How to decorate a cupcake

I made a quick layout last night for the Scrapbook Express blog challenge. I love those pictures of Ella from the cupcake class the girls took 2 years ago. I already made one layout for the family album, this layout will go in All About Ella album.

Supplies: patterned paper(K&Company, Crate Paper, Jenni Bowlin), border stickers (Sassafras Lass), letter stickers (Sassafras Lass), journaling sticker (Sassafras Lass), raindots (Cloud 9), border punch (Martha Stewart)

Tuesday Trio sketch 47

Another Tuesday and another Tuesday Trio sketch. I used the sketch the scrap the pictures from New Year Eve celebration in St. Louis. Four years ago we took a trip to St. Louis during the winter break. St. Louis is one of the cities that participate in First Night celebrations. We watched the parade, street performances, circus and children choir. From what I remember it was a chilly but very fun night. I hope we will do it again.

I used one of buttons that we bought as the main embellishment and the title. I didn't find any memorabilia (I am sure it is somewhere) so I googled the event and printed out the event description. I added few silver stickers and called it done!

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), border punches (Martha Stewart), vellum snowflake stickers (unknown), foil stickers (Magenta Style), silver pen (Sakura)

Stop by the blog to see what other DT member created and share you New Year card or layout. You have till January 8th, 4pm EST.

Merry Christmas!

Now it is already clear - I am not sending out Christmas cards this year. I decided not to stress about it any more and just accept it. Instead I am going to share the card I did for Tuesday Trio sketch 46. I had this cute Santa tag from Paper Source for years. I added glitter to Santa's coat and used a sparkly ribbon from my ribbon drawer.

Supplies: cardstock (unknown), patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), Santa tag (Paper Source), shipping tag (Office Depot), stamp (Lil'Davis), pom-poms (EK Success)

I am writing this post from Wilderness water park in Wisconsin Dells. I am enjoying some quite time in the room while everyone else are in the waterpark. Maybe tomorrow I will have some pictures to share.

Merry Christmas to all my friends!

Baby layouts

I made this layout for today's Scrap That Baby prompt. When Eli was only 8 weeks old I took him to Lila's ice skating competition. He slept peacefully during our 4 hours bus ride. Or was it 5?
The pictures are not the greatest, you can see the shadow of the lens hood. That what happens when I use a good camera without any idea how to take pictures. Nevertheless Eli looks adorable, sleeping in his warm and cozy car seat nest.

Supplies: cardstock (unknown), patterned paper (WRMK), journaling sticker (Jenni Bowlin), alpha stickers (Heidi Swapp), ink (Colorbox)

The next layout is for Tuesday Trio sketch #45. The little troublemaker was caught in Ella's bed playing with Ella's markers. He is lucky Ella was at school!

Supplies: patterned paper, stickers, letters (Sassafras Lass)

Quick anti-procrastinations week update:
1. Make dentist appointments for me and the girls - done
2. Car maintenance
3. Make an immunization appointment for Eli
4. Call my friends - half done
5. Eli's haircut - we have an appointment for tomorrow
6. Clean the refrigerator

Anti-procrastination week

For several years now I am getting emails from Fly-Lady in my inbox and immediately deleting them. Last night one of them caught my attention. It said:

I am Declaring Anti-Procrastination Week!

Dear Friends,

What have you been putting off? Now is the time to do what you can to get some of this stress off your plate.

I want you to make a list of 6 things that you have put off doing!

I could easily make a list of 106 things that I am avoiding bit 6 will be good enough. So, without a further delay here is my list:

1. Make dentist appointments for me and the girls

2. Car maintenance

3. Make an immunization appointment for Eli

4. Call my friends

5. Eli's haircut

6. Clean the refrigerator

Shouldn't be to difficult, right? Who is with me?

Winter had arrived

I can not deny it any more - winter is here. We are under snow blizzard weather advisory today. It looks ok so far, just light snow and wind. I hope it will stay that way, we have tons of activities planned for today.

