Brand New Queen and Company CHA-Summer Release

So, I promised I'd show you the projects that have kept me so busy recently, and now that the show has opened I can. Many of you know I design for Queen and Company, well, this is their latest release debuting at the Craft and Hobby Association Show today in Florida. They are releasing 2 new lines. A Fall/Halloween line and a Christmas/Winter line. They are also starting a new program where stores can order board samples to hang in their shops. These are actual layouts and cards, not digital reproductions. I had the pleasure of designing these boards. You can see what they will look like by scrolling down beneath the catalog images.

I had a lot of fun designing these and hope they do really well at the show! Here are some larger views of all my projects. First the Fall/Halloween line:

And here is a look at the Christmas/Winter line:

I especially like the new chipboard buttons, glitter brads and all the fun new felts! Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek at it all--and be sure to leave a comment on the post below to get a chance to win the give away :) Have a great day!

100th Post

Yay! I made it to 100 posts today! Took me a little over 2 years but I made it. Sadly it has to be a short one again as I have a million things to do today, but I wanted to at least post some layouts I did over the weekend. I'm trying harder to get more things scrapbooked as I never seem to get anywhere close to caught up--so these are a little more on the simple side for me, but I was happy with how they turned out :) Click to see them bigger and/or read the journaling.

This first one is about Spencer's recent fettish to eat everything (including this popcorn) with a spoon.

And a few photos of Ty's mother's day projects--he worked so hard to make my day special this year! And lastly, I finally got around to scrapbooking Spencer's 2nd birthday. Just a simple one, but I think it captured it well :) And lastly--to celebrate my 100th post I thought I'd share some good news. I will have my first cover this fall! Yay! That's my holiday wreath on the cover of the upcoming Holiday Idea Book. I'm so excited! I've never had any artwork on a cover before. If you want to help me celebrate leave a comment on this post by August 1st and I'll pick one person to win a copy of this book. (Keep in mind I won't have it in my hands till late fall--but I promise to send it out once I do!) I'm very excited about this book as it also has several of my favorite cards and projects in it--incluing that turkey card I gave you all a little peek at a few weeks ago.

Anyways--thanks for letting me share! Have a great day! :)

"Yes Your Majesty." and other Blake-isms

"Yes your Majesty." was Blake's grumpy reply to my request to go help Ty clean up the play room a few weeks ago. He walked upstairs so fast I almost wasn't sure of what I had heard. Marc was standing nearby when he said it and we both looked right at each other with the same "Did I just hear what I think I heard?" kind of look--then we both started laughing. I have no idea where that came from, it kind of flew in from left field. Granted they have both seen their share of Disney movies in their time so I'm guessing that's where it came from--still it was quite a surprise--and even though I'd love to think of myself as royalty--I'm glad he hasn't said that one again.

One thing he does say a lot is "That--b-breaks--m-m-y---heart!" (Imagine tiny violins playing in the background and picture him with giant tear filled eyes looking up at you to get the full effect of how he says it.) I hear this one about 4-5 times a day--usually after I tell him no, he can't have, eat, or play with something. (computer, junk food, his brother's toys, movies, extra snacks, new legos from the store, etc.) The other day he even brought me a blank piece of paper and asked me to draw his broken heart so he could color it.

I did not oblige.

And he has not asked me to do that again.

He seems to be picking up on the idea that this particular line isn't producing the desired results so he has recently added "It makes me soooooooooo sad when you say/do that." We will see if he has any better luck with this line. The other day he used it on Marc, "It makes me sooooooo sad when you eat all my food!" (Marc had just finished off a bag of chips Blake was particularly found of.) We both got a good laugh over that one.

It seriously cracks me up to hear the things he and Ty think up to say. For instance occasionally Spencer will get into their lego creations or other toys and Blake or Ty will say "Mom! Spencer needs to go take a nap!" Even if it is only 8 AM :)

Some of the things they say are not funny, but cute and endearing instead. At dinner time I often hear "Mom your a good cook!" Love that one :)

And I don't think I'll ever have a complex about they way I look as both Ty and Blake frequently say "Your so pretty Mom." Although sometimes I think they say that one because they know I'll follow it up by telling them how handsome they are :)

Of course they can be brutally honest sometimes too, such as when I asked Ty if he liked the layout I did of the two of us (see previous post). He leaned over to me and said "No, not really, mom, but I almost like it."

Oh well, I liked it anyhow :)

So in honor of my three crazy boys here are a few layouts of them, just click on them if you want to read the journaling.

Plus a little card I did with the scraps.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Quick Drive-By Post Again

Just a couple of quick project shares today...I've been crazy busy with trade show work the past week or so. I love this time of year--playing with all the new product is always super fun, but also sometimes exhausting and filled with some late nights as I finish up a couple of assignments with very fast deadlines. I wish I could show you what I was working on, but that will have to wait until sneak peek time--which should be sometime next week since that's when the show starts :)

In the mean time though, here is a little something I did using Melissa Frances's Attic Treasures line. I don't do monochromatic very often, but this project just seemed to call for it.

I had some more fun with those strip flowers, and lots of stitching.

Also, not long ago I was asked to come back to design for scrapbooks.com. I designed for them from Jan 2006- December 2008. I also managed the design team there for a couple of years and I really missed it; so I had no hesitation in saying YES!

These are my July projects for their gallery. I had a lot of fun playing with a bunch of brand new Basic Grey June Bug and Lemonade, also a bit of Cosmo Cricket Early Bird. You can click on them for a larger version or to read the journaling.

