New Kit this week @ 2peasinabucket

Take a look at my latest kit released at 2peas.





Messy Stitches V.1

This kit includes

• 6 Messy Stitched Words in Charcoal Black
• 6 Messy Stitched Words in Off White
• 4 Messy Stitched Leaf Shapes in Charcoal Black
• 4 Messy Stitched Leaf Shapes in Off White
• 4 Stitch Hole Leaf Shapes
• 1 Stitched Leaf 12 x 2 Border in Charcoal Black
• 1 Stitched Leaf 12 x 2 Border in Off White
• 1 Sitch Hole 12x 2 Border in the shape of falling leaves
• 27 files in all

Available at 2peas for $4.00

New Layout- Simplicity

Well Summer vacation is coming to an end and the kids go back to school tomorrow. I'm trying not to cheer too loudly! I am looking forward to getting back to more designing and more scrapping and just generally being more creative and more productive!

I recently had a new opportunitty arise in the CT department. I have joined Karen Funk Designs new Creative Team. I am really excited because her design style is quite different from mine and I will enjoy cerating Lo's with her nice designs as well as my own.

For this page I used her new Simplicity Kit. It's a huge kit but you can also purchase it as seperates if you only want the paper or the embellies. You can pick up Karen's designs from Design House Digital.

I should also mention that I am so stoked that my daughter is finally allowing me to take photos of her again. Apparently now that she posts photos on facebook it is a huge advantage having a Mom that not only can take great photos but can edit them so that it looks like a professional photos shoot. (Those are her words not mine!LOL) I have already taken her out for two seperate photo shoots and I know that she has plans for several more.

Wow has it been that long

Talk about a defunct blog. It has been one crazy wild summer. I don't even know where the time has gone. Seriously! Part of the reason for being so MIA. Is that I have been very committed to a different kind of journey this summer.

In June I joined a challenge on the Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle website. It is called the Summer Burn Transformation Contest. I started the contest at 144lbs and 26% bodyfat. We had to take pictures (which I will post here in a few days) both at the beg and the end. I have worked very very hard. I have been getting in 6 days a week of cardio and 4 days a week of strength training. I cleaned up my diet with the help of the Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle ebook. In the last month I even did double cardio. I know crazy right. But I have a rockin new body to show for it.

In a few days the contest ends. This morning I weighed in at 127lbs and 12.5% bodyfat. The bodyfat number I believe is a bit inaccurate. I think I am probably closer to 15 or 16% It's still pretty darn good. I haven't been this small since my 20's, before I had kids. I will probably post more details in the days to come but if you are interested in knowing more of my personal experience do not hesitate to comment or email me. I will gladly give you particulars on how I did it. Yes it was hard work, no there was no magic pill. But as I've learned extraordinary results require extraordinary effort!

So the contest closes in a couple of days. I am ready to get more focused on my scrapping and my designing. I am hoping in addition to my designing to find a CT team also. I miss my scrapping. Of course I also plan to keep up my exercise but I can keep it more at a mait level now. Plus this year all 3 kids are in school for a FULL day. I am so excited about that I am definitely the parent from the staples commercial. (Gleefully dancing to "It's the most wonderful time of the year.") Is that bad to be looking forward to the children being back to a routine? To having a few quiet hours where there is not a single child asking me to drive them somewhere, or to make them something or to help them find something to do. Aaaaaaah I can just imagine it now.

Look for more from me soon!

Kerry'd Away Designs CT Call

I am expanding my Creative Team and I am looking for unique and talented digi and hybrid scrappers like you!

Requirements:
Min 2-3 Layouts per month
Post your Layouts to 2peas in a bucket and 2 other open galleries
Particpate in the 2peas Message Board and challenges whenever possible
Enable wherever possible
Support your fellow Team mates

If you are interested and wish to apply please send your email to Kerry Stewart at kerrys6(at)telus(dot)net.

In your email include:
Your Name
A Short Bio
A link to your most current gallery
Links to One to Two Layouts that you feel represent your style.
Info about any other CT teams that you are currently on.

