NSD Blog Hop is Today!!!!

You have until May 6th to complete the blog hop! I hope you all can participate!

Happy National Scrapbook Day! I am so happy you're here to participate in the blog hop! Isn't it awesome that they actually named a DAY in honor of our favorite hobby? Scrapbooking adds so much to each of our lives, and is something that we all share in common. I can truly say that scrapbooking is my passion! My obsession started when my first child was a baby. I was nuts about taking photos and putting them into books. I kept a detailed baby book, writing down every phase of her development. Scrapbooking was a natural progression from that. A few years later, I began using patterned papers and scrapping as we now know it. I have never looked back!

To celebrate National Scrapbooking Day, the design team, hosted by Life Preservers wanted to bring a little extra excitement to the day. We have partnered up amongst ourselves to provide you with four separate challenges. Each designer will add an element to include in your project. There are so many things to inspire us during this time of year, in addition to National Scrapbook Day.

Hopefully you came here via Laura-Lee's blog! She and I have partnered up to bring you a fun challenge in honor of NSD and May Day! What says May Day more than ribbon and flowers! Laura Lee's challenge was for you to use at least five pieces of ribbon and no patterned paper in your layout. In addition, I am asking you to use no fewer than five flowers on your layout (You may use patterned paper for handmade flowers). Here is my example.

As you can see, your layout can be very colorful and fun without using any patterned paper as your background! Have fun and be creative! If you complete a layout completing all the elements required by Laura-Lee and I, and post a comment to my blog, you will be entered into a drawing for a random prize from me!

All you have to do to participate in this blog hop is to visit the Design Teams blogs. Do the challenge posted and link your creation to their comments. You can link this from your gallery on Life Preservers if you would like. There will be links to follow on each of our blogs. Make sure you comment on each DT blog with your creation if so applicable. For each challenge that you do you will be entered into a random drawing for a prize from Life Preservers. Make sure that you have also read Laura-Lee's blog for this particular challenge.

Thank you so much for participating in Life Preservers first annual NSD Blog Hop. Please hop on over to Sharon's blog, and see what else is in store for the hop!

Crowning Glory of Scrap Within Reach "Cambridge"!

This layout was made using the latest kit by Life Preservers, and includes products by Scrap Within Reach (Cambridge). The papers are very regal and masculine in feel. I took these photos on a recent trip to the Santa Barbara Mission for a retreat. The location is so stunning, it's actually difficult to get a bad photo of the place! I used an image transfer technique to place the image of Father Junipero Serra, who was one of the major founders of the California missions. He died after securing the site for this mission, which is known as the "Queen" of the missions. In California, all the school kids study the missions and are required to do a project and paper on one of them, and I am fascinated by their history. This particular mission is breathtakingly beautiful, and is still held by the Franciscans. The area surrounding it is covered by rose gardens and mult-million dollar homes. If you are ever in the area, I strongly urge you to visit!

For more information on the image transfer technique, stay tuned for a class coming next week at LPS!!

Layout inspired by Live with Prima

I had a chance to watch the Live with Prima for 4/19/10, which was given by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, my new scrappy hero! She used a variety of mixed media to alter a canvas. I chose to work with some foam board I had laying around, but would love to try an actual canvas at some point. The background is made with many different techniques, and I was surprised that it hardly resembled the original paper by the time I was done with it. I used some leftovers from the March LPS Featured kit (Shabby Green Door - Wings of a Dream and GCD - Ella Blue) and a reprint of a baby picture of my father. I think it looks beautiful together. Thanks for the awesome class, Julie!

Beastly!!

I used the March LPS mini kit by Glitz for this layout of our new puppy! He looks so crazy in the photo, and his teeth are so sharp that I did made some "blood" accents with acrylic paint and red Stickles.

Blog Candy!!

Check it out! http://papermoments.blogspot.com/2010/03/blogaversary-celebrating-my-first-blog.html

LPS Store Grand Opening!!!

LPS is having the grand opening of their new online store! The wonderful thing about it is that any purchases can be sent with your kit at no extra cost!! They had several things in stock I "had to have"!! Come check it out! http://www.lifepreserversclub.com/Store.html