Fun in the Summer Sun

Hi guys!  It's been a crazy few weeks but I think now that the kids are back in school things will smooth out and I will get back on a regular scrappy schedule.  I'm thinking of overhauling my scrap room which is an absolute disaster area.  I'm not sure how to re-arrange and organize things.  The truth is I have too much stuff.  I know that seems impossible but it's true. LOL 

My hubby is gone to China for almost a month so I think now would be a good time to pull everything out of my scrap room and start to slowly organize things.   I will take before and after photos so you will see what I have done but I will wait to show you them until I finish.  Wish me luck!!  lol



Last week my bff, Denise, was here visiting and although we didn't scrap as much as we usually do, we did do some scrapping.  I made this layout for Once Upon a Sketch and I think it is due today?  Not sure but I have had it sitting on my desk all week just waiting for me to take a photo and post about it.  So here it is!   ***Update...I was too late.  I didn't realize it was Australian Eastern Time.  Oh well...it's my own fault for letting it sit on my desk.***



The challenge (other than using their sketch) was to journal the seasons.  Well I chose Summer.  Nothing says summer like taking the kids to try out all the jungle gyms in town!!   And that is what I journaled on this layout.  I took 3 of my kids to all the parks I could one day.  They had a blast going from playground to playground.  The photo is of my youngest.  It just kind of called out to be scrapped.



I used patterned papers from Bo Bunny - Alora and Double Dot Designs.  Gorgeous colors!  I fussy cut most of the flowers out of a sheet of the paper and used pop dots to raise a few up off the paper to add dimension.  I used one of my Martha Stewart punches and some gorgeous trim from Webster's Pages.  I pulled sticker alphas from my stash in different sizes and patterns for the title work.  And I journaled around the photo mat.  Some Stickles and bling and a few buttons from my stash later and I was done.  Fun and frilly and summery!  I'm entering it in the challenge at Once Upon a Sketch as soon as I finish typing this up!!  I'm also entering it in the metal challenge on the Fairy Tale Challenge blog.  And also in the Flowers challenge on the Southern Girls Challenge Blog. 



We have almost made it through the first week of school.  My kids start coming home in a hour.  Everyone seems pretty happy with things so far but I hate to say that and jinx things!! LOL



I wanted to share a fun photo of three of my kids (the younger 3).  They were acting silly my office and asked me to photograph them.



Here is also a photo from last week when Denise and her family were visiting us.  The kids were lined up getting ready to all jump in the pool together.  We tried to get them all in the air but some kids are way faster than other!! LOL  It was pretty comical.



If you haven't joined in on my Birthday Giveaway please do!!  I want you to help me celebrate my birthday.  And if 50 people enter I will add a second giveaway!!  So help get to 50!  The first giveaway is a ton of SMASH book goodies.  I'm thinking something more ink related for the next giveaway...so think about that and pass the word!! 

And finally today is the last day to enter the Crafter's Companion USA Challenge blog Friendship challenge.  The prize is a $30 gift card to the Crafter's Companion Online store.  That's a lot of shopping you could do so I would get busy and get your entry uploaded!! 

Enough for today.  Thanks for stopping and looking. 

Special Delivery

Hello everyone!! Wow! I can't believe it it already almost the end of August. My kids started back to school yesterday and my BFF and her family, who were visiting, just left to go home. (boo)  It is just such a busy time. I'm sure that you are busy in your life too and sometimes it takes something special to get you in the mood to get back to that scrap table. Well, I have just the thing to make you want to carve out a little scrappy time. The new Winter Strawberry Kisses stamp collection arrives next week!! And they really got me itching to scrap so I bet they will do it for you too.

 



Isn't it cute!?  (the image I mean) There are 12 new ones and I almost couldn't decide which image to choose first! lol But of course I did. I picked Special Delivery as the image I would make a sneak peak out of for you to drool over. LOL

Since I am so super busy, I decided to go to my old stand by, an easel card. I love to make easel cards and I've mentioned it to you before so I won't go on and on about it now. The quickest explanation is that they just go together so quickly for me. Here's a link to a tutorial on how to make one if you don't already know how.