The call will end next Friday May 21 2010 at 11:59 PST. I hope to announce the Team Members by Monday or Tuesday May 24th or 25th.

Thanks and I look forward to reviewing your applications.

Meatless Monday: Welcome to the first Edition

Would you be surprised if I told you that I have been a vegetarian for over 11 years. I'll save that story for another day. Today I want to share a really yummy recipe. It is a recipe I created myself for a vegetable soup. It's thick and hearty and could almost be a vegetable stew. The tomato paste and the beets give this soup a beautiful rich reddish color which contrasts nicely with the orange carrots and the yellow sweet potato. It's a perfect soup for a chilly day. Just add a salad and possibly a slice of whole wheat bread and you have a great healthy vegetarian meal. It's also so quick and easy to prepare.





Chef Busy Butterfly's Vegetarian Vegetable Soup
Servings: Approx 10 1 cup Servings


Ingredients

• 1 Large Chopped Onion



• 4 Cloves of Fresh Garlic



• 2 Medium Sweet Potatoes diced to 1-2" cubes



• 3 Carrots Coarsely Chopped



• 1-2 Beets Diced



• 4 Cups Water



• 7 oz can of Tomato Paste



• 1 596 Fl Oz can of Chick Peas



• 2 TBS of Olive Oil



• 1/4 Cup Fresh Basil



• 3 Bay Leaves



• 1 tsp Thyme
  
  

1. In a large soup pot heat olive oil over medium to high heat. Add onions and garlic and saute until onions and garlic are tender and slightly browned on the edges.



2. Add 4 cups of water and stir in tomato paste.



3. As the water comes to a boil add carrots, sweet potato, Beet, Basil, Thyme and Bay Leaves. Simmer on low for about 40 minutes or until veggies are tender.



4. Add Chick Peas and cook for another 10 minutes until chick peas are heated through.

Nutrition Information

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 133

Total Fat: 3.7

Cholesterol: 0

Sodium: 152.0 mg

Total Carbs: 21.7

Dietary Fiber: 4.6

Protein: 4.4

Digital Scrapbooking Challenges- Open Book Challenge

Doesn't everyone love a good challenge. I think challenges are one of the things that have helped me grow creatively and push my skill levels the most. If I loose my mojo or am stuck in a rut I can always count on a challenge to help me overcome that.

Recently Audrey Neal of Be Audacious designs put out a message looking for some ladies to get involved with a new challenge that she was putting together. I admit that I was more than a little excited. I first worked with Audrey on the 2peas digital creative team and I love her work. She creates interesting and meaningful pages and she had some very cool digital products that she now sells at her shop at design house digital. These challenges are called the Open Book Challenges.

The Open Book Challenges are a series of bi-monthly scrapbooking challenges based on the books we've read and loved. Each challenge will have multiple prompts, both design- and content-based. The great thing is that you can use just one prompt, several prompts or all of them together!

I created a Layout for the first challenge based on the book The Help. The prompts I used were, the color scheme, using birds on my scrapbook page and using a scallop edge to hold my title. The prompts for journaling were also really cool and introspective but instead I felt that I wanted to journal about the role that reading has taken in my life.

I also thought that since I haven't put out a freebie in a long time that I would include a layered PSD template from the above Layout. Feel free to use it for the challenge or for any Layout you feel like creating. Just click on the preview to download.

Credits: Track Team Kit by Kerry'd Away Designs at 2peas in a bucket, Cherry Blossom Kit by Kerry'd Away designs at 2peas in a bucket and Cherry Blossom Frames at 2peas in a bucket.

Projects using my new kit All in the Family Word Art Blocks

Aren't these projects great. The first Layout is by Lorell, the second is by Debi and the last one is by Mary who is part of the 2peas Digital Creative Team

From the Kitchen of Chef Busy.Butterfly-Granola Bars

As I mentioned a few days ago I wanted to start doing some other types of posts. I love food, well who doesn't love food, but I love everything about it. Right from picking the recipe to, going out to purchase the ingredients, to the chopping, and stirring to the baking or cooking and of course the eating. On Mondays I will share all sorts of things about being a vegetarian and on Wednesdays I will share other recipes and tidbits about all things other than vegetarian meals. Some days it may be a meal that my kids love and other times it might be a baked good that I love.

