{creative}

It's weird how a word just keeps cropping up over and over. I read an article early this week on creativity and then I received my kit in the mail this week and inside was a canvas tag by Prima that said "create". Then while sorting thru some old pictures I found this painting I did in 1st grade (a very long time ago...you can even see by the curves in my bus. They use to be rounder in design...now the ones my kids ride are very boxy) This was my very 1st art show and I won 3rd place out of all the 1st graders.



Art was a very big part of my education ( I went to a high school which had an "Art Major" program...so in addition to taking my regular college prep classes I also had an Art period every day. This got me to thinking about how I have always led a creative life. However it's not just the painting & drawing and obviously now scrapbooking. There are other things in life that I enjoy that can be considered "creative". Take gardening....thru plant color/selection and hardscaping(pots, rocks, etc.) I am creating a work of art in my yard or patio/deck. Cooking is creating with food creating a work of art that can be both beautiful to the eye and appealing to the taste buds. Those are just a few of the things that have popped into my mind on this idea.

So with this in mind it has been a rather creative day around our home. (Perfect on a rainy Saturday) I hard boiled eggs and let the kids have fun coloring them.



Then I got creative in the kitchen. This years Easter dessert will be a "White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake.



It smells so good...it will be agonizing waiting until tomorrow afternoon for a taste. I also got busy preparing the ingredients for homemade fajitas tonight.

In addition to all this I have been playing with the scrumptious "Lemonade Kit" over at Coordinates Collections. My first layout is about what else but ....my creatvity.

Hope you all have a Happy Easter. Hopefully I'll have some pictures, a peek at my 1st layout and I will report on how the dessert tasted on Monday.

A chance to win a Kit!!!

Well actually there are 3 kits up for grabs! Just check out these blogs.
Kelly Goree has both of the April kits up for grabs on her blog (the "Puddles" & "Petals" kits).
Both of these fantastic kits feature some of the new Basic Grey papers. You have until 11:59pm tonight to leave a comment on her blog. Then over on the Pink Paislee blog they are giving away one of the "Puddles" kits (my favorite...it has all that great PP "fetching" goodness in it). They also posted one of my layouts on their blog as an example from the kit! Hop on over today...they'll pick a winner tomorrow.

Well I'm off to the grocery store. Besides the regular groceries I need to buy the ingredients for a dessert I'm making for Easter. More on that later!

Waiting patiently

for this to arrive....



This is the preview of one of the May kits over at Coordinates Collections. I can't wait to play with it. I'm also waiting for this weather to change. Between the winds and the barometric pressure I've been suffering from some pretty nasty headaches...especially last Friday and Saturday! At times I could barely think straight... I tried reading my book and just couldn't on Saturday..ended up taking meds and lying down. (Something I hardly ever do during the day)

Sunday I still had a bit of a headache and had to drive appox 1 hr each direction to Fritz's game. Well worth it...the game was won and he scored his 1st goal since he started playing traveling soccer. We also got to visit with a family who had to move out of the area ( they now live close to where our game was) and we'll get to see them again at another game later this month.

Only 2 more days of work and school. We have Spring Break next week. I took off Mon/Tues and Dan has off wed/Thurs...then works Fri night. Trying to decide what to make for the Easter meal in PA and trying to decide if I want to do the Egg Hunt on the beach again this Saturday(remember last years pictures of all those eggs on the beach???) At least Easter is later this year...hoping we won't be waiting for the hunt to start in a mini sleet storm like last year with some of those silly people wearing shorts & flipflops just because they are visiting a shore town.

Well now I'm just rambling so I call it a post and end now.

{You}

Well actually it's me, but the name of the contest is "YOU". Every month Coordinates Collections has a contest and this month it is called "You". Actually I'm the one who came up with the idea for the contest and the prize this month is..."$50 in scrapping supplies. Would you like a chance to win??? Here's the contest info....

• Upload entries to the "Contests and Challenges" section of the CC Gallery by April 30th at 11:59 PST.
• Put the name of the contest in your title
• Post a link of that project into the thread for that contest on the Message Board

Let's learn a little something about each other. Please share will all your friends here at Coordinates Collections a little-known fact about yourself. All you have to do is create a layout highlighting what you want to share. It can be something totally serious like a medical condition, how you put yourself through school, religious beliefs, etc. Or you can go for something fun and quirky. Do you sleep with socks on? Do you only eat based on food color? (I have a friend who won't eat anything green!) Are you addicted to trashy romance novels? Okay, so you get the idea. Now get scrapping! When you're done this contest will make a great addition to your 'book of me' album.

