Saturday, December 22, 2007

Happy Holidays!!!


Just wanted to take a moment from my chaotic life and my trip to Seattle to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!!

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

PAINTING!!!



Here's a few pics of what we have been doing lately...the process of re-organizing and getting our place all cozy is taking us a bit longer than expected...but to be honest, it's not easy when family and friends visit us on a regular basis (and we do love those pleasant interruptions!).

We decided that red was not our color of choice for the living room so we have painted it...we had the kids have some fun with the process and we gave them paint brushes to help us with the primer. They had a blast!!!

Right now, my scrap room/guest room is in boxes and I am planning a trip to the Container Store tomorrow to get my new furniture and drawers and shelves, etc...I can't wait!!! Imagine a scrap room in boxes during the holiday season??? My hands are itching...

Pics of the new walls will be us shortly...

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Le Jardin


I did this layout a few weeks ago using my Le Jardin paper pack that I love so much. My cousin Lulu came to visit me in March 2006 and I was so happy to share some of my world with her. I truly wish we had spent more time together over the years.

Monday, November 12, 2007

BUSY TIMES


All I can say is that it's been busy around here (but that is nothing new here)...painting the walls, unpacking more boxes, getting ready for Thanksgiving (will have a lot of family over this year) and Christmas and my hubby's Birthday...not to mention my son's Birthday is Jan. 10th and will need to quickly start getting ready for that too.

I am still following my agenda on getting organized and fortifying my friendships and family relationships. It's a pretty good feeling...and it's keeping me from spending a lot of moolah on some amazing scrapbooking/stamping products out there.

Stampin'Up is having an amazing promotion this month with the paper packs (but 3 and get the 4th one FREE)...been making some home-made goodies for XMas presents...here's one of them for my mom...it's that cool three clip clipboard...I made into a practical board with a grocery list and weekly menu list. Love that Cherize paper..and so must a lot of people because it had been on backorder until today.

Here's wishing you all lots of good wishes towards your holiday planning!!!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Another Mini Album




I have been wanting to play with those very playful papers from the "Darling Doodles" designer series papers. I had the best opportunity to do this mini album dedicated to this past month. Even though it was still a busy month, we got to go on short family outings and I wanted to capture them in a neat little book. This albums is made from a manilla folder...I see a class coming on for this ....maybe in January 2008?

Oh by the way, Stampin'Up is having an amazing special this month on all of their beautiful designer series paper packs this month...buy three packs and get the 4th one FREE...check out the promotion HERE.

I can hook you up with these beautiful papers...just shoot me an e-mail ok?

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Goodbye Halloween 2007





I was inspired by the talented Kelli Crowe when she showed how to make these amazingly cute pop-up cards on ScrapInStyleTV.

I decided to surprise the grandparents with these cards...the little house opens up revealing a mini album with the kids in their halloween costume.

Monday, October 29, 2007

MORE HALLOWEEN STUFF



Just wanted to share a banner sign I made and that is hanging on one of our walls right now. This was fun to make and the kids really love it..that's good enough for me!!!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

IN THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEEN


Remember my post about taking time to fortify my friendships and also the post about getting my new place organized? Well, I'm following through with those and that is the reason I do not blog as much.

I am however, also getting into the spirit of the holidays that will be coming up and I am doing lots of little projects.

For halloween, I decorated this tree with little halloween ornaments made by a few artists. Aren't they cute? This tree is sitting on my dining table and I am getting mixed reviews on it...some people comment on how cute it is and some do not comment at all...well, you know...rather than saying something negative...LOL!!!

Monday, October 15, 2007

A Gift From My Italian Friends

After three years, I visited Italy this past summer and decided to finally meet all my Italian scrappin' friends...well, I did not get to meet all of them but I did meet a few on July 22nd. They totally surprised me with this album and needless to say, I was very touched. I miss them so much!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

I'M IN A DANCING MOOD

This has been one of those jammed packed weeks...my hubby is at a conference in Florida and I just feel like I have been working from 6Am till 9PM. Needless to say, I am pooped. However, I had to do a happy dance when I got to work with a new kit I got from ScrapinStyleTV last week. HAPPY MORNING!!!

