About Me

My photo
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
I am a stay at home mom..now that is! February 19th, 2007 I was involved in a car accident while on vacation in Florida. I awoke in ICU to find out that my only two children Annemarie age 3 and Michael age 5 did not make it. Scrapbooking became such a big part of my life. It helped fill a void that I desperately needed to fill. Our therapist suggested that I take up scrapbooking as a way to memorialize my children, little did she know! So I took that and ran with it.I became obsessed with scrapping and took over the second largest room in my house. Because of my injuries I couldn't go out and get a job, I just scrapped!I printed out 2,000 photos and my journey began. I have made albums for family members and layouts to decorate my craft room. We thought we were done having kids but who expected this tragedy??? I just gave birth in June 2009 to two beautiful baby girls Mia Anne and Gianna Marie named after their brother and sister.I swore that I would keep up with their albums so I won't become overwhelmed so we will see how that works out! My profile picture is the last family picture that was taken of all of us.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Winner of the Peachy Keen $15 Gift Certificate

Hello Everyone!! Sorry that this is late but we have some severe severe bad weather yesterday. I was really scared watching the lighting hit down all around us. Last year my house got hit by it so I really didn't want to go down that road again!

Anyways I wanted to announce the winner of the $15 Peachy Keen Gift Certificate. I used Random.org and that lucky person is...............

#223 - cfine said...
Well, I thought I loved the flower pots until I came here and saw the penguins and gingerbread men! Now I don't know for sure, I really like them all. Would you be able to fit them all into one project? LOL finecrafter at gmail dot com

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!! Please contact me so I can get your information! I have a few more winners but I won't get those listed until tomorrow but hopefully later on today!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Congratulations! On your bun in the oven...winner

This is my second post for the day! I am having so much fun with my give-a-ways!! I picked another random comment and came up with what she selected.

This is the comment that I picked:



Hollyhock said...
I accidentally trashed my comment. Got a new pc and the mouse is really whack to work with. Anyway, here's my comment:You've sold me on the gingerbread set with that positively wonderful place setting card. And the chef hat card - very tastefully done. Now for the challenge, how about using the gingerbread set and/or the accessories for baby announcements; you know the saying about "a bun in the oven" or something like that. I need inspiration.






This is what I came up with. I forgot to take a picture of the inside and my "me" time is up so you will just have to imagine it..lol! It says "Congratulations.....on your bun in the oven!" I tried to do a boy/girl theme so it would be unisex if they didn't know what they were having. I welded the oven in Design Studio using the FROM MY KITCHEN cart. I cut out the little Gingerbread boy & girl using the new CottageCutz Gingerbread Doll from Peachy Keen. I used the face stamps that came with the die which is just totally awesome! If you are anything like me and (even your stick figures you try to draw look awful!) can't draw to save your life these stamps come in REALLY handy. The hats were cut out with the CottageCutz Doll Accessory die.

And here is the exciting part......Do you know what HollyHock just won?????? Her very own


Congratulations HollyHock!!!!!
Joanne from Scrapping Cottage has generously given me a die cut to give away as a prize this week. So there girlie you are now the proud owner of a spanking new CottageCutz Gingerbread man die!!! YIPPEEEEE for you!!! Please contact me ASAP with your mailing information so I can get this out to you.
Tune in tomorrow for some more fun prizes!




Some more winners for you all!!

It is barely after 7am. I haven't even finished my second cup of coffee yet but I wanted to pick some more winners and this time get it posted in a timely manner. So I am seizing the opportunity!! The winners announced today will also win a Scrapping Goodie Bag.
These are randomly picked comments that were left on that post. Again, this DOES NOT take you out of the running for the $15 Peachy Keen Gift Certificate that will be given away on Sunday. All winners have one week to contact me to claim their prize. You can do so by leaving a comment on this post with your email address so I can contact you.
Drumroll please...........
Stampin' Nana said...
What great creativity. The penguins are my fav.. and the snowmen, and the gingerbread..oh heck, that are all great.thanks for being part of the blog hop and sharing and for the chance to win.Shelley
Leslie L. . said...
I had to take a second look at the calendar today when I saw your posts...I thought it was winter time...but then I walked outside and almost melted so I knew I was wrong (FL 105 degree heat index today). I love how everything turned out!! TFS!Leslie
Tanya said...
Wow, your projects are awesome!! Its hard to pick a favorite... I really like the ginger bread and the frogs are oh so cute, love them all. How about you use the frog to make a card for a boy! I have a 4 year old son and am always lookin for inspiration for boy stuff!!
zwin78 said...
Lisa, what a beautiful job you have done. I would have to say that I love the snowmen the best. You could make tags to put onto a coffee cup filled with hot cocoa packages. That would make a cute gift!..They could say "You make me melt ." I read your profile and I must say, I admire your strength. I have four children and your loss is unimaginable to me. Your ability to cope through creativity is very admirable! Congratulations on your baby girls. Your little angels up above probably sent them to you. Keep on blogging!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

