My Top Ten of 2013 Blog Hop & Giveaway!

Welcome to all of you newbies and all of you that stop by frequently.  I was thrilled to join the blog hop organized by Christine Meyer, showing off all of these talented designers 

Top 10 Projects of 2013!  You should have arrived here from the amazing Lisa Swift's blog.

Check out my Top 10 and at the end details on how to win my giveaway!

Then hop through the amazing list of designers and be inspired!  Again, seriously thrilled to be among all of these incredible designers!

Created for Scraptown Lady with gorgeous Authentinque Papers!

Echo Park's Beautiful Life, love this line!

Another created for Scraptown Lady  with Graphic 45!

Fun with Gelatos and Simple Stories, a challenge for Inspiration Elevator!

Love this card, created for a Love Notes theme and published in CARDS magazine!

Just a fun challenge from My Mind's Eye!

More My Mind's Eye, created for The Scrapbooking Studio!

Lots of fun with Pebbles Products with this sketch challenge from Liz Chidester for Practical Scrappers!

Love this one for Practical Scrappers, On Trend Nautical Theme!

And I think this one is my very favorite, created for 

Practical Scrappers On Trend with Pie Charts.  I just love the sweetness of the photo!

To win this collection pack of Fancy Pants Blissful Blizzard just become a follower here and leave a comment telling me which project of mine was your favorite. You have until December 31 at midnight to leave a comment!  Good Luck!

Please hop through and enjoy all of their incredible work!
Your next stop is my friend, Marcia Dehn-Nix .  Her work is amazing!
  

Monika Wright 

Christine Meyer 

Suzanna Lee 

Ashley Horton

Jodi Wilton
Lisa Swift

 Cathy Harper

Marcia Dehn-Nix    

Lynn Shokoples  

Lissa Mitchell

 Juliana Michaels

Melissa Elsner 

Charissa Miller

Kelly Jean 

Ashley N Newell

Jennifer Haggerty

Laurel Seabrook

Krissy Clark

Kerri Yarus

Rhonda Van Ginkel

Malika Kelly

Merry Christmas!

Taking just a moment on this busy, busy Christmas Eve morning to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!  Enjoy!

I do believe Stella is the cutest reindeer ever.. I might be a bit biased though!

More fun with AC's Peppermint Express

Just a quick post to say Happy Friday and share a couple more projects with American Crafts Peppermint Express!

This is just a few extras from what I created with my goodies from The Scrapbooking Studio.

Have a great weekend and I hope you are all set for a

 Merry Christmas!

Sharing a couple of cards!

Love these lines from Pebbles..From Me to You and Front Porch!

I received both of these lines from 
The Scrapboooking Studio and couldn't wait to create!  Both lines have gorgeous papers and awesome embellishments! 
Love how these turned out..hoping for better photos as the day warms up!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Enjoy your day!

Inspiration Elevator Reveal

You may recall that the purpose of the Inspiration Elevator challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to mature as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. You can view all of the challenges at the Inspiration Elevator Blog.

We are thrilled to welcome guest artist Christy Riopel to Inspiration Elevator this month. You may recognize her work as she is a regular contributor/write for Canadian Scrapbooker magazine.  

December's challenge for us and for you comes from the uber prolific Laurel Seabrook. Here's the challenge she posed: 

My challenge for December. I love Christmas, everything about it. Decorating my house, making gifts, baking - I love it all. My challenge to you is what is Christmas to you? What is one thing that evokes special memories and truly brings out the Christmas spirit for you. It could be a decoration, photo, song, recipe. Perhaps it is a tradition that you did as a child and now your children do. Maybe it is in the 'special' dinnerware that comes out only at Christmas. Scrap it and tell us all about it. Now for those who don't celebrate Christmas, let's hear about a tradition that makes your celebration special.

Here is my take on the challenge...this is what Christmas is to me! My Christmas spirit is found in Alex's little people and this picture of Raini shares just how fun and special Christmas is for children. It's been a while since our kids were little and to see the wonder and surprise with little ones again is truly a blessing! Christmas through the eyes of children is magical.