 



I stamped and colored my image and the sentiment with my Spectrum Noir markers. Then I pulled out some Christmas paper from my stash. I'm a total Christmas freak so I have a ton of it!! LOL I layered my patterned papers and used some bling and knotted red ribbon from my stash. I die cut the image and sentiment and then die cut some patterned paper to mat them both. I layered the image and it's mat on the front of the card and I used double sided adhesive square to pop up the sentiment on the inside of the card. This gives dimension and hold the top in place when you have it open in the easel position.

 



It went together quickly and I think it turned out sweet. I know that next week you are going to be rushing to the Crafter's Companion store to get some of these stamps for your very own!

Don't forget you only have 3 more days to enter the Friendship challenge on the Crafter's Companion Challenge Blog and maybe win the $30 gift card to the Crafter's Companion online store!! Get scrapping because we want to see those projects!!! 

Today the back to school adventure went a little smoother than yesterday.  Fingers crossed it keeps being smoother...lol 

Don't miss out on my Birthday Giveaway going on right now!!!  

Back To School.

How many of you are on Facebook? I'm not a big "poster" but I do love to read what everyone else writes. I found the cutest pattern on there to make a sweet mini backpack. I just had to make one and share it (and the link) with you.



I went to Splitcoaststampers and printed out the tutorial and the patterns by Mary Arima. I cut out the patterns and then traced them out onto a double sided piece of 12" x 12" patterned paper. I actually made a backpack following the directions and patterns that Mary came up with and it just turned out super cute.

Here they are next to each other before the sentiments were added.

 Here is it with the sentiment added.



 However, I thought I would like the front pocket to be a bit smaller than the pattern that Mary made so I made my own pattern for those pieces on this second project.

My personal measurements for the Front Pocket are 2 1/2 inches by 3 3/4 inches. You will understand this if/when you print out Mary's template. The folds are 1/4 inch. I adjusted the Front Pocket Flap also. It is 2 1/2 inches by 3 inches with the first fold line at 1 1/4 inches and the second fold line at 1 1/2 inches. (I really just trimmed the sides of the existing pattern to fit the pocket that I made.)

I pulled out my The Tale of Peter Rabbit stamps by Beatrix Potter. I stamped out my sentiment onto cream card stock, trimmed the paper into a tag shape and then inked the edges to distress it a bit. I added a bit of twine through a the hole that I punched at the top of it. Finally I added it to the flap of the backpack with some adhesive squares.

  

I love how this turned out and I am sure my daughter's teacher is going to love getting it. It is the perfect size to put in a gift card or some candy or even a pack of crayons.

My kids start back to school next Monday the 27th so there has been a lot of things to do to get ready.  Tonight my BFF, Denise, and her family are flying in to stay the week.  They are coming in to help me celebrate my birthday on Friday and to have a little mini vacation before school starts.  WOO HOO!!  I can not wait!  We are do the last minute clean before they all arrive.  Luckily she is my bff so I don't really have to burn that much of a calorie! LOL  Poor Denise!! haha

Please stop back by on Friday because I am going to do a giveaway to celebrate my birthday!!  You don't want to miss out on that do you?? 

Happy Scrapping!


Christmas in August

Phew! Last week was so much fun and there was so much going on during the Crafter's Companion birthday celebration. I hope that you were able to join in on the Birthday Blog Hop and I really hope you were able to take advantage of all the fantastic sales we had going on in our online store!! It was like Christmas in August!

And I must say that I have really been getting into the mood to make Christmas cards because Crafter's Companion has been coming out with so many new holiday sets. Sheena Douglass has the fun new A Little Bit Festive collection, the new Christmas in Mulberry Woods collection is to die for and Christine Haworth's upcoming holiday collection of Paintbox Poppets is really just so beautiful. With so many great stamps to work with and be inspired by to be creative, I just had to make a few.



