Oh Happy Day!

So I logged on to my computer this morning to discover that I took third in the Hero Arts Wrap-Around Card Challenge! I know I took third, but I feel like I too first- I've never won anything like this before! I'm a little excited... lol.

I love the scrapbooking community. People are so friendly and giving, it's unbelieveable. In fact, in the last two weeks, I've recieved not one but TWO packages in the mail from wonderful scrapbookers. The first one is from Paris and it's a Parisian Studio kit, and MAN is it loaded with wonderful things! I love the paper, chipboard... everything! Paris is so nice to give me one of her July kits. Thank you!


Also, Sabrina sent me some wonderful goodies for winning COCOA a while back. I can't wait to use everything! (And look at those mints in the bottom right corner... how cute are they?) Take a peak:


Also, I've finished two layouts in the last couple days. I wanted to get more done, but the creativity hasn't been flowing that easily lately. I have got to finish scrapping senior year before going off to college or I know I never will...

First, my COCOA layout with one of my favorite pictures ever. Me and my best friend, Jeb, get a little crazy together:


Supplies: pp- DCWV, cs- The Paper Studio (black and white), brads and overlay- unknown, embossing powder- Ranger, diamond glaze- JudiKins, chipboard letters- Basic Grey, border punch- Fiskars, black pen- ZIG, chipboard flourish- American Crafts

Second, here's my Outside-In Challenge using a guy color scheme for a girly layout. Okay, I think it's a little bit of a stretch, but still like how it turned out. I used a lot of my Parisian Studios kit. Everything in there is so awesome...


Supplies: cs- bazzill, pp- October Afternoon (I'm totally in love!!!), journaling spot- October Afternoon, foam letters- Thickers by American Crafts, ribbon- The Paper Studio, thread- DMC, buttons- American Crafts

Two more things:

I "met" my roommate this week. She seems really awesome the couple times we've talked. I'm getting really excited for college...

I've started this awesome applique for my comforter. It's going to be sweet!

I lied- third thing- I love Project Runway!

Love.

Brit

Life as I know it...

Life is a little insane right now. Insane in a really, really good way. I'm enjoying summer and get to spend time with some really awesome people this week, so I'm excited.

I was up late again last night, but this time, I was making cards. (Tonight is Stay Up Late and Make Two Layouts night...) The first one is Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #26 using the sketch shown on her blog. Here's my take:


Supplies: My Mind's Eye patterned paper, Bazzill Basics cardstock (limeade), The Paper Studio cardstock (white), unknown cardstock (teal), Offray ribbon, Imaginisce stamp, ZIG black pen, The Paper Studio corner rounder, Fiskars border punch ("Threading Water")

The second one is one of my favorite cards possibly ever using Hero Arts stamps and awrap-around card technique for the Hero Arts Challenge this week. Here's my cupcake-y card (isn't it happy?):


Supplies: Hero Arts stamps, Bazzill Basics cardstock, Crayola colored pencils, Tsukineko ink (black and silver), Sakura pen (white)

Another happy thought... I came across a mystery walmart bag yesterday when I was organizing some of my scrapping drawers and look what was in it? I was so thrilled at my new find, I squealed!


Also, I finished a collage of all the senior pictures from my work this year. I really like how it turned out! Now you can see it hanging in the foyer of our wonderful local Applebee's (haha.) I would absolutely love to show you all of the adorable pictures, but I really don't want to get into copyright infringement with the photographers.


Supplies: cs- Bazill Basics, pp- Fancy Pants, marker- ZIG, pearls- Mark Richards, letters- Thickers by American Crafts, border punch- Fiskars (love that Threading Water!)

Three more thoughts:

1. By the way, my best friend loooved the mini book of us. I even have a couple pictures of him opening it, but he would kill me for putting them up here. Hehe.

2. I bought Mini Albums in an Evening and it's a fabulous book. I haven't gotten too much time to sit around and read it, but I love everything so far. I recommend it. :)

3. The Next Food Network Star finale is on tonight... I love that show! I'm a sucker for creative reality shows like NFNS and Project Runway. How can you not love all the creative juice and drama?

Alright, now it's off to go make smoothies, watch some t.v., and scrapbook late into the night.

Peace out.

Brit

I love scrapbooking...

at 3 in the morning. Yup, that's what I was doing last night. I did finish one layout and complete another whole one, though. I'm so excited! Three projects to share with you today:

1. COCOA challenge for this week. This was the layout I finished last night... I really am enjoying the colors on this and I LOVE the pictures. I'm honestly thinking about getting that boat one blown up to a huge size to use as a poster. I wonder how every picture I took during the trip ended up with olive green in it? Weird.


Supplies: pp- Basic Grey, cs- DCWV (blue) and The Paper Studio (white and black), Embossing powder- Ranger, Ink- Tsukineko, owl- from here, marker- ZIG, ribbon, buttons, rubon, and letter stickers- unknown.