Winner will receive $50 IN SCRAP SUPPLIES! Winner will be determined by a random drawing and announced on the CC Message Board. There's no limit to the number of entries, but you'll only be entered for the prize once.

So that's the contest info and here's the layout I just did. Of course I'm not eligible for the prize but I decided to do one anyway.



As a child I couldn't stand going to the beach. I would drive my mother crazy always wanting to change bathingsuits because I couldn't stand the feel of the sand on my skin!!! Later I just didn't go to the beach. Finally in my teens I changed my mind. Now I love going to the beach!

Anyway lots of fun stuff on this layout...Pattern Papers, chipboard letters"Yuck", and butterfly are Pink Paislee (I mixed the captivating and fetching lines), Hambly transparency; Thickers "sand?"; flowers: Prima & cardstock diecuts; Buttons: Basic Grey; Chipboard Circle & Felt: Fancy Pants; Label Stickers: Fontwerks.

Hope to see some fun "You" layouts in the CC gallery soon!

It's a beautiful day here in South Jersey (if you are out of the wind) This mornings soccer game was won, mailed Andrea her prize package from the little giveaway I had here on the blog, put together this layout, laundry is in progress, now I think I'm going out to read my book in the sunshine for a bit. (I have a nice sunny out of the wind spot in mind).

Talk later.

As promised I'm posting again today.

Finally I can reveal my projects! It has been hard keeping them underwraps all this time. I know I've said it before, but I will say it again anyway....I LOVED this kit!

It had something to do with this piece of pattern paper "Spirited" from the FETCHING collection by Pink Paislee.



The moment I saw it at CHA I was in LOVE. Then when we started building a kit around it, I could hardly control myself. :wink: I actually used parts of this paper on 3 different projects this month. (2 layouts & a card) Here is my favorite layout this month....



It was so easy cutting the circles...you could just use the print as guides for your circle sizes. To give the layout more dimension, I mounted some of the circles with "pop-dots" or foam tape. Everything here is from the kit and the "sticker book" add-on. (I already professed my love for these in prior posts. Here is one more layout using some of the Basic Grey Marakesh papers in the kit (and Pink Paislee of course) The kraft cardstock was added from my own stash.



The rest of my projects are posted in the gallery over at Coordinates Collections
Don't be alarmed if you check the site and it seems a bit different...The logo and colors are being changed and right now the MB has been upgraded, but the logo and colors haven't been added yet (that may be happening today)

Okay 2 posts in one day is enough for me...got to get the prep work for dinner done and then drop off at soccer practice.

No Foolin...we have a WINNER!!!

Yep, just a quick post to let you know who the winner is.

Congrats to ANDREA!!!!!
Love your blog and your design team work at CC! Anyway, I am obsessed with journaling blocks right now. Patterned paper and thickers have always been favorites as well!

Please either PM over at CC or if you want leave your addy here so I can get your prize off to you later in the week.

I'll be back later today to post this months projects and a few details...stay tuned.

Addictions & Hoards = {{a giveaway}}

My scrappy room is a disaster right now...there is not 1" of clear space. I blew through that last kit and left a huge trail of bits and pieces everywhere. I ventured in tonight while killing time before picking up from soccer practice. I slowly began digging thru the mess and realized I have a lot of stuff and since I'm not getting my own space in the near future (sharing with DH currently...hoping someday to make the playroom my scrappy space) I need to do a little purging while cleaning. (This is where you can benefit.) I love my scrappy supplies as most of us do, love the shopping for new product almost as much as the creative part of the process...by far one of my biggest addictions is alphabets. They just call to me...so much so that I sometimes buy a package not realizing I already have it. However, there are some that are my "go-to" alphas and I need to keep a stash so I will never run out. So far I've pulled out this little stash of alphas that will go to some lucky blog reader



In addition to this little bundle of goodies I have a feeling there may also be a few other things thrown in when it is sent out. Are you interested?

If you are interested just leave me a comment here telling me what supply you can't get enough of. I'll leave this contest open until March 31st at 9pm EDT. A random winner will be announced on Wednesday April 1st.