Life's Trivialities

Happy Birthday / Imaginisce and a FREE Cut File

Hi there! We're celebrating today! A birthday! A virtual celebration as her birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I have a layout to share with you today that is also up on the Imaginisce blog today.

Imaginisce hasn't released a birthday collection in a while but I wanted to create a festive birthday layout of this young lady as she turned 5. It was easy to do with a cut file and the boy and girl My Baby collections. Using the bubble patterned paper as the theme of my layout, I stamped, punched and drew additional circles to create a confetti background which I then adorned with fussy cut birthday banners.

I wanted a little bit more delineation between the pink edges of the letters and the blue circle patterned paper so rubbed my Gelatos along the edges and "smeared" with a water brush to blend in the color. Feel free to grab the FREE cut file.

Click on this link to download the file: Happy Birthday Circle

Hope you like the file! I would love to see how you use it! You could link me back up here on this post or share on my scrappy Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SuzannaScraps

Have a great day!

Blog Hopping with Stampendous and Core'dinations

Welcome to the Core'dinations and Stampendous Blog Hop!

We are celebrating with Stampendous this week!

We love the way our cardstock "core'dinates" with Stampendous stamps, don't you?

Of course there are prizes this week! Three prize packages will be awarded. The package from Stampendous includes the Lovely Garden Stamp Set; the Matching Lovely Garden Cutting Dies; a Sand It Kit from Core'dinations which includes a sanding block, replacement sandpaper, and a "must-have" Dust Buddy clean up cloth; AND Core'dinations will also be sending the lucky winners some of our fantastic 6" X 6" paper pads. PLUS an extra special bonus - our friends at Dreamweaver Stencil will be adding the gorgeous Stone Wall stencil that Jamie Martin from Stampendous used in her terrific card she'll be posting this week (you can see a peek of it on the blog banner!)

LET'S GET STARTED!

We'll draw three random blog posts from all the posts this week. Then we'll choose one comment from each. Of course we'll love you even more if you pin our projects to your Pinterest Boards or if you Tweet, or Share on Facebook, follow us, like our pages. You know the drill! Here's who is posting today!

Stampendous Blog

Tenia Nelson

Jennifer Edwards

Lea Kimmel

Ava Gavloski

Jamie Martin

Suzanna Lee

Krissy Fossmeyer

Kristine Reynolds

Stampendous sent me the most amazing stamps and a coordinating die to create with. Here is the layout that I created;

Those lovely flowers are Core'dination's cardstock, stamped with Stampendous stamps which are then cut out with the coordinating dies. I hand colored each flower and then crinkled each one for additional texture and dimension before assembling the layers. Each flower has Distress Stickles for the centers for a finishing touch.

Graduated cardstock colors available in the Core'dinations Super Assortment really complimented the THREE layers of the flower.

Sanding with my Sand It Gadget also really aided in creating a realistic flower, don't you think?

Next up on the hop is Krissy over at Paper Inkspirations! She has a marvelous card to share with you!

Thanks for hopping with Stampendous and Core'dinations today! Be sure to check back in all this week as the other gals have great projects to share with you too!

 

BIrthday Lay / Chic Tags Sketch Challenge

This past week was "birthday" week. Do you remember those days? The days when you were younger and you didn't just have a birthDAY but a whole week or several days where you were the king or queen, each day celebrating your birthday? Nikolas turned eleven this past Thursday!! Eleven?! And, as they have for every birthday, my parents came to visit (they live in Indianapolis so it's a big deal - not as easy as living on the other side of town). The layout I'm about to share with you features that part of Nikolas' birthday week.

I used the latest sketch over at Chic Tags as the foundation for this layout. You can see the resemblence, right? Kind of? The banner bit just didn't work with the rest of the layout... So I scrapped that. And I added a few other elements here and there, my personal touch.

Not only the tags but the patterned paper are a mixing of old and new! Some old Chic Tags with some new tags. Some old patterened paper with some new. Kind of a "melting pot" coming together to make this work. The stamp (triangle arrows) is from the Happy Place stamp set.

Oldies but goodies the October calendar tag and the "Birthday Wishes" circle tag. Both from Chic Tags. I might have a problem... And those might have been in a "thank you" (for spending oodles and poodles of money) goodie gift!

I think that's my favorite part of this layout! I used the "extra" from the selvage of the paper to make the banners behind a tag from the Happy Place collection. The lighter blue tag is another oldie. It is actually upside down and has Date and Place on it, covered by the newer goodies.

I couldn't decide at first whether to leave the white space white or whether I wanted some mist splats to liven things up a little. I settled on leaving it as is. There is already a lot of color and visual interest there. Would you have done the same?

