Living My Dream

MAMBI Sunshine!

I love love love this line by MAMBI - bright colors and vacation theme, how could I not love it?  It is called Sunshine.  Here are my pages using it - these were in the booth at CHA.  

I hope these got you in the mood to do some summer scrapping!  There is a link to the MAMBI website on the left if you want to look through all their products.  Have a great day!  Suzy

MAYA ROAD Prize Package

Here is a photo (finally!) of the Maya Road prize package I will be giving away.  In it is a heart binder and box just like the one I used for the cover of February CK.  I included lots of ribbons and trims - even some new ones that are on top of the heart box.  There is a package of flowers, a chipboard accordion album, some chipboard flowers and swirls and a chipboard petal album for you to make your own lady bug if you want!  I am putting all the comments from any of my Maya Road albums this week into an excell spreadsheet and then having my daughters pick a number which will be the winner.  So if you left lots of comments all week, you will have more chances to win.  Thanks again to everyone that participated and left me nice compliments all week - they were so appreciated!  I'll cut this off at 6:00 pst and announce the winner right after that.   Suzy

UPDATE:  WE HAVE A WINNER!!!  There were a total of 162 comments left over the past week.  I took them all and put them in a seperate email folder and changed the order so they were all mixed up.  I had my daughter pick a number and it was #45.  The winner is MELINDA!!!  So if Melinda could email me and let me know her address, I will send out the prize package this week.  Thanks so much for participating!!!  

I also wanted to answer a few questions that have been asked over the week:

How long does it take you to make an album?  I spent about three weeks making these nine albums. Each one took 2-3 days - my goal was to do 3 a week.  Some took longer and some were quick (the smaller ones).  I scrap in small 15 minute increments throughout the day as I never really have a big block of time with the kids home for the summer.  For these albums, I put all the supplies for the one I was working on on a big board and carried it into whatever room my family was in so I could be part of things, but still work.  It was a busy three weeks and I don't know if I will make another mini for a while!

What do you do with them all?  I have too many to display.  I have made quite a few since being on the Maya Road team.  I keep them all in a big box (or two or three) in my office closet.  I need to come up with a way to display them.  My favorite album I have ever made was the one I used for my HOF entry and it is on my mantle in my family room.  My second favorite was the house album I posted this week, so I will probably put that one in the family room too since it matches.

Will you be doing tutorials on these albums?  Two of them have been on the Maya Road website (Creative Corner), but I didn't have plans to do the rest.  I am happy to do some step by step directions on any you are interested in here on my blog.  Just leave me a comment if you want directions for one or want to know how I did anything on any of them.  

What pens do you use for your outlining?  I don't know what it is about outlining, but I can't seem to call a project finished until every page and every item has lines around it (a serious issue for me).  People often ask me what markers work best for this.  I use several different ones.  For white outlines, I use the Uniball by Signo primarily.  I have been trying out the new Ranger and it works well, but the Uniball is still a thicker, more opaque white.  For black, I use an ultrafine black sharpie if it is on a painted item or something that may smear.  For paper and journaling, I use the Micron pens by Sakura - usually a 05 tip.

 

Thanks so much for all of your interest and big congrats to MELINDA!!!  Suzy

Maya Road Sneak Peek Day 7:

My final day of MR sneak peeks is here.  And I'm sorry I haven't posted a picture of my goodie give away yet - promise to do that today.  I will pull a name randomly from one of my posts this week tonight. I received some of the new trims in the mail yesterday, so I will include some of those in the prize package as well.

Here is my last Maya Road mini album made for the show.  This is a new release - a tree chipboard coaster album that is about 4" tall.  It is such a cute little shape and was really fun to make.  I also used other MR products including the rub on letters on the front cover (they are white, but I rubbed brown ink on them to slightly change the color to cream), the chipboard letters and bird on the cover, the tree chipboard on the back cover, tree rub ons, velvet flowers throughout, the birds are new stamps from this show and I used lots of their ribbons.

All of the papers and other embellishments on this one are by Love, Elsie - the Forrest line from the last show.  This was my first time to work with it and I just loved the colors.  

Some of you have asked about tutorials for my projects.  Two of them are on the Maya Road website with directions (the lady bug album and the small box/album called Grow).  They add new projects to their Creative Corner every few days and others of mine may end up there as well.  I am happy to answer any questions regarding any of these albums - feel free to email me.  Thanks!  Suzy

Maya Road Sneak Peek Day 6:

It's Saturday and the week is almost over - just two more albums to share!  This one is a Maya Road owl coaster album which is a new release for CHA Summer.  It is only about 4" tall and has six pages held by a chain.  The front cover is embossed.  I used lots of other Maya Road products in it including the Jonathan chipboard alphabet, the bird keychain, Trinket buttons, owl rub ons and lots of ribbons and trims.  

All papers and other products in the album are by Fiskars - the Heidi Grace line called A Little Bird's Tale.  Thank you to sweet Cheryl Waters for sharing it with me.  I will be making a few more items with two of the Heidi Grace lines and they will be posted on the Fiskateers blog next week. 

Thank you again for all the nice comments you have all been leaving on my work - they are so appreciated!  I will post a picture later today of the Maya Road product package I am putting together for one lucky winner who has left a comment this week.  Thank you all for participating!  Suzy

 

Maya Road Sneak Peek Day 5:

The Maya Road album I used for this one is the sheer tab album from the last show.  I used lots of their office sheers for my journaling and their dog key chain set for the title and the bone and house.  The pom pom trim on the dog house and the front cover is a new show release.  

