Missing Magnets

Hi everyone.  Well, I told you I would be back today with a fun home decor project, and here I am.

As you know, I recently remodeled my kitchen.  And, as is the style, I went with stainless steel appliances.   Unfortunately, magnets don't stick to stainless steel, so I needed to come up with a place to hang my grocery pad and other bits of paper.

I popped into my local hardware store and found a piece of sheet metal for the great price of $6.00 and spray painted it black.

I added a few sheets of patterned paper.  Helpful hint:  be sure and use thin papers as you want your magnets to stick and hold down other paper items.

Jenni Bowlin patterned papers

Next, I added a few fun embellishments.  I didn't use too many and kept them to the corners as I did want this item to be functional as well as pretty.  These beautiful flowers and leaves came from the Your Memories Here store. I also used a piece of Prima Marketing lace that I spritzed with a bit of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist to set off the different patterned papers.

Prima Marketing flowers and leaves.  Jenni Bowlin and Maya Road stick pins.

And here is the final project....

I mounted it to the cabinet that holds my refrigerator with Command Adhesive so as not to mar the surface.  The clock and the "white board" are also mounted this way.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,

Nancy

And so it begins....

Well, we are back full force, into school/swim mode.  This year, Mackenzie has chosen not to continue with the ballet, but instead to go back to competitive swimming...which is fine.  Of course, with the teams growth I am now at three pools at three different times.  Sigh...menu planning is a going to get interesting.  hee hee  Speaking of menu planning, I will be back next week with Menu Mondays.  I know so many of you were asking, and how can I say no?

Anywho....just wanted to pop in and share a layout I did this weekend.  Still trying to work through my paper stash.  I can't believe I ordered more!   It is a disease I tell you!  lol

Crate Paper Portrait Collection, Webster's Pages Bloomers, Prima Marketing flourish, American Crafts Thickers, Jenni Bowling mini alpha

My three darlings dressed up for formal night.  I can't believe how big they are getting.  They look so grown all dressed up for dinner.  sigh  Where does the time go.  And the Alaska wilderness makes such an awesome back drop.  This has got to be one of my favorite photos from our trip.  This is based on an old Pencil Lines sketch.  Not sure which number, I just had the sketch lying around.  It was for two vertical photos, but I just used one large one.

Tomorrow I will be back with a fun home decor project I just finished.  One for my kitchen!  Remodeled kitchen means new ideas.  hee hee

See you then.

Hugs.

Nancy

I Have a Secret

I don't like to tell when I am going to be out of town.  Even though I have a house sitter...someone who lives in my house while I am gone...I don't like to tell.  So, I set up my blogs to post ahead of time, and not mention a thing on Facebook, and then I go.  This time, I was gone for almost 2 weeks!  I bet you didn't even notice.  hee hee

Where did I go?  Seattle, Vancouver, and then a week long cruise to Alaska.  

I just finished unpacking and downloading all my photos.  And of course, school had to start, so I have begun that.  No time to edit photos yet, but here are a few straight out of the camera.

Vancouver from our hotel suite

My little darlings, not so little anymore.

South Sawyer Glacier in the Tracy Arm Fjord.  We were about 700 yards from it.  Amazing!

The port of Ketchican

Sailing through the most beautiful rainbow

Well, I have almost 1000 photos to scrap so I guess I should get busy.  hee hee  Be back soon with some scrapiness, hopefully.

Hugs.

Nancy

Distress Inks Make me Happy

I know, I use distress inks a lot...they are really one of my favorite products.  I seem to use them almost daily.  Why?  because I feel they add so much to my projects.

I was recently working on this layout of my son.  The papers are beautiful, but they don't have much depth and in my option, and for my scrappy style, they don't blend together.  They are beautiful, but......

Tim Holtz Kraft Resist paper, Authentique patterned papers

So, I used my foam inking tool and a few different colors of distress ink in blues and browns and came up with this.

Tim Holtz Kraft Resist paper, Authentique patterned papers, Basic Grey alphabet,  Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Tag.  Custom dyed seam binding

Now the colors blend seamlessly.  I was also able to add a quick swipe of ink over some naked chipboard to blend it into the layout.   I also added a bit of ink, as well as some Tattered Angels Glimmer mist to my tag to blend it in as well.

I really like the inked layout so much better.  That said, my dh...he likes the one without the ink.  I guess it takes all kinds.  So....which do you like better?