So anyways, that's it for today, but pretty soon I'll be able to post some CHA sneak peeks and show you what has kept me so busy lately :) Have a great day!

New sketches for today

Just a quick drive by post for today. 2 new sketches. There will also be two other sketches going up at scrapbooks.com on August 1st. If you do one of those be sure and post it on scrapbooks.com as it will enter you for a chance to win a gift certificate to their amazing superstore :) I'll post them here as well with a link to the post at scrapbooks.com when we get to August 1st. As one other side note. I was lucky enough to get one of my sketches and accompanying cards picked up recently. It will be my first sketch in print :)

As always feel free to use them how ever you like. Just please don't try to sell them or claim to have made them yourself. Enjoy :)

Did you have a good fourth?

I hope so! I know we did. But before I get to that, I had a few trip and vacation photos to share. First off, on our 4th attempt to go down to the Houston Space Center (we actually started calling it the-place-that-shall-not-be-named, just so we wouldn't jinx ourselves) everything worked out just fine, and we had a great time. They currently have a George Lucas exhibit there which was a lot of fun to explore. Blake was fascinated by these guys, but wouldn't stand near them. Spencer as you can see, didn't care for them either and flat out refused to turn around for the photo. Still we had a great time. My favorite part was taking the tour over to Space Command. We had a great guide there who gave a very fun and informative speech about the missions directed out of the room we were in. Very cool stuff. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones exhibits were big hits with the boys, especially the blaster training.

Just a few days later we packed up and headed to Six Flags Over Texas, which was a pit stop on our way up north to spend the holiday weekend with Marc's family. We went last summer too and had such a great time we knew we had to make in a yearly affair. It was crazy hot and humid, but since it was a Wednesday, there were practically no lines. We walked onto almost every ride and even went around and around without getting off of some of them. We had a blast and can't wait for next year.

You can't tell from the photo but Blake and Ty were in a serious fight during this ride. Ty wanted to go up and Blake wanted to go down so they spent the entire ride yelling at each other. Very embarrassing. Next time they get their own plane.

Don't they look soooooo happy in this one? To bad their car didn't work and they spent the next few minutes after this photo in extreme frustration. We tried again though and this time they each got a car that worked. I don't think Blake understood the concept of bumper cars to well though. Every time someone rammed him he would yell "Hey! Don't hit me!" at the top of his lungs. Well, at least he was very entertaining to some of the other parents waiting for the ride to end. I heard a lot of chuckling from a gentleman behind me. Again, very embarrassing.

We had more success on the Mini Mine Train. The boys rode it over and over again with their grandparents. It even helped Ty gain the courage to do the full sized version of the Mine Train with me.

Spencer tolerated the rides okay, but I think his favorites were these swings, the carousel, and the Yosemite Sam boat ride.

By the end of the day we were all pretty tired. Collectively we went on just about everything at the park, and we were starting to show it. Still, it didn't stop us from going on this ride about four times. Ty and Blake just loved this one.

And of course, we met a lot of characters too. The most exciting of which was Batman and Robin. Except the boys didn't know who Robin was... we are going to have to educate them on that. Blake did ask Batman if he had a girlfriend--and it has been confirmed that he is now dating Wonder Woman.

After all our fun at Six Flags we spent the rest of the long weekend with Marc's family. We spent the morning of the forth at the parade playing with cousins, eating Krispy Kreams, and catching candy and prizes, then swimming in the afternoon, followed up by birthday celebrations for Marc who is now 31, and lastly watching the fireworks display from the driveway. All in all a great day! It is really fun having someone in the family with a 4th of July birthday. Such a great day to have a birthday. You always get it off, there is always something fun to do and lots of family to be around. I think Marc hit the birthday jackpot :)

Here is Blake showing off his standard winky smile.

They all loved these flags their grandmother got them. We only had to tell them to stop using them as swords/lightsabers/weapons of any kind about 10 times.

Spencer was there too of course, but he remained strapped to his stroller as he is in a pretty good "run away" stage right now. As in the minute his feet hit pavement he runs away. That would not have been a great thing at this very busy parade.

And from later that day, Marc's favorite--German Chocolate Cake.

The birthday guy--as Blake and Ty called him all day.

Marc was pretty excited about these water balloons from his nieces, but hopefully he will enjoy my present too--a BYU vs. Oklahoma ticket--anyone else around here going? :)

And a few swimming pictures from that afternoon too.

These boys love to be in the water. Their swimming is coming along pretty good too, especially Ty, who can now easily swim the length of this pool.

And before I go, here is a little something I came up with for my wall for the forth of July. One last cupcake--for now at least. They are very fun, but I hate waiting for the stickles to dry :) I'm not a very patient scrapper! These are all Melissa Frances papers, from her Little Guy line, the brads are all Queen and Company, and the font is a 2peas font.

And thanks to all my well wishers about the Cosmo DT call. I didn't get it this time, but I'm by no means discouraged. I'll be trying again next year. And congrats to all the very talented and deserving finalists. I had a lot of fun looking at everyone's projects!

Have a great day everyone--and be sure to stop by tomorrow if you'd like to see some new sketches. :) I gotta run now. I need to get ready to spend some time with DH before he runs off to scouts tonight. We are celebrating our 9th anniversary today :) Wow--that was a very fast 9 years! And I can't wait to enjoy many, many more with my fantastic guy :)