What's left of the stash//BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY!

As crazy as this may sound to some... I, Christina Collins, am out of pretty paper. OUT OF IT! Granted, I do have a few scraps here and there that could be thrown together to make something spiffy but as far as whole sheets go? They are a goner. You see, I don't keep very much paper on hand. I buy what I can afford at the time and use it until the last drop and then I restock and repeat.

The point? I'm giving away some fun bits of what's left of my stash! I need to make room for the giant order of pretty paper that I will be placing so I figured I would throw a little blog candy out there for someone to catch. Check it out!

What you're getting:

• 3 Packs of American Craft's "Flutterbys" - Hearts, Butterflies, and Stars
• 12x12 double sided pattern papers (varying companies/collections).
• Dotted Swiss card stock
• Washi Tape
• 2 Maya Road Envelopes
• Teresa Collins "Remember This" Rubber Stamp
• Bingo cards
• Label Stickers
• Monday-Sunday Stickers
• A strip of camera paper from Echo Park. (I love these! They are great for fussy cutting out. I wanted to share the fun).

How To Win:

• You MUST be a follower.
• Comment on this post!
• For an extra entry - share this giveaway on your blog. Give me the url to your blog post in the comments!

A winner will be randomly generated on Monday, JULY 9th.
Toodles! ;)

I had a SMASHING time...!

I think it's safe to say I am addicted to Smashing! It's so fun, easy, and carefree. The pages come together fast which is exactly what I need when my daughter is running around and climbing every piece of furniture in the house. These first two particular pages I treated as regular scrapbook pages. That will probably be how I do the majority of my pages (though I do plan to get random every now and again).

(Sorry for the lighting in this picture). It was fun putting this page together. I just kept jumbling and layering things together until I thought it looked eye catching. Heart be still, I even stamped (with Ali Edwards "Love Always Wins" stamp collection)! I used a Maya Roads Kraft envelope as my base and just worked up from there by adding papers from Crate Paper's "Emma's Shoppe" collection. The majority of cardstock elements (photo corners, journaling card, etc.) are from October Afternoon's "Ducks in a Row" collection. I used Doodle Bug twine and a October Afternoon button to make the little flower-like embellishment. The black polka-dot is Smash tape and the 123456 is part of a border sticker by Studio Calico.

This page is a little more simple. I really like the pretty floral pattern at the top but I wasn't to keen on the picture of the pie that was at the bottom. I just couldn't figure out what to do with it so I covered it up with a little collage of photos I had already printed out. I added some border strips along the side (Authentique's Delightful collection and Smash Tape) and repeated the patterns at the top. I did some journaling on the sides and the top of the floral pattern. I think the journaling probably the funnest part of this page because it lists random facts about us as a couple.

I think they go rather nicely together in the book. At this point - I'm thinking my smash book is going to turn out to be pretty thick! If you've ever considered picking up a smash book and seeing what it's all about - I suggest you do! You won't regret it. It's so care free and fun! It's a book you can really let your creativity flow.

Celebrating 6 Years of Marriage

Yesterday (June 24th), my husband and I celebrated six years of marriage. Time has gone by so fast. I feel like it was just yesterday that he proposed to me. We naturally spent the weekend in celebration of the occasion.

On Saturday we spent a family day together. We went geocaching for the first time and it was a blast! We only ended up finding one cache but it was well worth the trekking involved. We're new to it so we aren't exactly masters of the trade yet. Plus, we had Charlotte along which didn't make things easier. Don't get me wrong - she loved every minute of the new sights and sounds. Mommy, however, did not like having to worry about what bugs were crawling on her. Anyway - our first cache find was at an old courthouse with a lot of history.

 Sunday was our day. My mother in law was kind enough to take Charlotte for the day. We started the day off by doing a little more geocaching. The first location we chose to go to - we didn't find it (again, we're still newbies!). The second location was a park close to us called "Indiantown Park". We were just about to give up on this one when I spotted a tiny little canister in a tree. My husband couldn't believe I actually saw it because it could of easily gone missed. We were proud. ;) We then moved on the one geocaching location I was looking forward to. The Miyazaki Japanese Garden. It's a small park dedicated to the commemoration of Virginia Beach and Miyazaki Japan becoming sister cities. While we were not lucky enough to find the cache we still enjoyed ourselves. The location was beautiful and so very peaceful.

Dinner and a movie was next. In the Japanese frame of mind we decided to go to one of our favorite Japanese Steak House restaurants - Kyoto's. It is always such a fun experience and the food is so delicious! The movie we ended up seeing was Prometheus which exceeded my expectations. If you are into scifi/suspense movies at all - I highly suggest you go and see it. It was really good!