Surprise!!

The third Saturday of every month I get the pleasure of hanging with my scrappy friends from 8am to midnight! There are about a dozen of us, plus or minus, that gather and come and go as meals must be had, kids demand our attention, etc.. We have been convening for two years now, two years since our local scrapbook store closed. An amazing group of ladies, each of us with our preference and skills!

Michael and the kids arranged a surprise visit this past Saturday! Kyla, who promised she wouldn't participate in such planning, had her fingers crossed behind her back (and will pay for her role in this) and aided and abetted in this affair. They not only paid the group a surprise visit but they brought with them balloons, a party headband, lunch, drinks and cupcakes!! I turned a lovely shade of red and tried to pretend the attention was being showered upon somebody else... It was a wonderful surprise and I truly am a lucky woman to have such a thoughtful husband and children! Thank you!! And thank you to my Phoenix Scrapper friend who enabled Michael to pull off such a feat and participated in celebrating my birthday! (Which, BTW, isn't for another 2 weeks but I will be out of town and detest surprises and usually have something sniffed out long before it ever happens!)

My lovely party hat headband!! And a few shades of the remaining red...

The organizers of my lovely surprise with the spread behind us!

Just in case you wanted to know how OLD I will be... Fondant in my favorite color Nikolas pointed out. It's scary what the boy knows about cupcakes... I think he's seen WAY too many episodes of Cupcake Wars!!

Saturday also happened to be the day of our second annual cookie exchange! I love the cookie exchange; you get to go home with a wide variety of baked delicacies rather than the millions of the same thing! We had fewer participants than last year but the smorgasboard of yummy goodness was just as delicious!! Thanks ladies for all your hard work! Or dollars well spent!!

I took in Chocolate Crinkle-Tops baked lovingly by myself and my cookie Elf. Mia donned her finest baking attire, the elf apron that Henry, our Elf on a Shelf, brought last year and her chef's hat from her birthday party that a friend kindly personalized for her. And a-baking we went! She and I have made these cookies together for as long as she's been around. Her first Christmas she sat in her bouncy seat while I conjured up my chocolate dreams!

So that, friends and family is a snippet of our lives over the past few days! I'm still working on our Christmas card... If I'm lucky, I'll get it printed by Christmas... Hopefully...

Hippy Happy

... Hoppy Birthday to you!! Nikolas turned 10 today! TEN?!!! The double digit part I get. I may not be brilliant with math, but that much I get. The entering into the "tween" category didn't dawn on me until searching Pinterest today for birthday decoration ideas for 10 year olds...

The day began at the golden arches for birthday breakfast. I had suggested donuts to Michael but those are going to NOVA to celebrate (shhh! it's a surprise) at swim practice tomorrow.

I ran around like a mad woman collecting decoration accoutrements, decorating, wrapping presents and creating a festive atmosphere for our afternoon and evening. The original idea had been to go "Lego" however it ended up being primary color brightness. The WrinkLee's were arriving at the airport and required a ride home to celebrate with their eldest grandchild!

Nikolas arrived not long after we did to have a Frostings cupcake for snack! Candle number 1 of the day!

We met Michael at Cheesecake Factory for dinner, the locale being chosen by the birthday boy, of  course! He had the largest Shirley Temple I've ever seen with his dinner! Though we were going home for the requested Oreo cheesecake dream from the Cheesecake Factory, the gang their brought him a special treat. Candle number 2! Kindly, Nikolas shared with us all.

Homeward bound for cake and presents!! The requested celebratory cake had thawed to perfection and was delicious! Candle number 3! The presents all got big smiles and grins!

Hopefully, our birthday boy is fast asleep now dreaming of all those candles! Visions of candle flames dancing in his head! Last night,he was so excited about his birthday the young man was still awake when Michael and I went to bed... He has a test tomorrow, and a MindStorm to earn!

Happy Birthday Nikolas!! I hope your whole day was your "rose" today and that you felt as loved and special as you are!

Party Day

I am a huge fan of the color schemes, challenges and overall concept of the case files over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration. I don't always get a chance to play along but I print them off and save them for a rainy day. We all need a rainy day stash of inspiration!

Case File No. 23 (found here in case you want to pay along) is a soft palette of yellow, pinks and greens. Pink and green are pretty predominant in the color palettes found there lately I have noticed. Works for me! I used the pinks and greens to pop the yellow background in the pictures as Chef Mia set to work cooking up her birthday feast at Young Chef's Academy.

