Welcome TaDa and Punky Friends!

Hello all! Welcome to my stop on the Dynamic Duo Blog Hop! So glad you've stopped by to get a bit more info on my layout using Punky Sprouts elements teamed up with TaDa.

 (And if you happened to stop by just because, I hope you'll check out the rest of the hop!)

For my project, I was able to use the TaDa Creative Studios line Big Top and add some Punky fun to it.

At first, I was a bit nervous about using this line in the traditional sense. It has such great, fun circus pictures on it, but all of my circus pics were a completely different color set. So I started looking closer at the B sides. The patterns and colors are just gorgeous and ended up matching so well with some of my summer/water pics from a couple of summers ago!

I thought I'd give you a few pointers on how I added my Punky embellishments to this LO. I used the Punky Petals as the banner. Here, I simply misted them with some Tattered Angels Mist in Key Lime Pie. If you haven't misted much, this is so simple on canvas. It can take a bit of time to dry, but you can also blot some of it and make some cool designs (see my album in the post below this one.) Then I lightly adhered them, mostly at the points, and ran it through my sewing machine.

I also played around with a little Punky Playground. See the stars? Those are punched out of the Playground! Now, it doesn't work with all punches, but the trick is to squish down the section you are working with. If it goes in and your hands can make it happen, you've got some cool cardboard embellies! I also misted these in Key Lime Pie, Patina, and my new favorite, Tiger Lily! Don't forget that you can distress the Playground too. I think you can see that on some of the other projects!

Now if it's a blog hop, it wouldn't be right not to have some goodies, dontcha think? And what's a blog hop without some chances to win free goodies? So here are the rules:

Rules for a chance to win FREE products

Each day go to the following 2 blogs:

TaDa

Punky Sprouts

Post comments to show your participation. New inspiration will be posted daily. At the end of the 12 day hop, please go to each manufacture’s blog and post a comment telling them your favorite album style and favorite paper collection used in the samples shown during the hop. Your name will then be entered in a drawing to win both! 3 winners will be picked!

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!

My First Punky Sprouts Album :)

Hello bloggy friends! Yes, I'm really sucking it up with the blog lately... (funny, didn't I say I would give it MORE attention??)Well, if nothing else, at least I've been a bit scrappy :) There's loads going on as spring has finally sprung around here-even if a lot of that happened to be the April showers, so I'll get straight to the scrappiness...

My latest scrappy endeavor is my very first Punky Sprouts album! For the month of April, the Punky gals got to team up with My Little Shoebox- is that a fabulous treat, or what?! I am still debating whether or not I can part with this album, so I haven't put pictures in it yet. I thought it might be a great album for one of the new moms I know, but right now, I'm just being a bit greedy!

Here it is featuring Home Sweet Home...

Got to get messy with some paint and lots of mist!

I used my VersaInk pad to stamp the mls acrylic stamp birdies on here, sprayed with mist, then gently blotted the canvas.

More misting with some Tim Holtz masks...

Painted the edges of the acrylic, then stamped the branch and bird with StazOn...

Another Tim Holtz Mask

I loved that I could still stay "clean and simple" even with messy things and mixed media like the acrylic and canvas :)

My very fave page of the whole book!

I so completely stressed this project, but now that it's done, I can't wait to get started on the next one! We are teaming with another great company, but that's not until June! I promise to blog before then, okay? :)

Thanks for sticking with me!
~Til next time <3

Final Sketchabilities Reveal...

It's quite sad for me to not be a part of the Sketchabilities team anymore... I would have LOVED to stay on for another term, but I just wasn't able to meet all the expectations while running Scraptivations at the same time. So, as they say, all good things must come to an end :( I'm also hoping though, that the saying, "when one door closes, another one opens" is also true... :)

Here's Karan's beautiful sketch (one of my favorites, and possible the fastest LO I've created in forever!

and here's my take...

Most materials are all from the March kit from personalscrapper.com featuring My Mind's Eye

I loved creating this one! I found an awesome flower tutorial on the Your Scrapbook Stash blog a couple of weeks ago, and finally got to put that to good use! (See the flowers on the ends!) I think they are some of my very favorite flowers to date!