My husband has always done well in the gift department. He knows me like the back of his hand and tends to pick out the most perfect gifts. This anniversary...I think he may have done the best he has ever done. A Pink Smash Book, a Fujifilm Instax camera, and this necklace. It's a heart with wings. The wings can move into any position (whether you want them criss-crossed, spread far apart, folded down). I don't think I've ever adored a piece of jewelry so much in my life (aside from my wedding ring of course). Many kudos to my hubby. ;)

Starting Point Layout - Home Bound Baby

 I decided to give this week's starting point a try. "Starting Points" are something made up by the wonderful Shimelle Laine. It's where  you put together a very basic page and then add photos, journaling, and a title. The above photo shows my starting point (which is of course similar to Shimelle's starting point).

And here is the finished project. Along with the actual layout of the page I also scrap-lifted the idea to use dictionary pages from Shimelle. I really like the look it gives! The photos are of my daughter in her going home outfit right before we left the hospital. I used Bazzil's Dotted Swiss Kraft for the base, Authentique's Delightful collection for that beautiful pink and blue floral pattern (along with the floral stickers), My Minds Eye's Miss Carolee for the yellow polkadot paper (which was scalloped using my Silhouette Cameo) and the Pretty Princess sticker, and Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe for the pink. The title is made up of alphabet stickers from Bella Blvd. The buttons are from Wal-Mart and have a Martha Stewart Butterfly punched out on top of them. The "Sweetie" bingo card is from Simple Stories' Fabulous collection. The envelope is by Maya Roads. The kraft banner is from Studio Calico.

I must admit I usually put quotes on a page "just because" but the two quotes I chose for this page are absolutely beautiful/adorable. I just have to share! The pink one at the bottom of the dictionary pages says "It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into." -- Terri Guillements. The second one is on the side of the dictionary paper and it says "We wanted a girl and got a princess."

If you'd like to play along with Shimelle's starting point - head on over to her page for the details!

What happeend this weekend?

It was a rather eventful weekend for us. My best friend lives pretty far from me so we don't get to see each other often. However, she was down here for the weekend and ended up staying with us for a few days so on Saturday we decided to make a day of it and go to Chincoteague Island. We saw some ponies, relaxed on the beach, and enjoyed some ice cream at the Island Creamery. Good times were had! ;)

Of course Sunday was father's day. We did the usual going out to dinner (we ate at Smokey Bones) bit with the family. The best part of Father's Day (for me at least) is giving gifts to my hubby and father. I surprised my hubby with with a Xbox Kinect. He was very excited and did not expect such an expensive gift at all! My dad is a little harder to shop for. It seems that whatever he wants - he just goes out and buys himself. Needless to say - there is nothing ever on his 'wish list'. So this is what I decided to do for him...

 It's a little photo collage of Charlotte holding a sign that says "I heart pop pop!". The original plan was to have her holding the sign and smiling at the camera for one perfect photo but those of you who have toddlers know that nothing ever goes according to plan! She refused to hold the sign and just kept throwing it down. So in the end I ended up taking the partly decent photos and putting them together to get the point across. I framed it and gave it to him and he LOVED it!

Monday has been uneventful so far. Just a bunch cleaning, grocery shopping, and other boring grown up stuff. Toodles!

Happy Father's Day! (cards)

Happy father's day to all the proud papas!
In honor of these special men in our lives I'd like to share a couple of cards I made for such the occasion. Keep in mind I am not much of a card maker! It's never quite been my 'trade' of choice. Nonetheless...I'm pretty proud of them. :) I just had fun with making them. Isn't that what is most important?

This first one is the card I made my dad. It measures 5x7 and the base is made out of kraft cardstock. I used papers and embellishments are from Pink Paislee's Prairie Hill collection, Authentique cardstock, and Echo Park's (This and That) Charming collection. I cut the tags and title out using my Silhouette Cameo and stamped one of them with my "potty man" stamp from Hero Arts. I also used my Martha Stewart Scallop Dot punch and my EK Success binding edge punch to make the different borders.

This second one is the card I made for my husband. It measures 5x7 and the base is made out of kraft cardstock. I used Echo Park's (This and That) Charming collection and also some dotted swiss cardstock (punched with Martha Stewart's Scallop Dot punch). The stars and mustaches (and the majority of the title) are all cut out using my Silhouette Cameo.

Have fun celebrating with the special men in your life!

Color Me Scrappy - Challenge #6 - DT layout

It's so hard to believe that we're already on challenge #6 of Color Me Scrappy! I feel like my term with them just started yesterday.

These are the lovely colors we are playing around with for this round. I love the mixture of blue, red, and pink. I really thought my design would come out more feminine but to be honest my layout came out a tiny (and I stress tiny) bit on the masculine side. Take a look....

