OMG!!!!

Can I just say that I have been waiting a long, long while for one such manufacturer to announce their latest creative design team call, but it seems as of today, I need not wait anymore!  For those of you who really know me, then you know that it has been a dream, but most of all a goal for me to one day design with Fancy Pants Designs!!  Can I just stress how over the moon I am with FP products?!  I just love everything and anything that they put out, and yes, I really, really want to be a part of their creative team so badly!  So, if you too are interested in joining the Fancy Pants team, you can check out their call HERE!  Now that the call is actually on the doorstep, I admit that I'm scared to submit, but I won't chicken out!  Having tried two other other previous calls of theirs and having received two honorable mention spots from them, I am hoping, as the saying goes, that three times is the charm!  Please, please think happy positive thoughts for me as I make the decisions on what exactly to submit now! 

Onto other things for the week... it was fun to see my card featured over at the create: blog this past week!  The weekly card challenge was to create a star shaped card.  I love stars so I had fun playing around with this one.

I started this one by wrapping a Magistical Memories star shaped chipboard frame with some green dotted sheer ribbon and went from there. 

 AND, I just found out that I won the "Bring Your Friends" contest at For The Luv of Art.com!! Sooo fun... I recruited many of my friends, 15 of them in total I believe, to the site!  I will be getting a free kit of Norma's at FTLOA, so I am looking forward to checking out the Sept. kit when she debuts it on the 10th! Ohh, and I was even given a crown and named "Queen of Recruitment"!  Lol!   To all my friends that have joined me over at FTLOA now, thanks for coming on over!   I've enjoyed seeing you all there with us and I do hope you'll stick around! 

OK, I'm off and on my way to Lowe's.  I've decided to do some re-decorating of my scrap room and I'm starting on some of the accents so I need to make a run for some Colonial Red spray paint.  Hope they have some!  :)  Enjoy the rest of the week... tomorrow is the weekend already!

Yay, for fun scrappy news!

Exciting week so far for the scrappy stuff!  First, I found out that I won a blog drawing for the brand new "Happy Hauntings" Cricut cartridge over at Bitten by the Bug 2!  BBTB2 was celebrating their 1000 follower to their blog last week and had several giveaways to celebrate.  Memory Miser was their sponser for the Cricut cart that I won... sooo huge THANKS to Memory Miser AND BBTB2!  I will enjoy my new Halloween cart for sure!  I'm even shocked that it was delivered to me in today's mail already... that was fast service, Memory Miser!!

AND for other fun news, I just found out Monday night that I'll be joining the design team for "Let's Capture Our Memories" for the Fall!  I am thrilled to be able to do some new dt creating!! DT work really gets me motivated and I look forward to getting to know the scrappers over at LCOM better!  Woot!  Thanks for letting me share my scrappy joy! 

Before I go I thought I'd share with you one of my latest pages...

I had entered this page in my BoBunny dt entry.  The photos are from last year's Bloomsburg Fair, which will be here next month!  I'm soo excited for the Bloom Fair... I look forward to walking around and smelling and eating all the fair food practically all year long! Can not wait!!

Squeezin' In Some Play-Time!

Hello, and Happy Friday everyone in blog-land! So nice to say that.  It's actually another cloudy rainy day here in PA, but for some reason I don't really mind... I believe it's cuz I'm suddenly really getting in the mood and frame of mind for Fall!  Yep, I was at Wal-Mart the other day and to my delite they had the shelves stocked with their Fall scented candles, and I happily grabbed a few!  Right now I have a roast cooking away in the crock-pot getting ready to make some good BBQ pulled pork and I'm burning my Cinnamon Bun candle so this house smells heavenly! 

I'm at home today... didn't get to travel to Joyce's for our Friday scrap day!  I'm hosting a little picnic here tomorrow for my mom and a bunch of her old high school besties, so I stayed here today to get some cleaning done and to prepare the pulled pork and some other stuff!  But, I did manage to make a little time for me today to create... I just couldn't resist the urge, afterall, when that spark hits, you gotta run with it!