I used the Love, Elsie Daisy line to decorate it.  It was perfect for a book about my cute Cockapoo, Mayzie.  She is the best doggy ever and I adore her as you can see from this album!  You can see the entire thing on 2Peas if you are interested.  

I'll be naming a Maya Road prize package winner on Sunday, so leave a comment if you want to be eligible for it.  It will include chipboard letters, albums, flowers, ribbons and lots of their goodies (although not brand new ones as I don't have many of those yet).  Thanks for all the nice comments you have all been leaving all week - they are so fun to read!  Suzy

 

Maya Road Sneak Peek Day 4:

And now for another album of the day.  This one is really close to my class project - a summer vacation album.  It is made from a Maya Road 6x6 Binder album with eight thick chipboard pages inside.  The new products are the large flowers and leaves and the borders - they both come on 12" long chipboard sheets.  You punch them out and decorate them for your project.  I painted them all white and then rubbed chalk ink pads on them to add the color.  I like a white base as it keeps the colors bright for an album like this.  The papers are WRMK, Fancy Pants, Love Elsie (fabric Have Fun paper) and Scenic Route.  If you want to see the entire album, I posted it on 2Peas.  Have a great summer day and don't forget to leave a comment if you want to win a Maya Road prize package - random winner picked on Sunday night!  Suzy

Maya Road Sneak Peek Day 3:

This one might be my favorite album of all nine that I made.  I just adore this house accordion album - it opens up so there is six houses all different shapes and sizes.  The trim on the front is a new Maya Road chipboard that looks like rick rack (so I love it!) and I used lots of their velvet blossoms throughout.  Around the windows, I used their little chipboard frames and a heart coming out of the chimney.

All the papers and other embellishments I used are from the Fiskars line called  We Are Family.  I LOVE these products and my good friend Cheryl Waters was nice enough to share them with me!  I will have more creations using this line and A Little Bird's Tale (both designed by Heidi Grace) on the Fiskateers blog next week.  All the photos in this book were taken by the incredibly talented Tara Whitney.

MAYA ROAD Sneak Peek Day 2:

Thank you for all the nice comments on my project from yesterday!  Here is my next mini album.  This one uses the Maya Road Classic Scroll Frame chipboard album.  It uses lots of their new products - see if you can find them all.  First is the cupcake stamps which I stamped on white cardstock and covered with glitter, then cut out and used with pop dots behind them.  It also uses the new cupcake chipboard pieces.  I painted them white, then rubbed chalk inks on them and added some flocking on some.  The word Celebrate on the front cover is new and the calendar stamp is as well.  Last, I added lots of the new trims and used some of the journaling sheers.  

All the papers and some embellishments are by Fancy Pants - their Celebrate collection.  This collection was part of my HOF prize package and I adore their products.  Thank you Fancy Pants!

I'll be posting a picture of all the Maya Road goodies I will be giving away to someone who leaves a comment this week soon.  Thank you!  Suzy

Maya Road Sneak Peek Week!

Each day this week I will be posting a mini album I made for the Maya Road booth at CHA Summer.  I made nine mini albums in total and I have already shown two on my blog (the lady bug album and the grow album and box), so seven days to go.  If you haven't seen their official sneak peeks yet, go to the Maya Road Company Blog and you will be wowed!  At the end of this week, I will be giving a Maya Road prize package full of fun goodies to someone who leaves a comment on any of my blog entries this week (my daughters will pick one randomly on Sunday night).  

This first project was made using the Maya Road Scallop Coaster Album and Box.  On the front of the box is a cage from the new Zoo Key Chain which has stamps to fit on each of the animals adding the details.  I also used some of the new trims - the sequins on the front cover, the pom pom trim on the box and the velvet trim tied to the album chain.  All of these trims come in several colors which can be seen on the Maya Road link above.   The flower on the front cover is a Maya Road Trinket flower.  

All papers and other products on this are by Making Memories from their baby girl Animal Cracker collection.  They were so generous sending all of the HOF girls a big box of goodies recently and I had a great time using them for this project.  

Happy Fourth of July!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July yesterday!  We just spent the day as a family.  We first saw the American Girl movie call Kit Kittredge which was really good.  Then we had a BBQ in the backyard and went to see the fireworks at a local park.  We were all cozy sitting in our beach chairs with blankets on the grass.  As soon as the fireworks started, the sprinklers went off with no warning.  Yes, we all got soaked (even my camera got a bit wet)!  Then after a couple more went off, we heard someone scream "call 911!".  There was a fire on the side of a hill not too far away from us and it was moving close to the houses at the top of the hill.  So what did I do? I turned my camera away from the fireworks and shot a picture of the fire instead (which is why it doesn't look too good as I had the camera set up for fireworks shots).  

So here is one of the few fireworks we saw before they stopped the show because of the fire:

My camera settings were: ISO 250, f11, 6 second shutter speed and manual focus set to infinity.

I don't know how it ended up in focus as I was hand holding the camera.  I set the shutter speed to bulb and just held it down as long as I thought I could hold still.  So I finally have a new camera and learn how to use the manual settings and this destroys my ability to get any more shots:

Hope you all had a wonderful day and didn't have any fires break out in your area!  Link me to your blog if you posted any fireworks shots - I would love to see them!  Suzy