Donna Reed Dreams

Everybody Loves Raymond reality...

~ELR detail~
The current Pink Ninjas challenge:

Prompt - Dream a little dream.
Technique - NO patterned paper
Pink Twist - Buttons

OK, so you obviously get the prompt aspect...

I fudged just a leeeetle bit on the technique.  While my background definitely does not contain patterned paper, I cut the ballerina girl out of patterned paper...so does that count?  Hmmm..

And I didn't include any pink buttons.  I was going to...I felt compelled to but something stopped me. 

~vacuum detail~

The base of the layout is a piece of cardboard that I painted erratically with white.  Then I dipped buttons in lime, turquoise, and yellow paint and decorated the base.  I laid it on thick on purpose because then I heated up the paint so it bubbled.  I LOVE that!   The buttons I used are decorating the house. 

I filled my perfect house with some Donna Reed dreams...modern day Donna Reed, of course.  All natural, organic, no-high-fructose-corn-syrup, low sodium diet.  Rockin body.  Organized, clean scraproom.  Beautiful garden and outdoor environment.  $$$$$. 

Yeah.  Not exactly my current reality.  I'm working on it, though...

(Look!  I sneaked in one of my current loves of my life onto the layout...my Shark steam mop.  Luh-huh-huv it!)

Hop on over to the Pink Ninjas blog to check out what AMAZING AWESOMENESS the rest of the Ninjas made for your inspiration.  Trust me!  These are some of the most amazingly talented chickies evah!

- Heidi

Details:  Making Memories paint; Maya & Glimmer Mists; American Craft & Making Memories alpha stickers, DCWV paper; Target silver trim; unknown tape, buttons, sequin and pearl trims; misc. magazine & advertisement images.

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

Scrap That Poetry GDT, Sketchy Thursdays, & Who's That Girl!!!!!!!

** warning ** warning ** warning** this is a loooooong post with lots of yummy pics!

For some reason it seems like everything cool happening in my scrappy world is happening on Thursdays this month.  (OK, except for my Pink Ninja shtuff...they get Wednesdays all to themselves this month!)  Today is no exception.  I've got 2 layouts for 3 awesome challenges to share with you today.

I was stunned when I won challenge #12 over on Scrap That Poetry for THIS layout.  Seriously, I even checked out their site to find out what the poem was for challenge #13 and didn't even bother to scroll down to the winner post.  I found out I won from a random comment on my flikr account!!!!  LOL.  The most exciting part is that I get to be the Guest DT for challenge #14!!!!!! 

The poem is April by John Greenleaf Whittier.  Click HERE to see the whole poem.   Upon first read, I was worried.  Much of the poem seems to speak of the ushering out of a snowy winter.  I'm from Gilbert, Arizona!!!!  We don't have snow!!!  Our trees and flowers are confused from November to April with several false spring starts since we regularly get 70+ degree weather at any point during that time. 

But then I was able to pick out a few lines that made me think of the most adorable fairy costume my daughter wore for her first Halloween and birthday party. 

I love this costume so much it hangs on her wall in her bedroom now!!! 

The base of the layout is the shaped paper...the white background is the board upon which I photographed it. 

So, I loved my sketch so much that I made for the current Sketchy Thursdays blog hop (in which Scrap That Poetry is also a participant!) that I just had to make another layout with it!!

Incidentally, you have until Sunday night to play along with the hop and this sketch HERE.

The lines I extracted from the poem are:

I used mists on quite a few items to echo the shimmer and iridescence of the fairy dress.

The two doilies are misted with green, blue, and pink mists.  The flower has pearl mist on it.

The wings were cut out of white glitter paper that I sprayed with mists, too.  Incidentally, I made the wings by tracing the acrylic Maya Road wings I got in my Ninja Addicts' "Carrousel" kit. 

Please stop by Scrap That Poetry, take a look at what their Design Team made, and play along with us!!!! 