2. My three new things layout for the Outside In Challenge Group at the CKMB... This is seriously my favorite layout right now. My three new things were my threading water punch (<3),
Supplies: border punch- Fiskars, Embossing powder- Ranger, stamps- Scrappy Cat, cs- The Paper Studio (white), unknown (blue and yellow), foam dots- EK Success, butterfly- my own design.

3. The Atlanta Album... I really enjoyed doing this 8 by 8 album about my trip there in April. Here are some pictures:

(just click on the pictures for a closer look)

Supplies: pp- Crate Paper, cs- Bazzill (colors), The Paper Studio (white), chipboard- Heidi Swapp, Basic Grey, and The Paper Studio, letter stickers- American Crafts and The Paper Studio, pen- ZIG and American Crafts, ink- Tsukineko, embossing powder- Ranger, label stamp- 7 Gypsies, rub ons- American crafts, Narratives, Karen Foster Design, and Doodblebug Design, photo corners- 3M, brads- The Paper Studio, deco scissors- The Paper Studio, circle punch- EK Success... anything I missed? Just ask.

Oh, and one more thing. I made this the other day here. It's really simple- you just plug in the address of your blog, and it uses your most frequently used words in a word cloud. Pretty cool, eh?


I'm glad I finally got some stuff done around here! Now on to the next project...

Brit

Today.

-I finished this layout (finally) for a challenge on Kim Watson's blog. It was a long process and totally not my style, but I kind of like how it turned out. There's so much hand sewing on it!



Supplies: pp- Anna Griffin (big floral) and ki memories (little damask), cs- Archiver's (red), The Paper Studio (black and white), marker- American Crafts, thread- DMC, Stickers- Simple Scrapbooks, white pen- Sakura, ink- Stazon, glitter- unknown

-I went shopping. Here's the goods (notice two sets of dollar chipboard letters? I think there's a RAK on here in the near future)+(dollar alphabet magnets... I'm going to alter these for my magnetic boards that I'm bringing to college):


OMG Threading Water... can you believe it? I couldn't. I found it at Archiver's and can't wait to go play with it. 3 New Things layout, here I come!


And these stamps... how cute are they? Two blogs that I read, Kelly Purkey's and Taylor Vanbruggen's, feature lots of cupcakes. I'm totally inspired. :)


-I had sushi for dinner with Brian (the bf). Yum! I love it.


I'll add more tomorrow! HH started at the CKMB a half hour ago and I'm missing out!

Peace.
Brit

What's a girl to do

when it's hot outside, she doesn't have to work until 4pm each day, and all of her friends have real jobs to be at during the day? Listen for the hum of the UPS man's truck and scrapbook, of course. It's the life, I'll tell ya.

Two things that I am in love with that Mr. Beautiful 1 and Mr. Beautiful 2 (a.k.a. UPS man and Fedex man) brought me in the last week:
1. my camera.

I originally was going to buy the Panasonic DMC-TZ5 and still have rave reviews about the time I tried it, but I realized that a $275 camera was probably a bit excessive for me. So instead, I went back to the drawing board to look at more reviews. A couple days later, and I found the camera I needed to have in my life- the Canon A590. For only $153 at Amazon, it was perfect.

Here are some reasons why I love it:
-8 megapixels
-the price
-4 x optical zoom, 4 x digital zoom... so 16 x zoom (works really well, too)
-you can interchange the lenses, so there's room to grow with this camera
-uses SD memory
-the capability to shoot with fully manual settings

(Uh... please excuse the toilet?)
There are only few things I don't like, but the benefits outweigh the drawbacks
-the case is plastic, so it feels cheap even if it takes quality pictures
-it uses AA batteries. I'm used to a rechargeable battery, so this is more of an adjustment than anything. AA batteries could actually be convenient. If I'm ever at a loss for battery power in a time of need, I can always rest assured that outrageously priced AA batteries are for sale nearby. That's the way life works
-I have a ton of learning to do about this camera. I know that once I learn more about it, I'll be able to take better pictures. It's a little daunting to have to "learn a camera", though.

(picture of my cat, Blue, taken with my new camera. It's currently serving as my desktop. :-) )

Overall, I'm really pleased with my purchase. I highly recommend it as a good point-and-shoot camera for a great price. The reviews on the camera across the web were phenomenal, too.

2. my ATG!
It's amazing. I'm still working on the finesse to using it, but the learning process is coming along well. Here are some pictures of my baby:

(how it came wrapped... wow! It was lots of bubble wrap)


I also started altering it a bit. I really want to paint the handle, but that requires a lot of work and supplies that I don't have in the house... so stay tuned for updates on that little project. I'm sure you'll be the first to hear.

(altered with KI Memories expoy letter stickers, a Sakura white pen, and bazzill paper)

----
Last night, I had the honor of seeing The Dark Knight. Let me just say that action movies are not remotely my thing. Not at all. I didn't even want to go at first, because I get scarred incredibly easily. However, The Dark Knight was PHENOMENAL. Easily, it was one of the best movies I've ever seen. Heath Ledger played the Joker so well that I can't even explain how I feel about him as an actor. You need to see this movie if you get the chance.