Monday, October 8, 2007

MY FIRST SCRAPBOOK CHALLENGE


I have never played in a challenge but I was so inspired by Gigi Kennedy's challenge on ScrapInStyleTV that I just had to do it. You see, I was already thinking of doing this kind of layout in honor of a song this weekend and well, when I saw this challenge, I jumped right in. Here's what I came up with!!! This style if very different than what I normally do and I had so much fun playing!!! I have only had one comment on this layout though in the website so it does not look too promising that I will win this challenge. Oh well...I still love it!!!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

GETTING READY TO "PARTY"!!!


I wanted to share this invitation card I made for a swap. I loved the Calendar set ever since it came out in the new Stampin'Up's Fall/Winter 2007 Collection and all the other complimentary sets that go along with it. I am also in love with transparencies and the endless creative possibilities it is giving us paper crafters.

Speaking of creative possibilities, I just ran into this FABULOUS site...check it out here

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Missing "Friends"

I can't remember the last time I actually got addicted to a TV show...when "Friends" ended, I was so terribly sad...I had started watching them since I lived in New York and, at the time, I could really relate to them.

I ran into this episode clip a long time ago but it's so darn hilarious that I had to put it here.

I have also been touched by the Japanese culture a bit today. My friend Kyoko came to visit me today...she came to the States to participate in the Creative Escapes event in Phoenix and then came here to visit a couple of friends including myself. She is such a sweetheart and always gives me some cool gifts from Japan...Kyoko I wish I could see you more than once a year.


Monday, September 10, 2007

My New Love - Owls


So I have been in love with all the little owls (stamps, rub-ons, transparencies) out there for a while now...I bought this beautiful stamp from an Italian stamp company called Impronte D'Autore a while ago and I already had used it in one of my layouts. I had to make a birthday card for my brother in Germany and I came up with this (inspired by the new papers from Tinkering Ink). You know I had to add my Stampin'Up goodies here like my amazing cardstock and the stamp sets Garden Silhouettes and All In A Row It may not be the most masculine card out there but I know my bro is secure enough with his masculinity that he will not mind. I decided to make a few more of these for friends.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Autumn Theme Birthday Inspiration


I have a good friend in Illinois that just had a birthday last week. I miss her very much and it's been years since I have seen her. I have not been good in a long time in honoring my family and friends' birthday and I have decided to put my New Year's resolution into practice earlier than later (besides, I hear it takes three weeks to make something a habit). I am too tired to make my "hectic life" an excuse for taking people for granted and not making the important people in my life a priority.

I made a stationary holder with some stationary for my friend Sandra. I hope she will like it.

CRACKED GLASS


While I was in Italy, the girls there asked me to teach them a few techniques, one of them was the "Cracked Glass" technique and I think they liked it. Anyhoo, this is the card that I came up with to show them an example of a finished project. This is a 3X3 card and it features two of my favorite stamps sets Simply Said and Weathered.

If you like them and want to order them, I will offer a 20% discount this month (Sept. 2007) if you mention you saw this post on my blog. Just e-mail me at laura2471@gmail.com

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hambly Inspired


I totally love Hambly but I always get so irritated seeing the $5 price on those gorgeous rub-ons. I fortunately got my Stampin'Up oval punches to re-create those cool retro flowers. I am not sure what it is with me and having the blue/pink combination mode lately...I do have a boy and a girl, Matteo's favorite color is blue and Elisa's favorite color is pink. Anyhoo...I picked this patterned paper from Wild Asparagus and went crazy with it. The cute robot is from JudiKins. His name is BLINK.

Friday, August 10, 2007

HOME DECOR


While I am waiting for my beloved package from Italy with the necessary cable for downloading my latest pics in my computer, I have decided to share something old...well, not that old...I still need to put this up in my home since we moved a couple of months ago.
I got these amazing paper mache letters at Paper Source and then I mod podged my beloved BasicGrey papers and finally I added some of my favorite emmbellishments.