And, as if that wasn't enough, I also have - of course! - my weekly Sketchy Thursdays layout!!!!  And to make it just that much more fun, we teamed up with Who's That Girl for the fun prompt "Right Now".   (Anyone else now have the Van Haggar song running through their brain??  It's been coursing through mine for days.  Ugh!!) 

Does Diana ever disappoint??  Her sketches are perfect. 

October/November 2010 issue

The idea of the prompt was to document 5 (or more) things that provide a little glimpse into who you are right now.  (Dammit, there's that song again!!)  I went with 5 of my current simple pleasures. 

Have I mentioned  I ~heart~ picnik.com?  So easy to make a cool collage. 

McLovin my new iPod! (Yes, I just got one...the Hubs surprised me out of the blue with it one day.)

GREEN!!!!  My fave color since forever...just ask my mom!  Already stuffed it full of over 1000 songs and have many more on my wishlist.  And how cool are playlists??!!  (Yes, I'm like a little kid with this.)

I couldn't pick just one fave scrappy challenge site because I have TWO (Sketchy Thursdays and Pink Ninjas) so they are sharing one spot on my list of 5. 

Dancing With the Stars - the only show I religiously watch the same day it is recorded.  It's addictive!

I drink coffee at every hour of the day or night.  Raw sugar and fat free 1/2 & 1/2, thank you very much.  (Shush, Diana!!)  This is my fave mug.  It's just the right shape, the perfect weight.  Unfortunately, it's a little worse for the wear having sustained a fall and chipping once or twice. 

And by now you probably know of my obsession with Harry Potter.  When I took this pic yesterday I was in the midst of reading book #5 for the fourth time.  (I've since graduated to book #6.)  You can see from the pic how well loved this poor book is.  It's literally held together with clear packing tape. 

I was hoping to one day pass along my love for Harry to my kids to read but I don't think this particular edition will make it.  I'm sure I'll have to purchase another soon...I'm hoping the boy hits this reading level in the next couple years. 

Here's more of that scrumptious glitter paper, this time in black and fashioned after a Prima lollipop flower.  I gotta get back to Target to see if they've gotten any more of the black and white Colorbok glitter papers in.  Two sheets for 99 cents!  Can't beat that with a stick.  The red flowers are made with mini treat (cupcake) liners and Prima flower centers. 

** updated **  I totally forgot to mention that cheetah print paper...it's FLOCKED!!!!  Mmmmmmmmmm...

Join us over on Sketchy Thursdays to check out what the DT made for your inspiration with our awesome sketch and the Who's That Girl prompt.  You have until next Wednesday 4/21 to play along for your chance to win Apron Strings' "Bigger Than a Breadbox" April kit!! 

Happy Thursday!!

Heidi

What a Difference Six Months Can Make!

Thank you so much to everyone for your wonderful birthday wishes!  We had a great, exhausting day.  We went to a carnival at school and all the sun wore me out!   The kids had a great time, though!

Over on the Sketchy Thursdays blog we're participating in a the Spring Challenge Blog Hop with a few other challenge blogs.   There are lots of prizes to be had, including a couple of great ones from Flamingo Scraps on Sketchy Thursdays itself. 

Gotta say, I'm pretty proud of this sketch!  I'm getting better at them, right??

And here's my take:

We just got the spring school pics of my son and I am blown away by how much older and more confident he looks in this picture compared to his first school pic back in September. 

Hop on over to the Sketchy Thursdays blog to see what some of our Design Team made and also to get in on all the blog-hopping action!!!  There are lots of prizes to be had, many for just commenting on the hop on the various sites.  And, if you complete all 6 challenges, you'll be eligible for the grand prize!!!! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

- Heidi

Details - Paper:  My Mind's Eye, BoBunny, JilliBean Soup; BoBunny border, alpha, & parenthesis stickers; JilliBean Soup journaling spot; Prima rhinestone; My Little Shoebox tiny alpha stickers; Zig Millennium pen.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yep.  Today is my birthday.  Forgive me if I don't sound too excited...it's a big number.  I don't like it.  I feel much, much younger, which I suppose is a good thing.  :oD 

(pic courtesy of supercutekawaii.com)

I was so inspired by this amazing layout by Tessa HERE that I made this birthday layout for myself:

(Man, that's a bad picture!   I'll try to take a better one later today in better light!)

