December Crop Addict Projects

What beautiful Christmas papers I had the opportunity to work with in the December Crop Addict kit. The "Little Yellow Bicycle" papers had such a classic Christmas charm. My layouts came together so easily! The NOEL letters were simple wooden stand-up letters that I purchased at Hobby Lobby and altered with the papers. They look great sitting on my end table by my front door!

Scrap Within Reach projects

I had the privilage of getting to design with products from the manufacturer "Scrap Within Reach" and let me tell you... I am LOVING their stuff! Their papers are double-sided and distressed just to my liking! Their solid colors remind me of Basic Grey- one of my favorites. I had so much fun playing with them! Here's what I came up with using "The Cottage" collection!

November Crop Addict projects!

I can hardly believe its already November! It has been so nice to see the beautiful fall colors and feel that crispness in the air. The November Crop Addict kit really embraced those fall colors and back-to-school themes. It was a fun kit to design with!

Getaway Travel minialbum PEEK!

I had the awesome opportunity to design with a project kit for Crop Addict! The kit includes a great 7 Gypsies mini album and had fun Kaiser papers and travel themed embellishments. I designed this "Getaway" minialbum with the kit. The kit includes everything you need to complete the mini album. You can purchase the kit here.

Here's a sneak peek!! (Inside pages will be shown soon so check back!!)

Fantastic FALL CYBER CROP!!

Come join us at Crop Addict for their Fantastic Fall Cyber Crop this weekend! The festivities begin at 6pm EST on Friday, October 10th and end at 9pm EST on Sunday, October 13th.

Come ready to scrap and win prizes.

They'll be giving out over $1500 in prizes.

So clear your calendar, send the kids off with dh to the movies, the inlaws, hunting or some other activity and get your scrap goodies and play along. See you there!

October Crop Addict Projects

Its that fun time of the month again... time to reveal what I've been working on all month! The Crop Addict October kit of course! Its so yummy! And very versatile! I was able to do school-themed layouts, flowery layouts, graphic layouts and vacation layouts all from the same kit! I even created a sign that hangs on the shelf handle in my refrigerator to list leftovers that are hiding in there! Hopefully my hubby will remember to take them for lunch now! I just sewed a piece of transparency to the top so I could write/wipe it off with an overhead marker. Thanks for looking!

Growing up TOO fast!

Here are some pictures of my boys on the first day of school. UGH! What happened to my babies? It seems like just yesterday that I brought them home from the hospital, held them in my arms, nursed them through the night, rocked them to sleep... now they are confident little boys with happy personalities ready to grow up. I'm not too sure I like this! I wish I could slow time down a bit.

But I know they must spread their wings and fly. Carson is loving 1st grade and reading books to us every night. Kolby is loving preschool and has charmed every one of his teachers! Watch out world, here they come!

Holey Moley!

Holey moley...Holy cow...what am I talking about? Holes of course! My challenge this week at Crop Addict is all about holes!! Get out those hole punches because we are going to be making holes! My challenge to you is toc ome up with creative ways to make holes in your paper. Don't just use those hole punches the way they were intended...think up exciting new ways to use them...create borders, create shapes, create a title, use different sizes...let's see how HOLEY you can make your layouts!

Check out my example. Its a layout I did last year and is one of my favorites! I used three different sized hole punches to create my water droplets. Love the effect!

Upload your layout in the Sep 15th - Sep 22nd Holey Moley Challenge Gallery AND link back to the Weekly Challenge forum by midnight PST on Sep 22nd.

Good luck! I can't wait to see what you come up with! Winners are usually announced at the end of the month and receive some great prizes!! Come join the fun!

Saved $250 in groceries!!!!!

Yup... you heard me right. I'm still in shock! I just left Meijers, our local grocery store and saved more than $250!! That's not even including the $96+ I saved in a couple trips to Walgreens and Family Fare!! In fact, in one of my trips to Walgreens, I bought 5 bags of Chex Mix, 2 boxes of Fiber One bars, and 3 bottles of Robitussin cough/cold syrup and they PAID ME! I made a profit of $2.00!!

So... I bet you're wondering how I did it?

I just signed up for a trial membership ($19.99 for TWO months) at Savings Angel . I had a few teachers that I work with that had been raving about it for about a year, but I kept thinking... I'm doing ok, I usually buy stuff that's on sale, so its not going to save me much. Besides, its $19.99 a month... can I really save enough to make up for it? OH YEAH! I sure was fooling myself! This is the coolest thing I've ever signed up for! Even my husband is shocked!

Its not a complicated theory. Savings Angel simply takes sales from local stores (Michigan and Saint Louis) and matches them up with killer coupon deals to give you unheard of savings. They give you the links to print the coupons or tell you exactly which newspaper coupon flyer to go to to cut out a particular coupon. I was never a coupon cutter, but its easy when they tell you exactly what to print or cut. No going through coupon books in the aisles. I simply took all my pre-cut organized coupons to the store, went down the list I printed from their site and ended up with a great deal!