Today as my first entry from the kitchen of Chef Busy.Butterfly I wanted to share a very easy but very yummy recipe that I use to make homemade granola bars. My kids love it. You can make it with just the oats and butter or you could add other little tidbits to it. Nuts, raisins, and craisins are a healthy addition. I have also thought for a little treat some chocolate chips would taste pretty good too. I know I can buy granola bars at the store but I have been striving to eliminate many of the preservatives and additives that are in packaged foods. My kids don't really understand why and actually they don't care one way or another as long as they get to have a little something to satisfy that sweet tooth. This seems to fit both my desires of less packaged food and the kids desire for some yummy.

Chef Busy.Butterfly's Granola Bars

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine


• 1/2 tsp vanilla


• 1 egg


• 1/2 cup brown sugar


• 2 cups rolled oats


• 1/2 cup of slivered almonds

1. Melt Butter/Margarine and combine with brown sugar, vanilla and 1 slightly beaten egg.

2. Stir rolled oats and almonds into the brown sugar mixture. Mix well.

3. Press into a square pan and bake in a 350 F / 180 C oven for 15 min or until golden brown.

4. Let the bars cool before cutting into squares.

My Favourites from my CT Team

I haven't ever posted any of the projects by my small but talented CT Team. Currently I only have 3 members on my CT Team: (but will be looking for some more members in the very near future.) Amy, Debi,and Lorell. They have created many MANY beautiful projects using my designs. I thought today I would post just a few of my favourites. I hope you enjoy them. Originally I was only going to pick my top 2 favs from each member but it was so hard to narrow it down I picked the top three from each. If you want to see more of there fabulous work click on their names above and it will link you to their galleries.
Amy's Projects

Debi's Projects

Lorell's Projects



Enjoy!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz- Wh-what oh am I supposed to be blogging!

I will admit that even I am getting bored with my blogging posts. I have been thinking alot this blog recently. I have thought about what makes me want to read other blogs and what do I want to be able to come back and read myself. I still want to post my new releases and pages (I haven't even been doing many pages lately either.)

While I do know I want to make some changes, I'm not exactly sure what kind of changes I want to make. I want to have some regular kinds of weekly posts and some wiggle room to just fly by the seat of my pants when I want to. Here are some of my ideas, Meatless Monday, Digital Scrapbooking tutorials, New Releases, My CT team projects, Challenges I am involved in, Family Happenings, Book Reviews. I will elaborate on the Meatless Monday. You see I am a vegetarian (not hard core by any means.) and I have been for 11 years. I also love to bake and cook. When I first thought about being vegetarian I thought it would be really hard to cook healthy and tasty meals but I have learned that it's not that hard at all. That is why I thought it would be cool to blog about. I may also do additional posts about other things I cook and bake because I love doing both and I still cook non vegetarian meals because my kids aren't vegetarian. (I know weird, but it's just the way it has worked out.)

I have also doing a regular post about Canada or Vancouver or something like that. I'm not sure totally about that one though because I'm trying to think about how to keep doing a post each week that would be different and of interest to people. I do know that I love Vancouver and I love being Canadian so I could probably come up with some interesting stuff.

If you have any ideas, suggestions,or thoughts, please leave me a comment.

Before I end for the day, I will leave you with my new release for this week. All in the Family Word Art Blocks

A Cool Challenge and Inspiration Blog: The Inspired Scrapper

I decided today to tell you about something a bit different than my usual businessy type posts. Today I want to wrote about a cool blog The Inspired Scrapper. Truth be told I may not have known about it except an old scrapper friend of mine took it over and she mentioned it to me. Some of the things that I personally really like about it is that it has some really fun challenge once a month, you have a WHOLE month to get your project done, every Friday there are new inspiring projects posted to get your creative juices going, and here's a cool one to me; it's Canadian run blog. (Go Canada!)

