My boss, while still in the Army, had to endure the heartache of her baby girl having open heart surgery. I wanted to give her something special in hopes of putting a smile on her face during such a scary time.  I pooled together with my coworkers and we came up with this idea and I had the honor of putting it together!  

McKenzie is the baby's name.  Her nursery is done in shades of purple with butterfly accents!  I wanted something that she can have as an adult as well.  I thought a monochromatic LO would be perfect for something like this!  

 I really liked the idea of   Using silver accents with this.  I liked how subtle it was, yet still giving a nice pop of color.

Ok!  Here is what my new space looks like so far!  I'm so excited about it!  It's turning out perfectly!  I got so lucky with the cabinets!  I found them for a steal on a "yard sale" Facebook page for my town.  I got them all for $200!  My husband installed them all for me and then made the custom countertops!  They're awesome.  I have soooo much space for storage, cabinets are actually empty!  I still have quite a bit of work to do, but it's at least functional for now!  Yay!  So, the first picture is my big work space!  Most of everything I use on a daily basis is right here in the drawers and cabinets.  I can take pics of how I've stored everything inside if ya'll would like to see.  

The next pic, here of the window is where I'm going to keep all of my paper racks and my printer.  The hubs is currently working on a way for me to "stack" the paper racks.  What's on there now is a "prototype" as he likes to call it.  So, hopefully he can get that worked out for me.  I got the paper racks a while back ago when a friend of mine closed down her scrapbook store here in town.  She sold them to me for super cheap!  It was a great steal!

Over in this corner is where I will keep my new, fancy sewing machine that was my "out of the Army" gift from my husband.  I absolutely love it!  It's so easy to use and can do so many different things.  I've only done a few things with it so far.  I made the boys kilts and sashes for Halloween.  They wanted to be "Braveheart" for Halloween. It was surprisingly easy.

With this pic, I simply wanted to just show the curtains a bit.  I actually made these on my new machine the other day.  I fell in love with the fabric that I found a Joann's for 50% off!  It took me all of about 20 minutes!  It was so much easier than I expected it to be and the machine made it go so fast!

Well, there ya go.  That's my new space for now.  I will post updated pics once I get more done, or when it is finished.  Hopefully this week I can get some pics posted of some of the projects I've done recently.  

Ok! So I'm finally back online!  It's been a long time and it's been crazy!  We've moved into a new home, I'm out of the Army and im pregnant again!  I'm due in January with a little girl!  We are super excited!

Since beingg in the new house, my hubby has helped me start putting together an awesome studio/office for me!  It's almost finished, but not quite.  I can at least start working in there now!  I'm so happy to finally have a space to work/scrap/craft in!  It feels amazing.

I will post some pictures of the new digs asap as well as some of the small projects I e been able to get done here and there!  It's good to be back!

Change of perspective...

It's been an interesting year so far this 2014.  Recently I've discovered I have some unexpected "fans" of my blog, my scrappy work and my life in general.  After doing some thinking on the matter, I've decided to jump back into my wonderful world of glittered memories!!  My wonderful husband and I have FINALLY reached a point in our lives where we can truly move forward with everything!  Nothing stands in our way any longer!  It's such an amazing feeling!  No matter what life tries to throw at us, we will ALWAYS persevere and come out of it on top!  We've learned over the years that nothing can poison our relationship because, just like the fairy tales boast, true love conquers all and breaks all the curses!  Now, I will get off my soap box!  It's good to be back!  Will give a quick synopsis of the past several months shortly...stay tuned!

Hey guys!  I'm happy to show you my most recent TP Mini!  I'm really liking these a lot!  I have at least two more to do before Christmas!  This one was for another swap on scrapbook.com!  I have a few pics that I have to edit yet and a video.  The video is kind of quiet because I had just gotten my LO down for a nap after a fussy day.  Anyways....hopefully you can get the gist of it and enjoy!  Thanks for checking it out!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4VrBPMmQ8Y

First TP mini album!!

