Scrapping4fun Challenges--Challenge One--Color Combo & Recipe

Welcome to the FIRST challenge for Scrapping4fun Challenges!  The first challenge is a color combo and recipe:

The color combo for Challenge One is dark brown, blue, green, and white.  You should use all six colors in your layout, but any shade of these colors is fine.  Here's the recipe to go along with the color combo:  

                     1.  Flowers (store bought or handmade)

                     2.  Mist or ink

                     3.  Title

                     4.  Journaling

                     5.  Any pattern with an emboss folder

                     6.  12x12 layout (single or double)

Here's my layout for Challenge One:

The cardstock underneath my title, flower, & brad are all from my stash.  The background paper, striped strip, arrow sticker, and journal card are all from the Echo Park Boys Mini Theme collection.

 I chose the Cuttlebug Houndstooth embossing folder to use underneath my title,

and the title stickers are Reminisce self-adhesive diecut stickers from The Freedom Collection (from a LOOOOOONG time ago!).  I inked the edges of the patterned paper underneath the photo with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Faded Jeans.

 I found this sketch at Sketch N Stash:

I think the sketch was meant to be for a card, but it just seemed to work perfectly for what I wanted.  

You can find all the rules for the challenge at Scrapping4fun Challenges.  You have until Saturday, September 14, at 1:00 pm European time to get your creation linked up on the challenge blog.  If you're not sure about the time difference, there's a clock with European time in the upper left corner of the challenge blog.  I hope several of you will enter and get this new challenge blog going!  Can't wait to see what you create!  Happy scrapping, everyone!

Scrapping4funChallenges Design Team!

There's a new challenge blog starting up called Scrapping4funChallenges, and I made their first Design Team!

I am SUPER excited!!!  The first challenge will be posted on 30 August and can be found at the Scrapping4funChallenges blog.  I hope to see some of you over there participating in the challenges.  Be sure to check back here on Friday, August 30, for the first challenge reveal!

Scrapping 4fun Challenges Design Team Call!

As I was looking around on Paper Playful's new site the other day, I found a link for a new challenge blog that will be starting at the end of August, and they're having a Design Team Call!

If you're interested in applying for their DT Call, you still have a few more days, as the deadline is August 20.  You can find all the information by clicking here.  I'm looking to get my mojo back soon, so I've already submitted my application.  Why don't you give it a whirl, too?  Good luck, and happy scrapping!

Award time!

As I was cleaning out my e-mail inbox this morning, I found a few e-mails giving me blog awards from a LOOOOOOOONG time ago, so I thought I should acknowledge them and do something about them!  I'd like to thank Pam, Kim, and Brenda for giving me the Liebster Blog Award and AJ for the Versatile Blogger Award.

Thank you for noticing my blog and choosing me as a recipient of this fabulous award!  Thank you so much; it is an honor!  Here's a little information on the award:  "Liebster" is German for "dearest."  The award is a "Share the love arrangement," given to inspirational bloggers with less than 200 followers.  I have over 200 followers now, but WAAAAAY back when this award was given to me, I didn't.  I love sharing my projects and love getting ideas from all of my blogging crafty friends.

Here's the to-do list for the Liebster Blog Award recipients:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented you the award.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to five bloggers with less than 200 followers.
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.

I know how hard it is to get new followers (still trying to get them on my travel blog!), so I hope you'll all hop over and follow these bloggers.  A moment of encouragement means a lifetime of inspiration!  Here are my five choices with less than 200 followers:

1. Barbara--Barb's Blab
2. Lori--My Happy Life
3. Sandi--Slightly Off Center
4. Sue--The Scrappings of Sue
5. Ruth--Paper and Musings

Congratulations to these very talented bloggers!  I really enjoy the projects they share on their blogs, and I hope you do, too!

With The Versatile Blogger Award, you have to give seven facts about yourself, then pass it on to fifteen other people.  Here goes:

1. I am married to the most wonderful man in the word, a retired Marine, and I have two awesome boys!
   
2. We moved back to my hometown of Batesville, Arkansas in the summer of 2012, but it just doesn't feel like home anymore.  Things are still just as cliquish as they were when I was in high school, and I really feel like an outsider. :-(  
   
3. I miss living in a military community.  My favorite duty station was USMCRD--Parris Island, South Carolina.  My husband and I got married in Beaufort and started our life together there.  There's just something different about military towns, and I have no doubt in my mind that we will end up back there within about the next ten years or so.
   