Who of you uses a sketch as a starting point? I find that some of the time it just makes the creative process flow much more quickly if I can start with a basic sketch and then build off of that. With 5 kids, I have to squeeze in my scrapping where ever I can. So if I can get a few extra minutes by starting with the a sketch I'm definitely going to do it! lol



I found a sketch in a magazine that I liked, I pulled out some patterned paper from my stash and I got busy. I made two cards. Here is the first card. I stamped out my Paintbox Poppets holiday sentiment onto patterned paper to use as the focal point of the card. I wanted to go really clean and simple. I layered my papers, used dimensional double sided adhesive squares under the sentiment to raise it up off of the card. I added a tiny bit of bling and some Stickles for sparkle because, HELLO, it is a Christmas card!! lol



On the first card, I used the sketch as is but then I turned the sketch on the second card. I followed basically the same process for the second card. I used the same papers that I pulled out for the first card. I stamped out a different sentiment from the Paintbox Poppets holiday collection to use as my focal point and layered my papers. Again, I added some bling and some Stickles for sparkle. Clean and simple. Quick. Perfect!

Thanks for stopping by and looking today. I hope you are leaving here inspired to scrap and if you want more inspiration stop over on the Crafter's Companion USA Challenge blog. We are having a "friendship" challenge this month and you could be the winner of the $30 gift card to the Crafter's Companion USA online store!

See you later!

Birthday Week

This last week Crafter's Companion celebrated their 5th birthday.  I whipped up a little gift box with a triangle aperture to help celebrate!! My Mother-In-Law celebrated her birthday yesterday and I gave her this box filled with chocolates and a gift card. She loved it!!  With birthdays to celebrate this week it seemed only fitting to stick with the birthday theme right??



One of the greatest things you can do with the Ultimate Tool is make boxes of all different sizes with total ease. What I did was pull out two pieces of 12" x 12" paper and my Ultimate Tool. I folded the Ultimate Tool open to the box making board and started making the base of the box.



I butted up paper that I planned to use for the box base up to the box base side of the board. I then scored across all four sides of the 12" x 12" paper on the 5th line.



Next I turned the Ultimate Tool to the Box lid side of the board and did the same thing with the other piece of 12" x 12" paper.

I marked the triangle with pencil to help it be seen better.



To make the triangle aperture work on the back of the paper. (inside of box) I lined up the scored line on the side I wanted the triangle opening to be on and scored on line 6 lightly. I turned it and did the same thing to make the second leg of the triangle. Then I used my ruler to lightly score and connect the two score lines. 



Poke a hole inside the triangle you have scored and cut toward two of the corners. You can fold along the score line and this will make it easier to cut out.



After cutting out the triangle aperture, trim a piece of acetate to fit over the triangle. Then run a line of double sided tape along the edges of the triangle and press the acetate down on top.



Now it is time to turn these pieces of paper into a box and a lid. In each corner, you will need to cut along the score line until you reach the crossing score line and cut out a "V". Fold and burnish each score line. Flip the paper over and put adhesive on the tabs in the corners. Form into a box and press the adhesive to the sides firmly. TOP TIP: if you use wet glue you can hold the sides together using paper clips until the glue sets.



Repeat this same procedure for the top of the box being careful when working around the aperture. When complete these two should fit together perfectly. Now it is time to decorate!!



I think one of my absolute favorite stamps is from the most recent Humphrey collection. It is the absolutely precious Make A Wish set. That Lottie is really just so adorable on that set. I just had to use her for this project. So I stamped the image out and colored it with my Spectrum Noir markers. Then I fussy cut it out. I pulled out bling from my stash and glued it down around the triangle aperture and around the edges of the top of the box. I wanted a little extra sparkle.

I used double sided adhesive squares to pop my colored image up and adhered her to the top of my box. I stamped out my sentiment and matted it on green card stock. I adhered it to the inside of the lid in the aperture. Now it is ready to fill the box with some fun goodies!!



What do you think? Ready to pull out that Ultimate Tool??!! lol .

