Give Me Your Eyes

This is my very first challenge! I did this layout for Scrapping To The Music! The whole challenge is based on a song of the week. This weeks song was Give Me Your Eyes. I loved doing it. I used my cricut for the corner piece, the title and the florish under the title. Also to cut the patterned paper out. The matting for Santino's pics I used Tim Holtz distress inks and then glimmer misted away for a really pretty marbling effect.

Guess what, I missed the deadline, Ha!!! I thought it was mountain time and it was central so I was off by an hour. There I was in my kitchen just creating away and low and behold I made a booboo :p Oh well, I'm going to share this layout along with card I made today. Let me just say, my blood is boiling right now because I messed up and I really would like to scream, but I'll count to 10 and just continue with my posting....Oh and to hear the song, go to my playlist and click on # 72


He really does have some expressive eyes! I have so many photos of him with some of the greatest faces thanks to the eyes he gives. He was still a baby here, my boy is growing fast.

I made a few of these cards as thank you's and the final card swap I needed to get out, sorry Court *wiping egg off of face*. I used my stampin up stamp which I think is very elegant, did some light stickling to enhance and I stamped the inside too. They came nice.

Next week I WILL get my piece in on time!! Hope you like what I did.

On another note, today was Victoria's 29th birthday! Amazing, I have a child that will be 30 next year, and tomorrow is my husband's birthday. We'll be celebrating both on his day. The older kids all went for sushi and I watched the granddaughters. They brought me home some and didn't tell me till I ate it, that I consumed eel!!!! Aaaahhhh, but it was good ;) My 18 yr old son is a wisenhoofer. He kept saying, "Mom ya still have one here, hurry up and eat it." Should of guessed something was up. I also made a cheesecake, since that's what Victoria wanted for her cake, and dinner will be fried shrimp, scallops, and fettucine alfredo, yum yum yummy!

My Three Favorite Book Characters

Ok, so I have finished my layouts and I love it. This was easy for me since these books just rocked my world!! Needless to say the Southern Vampire Series has just swept me off my feet, especially since HBO has made True Blood from it! I had so much fun with this. Eric already is cast so finding a pic of him was easy, but the other characters were fun cause I have thought about and have spoken with others and what they pictured them to look like. Bones from the Night Huntress series I picture like Chris Evans from the Fantastic Four, and Vishous from the Black Dagger Brotherhood is a model named David Gandy who I tweaked with photoshop to resemble what author JR Ward has described him as.

I can't recommend these books enough. I love love love them, and these 3 just top the list for me. I do want to say that Dr. Kay Scarpetta came in very close, I even had Diane Lane's picture already to go, but then just stuck with my boys. I think Patricia Cornwell is off the charts with her character, and the books I've read are wonderful.

Eric Northman from Southern Vamp Series and Bones from Night Huntress I put a little butterfly on the corner there -

Vishous from Black Dagger Brotherhood, yes that is how the author spells it and he has a butterfly too -

JR Ward describes his eyes as the pupils like diamonds, quite haunting

Love the quote



Well I hope you like them. I loved this and can't wait to start on the other cj's!

My sign in page is not done yet, I'll get that going and have it posted by Monday.

I'm adding an addendum here. After posting I thought, "Well gee I should list some of the products I used." So here we go. The paper is from DCWV stack, I glimmer misted the papers. I used Tim Holtz's grunge board wings and heart on my tag, along with my brad and his key on the simply page. There is stickles around several of the elements, I also stickled the photo corner on Vishous' pic. I used my cricut with the home accents cart for the butterfly. The quote and journal papers were cut on my Big Shot using my nestibilty die. I love those things!! I can't remember the name of the stack but when I go upstairs I'll check on it

Thought Provoking

Susan from Susan's Littlte Scraps, a blog I follow and you can check out right on the side there, gave me an honest scrapper award. I need to write 10 honest things about myself and pass it on to 3 other scrappers who have blogs I love.

Well on to the task at hand -

First and foremost, the hardest thing I ever did in my entire life was carry my first child. I was 16 and I hid it till 3 wks before she was born. I gained only 9 lbs, and I used a wire hanger to pull the zipper up on my size 5 jeans. Real rough, hard on my parents, but I did it, and I think if there is one thing I do good in this world, it's being a Mama.

2- I hate, and I mean hate, people who can't drive. Ask my kids, I let the curse words fly even with them in the car and they giggle something fierce at what comes outta my mouth!

3- Sadly, I have no patience at all. Not good but it is a trait I am stuck with. I thank my Dad lovingly for that one ;)

4- I am somewhat anal in the fact that I have to do certain things the same way all the time. Well maybe that's ocdeeish. Like go down the supermarket aisles the same way, if I don't I really feel jacked up.

5- I luuuuuuv to sing, and I can't sing to save my life!!! But I do it and I like to do it loud! The kids will yell, "Mom, puhleeeeease!! Heehee, can't help myself.

6- I am excessively possesive of what I perceive to belong to me. That goes for my Hubby, hands down, don't let me catch you eyeing him or I'll poke em out! My Mother, my brothers, and my friends. My kids, well I have 6, you can have em ;) them I'm happy to share.