So here's a fun card I made today during my "play-time"! 

There's a card challenge going on over at "Let's Capture Our Memories" to make a card using a die-cut of some sort, and I don't let chances to play with my Cricut pass me by too often, so I grabbed my Life is a Beach cart and new Life is Good Echo Park collection and got to creating! 

Are you looking for a place to scrap this weekend?  If you are, you don't need to leave the convienence of your home!  Simply Obessed is having their on-line "Scrap That Vacation" crop.  There are tons of challenges posted and you just maybe able to score one of their Birthday presents since it's SO's 3rd Birthday and they are giving the gifts instead of receiving! ;)  I hope to be able to scrap it up some there on Sunday if I get the chance, so it would be great to catch you all there too! 

And... one more thing before I go...

Have you all been looking for a great place for crafty inspiration?  Do you need a new scrappy home on the internet?  Do you enjoy beautiful customized kits (and kits that include equally wonderful customized stamps)?  Do you enjoy getting to know more and more scrappy and crafty friends who "feel" as though you've known them your entire life?  If you can answer yes to all of these, then why don't you head on over to For The Luv of Art.com!!! I mean it... do it as soon as you can!  I have been a member over there since Norma opened up her site in June and it is just an awesome place to be!  Everyone is so friendly and welcoming and talented and Norma's kits are truly beautiful and fun to create with... plus she designs her own acrylic stamps in the kits (just take a looksie at this new August kit)!  We would love to have more friends to come and join us there at FTLOA, and I would LOVE to have all my scrappy friends come join me there!  So please... do me a favor and come on over and register and join in with all the fun!  And if you do... please mention on your registration that I, Andrea Amu, sent YOU!!  I could possibly win a free FTLOA kit... and I would have all my friends to thank for it!  I would really, really enjoy being able to hang out with you all at FTLOA!  Yay!  I seriously hope to see you all there!  Remember that I sent you... the more, the merrier!  :D

It's a Par-Tay Up in Here and We R Blog Hoppin'!!

Yes, that's right... time for another fabulous blog-hop... who doesn't love one of those?  And for this one we are hoppin' to celebrate a very special 3rd Birthday!

Yup, Simply Obsessed is celebrating HER 3rd Birthday... woot-woot... perfect cause for a Par-tay!  So grab yourself an early morning cup o' joe or a diet dr. pepper perhaps (whatever gets you going), and prepare to be inspired with various ways to celebrate a birthday in style!  The SO Design Team as well as SO community members like me have come up with many great ideas to share, so be sure to check them all out.  The best part is that the party doesn't end here with the hop! Simply Obsessed is also celebrating with one of their famously fab on-line crops throughout the entire weekend, hosted by DT Member Jenny! She has fabulous games and super fun challenges prepared for this fun~tastic Birthday weekend!  Of course, what would a Birthday Celebration be without GIFTS??  Rather than us receiving the gifts for our birthday, YOU will! The more you participate, the better chance you will have of getting one of the MAGNIFICENT presents we have waiting to be opened! You WILL want to join us if you are wanting to scrap it up this weekend!  Hope to see you there! 


Okay, let's get this party started... you should have reached my blog from Brandi's blog! If not, please start at the beginning with the Simply Obsessed blog and work your way through, to the end. 


Here is the entire list of SO participants for your convienence...

