It's a love thing

Happy Friday everyone. Get Sketchy #49 is up and here's my take on the sketch...

It's a love thing

I love the lined up blocks placed on the bottom of the card sketch and all that empty space on the top. It gave me the inspiration to arrange pattern papers on the bottom and maintain the empty space on the top with just the sentiment and a few things added on it.

thank you for looking and make sure you check out what the other wonderful and talented design team members made with the sketch.

Till next time,
Grace

August Crazy Daisy kit...

We only have three more days left for July, so how about a peek at the Crazy Daisy August kit?

Here's the look of what you'll get in the main kit.....

I just love, love those colors!!!

and for those that are not ready to commit to a big kit, Crazy Daisy also offers a mini kit and here's what is inside it....

Fun stuff, don't you think?

Make sure you check this and the previous kits here.

Have a great day.

Till next time,
Grace

more Piggy Tales

You are probably wondering why I'm showering my blog with a lot of Piggy Tales Academy projects in one month. Well the DT's didn't get their kits on the month the kits were up but they were so generous to give us the back kits and I couldn't help myself but play with them all. All in this month, I might add.

So here's two layouts from the May kit

A Special Teacher

I wanted this page to focus on the beautiful picture of Marcus and his Kindergarten teacher.


I added those cute swirl rubons and the bug rubons were transferred on paper first, then handcut and adhered with a pop up adhesive to create a moving effect.


I also used the fun "barndoors" tags. They have this peak-a-boo opening to them, great for hidden journaling.

Sun and Sand

this two page spread was made with papers from the kit. I love how Piggy Tales offer double sided papers with one side with design and the other solid.


I used a big chipboard "sliding door" star, covered it with paper and added some liquid pearl pen on the edges. I also layered it with more barn doors for the blue circle and then the title block.


I used the sliding door toppers to hold my smaller photos. They're so much fun to use.

That's it. Check out this kit and so much more Piggy Tale Academy stuff here.

Till next time,
Grace

Crazy Daisy mini

Ooopps I almost forgot to share my July Crazy Daisy mini. It's a good thing we have a few more days before July is over. I'm still safe *wink*

Save the Date minibook

The cute JBS mini book that came in the main kit was adorable to say the least.

The idea of making a “save the date” book out of it was inspired by the Glitz sticker, the number paper and the stars.

Since dates are numbers, I decided to use the number paper to cover my front and back pages. I then used the save the date sticker as my title tag.

In the inside front page, I used some of the Pink Paislee stickers to add birthdays and then cut out a star from the GCD Studios paper.

In the back page I added another journaling sticker and hand wrote a little “note for me”.

This mini came together pretty fast and the best part of this project- it’s small enough that I can tow it in my purse and NEVER, EVER forget a birthday, anniversary or any other special dates ever again. *wink*

learn more about the July kit and get some sneek peeks of the August kit here.

Till next time,
Grace

Some green and black...

Happy Friday everyone. It always gives me a relief to know that another week is gone and accomplished plus the weekend is upon us.
Anyways, another Get Sketchy challenge is up and here's my take on #48...

Hello card

we were to use our own stash in this card and I went crazy with the June Piggy Tale Academy kit products that a card was abound to be made with it. I really love the green, yellow and black color combo in the kit. Very elegant, don't you think?


Now the sketch is a little simpler than this but isn't that the beauty of a sketch, it leads to many possibilities. Make sure you check out the sketch and the other DT's take on it here.

Speaking of the June Piggy Tale Academy kit, here's the pages I made....

Summer Reads

I love how the black background makes all the rest of the colors pop out. I used the flowers to create a visual triangle and played with the big chipboard letters to emphasize part of my title.

Karate Kid

In this page, I used some pictures of my son in his Taekwondo uniform. I used the black and white background to make the connection between photos and page. The capital K in the page was yellow but I wanted all the letters to match so I colored it in with black marker. Make sure you let it dry completely before adhering it to make sure it doesn't smear. I also used the fun rubon words that came in the kit as part of the border on the right hand side.

