Magpie Winners

Blogger doesn't like me today... :)
I have been so moved and inspired by your comments about being blessed left for the Magpie Giveaway. Here are the 2 lucky winnners:

Lori said...
I feel fortunate for some of the trials I have had lately. They have helped me to live more in the
moment, to be less concerned with what others think of me, to focus on how precious my
relationships are, especially with my husband and my
wonderful children.

Mandie said...
Listening to my kids giggle when they are talking to each other and playing. Making up their own little jokes and stories. Email me your address and have fun with these great Magpie Kits.

UPDATE: I am thrilled about everyone who signed up for my online class. The kits sold out fast! You can still take the class & use great stuff from your own supplies & we all know we have stuff to use.

PS Such a cute photo by Jefra at a Spark meeting... celebrating Margie's birthday!

Enter a SPARK giveaway ... ending soon. :)

mysteries of me

My first online class opens for registration today! It's a mini album titled, Mysteries of Me, which is quite fitting because we will be exploring interesting topics about ourselves & the album will be hidden/stored cozily inside the pages of a vintage book.

My goal for this class is to encourage you to record stories/memories/insights about yourself. Things that are simple but powerful in remembering your story. The class includes a list of questions and insights to give you a jump start.

This is a self paced course including:

-A private blog with 8 lessons posted daily.

-Detailed instructions & video tutorials.

-Free downloads & printables for the class.

-Also a live chat, giveaways, & a forum for questions & interacting with each other. (You will be invited to the forum within 24 hours of registering.)

-Class starts October 15th

I am also offering supply kits for Mysteries of Me (excluding the vintage book.) It will include the same handpicked supplies I used for my album. I only have a limited number of these!!! So, get them while they're hot! Keep in mind that some of the products will be slightly different than mine. (For example, the flowers are all very different & your metal flower center may have a different word than mine... little stuff like that. :) I do have several vintage books available for those of you who are interested in them, let me know.

Additional Supplies needed for class:

Paper trimmer, scissors, adhesive, paper piercer for brads. As well as Spray Adhesive, stapler, needle and embroidery thread or sewing machine, printer, exacto knife with sharp blade, ruler, modge podge adhesive, foam brush, 2" circle punch, pen, & vintage book with a spine of at least 1 1/4" & the book should be at least 5" wide x 7.5" high.

This class be great for all of us and I am excited to connect with you! Let me know if you have any questions.

Feel free to sign up. Registration is open today!!

my first class yipeee... sign up here

Magpie giveaway

Recently we drove up the canyon, with my sister & her family. There's something about being up in the mountains that rejuvenates me.