It's definitely worth the check out. I created a page for April's Challenge. The challenge this month was to scraplift someone whose work you admire. I choose digi scrapper Sokee.


Credits: Everything except the word borders were created by me under Kerry'd Away Designs Available for sale at 2peas. Bunny Tales, Track Team, Cherry Blossom Frames, and the word borders are by MaryAnn Wise.

New Release Day at 2peas - Track Team

My newest release at 2peas this morning is Track Team. I think it's pretty cool and since my son will be in a Track Meet next week I hope I too get a chance to scrap with the cool kit.

New Release Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 2peas I have a new kit coming out. I am super excited about it and I thought I'd post a little sneak peak.

It's called Track Team and it's filled with 12 slick papers and 16 different embellishments for scrapping all those awesome track and field pictures you have been taking. It will be available as a full kit as well as seperates. (Paper pack and Extras Pack)

I hope you like it as much as I do.

New Release: Everywhere a Sign

Yeah it's Tuesday and now that I design at 2peas that means New Release day! I have a brush and stamp kit for you today. I guess it's a bit different but I know that I have often wanted some directional signs or street signs for so many different projects. The possiblilites are endless, maybe a camping trip or a day trip to the nearby fair or even a school field trip. I hope you enjoy them. The set comes with 6 Black PNG files, 6 colored rub ons and a brush set.

Sneak Peek- Take Me Out To The Ball Game

On March 16th my first 2peas Kit will come out. I'm really excited about it! Here's a little Sneak Peek. Be sure to stop by the 2peas shop on March 16th to see my first kit.

Tying Up Loose Ends and an Announcement

It seems that every time I turn around I have a new announcement. Today I sent in a really cool kit that will be released on March 16th at 2peasinabucket. Say What, Yep you heard that right. I will be selling my designs at 2peas. I am super stoked and I can hardly wait until my first kit hits the store.

But in order to take up the new position I had to step down from my 2peas CT position. Sniff. I was a little bit sad about that. I will really miss the ladies from the team. Not only are they super talented but they are just all around great ladies. On Tuesdays we always had a little chat while we were waiting to sign up for our week of assignments. It was so much fun and I will really miss chatting and hearing what everyone was up to.

And so the last 4 LO's I post here will be the last assignments that I created as part of the 2peas creative team.

Stay Tuned for a Sneak Peek of my first 2peas release!

Feeling a Little Blue? Creating Lo's with the Colour Blue.

Recently I took a little peek at my Lo's in my gallery at 2peas and realized that the last 4 LO's I created are all blue. I didn't realize I had become so partial to the color. Blue does seem to be cropping up in lots of digital kits right now.

Here are two of my favourite blue LO's right now. The first is called Love Being with you. My CT assignment was to use Erica Hernandez's Funny Valentine Brush Set. I only used 2 out many many different brushes you could use. I think they would also be a great way to create your own custom papers. I'd also like to point out that some of the pp in the squares are from my blog freebie LoveBug Kit. The Lo itself is very near and dear to my heart. The photo is my dd with my 90 year old Grannie. She is an amazing lady, even now at 90 she is an upbeat and positive person. She still lives and maintains her own little house even though we lost my Grandfather a few years ago. I am so very happy that my own kids have had the opportunity to get to know her. She is the only surviving grandparent that I have left now.

This second one is also one of my Ct assignments. I totally fell in love with Holly Brooke Jones new Mod Moth Mini Kit. I loved the soft and whimsical design of her papers and those moths were so pretty. As Barb Hogan wrote earlier who knew that Moths could be so pretty?

Catching up on posting my 2peas CT Assignments

My blog entries really are rather willy nilly, aren't they. I think that has been my whole life lately. I do whatever is most pressing and hopefully complete it before something else crops up.

I can't really complain too much though. I am CTing with a site that I LOVE and designing digital products. I'm trying to get into a rhythm between the two but I admit that it is a tough balancing act at times.

