Not Feeling So Fancy!

So... the notifications for the new dt were to have gone out last night for the new Creative Team at Fancy Pants, and the list is to be posted sometime today.  I did not get a notification!  :(  Not real happy about it at all... just tired of putting myself out there and once more left feeling disappointed.  Blah!!! Anyway... thought for today I'd share the rest of my submission here, and then I can go back to my sulking for this bleak Monday afternoon, lol.  Hope you like them... I did! 

An October Sketch at Imaginisce...

I haven't participated or followed along in any sketch challenges lately and I was kind of craving one, lol, if ya can call it that... a sketch craving!  So I happened upon a great one over at the Imaginisce blog the other day and decided to dig into some of my Fall Papers from the Imaginisce Apple Cider collection. 
It's a one page sketch, however I decided to make mine a 2 page layout... but only my first page follows the sketch...

Here's the original sketch for October from Cindy Stevens at Imaginisce...

And again... here's the first page of my layout that goes with the sketch...

And some close-up detail...

Here's the second half of the layout and some detail as well...

I totally love this Apple Cider line as much as I loved these fun Fall pix from last year!  Look at the gorgeous colors in the leaves... I soo wish they were as brightly colored this year too, but so far they aren't anywhere near as colorful!  Check out that fun leaf doily I used on here... cool, huh?!  I bought  those leaf shaped doilies at the Dollar Tree store can you believe!  I thought they were totally perfect for scrapping with and for making some Fallish cards.  I spritzed on some Glimmer Mist for extra color and shimmer, and I also used them on the layout background here as masks... creating a really cool almost tie-dye like effect to the layout.  Anyway, thanks for checking out my layout and before I go I thought I'd also share a card that I made with a leaf doily and a left-over scrap of Imaginisce...

Hope everyone is enjoying their Fall as much as I am!  :)

And the Owner of Some Vintage Schtuff Goes To...

Hello and Happy Friday everyone! 

Thought I'd stop by and make a super quickie post before my hubby gets home from work and we go to get a bite to eat this evening.  I had my yardsale today and the scrapbook table of course was the very first to dwindle... and dwindle FAST!  Scrap stuff always flies out like crazy mad when I have it... I did really well, so I'm glad about that.  But, I'm not glad about not hearing back from a job that I applied for on Monday! :(  Very disappointing and discouraging... this job-hunting process).  I even had the second interview on Monday and took that as a good sign, but they did say that if I didn't here back by Friday (today) that I won't have the job.  :(  Yes... here I go again... frustrating!!

And of course, I am also anxiously awaiting the big announcement for Fancy Pants Creative Team call, and keeping my fingers, toes, and everything else tightly crossed for me!  Ahhh, I sooo dearly want to be a Fancy Pants designer, really, really bad!  I just adore that company!  They were supposed to have made their selections last week, but it was just posted on their blog today that they are delayed because of the amount of wonderful entries they have received!  Makes me happy for them that they are such a fabulous company that everyone else would love to represent with their product, but then again it doesn't make ME happy to know that there is so much wonderful talent and competition out there going against me! :(  So I will  continue to wait... but it's not easy!  lol! 

Okay... this was supposed to be a quickie, lol! 
So anyway, I am off but before I go, I have selected the winner of my first giveaway for the vintage goodies! 
And the winner is...

Yay, Wendy!!  I will have your package shipped out to you as soon as I can and as soon as I get your addy!  :)

Ohh, yea, one more thingy... today is one of my favorite days, October 1st!  It's the beginning of my favorite month of the year and also my angel Ava Noel's 4 year Angelversary in Heaven!  Just wanted to share will you all that Heaven is celebrating today with one of it's most beautiful little girls!  XOXO! 

Fabulous, Fun Finds!

I've been trying to get to my blog posting nearly all week long, and the days... they keep getting away from me!  I seriously do not know where the week has gone, but that's okay, cuz it means a new weekend is right around the corner, right?!  And for today, well... it's a GREAT day because the calendar marks this day as the official start to the Fall season, WHOOT-WOOT!!  Now only if it starts to feel and look more like Fall, I'll be ever so much happier! Speaking of which, I finally got all the glorious Fall decor up and around at our house, and I have my pumpkin spice candles a burnin'... I just love this time of the year!  So here's some pix of my decorations to share.  First, this lil' tree is new!  My mom and I went to one of our favorite local country/primitive shops called Kern Run. I saw this tree and thought it was so cute, and my sweet mom ended up buying it for me... I love my mommy!! :D 

Pretty much all the rest of my decor I'm sure you've seen before on the blog if you've been following along the past couple years, but if you haven't, now's your chance...