This layout is an 8.5x11 layout. I've been doing a lot of these lately. They are just so simple to thrown together. I love them! The photo is of my daughter and my husband playing around with the guitar. I adore this photo and it's in my top three of our ever growing collection. Almost all of the pattern paper you see is from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe (with the exception of the floral/woodgrain background which is by My Minds Eye). The blue is Bazzil Basic's Dotted Swiss. The film strip going down along side with the Doodlebug Twine is by Tim Holtz.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the music notes, pennant banner, journaling area, and circle. The "1234" sticker is also from Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe and the carefree sticker is from Simple Stories' Fabulous collection.

We've changed the format a little for the "prize" area of the challenge. For now on - the winner will be drawn out of two challenges instead of just one. That means you could have TWO chances of winning if you play along with both challenges! The winner of the prize for this month will be chosen from the #5 challenge and/or this current challenge. The prize this go around is a MYSTERY BAG FULL OF SCRAPPY GOODIES! I guarantee that you will NOT be disappointed with this bag that is jam packed full of fun. What are you waiting for? Come join us for challenge #6!

A New Layout - "Camera Hog"

I'm finally finding time to scrapbook again and have a new layout to share. I used so many different companies for this layout. American Crafts (Dear Lizzy), Bella Blvd, Echo Park (Charming), Simple Stories (Fabulous), etc. The little feathers are cut out from a trim I bought from Wal-Mart. The photos pretty much tell the story for themselves. I was trying to take a picture with my daughter a few months ago and she kept pushing me away. She wanted to be photographed all by herself! 

 

 

The large tags, cameras, and title were all cut out using my Silhouette Cameo. I am loving that machine and use it on every layout now!

Toodles!

The Ups, The Downs, and All The Inbetweens....

As cliche as it may sound - my life has been a roller coaster ride. My emotions and expectations have been turning inside out and upside down. I've had fun and I've been scared. While I was on this metaphorical roller coaster, you may have noticed I wasn't around much (aside from my CMS DT post). Have no fear. I'm here to update you on everything. The ups, the downs, and everything in between (and I expect you to stick around because I am interesting enough....right? Not really but I'll still give this blogging thing a whirl.)

Those of you that have been reading know that I had decided to go back to school. My first day of class was a few weeks ago. A lot has happened since then. My life was completely dedicated to studying. Anatomy is no joke! I was enjoying myself though, being a student again and making a future for myself. You can imagine how completely devastated I was when I received an email from my school telling me that my loan check had been denied and that I had until the end of the day to pay for my entire tuition or my classes would be dropped.....
We just don't have the money to pay for school out of pocket. If we did - would I have asked for a loan in the first place? This is probably the fourth or fifth time this has happened to me. Money always gets in the way of me continuing my education. I think it goes without saying that after almost two weeks of studying my butt off....I am no longer a student. I cried. A LOT. In fact - I had a panic attack. Throwing up, unable to breath, sweating...the whole shebang. I'm still pretty upset about the entire ordeal but slowly making myself cope. I just admit I feel like just giving up and working as a waitress for the rest of my life but my husband is continuing to motivate me. I'm looking into other schooling options and hoping that they will work out. ...What a huge downward spiral, right?

As for the ups and inbetweens? Just small events here and there. A memorial day cookout with my family, dying my hair funky colors, and finger painting with my baby girl. My husband and I were lucky enough to take our little girl to the beach this weekend. It was actually her first time ever being at the beach. Surprisingly, none of us got burned (we are all very fair skinned) and we had fun! It was just what I needed to get my mind off of everything that's be going on lately. Charlotte seemed to enjoy herself although she was scared of the water.

As cheesy as it may sound - as long as I have these two in my life - I can get through anything. :)

Challenge #5 - Color Me Scrappy - "Baby Chowder"

The newest challenge for Color Me Scrappy is up. Ready to play? Check out these colors. Very neutral, huh? I must admit I was a little intimidated at first but what would be the point of the 'challenge' if it wasn't challenging? ;)

Being quite the 'colorful' scrapper - I didn't have very many neutral papers to work with. The beauty of Color Me Scrappy is that as long as you do your best to follow along with the colors - you can't go wrong. This is what I came up with. I took the tan tones and translated them into a more yellow tone and used the lighter grey tone as a teal/slate grey. I used my Silhouette to cut the "sunburst" and the title "Baby Chowder". All of the papers used (aside from the kraft cardstock) are from the Pink Paislee "Prairie Hill" collection.

 

The embellishments are from a variety of companies. Amy Tangerine, Simple Stories, Echo Park, and Pink Paislee.

The prize for this challenge is a MYSTERY BAG full of scrappy goodies!
For your chance to win this fun prize - come play along with us at Color Me Scrappy for challenge #5!