I used this week's Design Dollies sketch and also w i d e l y interpreted their elements challenge "showers & flowers" (the layout is "showered" with tons of mist, lol!). 

I also had the Who's That Girl "Distinguishing Feature" challenge in mind when I made this.  I have been told as long as I can remember that I don't look "that old" whatever the age happened to be.  I was, no joke, still frequently carded until I was 37.  (And then, for some reason, it shut off abruptly like a switch...I blame the crazy kids. Bitter? Me?  Nooooooo...) 

And, if you read the journaling you may have a sudden urge to kick off your Sunday shoes and cut footloose.  I've used a line from the song Footloose which is the challenge song over on Scrapping the Music. 

Of course, I must send a shout out and wave a big hello to my girl Diana for the gorgeous flower!  You can find similar ones in her etsy store!!!!

Off for a fun day with the kids...the boy's basketball game and then to his school carnival!!!

Heidi

Details:  Glimmer & Maya Mists; Design by Diana paper flower; The Paper Company paper; Zig Millennium pen; unknown ribbons; clothing tag; thread. 

Mother's Day Tea

Another Thursday, another Sketchy Thursdays!

April 2011 issue

I was excited when I pulled out this adorable strawberry paper from Torendi's April Kit "Fresh Mix" because I still had one more awesome pic to scrap from last year's Mother's Day Tea Party at my son's preschool and the tablecloth at our table was almost the same pattern!!! 

I love this week's sketch:

I veered off a bit from the sketch but I promise it was the starting point.  Funny thing about scrapping this event for ST...the last time I scrapped this event was the first time I ever entered a Sketchy Thursdays challenge, back when they were on Diana's blog!  (See that original layout HERE.  Sheesh!  Even then I reinterpreted the sketches!!  I'm a cocky little one, aren't I?  LOL.)

 

Lots of fun trims on here.  The red mesh is from some tomatoes.  The white mesh is from my Easter ham!  The white sheer ribbon and the strawberry ribbon are from the Torendi "Fresh Mix" kit. 

I wanted to use some Fastenator staples on here but didn't have the right color red ones so I colored some silver ones with alcohol ink.  

Of course, had to get some stitching in there.  Stitched the little title flags.  And now that I've figured out I can get good looking zig zag stitch by stitching on the backside of a layout, I went to town on the picture mat.  I finished that off with some meandering red stitching. 

Stop by the Sketchy Thursdays blog to check out what the Design Team made for your inspiration and play along with us!!!!!  This week's sponsor is Green Horned Unicorn - who also happens to be a member of the ST DT now, too!!!! 

Hope your April is shaping up beautifully!!

Heidi

Details:  Patterned paper, white & strawberry trim from Torendi's April Kit "Fresh Mix"; Prima flower, Fastenator staples, Ranger alcohol ink, Stampin' Up! cardstock (flags), Zig Millennium pen, mesh food bags, thread, toothpicks, unknown green ball trim.

I'm Not OK!

Woohoo!  It's Pink Ninjas Wednesday!!!!

Prompt:  Song Lyrics
Technique:  Cardboard
Pink Twist:  Flowers

As soon as I saw the prompt I knew I wanted to do something with "I'm Not OK!" by My Chemical Romance.  I love this song!  Love blasting it in the car!!!  I figured the layout would be something about me.  (And I'd get to sneak in the "I'm not o-f'ing-k" line, tee hee!)  But then the shower interceded (see this post to "get" what I mean) and it morphed into this layout.

I must clairfy: we happened upon this scene.  I did not stage it.  I think it's hilarious! 

The journaling says "sometimes you're g i joe, sometimes u r the dinosaur". 

I cut a couple of chipboard flowers in half for the "bushes" at the bottom and covered them in ponchello, which looks pink in places at some angles.  (Of course, not in this picture angle.  Sheesh!)