(Picture from http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2008/apr/29look1.htm)

I'm actually working on three layouts right now- all of them challenges. I'm really excited about them, but you'll have to wait until next week when I actually have time to finish them. For now, here's a layout I did for COCOA this week:



Supplies: cs - Bazzill (blue), The Paper Studio (white and black), pp- Basic Grey (circles), My Mind's Eye (stripes), unknown (green dots), deco scissors- The Paper Studio, thread- DMC, black pen- American Crafts, letter stickers- Scrapworks, buttons- unknown

Also, my shopping trip the other day was very successful. So successful, in fact, that I get really excited every time I think about the items that I bought. (Some of which I'm giving to the PAW winner tomorrow.) Yum! Here's a picture:


My favorite by far is the giraffe stamp, though. Is that not the cutest giraffe ever? I need to use it on something, like, now.

By the way, look what my boyfriend brought to me Tuesday night before our date? You gotta love him.



Thanks for stopping by! Next: Atlanta Album, 3 challenge LOs. Check back in a couple days!

Love.
Brit

Concerts and New Things

Well, it's about time. Time for a massive update... enjoy all of the scrappy goodness! There's more coming soon, too.

Summerfest was phenomenal. I renewed my love for a few favorite bands (Red, Skillet), and fell for a couple of others (12 Stones, Coheed and Cambria). Nothing beats a live concert. I knew there was a reason I bought that Rockstar DCWV Stack. Some favorite pictures:
This was right after we arrived... we only got lost, like, three times on the way there. No biggie. Ha! These were our "I can't believe we made it" faces. Gosh, I love these guys.Zippo lighters. I don't smoke, but the pyro in me came out and I bought one. They're just so cool!The Skillet concert was awesome. Note the guy standing on the amp playing violin? Yeah, they're awesome.The second day was a little scary weather-wise. You better believe it poured buckets on us moments after this picture was taken.

There's been a lot going on around here with lots of college-prep talk and lots of work, but I've managed to get a couple (okay, a lot of) things done.

1. COCOA challenge for last week. My formal graduation layout :-)

Supplies: American Crafts Stickers, DCVW and Anna Griffin pp, unknown cs, 7 gypsies label stamp, Zig black pen and marker, Stickles, Heidi Swapp chipboard, KI Memories Lace cardstock, Tsukineko silver ink

2. My best friend's graduation present mini album. I love how simple and bright it turned out. I think he'll like it. :-)

Supplies: Cardstock- Archiver's (red), The Paper Studio (white and black), Vellum- The Paper Studio, Silver ink- Tsukineko, Patterned paper- DCWV, Black Marker- American Crafts, Star ghost shapes- Heidi Swapp, Letter stickers- Stickabilities, Chipboard letters- Basic Grey and Heidi Swapp, Letter Rubons- American Crafts and Autumn Leaves, White Pen- Sakura, File tab- Heidi Swapp, Ribbon- Offray, Fiber- EK Success, stickles, Diamond Glaze- Judikins, Acrylic- Hobby Lobby

3. Here's a card that I made. I really wanted to color in a stamped image with colored pencils, so I made this. Plus, it's my first submission to a Use Your Stash contest. (http://useyourstash.blogspot.com/2008/07/july-challenge.html) The challenge was to use stamps.

Supplies: Flower stamp- Inque Boutique, pp- Die Cuts with a View, Colored pencils- Crayola, Thread- DMC, Vellum- The Paper Studio, Cardstock- The Paper Studio, Other- buttons, ribbon (from Angie! See below...)

4. A few weeks ago, I won the COCOA weekly challenge, and Angie sent me this prize- I love absolutely everything! It totally made my day a couple days ago.


5. A layout about my recent orientation. I really like it, even if it is incredibly girly. Something about it must've appealed to my boyfriend, though, because he seemed to like it a lot more than the usual layout. Hehe.

Supplies: pp- Die Cuts with a View ( stars and flowers), Anna Griffin (pink damask), bling- The Paper Studio, cs- The Paper Studio, Letter stickers- Stickabilities

By the way, this finally showed up on my doorstep last Monday, and I am in loooooove with it. It's my baby.

Okay, so now I'm off to go shopping for some scrappy goodness for the Page-A-Week Contest at CK. I'm the host this Sunday, so I hope to see you there. All you have to do is post a layout to the thread that I make on Sunday with a layout you've completed this week. Then, you get entered in the drawing for whatever prizes I buy today. Sounds like a great deal to me! Today, I'm also going to stop by Target and pick up sheets for college ($10 for a twin extra-long set? That's awesome) and a dress for tonight. It's the six-month anniversay with the bf, and we're going out on nice date. I'm so excited! A layout is to come of that, I'm sure.

Thanks for stopping by... leave some love! I'll be back in a couple days to talk about my new camera (<3) and a few other projects.

Brit