Clear Scraps blog hop

hello, hello, hello!!!

Welcome to the Clear Scraps blog hop!
We're so excited you joined us this weekend to help us celebrate all our Moms and the women who play a mothering role in our lives.

If you haven't started at the beginning, you may want to go back to the Clear Scraps Blog and start there. Leave a comment on all our DT blogs, come back to the Clear Scraps blog and let us know you did, and you'll be entered into a draw for a $25 goodie bag of acrylic from Clear Scraps. We hope you're inspired, both about acrylic, and about making something special for the "Mom" in your life this weekend.

Irene: http://scrapperlici ous.blogspot.com/ Cristal: http://www.blueyecicle.blogspot.com/ Rita: http://letsembellish.blogspot.com/ Tonya: http://creativit-tonya.blogspot.com/ Elisa: http://perpetualstew.blogspot.com/ Grace: http://www.tolmanchronicles.blogspot.com/ ***you are here*** Cathy: http://cathysartblog.blogspot.com/

So onto my project....

Mom's favorite recipe minibook
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I used the Chipboard Scallop Square Album as the foundation for my minialbum. Some of my most favorite memories of my mom has something to do with food that's why I created this album for her. This way we can share her favorite recipes to future generations.
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I divided the book into four categories: Appetizer, side dishes, main entrees and dessert.
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I used My Mind's Eye papers here. I added a pocket for each section to store index sized cards recipes.
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I also added some flowers on each section plus the front and the back.
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I covered the back with the same design as the front. I added an acrylic flower from the Clear N Chip Little Miss Molly pack.

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to show the edges of the flower against the background paper, I added some puffy paint from Viva Decor.

Hope you enjoy my share and happy hoppin!

Till next time,
Grace

Birthday Boy

Happy Friday.

Posting this a little early because today I'm going to be r-e-a-l-l-y busy! We are having a garage sale tomorrow and today's the last day for final preps. I'm sure you know what that entails.

Anyways, here's my take on this week's Get Sketchy sketch.

Birthday Boy (GS #37)

Our sponsor this week is Sunshine stamp. It was a bit of a challenge to come up with a sentiment to go with these cute images but I did my best.


Like my inside greeting? LOL


we were challenged to make a masculine card. I always enjoy cards with a boyish theme cause I rarely make them.

So that's it. Make sure you play along with us. Have a great weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

5 little ducks

and the mini vacation continues. Last night I was able to watch a movie with the family and our dear friends - the Tuiagamoa. We saw this at the cheap theater. Best $4 ever spent, I say!

anyways today I wanna share two projects I made with the cute "5 little ducks" collection from Piggy Tales. NOTE: this is not the May kit for the Piggy Tale academy but it was sitting on my table and it kept screaming "make something with me" over and over again that I couldn't resist. LOL.

Baby Marcus

The only thing I would say that I enjoy about all this moving/decluttering around the house is that I get to find "treasures" that I've forgotten I had. An example of these are the pictures in the page. Before scrapbooking and owning a digital camera, I printed pictures from a film like everybody else and these pictures were kept safe yet hidden in one of the shelves in my room. They were never heard from till a few days ago and I found these cute, everyday photos of our baby Marcus. Oh how I miss those pudgy cheeks. :)


I played around with the fun rubons in the collection. I used two big ones as big embellishments, transferring them first onto cardstock, trimmed them out and then adhering with pop up dots.


I also used a series of smaller ones (the frog ones) as a homemade ribbon.

and not wanting to waste scraps, I created a card as well....

Our Tiny Treasure

I love that each pattern paper from Piggy Tales have a coordinating solid color in the back. Makes layering and matching even easier.


I added a sentiment sticker, border punched cardstock and ribbon from my stash on the card as well.

Happy Wednesday.

Till next time,
Grace

my new bestfriends

I am going through a mini vacation this week. With the kindness of my manager, she let me take the whole week off of work. Woohooo!!! Although things/routines around the house remains the same, I'm feeling very relaxed knowing that I don't have to be at work at a certain time.

Anyways, last night, after the kids had gone to bed I went straight to my scrapbook stash and started creating. After my first card, I realized that I have some must have's in my "tools" that are not necessarily considered a scrapbook item but I've relied so much on them that I don't think I can ever go back to the time that I wasn't using them.