And the winners are......

Hello Everyone! We have lots in store for you in the next couple of days. As promised I am starting to announce the give-a-ways this week. I have something extra special in the works but it is taking me longer than usual to do it. My 2 little one year old bosses have other things in mind for me..chuckles!! Please accept my apologies for this late post. Between severe thunderstorm watches and two little crazy ladies I have not gotten into my craft room all day...until now. Since I am running late I don't have the photos of the prizes to post but I wanted to at least announce the winners of these three projects that I randomly picked. Their prizes will be a Scrapping Goodie Bag! Once I announce the winners please contact me within 7 days to claim your prize. This does not take any of the winners I announce out of the running for the $15 Peachy Keen Gift Card. That will be chosen by random.org on Sunday.

Okay on to the first three winners!!!!

This one I had fun with. I have been wanting to make alphabet flash cards for the girls for sometime. But I never thought of doing a set for the Seasons for some reason. Sweetest Harmony left a comment suggesting making flashcards for kids to learn the seasons . I had such a great time coming up with something.














Okay, RavenB requested a holiday card made with the flower die. This was done rather quickly but it was the first one I did :) I used a bunch of pop dots to give it lots of layers but you can't really make that out in the photo. I used the hat from the accessory die then added some Stickles and liquid applique.





Next I picked the comment left by MY QUILLING NEST. She asked to see a gift box made with the Birdie die. I am not the best with coloring. I cut the bird out in white card stock. I then used my Prismacolor pencils for some shading. Next I cut another bird out in vellum to layer on top of the blue to soften it a bit.



Congrats to my first three winners!!!!!!!!!! Please contact me so I can get your prizes out to you.. Thanks for all the suggestions....keep em' coming!









Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Peachy Keen Challenge & some blog hop winners


Hello Everyone! I am very behind but phew..I am plum warn out from all that hopping! Plus I have been very busy behind the scenes creating some of the wonderful suggestions you guys have left when you commented. I am still going on those creations to make sure if you have something you would like to see done, leave it on the blog hop post from Monday July 19th!

This week over at Peachy Keen Stamps there is a great sketch challenge. For some reason when I saw the sketch the first thing that jumped to my mind was a door and some windows. So I decided to go with a barn in my crazy mind. I welded the barn into a card in my Design Studio. I then added PK-200 Cow Peeker and PK-201 Pig Peeker hanging out of the windows that I created (also in Design Studio). For the doorway, I added a horse cut from Create A Critter cartridge and stamped with PK-754 Critter Faces.

There are some MORE fun prizes being given away with this challenge so make sure if you have the time not to miss out!!

NOW........I am starting to give away my prizes this week from the comments posted and for the suggestions. What?? You want more??? Okay then...tune in tomorrow for some! Trust me you won't want to miss out. There is going to be prizes given away everyday so make sure you check back to see if you are one of the lucky ones! I was going to announce today the winners but I don't have the pictures of the prizes or it even written up but I do have 3 projects completed so far from the suggestions. I love reading them and some of them are a blast!! There are so many that I WANT and NEED to get done because they are GREAT ones!! If you left a suggestion make sure you check back to see if your name is listed (daily) because if you don't claim your prize :( boo hoo someone else will :)

Remember tune in tomorrow for the prize give-a-way-A-Thon to begin...Okay I just made that word up but that's the only way to describe it..chuckles!

Monday, July 19, 2010

OMG!!! You have to see this - Also 11 chances to win!



OMG OMG OMG.....Can you tell I am excited?????????? As you all may know I have been a fan of Peachy Keen Stamps for over 3 years now. Then a couple of months ago I was honored when she asked me to join her DT. I was thrilled of course. My fellow DT members are just so awesome and it makes me sad that we all live so far apart!

