i love hydrangeas - part II

so the next challenge that i undertook was to choose your fav flower......

i love hydrangeas......i think they are beautiful...plus they remind me of when i was a little girl and we would make trips to visit my grandparents and family living in alabama......in the house in which we use to live, we had lots of hydrangea plants....i can remember picking them and bringing little bouquets of them to my mom and both of my grandmothers.....such a great memory..... so when i heard about this challange...... i knew instantly what i wanted to do.....

so ....i had this picture i had recently taken of my niece....and she was actually smelling some wildflowers in the picture...but i covered them up with hydrangea petals....that i got from some flowering bushes when i worked at old american like a gazillion years ago as a floral designer.....

sooooo i hd been saving them all these years and so i finally put them to good use.....and i think that i proudly displayed them in this layout......i wanted to make the flower petals show a transformation from petals, or blossoms...to butterflies......

i add a piece of cardboard as mat.....and finished it off with buttons, tulle, and a few other touches...now it is ready for submittal ......

mexican fiesta

i have been super busy lately......working on so many fun projects...and not slowing down anytime soon..... so i decided to make a birthday shadow box for a friend of mine......

every year she celebrates her birthday at her fav mexican restuarant - which just so happens to be my fav too - Tampicos!!! yum yum.... so in the spirit and tradition of her birthday- i used my creativity and turned an ordinary take out menu into a spicy background.....i added flowers made also from remnants of the menu, as well as napkin rings bearing the resturants name for the flower petals.....to put my special touch, i added a fleur de lis drink stir that she actually gave me to use to scrapbook-since she knows i love using extraordinary pieces in my layouts...and i found it most suiting to use it in the gift i was preparing for her....i added a few (yes just a few) gawdy touches....and voilia!!!! there you have it....i had fun creating this shadow box......check please????? :) ha ha ha

PiNk Is My FaVoRiTe CoLoR

okay........so i was browsing different blogs...and i came across the blog "these are a few of my favorite things"..... what a great idea....doing different layouts based upon your favorite things....

sooooooo i decided to play along and submit my layout.....

so here it is..my favorite color - PINK :)

i love pink.....and when i started to work on this project i was finding a hard time narrowing down all the pink things that i wanted to include.....lucky i have gawdy taste,right...cause i jammed as much as i could possible on this one...ha ha ha!!!

i had gathered all the things and i was ready to go.......but time not being a good friend of mine...i had to put off my project til the very last minute.....and i do mean last minute..... at 11:59pm on the deadline date - i made my submittal.........what a rush!!!! BUT- i was NOT completely satisfied with it - so after having a little more time...i jazzed it up to my taste....

i have already started to work in my next fav thing project.......hmmmmmm... :)

10 things 2 know about abigail

wow...i have been keeping sooo sooo sooo busy here lately.....i have been working on soooooooo many projects and still havent completed them all....but here is one finished one......its all about abigail....

she has got to be the most sweetest little girl in the whole wide world...such a very caring and thoughtful child...i always say that she is like a little mommy :) she has such wonderful and innocent honesty......

i choose to use a few of my signature gawdy techinques......hand made flowers and tulle...and ribbons...... and buttons (of course).....stick pins....and vintage touches too....a used belt with a fancy buckle that i picked up at a thrift store for 25 cents...yes-what a steal......and layer layer layer .....thank you amy for the making memories vintage collection thingies...they are sooooooooo my style.... and the great extra embellishments.....

i had a blast making this shadowbox to hang in her room....

she is a special little girl....and i think this adds the special touch to her room....

sports fan fe

well....i have alot of blog catching up to do......omg!!!!

the last few weeks have been so busy thats it is all a blurrrrr....

from setting up and organizing my moms's scrapbook studio.....to my 1o year old daughter's scrapbook slumber party.....to an awesome weekend getaway with my mom at amy's 365 faith crop......wow!!!!!! amazing !!!! and to redecorating my 7 year old son's bedroom into a new orleans saints paradise........i managed to have the time get in a little bit of scrapping here and there....

here is a layout that i did to place in a shadow box in my son's room....

he LOVES the saints!!!!! loves, loves, loves......the saints....so he wanted to transform his room into that of a n.o. saints theme!!!! and i have had such a blast decorating it.....BUT there is lots more to go.....so stay tuned for that......

back to my layout.....its centered around his love for football.....i absolutley LOVE this picture of him taken this past football season.....his first season playing....i used some of the invisible heidi swapp sheets and lots of old buttons (thank you amy;), tulle, milk caps (a new fav of mine:), pins, ribbons, and other odds and ends.....to add a special touch...the rusty looking button on the star is a button that he found for me one day when we were stopping my a shopping center.....and the little saints football came from a price tagged saints flag that is hanging in his room.....i had sooo much fun making this layout......(and i won first place at the faith crop event) :)

so enjoy ..... there are lots more goodies to come....