As for the homefront, things will hopefully be a tad bit more relaxing this week... WE'RE ON SPRING BREAK! Yep, I'm 125% excited about it! No getting up at the crack of dawn... No hustle and bustle of making sure we get to the seemingly 25 different places we need to be, on time no less! Just hanging out, doing what we wanna do! Well... I guess there are those 17 different home improvement projects that just keep getting put off... *sigh* At least they'll be done at home, right? :)

In other scrappy news, I am not a new member of the latest Jillibean Soup Design Team... Those that I know who made it are truly UBER talented, as well as knowing a few that didn't make the team who are also just fabulous... There's always a next time, and with this company, I completely intend to make sure I get myself ready for it. It's always weird though, you know? Trying to figure out what the "right" things to say on a DT app are... For me, it's hard to put myself out there and just be me. So with that, this little blog here is one of the things I intend to work on. I need to practice being me. Sounds silly to some of you, I'm sure, but I'm hoping some of you know exactly what I mean...

I'm also working hard on my very first Punky Sprouts album! So excited to get it all put together and posted! Lynn is getting all the DT bios posted up too :) Head over there and see what the other girls have been up to. I love how each of our styles are so unique, yet they all have their own way of showcasing Shelly's fun albums! Pretty cool (typed in my best Miley Cyrus impersonation lol )

Thanks for hanging out with me!
~Til next time <3

Scraptivations Challenge 1

I finally have the very first design team challenge posted over at Scraptivations! All the little details in getting everything set up is just craziness! I knew it would take quite a bit of work, but seeing it all is kind of insane!

The first challenge is a sketch from Lisa.

and here is my take...

I've been holding onto that picture for awhile now. Lynn and I got to take a "Fabulous Flowers" class sponsored by CK, but little did we know that CK royalty would be teaching it! Megan Hoeppner and Lori Anderson were the teachers, and Kelly Purkey stopped by at the end. We made sure to get a quick pic with the three of them! So exciting! *I'm such a scrap dork*

Be sure to head over to Scraptivations to get the rest of the details to qualify for the prize and see what the rest of the DT did with the sketch!

~Til next time <3

Finally, A Little Creative Time...

It seems like it's been ages, though I know it hasn't really been quite that long :) I was able to go on a getaway this weekend to a wonderful scrapping retreat sponsored by our one little LSS. The retreat was wonderful- had awesome food prepared for me (no dishes to wash either!), wonderful company (got to know the gals from said LSS a bit better), and got several scrappy projects done. A girl can't ask for too much more!

Seems like I've got a few irons in the fire about now. The Scraptivations DT is up and working on the first DT challenge, so I got that taken care of. I got at least 2 of the 52 Week challenges done from PersonalScrapper (I need to check my list for a 3rd and possible 4th). But most importantly, I went wild with all my Jillibean Soup stuff to give myself some more to choose from to submit to the JBS design team call... Oh, wow... That's all I can say if Jill were to pick me. I just LOVE Jillibean... *sigh* I will officially take all well-wishes, prayers, and finger crossings at this time! Deadline is Tuesday, but I'm putting the finishing touches on a project to send it tomorrow.

Here's my latest...

From the March PersonalScrapper kit 

My MInd's Eye Stella Rose

Jillibean Soup Monster Stew

October Afternoon Weathervane and Campfire

The inside of this card says "is picture perfect!"

Jillibean Soup Pasta Fagioli

Jillibean Soup Chicken Noodle Soup

These didn't come out of the retreat, but I realized I hadn't posted them...

Bella Blvd. Lovey Dovey

And this is one of the layouts published in SNR

Jillibean Soup Atomic Soup and Alphabet Soup

If you take a look through my gallery in the sidebar, I'd love to get some feedback about which JBS stuff you like the best! Off to finish some flowers!

