Saturday, December 31, 2011

Some Sneak Peeks at the January Burlap and Buttercups Kit!

Are you ready to see something so yummy?  Yup, Rachel has done it again over at Burlap and Buttercups.  The January kit rocks!! Check this out!










Some sneaks at the add on kit:





Oh I can't wait to play with this amazing kit!  There are so many goodies in this kit!  Stop on over there to check it out!

Friday, December 30, 2011

A Very Jillibean Christmas

Hi and Happy Friday,

Just popping in today to say hi!  Today the 4 of us are going on an adventure to IKEA!  I am going to get another expedit bookcase and another alex storage unit!  I think my craft room will then be done!!!My goal for 2012 is to be better organized at all times!!  What is on your agenda for today?

This was a layout I did for the store month's ago.  I found the picture when I was cleaning this week.  I love the Jillibean paper collection.  So cute and so Fun!  It feels good to be done with 2010 completely! I hate being a year behind in my scrapping.  I am trying to get at least only 6 months behind.  When I was a year I was freaking out just a bit., but I always figure I have a  lifetime to scrap all my photos (fingers crossed-right?)

supplies
cardstock- bazzill
Everything else- Jillibean Soup

Have a great day! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Have a crafty day!!
-mp

Thursday, December 29, 2011

A Thursday Christmas layout

Happy Thursday,
I hope you are enjoying your Thursday.  Hubby is taking the day off to spend with us today and we are very excited!  I know you are going to think I am crazy but we are going to go to Chuck E Cheese with the kids for a bit to have to fun with the games.  The boys are sooooo excited when we told them.  We may even go bowling afterwards if we are feeling wild n crazy!

This is a layout that I did for the store.  I was able to finish up Christmas 2010 with this layout.  I was so excited.
These were taken at our O'Brien party.  My cousin played Santa!

Supplies
cardstock- bazzill
paper and stickers and die cuts- Bella Blvd.
brads- bazzill
blin- bo bunny

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.  I will be back tomorrow with a new project!

Have a  crafty day!
-mp

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

A Bella Blvd Christmas Card on Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!
I was cleaning and sorting out my scraproom the past couple of days and I came across a BUNCH of cards and layouts I made that I have not posted.  So I thought I would post a Christmas card I found-I guess I can used it for next year-right?


This line was one of my favorites.  I just simply layered the paper and then added a little bling.  I mean you have to bling up a Christmas card-right?

supplies
paper- bella blvd.
bling- bobunny

I hope everyone has a great day.  I am going to Cincinnati today and going to Archivers and then to my old local scrapstore because the owner if closing the store.  Everything is 50% off.  I am always sad when a lss closes!  I am then meeting hubby and we are going to have lunch together. So excited!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I will be back tomorrow!

Hope you have a crafty day!
-mp

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A Pocket layout on Monday

Happy Tuesday,
I hope everyone had a wonderful and merry Christmas.  I know I did and I enjoyed spending some time with my family.  I was a busy girl yesterday because I took down all my decorations and scrubed the house clean.  I am so glad the house is back to normal.  You would never know that Christmas was just 2 days away. 

What do you do with all of your kid's art work and school papers?  I keep them all and then go through them all and keep just a couple per year, but these papers were adding up and I needed to put them someplace.  So I came up with making a pocket layout to keep Michael's preschool papers.

For this layout/pocket keeper, I used Nikki Sivils School is Cool line.  I LOVE this line.  It is just too cute and just perfect for this project.  For the left side I made just a normal layout with pictures that I had taken of Michael in his classroom. For the right side I made pocket with the paper and sewed around the edges to really hold the pocket.


Here is a look at the inside of the right side.  It has a nice opening and can store many papers.  I then embellished the pocket with the adorable die cuts and then I scanned his art work and made photos of them and added those as well.
Here is a look at the pocket with some of his art work so far from this school year.  I asked him to pick out his favorites and he picked these out.  On the back of each project I put the date on them.