I desperately need to clean my crafting table. The remains of several crafty projects, the prototypes of my Christmas cards are all over the desk. Earlier last week I made two cards using the papers from this adorable My Mind's Eye paper pack. Unfortunately it is sold out already. It was a great deal! I made the wreath using the instructions that I found here. Since than I modified the wreath to use smaller squares. I plan to post the how-to later this week.

I did this layout for sketch challenge at Scrapbook Express blog. I got to use some old products, that always makes me happy :)

Supplies: cardstock (Paper Source), patterned paper (Anna Griffin, GCD Studios), journaling card (Making Memories), chipboard letters (Basic Grey), dimensional stickers (Me and My big Ideas), border stickers (Jenni Bowlin), ink (Clearsnap), flower (unknown), lace (unknown)

Hope you are having a great Sunday! Stay warm!

Scrapbook Express November DT work

Another card and layout that I made for Scrapbook Express last month.

Supplies: cardstock (Recollections), patterned paper (Making Memories, WRMK), mist (Creative Imaginations), stickles (Ranger), letter stickers (Making Memories)

The layout is based on November PageMaps sketch. To be honest I am not a big fan of Graphic 45 but this paper was just perfect.

Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill Basics Dotted Swiss, American Crafts), patterned paper (Graphic 45), alpha dies (QuicKutz), border punch (Fiskars), acrylic paint

Kits and sketches

Yesterday we celebrated the last night of Hanukkah with last batch of sufganiyot. It was so early this year, we didn't so as much as I wanted. My 7th grader had homework to do and we missed the annual skating party. Oh well, next year Hanukkah is December 20-28th! Perfect time! The school will be out for the most of Hanukkah and we will hit as many parties as we can :)

Meanwhile we will be busy with December activities - Peter Pan play, ice skating practices and competition, gymnastic lessons and winter festivals. And scrapping of course :)

Few layouts from the last week. I made this one for Tuesday Trio sketch 44. The challenge for this sketch is "circles"

For my title I used the alpha dies that came with Santa's Workshop kit The was my Black Friday purchase - $29.99 for the minialbum dies kit including full alphabet and tons of small dies. Great price! I think it is still available! The label die that I used the make the date label is also from the same kit.

Supplies: scallop edge cardstock (Bazzill Basics), patterned paper (Scenic Route, MME), die0cut embellishments (MME), adhesive embellishments (KI Memories), dies and diecut machine (QuicKutz)

This layout is made for Scrapbook Express December Diva kit. It is on sale here and comes with detailed instructions to make this double layout. While you are there, check their awesome 12 Days of Christmas sale. Today's deal is This-to-That adhesive only for $2.99! But leave some for me, please! :)

Supplies: Scrapbook Express December diva kit

Tuesday Trio sketches 42 and 43

Tuesday Trio sketch 43 is up! The theme for this sketch was Hanukkah or holidays. I used some papers from Crafting Jewish Style Hanukkah kit to scrap this picture of Eli from last year. I felt like making the title and journaling in Hebrew and used Hebrew letter stickers. The title says "Warm and sweet sufganiya" - words from a famous Hanukkah song. To add a little glow I added distressed stickles to the stars and the circles. You have till December 11, 4pm CST to submit your take on the sketch.

Supplies: cardstock (Wausau Paper), patterned paper, stickers, die cut (Crafting Jewish Style), distressed stickles (Tim holtz), library card

I didn't have a chance to share the layout I did for Tuesday Trio sketch 42. The challenge for this sketch was "Black". I thought the sketch was perfect for this picture from last Halloween. I got to use my new Martha Stewart spider web punch - so cool! This challenge is also still open. You have till December 4th, 4pm CST.

Supplies: cardstock (Core'dinations), patterned paper (Scrapworks, My Mind's Eye), tag (My Mind's Eye), border punch (Martha Stewart), die and diecut machine (Quickutz), ribbon, jewels

Sketches2Scrapbook is doing 5 days of giveaways this week. Today is Day 3. Don't miss your chance to win!
And don't forget about Hanukkah giveaways on Crafting Jewish Style blog! Lots of great tips and ideas.