~Til next time <3

Tme Flies Fast...

and I guess I'm having fun! Today was a pretty fantabulous day at work, I have to say! Just some stuff that has been going on has sort of been dealt with. It's crazy, but this has totally felt like a ton of bricks has been lifted off of me... *major sigh*  Now I just hope and pray the rest of the pieces fall together well, and that we don't end up with a bigger problem than we started with.

I've been working on tons of scrappy fun lately, but I've only been able to take pics of a few things. So I'm just gonna share my Sketchabilities layout with you tonight. We've had a dreary last several days (including a major dumping on of snow - blech!) and it's just been so dark to take pics.

Karan's sketch #42

and my take

Funny, because this seems quite a bit busier than I normally do, and I struggled with it (the perfectionist in me just can't let go sometimes!). But I think it's fun! We were able to spend an entire day at the San Diego Zoo this past summer and had such an amazing time. It's really hard to believe that there were things we weren't able to see :( Hopefully we can make it back in a few years. We all loved it, and the entire trip was well worth it! 

Needing to head out and to bed!

~Til next time <3

SKetchabilities #41

Thanks everyone for the love you've left here and on FB for my exciting announcement! I think I'm a bit in denial right now (yeah, still!) Such an amazing opportunity! I can't wait to get started on my first Punky Album! Since I'm off work today, I keep meaning to get in my craft room, and when I think of stuff I want to work with, all I keep thinking is, "That would be so cool in a mini-album!" So I guess some layouts and cards will have to do for now... :) Erica is having another crop at PersonalScrapper-extended for slow scrappers like me even- so I need to get some stuff done for that too. I think I will plunk tomorrow away near completely for ME. What a concept, huh?

It was sunny out today, and I tried to get a few shots of the kids. They will work, but  I was really hoping we'd make it outside, but it just never happened. Maybe when Miss A wakes up from her nap I can grab a few shots. Totally needing some great pics to get my mojo jump started I think. Speaking of pics, I'm on the lookout for a great photog/Photoshop class to take-either or both really. If the sun and moon align just right, I can get some really great shots, but I'm wanting needing to learn to do some stuff on my own. Leave me a little line here if you've got some ideas for me, k?

I haven't had a chance to post my take on Karan's latest sketch, so here it is...

I loved this one (always do!) I wasn't able to get a bigger pic, so I opted for smaller one to fill it in.

This gorgeous Bo Bunny paper is courtesy of my Personal Scrapper Secret Sister Erica! We actually ended up having each other- too funny! She completely spoiled me seeing as how she's got access to all my favorite scrappy things! I did, however, have to hide a few of my peanut M&Ms since that was the first thing my little darlings noticed! Can't wait to play with some more! I was MORE than happy to find her some goodies as sort of a thank you for all she does for us each month. She really is an amazing business owner and person! Love ya Erica!
Need to go get the little one up from her nap so she doesn't stay up all night. We're headed out with some friends to go bowling with a bunch of our kiddos, so we're pretty stoked for that :)

~Til next time <3

Can't Even Believe It!

I received the most wonderful email tonight from one Shelly Mitchell of Punky Sprouts asking me to join her design team! I am beyond excited! My first real, official manufacturer design team! My little heart can barely stand it! :)

just needed to share that little bit!

A Little Tootin'

So excited! I got an email from Scrapbook News and Review requesting not one, not two, not three, but FOUR of my layouts! In fact, I think they took all of the ones I submitted! This is my very first pub with them, and I am so incredibly stoked! Just kind of a good feeling inside... I was a little bummed after the whole Cosmo Cricket deal, so this just made a little happy spot in my heart! I need to go pull the layouts down and send in my official reply, but I'm still SO doing the happy dance around here! So, when the next issue comes out on Valentine's Day, I can say this...

Thanks for letting me share! <3

A Little Call Out!

Hey all! It's busy, busy, busy around here as usual, but I just wanted to send a little shout out to let you know that I've posted a DT call over at Scraptivations! I know I have an incredibly talented group of followers out there, so if you're interested, head over and take a look! I'd love to have some of you help me out!

<3