So today I decided to share my two new best friends with all of you. *wink*

First off is this....



Don't you just hate it when ribbon/trims starting fraying on you? Well fret no more, this baby really makes the big difference. A little dab of it on the ends of the cut ribbon/trim makes for a finished look.

and then this....



through my years of papercrafting, I've found that we can never get enough glue/adhesive. I have about 5 different kinds in my stash at one point. But this one is my new fave. I love that the tacky glue is strong and all purpose. I've used it for adhering bulky, heavy items like metal and layered flowers; Since it's white, I've also used it to apply glitter (I just make sure that the surface that I'm applying it to is white as well so it doesn't clash with any other colors) and with this, I don't have to wait not like with a glue gun.

How about you, what's your non scrapbook item must have? I'm curious to see what other papercrafters use.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday share

Finally it's beginning to warm up here in Southern California. I can finally bust out the capris and the flip flops (although to be honest with you, I was already busting out the flip flops despite the gloomy and cold weather last week) A flip flop kinda girl doesn't care much if her toes are freezing sometimes. *wink*

Anyways, today's post is a couple of new projects I made. I love them because (a) they're just for me, no specific dt assignment to consider, (b) it shows that I can still create without my over abundant scrapbook supplies on hand and (c) they were made with scraps. Now who would not love that, right?!

First up is a card.....

{Congrats}

I made this while watching "Hitch" the movie last week. Wasn't that movie hilarious?! Will Smith is definitely a great actor.


Here I put together a hodge podge of scraps. Once in a while, I like to use up itty bitty scraps by cutting images/shapes out of them with the Cricut, then I just store them in an accordion style folder (something similar to what coupon clippers use) for future use. The yellow flower here is from that stash. If you have a die cut machine, some free time and a big stash of scraps, I strongly suggest you do this. It will save you some time and money in the long run.

Reaffirmation

What's your biggest fear? Well I thought about this question for a bit and came up with the morbid thought of my marriage not lasting. Scary I know, but our scrapbooks should also be filled with important, not so happy, events/stories.


I used a scrap paper that had punched holes in it from a previous project. I inserted all sorts of embellishments into the holes. I made sure that the products that I used enhanced the theme of my page.
There's a visual triangle between the black letter stickers, black on the butterfly epoxy sticker and the black decorative border.

Here's the journaling:
With divorce rate at its peek, sometimes I am scared to think that our love will pass the test of time, that we will eventually face a trial that will make us rethink of our commitment to one another. And when these bad thoughts come to mind, I always bring myself to that day in May of 2002, when we knelt down in the temple, with hands held and made a promise that we will be together forever. With that vivid picture in my head, I get the reaffirmation that what we have is special and our bond eternal. May 2009

Hope you all have a great Monday.

Till next time,
Grace

A Mother is......

If you've noticed all the hallmark and flower commercials popping like crazy now, you've probably realized that Mother's day is just around the corner. Can you believe we're a day away from May? Still shocks me at how time flies!

Well at Get Sketchy this week, our theme was all about paying tribute to our dear Mothers through pretty cards. :) Here's my take on the sketch...

A Mother is

This week (GS #36) we had two sponsors- Glue dots and The Cutting Cafe. I used a digi image from Cutting cafe as my title block and also for the inside dedication.


I used a ruffled trim to create my flowers. I used a big glue dot, wrapped the ruffles around it and cut the ends. Then I poked a brad in the center. Warning: since the whole thing is being held by a glue dot, you might want to use a paper piercer to make a hole for your brad, and make sure you clean the piercer right away to get all the glue gunk out of it. *wink*

I used another digi image/sentiment from The Cutting Cafe for the inside of my card.

Come check out what the other ladies made with the fabulous sketch for this week and play along. The prizes are always great.

Till next time,
Grace

Random four (March and April editions)

If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that I attempted to start a new way of documenting the little things in my family's life with a monthly post called "random 4". I wanted to quickly list 4 things that each family member was into that month.

I was doing well for the first two months and then everything kinda fell all over the place when news of the family business closing.

I still wanted to continue this documentation so I'm cramming both March and April into one edition today. I feel that if I focus on the good things that are going one, the bad ones will seem easier to bear.

Ok so here goes....