SO blog    http://www.soscrapbookingkits.blogspot.com/
Susan       http://susan-memoriestolastalifetime.blogspot.com/
Stacy       http://sassynsweetscrappin.blogspot.com/
Ronda      http://ronda-no-h.blogspot.com/
Angie       http://mylittleblessings123.blogspot.com/
Janet        http://janetsjoy.blogspot.com/
Joyce       http://1ashjoy.blogspot.com/
Brandi      http://brandilynpitts.blogspot.com/
Andrea    http://imlivinonscraps.blogspot.com/   (YOU ARE HERE)
Jenny       http://scrappinjen-partyoffive.blogspot.com/
Julie         http://scrappinawaytheday.blogspot.com/
Lisa         http://www.createfor7.blogspot.com/
briannalm  http://www.jillofallcrafttradez.blogspot.com/
Karry       http://karryweaver.blogspot.com/
Shana      http://www.yayaprincessblog.blogspot.com/
Nicole      http://scrapmethis.blogspot.com/
Sarah       http://www.scrapcetera.com/
Barb       http://supermamascraps.blogspot.com/
Mo        http://momostamper.blogspot.com/
Pam       http://www.pamelamann-creativityunleashed.blogspot.com/
Misty     http://mommyof5kidz.blogspot.com/

For my party favor I'd like to share a Birthday card design idea with you all!

My hubby's birthday was this week so I wanted to make him a card, and I don't know about you all, but for me it's often difficult to come up with a masculine design!  So I had some negative scraps of patterned paper laying on my table which I had cut using my Cricut.  I was using a sheet of Block Party pp from BoBunny which happened to have a masculine feel with the brown tones.  I had previously cut stars out of this paper for another project, and then I got to thinking that the negative scrap of stars would look great on a birthday card for him.  I cut the negative piece into  perfect edges and then adhered it to the front of a cut and folded kraft card base. 

I then cut out my Happy Birthday sentiment with the Cricut Don Juan font and adhered the letters to the front.  I completed the card easy peasy with some BoBunny buttons and bling!  The perfect, simple card for a guy on his Birthday! 

I hope you are enjoying the SO blog-hop, and now you can go check Jenny's blog and see what for fun party favor she has for you!  And remember to keep partying with us this weekend at the SO "Scrap That Vacation" on-line crop that will begin on this Friday, Aug. 13th!  You can sign yourself up in HERE! 
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Simply Obsessed!!!

Some CHA Cards That Didn't Get To CHA-CHA!

Hey there! Wow, it's Tuesday already... I was thinkin' for a moment we were still on Monday, as it's been one of those days.  It's dreary outside and lately I've just been feeling a little gloomy on the inside myself!  But, I keep reminding myself that there are better days ahead... just got to believe that!  So, to add to the gloom and doom, lol, thought I'd share some of the card projects that I did in anticipation of going to the CHA tradeshow this past week in Chicago... but unfortuately they didn't get to make their CHA debut due to the Couture Cardstock dt being let go!  I was assigned a few Halloween cards using some of the Couture heavy-weight and metallic and sheer papers, so I thought you'd like to see them here on my blog.  These were both really fun to create, as I love the Fall season and was eager to work on the seasonal theme. 
This first card also features some gorgeous glitter paper from Bo Bunny their Terrace Glitter paper from the Jazmyne collection .  It really holds it's own paired with the gun-metal and purple colors of the metallic cardstock. 

 I cut the web and spider with my Cricut using the Wild Card and Designer's Calendar carts.  I embossed the web with the "tiny bubbles" Cuttlebug folder and then I glued on some cotton from the tip of a Q-tip swab sparingly for added texture!   I blinged out the spider with some Pink Paislee Pixi Stick glitter and highlighted the web line with a white gel-pen. 

This second card features a lot of embossed textures as well.  I used the "diamonds in the rough" Cuttlebug folder on the front panel of the card and the "criss-cross diamond" design folder is from Sissix. 

I used the sheer purple Couture paper for the half moon shape which I added some subtle texturing to with some Pearl Glimmer Mist.  The paper dries a bit crinkled, giving it a moon-surface texture. 

 The stamps for this card design are Pink Paislee. 

 I also made two other projects, but I may show them later since I've decided to submit them for some upcoming magazine publication calls.  Fingers crossed! ;)

So, what other scrappy stuff did I get into recently?  I did scrap a little this weekend and got this page finished...