I used the Ninja Addicts' "Mommy's Little Monster" kit on most of this layout.  It's so fun!!

Hop on over to the Pink Ninjas blog to see what the Design Team made for your inspiration.  They really rocked this prompt!  We'd love to have you play along with us!!!

- Heidi

Details:  Everything is from the Ninja Addicts' "Mommy's Little Monster" kit except - Stampin' Up! chipboard flowers, Cosmo Cricket tiny alpha stickers, Zig Millennium pen, unknown green ball trim.

Stitch

We are having a Second Chance Challenge with Lawn Fawn Stamps over on Sketchy Thursdays for the next couple weeks! 

I am sooo impressed with the quality of these stamps.  The images are adorable and stamp so crisply.  And, the stamps themselves are very sturdy and well-made.  Plus, I simply adore Miss Kelly Marie, the brains behind the stamps. 

OK, have to say, I'm quite impressed with my sketch this time around.  I really like the way it came out.  Good enough to be a "Diana sketch", if I say so myself, LOL!!! 

Since our sponsor is Lawn Fawn Stamps, I just had to use my Sew Lovely set and therefore my layout simply had to be about my sewing machine! 

And, of course, there were many perfect elements in the Ninja Addicts "Don't Get It Twisted" kit that supported a sewing theme, too!!

Super rad Fimo sewing machine from the Ninja kit!!!  As well as both patterned papers.  The spools piece was too overwhelming color-wise for this layout so I covered it with bits of a dress pattern. 

OK, does anyone know why I get perfect zig zag stitches on the underside of my paper but the top side looks, well, NOT like a zig zag?  It looks like it's pulling itself back and forth. (Does that make sense?)  Is that normal or do I have a setting wrong somewhere?  I tried playing with thread tension and stitch spacing but that didn't seem to help at all.  So, needless to say, all the zig zag stitches on this layout were stitched from the back. 

Adorable button stamps from Lawn Fawn.

Super cute little spool and needle stamps, too.  Wrapped some real thread around that spool stamp and through the eye of the needle. 

Used the needle again here as my "i" in my title.  (So totally stole the idea from American Crafts!)

OK, have you SEEN the amazingly adorable creating/sewing/handmade-themed stuff by GCD Studios lately??!!  This embroidered canvas tag is from a huge set, of which I purchased solely for one that said, "Creative People Are Seldom Tidy" which describes me to a "T".  And there's also a gorgeous, huge set of epoxy stickers with images such as old-fashioned sewing machines, 50's era women, flowers, and cheeky "creative" sayings. 

Please come play along with us over on Sketchy Thursdays.  You could win a "Sew Lovely" set of your very own!!  You have until 11:59pm EST Saturday 4/17 to submit your link to your layout in the comment on THIS POST over on ST.

Hope you all have a beautiful Easter!

Heidi

Details:  Button, Spool, & Needle images from Lawn Fawn Stamps "Sew Lovely" set; Papers, Fimo sewing machine, and Thickers from the Ninja Addicts' "Don't Get It Twisted" kit; GCD Studios canvas tag; Tsukineko ink; Stampin' Up! clear embossing powder; dress pattern, thread.

My World, My Garden

Oh, you know I luvs me some Thursday.  And this Thursday is extra special because not only do I have this week's Sketchy Thursdays layout but since it's the first day of the month, I also have the new Category Stories layout!!! 

This month's topic on Category Stories is "My World". 

Yes, that is a picture of my shower. 

My title concisely sums up why I chose my shower to illustrate "my world".   

Love that Studio Calico camera stamp!!

And to expand on that, my journaling says, "While my hands & body are on auto-pilot my mind is in overdrive." 

I get things done while I'm in the shower.  I make decisions.  I formulate lists. Some of my favorite layouts were born in this shower.  (Such as this one, LOL.) 

