Kick-Off: Little Yellow Bicycle Week

Here we go with a week-long holiday ode to one of the new winter collections called Winter Twig from Little Yellow Bicycle.

This collection has some of the most fun and cute embellishments I've ever seen. I absolutely love the blue, white, and brown color combination with a hint of green thrown in. This makes for a collection that can be used for many other occasions. You can see from my sneak peeks that I added a ton of new colors creating all new schemes. I love that about this type of line. It's so versatile. The patterned papers are all great pattern basics to hold on to in your supply. Here are just a few of my ultra favorite things...

LYB's patterned paper has a great weight and texture. My favorites are Winter Plaid/Mocha Java Sweater (even fun to say)...

...And Blue Forrest/Winter Pom Pom.

I've gotta have my journaling cards and spots to make cards, so of course I love these...

Oh, and Clear Cuts Shapes are way way fun. They're printed on clear acetate and they're glittered!

These Cardstock Stickers are cut into fun shapes and they even have real little buttons on some of them. Adorable! (I even love that the backing of the stickers is a clear piece of acetate. Recycle & reuse for later crafting, hmmm?)

I hope you enjoyed the kick-off and sneak peek pictures. I'd love to know what your favorite piece in the collection is and what color combo you can't wait to see. You never know when you might get a little goody... Stay tuned in for tomorrow's card.

See you there!

Project Life 2011

I put the Project Life button over on my side bar weeks ago, but I never got around to mentioning that I was going to participate in it this year. I did my own version while I was deployed in 2009 here on the blog, but then I discovered the PL scrapbook. It's (almost) perfect! The kit comes with everything you need to document the year or whatever you'd like really. All you need are photos, a journaling pen, and an ink pad if you'd like to use the enclosed date stamp. I wrote all of my dates, but that's because I forgot about the stamp.  I really wish it had come with a few extra title cards because I don't have one to spare after I made a couple mistakes.

This year has a lot of change going on with more deployments, Ethan's first year, my becoming a civilian in a few months, starting up school again, and all sorts of stuff. It's just a year that I want documented in detail again. I really love the kit Becki Higgins has put together. The only thing that really bothered me about the kit was that all the photo sleeves were made for landscape pictures. I told this to my LSS owner, Beverly, and she immediately pointed me to some of these We R Memory Keepers page protectors... Now it's perfect!!!

Becky Higgins has since added vertical layout sleeves, but I really like all the choices I have with these. I read some reviews complaining about the funky sizes, but I don't think those people really "get it". These are designed to simplify an entire scrapbook layout. Apparently, We R Memory Keepers has an entire line of easy scrapbooking products to use with these fab protectors. Just trim the papers or tear off a journaling card from the little book and slide it in with your pictures and your layout is done. Waaaay easy! I'll be sure to post a picture of the less than 5-minute layout I created with all the extra photos I took of Ethan on the 11th for his monthly pictures. It was the first "scrapbook page" I've made in probably over a year.

Anyway, since I didn't post them before here are a few of my favorite pictures that I've included in my project so far...

7Jan11: Lilly Belle 

10Jan11: Max

14Jan11: Winter Formal

 15Jan11: Secret Santa Party

 24Jan11: Snow Day

 25Jan11: Visit from Papa

 26Jan11: Four Remotes vs. One TV

 31Jan11: Dr's Office Nap

 1Feb11: Introducing... Sippy Cup

2Feb11: I Cooked Something!

Friend Always

I finally got to stop by my dear friend, Beverly's scrapbook store recently. She and her husband built it from scratch while I was deployed to Afghanistan this past year. It's about 40 minutes away from my house, so the trip there has been on delay especially since having the baby. I picked up tons of yummy stuff, and I'm already ready to go back. Anyway, Beverly and I met at a local scrapbook store years ago just down the street from my house, but it closed just recently along with a handful of other craft stores in the immediate area. (So sad!) Anyway, I'd like to share with you what I picked up and what I made with it. The first thing I picked up was a double sided sheet of My Mind's Eye card stock. It's just so cute with the floral on one side and polka dot on the other! Double sided card stock is the greatest invention ever. I ended up making four cards out of it right away, and I still have a good amount left over that I'll keep working with until I run out. I'm determined to use up what I have before I move on to the next thing. Oh, I also got the little die cut journaling piece too. I ended up cutting in in half though to make it go further. I stitched around the border too. That part took me way too long. I think I'll leave the other half as is on the next card. Whew! :-) Anyway, why don't you swing on over to Beverly's blog, leave her some bloggy lovin' and don't forget to tell her I sent you!

Day 36: Speed Limit

I took this picture in the parking lot over at the hospital when I went to get the second shot in the three part series of Gardasil. You can see the building in the "MILITARY HOSPITAL" sign on the building in the background. I normally give and recieve shots in the clinic that I work in, but we didn't have this one on stock. The military now offers it to all female Soldiers under the age of 25, so I'm just under the wire. I think it's amazing that we have a vaccination to prevent cancer. It's a pretty expensive vaccination (about $375 for the series), so I'm glad that I can get it for free. The benefits for this far exceed the risks, but after hearing all the side effects from any medication advertised on TV I can see why someone wouldn't ever want a pill or shot again. I mean I just heard one the other day that had a side effect of increased gambling. What? I just see some big casino owner in Vegas as the funder for the research and development of that medication. If you have any questions about it feel free to ask. I'm pretty well versed on immunizations since it's part of my job over here. I'm one of those nerds that reads all the package inserts and publications that come out on the CDC and FDA websites.