Wellllll.......I have such exciting news! (Make sure you read all the way thru for the info on how to win...11 chances and then some so don't miss out!) We are having a Super Fun Blog Hop to celebrate!!! At the bottom of this post you will find a list for the order of the hop and more details.

The The Scrapping Cottage and Peachy Keen Stamps have teamed up to bring you amazingly crisp thin metal die sets featuring some of Kathy Jakopovich’s most whimsical and fun designs! And guess what? You’ll even receive coordinating Peachy Keen face stamps inside your package of Cottage Cutz® die shapes! Whaaaat!? This is so much fun; The Scrapping Cottage and Peachy Keen Stamps have never offered a bundle like this before, and it will be pre-sold exclusively on The Scrapping Cottage and Peachy Keen Stamps’ websites starting Monday, July 19th. Pre-ordering begins tomorrow, it is 25% off entire collection or 15% off single sets. This pre-order special will be available until Monday, July 26th, after that they will be regular priced. So don't miss out on your chance to get these dies at a steal! Remember all but the bird comes with a face stamp (the bird's face is already embossed so you don't need to stamp it!).

What are Cottage Cutz®? They are an exclusive thin metal die line brought to you by The Scrapping Cottage. These thin metal die shapes are made to work with many embossing/die cutting machines on the market today. They cut incredibly well, and like Peachy Keen Stamps, are produced at the highest quality standard.

Since this post is going to be sooo long you can click HERE to see all the different adorable dies.

We literally got these dies hot off the press so we didn't have much time to play with them. Each DT member was given a die to showcase and I received the adorable Gingerbread men/ladies :) I used them as well as the accessory set and a few more I snuck in 'cause I couldn't help myself.
I wasted so much time deciding which one to use and what to make it with. I decided just to play around and see what I could come up with. First I was amazed on how these cut. These will work in almost any die cutting machine. You may have to shim it with card stock or something depending on your machine/paper but I used the Cuttlebug and I didn't have to shim it at all. I have a couple more super cute and fun projects in the works but due to time and some well..some health issues I didn't finish in time :(

I cook a lot and I am always giving out goodies to neighbors and friends so I decided to make some simple tags and cards to give along with it. Here are some pics of the projects I came up with:


I used the FROM MY KITCHEN cartridge to cut out the cutting board. The sentiment is from PK-408 Gingerbread Doll Set




I cut the Igloo out from the Create A Critter cartridge and welded it in my Design Studio to make it into a card.


This is a PlaceCard that I made with the Christmas Cheer placecard feature. You can use any placecard feature or just fold a piece of paper in half!! I did it in blackout so it was just basically a blank template. I then sewed around the DP and added those adorable dies.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE EXCITING PART????? Each Peachy Keen design member is giving away a $15 gift certificate to the Peachy Keen store!! Oh my word that means you have 11 chances to win. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post to win it!! Each DT member will pick their own winner so you can technically win more than once!! Whooo Hoo how cool is that???

Here is how you win the prizes. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post on which die is your favorite. And to even add more prizes ..yes more prizes...how about we have some more fun?? Leave a comment on this post and tell me what die you would like me to use and what project you would like me to use it on. I love to push myself and see what I can come up with so be creative and think outside of the box. If your project/die suggestion is picked you will get a SPECIAL PRIZE pack sent to you!! Boy oh Boy I feel like Santa Claus!!! The drawing for the prizes endsSunday July 25th at midnight EST so make sure you get your comments in before then. Any entered after that time/date will not be considered..sorry!

Here is the order of the blog hop:

Kathy
Angelica
Viv
Lorie
Janice
Nikki
Emma
Sonia
Heidi
Samantha

And last but not least...me! (Clicking on my name below will bring you back to the PKS store and you get to see all the dies up for the pre-sale price!
Lisa

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Let's Say "HOWDY" to Miss Boni!


OMG! My fellow Sistah from the Sisterhood has finally branched out on her own and started creating her very own stamps. They are hysterical! What I love about them is that they are a bit different and come with some really funny sentiments...not something you see everyday and that's what makes them FABULOUS and right up my alley!!! I had a hard time picking which one I wanted to do first. If you want to see what we are all talking about over at the Sisterhood hop on over to FireCracker Designs by Pamela and take a peek. She will be adding some more soon...sooner than later we hope!! Boni's own blog is called Bonibleaux Designs and the stamps that she is currently selling can be found on the FCD website here.