I really LOVED how this turned out.  I am going to make another one for Jack and his kidergarten papers. 

Supplies
Everything is Nikki Sivils
misc.- sewing machine, ek success border punch

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I will be back tomorrow with a new card for Wednesday.  I will see you then.

Have a crafty day!
-mp

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas

Hi Everyone,
Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful day with friends and family!  Hopefully Santa brought you some crafting goodies! 

 

Mary Pat


Friday, December 23, 2011

A December Whimsie Doodles Challenge

Happy Friday Everyone!

2 more days till Christmas!  Is everyone ready?  I am and I can't wait.  This Christmas we are having a relatively small Christmas with the emphasis on family being together.  I love it!

As you know I found Whimsie Doodles Digi Stamps last month and fell in love with their adorable digi stamps.  I knew I wanted to play along with this month's challenge.  The challenge was to use this sketch and create a card using one of their stamps.  Here is the sketch.

Here is my take.

For this card I used their adorable smowman.  I colored part of him uisng my pencils and a bit of gamsol.  I then printed him out again on some October Afternoon paper and cut out the pieces for his hat and scarf.  I then added some buttons.  For the kraft background I heat embossed the snowflakes. The card itself is made from October Afternoon.  The light blue snowflake paper was just perfect for this card!    I LOVE how it turned out!

Supplies
paper- october afternoon
cardstock-neenah solar white
stamps- whimsie doodles, hero arts
ink- tim holtz distress ink
pencils- prsimacolors
buttons- basic grey
tools and misc.- sewing maching, fiskars border punch, gamsol, michael's embossing powder

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope everyone has a wonderful and crafty day! 
-mp

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Thursday layout

Happy Thursday!
Is everyone getting excited for Christmas?  3 more days!  I can't wait! I think I am more excited than the kids right now!  Both boys are going to school today-Jack's Explorer class is going to go ice skating.  He is a bit nervous because he has never been and Michael is going to make Christmas cookies.  They are both so excited.  So with them busy I am going to do errands all day like-eyebrow wax, hair cut, grocery store and other fun things! Busy day ahead! 

I hope that in the afternoon the boys and I can go downstairs and I can get some crafting in. It is supposed to rain again all day today so I know they will want to go down. I have a new kit from the store that I need to get done.  Yikes I haven't even started it!

The December kit at Burlap and Buttercups is filled with wonderful yummy goodies!  Here is a 2 page layout I designed for the kits.  It features the Simple Stories paper and embellishments.  I also used the silver Thickers and Maya Road rub ons.  These pictures were taken at our local Christmas festival.  We always have so much fun!  I took so many pictures that I knew I wanted to include a bunch and this design did the trick.  Nice and easy and it looks good too!

Supplies
The December kit at Burlap and Buttercups

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I will be back tomorrow with a winter project.  See you all then!

Have a crafty day!
-mp

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Wednesday Card

Hello and Happy Wednesday!

Just poppin' in today to show you another card that I did for the Jennifer Mcguire Card Drive.  I forgot to put this one in last week's post.  Once again I was able to use up most of my scraps from last year's paper!

supplies
cardstock- neenah solar white
paper & chipboard- imaginisce
twine- the twinery
button- basic grey

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I will be back tomorrow with a new holiday 2 page layout.  See you then!

Have a crafty day!
-mp

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Pillow Box Tuesday

Happy Tuesday,
Are your ready for the holidays?  I totally am!!  This weekend I finished up my last minute wrapping.  I decided to make pillow boxes ( Thanks Jennifer) using my Silhouette for my goodie boxes ( I made little candies and treats for various people in our lives just as a little gift because they do so many nice things for us.), and then they also were the perfect size for my gift cards.  I am in a couple of secret santa gift exchanges and these were perfect!  I used my Ocotber Afternoon 8x8 paper pad and it worked great.  I then added a tag from Paper Trey Ink and I was done!  Here are a couple of the boxes.



supplies
paper-october afternoon
cardstock- neenah solar white
ink- hero arts, tim holtz distress ink
stamps- paper trey ink
die- paper trey ink
ribbon- who knows?
tools- silhouette, scallop punch, revolution

I will be back tomorrow with a new card.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  See you then!