Monday, August 6, 2007

ANOTHER FRENCH VIDEO

OK...This is the last one. I really liked the music in France more than Italy. On the other hand, I really liked the food much more in Italy.

I can not figure out what the deal is with all this gender mixup. The video in my previous post has a boy dressed as a girl and I think this one is a girl dressed as a guy...what's up with that?!

Anyhoo...this was one of my favorite songs there...ENJOY!!!

I'M BACK!!!

Hello Everyone,

Just got back from my 5 week vacation in Italy a couple of days ago and my husband and I are still recovering from the 9 hour time change.

There is so much to tell and I will break down things a bit in several posts.

I forgot the wire that attaches to my digital camera and hooks up to my computer to transfer and download my pictures so you guys will have to wait a bit for pictures.

During the 5 week break, my hubby and I got a chance to go to France. We rented a little Fiat and just winged it. We had such a nice time. We woke up every morning around 7AM and just started the day early...the hotels had TV inside the rooms and luckily there were videos in the morning to wake us up. Just wanted to include a video of a really neat song that just stuck to my head every day. I don't know the words but hey, it's got a cool beat!

Sunday, July 1, 2007

GOING ON VACATION


I am going on vacation for a whole month starting tomorrow so I do not forsee me posting on my blog for a while since the computer software that my parents have is pretty ancient.

Anyhoo, I will leave you a picture of this brad board I was inspired to do from here.

Friday, June 29, 2007

Another Layout


Hello all,

It's been a while since I've posted...we've had friends and family visiting and I've been busy getting ready for my month long vacation that I will take next week.

I've also been working on a few projects.

Here is the first layout for my "Christmas Through The Years" album. To simplify my life and to catch up on my other thousand of photos I need to scrap, I decided to do one main album a year and then a XMas album...that's it!

Since we really did not do much last Christmas, I decided to scrap our first family-made card that was sent out to our dear friends and family...that's right we all pitched in, even my then-2 year old girl.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

FRIEND'S GIFT




I made this little purse for a friend who just got married!!! I used my very beloved Stampin'Up 5-in-1 Template and the new papers, chipboard and stamp set that will come out in the new Stampin'Up big catalog "Fall-Winter 2007 Collection". Goodness I hope she doesn't see this here before I give it to her. Since she is a scrapbooker, I decided to leave it mostly blank for her to do whatever she wanted with it...even for the handle. I hope she likes it!!!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

So a fellow rubber stampers/scrapbooker found me on the net and taggeg me...her name is Denise and you should check her blog since she makes beautiful work.

She tagged me over a month ago and after our move and my crazy Safari in my !Mac and deciding to get Firefox, I am finally answering the TAG.

Here are the 5 blogs not listed here that I do visit often. They are not all paper craft sites but these ladies still do inspire my creativity.
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1. Keisha Campbell (Gotta love this girl's style..she's an AMAZING scrapbook artist)
2. Heather Bailey (Did you know that I want to learn how to sew badly? Heather truly is inspiring...look at all those colors!)
3. Wee Wonderfuls (This girl has the coolest links for other artists as well as being a wonderful one as well)
4. Kristina Werner (Truly inspiring work!!!)
5. Christine (You already know I love the French style...and she is Vietnamese..now if only I could speak French like my husband)

So there it is...hope I was able to give you guys some new things to look at!!!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

FATHERS' DAY MINI ALBUM FOR HUBBY



www.flickr.com





I just love Stampin'Up and as soon as I learned that the new "In Colors" were going to retire and naturally also all the scrapbooking kits with these colors, I decided to use one of these kits to make my hubby his mini album for Fathers' Day. I love these papers and they made it very easy to do a manly album.

