbook. I'm sure the majority of the rest of the pages will also be from this line, with a bit of other Cosmo Cricket papers sprinkled in as necessary. The chipboard button and tag on the first recipe page are also CC, from my aforementioned QVC kit.

The "wax seal" on the cover is actually about 8 or 9 layers of red embossing powder with a Crafty Secrets stamp imprinted in it. I've done this technique before, but there is currently a good instructional video for it by Jennifer McGuire over on the 2Peas forum.

I was inspired to make this minibook also by a mini made by Beth Perry over on Dirty Laundry HERE. Which, incidentally, is the June "jack" on Scrapjack!! I love Beth's work so it made it just that much more fun to jack this design.

As I add more pages to the book, I'll be sure to post them.

SECRET DOUBLE AGENT NINJA

Another super fun online friend, Euphoria, recently turned me on to The Pink Ninjas site. So much fun and it's intended to be FOR YOU. Not for layouts of the kids, or the holidays, or whatever. It's to have fun with the paper crafts that you love making something JUST FOR YOU. Which, incidentally, has inspired me to make a scrapbook for Heidi...no kids allowed.

The Pink Ninjas posts prompts every Wednesday. Now, I know I'm a bit late on this one but it was so much fun that I couldn't pass it up. This one is from the 6/17 prompt HERE which asked, "What kind of Ninja are you?"

I think most people (fellow mommies, hubby's work friends, acquaintances, etc) think I'm a sweet, quiet, polite person. And, yes, I am. For them. But don't we all lead double lives? Well, most of us? I think some people might be shocked at some of the music I love (it's runs the gamut), or that I can channel my inner sailor like nobody's business, or how I've looked at times in the past. Which brings me to the lovely pic in this layout...

October/November 2010 issue

Now that I look at it in black and white and compare it to what some teens look like nowadays, it looks rather tame. But I assure you when this pic was taken (a drinking age ago!!) it was quite shocking. I mean, we all have skeletons in our past, right? I just happen to be wearing mine on my ear (can you SEE that?!) LOL! Quite a Flock of Seagulls look I've got going there, eh? (I am REALLY dating myself.) I actually took a pic of my yearbook picture - I like the way it came out all pixelated when I blew it up to 4x6. (Which reminds me, do you remember a lot of your high school years? I apparently don't. And, despite what I look like, I never did drugs so that can't be the reason and I was a really good student so it's not like I walked through the years in a stupor...when looking for this pic there were 2 page numbers listed for me in the yearbook: my mugshot and a group pic of the History Club. I have ABSOLUTELY no recollection of being in the freakin' History Club! Maybe I just dropped in for the pictures...)

So, I've titled my layout "Secret Double Agent Ninja". I love the juxtaposition of images and colors which are meant to symbolize the two sides to my personality. Sweet but edgy. Pink but black. You get the picture.

Don't you just L-O-V-E the barbed wire and chained-link fence diecuts? They're Silhouette diecuts. So intricately detailed. Those along with the butterfly are all cut out of gunmetal gray metallic paper. So pretty. And the pink paper behind my pic and on the skull & crossbones is more of that faux handmade paper I made using the SCS technique HERE.

My 5-y-o son just saw the layout and ask who was in the picture. I told him it was me a long time ago, when I was about 16 or 17. He asked how old I was now and he thought for a bit and said laughingly, "Wow, that really IS a LONG time ago." Gee. Thanks. Kids say the darnedest things, eh?

I had a really great time making this layout, though. It's probably the only one I've ever made of ME that I actually like. Probably because it doesn't really seem like me. Oh, well.

Details (recipe book): Paper - Cosmo Cricket, The Paper Company; Ink - VersaMark, Colorbox; Diecuts - Cricut, Silhouette; brads - Creative Imaginations, Stampin' Up!; 7Gypsies board book; Michaels ribbon; Joanns lace; Heart & Home Collectibles vintage buttons; Crafty Secrets stamp; Stampendous embossing powder; Dymo tape; SU! punches; SU! clip; American Crafts felt flower; Cosmo Cricket chipboard; Zig Millenium pen; unknown - twine, apple cookie cutter, green velvet ribbon.

Details (secret ninja): Paper - American Crafts, Best Occassions metallic, The Paper Company; Diecuts - Cricut, Silhouette; Making Memories paint; Diamond Glaze; Zig Millenium pen; unknown rub ons.

Thanks for stopping by today! I had fun sharing with you.

Heidi

Happy Hip Hop Hangover!!

Woot! Woot! Happy Hip Hop Hangover!!

I hope you are having a wonderful Friday.

I feel like I've been unbelievably busy this week and yet I only have two Unity cards to show you today. I sooooo wanted to participate in the pink & green challenge, too, but time just got away from me. I feel like I should apologize for my lack of content.

Anyhoo, here's my Holiday Unity challenge:

The gorgeous patterened paper and label is from my QVC Cosmo Cricket Christmas kit.

The tree is stamped on my faux handmade paper, Split Coast Stampers challenge TLC225. I had so much fun making this paper and made several other color combos, too. I encourage you to click on over to the site and read through the tutorial. It's super easy but comes out gorgeous! Who knew toilet paper could be so pretty.

The frame is a Cricut diecut embossed with Stampendous jeweled gold embossing powder. The partridge is also embossed with this gold.

This next card was made for the Paper Crafts Connection 2009 Gallery Idol birthday card challenge:

Please see this post (or scroll down a couple days) for all the details.

That's it for my Unity offerings. Hope you enjoyed them!

Details (partridge): Paper - Cosmo Cricket, Stampin' Up!, The Paper Co.; Unity Stamp Co. June KOTM stamps; Ink - StazOn, VersaMark; Cricket diecut; Stampendous embossing powder; SU! brads; Michaels ribbon; foam squares.

TFL!!

Heidi

p.s. The animated smiley is courtesy of MillanNet. This is such a fun site!!