Hugs.

Nancy

Look at Me Go

I said I was going to try to be a better blogger and I think I have been doing quite well.  hee hee...I think I have posted more in the past week than I did the month of July.  In my defense...July is just crazy around here.

And speaking of crazy....here is part of the reason.  July means cabana champs!  And with the end of the season it means that as president of the team, league rep, and treasurer for the league...I am crazy busy.  Here are a few photos of the children with their cabana coaches at our awards banquet.  We are so blessed every year to have great coaches all of whom swam for the team in their younger days.

Making Memories 5th Avenue Collection, The Twinery baker's twine

In my quest to make room for new goodies I have been working hard to use the old goodies.  For these layouts I used some beautiful papers and embellishments from the 5th Avenue line from Making Memories.  The colors worked great with these outdoor shots.  And I was lucky to have some beautiful sketches to play with from my good friend Heather.  Did you know, if you use one of her designs or templates, you can be featured on her blog?  

Well, thanks for dropping by.

Hugs.

Nancy

This Summer

I have been really lax this summer about blogging.  It isn't that I haven't been scrapping, or that I don't still love you all, it is just that finding the time to sit down and type is difficult some days.  I am hoping with school getting ready to start that I will get back in the habit soon.  Anywho....

I found this layout I did of Brighton that I hadn't shared yet.  I am not sure that I just love the way the title came out, but since I struggle with boy pages I am calling it done.  Sorry for the bad photo...don't know what happened there.  hee hee

Echo Park Everything.  hee hee

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs.

Nancy

Happy Birthday to ....

Well, I am not going to say because i have yet to mail this card and I want the recipeint to be surprised.  hee hee
I made this card with some beautiful Annalee papers from Prima Marketing and a sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches.

This card is actually a pop up, with a bouquet of flowers that I fussy cut on the inside.

I also added in bits of beautiful trims and a few gorgeous flowers from the Your Memories Here store as well as a piece of Prima packaging.  You  know we all have to be green.  hee hee

Anyway, I hope the recipient enjoys her card.  Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Nancy

buddies

Hi everyone.  I hope you are having a great day wherever you are.  I wanted to just drop in today to share a layout I made of Ainsley and one of her little buddies at the pool.  Ainsley, being the baby of the family, always tries to find younger children to baby so she can be the big girl.  Fortunately, there is never a shortage in our neighborhood.

Echo Park Patterned Papers, Prima Marketing flowers, alphabet, bling, Melissa Frances resin, Bic Mark-its.

I decided to use some of my new Echo Park Victoria Garden collection as well as a few Prima flowers, bits of bling and alphabet.  I couldn't resist throwing in a doily and a Melissa Frances resin piece.  I even took the time to hand color the resin to make it match using my Bic Mark-its.

Well, back to the grind.

Hugs.

Nancy

Switch it Up

Are you getting into the groove of the new schedule at Sassy Lil' Sketches?  Tuesdays we reveal layout sketches.

 Here is this week's sketch:

And on Saturdays we switch it up.  


I decided to go with three photos instead of the two shown.  These are some photos I recently took of Mackenzie. I used lots of distressing and inking on my page, as well as some fun little embellies.  

Prima Marketing patterned papers, florals, stickers, lace, pink alpha, Pink Paislee chipboard, The Twinery twine

So, be sure to head over to the Sassy Lil' Sketches blog and check out what the other Switch it up Sassies have done, and try your hand at the sketch for a chance to win a prize from one of our sponsors.

Our August Sponsors

Paper Sponsor:

Digi Sponsor:

Layouts must be uploaded below by September 5th, 11:59 P.M. EST to be eligible for the August random prize drawing*.

Hugs.

Nancy

bloggity, blog, blog, bloggin

Hey everyone, I hope things are going well for everyone.  I can't believe that summer is almost over.  Soon the children will be back in the pool.  Until then, the children are growing like weeds!   I swear, I measured...Mackenzie has grown an inch in the last 48 hours.  Crazy, huh!

Speaking of growing, my little niece Lili is growing so fast.  Last spring, we went to see Mackenzie perform in the Ballet San Jose School performance of Silly Simon.  Since then, Lili has been addicted to ballet.  The other day Lili came over and the girls all decided to play dress up.  Well, you know that Lili had to be a ballerina.  And I had to take photos.  I used lots of older Prima Papers from the Your Memories Here store, as well as beautiful Prima flowers, butterflies, trims and a few Melissa Frances resin pieces.

