July sneak peeks!

Just a couple sneak peeks of some Cocoa Daisy July goodness!
Have a wonderful weekend!

Some Thursday Morning Inspiration

Before I talk about the I Inspire Me layout this week I wanted to let you know some Cocoa Daisy info. Tricia found about 4 more of theJune Project kits so if you missed out the first time, here is your chance ;-)


I have been playing with my July Cocoa Daisy Kit (scroll down on Tricia's blog for some pics of the main kit and add-ons) and lucky me, this was my month to get some of the add-ons! I have five layouts done and hope to get another layout, some cards and the mini album (which is soooo cute) finished, with the amount of stuff that I have left I know I could do more - will have to see how fast I can create - LOL. I highly recommend the add-ons for this kit, they compliment the main kit so well and the Ali stamp set is very versatile, I have used it on two layouts that have nothing to do with travel. I will post some sneak peeks later today!

Now on to the I Inspire Me post for this week! All I can say is WOW! Did all these ladies do some awesome creations or what! I know I keep saying this but I am really having a blast finding inspiration and translating it to my layouts, in fact I challenged myself to use an inspiration piece for each layout I do for Cocoa Daisy this month! Promise to post the inspiration pieces for each one of those next week after the reveal.

This weeks layout was inspired by a T-shirt.
As soon as I saw this shirt I had to buy it- just for the inspiration LOL! I have been saving this photo for a couple years now - just waiting for the right idea to come along, and when I saw this shirt it was the first photo that popped into my head! The idea for the photo came from a HOF idea book a couple years ago. I had Greg dress in a long sleeve black shirt and draped his legs and the background with black fabric, then I placed Zach in his hands - I just adore this photo! I used three different sets of foam stamps to mimic the type on the t-shirt and used a maroon color instead of a bright pink - more fitting for a boy layout. I also used black letter stickers instead of more stamping, because I wanted the title to really stand out. I am thrilled with how it turned out, I seem to be going back to more linear/graphic layouts and using less "stuff" on my pages and I am feeling very comfortable while I create - I think I have found my groove! Don't get me wrong I love lots of stuff - but I get a thrill out of placing just one or two perfect little bits that finish off a page! Have a wonderful Thursday!

Some new Creative Cafe.

I did this layout for the new My Creative Cafe Blog and I was able to use a couple new goodies on it. The scalloped border (along with several other styles) comes in these great 12" sections. There are also some new ticket stub die cuts. I have some other new Creative Cafe product that I hope to play with soon, can't wait to share it with you! The new releases this summer are WONDERFUL :-)
Hope you all had a great weekend!

Father's Day/and some randomness

We had a wonderful Father's Day, just relaxed at home and enjoyed being together. Greg is such a wonderful Dad - he loves his boys with all his heart, and I hope they realize someday just how lucky they are to have him as their father.


I asked Greg what he wanted for his Father's Day dinner and he requested Salisbury Steak. As soon as he said Salisbury Steak visions of the high school hot lunch menu and the buffet at Ponderosa flashed through my mind, but hey it's his day, so I told him to find me a recipe and I would make it. This is the one he found, it was very easy to make -AND IT WAS DELICIOUS! We both just loved it! I will definitely be making it again.

When I took photos of the Father's Day cards I had made I realized that I had not posted the last couple sets of cards I made for Mother's Day and some birthdays, so here they are:




I started working on my next layout for the I Inspire Me challenge blog and dusted these off:

I have always loved foam stamps - I will not reveal just how many sets I own :-) I think I used them on almost every layout when they first came out, but there is always something new and as scrappers we tend to forget about a lot of what is in our stash. Well I had a blast playing with them, and I love how the layout turned out. If you have some old foam stamps, dust them off and use them on your next layout, I guarantee you will have fun!

I also wanted to mention that I am not doing a project kit for July - For July at Cocoa Daisy Ali Edwards has put together a fabulous kit, and add-ons. I will start back up with a project kit for August :)

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Time to share!

I am so excited to tell you all about a new challenge blog that I am a part of, it is called I Inspire Me and in all honesty it is just what I needed to get the mojo going again! Unlike other challenge blogs we are trying to help you translate what you are surrounded by everyday into inspiration that will help jump start your creativity and ultimately your scrapbook pages! The blog will be full of eye candy every other week - posts on Wednesday, and the ladies inspiring you - well let's just say I am thrilled to be on the blog with them. So head on over there take a look around and let us know what you think!

Here is what I did, the bottle of shampoo was my inspiration. The round logo with "daily care" got me to thinking about all those cool die cut patterned papers I have and the titles came from the bottle as well!

What a weekend!

We had so much fun with Tessa and Cheryl this weekend, I wish they could have stayed a whole month! Here are some of the highlights:

Shopping and lunch by the lake,


Enjoying the wonderful homemade wine that Tessa and Cheryl brought with them, while playing tunnel with the boys,


The gang,


Me and my sweetie,


We had heavy storms all weekend and ending up with a flooded backyard, which the boys decided was one big puddle!




Yet another storm that rolled in on Sunday,


They stayed a little longer on Monday so we could go shopping, and boy did we shop! Found some great summer tops and pretty brown skirt! We had a blast! Miss you both already!!

Happy Friday!

I am so excited about a few new things that I cannot share just yet - hope to soon!
To those of you that were able to get the June project kit (which sold out - thank you all so much!!) have fun creating!

I am busy cleaning the house getting ready for my husband's cousins to arrive, they are staying the weekend - Tessa and Cheryl are so much fun and they are more like sisters to Greg (and me) than cousins.

We are taking Tessa and Cheryl to a great antique store tomorrow, and a little town full of cute shops and galleries. I will post some pics of any treasures we find :-)

I have also been getting up early the last few mornings and organizing my scraproom, moving some things around, I am very happy with the changes! This always makes me feel creative and energized, now I just need the time to scrap! I will take some photos tomorrow of what I have changed. I do like getting up early and working in my scraproom as opposed to staying up late, I feel more creative in the morning not to mention less tired!

I am very excited to tell you about the new Creative Cafe blog! At least twice a week you will see some great new ideas on how to use the yummy Creative Cafe line. Make sure to check it out, I know you will be inspired!
This is a recent card I made using the Creative Cafe Spirit line (the journaling stamp is also from Creative Cafe).


That is about it, hope you all have a great weekend!

June Cocoa Daisy projects

This months kit was a bit of a challenge for me, I loved the designs on the papers, but I have a hard time with pastels. So what I did was try and pair them with touches of black and it worked out great! The 7 gypsies rub-ons looked nice and crisp against the subtle colors of the papers. I also used colored cardstock on the "grin" layout - something I rarely do, but it was fun to try and I am happy with the result. For the "be true" layout I knew I wanted to use a white background and punched squares of the various patterned paper but I got stuck on the design, so I used a little trick (shhh don't tell anyone) I went back through my layouts and found "faded red", one of my favorites and scraplifted myself! The next time you are stuck or a layout just doesn't seem to look right, take a minute to go through some of your old layouts and see what jumps out at you - sometimes the best inspiration for you is "you"!! If you have any questions just leave me a comment :-)