Have a crafty day!
-mp

Monday, December 19, 2011

December Challenge at Burlap and Buttercups

Happy Monday!

Did you all have a great weekend?  I sure did.  I was really able to relax on Saturday.  I even took a nap! and then on Sunday we celebrated Christmas with my In Laws. 

I am up with my monthly sketch challenge with a twist over at Burlap and Buttercups  To see the sketch head on over!  Here is a look at my layout.
Supplies
Everything is from the December Kit from Burlap and Buttercups

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I will be back tomorrow with a new project.  See you then!

Have a wonderful and crafty day!
-mp
.

Friday, December 16, 2011

You are my Lil' Monster featuring Nikki Sivils

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!
Oh my am i excited that it is Friday!  I am totally exhausted!  Any plans this weekend?  On Saturday I am teaching a sketch class and then on Sunday we have Christmas with my In Laws.  Busy Busy!!  but tonight I am hanging out with the girls and scrapping!  I am so excited for my monthly crop!  I have a couple projects I want to get started on!  I can't wait.

How to Make a Monster!
My Michael was having a grumpy day a couple of weeks ago at his Halloween Party and I had snapped a couple of pictures of him while he was having a little fit.  I knew I wanted to scrap them and then I just knew what paper collection to use.  The Lil' Monster collection from Nikki Sivils.  Have you seen this collection?  It is just so darn cute and it was just PERFECT for my layout!

For my layout You are my Lil' Monster:
1.  I spritzed my background paper with some Mister Huey spray.  I used Plumb Thumb and Heirloom.
2.  Next I cut my paper into strips to layer.  These strips will be used as my background for my photo.  I cut them in different lengths and strips.  
3.  Next I cut out my title from one of the sheets of paper and made that my base.  
4.  If you haven't seen Nikki's paper before she always included the cutest embellishments to cut out.  I just had to add the little monster.  I also cut out the arrow and the yellow tag.
5.  Next I started to build the layout.  I wanted my photo on the left in order to highlight the wonderful monsters on the right of the page.  Aren't they the cutest?
6.  I layered my strips and then added the title and photo. 
7.  I added my monster to the left of the photo.
8.  To some of the monsters I added little googly eyes.
9.  To create the recipe, I used the die cut file card and added my instructions:
Take 1 two year old with no nap.  Add over stimulation and lots of sugar.  Mix all together and you will get a Lil' Monster! 
10.  Finally I added some small strips of paper and layered them at the top and once again cut out a little monster image from the cut out sheet.  I also added some of the stickers around the layout. 

Supplies
paper, embellishments, stickers- Nikki Sivils
misc- Mister huey spray, googly eyes

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I will see you back here on Monday with a new project!  I hope everyone has a wonderful and crafty weekend!
-mp
-mp

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Holiday Cards on Thursday

Happy Thursday!

Oh my! I don't know about you but this week is NOT moving fast enough for me.  I really need it to be Friday!  I need a break! hehehehe

Last week I mentioned that Jennifer Mcguire was doing a Christmas Card Drive for those people in nursing homes.  I loved this idea and I made a ton of cards!  Here is a look at a couple more that I made.  I used all my scraps and really cleaned out my stash.  I love it when that happens and everything went to a great cause. 
Little Yellow Bicycle
supplies
paper- who knows!
die cut and stamp- paper trey ink
ink- tim holtz distress ink, jenni bowlin
ribbon- a muse
supplies
cardstock- neenah solar white
stamps- hero arts
gems- who knows!
twine- the twinery

I hope everyone has a fantastic day.  I will be back tomorrow with a new layout. Thanks so much for stopping by!

I hope you have a crafty day!
-mp

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A Nikki Sivils Wednesday Card

Happy Wednesday,
This week is moving along for me!  Thanks Goodness!  The kids at school are getting very restless!  We all need a break.  I still have 5 more school days till break and BELIEVE me when I say I am counting the minutes!

