Anniversary

Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our 10th anniversary.

Several years ago, when I first got into cardmaking, we had this conversation:

Him: I need to run out tonight and buy a card for you.
Me: Ummm, we no longer buy cards in this house. We make them.

He was a very good sport and up for the challenge. I handed him my basics and some scraps, and he went to work.

He always labels the back with a crazy "collection" title, like "From the Love You Forever collection."

This is the card that I made him for this year....


and this is the card that he made me...


When I gave him mine, he looked at it, jokingly rolled his eyes, and said, "Now, how am I supposed to compete when you go and pull out a picture to put on yours?"

A little later, he said that he wished he could have made the "10" stand out more on the card, so I told him how he could have done that.

An artist in the making. Laugh.

Another tour of duty

I am honored and excited to announce that I will be returning for another term as DT member at SMC Layouts.

We are kicking things off with a blog hop May 1-5. Meet n greet the new DT members...
check out their creations using their favorite products in recognition of National Scrapbooking Day... join in on a FUN challenge... meet some new friends... see our sponsor gift from Kristen Powers Ink!

Celebrate with us!

Scraptivity SPRING challenge

We had to use specific items on our current layout over at Scraptivity. I used the following...

S: stamping (the flowers on the cream paper in the center)
P: pink (on the patterned border paper)
R: rub-ons (two on the bottom border)
I: ink (the edges of the center and bottom papers)
N: nine of something (chipboard houses)
G: glitter (on the heart border on the right-hand side)



What a great way to use supplies!

We won...

the family centerpiece project, mentioned below, along with two other families. Good times. LOVE to share this honor with the kids!

My Scrapbooking Supplies inspiration challenge

My challenge for the month at MSS was to create a layout based on this magazine picture...



This was my creation, about babies' random smiles being directed at angels that they can see but we can't.



We would love to see what you are inspired to make based on that pic! Submit your own, and see the other DT creations here.

MSS Copic giveaway

My Scrapbooking Supplies is giving away a set of Copic markers and pens. Want to enter? Simply comment on the main blog site by noon CST tomorrow! Good luck!

Family centerpiece project

My 7 year-old's school is wrapping up a contest where families complete together a centerpiece to be judged and displayed on the night of the school's art show. This is our entry... cardboard; paper from Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants, and October Afternoon; and lots of K & Company tags and flowers. I just hope it all stays in place!

Paper flowers

I punched up my scraps to make these flowers for the current challenge at Scraptivity.



Can't believe this little one is 6 months old today!

Sew Many Layouts: National Poetry Month

Bumping up to remind you of the challenge due this week...


If you know me, you know I am a Hokie... I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1998. I found myself there... who I was, who I wanted to become. I still miss Blacksburg, over a decade later. Whenever I return, I feel as though I've gone home.

The shooting of 32 people on April 16, 2007 on campus devastated me. Though I wasn't there and didn't personally know any of the people killed, I felt as though I had lost part of my family.

Poet Nikki Giovanni is a professor at VT. She gave an amazing speech at the end of the memorial service the day after the shootings. That is what I chose to include on my layout (underneath it is my own journaling about the day).



Here is the text of the speech...
"We are Virginia Tech. We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again. We are Virginia Tech. We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant in the killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy. We are Virginia Tech. The Hokie Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies. We will prevail, we will prevail. We are Virginia Tech."

The title frames and green/blue photo frames are from Sarah's Supplies.

You can view the rest of the DT layouts and the sketch that we used HERE.

This is your chance to enter the Sarah's Supplies/SMC Layouts contest! Entries are due by April 16. Click on the below banner for more details.

Want to join Sew Many Layouts?

Sew Many Cards Layouts is having a design team call. If you would love to play with cute new digital stamps and are committed to playing along withn the challenges, you can check out the details here.

Ms. Brightside Award

I got this award a few days ago from Ana, one of my fellow DTers at My Scrapbooking Supplies. I loved reading more about her, and her work is amazing!! Thanks Ana for this honor.

Now I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy, 5 pieces of trivia about myself, and pass this award on to 5 fellow bloggers. So, here goes...

10 things that make me happy:

1. My family
2. Starbucks
3. The health of my family
4. New scrapbooking supplies
5. Finishing a project
6. Hockey and football
7. Traveling
8. Helping others
9. Music
10. A good book (not that I have time to read one :) )

5 Pieces of Trivia about myself:

1. I used to play the clarinet
2. I currently live in the town I grew up in, which I swore would never happen
3. I love holidays but not decorating for them
4. My eyes are a kind of strange blue-green-yellow color
5. I sometimes wish I homeschooled so that I could have the kids with me all day

Now to pass this on to 5 blogging friends that I would like to share this with. Go visit them :)

1. Jenn at Jax Bean Stalks
2. Wirda at The Nostalgic Scrapper
3. Sarabeth at Scrap Happie
4. Gwen at Gwen's Busy Little Hands
5. Sandi at Living Life One Blessing at a Time

Wings challenge

Challenge #3 for Scraptivity's Spring Fling was to create something about WINGS. I made this ATC, titled "fly"...