Today we will light the first Hanukkah candle!
Happy Hanukkah!

Scrapbook Express October DT work

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), title tag (MME), brads (MME), diecut number (EK Success), letter stickers (Making Memories), pen (Sakura), ink (Brilliance), ribbon (unknown)

Supplies: patterned paper and diecuts (My Mind's Eye), alpha (Quickutz), mist (Tattered Angels), raindots (Cloud 9)

Supplies: patterned paper, diecuts and brad(My Mind's Eye), letter stickers (Making Memories), ribbon (unknown), jewels (unknown)

Supplies: patterned paper and brads (My Mind's Eye), letter stickers (Basic Grey), glaze pen (Sakura ), circle punch (Fiskars), pumpkin dollies (unknown)

Supplies: cardstock (Bazzill Basics), patterned paper and sticker(WRMK), die and diecut machine (Quickutz), flowers (Petaloo), smooch ink (Hampton Arts)

So much to share!

I can't believe I didn't blog for so long! Last few weeks were so busy and I just didn't have enough energy to blog. I did manage to scrapbook so I have a lot of projects to show, but first, few things I wanted to share:

Sketches2Scrapbook app is now on sale in the iTunes Store!!

There are two versions: a FREE Lite Version with 12 sketches in it for everyone to demo the app, and a FULL version with another 104 sketches for the low price of $4.99 (US Dollars) - the FULL version also gets you the sketches from the free version (so a total of 116 sketches)
Link to Full Version: itunes/sketches2scrapbook

Link to Free Version: itunes/scketches2scrapbook/lite

I think one of the best features of this app is different search options. You can search by style, by number of photos, even by supplies! So cool! Visit Scrapbook2Sketches website to see more sneak peaks and videos. I am so excited to be part of this project. I made 2 layouts for the app.

Crafting Jewish Style 8 Hanukkah Nights and Giveaways

Hanukkah is getting close and Crafting Jewish Style design blog is helping to get you in the mood! 8 special Hanukkah posts started on November 24th and will continue till the first night of Hanukkah! There are 2 big giveaways - Crafting Jewish Style prize and Hanukkah Party Giveaway from The Frog Prince Paperie. How cute are those milk carton boxes??

Here is a quick card I made based on this sketch. I love the label stickers that come with the Hanukkah kit - so cute!

Supplies: cardstock (Recollections), patterned paper, tag and label sticker (Crafting Jewish Style), border punch (Fiskars), jewels (K&Company)

Tomorrow I am going to share my October DT work for Scrapbook Express. I am having a blast there!

Halloween 2005 and Hanukkah 2010

Wow, what a great party it was! Thank you so much Lizzie and Jo for organizing it! I am still going through the posts and enjoying them very much.

Now back to scrapbooking business. I want to share with you 2 layouts I did this weekend based on Twisted Sketches. Both are with pictures from October 2005. The first one is based on sketch 73. The twist for this sketch is "black"

Supplies: cardstock (Bazill), patterned paper (My Mind's Eye), flowers (Heidi Swapp), chipboard (Scenic Route), ink (Brilliance), mists (Tattered Angles, Creative Imaginations), flower and circle punches (Fiskars), pearls (K&Company), stamp (unknown)

The next layout is based on sketch 72. The twist here is "ribbon"

Supplies: cardstock (Core'dinations), patterned paper and tag(My Mind's Eye), felt (Queen&Co), wooden flourishes (Kaiser Craft), ink (Brilliance), letter stickers (Doodlebug), dimensional embellishments (KI Memories), bling (Heidi Swapp), circle and corner punches (Fiskars), ribbons (unknown)

And the last but not least - festive banner I made for Crafting Jewish Style blog. I used my own tutorial to make the paper rosettes. Here is the little sneak peak. You will need to stop by the Crafting Jewish Style blog to see the rest of the pictures.