When Nikki Sivils came out with the this new line Get Well Soon I was SO excited because there are so many times that I wanted a cute line to use to create something when they are sick.  Well this line is just what I ordered!  I love the paper with the little germs on it and all the little medicine bottles - just too cute.

So here is my card that I came up with. I cute out the medicine and tissue box and then layered 5 different pattern pieces.  I love to sew and stitched around all the edges.  I used the sentiment from the die cut sheet.  I just love the mix of colors with the yellow, purple, red, blue, and green. 

My mom has a little cold and I thought  I would send her this card to cheer her up!


Supplies
Everything is Nikki Sivils
tools-ek success border punch, sewing machine

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I will be back tomorrow with some holiday projects!  See you then!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

A Nikki Sivils Challenge on Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!
Only 12 more days till Christmas!! Are you ready?  I am almost ready.  Just a few more presents to wrap for hubby and my mom and then DONE!  I am getting so excited!  I just love Christmas.  I don't know about you but I love seeing the people I love unwrap their presents and see the joy and fun!  LOVE IT!

This past weekend I was able to get crafty and the first thing I wanted to do was enter the new Nikki Sivils monthly Challenge.  This month was AWESOME and it totally motivated me! 

The challenge:  Scrap those cell phone photos!!!!!

I don't know about you but I have a TON of cell phone photos and this challenge was calling my name.  I had this adorable photo of my Michael after a swim at the pool.  I have been wanting to scrap this for awhile now.  I knew immediately I was going to use the AMAZING  Summer Collection with a little bit of Beatrice thrown in!.  I love this collection and with all the beautiful colors.  Michael is wrapped in a pink towel so the paper was perfect. 

I created the background piece using my Silhouette.  I then stitched the two pieces together.  I then layered the paper. I also stitched each layer.  I just once I had the pieces all in place I misted the papers with some Studio Calico Mister Huey sprays.  I then added my photo and then the adorable embellishments.  For the little tag- I used a piece of the pattern papers and stamped the "you are perfect" using my jenni bowlin inks and ali edwards stamps.  I love that in Nikki's lines there are always THE cutest embellishments.  I cut out the rainbow from one of the pattern pieces and added some more clouds around it.  I have to say I am really happy with the way this came out. 

Supplies
paper and stickers- nikki sivils
dies-paper trey ink
stamps-ali edwards
ink-jenni bowlin
misc.- sewing machine, coluzzle

I hope you enjoyed today's project.  I will be back tomorrow with another project using Nikki's papers!  Thanks so much for stopping!

Have a crafty day!
-mp

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Stop and Scrap Winners ARE.......

Happy Monday,

Hope everyone had awonderful weekend.  I had a great one.  I got so many things done.  I was able to get crafty so that was really important.  I have all new things to show you this week and I am really excited!

Well last week the wonderful people over at Stopandscrap.com let me giveaway 4 gift certificates.  I have been shopping with Stop and Scrap for awhile and I has honored to be apart of their Christmas Giveaway.  As promised today is the day that I reveal the winners!

The first prize of a $25 gift certificate goes to:
True Random Number Generator23

#23 is Laurie
Here is a link to the card I made based on the sketch: http://cookscrapcraft.blogspot.com/2011/12/december-daily-9.html

Laurie made a wonderful card using my sketch.  Great Job!

Now the 3 $10 gift certificates go to:
1. True Random Number Generator22-- Cindy Vernon!
I "liked" your facebook page.
2.  True Random Number Generator--La Vikinga

3 and 4. I have made a card after your sketch and I also like you on FB. Think I have 4 chances now, right? Link to my card:

http://lavikingascrapp.blogspot.com/2011/12/just-for-you.html

Charlotta / La Vikinga


3.  True Random Number Generator10--Becky!
What a great sketch! I've never heard of them before, going to have to check them out!!

Ok everyone,
Please email me with your email address and I will send out out the Gift Certificate Code!!!!!