Here's a couple highlights from my trip to Meijers last night:
*free boys jeans
*free boys underwear
*free boys shoes
*free boxes of Green Giant vegetables
*free tubes of Colgate toothpaste
*free Ladies Speedstick deodorant
*Lean Cuisine meals for $0.90
*hot dogs for $0.15
*Combos pretzel snacks for $0.40
*Betty Crocker tuna and chicken helpers for $0.40
*Electrosol dishwashing detergent for $0.40
*Hunts snack pack puddings for $0.53

My receipt said I had $65.65 in just coupon savings!! I paid $199.18 for $450.61 of groceries! (I'm totally stocked up for awhile!!) My savings were $251.43 and I even got $7.00 off my next shopping order.

I am so excited about this. Just couldn't wait to tell everyone about it! Give it a try. If you do try it, it would be great if you would use me as a referral. My referral number is 15393. Happy shopping and SAVING!!

P.S. For all you scrapbookers... I just saved myself plenty of money to go on a shopping scrappy spree!! YIPPEEE!!

The Melting Pot

To celebrate our 11 year anniversary (which is TODAY!!), we treated ourselves to an INCREDIBLE four course dinner at a fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot. It was so much fun! We were seated in a quiet dimly lit booth with high sides so you couldn't see anyone else. (It was very romantic!). Our first course was a Wisconsin Trio cheese fondue that came with different breads, granny smith apples and veggies. Our second course was a wonderful salad. I had a tropical one with mangoes, coconut crusted pecans and a sweet citrus dressing. Our third course was the main entree. We had a platter of meats (filet mignon, jerk sirloin steak, peppery shrimp, vanilla rum chicken and marinated pork) that we cooked in a mojo wine/broth. It was scrumptious! There were also 7 different sauces we could dip into! Our final course (at this point we were so stuffed they could have rolled us out of the restaurant) was a chocolate pecan turtle fondue with flaming rum! We dipped strawberries, pound cake, brownies, Oreo crusted marshmallows and cheesecake into!

I have always loved fondue. Now I'm an addict! Can't wait to do it again!

Crop Addict Monthly Challenge

I'm the featured design team member for September for Crop Addict!!

How cool is that??!!

Anyways... I created some challenges for this month, which was a ton a fun! Here's my first one. I hope you'll come play along!

"Labor Day is a glorious holiday because your child will be going back to school the next day. It would have been called Independence Day, but that name was already taken." - Bill Dodds

As a teacher and mother, September signals the beginning of school. Backpacks get filled, pencils get sharpened, and school supplies get bought.... To celebrate this exciting back-to-school time of year, I want you to think back to Kindergarten basics and focus on letters. Sticker alphabets to be exact.

Pull out those sheets of alphabet stickers and get creative with them. Don't just use them for titles, but use them as embellishments, masks, or backgrounds. Show me all the unique ways you can use letter stickers on a layout!

Upload your lo into the September Design Team Monthly Challenge Gallery at Crop Addict. Post a link in the forums under "Monthly Challenges" by midnight PST on September 30th.

Let's see your ABCs! Hope you play along! Good luck!

Crop Addict September kit!

I had so much fun with the September Crop Addict kit! It was full of Little Yellow Bicycle and Basic Grey papers. There were also embellishments from Heidi Swapp, Maya Road, 7 Gypsies, and Cloud 9 just to name a few! It was so fun and I just loved how my layouts turned out! I have tons of stuff left over too! Thanks for taking a peek! (Complete supply lists available in my Crop Addict gallery)

Ad-Inspiration!

I found this advertisement in my favorite scrapbook magazine!! Although we may complain about all the advertising that many scrapbook magazines seem to have, use them to your advantage as great inspiration!!!

I loved the collage of photos on the advertisement and decided to duplicate the look on my layout. I had these pictures of Kolby eating ice cream last summer during a Kid's Day carnival. I loved all the pictures and the expressions on his face and always wanted to use all the pictures, but never knew how to do it without doing a two page layout. This ad was my answer as I reduced some of the pictures down and created a collage. Love the results!



(Supplies for layout from Addicted Scrappers April 2008 kit)

Thank a Teacher!

"If you can read this, thank a teacher!"

With school just a week away, I wanted to make something special for my son's 1st grade teacher. As a teacher myself, I know how crazy and stressful the first week of school is so I've made a point to do something little for his classroom teacher's each year. Last year I made an inspirational card for his Kindergarten teacher and this year I made a photo frame for his 1st grade teacher (got the idea from the Sept/Aug Scrapbooks Etc. magazine- p.22). I plan to send it in his backpack for her on the first day of school. Its a great pick-me-up that first day for any teacher!!!

And the winner is.....

Thanks so much everyone for coming out to join in my 1000th hit celebration! WHOO-HOO!

