Pixel Scrapper's February Blog Train

Pixel Scrapper organizes Blog Trains and invites all levels of designers to participate. I had never entertained the idea of designing, but the color palette this month inspired me to create. I have some artwork to share using my mini kit. Then you can find the link to download it and also the link to Pixel Scrapper's Forum. You can see a list of all the designers participating in this month's blog train. There are over 40! Enjoy!

A Hybrid Card using my Pixel Scrapper Be Mine Mini Kit. I've also used some products from Close To My Heart Fabulous You Stamp Set, Bronze Shimmer Trim, and Chocolate Ink.

A digital 12 x 12 layout using just my Pixel Scrapper Mini Kit.

Click here to download my kit from Dropbox.

Click here to go to Pixel Scrapper's forum with the list of all the designers that participated this month.

Oh Boy! Layout

Often times I attend crops as vendor for Close To My Heart with many products for sale. I'm going to change it up and have project kits available. I hope this will help crop attendees to be successful during these times in creating layouts.

Yesterday I attended a crop sponsored by some friends. I decide to use this time to prepare my layout kits and this is one of them "Oh Boy!" The pictures on the layout are of my now 16 year old nephew Zack when he met Ronald McDonald.

FSS Better Than Chocolate Card

Valentine's Day is four weeks away and I'm getting a jump on some cardmaking! This card features Fred She Said's Better Than Chocolate digi stamp. The sentiment is a retired Close To My Heart Stamp of the Month.

Week 2 Project Life Layout

Week 2 was a fun week, and I wanted to remember how I shopped for some new stamps, enjoyed watching TV and reading a couple of weeks. Most memorable is the Polar Vortex with 0 degree temperatures this past week and dining out to celebrate my brothers birthday. Sadly I wasn't very good at taking pictures. I need to "change" that. Since my word is change I should embrace being more of nuisance taking pictures, especially at birthdays!

The template and digital elements on this layout are from Just Jamie's January 2014 Storyteller collection. I subscribe to her newsletter and got the whole bundle at an amazing deal.

Hip Pic Album Present

I love this Hip Pic Album that my friend Jolene gifted me. It includes photos from our wonderful time in Disneyworld at Close To My Heart's 2013 Convention. 

Joyful Stars January Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Stars January Blog Hop. This hop is a circle, so it doesn't matter if you are coming from Joyce's blog or if you start here on my blog. Just continue around until you're back to the blog that you started on to make sure you see all the fabulous projects. 

Close To My Heart has a wonderful monthly special to celebrate National Papercrafting month. It's the Cloud Nine Card Kit. Included in every card kit from Close To My Heart is a brochure with cutting diagrams, card sketches, and step by step instructions for card assembly. What do you do with these brochures after you complete the kit? Well, if you are like me you save them and pull them out again to create cards with different papers, stamps and embellishments! 

After I made the Cloud Nine cards I used the cutting diagrams and card sketches to make these cards. I used Babycakes Paper, Babycakes Stickease , and Babycakes Assortment. Great cards for a baby shower, to welcome a new baby, or even for a baby/toddler birthday! 

Thanks for stopping by! Now it's time to hop to Nickie's blog for more inspiration. For a full list of bloggers on this hop look here.

Cloud Nine Cardmaking Kit

Happy National Papercrafting month! To celebrate Close To My Heart is offering the Cloud Nine Cardmaking kit. You can get the kit for $15 (retail value $46) with a qualifying purchase of $35 or more (excluding tax and shipping). Make 10 adorable cards (2 each of 5 designs) with funky messages to put any recipient on cloud nine!

The cards that I made with the kit are displayed on the Designed Décor Black Frame. I know cards are meant for giving but I think they make a cool decoration too!

Week 1 Project Life Layout

Week 1 was a short week, but I had fun scrapping New Years Eve photos and Snow Day photos! The template and  most of the digital elements on this layout are from Just Jamie's January 2014 Storyteller collection. I subscribe to her newsletter and got the whole bundle at an amazing deal.

Then I used some pieces from Harper Finch Designs' Snow Day collection. The colors worked well together and the snowman and word art from this kit were just too awesome not to use!

I'll be using Close To My Heart's Studio J to print these out for my 2014 Project Life album. If you are looking for a way to print your 12 x 12 layouts Studio J is an easy solution.

FSS Blue Jay Card

A any occasion card using Fred, She Said's Blue Jay. This design includes a blue jay for every season!

Change!

I just heard about Ali Edwards One Little Word. This idea intrigued me. You can see her post about it here. I thought about it yesterday and decided on my word for 2014. It is "change".

I'm reminded of the quote attributed to Albert Einstein "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." To find success in some areas of my life I know I need to change the way I'm doing things! Simple right? Yeah, not so much. Change is often times uncomfortable and stressful.

Then I think,"Without Change, There Would Be No Butterflies." I do love butterflies!

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose". I did take four years of French in high school! So the more things change the more things stay the same. I'm not going to change things just for the sake of change, but I'm going to be open to changing the way I do things, looking at the world around me, and seeing changes in me.

I decided to use Close To My Heart's Designed Décor Colonial White Frame to display my word. I'm imagining this as a display that will inspire and showcase the items related to my One Little Word.

The first thing I am doing is changing the way I'm looking at scrapbooking. Often times I don't feel like I have any reason to scrap since I'm single and don't have children. Who would I scrap? Well I'm changing that thought process! It's for me. It's my story. I enrolled in a Big Picture Class: Becky Higgin's Project Real Life. The cards attached to my frame are for the first week of class that begins on January 9. If you're interested in joining me the link is here. I'm eager to get started!