Love this collection of Christmas papers and embellishments from American Crafts Peppermint Express!  

Would you like to see what the rest of our designers, and our guest designer, created with this challenge? Of course you would, so here are the links to each one's blog:

Laurel Seabrook
Jodi Wilton
Michelle Hernandez
Ann Jobes
Laura Whitaker
Lisa Moen 
Christa Uttley
Cathy Harper (thanks for visiting)
 Lisa Spiegel
Joanne Burton

Guest designer: Christy Riopel

I hope you feel inspired to play along with our challenge this month, and when you do, please share it using the linky tool on our Inspiration Elevator blog and/or our Inspiration Elevator Facebook page. We'd LOVE to see what you made!

Echo Park's Reflections Christmas layout

Super quick post just to actually get my blog updated.  Lots and lots of creating going on and just so much to do with Christmas on it's way!  Any way, just a quick layout too with some left overs that I had from a card class with this collection...Echo Parks Reflections Christmas!  I love the colors of this line!

Enjoy your day and stay warm if you are here in the freezing Midwest!

New Design Team..Yay!

So thrilled to have made the Quick Quotes Design Team and to be working with this talented team.  So fun to be creating with Rhonda, Dana and Susie again!

2014 Quick Quotes Design Team!

We are so excited to announce our 2014 Quick Quotes Design Team!

To say that we were blown away by the talent and the wonderful applications submitted for our design team search would be a complete understatement. It took some time, but we have selected our team and feel very honored that they have accepted.

For those that may not have been accepted for the team this time, we want you to know that we reviewed every single application and project submitted. Thank you for sharing yourselves and your work with us, it is a pleasure meeting you!

 

Emails will be going out to some of our applicants to be Guest Designers in the near future, so watch your email!

Thank you for your love of our products and continued support of Quick Quotes. It's going to be a fantastic year!!!

*****

 

Introducing…

 

The New…

 

2014 Quick Quotes Design Team

Barb Craft*

Cathy Harper

 

Dana Tatar*

 

Donna Coughlin*

 

Jennifer Sodowsky*
 

Rhonda Van Ginkel* (DT Coordinator)

 

Susie Bentz

Thander Aye

 *Returning Designers

We are so honored to have these wonderfully talented and amazing crafters on our 2014 Design Team! Thank you for accepting our invitation to join our team. A warm welcome back to our returning 2013 Design Team members!

Please take a moment to visit these talented ladies blogs and give them a friendly Quick Quotes welcome!

In conclusion, we want to graciously thank the 2013 Design Team members who are moving on for all of their beautiful work and contributions. We wish them our very best as they continue on to other crafting adventures.

November Publication in Scrapbook Trends

Just a quick post to share my November Publication in 

Scrapbook Trends!

A special thank you to Leah for always sharing her precious kiddos with me!

Have a great day today and stay warm!

Teresa Collin's Santa's List layouts

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend and enjoyed time with your family and friends!

I am sharing some layouts that I will be teaching in Pierre the middle of January with the gorgeous Teresa Collins Santa's List collection!  I will be teaching this at Scrappin Ladies so get signed up or let Lynne know if you would like a kit!

The class is January 11 and cost is $22.50...but you can order a kit through the store too!  $22.50 plus shipping~

605-224-1544 or scrappinladies@midconetwork.com!

Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by!

Echo Park's Reflections Christmas Cards

Today I thought I would share the 10 cards that I created for a community education class with 

Echo Park's Reflections Christmas collection!  You can

never go wrong when creating with Echo Park, everything falls together easily!  All the cards are super simple but everyone in the class loved them!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Pretty Little Studio's Nature Walk

Playing along this week with the Pretty Little Studio.  Love their stuff!  Such fun products...created this layout with Nature Walk Collection!

Thanks Mary for sharing these two precious little ones with me!

Authentique Traditions

I have a layout up on the Scraptown Lady Blog today with the new Christmas line from Authentique...Traditions!  I love creating with their papers...always great colors, patterns and textures. 