Monday I spent most of the day running around trying to get my car situation sorted out. My Dad just recently bought a new car and they decided to help my brother and I out by giving their car to my brother Craig and my brother then in turn gave me his car. I've been driving my big ol' Mom Van since Autumn was born. It has been a good vehicle but it is starting to have trouble and it's cost me quite alot in repairs lately. My Brothers car is newer than mine and it has very low mileage. It's a white Honda civic sedan and best of all it's a standard. I love driving a stick shift! I will have to do a LO of it soon. Okay now back to why I had to run around. Well when I went in to get it insured it turned out that it needed to be Air Cared. I am really beginning to resent Air Care. I wasn't really worried about it passing the air care inspection but the real trouble was that my brother dropped the car off and took the plates. I ended up having to get a permit for the car, then drive it to be air cared then back to the insurance place to get it insured. Yikes. Now it's all done and I LOVE driving my new car. Hopefully I'll have completed the sale of my mini van in the next week. Of course I've spent the last day or so getting the said Van ready for sale. At least I have a buyer lined up.

So that is my sad (or is it happy?) tale and my excuse for not having posted any LO's lately. This first LO features Chelsea's Beautifully Grungy Label. I wanted to try something different rather than the standard label for journaling or a title. I decided that I could use it like a stamp on several squares. I thought it created some continuity in my LO and it's such a beautiful frame it was great to show it off in more than one way. I also was quite pleased with my play on words with the title. By the way my Dad is a really amazing gourmet pizza maker. They are so tasty and I think I gain pounds just looking at all the yummy cheese! My fav is the smoked salmon and brie cheese. My mouth is watering!

The second Lo I chose Michelle Underwood's kit Beautiful Endings. Michelle is such a talented designer. Everything is so real. Her embellishments have texture and dimension and her papers are unique in pattern and color. If you ever get a chance to pick up one of her kits I have no doubt that you will enjoy creating with it as much as I have. I also just love these pictures. My dd didn't even know that I was paying any attention to her but it was just one of those quiet typical mornings. I like that you can see the relationship between Autumn and Casey.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Hello happy Bloggers. I hope you are all having a fabulous Valentine's Day. It's sunny and warm here today and it feels almost like Spring. Weird that it is so beautiful and the city is now full on Winter Olympics (Winter are you kidding me Winter Schminter!) I am enjoying the Olympic coverage so far. I wish I could go to an event but sadly I have no funds to spend on any of the events. It is neat to watch and know that it is MY city! Vancouver is a spectacular place to live and I love it here.

It has now been almost a month since I started designing for Scrapinsider.com. I love designing. I have been overwhelmed with the support and words of encouragement from so many friends and fellow scrappers that I wanted to share the love! I created a mini kit called Love Bug that you can download for FREE! here on my blog just click on the preview below. I hope you enjoy it. It was super fun to create.

I am really loving Adobe illustrator. I am so glad that Jen Alysson of Design House Digitals encouraged me to buy it and take Carina Gardner's illustrator class at Jessica Sprague.com

Have fun. What did you do for Valentine's Day? Did you go out with your sweetie? Did you do something with your family? Maybe you did some cool scrappy projects. Tell me, link me up. Enquiring minds want to know.

New Release Cherry Blossom

My newest kit to be released at Scrapinsider.com. Thanks for taking a peek.

It's February Already

Now how did that happen. It feels like we were just ringing in the New Year and now we will be celebrating Valentine's Day, Cheering for the 2010 Olympics here in Vancouver, and wishing my youngest dd Happy Birthday. Yikes. Why does time speed up so much as you get older?

I have three more Layouts that I created for the 2peas CT.

I love this Lo. I created it for my brother and his lovely finance Beth. The papers I used are from Sugar Pops new kit called Lovebirds. The color combo is totally up my alley and the patterns are really unique too. Another things that I really liked is they had just the perfect amount of distressing and texture for me.

Any modern day Mom could relate with this LO. Just recently my ds gave his sister his nintendo ds. Of course she was ecstatic. When she plays she totally tunes right out and I happily took a whole series of photos and my dd didn't even notice what I was doing. For this page I used Brandy Buffingtons kit Cabanarama. It was so full of papers and elements. There are endless possibilities for this kit.

