A SOmber layout

I made this first layout about my sister's dog, Sarah.  My mother and sister are talking about putting her to sleep this week, and I wrote about how hard it's going to be on my family.  It's for several challenges.  First, it's for the Scrapbookers Annonymous challenge to use at least 7 different types of flowers.  I used paper, plastic, fabric, felt, chipboard, and button flowers along with cardstock sticker flowers.  This is also for the sketch challenges at Blue Moom Scrapbooking and Sassy Lil' Sketches.  Blue Moon Scrapbooking is giving away a $40 gift card to their store!  This is also for the Scrap the Girls challenge to use one of the given quotes by Kobi Yamada.    I'm submitting this to the open challenge at Sketches in Thyme.  Last, this is for the stash challenge at Challenge Masters. 

And here is my Project 12 layout for February and for the open challenge at Sketches in Thyme.

Poppy seeds = POOPY seeds

I have a poppy seed stuck in my tooth, and it is slowly but surely driving me mad.  Who was the wiseguy who decided to put poppy seeds in lemon muffins?  You can't even really taste them.  In fact, if they taste like anything, they taste like dirt.  Yes, I know what dirt tastes like because my little sister used to make me eat it (along with grass, but that's a story for another day).  And if you were to eat a lemon poppy seed muffin blindfolded, the only way that you'd know it had contained poppy seeds would be the inevitable senstation of something lodged in your molar.  Sometimes, I think the only thing keeping me from self-actualization is the presence of poppy seeds in my life.

Let's Do Lunch

 I completed this layout for the My Mind's Eye blog challenge to use the given sketch and use the theme, "Celebrate today."  I thought that theme would be perfect for these pictures of my lunches with Caroline.  We eat lunch out every Wednesday, and it's one of those little moments that I think makes life worth living.  The journaling says, "I love lunching and brunching with Caroline.  She's the most adorable lunch date! She sits in her highchair and smiles, laughs, and babbles as she snacks on my food. She will even dance to the music on the radio.  People always say that she's so well-behaved and sweet!  It's little moments like these that help me celebrate today!"  This is also for the Punky Scraps challenge to use distressing (I inked), flowers (I made a homemade flower and there's a flower on the tab), sparkles (glittery thickers), and misting (I misted the doillies).  Additionally, this is for the March contest at Ally Scraps and the contest to make a glittery and glammy layout at ScrapFit.

Musings on the Oscars and Lady Gaga's Muffin

I admit that I didn't watch ALL of the Oscars this year.  Like your average geriatric, I'm in bed by 9:00 most nights.  Anyway, what struck me the most about the whole event was how average James Franco looked.  I thought he was hot or something.  And then, after a google search, I realized that he's like a real-life Seinfeld episode - hot half  of the time, not so hot the other half of the time.  Take a look:

Hot.

Not so hot.

Yes, please.

NO THANK YOU.

On the other hand, I had always found Colin Firth pasty and doughy.  You know, rather British-looking.  But maybe British-looking isn't so bad.  I do like floppy hair. 

On to Lady Gaga.  This past weekend, while cropping with friends, I learned that there are people in the world who DISLIKE Gaga.  What?!  How could this be?  It was as if someone had told me that they didn't like breathing so much.  And then  I got to thinking of all of the reasons I pray at the alter of Gaga.  The first song I heard of Gaga's was "Just Dance," and I fell in love then.  It remains my favorite.  No other song reflects how you feel when it's 1:00 AM on a dancefloor better.  I mean, your clothes are stuck to your body from all of the sweat (from you and probably some other people, too), your body is aching, you're parched, and your ears are ringing from the music.  But damnit, your body keeps contorting, your back keeps arching, and your head keeps slinging your hair all over the club like a duck shaking it's body off after a swim in a pond.  And it feels good.  Even as the lights are about to come on, that last drop to the floor, punctuated with a lightning-fast slap to your own ass feels like magic.  And Lady Gaga gets it. 

The woman is also a poet:

I won't tell you that I love you

Kiss or hug you

Cause I'm bluffin with my muffin

I'm not lying I'm just stunnin with my love-glue-gunning

These are my favorite lyrics of hers.  The profundity brings tears to my eyes.  And to the 2 people that will probably read this post (Hi, Stephanie!), check out the song "Teeth."