I really like how it turned out with the mix of Echo Park Sweet Summertime and Girls' Paperie Paper Girl and On Holiday lines!  The photo was taken of us on Memorial Day this year... I love it!  I also used some of the yummy goodies content from July's Yellow Bag kit at FTLOA.  The stamps, the aqua dotted ribbon and the sequins that I stitched on are all from the kit! 

See those sweet clouds above?  I embossed some of  them with the "Conversation Hearts" Cuttlebug folder!  I'm loving using that sweet embossed design these days!!

There are some fun design team calls out and about right now!  Did you all hear that My Scrapbook Nook is looking for some new design team members??? I know the competition is going to be really steep over there, but I am throwing all caution to the wind and giving it a try!  What do I have to lose right?!  And heck, I just recently discovered that terrifically talented community and store... where have I been hiding my head? Lol!  I am really enjoying it there right now... tons of inspiration going on!

Oh geez, I almost forgot to mention a fun contest I just won with this card...

I just LUV the stamps I used on here, which are part of the "Traveling Stamps" being passed around over at For The Luv of Art.com! 

Punky Sprouts was the sponser of this past July's contest at FTLOA and we were challenged to use kraft or cardboard as a background to a project and mix in a bit of fabric for texture.  I cut off a pair of my jeans that I didn't want anymore and used some of the denim to create a pocket for my card.  The red houndstooth pattern was actually printed out onto a piece of kraft cardstock using a digi file from the awesome Chris Hertel.  I love this design of hers and find myself printing it out for many things!  Go visit her blog post if you want some too! :)  Oh, and by the way, my prize is a Punky Sprouts album!  If you haven't seen them or heard of them yet, you NEED to check them out!  They are made of recyled materials and they are really fun mixed media books! Well, thanks for taking a gander... I better get going for now.  Hope everyone has a great week as we all look forward to the weekend ahead!

My Wood Bunny!

Today I thought I'd share an older project with you that I did for the CreativeXpress blog which I had never shown here on my own blog previously!  I love to add personal pieces of home decor to my home when decorating for the different seasons and holidays... somethings that are unique and not seen in every other person's home (not mass produced  holiday decor).  So it's always fun for me to think, "what can I make myself... or what can I re-use and alter to make it my own"?  When I got the assignment to use the Easter 2010 cartridge from Cricut back in the Spring, right away I thought it would be neat to create a standing bunny decoration and make it from a block of wood. 

I first needed a pattern to use, so I selected which image I wanted to use from the Easter 2010 cart. I then used a piece of regular cardstock, adhered it to my 12×12 mat and selected the “fit to page” function on my Cricut Expression machine. This cut the bunny shape to 11 1/2″. The cardstock piece then was used as a pattern to have my bunny cut from a block of wood using a scroll saw (my brother helped me out with this very important part)!

 

Once I had the wood block bunny, I then painted it white with a can of spray paint and then I even sprayed on some Marshmallow Glimmer Mist to give it a little sheen.

To decorate the bunny I chose 2 different Basic Grey patterned papers, a pink floral (Eva collection) and the green and white houndstooth (Sultry collection). I used the pink floral paper as the shadow, cut at 11 1/2″. I inked the edges of the cut image with “Rouge” ink and then adhered this to the wood bunny with Mod-Podge medium. I then cut the regular bunny layer at 11 1/2″ from the houndstooth print and inked the edges with “Moss Green” ink. I faux stitched around the edges of this piece, inked the bunny nose area with the “Rouge” ink and attached cut pieces of hemp twine for whiskers before applying Mod-Podge on the back and layering it over the wood bunny. To complete the bunny, I added a green Kaiser pearl for it’s eye and a white pop-pom for it’s tail. I tied on a pretty green double dot ribbon from BoBunny around the neck for a bow and also added some floral accents which I transformed from white to colored with Glimmer Mist sprays.

Somehow the above picture of the bunny tail keeps getting turned about, but you get the idea! Anyway, I love that you can take images from the Cricut cartridges and now transform them into fun pieces of holiday OR everyday home decor!  Hope maybe I've sparked an idea with you all today, and if you too decide to make some kind of personalized home decor using your Cricuts or other diecutting systems, please do share them with me!  I never get tired of being inspired! 