Thanks so much for entering everyone!

I will be back tomorrow with a new layout.  Thanks for stopping by!

Have a crafty day!
-mp

Friday, December 9, 2011

Friday- Doodlebug Card Class

Happy Friday!

I don't know about you but I am sooooo happy it is Friday.  This week has been long and hard for me!  Any plans this weekend?  All we have is Jack has a birthday party.  I HAVE to wrap presents so  I will need everyone out of the house.  Don't know how I am going to work this one but I will think of something. 

I have been so busy these last couple of weeks that I forgot to post about my Doodlebug Christmas Card class.  I made these cards for a card class that I did at Simply Scrapbooks.  It was a lot of fun.  I used the brand new line from Doodlebug.  I used their special cards, their die cuts, and pop ups plus I added some yummy twine from The Twinery!  I thought the cards came out so cute!



Supplies
Cards, paper, die cuts, pop ups- Doodlebug
twine- The Twinery
Bling-  Hero Arts

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and weekend!  I will be back on Monday with the winner of the Stopandscrap.com giveaway.  You can go HERE to enter. 

Thanks for stopping by!


Thursday, December 8, 2011

Thursday Holiday Tags

Happy Thursday!
Our rain has finally stopped and today we are supposed to have a cold but sunny day.  I am all for that!!  It has been so gloomy since Sunday.  I was starting to crave sunshine. 

Last week I made my gift tags for the boy's teacher gifts.  I used these adorabe digi images from Whimsie Doodles.  I cut them out with my circle punch and then mounted them on a scalloped piece of red cardstock.  I colored the images with my prismacolors and a bit of gamsol.  I then of course HAD to add a bit of yummy twine to tie them off.  I think they turned out adorable. 
Supplies
cardstock- bazzill, neenah solar white
stamps-whimsie doodles
ink-memento
pencils- prismacolors
twine- the twinery
misc- circle punch, scallop punch, gamsol

I hope everyone has a wonderful and crafty day.  I will be back tomorrow with another project.  Don't forget about the giveaway going on.  You could win a $25 or $10 gift certificate from Stopandscrap.com.  To read all the details please go HERE

Thanks for stopping by and I will see you all tomorrow!
-mp

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Wednesday Holiday Cards

Happy Wednesday!

Are you having a crafty week so far?  I have been working hard on my December Kit from Burlap and Buttercups.  Do you want to see the December kit.  Let me tell you it is AWESOME once again!

As usual tons and tons of goodies from LilyBee, Echo Park and Simple Stories.  Tons of embellishments and I love the glitter thickers!

Here is the add on kit:

I love the die cut from MME! Yummy!  I can't wait to show you what I have been up to!

A couple of weeks ago I was reading Jennifer Mcguire's blog and she was putting together a card collection.  I have done these card collections before and loved being a part of it.  In the past the cards have been for children, but this year the cards were going to local nursing homes.  I LOVED that idea.  It was 3 years ago that my father was in Hospice for Christmas and such wonderful people sent cards to him.  We decorated his room with the cards and various other things and it just ment a lot to my mom and I.  So I definitely had to be a part of this card drive. 

For the cards I used all my scraps from last year's Christmas paper.  These cards all used Little Yellow Bicycle's line.


This one is my favorite.
Supplies:
Everything is LYB.

I hope everyone has a great day. I will be back with my first set of Christmas tags.  Thanks so much for stopping by! See you tomorrow. 
-mp

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tuesday Banner

Happy Tuesday
It seems like forever since I have just done a regular post!  I have been very crafty these last couple of weeks.  Simply Scrapbooks had an Holiday Open House this past weekend and we were all asked to make something for display and then to create directions for it.  One of the things that I made was this adorable Imaginisce banner.  The banner uses the Santa's Little Helper line.  I normally don't do too much home decor but lately I have really been into it!  I had so much fun with this - plus it is just so darn cute.  The banner says Believe.

Here is the big picture and then I have pictures of each banner piece.