While we were enjoying the scenery & taking pictures in the middle of dirt & dried grass was this lush patch of clovers. I made my sister lay down to take a picture. Just like I tried to make her eat a hot dog when we were little (she's a vegetarian) but that's another story. Back to the beautiful glistening green... it was so lively & reminded me that although we all have our different trials & face tribulation...dirt... at the same time we are blessed & have lucky clovers that we can rest our head on. Mine come in the form of 2 sweet faces.

~~~

Today the gracious Tara from Magpie kit club is doing a giveaway of 2 kits!

It is a brand new kit company and her kits are very cool...! Full of lots of little treasures, fabric strips & a really cool mix of papers! My favorite part of her kit club is that she offers a Credit Crunch kit for $12.50. How awesome is that?! Also, check out Magpie's site because I love the design and the functionality of it-it's just plain cute!

To enter the giveaway share something that makes you feel lucky or blessed! Whether it's

simple or grandeur.

peekaroo

Oh, about that online class I'm doing... It's going to be quite cool. We will make a mini album filled with an eclectic mix of papers and textures. Write your thoughts by answering questions that define you. Including: What makes your heart sing? A time you cried. A time you laughed...

Each mini album will be hidden mysteriously in its own vintage book.

This is just a peek & a couple more tidbits of info to get you excited. Details to follow. Registration is Monday, September 28th. You should join me... it will be delightful!

mini miles

Shouldn't she still me using my nail polish as lipstick & riding roller skates around the house? Nope. My baby sister is actually all grown up. When did that happen?
To celebrate the upcoming arrival of my second niece--my mom, sister & I threw Ashley a baby shower. Great food, lovely guests & lots of pink presents.
Starting at the top left photo::: Ashley looks so stinkin cute for being due in a few weeks, but poor thing is SO uncomfortable. Her ribs are even dislocating... I keep telling her it will all be worth it I promise... just wait!
photo 2-3 Camille made the cutest favors out of fabric for all the guests with lip gloss & lotion inside. photo 4: A picture including my little brother Josh's girlfriend, Arianna, me, my older sis Camille, Ashley & my beautiful mom, Cindy.
photo 5: Chris, he'll be such a good daddy. Yes, he's tall. 6'11" to be exact.
photo 6: We printed out photos of Ashley & Chris when they were little and put them on Jones' soda pop bottles. photo 7: My sister makes the best spinach pie... mmmmmm!

When it was present time I asked everyone to please share some advice with Ashley when she opened their gift. Everyone was willing to share some wisdom & it actually was my favorite part of the shower. Mine was to 'sleep when the baby sleeps'... & I realized I should take my own advice when I have my next baby.
We are so excited for you Ash! You will be a great mommy... Can't wait to hold mini miles! xo 

& we also can't wait for baby Frame!

More information about my ONLINE class this week.
Here are a couple hints, the first class is a mini album & registration will open Monday, September 28th!!

nie nie

Amidst all my Saturday cleaning I opened my laptop to turn on some music and quickly skimmed through my google reader. When I saw my friend nie nie had posted I clicked on her link to see a picture and a link to a video she posted yesterday... Hope.

It's hard for me to find the perfect words to describe Stephanie. She has such strength and is truly one of the most wonderful woman I've ever known.

A little over a year ago her and her husband were in a plane accident and were severely burned. Not only has she survived but thrives and inspires. To think about everything she's gone through and continues to each day... astonishes me.

She's a light.

I am so humbled to call her my friend. Every time we get together I bask in her light & love... sometimes I don't want to leave. How she lives inspires me to be a better mother, wife, friend, sister, woman.

Some of the polaroids I captured when she hiked to the "Y" on her one year anniversary since the accident & invited everyone to join her.

Me on the left, Stephanie on the right with Leah & Katie

Here's the video with a beautiful message that Stephanie posted on her blog. Her and her daughters are in the second photo shown. turn off music in the sidebar =>

old & new

Recently I was looking through some of my old scrapbooks and I remember this page I did for my Scrapbooker of the year portfolio. Look at my widdle Avery! I love this page even though it's somewhat old. I love when pages transcend time, when they're not so much trendy & trite but timeless. Not saying that this page necessarily is, cause in a couple years I might die when I look at this, but I think Ali does a great job at that. It's nothing I necessarily worry about because creating is more of a game & excitement to me. Someday I will be grateful for my writing and the photos and will overlook anything that might bug me. Or at least that is my hope. :)
The number stamps, ribbon tape & letters in the word 'Flies' are from Martha Stewart.
Foam hearts & felt flowers are from American Crafts.
The wings & 'Time' are by Heidi Swapp.

Now for some fun news I will be doing an Online class!! It's been in the works for a while now. Boxes of supplies are now arriving to my home & I thought, hey, it looks like I'm really doing this. There will be more details to come on Monday so stay tuned!
Also, we announced our teachers over at the Spark site so check it out...

SOS girls

Yesterday I was faced with a harsh reality that Summer is pretty much over. The good thing is that it doesn't mean the Shades of Summer has to end... Keep them moving darlings and better yet if you have some yellow sunglasses from last year laying around in a cardboard box--open em up & have fun then send them on their way!

Every time I open a Shades of Summer email it makes me smile. Seeing my blog readers' faces, where you're from & a little peek into your life... is quite cool! I know we feel so comfortable behind the camera but it's so important to get photos of us too, even if it is while wearing some funky glasses. ;)

Thanks for playing along, my SOS girls!

Leave a comment with a shout out of where you ladies are from in the photo ... I know there are some in Arizona, Illinois, California, Texas & even Finland...

wiseguy

If there's one thing that's second nature to Collin that's his clever, witty remarks. I'm one of those people who would hope that some natural disaster would prevent me from public speaking... let alone making people laugh on top of that. But to Collin it's his flow and he loves it! He'd only been to 'open mic' in Salt Lake twice & they were so impressed they asked him to take 15 minutes that following Saturday at Wise Guys in Orem. There's no doubt I would've laughed my butt off if he'd got up there and told a few knock knock jokes--but of course he had better bits than that & everyone thought he was hilarious!

Part of our gang that night... Mostly everyone left before we took the photo but it was fun that so many people came to support him. Thanks! Way to go babe!

~~~

Here's a mini I made with The Girls Loft September kit. It's of Avery's first day at pre-school. I really wanted to get a lot of my thoughts down & what she might have been thinking that day. She was thrilled, enjoys her teacher, and loves being around other kiddos. Like I said in my previous post, it's only a couple days for a couple hours cause we'd miss her too much!

I loved covering the apple shaped mini album. I sewed the paper on the chipboard then I sewed around just the paper for the backside and glued it down. Yes, I sew through chipboard with my sewing machine... it's a real trooper.