BoBunny Wall Decor from a Card Sketch!

Yesterday, a new Tuesday card sketch was posted to the BoBunny blog, and I was so inspired by the sketch, only not for a card!  I've been wanting to create a piece of wall decor for my computer/catch-all room using one of the mushroom Cricut cuts and a cute little punny saying that I came up with, so when I saw Juliana's card sketch I thought it was perfect for my wall decor design.  I loved the layers for this design and I had a lot of fun playing with all my BoBunny goodies for this last night.  For now I have this framed in a black 12x12 frame from Michael's but I plan to find a brown or white frame for it to match my room decor.  I hope you all like this as much as I do... it looks really cute hanging up in my room! 

Based on this sketch:

Everything used for this is BoBunny and the solid brown and white cs is Couture Cardstock. 

Another One Bites the Dust!

 Another one of my design team positions, that is!!  And I must say, it was one of the best teams that I've ever had the priviledge of designing for.  But sadly, it has all come to an abrupt demise and I am totally bummed! :(  Anyway, one night last week I was informed that I no longer design for Couture Cardstock. Major financial changes within their parent company, Cardstock Warehouse, has resulted in a complete reorganization and the result is a very abrupt and immediate end to the Couture Cardstock company that I have known and loved designing for these past few months. We are  not certain as to the future of Couture Cardstock, all we really know is that the direction in which the parent company has decided to go, no longer includes the services of the former staff, including our president, CarrieAnne DeLoach, and all of us designers. If you have any questions, you may contact the Cardstock Warehouse staff directly.   :( 

So yes, I am not happy at all.  I LOVED working with the Couture cardstock brand and designing for CC really pushed me into new directions and allowed me to grow in my card designing. I will miss my position drastically... all the CC designers were extremely talented and each had her own unique style, making it one top-notch, amazing team!  I only wish the best of luck to all these wonderful ladies as they go onto their future creative endeavors!  You ALL are fabulous!

Needless to say, the very same night I was given this depressing announcement, I had just finished completing my Couture card designs for the upcoming CHA show for this month!  Talk about a stake through the heart!  Knowing that all the CC designers, including myself, put in so much hard work preparing their projects for display at CHA and now they are no longer needed, is to say the least, very disheartening! Ahhh... well, I will be sure to share them here on my blog and in my galleries as soon as I get them all photographed, so be on the look out! 

Sorry I don't have anything creative to share with you today, but it is the 4th of July today and we were at a family picnic for most of the day.  Now we are home for a bit and dh is taking a nap... and we are thinking about going to the movies later to see the new Adam Sandler movie, Grown-Ups!  I want to go watch it at the drive-in, so we'll see... dh rather have us go to the mall theater to watch it!  I don't think he wants to see the double feature of Toy Story 3, lol! 

So before I end this post for the day, I thought I'd share a few pictures from our day at the Creation music festival we went to this past Thursday... it was freakin' awesome!  Being among some 50,000 praising fans is definitely a site to behold!  Here's a view of the sea of people...

We made our way up pretty close to main stage!  Luckily it was in the 70's that day so we didn't have to contend with the horrid heat as we have in past years. 

This photo is of Michael Taite from the group, The Newsboys, formally from DC Talk!  The Newsboys really put on a great show!  We are big fans of Michael Taite and have seen him several times with DC Talk so it was really neat to see him perform with the Newsboys now too. 

And the last photo above is a group shot of Casting Crowns.  This is another of our favorites.  We've seen them in concert now twice this year and both times have been phenomenal! 

Okay, I gotta go, but... I hope everyone has been having a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend... they always go so quickly, don't they?! 

Couture Cardstock + Cosmo Cricket = LUV!