This week at the Sisterhood Of Crafters we are showcasing some of Boni's wonderful stamps. We decided to base the challenge around her stamps which right now are more "manly" based. So the challenge this week is to make a "man inspired" project/card. Whether that includes an image of a man, it's for a man or however you interpret 'a manly challenge'. You have until Tuesday to get in touch with your manly side..LOL! And guess what?????? My Sistah' Tanis is giving away $5 to the winner so they can get their hands on some of these fabulous digis! How cool is that???????

Boni is a beautiful person inside and out. I have the pleasure of knowing her and I wouldn't trade that for the world. Let's all give some Boni some loveeeeeeee!!
Don't forget to stop by and check out her new designs. Furthermore, if you have a chance why don't you stop on by the Sisterhood and play with us this week :) We all could use some more man cards in our stash....I know I could.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Quick Graduation card & Prom Layout

My friend had a graduation party for her son yesterday so as part of her gift I gave her a coffee table scrapbook. It only had a few pics of her son's Senior Prom in it because that was all I had. I told her I need pics of her other 2 children to fill the book up. Since I was running late as usual I had to come up with a quick card for him. I tried to get the inspiration from the invitations she sent out which were very simple but classy. Sorry about the pics being so bad...I had to take them literally as I was walking out the door.



I designed the card around these challenges:

Creative Card Crew "To die-for challenge"
The Cuttlebug Spot 2X2 challenge
Paperplay Your numbers up challenge



I based this layout around the sketch over at:

Sassy Lil Sketches



I based this layout around Sketch #72 over at:

The Scrappiest

Friday, July 9, 2010

Let's get Animated with Practical Scrappers!


This week over at Practical Scrappers they have a super fun challenge for you all! The challenge was to use Animation or Cartoon characters on your project. I knew immediately what I was going to do. My son was obessesed with the movie Cars. He loved anything and everything about Cars. So of course we had a Cars themed birthday. The pictures were not the greatest but that's all I got. I swore I was giong to get better pictures next time but sadly I never got the chance. I bought a paper pack from Creative Memories a couple of years ago on a Crop with a Cars theme. I never used it so I broke that out and used that as the DP as well as a bunch of stickers and embellishments that I bought awhile ago to do his pages.
I added some screw brads in the corner of the top photos which I thought were cute. He loved to build things...I was convinced he would of been an engineer. One time he asked me to put together a toy for him and I couldn't do it. I told him that he was going to have to wait until Daddy came home. He said "Mommy, give me 'structions". By golly he laid the 3ft long instructions out and he put it together all by himself. I remember laughing that I was just shown up by a 5 year old but it made me so proud. Still don't know how he managed to do it when he couldn't read!!!





It's that time again for another wonderful sketch over at Practical Scrappers. Here is another sketch I completed for my friends album using this Friday's sketch. I would love if you stopped on by and showed us your version of this sketch!!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

The turtle has finally crossed the finish line!



Here I am late again. I have been so crazy I just don't know where time goes. I had my card all designed in my head for this weeks challenge but things didn't work out the way I wanted to. And of course I waited to last minute. Then I had family here for a visit which I absolutely love. My niece & nephew were visiting from Florida and loved playing with the 2 boys that live behind me. They had a sleep over the first night, second day we went to an amusement park (not a very big one...but still cost me an arm & a leg!) then the next day we had a couple of families over for a neighborhood and all the kids decided to have a sleep over outside in my tent. I have a 3 room tent and we had 9 people in there plus 2 dogs. My two sisters (Bless their hearts) stayed in there with a bunch of crazy kids. By the time everyone left I was just drained. I came into my craft room and just staired into space for hours..no joke. So making a long story short my project was late.

The challenge this week at Peachy Keen Stamps is to do a layout or a card of your favorite Summer Destination. You also had to use Brads, Buttons or Bling. I had a hard time picking the photos to use which is what delayed me. I had so many different ideas it drove me crazy. But I settled on a photo from our trip to Hershey Park which was a couple of months before the accident. We were saying how pretty it was over there and ironically we ended up moving this way after the accident not to far from Hershey. The kids had a blast. I am going to have to do a whole album just for this trip!!