This last Layout is near and dear to my heart. The photo is of my dad when he was a little boy. What I love about these old photos is that not only am I getting a chance to peek into my dad's childhood but I have memories of my own associated with this photo. When I was in my teens I was staying overnight with my Grannie. Her and I began to go through her stacks and stacks of old photos and she let me pick some to bring home. As we sorted through them she would tell me little things about the photo. In this one she ohhh and awwed about how cute my dad looked and this was one of two photos that she really adored of her son Robbie. Even the name Robbie holds special meaning. Only my grandparents are allowed to use it. And I can still remember the proud look in my Grandfathers eye when he would talk about his "Robbie". (My Grandfather passed away a couple of years ago. ) Funny how just one little photo can hold all that.

The frame is a debut release from Kenner Road. I am looking forward to seeing what else Kenner Road will be bringing us. I love vintage elements and papers just like this.

Well here's to a productive week for everyone. I hope to work on some more kits for my own shop and I also hope to create some more pages. Plus my youngest dd just switched from morning kindy to afternoon. I'm not sure how I feel about that quite yet. At least I didn't have to rush to get her out of the house and in fact I'm still sitting in my pj's and it's almost 11. (Really, I am going to get dressed as soon as I'm done here!Hehe!)

Our Little Secret

As many of you know I have 3 kids. My oldest two are two years apart and then there's a big ol' gap between them and my youngest. She is my baby and I think because I have known even when I was pregnant that she would be my last, I have always hung onto each little stage. I don't want to miss a single thing.

Which brings me to the fact that I picked up this little girl long past the time that it was necessary. (Dare I admit that I still do from time to time.) About two years ago I ended up needing to go in for surgery to remove a sizable tumour from my abdomen. I was told in no uncertain terms that there was to be no bending, lifting or carrying heavy loads. It was tough because Autumn and I were just so used to the whole Mommy will pick you up thing. This is when we came up with the hand hug. It was a way to still feel close without her jostling or hurting my incision and it eliminated the picking up. Now even two years later and fully healed we still do this. It is very comforting for both of us and it has come in handy on many occasions. Really anytime is a great time for a hand hug but I will tell you that when you are in major pain and you haven't seen your children for several days there is nothing better than those kids running into your room and squeezing your hand.

When I'm old and gray I hope my kids won't even have to think twice about that little hand squeeze.

Credits: A Sunday Kind of Love by Michelle Underwood, Sparkle Brush Set by MaryAnn Wise and Deckle Frame also by MaryAnn Wist.

Wehooo! Now for the official announcement

Well I guess I kind of spilled the beans the other day. But just so it's official...



I have now opened shop with my digital designs at Scrapinsider.com. Here's my first kit.

CANDY APPLE

This is a bright and cheerful kit to chase away those winter blahs! These happy and slightly worn papers along with some unique embellishments are sure to be fun addition to your digital goodies.

• 8 patterened and slightly distressed papers


• 6 slightly distressed coordinating solids


• 4 heart buttons in red, pink, light turqoise and dark turqoise


• 10 clear epoxy bits, 4 with graphics and 6 with words


• 6 4x6 photo overlays


• 4 stitched Tic Tac Toe Grids Red, Pink, Yellow, and Turquoise


• 3 Word Arts

I hope you will stop by and visit sometime.

Working on Creative Teams

Over the course of the last year and a half I have been very fortunate to work with some very talented ladies and some amazing designers.

When I first decided I wanted to be a part of a CT, it didn't go as well as I had hoped. In fact I faced several rejection emails and of course several no responses. The first designer I ever worked with was a woman named Laura Lively. 6 months later I went on to CT for Sande Kreiger, Kate Teague, MaryAnn Wise, Jen Alysson, and Carina Gardner. Every team taught me a little bit more and I think I grew much faster because of my time not only with the designers but because of the ladies that I also CT'd with.

