Comfort Zone - Design Experiment Challenge 19

Just a quick post for now. I'll come back tomorrow with all the gory details. This is another Design Experiment layout. Using items from my LSS kit. Supplies are Cosmo Cricket, Cricut George & Opposites Attack.

Journaling reads -

Only good things are allowed in my comfy chair. A good book, a couple of kids, snuggles, hugs, tickles, giggles, smoochies, a soothing cup of tea. When we bought new furniture this year, I insisted on an oversized chair and matching ottoman. I wanted room to cuddle with my whole family. This chair is perfect. It's not six months old yet, and already full of so many memories.

New month, new kit - plus a page

This month's kit really rocks for me. It's Hello Sunshine papers from Cosmo Cricket. They're one of my favorite vendors so I was pretty excited. I've been wanting to see this paper first hand and I was not disappointed. I even remembered to take a picture before I sliced into any of this yumminess -



In addition to the Cosmo papers, there are a couple of sheets of Black Market Paper Society paper. This stuff is seriously fabulous. If you haven't seen, or rather touched it first hand, it's a text weight texutred paper. It feels kind of like a stiff linen fabric. I love it! The distressed look black and white papers and really sweet. I cannot wait to cut into them! This month's kit is all about sewing, so there's a set of Bazzill In Stitches templates. Being an avid cross stitch girl, you'd think I would be all excited about these. I'm not. I've never stitched on my layouts. Heck, even my buttons are glued down! Those that appear to be "stitched" aren't. I just thread a bit of floss through them and tie it off. Presto. The kit is rounded out by MM epoxy letters. I'm not a fan of sticker letters of most sorts. I make an exception for AC Thickers, but that's about it. I think my biggest problem is that there are never enough of the right letter. These are the same. I've looked at three prospective titles and keep running out of vital letters. They're about to go right back into the package and straight into the donate pile. Rounding out the kit is some black bling, a few journal spots from an etsy shop (also not likely to get used), and Jenni Bowlin birds.

Now I've got a friend who is total bird nuts, with a focus on owls. She's obsessed, but I don't hold it against her. (Love you, Becks!) She liked them, but I am so not into birds. I keep staring blankly at these and wondering what the heck I'm supposed to do with them. They don't fit in with any of the pictures I printed out. I have a feeling they're destined for the same pile as the polka dot Making Memories expoy letters.

Not satistfied with that load of goodies, I shopped the store for things to round out my kit. I waffled over some jumbo green Bazzill blossoms, and ended up putting them back. They pushed me over budget. I figure I'll end up going back for them in a week or two when I'm ready to embellish. I added cardstock, more Black Market paper, the 8x8 matching Hello Sunshine pad and glitter thickers. A girl cannot have too many packs of glitter thickers! Well, this girl, anyway. :)



Last, but certainly not least, is another Design Experiment page. This is challenge 13, a word(s) or phrase you use all the time. With a 2 year old who doubles as an auto playback tape recorder right now, we've changed a few choice words. The new curse word of choice in our house is "Aw, Pickles!". Anyone a fan of Higglytown Heroes? :) Besides being a phrase she'd already picked up from watching Higglytown, it's silly enough to stick in my head. I have gotten some interesting looks saying it in public. The wording down the left is all Cricut work. I actually did three different versions before I found one that worked with the layout. Email me if you'd like the .cut file. The layout is from the June Page Maps. Papers are Making Memories, cardstock is Prism, lettering is Cricut Cuttin' Up, title is glitter Thickers.



Oh wait, one more thing. I have to show off my fabulous fashion sense. I got a new shoe that makes quite the statment -



Before you ask, it's broken. I stepped on a piece of PVC plumbing pipe Missy thinks is a toy, in the dark of night. I walked on it for a week and a half before I found someone who could correctly read an X-Ray. (Bleh!) I get to sport this fancy bit of business until August 20th. Hmm...I wonder how it would look with a few rubons? Altered foot brace anyone? :)

Inspire Me June Kit Results

(Gasp!) Two blog posts in two weeks? Will the madness ever end? Well, probably, but stick with me for the moment, okay? I'm really trying to keep this thing up. So major post today. Last month, in a fit of temporary insanity, I joined the kit club at my local scrappy spot. To be honest, the owner has been tempting me with their kits for several months. When she told me June was going to be Jenni Bowlin papers, I really wasn't any more tempted, but I actually had the funds and it was the Trendy line, which is all reds, whites & blues. I'm rather fond of that color combo so I figured what the heck.