7- I hate chipped nail and toe polish! Oh my when I see toes with chipped polish, I wanna run over with a cotten ball and remover!

8- Bugs scare the living crumbs outta me! I hate all insects and will cry at the drop of a dime if I think one is in my hair.

9- Liver makes me sick. I hate liver. My Mom would make it when I was little and it would smell good, and I'd be like "Wow let me give it a shot", uh, no, pasty yukky kaka texture, why does something that smells good while cooked taste so gross?!

10- I have a new found respect for those who have lost a parent, spouse, or heaven forbid, child. I never realized how grief becomes weaved into the fabric of your life till my Dad. I thank God for my Husband and wonderful friends who help me everyday on this difficult journey of mourning.

Well there ya go 10 honest things about me. Now I will pass it on to,get ready for this one, Tim Holtz, I just love him and his designs, Dedra Long, who has Between Us and Jennifer Priest of Hydrangea Hippo. These people are phenomenal scrappers in the industry. You can view all their blogs from the side bar on mine :)

Daily #'s Circle Journal

Here is the cover page to my daily #'s cj. My subject is 3 favorite book characters -

I used my cricut to cut the frame and then got my stickles and some little bling . It's simple but elegant. I have my layout all planned in my head already. I was going to wait and post it along with the sign in page, but I was anxious to get this up there.

Now, on a second note. Sunday my beloved Jets are playing the Colts. Against every sportscaster and analyst they beat the Chargers, who I have always hated. Only Terry Bradshaw took em to win. I love the Jets and have always hoped year after year after year that they would take it to the SuperBowl. They have that young gun Mark Sanchez, they're a young team, a brash rookie coach who seems to just be feeding them nothing but good stuff. I'm hoping for a Jets - Saints SuperBowl!!!

J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!!

I Am Stoked!

Okay, Lisa has started a new swap and I can not wait!! This one is called the Daily #'s circle journal. Each of us, that would be 11 total, had to come up with a subject to base our cj's on. You had to pick a # from 3-10 to add to the said subject, for example mine is My 3 favorite book characters, another is 4 unusual things I've done, etc. We need to complete one page for each gal's book on whatever her subject is. Each girl participating is incredibly talented, and we have two novices to the game. Lisa's daughter Jessica and her son's girlfriend Emma. This is going to be so wonderful, and I can't wait to see what everyone does.

As I progress, I'll be posting on my blog the work I do. Also, Elaine has poked the bear a bit to get into some submission work, so my brain is smoking on that as well. I already have exactly what I want to do in my head, now I need to put it on paper.

On a fun note, before the kids went back to school on the 11th, I took them and the Granddaughters to Disneyland. We had so much fun, and the weather was so warm that day we could have worn shorts. What a blast!

Here are some pics.

Me with Sophia, Santino and Grandd's Aelyn and Gianna

Gi on the carousel


Sophia and Vic in the teacups. Not me I hate the teacups, blah!

MaryAnn and Vic's friend Mark on the teacups

Here come the characters

Santino shooting away on Buzz Lightyear

It's a Small World still done up for Christmas, it looked so nice!


Sophia wide eyed about something

Santino looking wide eyed too!

New Orleans Square, I love Nola, even in Disney!




What ride? Your guess is as good as mine ;)

On Pirates of The Caribbean, that is my fave ride in Disney!

Tired after a long day. I made sure we stayed good and long to get our money's worth!!

Okay I'm Showing Off

Two things. One is my circle journal all finished with my pictures put in. I love the way it came! Each page is just so beautiful! I loved going through my flash drives and picking the pictures for it. I went back a few years too! This was a special album and I wanted to put pictures that brought the most wonderful memories back for me. Serene's 2 pages happen to be very special. I put my parents and my inlaws wedding day photos in the lay outs. It looks beautiful. I will describe the pictures in the slide show this time instead of the artists who did the page.

The other thing is my nose!! I went and had it pierced! That was another of my Christmas gifts from Hubby. I've wanted to do it for a while. I thought it would look cute, and ya know what, it does!! Uh oh, I don't think I told you Mommy. I got my nose pierced. Doesn't it look nice :)



Something else that I am soooo stoked about! Our master suite in the attic is finally finished!!! Yay!! * Jumping around doing the happy dance!!* It took a year, but John did it all by his lonesome. Well Johnny-Boy helped a whole lot, but he did the sheetrock through tiling the bathroom floor, to building a window seat and a built in book case. It is just magnificent! Here's a before and an after. Hopefully we'll be in by this weekend!

Oh, and I am digging the new blog background! The cutest blog on the block has some really awesome designs to choose from.

I've got some odds and ends going on here. I have joined a book challenge, I guess you'd call it, keeping track of how many pages you'll have read in a year. So far I have read over 700 pgs!! I am just munching through the books. The other thing is scrappy. I am going to get myself involved in some challenges to push my creativity a bit. This is inspired by the sensei of scrap Miss Elaine Divita Knies. You can catch her blog listed in my faves. This woman never ceases to inspire me, she is an awesome artist. I bow down to you Miss Elaine, may you continue to give me inspiration you wonderful beautiful lady!

And now my finished Circle Journal slide show.