A few more layouts I completed this weekend

 

Here's a layout that I made using a sketch from The Scrappiest.  The picture doesn't do this layout justice.  It's actually really awesome.  I fussy cut those ornaments and then added twine to them.  I reallllly wish I had a better picture.  Stephanie was so sure this was going to be an ugly layout when she saw those Martha Stewart papers, but she had to eat her words when she saw the finished product!  EAT HER WORDS!

 This layout was inspired by Vicki Urqhart's layout for the February challenge at Scrap Jacked.  I also used a sketch from Scrapbooking from Scratch. 

This last layout was from a class that I took like 2 years ago, and I'm just getting around to finishing it.  It's for the Bingo challenge at Challenge Masters. 

MLS Contest

Here's my entry for the MLS contest at 2peas.  The homemade flower idea was in last month's Scrapbooks Etc, but I added a bit of embossing for a little extra touch!  I also pleated patterned paper and pop-dotted the bird stickers.  Besides the journaling block and the rhinestones, everything is MLS.  This is also for challenges at Scrap the Girls and Design Dollies. 

Biscuits and Childhood Halloween Trauma

I went cropping this weekend and got a bunch stuff done!  This first one is about how I call my boyfriend "Biscuit," and how that fact is slowly driving him mad.  Seriously, "biscuit" is the single most adorable word in the English language.  Plus, he has some great biscuits!  I call ass cheeks biscuits, and you should, too.

I made this for the Mission to Create challenge.  I used clouds, the provided sketch, a ticket, a sanded photo, and a mode of transportation (bicycles).  I also scraplifted Lisa Keep's layout at Scrap Jacked.  Last, it's for the challenge at Kraft it Up to use a kraft background with orange, black, and light blue. I pop-dotted the clouds, which I cut from MME paper, and I added some yellow Smooch Spritz to the kraft background.  I really wish Smooch was cheaper because I'd have every color they make if it was!

This one is about how my scrapbooking friend, Sandi made me the cutest paper crown to wear for my birthday!  She's my surrogate grandma.  It's for the challenge at ScrapFIT to use a color scheme of green, yellow, orange, red, and white.  I used a sketch from The Scrappiest.  I stickled the border and the gifts, which I cut from paper and pop-dotted.  I've been on a pop-dotting kick lately, as you will see...

This layout is called Evergreen Sombrero, which is what the wreath that my boyfriend insisted on wearing on his head during Christmastime looked like.  It's a funny little layout.  I pop-dotted the Basic Grey stickers and pleated burlap to mimic the fruit basket for ACOT crop challenge 3.  I think the goofy snowman sticker is the perfect embellishment for a page about making a noose out of Christmas lights!  I combined sketches from The Scrappiest, Creative Scrappers, and Punky Scraps. 

This is for ACOT crop challenge 11.  I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers.  I punched some of the little kiddies out using a circle punch and then pop-dotted them.  This layout is called, "Halloweens from Hell," and it's about how my mother could never design/buy/plan a decent costume for us if her life depended on it.  Look at the photo and you'll see my sister wearing her soccer uniform.  She was...you guessed it... a soccer player for Halloween!  My mother didn't even try to come up with a costume for me, so my older sister made one out of an old leopard-print shirt.  She removed the shoulder pads and glued them to a hat to make ears.  As sad as that costume was, my sister gets props for her creativity!  Another year, my mother pinned laundry bags to our shirts for Halloween costumes.  When we were little, Lonna and I had these animal laundry bags.  I searched the web, but I wasn't able to find anything like them.  Imagine a standard laundry bag with a stuffed animal head, feet, and hands attached to it.  Well, she pinned those to our shirts, and I was a "hippo," and Lonna was a "lion."  It was a sad state of affairs.  And I can't forget the time that my mother had us wear our Asian-style pajamas and gorilla masks as costumes.  I have no idea what the hell we were supposed to be, but my mother still remembers the post-Halloween nightmare that I endured like it was yesterday... You see, the gorilla mask got stuck on my head, and being the 5 year-old drama queen that I was, I shrieked, "HELP!  HELP! You're killing me!  You're killing me!" as my mother attempted to jerk the mask off of my tiny head.  She says those were my exact words.