Mitch


1. His body, mind and soul is focused on getting the shop finalized. I feel so bad for him because he is so disheartened about the whole thing.
2. He is also busy keeping up with his two callings at church (Sunday school teacher and Elder's Quorum second councilor)
3. He continues to do p90x (on those days that he has some spare time)
4. He is strong in his faith (and I admire him for that)

Grace

1. March and April came in and out like a blur to me. It was a time to reflect on my faith and ability to take courage despite of trials.
2. I am so wanting this right now. I know this is the least of my concern right now but some type of normalcy brings me hope.
3. Reading this.
4. I have packed up most of my scrapbook supplies and working with bare minimums after years of having everything out for me to play with has become a struggle. But I'm dealing with it. :)

Marcus

1. Because of everything that has transpired, Marcus no longer does Karate. I was surprised that he was not sad at all about this.
2. Is working really hard at school.
3. Has become very addicted to his Nintendo DS. Something that him and I fight about all the time.
4. He has become very talkative. During Spring break, I spent a lot of time with him and I've noticed that this boy likes to TALK! He talks about his DS game, his never ending desire to have a pet and his concerns about our move/transition.

Maddie

1. This girl is addicted to playing games online. Every time I'm on the computer, she's right there asking me if it's her turn to play. Her favorites- PBS kids, Build a bear, tinkerbell and playhouse disney.
2. She has made major strides at school. Her teacher enjoys her artwork because she really takes her time to make it perfect. She even amazed everyone at school when she knew some rainforest animals that the other kids didn't know about.
3. The sassiness continues to live on. She carries her emotions on her sleeve. Enough said!
4. Her prayers are definitely sweet to hear. I love that she takes her time and think about what she really wants to tell her Heavenly Father about. I love that the simple gospel teachings like eternal families and Christ's sacrifice for us has stuck with her.

the pictures above were all taken one Sunday morning before church. We each had our Easter outfits on.

and here's the whole gang......

It would've been perfect have it not for all the cables in the background. Note to self- do a sit down family photo next time. :)

Have a great day everyone and till next time,
Grace

Bike Parade

Tomorrow is a field trip day for my daughter's Mommy and Me preschool class. The class are going to a local park to play, feed the ducks and ride their bikes.

This reminded me of Maddie's school's bike parade last year. Here's some pictures put on a layout....

Bike Parade

I posted this page on the Clear scraps blog along with some more info on it and a few techniques I did with the acrylic frame and chipboard flowers. Head on over there today to learn more.

Oh and Clear Scraps is hosting the "easiest contest" ever this week. All you have to do is become a follower of the blog and fan in their facebook page. Click here for more info. A cool prize is up for grabs!

Have a great day everyone.

Till next time,
Grace

Crazy Daisy May sneek peek

I still can't believe that April is almost over. In my head, I feel like it's still just March and yet here we are with April almost over and May is just at the doorstep.

Speaking of May, how about a sneek peek of what Crazy Daisy has instore for their kit in May.....



nice huh?!

I can't wait to see these products in real life.

Oh and Crazy Daisy has one very inspiring (and famous) guest designer for May..... Stacy Julian........the Stacy Julian!!!! How freaking cool is that!

For more info about the kit and Stacy Julian, read here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

got a favor....

Happy Monday everyone.

How do you guys feel about Mondays?

Is it a drag? a disappointing ending to a great weekend? or do you feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle another week?

Well for me it's always resonates "renew" and "refresh". Something about the beginning of another week brings optimism for me. It helps me know that whatever craziness the last week was, this week will be different. Hopefully a "good" different, nonetheless, different.

Anyways, got a big, huge, large favor to ask of you, my wonderful blog readers....

Over at Get Sketchy challenge blog, all the design team members got to play with some Creative Charms products. I enjoyed playing with them and you need to check out their blog. There's a bunch of inspiration to be had there. Anyways, we made cards using their products and the best part, if people like our projects enough, we can win a gift card from their store. How cool is that!

I know it's too much to ask but the way the contest runs is through voting. So that's where you, my lovely, oh so loyal blog readers come to play..... if you are so inclined to come visit the Get Sketchy blog today and vote for me (the voting is on the left top side bar). If you don't think my cards deserve the prize, you can vote on whoever you think is the best too. Don't worry I won't be mad. LOL.

So that's it. Thanks in advance and hope everyone have a great start for their week.

Till next time,
Grace