So that's all from me. To learn more about Piggy Tale academy kits, check it out here.

Till next time,
Grace

I'm a proud owner.....

of this.......

It only took me a whole week after my actual birthday to buy my gift. I had to spend a few more days researching on which one do I really want to spend my money on. So after a few days of browsing through all sorts of sites, I made the decision that I right now I should purchase a telephoto lens. I was thinking of getting an 18-200 lens but the Nikon version one with VR and OS cost about $800 and the Tamron or Sigma one didn't have VR. Plus if I purchased that, then my 18-55mm will be useless. And since I'm trying to be wise with my money, I opted to choose this one.


Here's me with my new awesome lens! I went to Samy's Camera to purchase the lens. I know I could've gotten it cheaper online but I couldn't wait for all the shipping time plus Samy's were having a deal that you don't pay sales tax. I got a great deal that I was tempted to buy a prime lens too but stopped myself.

Maybe with the money left over I can finally get a Coach purse. We shall see!

So that's it. Till next time,
Grace

fun and cute

So one of the places I hop on over to get all sorts of card inspiration is Moxie Fab World blog. That's the blog for the PaperCrafts magazine. They were having a challenge and although up until now I've only been a "lurker", I decided that I will try my hand on the "fun and cute" style. And here's my take...

My Best Friend

I considered this for the style of "fun and cute" because of the whimsy feel of the layered flowers, the doodles on the sentiment tag and the scallops all around.


as an added bonus challenge (just for myself) I only used paper in this card. Yup, all of the lumpy, bumpy things you see in this card are all papers given some dimension by pop up dots. Even the card sentiment was cut up from paper. That's why I hoard paper like it's going out of style, there's just so much possibilities with it.

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

I need your help

Yesterday before taking the kids to the wading pool, I went to one of my all time favorite places- Fabric Barn. They are the mecca of ribbons around here. Before, you can purchase ribbons and trims per yard but now they've changed and only sell them by spools. It's more expensive now of course since we're buying the whole thing but $1-$3 per spool (25 yards in each spool) is still reasonable. That's why I went a little crazy and purchase these 10 types...



Now here's where I need your help. Do you want to split the cost of these ribbons with me? I want to hoard them all to myself believe me but my practical side is telling me not to. *smile*






Here's how I'm going to do it. I've numbered the spools on the first photo. Below I'm showing how much it'll cost per yard per ribbon. You tell me what # ribbon and how many yards of it you want. Email me (graceelainetolman@yahoo.com) your "order" and also give me the email address to which I can charge your paypal account with and I'll mail it to you. Oh and shipping charges will have to apply to. :)

Here's the rundown:
Ribbon #1 - .04 per yard
2 - .04 per yard
3 - .04 per yard
4 - .12 per yard
5 - .08 per yard
6 - .08 per yard
7 - .07 per yard
8 - .12 per yard
9 - .09 per yard
10 - .12 per yard

Shipping cost:
West coast- $2.00
East coast- 2.50
International- 4.00

I will place your ribbons in a padded envelope.

As you can see I'm just charging you what per yard is based on how much I bought it for. I'm not trying to make a profit here.

Thanks in advance for helping me resist the urge to be a ribbon hoarder. Oh and sorry there's not much colors to choose from, I picked the ones that I've run out of.

Till next time,
Grace

a little bit of this and little bit of that.....

Happy Friday!
My head is a bit of a hodge podge of things today so I thought I'd do that same in today's post. All of them good though.....

Let's start with a CHA sneek peek.....
Upsy Daisy Designs are going to show off these two wonderful collections in CHA Summer set next week. Aren't they lovely!!! I can't wait till I get my hands on them.



Since it's Friday, a new Get Sketchy challenge and sketch is up. Here's my take on this week's design....
Head of Class

I know it's totally unseasonal of me to make a school themed card when we are in the middle of summer but I was working on my August Piggy Tales Academy kit (I'll show them soon to you) and decided to use that on this card.


This card is very bumpy and thick with all my chipboard layering. Fun stuff!