Here is my first TP mini album.  It was a lot of fun to make.  It was done for a swap over on scrapbook.com.  I'm now hooked on them and am working on another one with plans for several more!  Unfortunately I forgot to take up close shots of this before mailing it out, but the next one will have them!!
I do have a video uploaded however.  Here is the link:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=c4-feed-u&v=dulX6ofLZNE

My beautiful son was born on July 8, 2013 after a long induction.  He weighed 8lbs, 15oz and was 22.5" long.  We named him Asa Declan Quinn.  He is the light of my life!  

Altered Paint Brush

So, there has been all kinds of talk about these little pretties!  I decided I wanted to try my hand at them.  I actually am hosting a swap over at scrapbook.com for these.  So far all the ones I've seen are absolutely gorgeous!  The two categories I chose were steampunk and Spring.  The two below are the two that I came up with to swap.
These were so much fun to make!  I will definitely be doing this again!

My first ATC

 

I decided a while back ago to try out my hand with making ATC's.  It seems to be a fun, new trendy thing to do, and I have to say.... I really liked it!  I made this one with some cardstock in a coral color, stamped it and then used white embossing powder.  I then stamped again and used some perfect pearls for the time piece.  The embellishments are just some lace and ribbon with a couple paper roses and a butterfly punch.  I really like doing these. 

 

 

 

 

 

My beautiful baby boy Asa!  We can't wait to meet you!  I'm so in  love with you I can hardly stand it!  When daddy and I saw you on the screen during this ultrasound, you seemed so eager to say hi and let the world know that you are in fact, a BOY!  We are so excited!  You look so healthy and BIG.  Your birthday is quickly approaching.  Only about 8-10 weeks left if you come on time. 

 

For this LO, I used the beautiful Scraps of Darkness January kit.  It was meant for me and these pics of my boy.  I also used some glimmer glam in mermaid and lots of glimmer mists.  There is some molding paste for texture as well.  The heart was made using the Tim Holtz sizzix die Heart Wings.

 

 

 

LO Inspired by Luvleescrappin

So, I found this video on YouTube and was awestruck by how awesome it was.  I wanted to try one of my own.  I've NEVER done anything like it before, so I thought it'd be fun.  So, here is a link to the first video of the series, and pics of my project...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub1uIWmccQU   ~Sweet November~

Here is my version...SOOOOOOOO not the same, but not bad for a first timer I think.

 

Here is my beginnings after I glued down all the pieces I wanted and then Mod Podged and Gesso'ed the crap out of EVERYTHING.... Really kind of fun.

 I had a blast finding all these different little pieces

I, of course, had to add an Army button from one of our dress uniforms.  We have so many!

And here is what it looks like all finished.  I will be framing it a little later on today.  I will add a photo afterwards.

 

 

Just a quick announcement....  There's a GREAT giveaway happening right now over at
http://bluefernstudios.blogspot.com/  Blue Fern Studios.  They're giving away some awesome chipboard pieces.  They're absolutely beautiful!  You've got to go check them out and sign up for the giveaway!  Have fun!

Finally...

Well, it looks like I'm finally starting to get back into the swing of things.  I've started scrappin' again, doing challenges on sb.com, and making my husband crazy by altering everything I can get my hands on.  I've very recently been inspired by a YouTube.com video I watched made by luvleescrappin.  I'm sooo excited to try her technique on a LO.  Hopefully it will turn out ok.  I will post pictures asap!!  Now, time to get caught up on everyone else's blogs...lol. 

I'm Back and Draggin' Butt!!!

Well, it's good to officially be back, but man do I feel lost in the sauce.  I feel like I've missed sooo much!  Now that I've settled back into normal life, I've realized that I've been out of the loop for so long, I have no mojo!!!  What does a girl do?  

Birthday Cake

I was asked by a friend of mine to make a birthday cake for one of our mutual friends last week!  I was so excited about it because it's the first time anyone had actually ASKED me to make a cake.  Usually I just take it upon myself to do them every now and again.  I was nice to be actually asked!  I was pretty happy with the outcome of it, even though I think it was far from perfection, it worked!  Especially since the recipient and the rest of the group were a bunch of military vets and bikers...lol.  They just wanted it to taste good, and hoped that it went with whatever "beverage" they were drinking at the time!  None the less, I couldn't help but try to make it "pretty".  They loved it, and it tasted great!  I managed to steal some great shots as well, and wanted to share them!  Hope you enjoy!

I was astonished by how well the food coloring I used dyed my counter tops in this process....