I'm getting ready to drive back home to Nevada.  Our vacation in Oklahoma has come to an end for me and my two older boys.  My hubby and the rest of the kids will follow next Saturday.  It has been a fun visit  but it is time to go home and get ready to go back to school.  And speaking of going back to school, I took the kids to get haircuts to get them ready for school. 

Mohawks!  Yikes!

Look at her new cute short hair!!

Here's a nice side view.

I don't have photos of the other two yet.  They are visiting grandparents.  Okay, just thought I would share.  Talk to you in a couple of days.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner



This has been a fun week over at the Crafter's Companion Blog.  We have really had a great time celebrating our 5th birthday.  We have had sale after sale in our online store.  And you still have one more day to get in on some of these awesome deals.  So you will want to go check them out!

But that's not why you are here today is it?!  lol  The Crafter's Companion Birthday Blog Hop ended yesterday and I said I would post the winner of my personal blog giveaway today didn't I?   Who wants to know who has won the Popcorn the Bear - Party Time stamp on my blog?!

The lucky winner is Piali:

Piali August 10, 2012 12:13 AM

Cute creation!!! Love the lil' drawers..very creative!

Congratulations Piali!!!  Please email me at scrapwithstacy@gmail.com with your full name, mailing address and prize won.

Please be sure to check on the Crafter's Companion Information Blog on Monday to see if you have won the Grand Prize .  Thanks to all who joined in on the hop!!  Have a great weekend!

Crafter's Companion Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to The Crafter’s Companion Birthday Blog Hop

I'm so happy you could join us and hop along today.  We are celebrating Crafter's Companion's birthday with this fun hop.  The blog hop starts today August 6th and ends at midnight pst on August 10th.  

There is going to be an awesome prize that you will definitely want to try to win so let's get started.

First you need to be a follower of my blog and of the Crafter's Companion informational blog.  You must be a US Resident, leave a comment on this post AND find the "secret" letter on each design team member's blog that spells out a "secret" phrase.

**My letter is "i".** 

When you have all the letters for the phrase, you will then email the phrase to Bindy at bindy@crafterscompanion.com.  When the hop is over Bindy will use Random Generator to pick the grand prize winner.  And what is that grand prize you ask?!!

How about a $100 gift card to the Crafter's Companion online store!!!  WOO HOO!!

Set of Drawers card with the drawers open and the companion envelobox.

Here is the card in the envelobox.

Here is the card with the drawers shut.

To interest you along the way, I made this Set of Drawers card and an envelobox to go with it.  I pulled out one of the gorgeous Humphrey Collection stamps - Party Time and colored little Humphrey with my gorgeous Spectrum Noir markers.  Clear, crisp, fantastic color every time!!  LOVE THEM!

This project is is on the Ultimate Crafter's Companion Advanced Construction Techniques DVD.  Sara takes you through making the card and envelobox step by step with simple, fun, easy to follow directions.  If you don't already have this DVD in your collection than you need to start saving up to buy it!!  LOL 

I have a giveaway on my personal blog too so be sure and follow me and leave a comment while you are here.  I will draw a random winner for my personal blog giveaway and post the winner's name on August 11th.  Here is what someone will win just for visiting me today...the Popcorn the Bear - Party Time stamp set!!

Here is a list of the DT you will need to visit on this hop:

Carolyn LaBille     http://mspetuniascrafts.blogspot.com/  

Cheryl Caldwell-Nyboer     http://www.capturingamomentintime.com/     

Chrissie Tobas  http://harvestmoonpapiere.blogspot.com/  

Dawn Bennett   http://dipndotscreations.blogspot.com/   

Dawn Lotharius   http://www.dawnscraft.com/  

Denise Coulter   http://lalasworldblog.blogspot.com/    

Janette Garcia http://lajanette.blogspot.com/   

Kathy Krech   http://kathysdouble-k-krafts.blogspot.com/   

Lisa Hunt   http://kycrafter.blogspot.com/   

Marge Dady   http://www.cacklincrafter.blogspot.com/  

Stacy H-W   http://scrapwithstacy.blogspot.com   (you are here)

Stephanie Lee   http://blog.artycarty.com   

Taylor Usry   http://taylorusry.blogspot.com  

Trena Brannon   http://trenastampinhq.blogspot.com/   

If you came here from Marge's blog then you are on the right track if not you might want to start at the beginning on Carolyn's blog.   Now you need to head to see Stephanie.  Good luck and have fun!!

