I need some warmth!

It’s been a cold couple of weeks here in Jackson, CA, and I’m sure throughout the country.  If I were daring, I’d post a picture of the attire I’ve been wearing lately—sweats with long-johns underneath, my husband’s thick t-shirt, followed by hoodie, followed by flannel, followed by lap quilt.  Did I mention my Amador County slippers—Ariat Fat Baby boots with slipper socks, so the cold can’t penetrate to my toes.  If that happens, I will be trapped on the couch for sure.  I’m a sight and not an attractive one.  We had two full snow days here in our school district, but the snow never got to my front door—just the biting cold that accompanies it which makes me feel like we got jipped this year.  Oh well—the winter’s not over yet Puxatony Phil!  If I weren’t such a penny pincher, I’d use the wall heater, but that’s not going to happen.  To all of you East Coast gals, I must sound like a whiny baby, but hey, 25 degrees when you’re not used to it is COLD.  To help beat the cold, I thought I’d scrap some summer pictures.  It didn’t help much, but my eyes liked playing with the hybrid Cosmo Cricket goodness that will arrive at jessicasprague.com VERY SOON!

Summertime 2010 (You Make Me Smile) Supplies (jessicasprague.com)

Hello Sunshine Candy Candy and Papers by Cosmo Cricket--COMING SOON!
Carnivale Photo Booth Frames by Kitschy Digitals

Other supplies used:  Cricut Sweet Treats Cartridge, sewing machine, buttons, and embroidery floss.

The Road Ahead Supplies (jessicasprague.com)

Template 1.10 by Jessica Sprague
Mini Wanted Collection by Cosmo Cricket
Wanderlust Mini Kit by In The Making Designs

Other supplies used:  Cricut Sweet Treats Cartridge, sewing machine, buttons, and embroidery floss.

100 Days Supplies (jessicasprague.com)

Two-Page Template+ 12 by Jessica Sprague
For the Record Element and Paper Pack 1 by Echo Park COMING SOON!

Other supplies used:  Cricut Sweet Treats and Give A Hoot cartridges, sewing machine, buttons, and embroidery floss.

The Sweetest Day Supplies (jessicasprague.com)

Template 1.08 by Jessica Sprague
Jack's World Paper Pack, Jack's World Elements, & Jack's World Candy Candy by Cosmo Cricket

Other supplies used:  Cricut Lacy Labels, Sizzix Tim Holtz Rosette Die, sewing machine, buttons, and embroidery floss.

The scrapbooking didn’t help heat the house, but it warmed our hearts—stay warm out there!

Are You Ready for School?

Next week my little ones return to school.  The week after that, my oldest returns to her college studies.  I feel like this summer went by way too fast.  Luckily for me, Jake doesn’t return until September—it’s his last year of high school.  I think that’s more of the schedule I’m used to—school starting in September.  That’s how it was for me when I was going to school.  School consistently commenced the day after Labor Day.  My children going back to school always brings back memories from when I started school every year.  I was always so sad to see summer leave and was so anxious the night before school started. Most likely not at all sleeping, nervously biting my nails until dawn, worrying whether or not my teacher was going to be nice, were my friends going to be in my class, how much homework will we be forced to do, and hearing that dreaded sound of the alarm clock once I did worry myself to sleep—yuck!  Guess I’d better keep this to myself.  With all of those dreaded memories flooding back, I did have some good memories, too.  New clothes, new friends, lunch, and new school adventures!  Hence, the making of the card.  I love that chalkboard paper! 

The layout of the card is an oldie but goodie original—sweetly offset-- from the CTMH Card Confidence Program.  I paid quite a bit for this program about five years ago and didn’t really take advantage of it.  Hopefully, this will spark a new card making journey for me.  I’m going to try really hard to make one a month from the program and post a sample on my blog with the tag “CTMH Card Confidence Program”.  There are a ton of card patterns in there! 

Cherish These Moments Card Supplies

The ribbon for this card is from American Crafts, the white cardstock scalloped edge is a die cut from the Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge, and everything else that is goodiness is from jessicasprague.com!  Clicking on the links below will take you to the exact product:

Kitschy Digitals Chalkboard Paper Collection

Kitschy Digitals You Are Awesome Minikit

Orchard & Broome’s Bleecker Street Paper Collection, Set 2

Creativity by Crystal’s The Playground Collection Element Pack

Good luck to you all this new school year!  Remember to cherish the good times by snapping some photos that first day but try not to embarrass them too much.  My older ones remind me of that often.

Color Combo #141

Max and his new guitar.  This weeks color combo inspired me to do a valentine-themed layout.  While perusing photos, I stumbled upon this picture of Max, Brandi’s boyfriend, from last November.   Low and behold, his shirt and hat were a good match for the color combo AND he was professing his love on camera for his new guitar—sometimes it just happens that way. 

Mocha, french vanilla, navajo blue, and red heat are the color names for the combo which were inspired by a cute handbag.   The picture of the handbag is posted at Color Combos Galore as well as inspirational layouts posted by the designers.

On this layout, I used the Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge for the scallop border and the Pagoda Cricut Cartridge for the Love rectangle that were embossed using Sizzix texture plates coupled with Core’dinations cardstock.  I also used my Singer Futura to blanket stitch the layout—that’s gotta be one of my favorite everyday built-in stitches so far—and to attach the buttons.  Teresa Collins patterned paper were used for the journal strips, ticket, and red heart strip.  An Autumn Leaves stamp with CTMH ink were used for the little birdies towards the bottom of the layout.   

If you want to participate in the color challenge, follow the link to Color Combos Galore http://colorcombosgalore.ning.com/ and post your layouts there. Make sure you label your layouts with the color combination number.