My 6 year-old son was my little helper who randomly selected a number between 1-10 (correlates with the 10 people who commented on my post). After wanting to know what "game" I was playing... LOL (I think he thought I was playing his WebKinz!!) he chose number...

#9

Our winner of a scrappy prize is.... BETH!! Congratulations!

Please e-mail me at ajcbretz@yahoo.com and let me know your address so I can send you your prize! Thanks everyone for playing along!! Until next time...

1000 Hits Celebration!

Well... I know that 1000 hits isn't much, but its a big step for a little blogger like me. So to celebrate, I am giving away a little goodie bag of scrapbook prizes to a lucky winner. Wanna play? Just leave a comment here and tell me what you like, don't like or want to see more of on my blog. On Thursday, August 21 I will randomly select a winner! So be sure to check back then to see if you've won! Good luck everyone!!

T-ball season

Well... we survived our first T-ball season with our oldest son Carson. Last year was our experimentation year... we tried gymnastics, soccer, swimming, and T-ball camps. Soccer was definitely not his forte (he was the one running miserably behind all the kids crying "they won't give me the ball"!). Nope... definitely not a soccer kid. But T-ball camp didn't go too bad.

So... we signed up for our first T-ball league this year.

The first practice had me questioning our decision that this was his "best" sport. First was his attempt at throwing the ball... oh help us... his adorable attempt had him flinging his arm across the front of his body and landing the ball all the way in the soccer field to his left. Then he would turn to us with a huge smile and give us a thumbs up... hee hee... hee... yeah... ok.... Then he stepped up to the bat. He was ready, he was holding the bat, ready to swing... until Daddy yelled "Coach- he's right-handed!" He was holding the bat in his wrong hand. Oh boy...

This was going to be a long season.

But much to my surprise, he improved very quickly and loved it! He was a great listener and paid attention most of the time (unless there was a spider or catepillar in the grass... then any ball, coach or players quickly moved into a non-priority position as he squatted down intently watching the lucky little insect! And on some rare occasions, other teammates noticing what he had found would readily leave their positions and race over to see the bug who had commanded so much attention! ...all in the middle of a game!) But if a ball came his way... he usually stopped it. He was a great runner and even managed a few good hits! I was so proud of him! It was fun to go to his games and he was all smiles all the time. What a great little sportsman!

So... T-ball is over, but we will definitely be looking forward to next year's season!

Baby card

Only 8 more weeks and I'm going to have a brand new nephew! I'm so excited! My only baby brother and his wife are due in September. Since they live across the street from us, I hope to see the little peanut all the time! My boys are very excited for their cousin to arrive too! My 6 year-old asks me about every other day "Did Auntie Lisa's baby come yet?" He loves to pat her tummy whenever he sees her! Its really cute. Since all three boys will be three years apart, I hope they grow up to have a lot of fun together!

We had a baby shower for them this weekend. Here's a little card I made with some scraps. TFL!

Crop Addict August kit!

Just finished up my layouts and projects for my first month designing at Crop Addict! Their August kit was so yummy! Kaiser, Basic Grey, Imagination Project, Making Memories, Cloud 9, Lil Davis.... the list goes on and on with all the goodies in this kit! Here are some of the layouts and cards I did with it! TFL!

Christmas in July!

Addicted Scrappers just had a "Christmas in July" crop this weekend! What a fun idea to get a head start on some of those Christmas cards and projects that always sneak up on us at the last minute! Too bad I was gone and missed it! If you didn't get a chance to stop over there, go check out their projects anyways. Lots of fun inspiration!

And here are a few of my own Christmas themed projects and inspirations!

My inspiration for the first one comes from none other than a shopping bag! (who said shopping isn't good for you?!!) The logo on the side of the Old Navy bag grabbed my attention because I loved the stripes behind it and how the letters reflected the color behind them.










I created the same look on this Christmas card by layering strips of patterned paper from an Addicted Scrappers kit, then getting out some old stencils and cutting them out of the white cardstock. When I layed it over the top of the patterned paper, I had a unique see-thru title!
















My second card inspiration comes from none other than a Christmas card that I had received! I mean... really... when the holidays are over, what do you do with all those old Christmas cards?? USE THEM FOR SCRAPBOOK INSPIRATION OF COURSE!!

I loved the cool design with drawn-on buttons on it. I also liked the unique way it was folded. Its a bit hard to see, but the front cover is actually cut down the middle and around the right side of the tree. That is all that makes up the front cover. The right side of the card is actually the inside of the card showing.




















I created a Valentine/love card using a heart instead of the Christmas tree and used real buttons to cover the heart with and folded it the same way, cutting out the outside edge of the heart on the front cover. The front cover says "Love is" and the inside cover on the bottom right side says "The Greatest Gift."



















Here is the inside of the card to better show how the front cover is cut down the middle and around the heart. When closed it says "Love Is the Greatest Gift." When open it says "You Are the Greatest Gift."



Thanks for looking!