Lasting Memories weekly layout challenge

Happy Sunday, everyone!  It's time for a new layout challenge at Lasting Memories Layout Challenges!  For this week's challenge, you need to follow this sketch:

Here's my take:

These pictures were taken shortly after my husband received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal at Camp Pendleton, California, in 2007.  I was so proud and honored to be able to attend the ceremony!  The medal and award ribbons on the layout are the actual awards my husband received that day; the paper is K & Company, and the stickers are from Creative Imaginations Signature Collection.

I hope you'll decide to join us this week!  You have until Saturday, 5 March, at 9 p.m. EST to submit your layout.  Check us out at Lasting Memories for some great inspiration from the other design team members.  We can't WAIT to see what you create this week!!!

BLOG CANDY WINNER!!!

I apologize--yet again!--for being late in announcing my blog candy winner from last week's Lasting Memories Layout Challenges challenge!  What with being in Boston last week, getting back late Monday, and having to take my husband to the doctor yesterday and physical therapy today, things have just been CRAAAAZY!!!  There were five people who both left comments on my blog AND played along with last week's challenge.  I entered numbers 1 through 5 into random.org, and it chose number 3!  Looking back at the comments, comment number 3 of those who played along belongs to Teenabugg38!  Here's the comment she left:
                 TeenaBugg38 said...


I love your journaling!!!! Great LO and you can really see the bond you guys share in the photo :)

Thanks for playing along, TeenaBugg38, and thanks for the comment about my LO!  Please contact me by Saturday, February 26, so I can get your blog candy in the mail.  Thanks for playing!

Party Time Tuesdays new challenge--ANYTHING GOES!!!

Hi, everyone!  I apologize for being late in posting my card for this week's Party Time Tuesdays challenge!  I was in Boston, Massachursetts, last week, and it just seems like I'm having a hard time getting back in the swing of things since I got back.  ANYWAY!  Here's my card for this week:

Our sponsor for this week's challenge is Glitterbabe!  Stef is offering two digital stamps to this week's winner!  All of her stamps come in JPG format and also come with a colored image.  The PTT Design Team was lucky enough to get to work with Stef's stamps, and I chose this LOVELY rose!  It's so versatile and can be done in so many colors!!  My sentiment, "Thinking of You," is from a clear stamp I received not too long ago from one of the ladies in my Yahoo group, Scrappin' 'n' Chattin'.

This week's challenge at PTT is ANYTHING GOES!!!  Any color, any image, any sketch, any design!  We'd LOVE to see what you've got for us!  You still have FIVE MORE DAYS to get your entry submitted!  Please come on over and play along with us at Party Time Tuesdays!

Blog Candy announced TOMORROW!!!

Hi, everyone!  Thanks to everyone who left comments on my Lasting Memories LO last week and who played along with the challenge on the LM page!  I haven't forgotten that I STILL need to announce the winner of my blog candy.  I was in Boston most of last week and just got back in town last night.  I will be announcing the winner TOMORROW!!!!  Please check back tomorrow evening (I have to go to work tomorrow.) to see if you're the lucky one!

Harvard Model Congress, Boston, MA

Last night, I left the sunny, warm (sort-of) weather of beautiful Southern California and headed to the sunny, cold (quite!), snow-piled East Coast--Boston, Massachusetts.  I'm here with nineteen cadets and one other advisor from Army and Navy Academy to attend the Harvard Model Congress conference.  I thoroughly enjoy visiting Boston; last year was my first year, and I LOVED it!  I only wish my husband could have come with me this year (I love and miss you, baby!!).  We took the red-eye out of San Diego last night and arrived at Boston Logan about 7:30 am EST.  A three hour time difference and little sleep does NOT a happy camper make!

Since we arrived so early, our hotel rooms won't be ready for several hours yet.  Most of the cadets are already out and about exploring this wonderful city.  I'm still sitting in the hotel lobby of the Sheraton Boston trying to decide what I'm going to do today.  Do I head out to Harvard University to look around again, do I walk the Freedom Trail, or do I ride the T and tour the John F. Kennedy Presidential Museum?  Decisions, decisions!

I'll be updating my blog every day and HOPEFULLY will add pictures, too!  Check back later today to find out what the day held for me!

Lasting Memories weekly layout challenge and BLOG CANDY!!!

Good morning, everyone!  Congratulations to those who made Top 3 in last week's Lasting Memories Layout Challenge.  Your layouts were AWESOME!  So now it's on to a NEW challenge!  This week, we're asking you to use RED, WHITE, and/or PINK on your layouts in honor of Valentine's Day.  Here's the layout I created for this week:

My oldest son, Kennedy means the world to me, and I cherish every moment I get to spend with him!  The wording on the layout says "Know that if you have each other you will have all you will ever need."

Lasting Memories also has its first sponsor this week!  Stef over at Glitterbabe will graciously be providing the winner of this week's challenge with FOUR DIGIS OF HER CHOICE!!!  Thanks so much, Stef!  Also this week, some of the members of our DT are offering blog candy (me included!)!  As you check out each DT member's blog, be sure to leave a comment, then head back to Lasting Memories to play along with this week's challenge.  You have to play along with this week's challenge in order to be eligible to win blog candy.  Enter as many times as you like!  It's just as easy as that!!!  Winner's will be announced with next Sunday's challenge.  Entries are due by Saturday, February 19, at 9 pm EST.