So yes, last month at Couture Cardstock we got to partner with one of the coolest leading companies in the scrapbook universe... Cosmo Cricket!  I was assigned the Couture "Harvest Moon" collection to design with and it paired perfectly with Cosmo's Earth Love line.  I had a lot of fun playing with their product and coming up with these card designs.  All of my cards can be seen in the Couture Cardstock inspiration gallery under the Harvest Moon heading, but you can also see them here too because, like it or not,  I'm gonna show them to ya! Lol!

This one was posted on the Couture blog previously.  I love the primitive look of old-fashioned braided rugs, and you can see that on this card I took inspiration from that look to handcraft the spiral rolled flowers shown here.

 All you need to do is cut strips of 12″x 1″ cardstock. I used both Corn Husk and Persimmon from the Harvest Moon collection. Then take your strip of cardstock and wet it and pat dry to make it flexible for rolling the strip lengthwise. After you roll the strip, twist the length fairly tight and begin to roll in a spiral. You then secure the rolled spiral to flower cuts with glue-dot adhesive. I then finished my spiral flowers by misting with Old Lace Glimmer Mist and inking them with Coffee Bean Brilliance ink to add more rustic charm.

This next card was also featured on the Couture blog and it's one of my favorites with the Earth Love line from Cosmo...

In case you'd like to create one of those darling pinwheels for yourself, the cut is from the Mother's Day Cricut cartridge! 

And here are two more of my card designs to round up this group...

For this card, I cut my pennant shapes out with the Cricut and then used the negative piece as my card front.  I stamped the small leaf pattern onto a lighter colored cardstock and adhered the pennant negative piece over top with foam tape for dimension. 

The folded card design with the branch was cut using the Wild Card Cricut cartridge! I cut out an extra branch and embossed it with the Cuttlebug using the Victoria emboss folder.

Okay, I suppose that's enough show-n-tell for one day, lol! 

For now I am keepin' busy tryin' to wrap up some Couture Cardstock projects for CHA that is coming up real quick here in July!  I can't wait to finally share those with you as well :)  CHA is always such a fun and exciting time for us scrappers and crafters! 

I hope everyone has a great week!  I am looking forward to Thursday as I'll be going to one of the largest outdoor concert/festivals in the country for contemporary christian music... Creation Fest 2010!  Can't wait!  We would like to go for the entire event but we can't this year so we are just going for the entire day/night on Thursday.  Thursday's line-up includes some of our very favorite groups including, Letter Black, Remedy Drive, Red, Newsboys and Casting Crowns!  We're gonna see them ALL... so excited!  Hope that the rest of you have something exciting to look forward to this week as well!  :)

One of those bittersweet days!

Yes, today I am having one of those days.  A day that is most definitely bittersweet.   Bitter because I am a mother left without her baby girl to hold, when I'd give most anything to do just that today!  Sweet because today is our angel Amelia's remembrance day... she was welcomed on this earth for her brief visit 2 years ago today already!  It's moments like this that I realize just how quickly time passes.  I can't believe Amelia would be 2 right now... and Ava her big sister would be approaching 4 this coming Oct.  What I wouldn't give to be watching them grow into the beautiful young ladies that I know they would've been.  What I wouldn't give to be able to help Melia blow out her Birthday candles today.  What I wouldn't give to be able to take a walk with my girls on a gorgeous day like today.  What I wouldn't give to wipe some tears after a scraped knee... or to kiss that boo-boo all better.  I'd give anything to have all those moments and more!

Wishing Amelia a happy heavenly Birthday... sending you all our love and kisses, sweet-pea, and wishing more than anything we could be with you! 

  Heaven Will Hold You

By Wendy Silva

Your spirit was brought to us

from a wish made of love.

We couldn't believe it when we

realized we'd been blessed from above.

In my womb you were growing slowly, but

I found peace knowing you were there.

Then came the tears of loss and I wanted

to know how life could be so unfair.

I had to realize that because you were so

special, God needed you more than I.

It helps me when I feel His loving

hands wipe away my tears as I cry.

I know that someday we will be together

again, but for now I'll keep you in my heart always.

Know that I love you more than words can say

and that God will protect you while we are apart.