To create the banner I used a layered banner piece from the Silhouette store and cut out the base using Hot fudge Bazzzill and then created the top piece from the Imaginisce paper.  I then cut out the letters out from the paper using Silhouette.  Next I just decorated each piece with the embellishments from Imaginisce.  They have the cutest die cuts.  I also added some bling using my IRock and gemstones and hot rocks.  I tied them all togther with some yummy twine from the Twinery!

The banner was a hit at the open house!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Don't forget about the amazing giveaway - you could win gift certificates for $25 or $10 from stopandscrap.com .  All you need to do is go HERE!  I will be back tomorrow with several Christmas Cards that I made for a Card Drive that Jennifer Mcguire was heading up.  Thanks again and I will see you all tomorrow!
-mp

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Winner of the My Memories Suite Software Giveaway!

Happy Sunday Everyone!

I am just popping in to let you know the winner of the My Memories Suite digital software package.  I used random.org to help me pick a winner.  So the winner is:



True Random Number Generator14

#14--Iris!!! Iris said:
I'm already a follower. :)
I just tried digi scrapping for the first time on PSE9, and not sure I like it because it didn't take any less time than traditional scrappin. Would love to have a quicker way!


Iris please email me so that I can get your email address and I will send you your own special code from My memories. 

I think you are going to love the software! 

Thanks so much for everyone who entered.  The promo code is still available on my blog.  Receive $10 off the software package and receive a $10 gift card towards their online store.  This offer doesn not expire!

Be sure to stop back on Monday and I am having another AWESOME giveaway-- there are 4 awesome giveaways!!!
See you tomorrow!
-mp

Friday, December 2, 2011

My Memories Part Four

Happy Friday!
I don't know about you but I am so totally ready for the weekend!  Do you have plans for this weekend?  Saturday the family is heading to a Christmas festival.  The weather should be awesome- a cool 50 degrees.  Then on Sunday we are just staying in.  I love it!  I hope to get some crafting time in. I need to go into the store and pick up some kits.  All the mid releases are hitting the store now. 

My Memories is a wonderful digital scrapbooking program!  It is so easy to use.  Over the last couple of days I have shared with you my progression with the software.  Today's layout really shows all the fun things that are available in the shop.  The kit I used was a free kit in the shop in their designer paper collection.  To create this layout I used one of my sketches that I had recently made and created this layout in literally 10 minutes.  It was awesome! I also love that to add journaling you can choose any of you fonts that are loaded on to your computer.


The awesome people at My Memories have been nice enough to let me giveaway one entire software package to one lucky winner.  What an incredible prize.  All you have to do is leave a comment HERE.  I will announce the winner on Sunday December 4th.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  I will be back on Monday with a new project.  Thanks so much for stopping by! See you later!
-mp

Thursday, December 1, 2011

My Memories Part Three

Happy Thursday!

This week is flying by!  Have you had any craft time this week?  I have not.  I have been so tired this week and it has been so cold and rainy here that the kids and I get home from school and all we do is get a snack and curl up together on the couch and talk and watch Curious George.  (My kids LOVE Curious and last week PBS had all 3 movies on and I taped all of them!!!!)

My Memories Suite is a wonderful digital software program that is SO easy to use!  Within 45 minutes I made a layout and a sketch layout.  I then moved on to trying to make cards.  This is my first attempt at making a card and I love how it turned out.  I went into the My Memories store and found this FREE paper and embellishment kit.  It was perfect for fall.  I literally whipped this card up in 5 minutes--yes that is right 5 minutes!  I just love how it turned out.  After it was done I just printed it out on my computer and then attached it to a card base!   Don't those buttons look real?


My Memories was so awesome that they gave me one digital package to giveaway FREE to ONE lucky winner.  If you would like to be considered in the drawing you need to go HERE and leave a comment.  This contest is open to anyone world wide because all you have to do is download it on to your computer!

I will be back tomorrow with a new layout using the My Memories Suite.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  See you then!
-mp