Happy Mail!

Hi guys,

Still no wifi.  I'm sitting at Starbucks yet again with 4 of my  kids so this will probably be short.  I  was so excited yesterday when I got some happy mail from Pink Paislee!!  I had ordered their mystery box a while ago and it came yesterday!  I thought I would share a couple of photos of what I got.  The box was brimming with goodies!! 

LOOK at all of this!!! (and my little dog, Trixie too)

close up photo of half of the pile

Can you tell that is a full pack of mistable paper!!??

I can not wait to start playing with all of it!!  Did any of you order it??

It is hot here in Oklahoma.  We, like a good portion of the US, have been having extreme record breaking heat.  Kids and I have been trying to stay in the air conditioning during the hottest parts of the day or in the pool.  They all swam before we left the house.  We ate out at a Thai food restaurant and now we are online at Starbucks.  Then off to the grocery store to pick up a few things.

I need to do some scrapping tonight too.  I have two DT projects due tomorrow!!  Nothing like waiting till the last second right?!  LOL 





I did make a little card to share with you.  It is very clean and simple.  I actually messed it up and fixed it by adding the flower and leaf. 



Crafter's Companion is having a birthday blog hop this week.  Be sure and stop by and hop around because they are giving away a $100.00 gift card to the Crafter's Companion USA online store!!!  (US Residents only unfortunately) 

Okay enough for now.  Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and staying cool!!



Happy Wednesday

Hi guys,

Happy Wednesday!  Still sitting at Starbucks...sigh...  I'm waiting for my hubby to fly back home and fix the wifi.  He will be gone all this week so I guess I will be coming here many times.  My little Gigi is sitting watching Caillou and being good.  Fingers crossed she lasts a little bit longer.

Today starts the new Crafter's Companion USA Challenge Blog's "Friendship" challenge. You just have to use a Crafter's Companion Stamp and the theme "friendship".  I made this card as my example.



I used the Humphreys collection stamp set - Girl Talk.  I used the packaging as inspiration on what colors to color the image.  Sometimes that just makes things go so much quicker!! LOL   And with a 4 year old wanting my attention 24/7, quicker can be a lifesaver!! ha



I saw a card in a magazine that had a handwritten to do list on it that I wanted to scraplift so I wrote up this list for my card. 

Today is also the start of a sketch challenge over at Sketches4all.  I really love the sketch and I immediately got to work on it when I received it.  I used a photo from our recent camping trip to Arbuckle Lake.





What do you think?  I don't think it photographed well but I personally LOVE it!!  It is so pretty in person.  I made the banner from some stickers and patterned paper.  I was dying to use these little clothes pins.  I used my tiny attacher to staple on the bakers twine and then threaded it through the clothes pins



I made a little hidden journaling card.  And I had fun using several different alpha stickers to make my title. 

This  challenge will be going on until August 31st at midnight and you have to use a summery or vacation theme.  You should go check out all the fun examples from the DT and then join in yourself.  It's a fun sketch and you could win the Echo Park paper pad that is the prize for the winner.

Gigi is getting bored so I'm about to end this and talk to you more tomorrow.  How about I end with a couple of photos from our trip to the GW Exotic Animal park.

 

Jesse feeding the camel a cracker.

Gigi with an albino skunk..

Some hot and tired tigers.

Riley touching the Albino Python.

Olivia, Riley and Jesse holding the python.  Olivia was the lucky one who got to hold the head!!!

Quinn with a baby raccoon.

Until next time....happy scrapping!!!