4. I love my two boys with all my heart, but I REALLY wish I had a little girl!!!
   
5. I would love to go to law school and become a sports & entertainment lawyer, but it's just WAAAAAY too expensive!  Anyone know where I can get a grant or scholarship to go back to school? ;-)  
   
6. I teach high school English at an alternative school and over the past nineteen years of my career have taught at eight different schools in four states--Texas, Arkansas, South Carolina, and California.
   
7. I was adopted when I was five months old and first made contact with my birth mother when I was in my late twenties.  It was at that point that I learned she was told I died shortly after birth.  WOW!  I can't even begin to imagine what kind of parents she had that would tell her that and hold that secret for so long.
   
   
   
   
   
   Here are the fifteen blogs I've chosen for this award:
   
   
   1.  April--Scrapper Forever
   2.  Danni--Danni's Dreams
   3.  Kim--Me-Ma Kim's Place
   4.  Kristie--My Paper Life
   5.  Suzanne--Scrap with Suzy
   6.  Theresa--Scrappy Art Crafters
   7.  Vicki--Scrapbooking Creations by Vicki
   8.  Anita--Anita & Bugs
   9.  Heather--Heather Plotzke
   10.  Beckie--Just B Creative Crazy
   11.  Ashley--The Glamorous Side of Scrapping
   12.  Elizabeth--217 Creations
   13.  Anne--Anne-Made
   14.  Lisa--Bellalistona
   15.  Rachael--A window to my scrapping world
   
   
   I hope you enjoy their blogs as much as I do!  Happy scrapping, everyone!
   
   
   
   
   

1~2~3 Get Scrappy! DT Call

As I was blog hopping around today, I came across a new challenge blog having a Design Team call.

This looks to be a really neat challenge site and will have challenges once a month.  If you're interested in apply for their first Design Team, you have until July 31 to send in your information.  You can visit their blog by clicking here.  Good luck, and happy scrapping!

Patriotic Blog Hop blog candy winner

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Patriotic Blog Hop over the weekend!  I used random.org to choose the winner, and the stamp set goes to CATHY!!!  Congratulations, Cathy!  Please contact me using the "Contact Me" tab above by Friday, July 19.  Happy scrapping, everyone!

Patriotic Blog Hop

Welcome to the July 13th Patriotic Blog Hop hosted by Cricut Chirp!  If you're just joining the hop, make sure to start back at the beginning HERE.  If you got here from Sandy's blog, then you're in the right place!  We hope that you enjoy hopping along with us as much as we enjoyed putting our projects together for you.  Be sure you read all the way through, as I've got blog candy at the end!!!

Since I have been part of a military household for the past 8 1/2 years, it was natural for me to join this hop!  I made this card for an issue of Ready Set Create magazine and knew it would be perfect.

The image was a digital stamp I was provided with for the magazine issue.  I colored it using Crayola colored pencils, then I used Stickles in Candy Cane and Star Dust.  I inked the edges of the card with Tim Holtz Distress Ink Barn Door and Faded Jeans.  Once the Stickles were dry, I adhered them to the front of the card using pop dots.  I LOVE the way the card turned out!!!  I think it's perfect for a 4th of July card or for a military holiday to let a military member know how much their service is appreciated.

Here's the full hop lineup in case you get lost:

Julie

Katie

Sandy

Ashley <= YOU ARE HERE!

Suzanne <= GO HERE NEXT!

Camille

Jennyfer

Now for the blog candy!  I'll be giving away the Circle of Honor patriotic stamp set from Paper Smooches to one lucky poster!!!  To be eligible to win, please leave me a comment below along with a way to contact you.  You don't have to become a follower, although I'd love it it you would!  Any comment without contact information will be ineligible for the drawing.  I'll use random.org to select a winner and will leave the comments open through Monday, July 15 at noon.  The winner will be posted Monday afternoon by 5 pm Central time and will have until Friday, July 19 to contact me.  Thanks for stopping by!