Supplies: patterned paper (Crafting Jewish Style), border and circle punch (Fiskars), border punch (Martha Stewart), die cut machine and dies (QuicKutz), ribbon (unknown)

Celebrating Blog Friendships Blog Hop

One year ago I took a wonderful class with Shimelle called "Blogging for Scrapbookers" . It was one of the best classes I ever took, I learned a lot from Shimelle but I also learned a lot from my classmates. It was a group of smart, talented and inspiring ladies and I enjoyed reading their blogs and thinking what I want for my blog, where my little adventure in the blogging world is going. I added quite a few new blogs to my Google Reader and continued to follow my new online friends.

When I saw that Lizzie is organizing this blog hop to celebrate the blog friendships I immediately said - take me, please. I knew I wanted to be part of this. But as initial excitement calmed down I started to think - what exactly I am going to write about?? I almost sent another email to Lizzie saying - oops, sorry, I really don't have anything to say. But I didn't. Instead I decided that online friendships need to be celebrated. Sometimes our blog readers are the only people that hear our thoughts that we can't share with anyone else.

To celebrate the blog friendships I decided that every few weeks I will share with my blog readers about one blogger that I follow. I will call those posts "From my Google Reader". Some of them are my friends, some of them are my online friends, most of them don't know anything about me. I will start with my friend that I met first in Stacy Julian's "Library of Memories" class in 2007. She is a wonderful, kind and very caring person. Her name is Carrie and you will find her at her blog "Through the Camera Lens". Not always we can find time to meet (but we always enjoy it when we can), but always when her blog pops in my Google Reader I know - I am up for a treat. Sometimes it is one of her beautiful layouts, sometimes it's a new recipe (always accompanied with pictures that make you hungry), sometimes it's a story . There are always cupcakes, lots of cupcakes! And I can no forget about the photographs. I love her pictures and I know you will love them too.

That's it for the first installment of the "From my Google Reader" feature :) If you can find some time to explore Carrie's blog, leave her some love.

Your letter for the prize phrase is "E". From here you are going to visit Karen at Random Reflections.
If you are lost you can always go back to the the start of the blog hop here.

Challenges galore

If you read this blog for a while you probably noticed that I love scrapbooking challenges! I was happy to find out that in addition to the great challenges hosted by the Scrapbook Express DT in the forum, there are Scrapbook Express blog challenges hosted by the super talented blog team. There are 4 or 5 challenges each month, each entry gets you a chance to win $25 gift certificate to the store. Pretty awesome if you ask me. But there is a catch - in order for a gift certificate to be given, there must be at least 15 different entries for the month. Sadly, last month they didn't have 15 participants. I don't think it should ever happen again! I am going to do my part, what about you? :) I will just say it again - $25 to the store...

The first challenge of this month was color challenge - use pink, cream and one accent color. I added purple to my pink and cream and made this layout. The picture is from February 2002. I used bunch of old products here and it feels good. Hurry up, this challenge is due today November 3rd!

Supplie: cardstock (unknown), patterned paper (Melissa Frances, Anna Griffin, Making Memories), scallop border (Doddlebug), letter stickers (SEI), flower (CK), flourish sticker (K&Company), raindots (Cloud 9), ribbon (unknown), border punches (Fiskars, Martha Stewart), scallop circle punch (Fiskars)

I made this layout for one of the challenges last month. It is based on this sketch.

Supplies: patterned paper (American Crafts, Colorbok), rub-ons (Colorbok), journaling tag (Kaiser Craft), circle and scallop punches (Fiskars), buttons (Doddlebug), pens (Sakura)

Here is another challenge for you - November sketch at Crafting Jewish Style. I used Passover kit to make this layout about getting ready for Shavuot. More old photos - this time from 2001. I just love looking at the photos of my girls from their baby years. Am I getting too old?