Twilight

I just finished reading this yesterday: I picked it up last Wednesday without knowing a thing about it. If I had known it was about vampires I never would have thought about it twice. I'm really glad I gave it a chance though, because I was literally inseparable from my book. I even slept with it. I panicked when I reached the end, so I stopped at Walmart on my way into work yesterday around 0500. I could only find the Spanish version of the second book of the four-part series. I was on my way back out to the parking lot when I saw it on one of the end caps. It's called New Moon. I snapped it up, and I'm already on page 136. I'm one of those people that can't stop in the middle of a chapter. Just as I'm reaching the end of a chapter though my curiosity bites me, so I keep going. I've found myself in bed by 1930 this past week not only because I'm tired, but because I'm excited to read some more. I even took the book to work and read snippets between giving immunizations and pregnancy tests to Soldiers. The only problem with reading quickly is I know I'll have read the entire series in less than a month, and then it'll all be over. I hate it the end! I always want more. I'm even more excited that the first book has become a movie! Check out the trailer HERE.

Elephant Card

I'm totally in love with the Animal Crackers collection from Making Memories. I love all this glittered stuff. Whatever kind of thing they did to make the glitter not fall off of the paper is genius. Ironically, Brad is the one who gave it to me for my birthday back in May. I'm just now getting around to it though. I'm always scared to use the stuff I love. I just want to have it forever! I love all the little die cut animals that came in the embellishment kit too. I think I want to do a series around these little animals. The little box came with tons of stuff, but I only have three sheets of cardstock. I need more!

Scarlet Lime

I'm home earlier than usual at least. I've even taken a shower already! It's amazing how the little things really start to make you feel good when you've missed them for a while. I haven't been able to unwind this early in quite some time. I still missed Oprah, but I think I can catch up on the highlights online. I haven't watched that show in so long that I think I really have gone past missing it to not caring anymore. I'm not sure when the last time was that I even picked up the remote. More often than not I'd rather spend time listening to music, playing with Lilly, catching up on house work, or finding any spare creativity I can to make something. The project below is created with my fun new Scarlet Lime kit. The name of the club is yummy all by itself. You can sign up for a three or six month membership. I signed up for the six month stint. You even get an extra special treat if you sign up for six months, (but don't ask me to spill the beans on that one because I don't even know what it is yet!) Christy is the creator of this site, and I must say she is alone the epitome of superb customer service. She's always SO sweet and SUPER quick to respond to any little thing I happen to email her about. I give it two thumbs up! I can't wait to play with the next kit. Anyhow, this is my first creation with the kit. I added a couple of things from my own stash, but I've got WAY more stuff to use from the kit, so I already have another project waiting for you for tomorrow's post. So...what do you think?

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics, Patterned Paper: Making Memories & the Paper Studio, Brad: Making Memories, Flower: Making Memories, Ribbon: American Crafts, Die cut: Cricut, Fabric & Lace: Unknown

Poppy Ink

OK, this post is purely a rant about Poppy Ink. They are supposed to have THE best kits available, but so far.... I am NOT HAPPY! First of all, it took FOREVER for my first kit to arrive. I was SO excited for it to come, but my paper was torn and wrinkled!!!! You do know that famous saying, don't you?! "Hell hath no fury like a scrapbooker whose paper is messed up!" That's a real saying! I'm totally serious. Anyhow, my rub-ons were partially rubbed off already, AND my buttons were missing! I figured this was a simple little mistake, so I called and emailed the company. They were on vacation! Grrr... Eventually I did get a reply email asking me to send PROOF of my damages! I have never heard of such a thing. I guess I could have understood a bit if I had gotten an apology and a polite request, but they were downright RUDE about it. At the time I didn't have a digital camera, so I had to scan in my damaged goods the best that I knew how. Again, I waited for a response. This time I was even more angry. Do you know what they said?! "(We) can refund you half the amount because of the damage(...) Also the rub-ons are a manufacturing issue and if you contact the manufacturer they will send you out a replacement." What!? I don't get reimbursed for the whole page? Wait! There's more! The rub-ons were not their fault so it was MY responsibility to contact the manufacturer! What crappy customer service. They also said they would send me buttons, but a week later... no buttons. Of course! I contacted them again, but alas that kit was no longer available, so I ended up having to just deal with it. Are you kidding me? Since then, none of my kits have been stellar and none of my kits have arrived even close to when I was told they would. I have spent a lot of money on these kits, but I haven't gotten the product I was promised. It seems like that company is always on vacation and always sluffing the blame of their product mistakes. I give Poppy Ink two big fat thumbs down and one kiss my butt! (Too bad I already paid for six months of subscriptions...)

Mommy Makes Roses

Okay, I've got my new paper rose kit from Cassie, and I can't wait to get started. She's such a sweetheart, so easy to work with, and a major talent. Her paper craft is one of the best I've ever seen. She even made it on the Martha Stewart Show!!! I can't wait to get started on my kit. As soon as I get one done I'll be sure to share it with you all. Check out her site, Mommy Makes Roses, to see her work. I bet you can't tell they're actually made from coffee filters! Who'd have guessed!?