Happy New Year... With a Recap of My Top Ten Layouts of 2011!

Happy New Year 2012!  I do hope everyone had a terrific and memorable holiday season!  We had a very nice and low-key  New Year celebration ourselves... did some fun outlet shopping and enjoyed eating a delicious meal at one of our latest favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse.  And of course we couldn't help but join in with the countdown to the ball drop in Times Square!  But, I have to say, I am really looking forward to getting back to some normal routines and schedules around here!  And I have missed scrapping and crafting.  Sure, I did squeeze in some bits of time in between all the hustle and bustle, but I am ready to get down to some serious business, lol!  I guess that first means I need to clean up my craft room which is a total wreck!  Here's proof...

Such a disaster!  I can't possibly create til it's back to order.  So this week I will be doing some major organizing and purging. 

  So, does anyone have any scrappy or crafty goals for the year ahead?  I know I was completely blessed in 2011 by reaching some awesome publication goals!  The most awesome aspect as far as the publications was that I had projects featured in every single issue of Northridge's Cricut magazine which debuted this past February.  I'm also excited that I will also have projects featured in all the upcoming 2012 issues thus as well!  And of course the number one crafty thing that excited me for 2011 was that I joined the Core'dinations Cardstock DT.  What a great and rewarding ride that has been.  I must say that I will make it my primary goal to continue on with Core'dinations for a very long time... I love and believe in this company and their products sooo much! Core cardstock has totally improved the look and the way I craft!  And, as far as other fun goals to aim for... I sure wouldn't mind being featured as a cover girl!  I really would be stoked to have a project of mine featured on the cover of a Cricut magazine!  Wow, what a thrill that would be for me :)

 For today I also  want to join the other blogger scrappers who have shared their Top Ten layouts of the past year, 2011 on their blogs!  I wanted to do this the previous year but never did, so I thought I would get it done this time around.  As I was looking back through my files though, I realize that I probably didn't do as many pages this past year as I did cards.  The card making bug had really hit me pretty hard, lol.  Also, various pages which I would have loved to share as favorites have been out for publication too, which is a good thing, but I just can't show here right now. 

Okay, so here goes... my Top Ten Fave pages for 2011 are...

* TIS THE SEASON *

- Using Webster's Pages and featuring Gemstones Core'dinations cardstock.

* EAGER BEAVER GROUNDHOG *

- Nikki Sivils product with a mix of Core'dinations cardstock.

* VALENTINE MANTLE DECOR *

- A hybrid page using Chris Hertel designs and lots of Cricut cuts.

* LOVE INSPIRATIONAL & UNCONDITIONAL *

- My Mind's Eye product with MME and Vintage Core'dinations cardstock.

* OUR WEE PUNKINS' *

- No cardstock, mix of My Mind's Eye collections.

* SUMMER BLOOMS! *

- My Little Shoebox product with Core'dinations Whitewash cardstock.

* LIVING PROOF *

- Basic Grey Out of Print collection with BG Whimsy and Ornate Core'dinations collections.

* ENJOYING TALL TIMBERS *

- Pink Paislee Nantucket collection with Pink Paislee Modern Prints Core'diantions collection.

* TOGETHER *

- Basic Grey Nordic Holiday with BG Ornate Core'dinations cardstock.

* WINTER WONDERLAND*

- Basic Grey Nordic Holiday collection with a mix of Core featuring Glitter Silk and Vintage.

That's it!  Now I just maybe inspired to share my Top Ten cards of 2011... in some other post!  Enjoy the rest of the week... I'm already looking forward to Friday!

A Sketch At Nikki Sivils!

Howdy!  Hope everyone's had an enjoyable weekend.  Hard to believe it's about wrapped up... those Sunday evenings sure do come around quickly when you don't want them to, lol! 

I had big intentions of doing a lot of scrapping this weekend, but somehow those intentions didn't amount to much at all between catching up on the loads of laundry, sweeping the floors and cleaning out closets.  The Nook was having their May virtual crop all weekend long and they had 29 challenges listed.  I really had hoped to do many of them... I wrote them all down too and was thinking about which challenges to attack first.  In reality though, I was only able to produce one layout for the #12 challenge to "Go Wild About Animals".  At least I did finally get these pix scrapped from last summer when we had a little thief amongst us... a sneaky groundhog who kept burrowing it's way into our garden to feast upon our veggies.  For this page, I used some of the adorable Beatrice papers from Nikki Sivils and also used the sketch from the Nikki Sivils blog to try to earn a Guest Design Team spot. 

And here's the sketch...

I also used a variety of Core'dinations cardstock here and the Paper Lace and Sweethearts Cricut cartridges. 

Okay, that's it... that's all I got done, so it's all I've got to share for this time.  Ohh, I almost forgot though, I also wanted to share that I had some fun scrappy happy emails this past week as well... I had one card requested for the Oct. CARDS issue as well as four other projects picked up for the Oct. issue of Cricut, so of course those really made my week super exciting!  And did you know that the Cricut magazine has gone monthly now instead of bi-monthly?!  I'm really stoked about that! 

Well, I do need to be on my way... Monday morning will be here before I want it to and I've got to go to work.  It is nice to be working outside of the home part-time again, but I don't think I can ever get used to and enjoy the Monday morning routines!  Hope everyone has a great week :)