And finally did you want to win a Cricut Create? Crazy Daisy kit has a great drawing going on right now. Check it out here.

that's it. Hope you guys will stay cool today.

Till next time,
Grace

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Ok so I'm looking at my computer clock and I still have about 54 minutes left in my birthday so I thought of sharing what I did today.

Had breakfast at Dennys. Heard from Mitch that they give you a free grand slam meal on your birthday. Can't pass up a free meal right? Even if I have to tow my two little monkeys in the restaurant by myself, I was up for that.

Marcus took this photo.


here's my half eaten grand slam plate. I was trying to be good picking egg whites for my eggs and not ordering pancakes. Although I don't think the hashbrowns, sausages and biscuit help any in balancing the good with the bad.

then after breakfast and running a few errands, I took the kids bowling.

I heard about the free bowling program for the kids from my friend Allison. The kids haven't bowled in a while so I thought of trying it. The process of registering for it was easy but the catch is only certain bowling centers are participating so me and the kids had to drive to Anaheim to bowl free.


Marcus won in both games which made Maddie surprisingly very upset. She's usually nonchalant about these things. Oh no! now I have two sore loosers! just my luck!

and because it is my birthday I decided to "drag" the kids with me shopping for a new outfit. We had more than a few talks inside the Ross store and the cashier even called me out on letting my kids play with a toy that we are not purchasing, BUT other than that we survived and I got me a cute outfit. After all that's all that counts, right?!

then we finished off our day trip with a visit here.....


We are signed up in their "free ice cream scoop on your birthday" thing, so everytime our special day comes around I get an email with a free ice cream coupon. I've always just given mine to Maddie. After all that I've been eating lately, I don't need an extra scoop of ice cream!


The kids both picked sorbets which surprised me. The healthier version over the fattier ones?! huh! I think they were more into the colors than anything.


little Maddie looking sassy!

So that's it. That's my birthday for you. Simple and yet full of events.

Oh and if you're wondering what number I'm celebrating......it's the big 3-0! I've always been scared about that number but now that it's here, it's not that bad after all!

Till next time,
Grace

Junk

With all the "work" that I've been doing to our house these past two months, I've missed papercrafting a LOT! That's why now that it's over, I'm going crazy. Crazy that lately, I'm always creating, usually up to midnight or 1am! The kids don't mind a sleep deprived mom. *smile*

Anyways here's a layout that I made last night...

Junk

this layout was inspired by the latest sketch over at Pagemaps blog. The sketch focused on one picture and gave a lot of room for fun embellishments. There was an extra challenge to use the yellow, blue and orange color combo. Love the fresh and bright feel of these colors.


this layout is about how these "junk food" photo reminds me so much of my childhood. All these snacks, treats and chips were the bulk of my food intake for the most part of my school years. I'd eat them during recess, an after school snack, when I'm bored and when I'm happy. Basically everyday of my life. Now I know they're bad stuff (and I don't eat them as much now as I did before) but they all just bring so much positive memories to me, it's hard not to document them.


added some chipboard phrases from the Homespun chic line of GCD Studios to emphasize how I feel about these snacks.


I opted to use flowers instead of the pennant banner in the sketch. That's my rebel side showing. *wink*

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

Sweet M

Happy Tuesday. If you are visiting from the Clear Scraps blog, thank you for dropping by and if you have not checked out my other projects from Clear Scraps, come back to the blog.

Yesterday and today I posted some birthday themed projects to celebrate my upcoming birthday. (hint, hint, hint- it's coming very soon. *wink*)

So anyways, I have one more project to share and it is this cute cupcake album.

Sweet M

I used some Unity Stamps to create my own background paper. I loved this technique, it made me feel like a real artist. I also used Cosmo Cricket papers and stickers and then some Accent Creative Designs flowers.
Here's some more pictures...


a look of the inside pages. I used the stamped papers in the inside pages as well. To hide the seams between the pages, I added pattern paper strips, ribbons and buttons.