A NEW TOOL



My good friend Angie came to visit me yesterday with her family and we had a chance to go to a nice store around here called Cranberry Hill. She got me this cool new tool for my upcoming birthday next week...hey, it seems that the older I get, the more things I need just to keep me from thinking "OLD". I actually just found my very first white hair last week which is definately a sure sign of that word "OLD"...at least in the physical sense so I need extra pampering from falling in some kind of depression. So this package includes a 13X13 scoring and cutting mats, push pins, cutting tool and scoring tool a scoreline ruler, a Nothabox rule, a ScorAcurve Deckle and Curve Template, a project booklet and an awesome DVD with instructions and mor projects. IT IS SO AWESOME!!! I have not been excited about a new tool in a very long time. Thank you Angie for this gift!!!

P.S. Almost forgot to tell you the name of this cool tool: 1-2-3D Paper Crafting System by EK - Cutter Bee.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

We Have Moved


Hello! Yes, I'm still here...alive and well! It's been a while since I've posted anything here. I had been packing for a few weeks and just did the big move this past weekend. Our new place is full of boxes and I am soooo anxious to get everything unpacked and settle. My scrapbook room is going to be a lot smaller now so I need to redo my room completely. We are also still waiting for a lot of the new furniture that we bought. Right now we have a matress and a set of drawers as our bedroom and just 8 chairs with no table for the dining room. Our living room has one loveseat. I am so tired of eating out and can not wait to make a good home made meal. Anyhoo, I just wanted to post a card I recently did before I packed everything away...it's not Stampin'Up and I can not remember the company of these stamps...as soon as I unload my things I'll update this post. The ribbon is from May Arts and the long card with the envelope is from Stampin'Up.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

HAPPY SPRING!!!


I have come to enjoy the Spring season more and more. I have been making some cards with a Spring feel to it...like this one for a mom from my church who had a baby. I had this 8 1/2 X11 vellum sheet that I had stamped randomly with my "Simply Said" stamp a long time ago and just could not figure out what to do with it...and finally came up with this. I used craft/pigment ink, white gel pen and a blue gel marker. I bought the little metal trinket a long time ago and can not figure out what company made it. The ribbon is May Arts.

A favorite from the past

I had a "s...ty" day yesterday...one of those days where you wake up and there is one bad thing after another that happens...we all have had those right? Well...I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from yesterday and today I ran into this video that finally made me smile. I am a HUGE fan of the 80s...music, song...well, with the exception of the big hair. I loved Molly Ringwald and all of her 80's movies. This scene had to be one of my favs so I am including it here in my blog. Now that's entertainment!!!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

STAMPS 4 SALE

UPDATE: Almost all of my stamps have been sold with the exception of the brand new unmounted and retired Stampin'Up set titled "Terrific Tulips". It has been on hold for someone who has not gotten back to me for days so I am putting it out there again for anyone who wants it. Cost:$ 25 (plus s/h).

FIRST LAYOUT FOR MY BLOG



OK...since I have so much to catch up on my scrapbooking, I have decided to do one main album a year with all the Highlights/Special Moments of the Year. I have to admit that I am having some major challenges though with getting pictures for this year since we had been taking turns in getting sick for more than 2 months and actually spending most of our weekends looking for a place to buy. Anyhoo...there have been a few special moments around our house, like my kids having some loving moments and hugging. Also, they are trying to create some new funny faces...Matteo is really good at it but Elisa is just too cute to be funny. The Layout with the funny faces has some hidden journaling on the embellished cardstock at both ends of the pictures.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

WEEKEND UPDATE


Our life has been one huge roller coaster since we've moved to Sunnyvale and we have all been so busy that I am looking forward to slowing down...hopefully by the summer???!!!

We have finally purchased our first condo here in Cali and we are quite pleased with our choice. Oh, don't think this will be our last and final move...I'm sure a lot of our long-time friends have labeled us the "gypsies" since we move around so much and we have already decided that we will move out again in 4 years (or 3). I can't wait to enjoy that beautiful pool in our complex this summer and actually get some color.

We are now in the process of other projects here and one of our priorities is figuring out how to make our condo nice...we are actually getting rid of our "college" furniture...you'd think that by age 36 we would have gotten rid of it...but no, not us we use everything to their fullest capacity...I guess that is an excuse that is making me feel a bit better about it. So, yes we are getting some "adult" furniture and giving new paint colors to our rooms.