Prima Papers, flowers, butterflies, trims, Melissa Frances resins

 I tried a new technique on this layout.  You know I have used my masks to stamp before....today I decided to try embossing at the same time.  I began by spraying my mask with a bit of mist.

 I formed my sandwich, this step took a while....trying to figure out the right thickness to get a good embossing.  I ended up with the cutting platform tab 1, my mask, the paper, the rubber mat and then finally, the purple plate.  I didn't get quite as deep an emboss as I would have liked, but.....

 And, after a quick trip through my machine.....

Hugs.

Nancy

and Today....

Today I have a post up over on the Your Memories Here blog.  Have you seen the incredible talent that Kristina has brought in for this term?  eeek!  I feel so blessed to be part of her team.  And...she is bringing in lots of new goodies.  You can buy complete Prima collections or a grab bag in three different sizes.  While I wait for my new goodies to arrive, I am trying to work through my older Prima collections.

Prima Marketing....everything!  lol

Here I featured Mackenzie with the twins she often babysits.  I made this using lots of Prima's Annalee collection.  I love all the beautiful papers, flowers, bling.  And how can you not love those little faces.

Well, much to do here today.

Hugs.

Nancy

A Great Weekend

Hi everyone!  I hope you are having a great week.  Can you believe it is already August?  Time is going by so fast.  Summer is almost over!  Soon the children will be back to school and there is so much still to do, and not nearly enough days to enjoy!  Where did the beach time, the water park time go?  I guess it was all spent at the pool.

Anywho...one of the things I did find time for was a class at my LSS with Tim Holtz.

This was his Creative Blocks class.  Lots of Tim Holtz papers, distress inks, crackle paints and ideaology. Super fun....we even were able to play with beeswax.  It was amazing how we all started out with the same supplies, and yet each person's project was totally unique.

I have also managed to make a few pages.

This first one is from Mackenzie's dance class.  She has decided not to continue with the ballet, but instead to go back to competitive swimming.  There is hidden journaling talking about the decision.  Originally this was supposed to be for the Glitz Designs challenge, but I didn't get it posted in time.  I used lots of Glitz goodies, some old naked Basic Grey chipboard, and a Pencil Lines sketch.

Glitz Designs Papers and stamps, Prima Marketing flowers and lace, Basic Grey Chipboard, Tim Holtz Distress Ink.

And here are the girls, at the start.  Well, the start of their races...one of many that weekend.  I think they each competed in 9 individual events over the course of the three day meet.  I used some old Little Yellow Bicycle papers for this, a few epoxies made with my Epiphany Crafts tool, as well as a Sassy Lil' Sketch.  Such a different look from the one above.  hee hee

Little Yellow Bicycle papers and border stickers, American Crafts alpha and journaling block,  Epiphany Crafts epoxy, The Twinery twine, unknown buttons, ribbon trim.

Well, I have another project to share tomorrow for Your Memories Here.  Hope you have time to drop by.

Hugs.

Nancy

Changes

With the beginning of August there are many changes going on with my design teams.

First up, Your Memories Here has a new design team.  Starting this month you will begin seeing posts from  some new designers (and a few you are already familiar with, myself included).

Announcing the Your Memories Here International Design Team for our next 6 month term:
Terri - http://terriskreativekorner.blogspot.com/
Sandi - http://sandi-smith.blogspot.com/
Nanné - http://www.nannes-creations.blogspot.com/
Cassie - http://craftycassiescorner.blogspot.com/
Crystal - http://scrapcandydesigns.blogspot.com/

And over at Sassy Lil' Sketches.....

With the new Design Team starting, we decided to make some changes to the blogs....

Starting now, both the card & layout sketches will be found on the original Sassy Lil' Sketches blog!

We'll be releasing layout sketches on Tuesdays, card sketches on Thursdays and we'll be Switching It Up on Saturdays!

The Saturday Switch It Up design team will show you how to make the most of your sketch! They'll be flipping, rotating, creating double pages, etc. out of that week's sketch!

We will still have a layout paper & digi prize & a card prize! Make sure you link your layout or card in the correct post to be entered to win!

Well, I need to go run and take a few photos before it gets to late.  I can't wait to share the project I made Saturday in my Tim Holtz class.


Hugs.


Nancy