I used this sketch from Stuck Sketches Blog as my jumping point!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek!

Some Christmas Cards

Figured I better update my blog, I have been busy with some projects and totally forgot to blog something.  Oh well, it is that time of year.  

Sharing a few Christmas cards created with Carta Bella, Echo Park and Pink Paislee!

Thanks for taking a peek!

Inspiration Elevator Challenge...Back in Time

You may recall that the purpose of the Inspiration Elevator challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to mature as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. You can view all of the challenges at the Inspiration Elevator Blog.

We are thrilled to welcome guest artist Misty Russell and her eclectic, artistic style to Inspiration Elevator this month.

 November's challenge comes from the very talented Joanne Burton. Here's the challenge she posed:

"November's Challenge: Back in Time.  I love looking through old photos (or not so old photos!) and remembering the great memories that go along with them. Some pictures evoke a strong emotional response while others just bring a sweet smile to our face as we recall the details of when it was taken. With that in mind, I would like each of you to pick a favourite photo and go back in time! I want you to take your photo and actually revisit the place where the photo was taken. Then take a 'picture of the picture' in it's original setting and scrapbook your new photo. **If you are absolutely not able to revisit the place where the photo was first taken, then pick a favorite picture with lots of memories attached to it and scrapbook that. 

In either case, I want you to journal the story behind your photo. Make your journaling and photo come together in such a way that we feel like we are back in time with you!"


I struggled with this challenge...had no idea what to do and no access to photos that I could go back in time with...so I went a bit of a different direction.  I wanted to show the destruction of the gorgeous forest that I call home, so I dug and dug through tons of websites to find some before and after photos of the pine beetle destruction in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Took me forever to find photos and longer to get permission to use them.  They are not the greatest photos and you will have to click on the layout to see the devastation closely.  My heart breaks every time I that I return home.  It is truly devastating.

Journaling reads:

I grew up in the gorgeous Black Hills.  Mount Rushmore was literally 25 minutes from home.  The pine beetle destruction breaks my heart.  Even though it is a natural cycle of every forest it is gut wrenching to watch it be destroyed by a teenie tiny beetle bug.  Every time I return home a little more of my heart break as the cycle progresses.  The forest will never be the same breath taking place that I called home. So very sad!

 I hope you will stop by and see what the rest of the incredible Inspiration Elevator designers have created:

Joanne Burton 

Jodi Wilton 

Michelle Hernandez 

Ann Jobes 

 Laura Whitaker 
Cathy Harper

Lisa Moen 

Lisa Spiegel 

Guest Designer Misty Russell 

If you feel inspired to play along with our challenge this month, please share it using the linky tool on our Inspiration Elevator blog and/or our Inspiration Elevator Facebook page. We'd LOVE to see what you made!

Authentique Peaceful Selfie

Sharing a layout created with Authentique's Peaceful collection for Scraptown Lady,  My son sent me this adorable selfie of himself and his son...a bit frozen at the park!

Brrrr, but super cute!

I enhanced this collection using lots of black card stock and some help from Silhouette Cameo!

Thanks for stopping by!

Scraptown Lady Supplies

Authentique Peaceful Chill

Authentique Peaceful Frost

Authentique Peaceful Solitude

Perfect Pearls Forever Green

Glue Dots micro

November Layout Sketch at Practical Scrappers

Love this sketch by the amazing Liz Chidester for the 

November layout sketch  at Practical Scrappers!

I had so much fun playing with this collection from Pebble's called From Me to You and some chipboard pieces from their Front Porch line too!  Thank you to Leah for sharing this precious baby girl with me...check out those sparkling blue eyes!

Happy Friday!

The Scrapbooking Studio...my first post!

Sharing my projects today for The Scrapbooking Studio..yesterday was my first post on the blog for them!

I had so much fun creating with My Mind's Eye Cut n Paste collection...Flair.  You can see the original post here:

The Scrapbooking Studio Blog

Thanks for taking a peek!