I thought it would be cute to design a Chocolate Bar character which I lovingly named "Charlie" on my Design Studio. It took me almost all day to do and when he came out I realized I didn't have a stamp big enough for his face! So I had to go back in and resize everything. I used 4-5 cartidges on my yummy chocolate bar Charlie. I used The challenge this week PK-490 Everyday Character Faces for his adorable little face and then covered it in Liquid Glass from CTMH for a little extra shine. I had some Hershey Kisses stickers which I cute a few out and stamped them with PK-540 Funshine Face Assortment Stamps. I know the faces are hard to see but I tried stamping them in white and it looked horrible so I had no other choice. I didn't want to make the LO all brown so I picked some papers from Mind's Eye to brighten it up a bit. I will probably use this has the opening picture in my Hershey Park album.

I am going to submit this LO to the Creative Cottage No cards allowed challenge.

Well I am off to catch up on everything else I am behind on.!! It's going to be 100 degrees today so I am defintely staying indoors!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Made in the Usa...4th of July Parade





Every year my development has a Fourth of July parade. All of the kids dress up their bikes, strollers or wagons and they ride around the development. Last year was the first year we were able to participate and since our little babies were only a couple of weeks old we decorated our stroller. They seem like giants now compared to this picture. I can't believe I put the both of them in one seat ...they were so tiny! Too precious!

I started this layout with my little Uncle Sam that I made with several of my Cricut cartridges and of course my ever so faithful Peachy Keen Stamps. I used PK-490 for this layout. The adorable firecracker stamps are also from Peachy Keen that were an exclusive stamp a couple of weeks ago that was available when you made a purchase. For the Title border I randomly stamped some stars from Close to My Heart in several shades of blue and red. When I started this Lo I was kinda stumped on what to do with the arrangement of photos etc but then I saw sketch #71 over at
The Scrappiest and the sketch over at Sketches in Thyme. Once I saw that I got my juices flowing. For the circle in the sketch I used CTMH dimensional elements ON TARGET. I cut out different sized stars and added them around the circle with some being popped up with mounting dots. The challenge over at
Everything But the Kitchen Sink and Charisma Cardz was to use Aluminum/metal. So I cut small pieces of aluminum foil and ran it thru my Cuttlebug using different folders. Since I had the stars already cut out with DP I turned them upside down and ran them thru my Xyron. I glued them to the back of the foil and cut them out.

Here are the other challenges I based this LO around:

ABC Design Blog - Red, White & Blue
Stamptacular - Stars & Stripes
The Corrosive Challenge - use flowers
Lexi's Creations - 3D
The Cuttlebug Spot - Independence
The ABC Challenge - X is for Xtra dimension
Pixie Dust Studio - Red, White & Blue
Raise the Bar - Colors of Your Flag
Frosted Designs - Red, White & Blue and Stars & Stripes
Wee Memories - Red, White, & Blue
Stamp Something - Colors of your flag
Fairy Fun Friday - Anything goes

This parade is very special for a reason and I have included a picture to explain it. One of my dear neighbors/friends walked with me and helped me since I just had a C-Section. We just talked and she held one of my twins the whole time and loved every minute of it. I took a great picture of her and in the picture she looks like she is wrapping herself around my daughter almost protecting her. Sadly this was the last picture taken of her because shortly after she went to drop her babysitter off and as she pulled in the babysitters driveway a tree uprooted and fell on her car killing her. It was a complete shock to us all since it was literally around the block...very freak accident. I can't believe it has almost been a year since she has passed away. I know that my children have a wonderful person up there with them.


Practical Scrappers Border Punch/Decorative Scissors



As many of you know I am currently doing an album for my friend. The challenges over at Practical Scrappers is coming in sooooooo handy in helping me get it done. I just take that weeks theme/sketch or whatever the challenge is and it gets my Mojo going. This week the challenge was to use decorative scissors or border punches. So I took some pictures of my friend and a Hibachi restraunt and made a page. SHe had a bunch of pictures so I had to keep it simple. I also had to leave her room for journaling so this is what I came up with. I used my Peachy Keen Stamps, Martha Stewart border punch and my Create a Critter Cricut cartridge.