After spending a month working with Jenni's papers, I'm still not overly fond of them. They're pretty, but they just don't reach out to me and scream 'Drop Everything & Crop!'. So I won't be going out and buying up all the lines I don't have. Still, I'm really pleased with what I turned out this month. I do wish I had taken the time to take a picture of the kit before I started scrapping, so I could show off what I had to work with. I chose to not use several big items, so they're tucked away into my stash for later inspiration. At any rate....Let's get to the layouts!

Favorites first. I've got two. The first one was really fun to put together. After my daughter started walking, and then running, we went through a phase where she was darn near impossible to catch well on camera. I've got a ton of really bad shots of her. I got teased for sending out images that were less than perfect, but I couldn't bring myself to delete them. After all, they were a part of who she was then! So an entire layout of less than perfect shots -



Roll back the calendar about 6 months and I pulled out pictures of my girl and my dad. These were from my Gran's memorial service, which is why he was dressed up. Either way, she didn't care much. She was far more interested in his tie. I actually had a series of wallet size pics ordered up from Wal-Mart to add to this layout, but their machine was down all stinkin' weekend, so I decided I didn't need them and moved on. You can't read the title well at all here. (I guess I could post the close up shots I took), but it says "If I told you I LOVE you, could I keep you FOREVER?"



And now for pictures in between the two. This layout is probably my least favorite. I feel like it needs something but I just don't know what. It's not a bad layout though, so unless it really starts to bug me, it's not gonna change.



One more from the kit. The one is a Design Experiment blog challenge. I do love that blog! The challenge was week 14, I believe. I did five self portraits and journaled about how I felt. These are pictures of me and the new little man in my life. I think it's pretty obvious that I was flat exhausted. I am not at my best at 3 am, but there's nothing like a camera flash to snap you into reality. :) My journaling is more querky than serious here. Anyone who can be serious at 3am needs to go back to bed! I'm still exhausted, but I figure that's not going to change for a good 18 years or so.



I'll wrap this post up here. I've got another Design X layout I finished and I remembered to take pictures of this month's kit before I cut into it, so I'll save those for later this week or maybe next. If you're lucky, maybe tomorrow, but c'mon folks, don't go holding your breath. It's not like I've got a good posting track record here!

Vicki's Crafty Secrets Card Challenge

For those of you who have looked at my blog and then keep coming back in the vain hope that I might actually have updated it in the last year...all I can say is well, I told you so! :)

Now that I'm not being distracted by being pregnant, perhaps I shall post more often. I wouldn't count on it, but keep checking just in case. In the mean time, for your viewing pleasure, I offer up four cards I made this weekend. Vicki Chrisman offered up a cool challenge by sending out 20 packets of Crafty Secrets bits and pieces. All we had to do was make up some cards or a project. Once I got started on the cards, I couldn't stop. I used up all my bits and quite a few of the embellishments she sent.

First, the cards as a group:



I wish I had thought to take a picture of the package before I started, but I didn't. My contributions to the whole thing was cardstock, a baby stamp from a CTMH stamp set and some of those lovely sugar coated doodlebug chipboard alphabets. A note about the alphas, use extra adhesive. The stuff that comes on them doesn't hold worth anything.

And now for a few close ups -



This one is just oh so slightly blury. I need to go back and see if I can get a better shot. I really like it though. It came out soft and lovely. I haven't done watercolor in a while so it was nice to reacquaint myself with a much loved technique.

And finally, for my favorite....

Check out Vicki's blog (http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/) to see the other fun projects and take a few minutes to check out Crafty Secrets (http://www.craftysecrets.com) while you're at it!