Party Time Tuesdays new challenge--Chandelier Romance

It's time for another PartyTime Tuesdays challenge!  This week's theme for the challenge is to incorporate a chandelier and make it a "romantic" card--Chandelier Romance.  Here's my take on the theme:

The card is 5 1/2" square, and the base color cardstock is gray.  I then used a 5 3/8" square of black cardstock for the base of the design.  The white is plain white cardstock, and the pink patterned paper is some I had in my stash of scraps.  I was just lucky enough to have a piece I could print on and cut at 5 1/4"!

My chandelier is a digi stamp from Bev of the PT Tuesdays Design Team.  (Thanks, Bev!)  I printed it on my patterned paper, then cut the paper to the size I needed.  Once I had it on my base, I added some pearls to serve as the "lights" and Art Glitter in Black to enhance the chains on the chandelier.

The black and white ribbon was found in my HUGE ribbon stash (I SERIOUSLY need one of those cute little ribbon bags with the little holes in the side!!!), and the "LOVE" stamp in the corner is from Close To My Heart.  (I won it at my friend Heather's CTMH Open House last week!).  I cut the chair from the Sentimentals Cricut cartridge, then used my white gel pen to add the "cushion" and back design.  To finish everything off, I added a black brad on each corner.  Since those stuck through to the inside of the card, I cut a piece of patterned paper 5 3/8" square from a scrap of Teresa Collins's Mr. and Mrs. Love paper that I had in my stash and covered the left side of the inside of the card, which also then covered the backs of the brads.

The inspiration for my card this week came from two places.  First, I saw this picture at my hair stylist's shop last week (Thanks for the AWESOME red hair, Michelle!):

Then, I saw this card on the front of the January/February 2011 issue of Paper Crafts magazine:

So after seeing something with chairs and chandeliers twice this week, I guess it was meant to be that the PT Tuesdays challenge is Chandelier Romance!  I also entered this at the Creative Belli Blog as well as at Creative Craft World, Stampin' for the Weekend, Stamping Vacation, and Card Makin' Mamas.  It qualified for Stamping Vacation's Home Sweet Home Challenge, too!

I hope you'll play along with us this week!  Check out the blog at Party Time Tuesdays for more info on this week's challenge.  You'll have until 11:59 p.m. MST to submit your entry.  Hope to see your creations there!

New cards

I'm a moderator in the Yahoo group Scrappin' 'n' Chattin', and we have several different challenges every month.  One of the many is a card challenge.  You can make up to thirty cards in a month and post them in the Card Challenge folder.  At the end of the month, you get one entry for every three cards you entered, provided you completed the two SPECIFIC card challenges for the month.  If you didn't, you still get entered into a smaller drawing.  One of the challenges for this month is to use five different colors of cardstock on your card--NO PATTERNED PAPER!  Here's what I came up with:

At first, I wasn't sure how I was going to incorporate five different colors of cardstock on one card.  Then I came across a card in the January/February 2011 issue of Paper Crafts magazine that layered some papers like this.  PROBLEM SOLVED!

Here's another card I entered:

The die-cut sentiment was one I received in a Cricut swap I was in a few months ago.  It just seemed to fit with what I wanted to do!  Both of these cards are headed out to a couple of ladies in the Scrappin' 'n' Chattin' who are in the  Birthday Card Swap.  Happy birthday, ladies!

Back in commission soon!

I've been out of commission for the past few days, as my husband had ACL/PCL reconstruction surgery on Friday.  He's still in the hospital and is scheduled to come home tomorrow (Monday), but I'm having to go back and forth (almost 45 minutes one way) since we have no family here to watch Joseph for us.  The new Lasting Memories Layout Challenge went live today!  You can view it here and see sample layouts from the Design Team.  I'm hoping to have mine up later today!

Party Time Tuesdays card details

Here are the details I promised for my PT Tuesdays card!  I found the card design in a card magazine I have (sorry, I don't remember which one) and tweaked it a little to fit what I wanted to do.  I used pink and ecru cardstock; the main sentiment on the front is a digi stamp from Regina at The Cutting Cafe (Thanks, Regina!).  I inked the edges of the oval using a Studio G ink pad in bright pink.  The rub-on at the top of the card is from The Paper Company's Hugs & Kisses Letters collection.  I used the Martha Stewart Loops punch and then put some Stickles in Fruit Punch on top for a little something extra.  I sure hope my husband likes this card!

Party Time Tuesdays new challenge!

Hi, everyone!  It's time for the newest challenge from Party Time Tuesdays!  This week, we're asking you to create using Valentines or cupcakes.  Either one is a go!  Here's my take on this week's challenge:

I'll post all the supplies I used later (since I'm doing this in a hurry!), but the large sentiment on the front is a digi stamp from The Cutting Cafe.  Thanks for allowing us to try out digi stamps!  I'd never used them before, but I LOVE what she has to offer!  I also entered this on the blogs at Crazy 4 Challenges and Stamping Vacation.  You can check out the other DT's samples at Party Time Tuesdays.  Come on over and join us this week!  We can't wait to see what you create!