Art Inspiration

I tend to gather inspiration for my layouts from many different sources. Sometimes it's from a sketch or new patterned papers, and other times it's from nature in general. Today is challenge day at Citrus Tree Studio. I had the pleasure of issuing the Art Inspiration Challenge this month and when I saw the following print I saw so many possibilities for layout design. Here is the print I used from Susan Zulauf:


For my layout I used the same white background with the blue square base. I then created my own sunshine shape using coordinating patterned paper and machine stitching on random rays. You may recognize the photo as it is the same one as my blog header but it just seemed to go with this layout theme the best.

Guys, Guns, and Pink

Have you seen the new "Mocha Kisses" kit from Citrus Tree Studio yet? Wowzers, it's gorgeous! Today is the day of the big reveal and I'm pretty excited to show you the kit and what I did with it.

Mocha Kisses uses the American Crafts "Romance Collection" and the Teresa Collins "Crush" line. After I got over my panic attack of designing with pink, I fell in love with my projects. Who says guys and guns don't go well with pink?


Here is my first project which is a little mini album called "My Guys".






The next project is a set of book marks which come in the main kit. They were very fun and easy to make.


And finally a few layouts:




As usual, I have food in my mouth...lovely pics huh?

Scrappy goodness

A few extra days off really helped to re-energize my scrappy mojo. I spent all day Saturday in my scrap room working on a few DT projects for Citrus Tree as well as a challenge for Clubhouse. I'll show you one fun layout I did with the Clubhouse Prudence kit and a sneak peek of the January CTS kit:


For this layout I scrap-lifted an idea from Nicole Stark to "frost" the tops of the letters. I used glassy accents and flocking to give them a fuzzy, frosty feel.


The snowflakes are Grungeboard from Tim Holtz. I inked them with green and blue ink and then used the same technique with the glassy accents and flocking to make them frosty too. I finished them off with a dab of Stickles, a turquoise crystal, and voila...snowflakes!


OK, are you ready for a sneak peek of the Citrus Tree Studio "Mocha Kisses" kit? It is a gorgeous kit but I have to admit I had an anxiety attack when I first opened the box. Pink...and lot's of it! LOL After a few weeks of staring at it, sweating a lot, and palpitations-- I fell in LOVE. You've gotta get it on January 5th when it's available because you'll love it too.

Holiday Happenings

We've been so busy this month! I've taken a ton of new pictures and can't wait to share them with you...

A holiday tradition around our house is making gingerbread cookies...a ton of them! This year was no exception. Gabe and I made about 120 of the little buggers and mom came up to help me decorate them. I love to do it but thankfully it only happens once a year.



Here's a funny little picture of Gabe and his skateboard. He played for almost an hour in the new snow "skateboarding" down the hill.


And check out my snow removal crew...


Decorating the Christmas tree always gets me in the mood for Christmas. I imagine it would go much quicker if I didn't have my little helper but the excitement in his eyes makes the extra work all worth it. It's a little bit of Christmas magic for a 5 year old.

As you can see Gabe was bound and determined to cram that big yellow sunflower into the tree somewhere...


I'm a little bummed that this picture came out blurry but I still love it and want to share...



It wouldn't be Christmas Time without a visit from Frosty the Snowman. Frosty always surprises Gabe with a wonderful gift and every year there is a different reaction. This year all Gabe kept saying over and over was "I love Frosty". He also said, "You know what? Frosty is a girl because I saw girl hair through his eye". He doesn't miss a thing!



And finally a few pictures from Christmas. Both of the boys got new guns this Christmas handed down from their grandfathers. Tanner got one from his great grandfather Nigel and Jaron's was my dad's first rifle. Wow, what an amazing gift for them.



My little crab-cracker helping uncle Jason and grandma with Christmas Eve dinner:


And last but not least the mini-Wilson boys playing their Christmas music with cousin Kris.


Dufur grandma even played along!

Some new stuff

I've really enjoyed designing for Scrapbooker's Club House again for the month of December. Nicole put together a really beautiful January kit using the "Prudence Collection" from Crate Paper. Here are a few layouts I created with it:

Scrapbook Dreamer Projects

This month at Scrapbook Dreamer the Design Team played Secret Santa for each other and did a little shopping in the store. My Secret Santa got me the Fancy Pants "Happy Holidays" line which I absolutely loved playing with. Here is a project I created with it using the 5X7 Lacing Cards from Cosmo Cricket:


Some close-ups:





And a very simple little layout I created using hand-made snowflakes. I cut snowflakes out of cardstock, inked them, wadded them up and then brushed them with glassy accents to make them shiny. I attached them to the cardstock using embroidery floss which gave the snowflakes a little more dimension. Pretty fun.

Citrus Tree Studio December Kits

I've been so excited to show you the amazing Citrus Tree Studio kits and what I was able to create with them. Cindy sure knows how to put a kit together and her kits are always loaded! Here are some of my latest CTS projects:

This first set of projects uses the "Winter's Lodge" Main kit.






These projects are from the "Christmas Magic" kit.