Anyhoo, I have been in the mood to make a project with this little bird from one of my papers from Sassafras Lass. Thinking of Easter...made this little tag and I was brave enough to use some of my hand made papers I had in my stash. I was going to either give this tag away as a gift or sell it but I am too much in love with it so I think I am keeping it and possibly put it in one of my scrapbook layouts.

In the meantime, I have also been playing with my mother-in-law's sewing machine. Yes, I am going to venture into sewing and making some other crafty things. I also want to sew in my scrapbook pages!!!

Hope your weekend was a pleasant one!

SPRING JOURNAL


I am still not tired of those spring papers that just came out....yes, I know...it has not even been a month since those have been out but I normally get tired pretty easily and since I still like them, I am happy that I bought them right away. I wanted to alter the new journal in the new Spring Mini catalog...I think it turned out ok!

Friday, March 9, 2007

MORE CANVAS PROJECT PICS





MY FIRST CANVAS PROJECT






I had been wanting to do this project for a long time and I finally finished it a couple of days ago...these are going in my scrap room since my hubby decided they were a little too feminine to put them on the wall in his office....his loss, my gain!!!
I got these amazing papers by Rouge de Garance in Canada...they are French and I could not find a distributor here in the US. I also decided to use some retired Stampin'Up stamps that I still love very much. Oh, and I had to use my Autumn Leaves stamp set "Doodle Blooms"...it's a gorgeous set!!!

Watercolor Crayon Paisley


This is another project we made at my team meeting last week...wanted to show the girls how to watercolor with the wonder crayons...so much fun!!!



This is one of the projects we did at my team meeting last week...seems like the girls had a good time. Love that carrot box!!!

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Some Good News & Some Bad News

My husband said that he is a strong believer now about "BALANCE" in life. He said that there definately has to be some good and bad otherwise we would not progress. I guess that proved to be true this weekend.

The good news: My best friend Mariana is coming to live in California. It is such good news because I miss her so much and now I will be able to see her much more often.

The bad news: Got a call late Sunday night from Italy. My grandma passed away very suddenly. She had been sick for a while and we all knew that her tumor was getting worse but we did not expect her to go downhill so fast and I did not get a chance to see her one last time which is what I intended to do. I have been down for the past couple of days. My entire family has had their chance to mourn but I need to "perform" here at home taking care of my two little ones and to top it all off all these extra things are coming up that need attention and I am going "BONKERS"!!!...oh, and my hubby all of the sudden is loaded at work and coming home late...will I ever get my chance to mourn???!!!

Thursday, March 1, 2007

I found this new artist through one of my inspiring scrapbook artists "Elsie Flannigan" about a month ago. How excited was I when I found a new musician that does not sound like all the other artists on the radio nowadays. He also reminds me a bit of my dad because my dad has been a musician for as long as I can remember and he has this studio in his house with all the equipment (synthesizer, mixers, guitars)...he often recludes there, puts his headphones on and starts creating his own music...yeah, I know...I have a cool dad!

Friday, February 23, 2007


I have been called to do a door prize or two for a Mother's Group Annual Luncheon...this is a small bag where I will put some stamping goodies. I just love those new papers from the new Spring Mini catalog.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Spring is HERE!!!


First of all, I want to wish you all my visitors a HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAy and I just found out that in Holland today is considered FRIENDSHIP DAY! Today is also my sister-in-law's Birthday..so HApPy B-DaY Kimie!!!

Just sending you all a preview from the Spring Mini...I just totally cased this card from one of the cards that is featured on the front page of the new mini catty that will come out in March. The only substitution is the yellow circle...just had to play with my Ranger pearls.

HUGS TO ALL!!!

My Spring Mini Swap





This is the mini card album I have made for the only swap I am in. I absolutely fell in love with so many of the new sets that will be coming out in the new Stampin'Up's Spring Mini catalog. This card is for a good friend...I will put some pictures and journaling in it..totally FREESTYLE! The others I will send out to my swappin' team. Too bad the pictures do not show how sparkly the flowers really are.