Happy Monday!
PS Shades of Summer update next... the shades are moving (slowly but surely:)

a quickie

Just a quick hello... running out the door. Did I mention that Avery is in preschool? crazy. She loves it but thank goodness it's only a couple hours for a couple days a week cause we'd miss her too much! I'm a guestie over at The Girls Loft kit club this month. Such a cute kit! I'll share a cute apple shaped mini album next.
This 'delight' page was fun. I hand cut the flowers from vintage math book paper included in the kit. It was great to scrapbook & refresh my memory of mathematics equations I purposely blocked from my memory...

21 challenge

Recently I was looking through one of my old journals & I mean it was old. There were stickers of Nsync, if that helps you know the time frame.
My old-self kinda bugged me and how much I talked about boys... but one thing I noticed that I love was how often I wrote down my goals. Every few months I would have a list of things I hoped to accomplish (short & long term). Even though I rarely achieved them,ha, writing down my wishes is something I've thrived on. Probably because they guide and direct me to who I want to be. That's why I love Rhonna Farrer's 21 day challenge! I've attempted it in the past & this year I am motivated to do each day!! So, here's how it works...

You pick a goal or habit.
Rhonna puts together an inspiring quote graphic each day that we can put into an album, mini book, etc. I've worked on eating healthy (that was a bomb:), exercising (not so great that time either ha!), reading scriptures (whoops. ;)

It can be anything! I am going to decide by the end of today what my goal is but I did throw together my quote and added it to my ATC card holder. I used this ATC holder last time and I have a vision of filling it up with creative quotes--this year I will do it. Today's quote was a perfect start for the challenge...

"Don’t let fear of failure discourage you. Don’t let the voice of critics paralyze you—whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside. You are a great power for good. You will make the world a better place. Lift up your chin; walk tall. God loves you."
D.F. Uchtdorf

A cool technique you should try it to paint with Tim Holtz's crackle paint then spray glimmer mist to give it some shimmer. snap, crackle, pop!

Card holder display: 7 gypsies

Winner

The Scarlet Lime kit winner:::

Sherrie said...
Oh my gosh this kit is BEAUTIFUL!!!I have been wanting to subscribe to Scarlet Lime since it first came out but......I REALLY hope I win!!!Thanks for ALL your fun give-aways.Sherrie
September 1, 2009 6:06 PM

Congrats! Email me your addy! :)

i gotta feeling

Yesterday was delightful with a capital D. We got together with the Spark girls to film a fun promo video for our event! We each brought something to fill our baskets with. I sewed together a mini fabric banner to hang off the basket & handlebars, brought jars of buttons & flowers & my favorite vintage camera. I loved this idea... to fill our baskets with creative yumminess.

Rhonna, Jefra & Margie thanks for the fun memories, laughs, & singing "I gotta feeling... that tonight's gonna be a good night"♫ with me while we rode through the trees...
What would you fill your basket with?
Stay tuned next week for the spark feature presentation. :)
Check out our site to see our newest Spark Plugs including Bijou Market

PS As if the day couldn't get any better we met up with Heidi Swapp for lunch. She. Is. Amazing.

Sparks were flyin

I'm surprised that we actually get anything done at our Spark meetings, but we do. Usually I am the one cracking the whip and trying to keep us on track. A giddy side comes out when all 4 of us are at 1 table. 

Jefra snapped some fun moments while we planned. She has a killer special effects lens by Canon called "lens baby" & it is coooooool! 

My heart did a happy dance when I saw the photo of Rhonna on the top left. I couldn't believe Jefra captured that moment-you can see the sparks flying! (if you look really close.) But you have to attend to find out what all the excitement's about... Spark.

I'll announce the winner to the giveaway... soon.

oooooh & ahhhhh over Vintage Ruby (giveaway)

Let's celebrate the start of September with a giveaway! Scarlet Lime, you already know, is one of my favorite kit companies. Christy wowed me with this months kit! Vintage RUBY!! The name fits perfect. Try not to Drool over its goodness in the image below... It is Scarlet Lime's 2 year anniversary today & they launched their new website-which looks fabulous btw... and this month their main kit has exclusive papers, stickers, flowers, stamps & more! One of you lucky readers will get this beautiful kit sent right to your door. Don't you love how I spoil you...

You know I love cutting pieces from patterned paper & these flowers were no exception. They were dieing to be cut, rolled, folded and brought to life. The Main kit also comes with vintage cards that are great for layering and embellishing... I used the back of mine for a love note to Collin, then tucked it behind the photo. (see above)
Leave a comment to win a kit of your own!!