I wanted all my "thought bubbles" to appear ethereal, on the verge of coming into focus, so I wrote them on tape and then covered them with more tape.  (BTW, they say:  mull, what's for dinner?, layouts, Think, he said she said i should have said, wonder, to do lists.) 

Once again I must gush over the Ninja Addicts "Don't Get It Twisted" kit.  The only things on this layout not from that kit are my alpha stamps, the camera stamp, and the masking tape.  Even that PERFECT piece of flair "i make stuff up" was in there!!!! 

I wanted the ribbons and buttons above the pic and the papers on either side of it to look like a shower curtain. 

Oh, and I'm sure my whole layout pic looks a bit weird with the included clip board but I wanted to show the scalloped bottom edge of my paper. 

You may recognize the paper as the scalloped border on my "Risk" layout.  I thought it worked perfectly to reinforce the shower curtain theme so I left it as is.  Who says layouts MUST be square or 8-1/2 x 11???  They're more interesting this way, no? 

Come on over and play with the Storytellers on Category Stories!!! 
Details:  All items from the Ninja Addicts "Don't Get It Twisted" kit except - EK Success alpha stamps, Studio Calico camera stamp, StazOn & Stampin' Up! ink, Zig Millennium pen, masking tape. 

Today over on Sketchy Thursdays, not only do we have a new sketch for you, but a whole new Design Team unveiling!!!! 

Here's another shower epiphany.  I knew I wanted to make a layout about our newly planted garden venture and I knew I was going to use some of the adorable papers and stuff that are in the April kit from Torendi.  Earlier I'd been wowed by THIS LAYOUT by the fabulous Miss Mo.  Her misted grid is just beautiful.  And then it dawned on me (we're still in the shower here...)  how the seedlings we're sprouting are planted in little grid-like boxes and voila! 

April 2011 issue

Drug out my Walnut Ink spray for this bad boy.  I don't think that stuff's seen the light of day for a couple years! 

I made this kewl collage on Picnik.  It was so easy I'm sure you'll be seeing more collage photos from me in the future.   The large photo is that of all the seed packets we purchased.  The bottom left 2 pics are of some radish sprouts peeking through.  Woohoo!!!  The top right two pics are of the garden bed itself.  To give you an idea of how big it is, it spans the entire width of our regulation sized basketball half-court!  (Oops, didn't quite line up the cut off on the pics to keep it looking like one pic, which it was.)  The bottom right three pics are the sprout starter boxes.  I'm sad to report that today it was really windy out and we lost an entire box.  We ended up locating the box itself but there is no hide nor hair of its contents (which were cubano chile and leek sprouts).  Very mysterious.  At least if the dogs ate the sprouts I'd think there would've been traces of the dirt, but no.  Nothing.  Nowhere.  Nada.  Weird. 

So, I tried to make it look like there are sprouts in the dirt:

 

And how cute is this little tomato dude?  He's from the Torendi April kit, as well as the base kraft paper and the patterned papers. 

I love the red and white mesh patterned paper that's the flip side of the veggie paper.  I freehand cut out the title word "sprout".  I'm actually a bit impressed by how evenly sized the letters came out.  ;oD

OK, you simply MUST hop on over to the Sketchy Thursdays blog to check out what our new Design Team made for your inspiration (including the highly-contested April GDT winner).  Leave them all some McLovin.  And be sure to play along with us! Up for grabs is a great sampling of items from Kiki Art! 

Details:  Papers and feltie friend from the April Torendi kit, Walnut Ink spray, Picnik.com photo editing, thread, unknown trim. 

I'm so excited!  It's the first so the new Ninja Addicts kit is debuting today.  I'm dying to get my hands on that pretty girl because the sneak peeks have been mouthwatering!! 

OK, off to my son's K classroom for an undoubted morning of cutting, copying, correcting, assessing, being read to, and general adorableness!  I really have no idea how these teachers would present a remote glimmer of the same instruction and hands-on "ness" without the army of parents who volunteer so much time.  We are so lucky to have such an amazing school!!! 

Happy Thursday and I hope you aren't caught by the April Fool. 

Heidi