 I couldn't help but giggle at how the little beaded molds looked like red caterpillars before they were finished!

 I tried to "emboss" the black fondant to make it look like a leather vest... I actually used a leather vest to do this...lol.  Ingenious, I know.  ;)

Here's a decent side view.  The fondant was still wet, so it unfortunately has a shiny glare to it in this photo.

 Another close up of the sides to show how I tried to emboss and wrinkle it a bit to simulate the leather vest.

Gotta have the birthday boy with his cake of course!  He loved it!

 But then, just like a man, destroyed it with hi own "special" touches!  Yuck!  Candles...in fondant!!!!

And of course, what biker birthday bash ins't complete without spiderman and rainbow colored party napkins!!!

 At least he actually lit the candles and was able to blow them all out quickly before the cake melted!  Yay! Go Max!



LO of the Month!!!

I'm so excited to announce that one of my LO's has been featured as LO of the month over on the Scraps of Darkness blog!  I was so excited to see the announcement!  I'm extremely flattered!  I want to extend a HUGE thank you to the lovely ladies over there at SoD!  You ladies are too sweet!  Thank you soooo much! 

You can view the announcement here on their blog:
http://scrapsofdarkness.blogspot.com/2011/10/september-layout-of-month.html?showComment=1318361773208#c4425149653575071152

If you're not already a follower of their blog, you should definately check it out some!  It's a fantastic blog and a fantastic kit club!

Here are some photos of the paper bag album that I'm working on.  I'm making it for my future MiL!  It's a little different than what I usually do, but I really wanted to give this a try, and so far, I love it!  I'm using the Mariposa paper.  I picked it up at Hobby Lobby!

Here is the outside cover

The first two pages with tags

One of the smaller pages with a zipper pocket that I made.  Still have to make tags to put in it.

 One of the other smaller pages that I did with one tag in it already.....

This is definately a work in progress, but definately enjoy doing it!

Here is the LO I did for the Skeletons in the Closet challenge over at Scraps of Darkness.  For this month, it's Who are you when no one is looking?  When I asked Aaron about it and wanted to know what he thought, he laughed and said I was terribly messy!  It's definately something that I would've never chosen!  I don't think I'm all that messy, but when he laid it all out for me, it really did make perfect sense.  I can take store bought cookie dough that's already cut and ready to put on a cookie sheet and bake, and destroy the kitchen with it!  LOL!  I did it last night in fact!  My scrap room is always tornado alley whenever I complete a page.  So, after all that being put into perspective for me, Messy was the perfect title for me!  I wanted this LO to depict my messy-ness, so I took some Tim Holtz distress ink refills and "threw" them all over the page.  I also tried to make my masks and stamps as careless and messy as I can be sometimes.  After finishing with this one, I was really happy with it.  It's very simple, but depicts me perfectly! 

 Here's a quick close up of some of my embellishments and the brick masking that I did with the distress ink!

 Here are some of the chippies I received from a RAK from craftysprinkles a little while ago.  I altered them with some mixed media ink and some Shimmerz Paintz Enamelz.  I love the way they look!

 And, here is my title.  I took the letters from my stash and then "messied" them up with some mixed media ink and some glimmer mists.

Scrap that Title Challenge!!

Over at Scraps of Darkness, the lovely Lisa has put together the Scrap that Title challenge for this month.  The title is "Souless".  I had a little trouble with this challenge because the first thing that came to mind was things like demons and such.  I couldn't quite bring myself to scrap something like that and put it on my wall, so I googled it to see what would come up.  This picture popped up and I knew instantly it had to be mine!  The photo was perfect for this challenge I thought because it expressed what the title asked for, and it wasn't too creepy or off the wall.  It fits my style perfectly, which is more an elegant, grungey darkside.  The photo is a very beautiful, elegant darkside photo.  Hope you enjoy it!

Here's a close up of a chippie that was sent in the kit.  I altered it with Shimmerz Paintz Enamelz and then added some cinnamon stickles with some pumpkin smooch accent ink!

A close up of the flower cluster I did with some of the awesome prima branches that were sent in the kit as well.

I used some of the letters from the Sept. kit and sprayed them with some yellow glimmer mist and red smooch ink mist.