As you know I am now part of the CT digital design team for 2peas in a bucket. I am also CTing for MaryAnn Wise and more recently Jen Martakis. I love it. Somehow I have become incredibly busy. I don't mind though, it's a wonderful to feel excited and energized about all the possibilities ahead of you. I love spending my day being creative. Now if I really get it together I may try a few sewing projects.

My own designing is beginning to grow. Before Christmas I faced a similar process as I did for CTing. Lots of no responses, some rejection (all very nicely worded and polite but still rejection is tough to swallow sometimes) I did get some very practical advice and that in fact prompted me to take an illustrator class with Carina Gardner at Jessica Sprague's site as well as purchasing illustrator. (I love illustrator but I will leave that for another post!) Just after Christmas I was invited to design for a site called scrapinsiders.com. So a new journey begins. I will have a more official announcement in the next day or so when my very first kit will be released.

What would a post about CTing be without a few Layouts from said CT position. This first Layout is of my lovely dd pouting and it is a familiar scene around here. I used Chelsea Parsons Milly and Molly kit and it has the cutest little illustrations on it. I have also always loved the way her kraft paper really looks like kraft card stock with all those yummy flecks and bits. The other product I used on this Layout is the 99 cent labels by Shimelle Laine. The cool thing about this kit is that you can use it digitally or she also includes a pdf file so that a paper/hybrid scrapper can easily print it out and use them on a paper project. How cool is that.

On my second Layout I again used a kit by Shimelle Laine. It is called Can't buy me love. It has lovely rich colors and is filled with hearts perfect for any kind of Valentine Layout. As you can see I didn't use it for a Valentine Layout, I used it for this teen kind of Layout. The cool photo mask is from MaryAnn Wise's flakes of snow photo mask kit.

Have a great Weekend.

For a change...Some Hybrid Projects

The kids are back to school and the house is quiet once again but I have been far from idle. I really wanted to get my house into order and work on my health (and lose a few pounds). The kickback benefit to both those resolutions is that I have way more energy and because my house is more organized I actually am on top of things. That is such a welcome change!



My Mother in Law is about to celebrate her first year anniversary. They are the happiest couple ever. Both have come down difficult paths with Brenda having been on her own for a long time and Dennis loosing his wife to illness a couple of years ago. They are incredibly busy, energetic and out finding lots of adventures together. I made them this card. It says Once in a Blue Moon...you find someone really special. Happy Anniversary. I'm so glad you've found your happily ever after. I formatted and decorated the inside of my card too. Tricky to get every thing lined up but I was happy with it. Although I had some paper trimmer issues and it tore away the corner of my card so I used a corner rounder punch to .round the corners. Doesn't the blue look lovely. The paper was from a kit called Winter Walk. The designer Shelly Castillo is making her debut this week at 2peasinabucket. I am looking so forward to seeing what designs she has up her sleeves!







My second project this m week was to make these cute little Valentine Pillow Boxes. I found some templates on line but they were all pdf documents so using my new found illustrator skills along with photoshop, I created a layer template. Then I clipped in papers and these digital stickers.


Normally I would print them at home but my printer was being all wonky so I ended up having them printed up at Staples on 100lb paper. They look so finished, or professional or something. Once they were printed I cut them out and used a scoring tool to score all the folding edges. That step was particularly important for the top flaps or they would not have folded down properly. After cutting and scoring all I had to do to finish up was to glue down the one edge. Now I could have typed in my dd's name and the other students names but I decided that it would be good printing practise for her to add the names in her self. Plus it's more personal right! We will fill them with some little Valentine goodies like a couple of Hershey's kisses or candy hearts or something. Of course Autumn adores them.

I hope you will keep your eyes on my blog. In the next few days I have an exciting announcement about another new opportunity for me.

Credits for the above hybrid projects:

Blue Moon Card: Winter Walk by Shelly Castillo, Sparkles by MaryAnn Wise

Valentine Pillow Boxes: Winter Lovenotes Digital Stickers by Holly Brooke Jones, Papers Basics Beige Bases by Kate Teague.