This mantle garland I did as a CreativeXpress assignment last year using the Cricut "Speaking of Fall" cartridge, but now that I have it back, I can use it and enjoy it this year!

The above Willow Tree angel box is in remembrance of our girls, Ava and Amelia.  We used to keep Ava's ashes in a different Willow Tree keepsake box, but then after we lost Amelia too, I found this adorable box called "Two Together".  It is a box that is to be representational of twins, however when I saw it, I immediately saw our Ava and Amelia!  :)  We now keep both of their ashes in this box... Ava's ashes in a tiny silver pouch, and Amelia's in a golden pouch.  And it's my favorite time of the year, and I could only believe it would've been theirs' too, so I gave them each their own wee lil' punkin' to enjoy! 

Also over the weekend my mom and I did some yard sale browsing and I lucked out and found some pretty fabulous finds!  A got a  few really great pieces for my scrap room renovation!  Look at this wheely cart that I picked up for just $5.00... yes, the price of a foot-long sub got me this handy dandy cart that's PERFECT for storing my Cricut cartridges!

I also found this 3 tiered iron plate stand for $1.00!!  I was like... get outta town!  I gave it a fresh coat of Heritage red paint already, which is my new accent color for my scrap room! 

Now I'm on the hunt for 3 vintage red and white plates to complete it!

Also... found this OLD dictionary dating back to 1914, for .50!  I was going to tear up the pages to make dictionary flowers and such, but now I dunno!  It has a lot of character to it, lol! 

And, I totally lucked out on Friday when my mom and I went to a public auction!  My grandmother's friend has moved into an assisted living facility and the rest of her estate was being auctioned off so we went for the afternoon and just get a load of what all I scored in the lines of vintage buttons and trims!! Holy Moley!! We are talkig OLD vintage carded buttons by the bucket! 

And there was another full container of assorted buttons, plus a box full of old steel pins, and trims, edge binding and lace and wood threaded spools! 

Really, soo much stuff... and all of this loot came to a total of $9.00...  I could never buy that much if it were from a scrapbook manufacturer today... maybe 2 cards of vintage inspired buttons from Jenni Bowlin! 

I guess I need to start scrapping a ton of vintage looking projects now... or perhaps you may too enjoy a little vintage blog candy give-a-way!!  I have never done a give-a-way of my own here on the blog, so I think it's a good time to start one!  If you would like a sampling of some of this yummy vintage goodness to come to your home, just leave me a comment here on this post and you will be in the running for a nice package!  I may also throw in some other trinkets too!  I will pick a winner in one week, so you have until next Wednesday to leave me a comment and I will announce who gets it here on my blog next Thursday, Sept. 30th! 

Well, tonight is the season premier of Grey's Anatomy!! Who here is excited??? I know I am... supper tonight is going to be super easy... soup and sammies!  The countdown to Grey's is on!! Have a great night, everyone!  ;)

Bring on the Nerves!

Yep, that's what happens after the "SEND" button is pushed!  The nerves kick into over-drive!  I officially sent off my submission for the Fancy Pants Creative Team this afternoon and now that's ALL I can think of!  I keep second guessing myself on what pages I submitted for the call, but I guess I really shouldn't because no matter what I send off, they are all representations of me and how I scrap and craft.  I enjoy my work, so now I just have to believe and hope that Fancy Pants Designs will too!  So I thought you may like to get a peek of one of the pages I submitted for the FP call.  You may have already seen this one floating in my gallery before because it is an older layout that I had previously done, but it is also one of my very favorites using Fancy product!

I still love the Summer Soiree line!  Such great colors! 

And here's one more page that I finished up, but this didn't get included in my submission...

Are you ready for some snow?  Heck NO!!! Lol!

Love powder blue for winter pages though!

And while I'm at it, here's a card I put together as well,

 using up scraps of Summer Soiree and my Cricut...

For this one I layered together both a large green button with a smaller red button to look like an olive in the martini glass and then I spritzed it with a bit of pearl Glimmer Mist to make it appear wet and glistening.  I had a close up picture of it, which I seem to have lost, so sorry!

In other great scrap news for me, I was thrilled to have 4 of my projects requested for the upcoming special issue of ST's Create: Cricut Idea Book!  I was really hoping to have at least one thing picked up for this issue because I love creating with my Cricut whenever I can!  I will have 3 cards and 1 page in it, so I am very happy!  Well, I guess I'll be on my way for now, but I hope everyone is having a great week and as always,  thanks for stopping by!  :)

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!