Evidence Used; flowers, a crown accent, stripes, something translucent, border punch

Testimony; Queen for a day, use a border punch on your journaling spot, inspiration words

My journaling is contained within the translucent envelope I created from velum. There are bits and pieces of confetti contained within as well. A little something to add to the festive party feeling on the layout. I wanted more than a single piece to write on so I used a strip of paper to hold together the front and back piece.

If you look closely in the main picture, you will see that I used a crown stamp to stamp subtly around the larger circle creating an interesting "pop". The banner elements and tag top peeking out from behind the photos and vellum envelop are from the amazing coordinates provided!

 

Pink Party

Her offical birthday was last weekend but the friends festivities were this weekend. Birthday's never seem to be confined to a day anymore but rather these long, drawn out affairs. We invited Mizzy Moo's Kindy class to Young Chefs Academy for the celebration. I am not sure how much she slept, she was so excited. It's been a while since we have had a party with friends...

Herself included, there were 15 celebrants at the occasion. With that tally also including Nikolas and two friends. Quite the turn out!! Chef Becky, our party hostess, kept the gang to their restaurant manners and voices and kept things running smoothly. On the menu; pink pizza, pink cupcakes and pink lemonade!! Despite the majority of the attendees being boys, there were no objections to pink or the pink party!! I was surprised!!

There are, not surprisingly, a million pictures. I edited just a few of the birthday girl. There will be many more, including friends on the layout. Or layouts...

Haven't scrapped much. Tomorrow is the beginning of the last week of school. Not sure how much scrapbooking is in the cards with the kids out of school and the millions of activities going on. Tuesday is our first neighborhood swim meet!! Mia's first ever!! I'm anxious to see how well she does. Tomorrow, her cast comes off! Hopefully. That is the plan anyway...

Sketch Support March 1pg

Wow! Nearing the end of March... And time keeps on marching forward! It scares me a little, this rapid passing of time... If, indeed, time goes by faster as you get older, I hate to think how quickly the years will feel 10 years from now. They already pass way too quickly... Perhaps when the kids are teenagers, that break neck speed might be desirable? Perhaps?...

Anyway, another fantastic sketch is up at Sketch Support this week. I ought to just pre-write my intro paragraph and copy and paste. I don't think I have ever said anything different? Because truly, Allison's sketches are that inspirational. And, ladies and gentlemen, we are back to our regularly scheduled programming, I am back in my usual "toward the end of the week" slot! Check out the sketch for download and the blog HERE.

I used a 12 x 6 picture which I trimmed down even further for this layout. Michael had decorated the banisters down the stairs and dotted them with helium balloons for Mia's 5th birthday. He got her dressed in a pretty dress, crowned her with our traditional birthday hat and she glided down the stairs as the pretty birthday princess only she can be!

The bright colors on this really stand out! And the horizontal stripes work so well with the vertical balloons and horizontal strips in Mia's dress. Such a frolicy and fun birthday layout!

Hope everybody is doing well!! I appreciate you stopping by!! Have a wonderful finish to your week and a great weekend!

Sketch Support March Add-On

The add-on sketch over at Sketch Support this week is fantastic!! It has inspired one of my new favorite layouts! Check it out HERE. Be sure to download the PDF and save it for future flagging purposes!

I LOVE, love, love this picture of Michael!! We were celebrating his 41st birthday and he was reading the cards that the kids (with help from their Mother) got him. The "old" "paper" behind the title is actually the cover of one of the cards. He read all 9 billions old's on there!! We were in stitches laughing.

The bright primary colors in this layout are just like sunshine! I used a combination of Pebbles Inc and Jillibean Soup papers. The little flags add to the festivities!

I can't wait to see all the other creations up on the Sketch Support blog!! It's been a long time since I've seen my work up on a Monday. Usually I'm a Wednesday or Thursday kind of Sketch Support gal!!

Thanks for swining by! Hope you have a great week!

5 Years Ago

FIVE years... As she has been telling us all morning, my sweet baby girl turns 5 today! "It's my first day of being five". Michael decorated the house with streamers across her bedroom door and a banister full of balloons. Here she is in her birthday finest, sashaying down the stairs to breakfast.

Later today we will take cupcakes or some such sweet, sugar ladden treat to Pre-K to celebrate with all of her Gold Room friends. Her Granny and Ah Kong (my parents) are here to help celebrate. Her presents from Mum and Dad are sitting on the UPS truck out for delivery (phew!). We will go to Red Robbin for dinner and then come home for Oreo Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake (per request) and open pressies! Somewhere in amongst all that she has water day at school and swimming lessons! Quite a day!!

Happy happy birthday Mia!! Hope your day is all that you dreamed it to be and may 5 be a fantastic year for you!!