The Wizard of Oz

" .... we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz....." another passing month,another design team layout.

this was a fun layout to do!!!! i love using the heidi swapp invisibles!!!! i was skeptical at first - but i was quickly convinced otherwise.....what an awesome product!!!!!its like magic how the colors appear and blend well together when adding a heap of different shades to make it the perfect medium........well, i chose a variety of different paper lines including one of my favorite lines out there right now - websters' pages. they are vey me!!!!! I used this line to make the house and some of the flowers....i also used the lime rickey to compliment "the emerald city". the doodlebug line was used to made the bricks of the yellow brick road. and i wrapped it all together with the crate paper and fancy pants collection summer soiree...for additonal touches, i used the prima fleurs and embroidered tabs.i used a rub on from glitz design for the tree branch,and crepe paper ribbon by jenni bowlin. tim holtz hardware help bring the tin man's heart to life. and paper house provided the die cuts and stickers...i distressed the pages with the versamagic inks and added sparkling red stickles coloring to dorothy's ruby slippers. one of the challenges was to curl, fold ,ink and distress paper - which i did....and made them into roses, like the one next to the tin man.

the photos of dorothy are from halloween 2000 when abby was 1 1/2 years old....i LOVE the wizard of oz and i could hardly wait to dress her up like dorothy.... to add my special sentimental touch, i chose the "oz" button flowers taken from a dress abby wore when she was little, as well as the patchwork slippers.

.....i cant wait to start the next assignment!!!!

i heart my card catalogs :)

well......i already knew that i had a wonderful husband...but just when i thought he couldnt be any more wonderful than he already is....he goes and surprises me again........

well........where some women want big diamonds and pearls.....i wanted a library card catalog for as long as i can remember. i love organization - and i love small drawers.....so when my husband happened upon a steal of a deal- he decided he couldnt pass it up!!!! and you know how they say - ask and you shall receive - well i asked-and received i did indeed! ! ! having only hoped for 1 unit of the catalog drawers, was i surprised when he came home with - not 1....not 2....but 8 card catalogs !!!! 465 tiny drawers!!!!! ha ha ha!!!! i was soooooooooooooooooo happy!!!!! it brought tears to my eyes!!!! not to mention that he (and his good friend) had to travel 10 hours each way- to and from- tennessee to pick them up!!! they were being auctioned from middle tennessee university ...... he is sooooooooooo AWESOME!!!!!! i love you johnny!!!!! :)

well i knew that i didnt have the space for all of them, but i was a bit greedy and decided to keep 3 of the 8. i also gave one to my mom because she deserves it for being such a wonderful mom!!!! so that leaves me with 4.......that need a good home!!!! any interested buyers? ? ? ?ha ha ha.....they are designed for organization!!!! i have stuffed them full-----with the exception of a few empty drawers... :) but dont worry.....i ll have them ALL filled up soon....i have all my ribbons in my small 45 drawer unit....and the other 2 identical 60 drawer units (just like the remaining 4 cabinets), house everything from scissors, ink pads, stamps and flowers to some of the original library cards. i have even seen the drawers creatively used to hold bottles of wine.

i cant THANK my husband enough!!!!!!

i think i have finally completed my scrapbook studio :) ... i dont want anything else...until of course i come across the next best thing that i HAVE to HAVE...ha ha ha!!!!

soooooo......i present to you - the best and most cherished gift i have ever received!!!.....my diamond surprise ;)

more of my card catalogs :) thank you johnny!!!!

May Crowning Memories

wow.....it has been a crazy few months...i have hardly had any time at all to post anything on here.....BUT i have made myself a promise that i will try to make at least one post a week.....we will see how this goes...ha ha ha!

anyways, speaking of how quickly time does fly by - in the month of may 2004 , abigail 's pre-k class participated in the may pole ceremony and the crowning of mary. this picture captures her crowning mary. she was 4 years old at the time,and my mother in law had asked for copies pictures taken.......here it is 5 years later, and i have finally gotten around to scrapbooking it in the form of a collage for her for mother's day! better late than never,right? oh my......well hopefully i get more free time soon to scrap more memories.....

Three Little Girls

Wow...another month has flown by and its time again for the return of the next Design Team assignment...... i was selected to create my project by using the Sassafras Lass line. i combined lots of the "Life is Beautiful" collection, using the Anthem, Vintage Yummy, and Woodland Whimsy. i tried to make it look a bit like a page right out of a children's story book. The collection set the perfect tone for the layout. i selected an old photo of myself pictured with 2 of my cousins. i can remember all the good times we shared together growing up....lots of great memories brought back to life....i am hooked on buttons and stick pins.....maybe just a phase i am going through.....ha ha ha......i love clutter, so that was an easy task to accomplish - lots of cluster embellishments. i also used the scalloped edge paper and even added my very own "reverse" scallop using half of a circle punch (on the left side of the photograph)...i went out on a limb and even attempted to make a journalling entry....ha ha ha.....i chose to transform the "tickets" into the hair roller pin girls dresses complete with a beaded tu-tu....i added lots and lots of gawdiness in the flower designs and the use of the prima flowers and the buzz and bloom crackle painted cardstock.... i LOVE bees and i was happy to get to include them on this layout,amongst all the other frillies.......adding the finishing touch of the bird's beaded flying path.......my design was accented by the distress technique using the versamagic chalk ink in the colors of jumbo java and wheat....all thrown together on the bazzil dotted swiss cardstock...... this was my favorite project thus far.....i love the look of old childhood memories brought to life through storybook paper....