Supplies: cardstock (Wausau paper), patterned paper (Crafting Jewish Style), ribbon (Crafting Jewish Style), dollies (Martha Stewart), chipboard letters (Basic Grey), epoxy flowers (Cloud 9)

Tuesday Trio sketch 41

It is time to share another Tuesday Trio sketch. The prompt for this sketch is "wings".
I made a card with 3 stamped butterflies. Jump over to the Tuesday Trio blog to see what other DT members did for this sketch. You will be surprised! You can also play along! The current challenge is open till November 13th, 4pm Central time. There is still time to submit for the previous challenge. It will be open till November 6th, 4pm Central time.

Supplies: patterned paper (Making Memories), stamps (Martha Stewart), ink (Brilliance), pearls (Zva Creative), letter stickers (Sassafras Lass)

Scrapbook That Baby - new prompt and look, we are in Scrapstreet magazine!

The newest prompt at Scrap That Baby is up and it is all about the baby gear! The DT made some awesome layouts about wipes, bumbo chairs, swings, strollers, car seats, toys and other useful stuff that we all have (or had at some point). The best part - this month we are featured in Scrapstreet ezine!! Head on over and check out Melissa's awesome article all about Scrap That Baby in their Blog Bay section.

For this prompt and for the article I made a layout about our dear pacifier. First I wanted to find pictures of all my kids with pacifier but didn't find anything that would fit, so I just used 3 pictures of Eli from different times.

Supplies: patterned paper (Creative Imaginations, Recollections), tag (Jenni Bowlin), letter stickers (Recollections), ribbon (Recollectiosn), chipboard (Recollections), pens (Sakura, ZIG), jewel (Recollections), stamp (Fiskars), tools (fiskars border punch and fingertip craft knife)

You can also play along! The winner of the challenge will get a fabulous October kit from Tidbitz in Time kit club. You have till November 13th to submit your project.

Project 12 - February, March, April

The girls at Scrapbook Express inspired me to finish my Project 12 layouts that we almost done and just waited for the journaling and final touches. So here they are:

February

Supplies: patterned paper (Heidi Grace, Creative Imaginations), ribbon (Heidi Grace), chipboard (Heidi Grace), calendar (Jenni Bowlin), stickles (Tim Holtz), border punches (Fiskars, Martha Stewart), snowflakes (Zva Creative)

March

Supplies: patterned paper (Martha Stewart, Creative Imaginations), ribbon (KI Memories), calendar (Jenni Bowlin), diecut flowers and stickers (K&Company), border punch (Fiskars), jewels (unknown)

April

Supplies: cardstock (Target), patterned paper (Making Memories, Basic Grey), calendar (Jenni Bowlin), butterfly and flowers stickers (Anna Griffin), buttons (Basic Grey), ribbons (unknown), other (Prima Marketing packaging)

Now I have 5 months finished out of 9. Not bad :)

Sketches2Scrapbook - new iPhone app for scrapbookers!

See the news and the sneakies here! I am so excited!

Crafting Jewish Style - new layout and giveaway

I finally found time to scrap the pictures from Rosh HaShanah 2009 that we hosted. I used Crafting Jewish Style Rosh HaShanah papers and stickers. Jump over to Crafting Jewish Style blog to see how I made the banner. And while you are there you can participate in the Hanukkah card kit giveaway. Hanukkah is coming so early this year - time to start working on those cards!

Supplies: patterned paper (Crafting Jewish Style), stickers (Crafting Jewish Style), border punch (Martha Stewart), circle punch (Fiskars), scallop punch (Fiskars), twine (Martha Stewart), brads (Cloud 9), wooden flourish (Kaiser Craft), metal clip (unknown)

Glamorous Witch and Mad Hatter (the girl version)

After long days of deciding, searching the internet and the stores we are all set for this Halloween. Ella wore her costume to the Birthday party last week and Lila had Halloween party at school this Friday.

Glamorous Witch

Mad Hatter
(the girl version as Lila says)

Project 12 - September

Quick post with my September layout for Project 12.

Supplies: cardtock (unknown), patterned paper (SEI, Martha Stewart), calendar tag (Jenni Bowlin), layerd flowers (K&Company), ribbon (KI Memories), pearls (Making Memories), punch (Martha Stewart)