I did a quick photo shoot of my daugther on her 4th birthday and that's what I used for this mini.


a look of the back side of the book.


a side shot of the now very bulky book.

thanks for stopping by and if you haven't seen the other two "birthday" themed projects I made, check them out here.

Till next time,
Grace

July Piggy Tale share

What a day it's been!
Got the house ready for the open house; had the open house; went to church; and then hanged out at my parent's house. Now the kids are happily settled in and watching some TV while I catch up on computer stuff.

I hope this is how our life would be in the next weeks. Busy during the day but quiet and mellow at night. I'm not used to too much activities anymore. I love my "breathing" moments.

Anyways today's share is from Piggy Tales Academy. The kit for this month was pretty cool. It has two totally different color palettes- one with summery colors of blue, orange and yellow and then there's the muted but very beautiful colors of purple/green and gray. Very pretty!

So here's what I made....

A place of learning
-pulled out for publication-
this two page spread with a foundation of gray made the colors of the blue, yellow and green pop out.

-pulled out for publication-
I enjoyed layering all of the chipboard shapes and some rubons here.

-pulled out for publication-
More close up of the layering. You know me and my love affair with pop up dots, they always appear in my projects.

A new adventure
-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-
these papers were perfect for my crocheting layout. Remember the purple scarf that took me forever to make, these papers and patterns were calling out for me to finally document my new crocheting adventure.

-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-
These flowers are actually rubons. I transferred them onto cardstock first then cutting around them, adding some beautiful brads and adhering them with pop up dots.

-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-
I added another flower rubon on the top but this time adding them onto the pattern paper.

That's it for now. Thanks for looking. Make sure you check out this and previous kits here.

Till next time,
Grace

With deepest sympathy card

Finally the sun is coming out! It's been so gloomy this past week and the kids haven't even had the chance to play in the water because it's been too cold for that. Oh how I wish that the sun will stay from here on out so we can finally feel the summer season. I'm afraid that when we move to Colorado (when that will be I'm still not sure) that we would've missed the summer season entirely! That would be a big bummer.

Anyways it's Friday and that means that Get Sketchy's new sketch and challenge is up. Here's my take on the great sketch....

With Deepest Sympathy

I kept the card very similar to the sketch with one exception- overlapping the two blocks instead of keeping them parallel. If you know me I don't like too much linear things. Too perfect doesn't really sit well with this imperfect artist so I had to twist them around just a tad to make them feel good to me. *wink*


I used some of my own stash in this card- SEI Papers, SRM Sticker sentiment and May Arts ribbon. All fun stuff!

Thanks for stopping by and play along with this week's sketch.

Till next time,
Grace

July Upsy Daisy share...

With things in "high" gear around here, I decided to pack the blog for the next few days of my July scrapbook assignments/projects. We never know if I have to start packing for Colorado by next week.

Anyways here's my July projects for Upsy Daisy Designs....

A Sweet Memory

I love this page, not only because it showcases my sweet Marcus during his cute-chubby cheek-baby phase but also because I got to use up a lot of fun Upsy Daisy products. This page was inspired by the latest sketch provided by Kim.


I used a bunch of rubons here. I adhered them to all sorts of papers, I made ribbon out of one and adhered the circle one with pop up dots for more dimension.


and then finally putting some fabric brads to finish the page. Oh and I used the "See Ya Later Alligator" paper line for the layout.

Proper Attire

This page came about because I was looking at old photos one day and when Maddie saw this photo of me when I was little, she was in shock that I'd wear my "regular" clothes in the pool. Of course in her sweet mind she'd never saw anybody in the water with nothing other than their swimsuits. I had to explain that back then Mom (me) didn't have swimsuits to use to our very rare trips to the pool so I always just wear my regular clothes.


to emphasize the funny story, I added rubons to make Maddie's comments stand out more than the rest. I also used the Blossom paper line here. I love how the notebook paper made my journaling easy.


I also added some circle rubons and brads (with rubons on it) for more texture and design.

That's it. Make sure you check out the latest and the greatest from Upsy Daisy Designs in the blog and site.

Have a great day.

Till next time,
Grace