This is so unexpected...I didn't even prepare a speech!

Tee hee hee!  

Hello, friends!  

Well, Miss Rachel nominated me for a Liebster award!  Now, let me start off my saying that at first I thought it was spam.  And I was scared to click the link.  Sure, she's a fellow design team member at The Memory Nest…but what if a bot took over her computer and was hacking into mine as I read???  (I love a good conspiracy theory.  LOL)

Anywhooo no.  Rachel has not gone bot.  I did some googling to find out a bit about this award and low and behold, it's a real thing.  (See how un-blog-savvy I am?)  I love the idea of paying this forward and helping my friends gain exposure for their blogs.  There are some incredibly talented and overlooked papercrafters out there and I hope that you will check out the blogs I am nominating!

**SIDENOTE:  After I drafted this blog post, I got another nomination from Sharon Fritchman.  Thanks, Sharon!  I appreciate the support! xoxo**

So, a bit about the Liebster Award.  This award is given to bloggers who are up and coming and who have less than 200 followers. It is a way to bring attention to these blogs and build the blogging community. The meaning of Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. Awww. J

As a recipient of this award I need to do the following:

1.            List 11 random facts about myself.

2.            Answer the 11 questions the awarding blogger has asked me.

3.            Nominate 11 bloggers (with less than 200 followers) for the award and link to them in my post.

4.            Create 11 questions the nominated bloggers have to answer.

5.            Let the nominated bloggers know they have been nominated.

(These are the requirements for the people whom I nominate as well)

Sounds like fun, so let’s get started.

Random Facts About Me (Shawna):

   1.    I wasn't born creative and never made more than a poster board until I was in my mid-20s.

   2.    I live a town over from the town where I grew up.  Old habits die hard.

   3.    I am a tree hugging, free spirited hippie at heart.

   4.    I'm a slob.  I go on spurts of "neat freakiness" but I'm incapable of sustaining all that order.  Overall, I'm a slob. 

   5.    My husband is a US Marine…and the antithesis of a slob.  He folds better than I do and is in charge of the laundry pretty much always.  Actually, he's pretty much in charge of anything having to do with cleaning.

   6.    I grew my first organic garden last summer and am super psyched to get planting again this year.  I'm going to make a bean teepee for my daughter. J

   7.    I do not understand spending a ton of money on purses and shoes...Target is just as stylish thank you very much. hehe

   8.    I used to snowboard until I broke my wrist.  Would love to get back into and teach the kiddo.

   9.    I love the northeast US!  Yes, we have hellacious winters…but we don't have hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes or anything scary like that.  Oh, and our bugs are all reasonably sized. ;-)

  10. I love to read and once I start a book, I cannot put it down until I've finished it.  And if it happens to be a trilogy or something, you may not see me for days.

1 11. I have a serious, serious Starbucks addiction.  I'm talking serious.

Here are my answers to the questions that Rachel asked me:

1.            What was the las book you read?  I'm going to lump 3 into one here (see Random Fact #10, above).  The Divergent series.  And now I am currently reading Hands Free Mama by Rachel Macy Stafford.  Awesome read for anyone with kids. Highly recommend.

2.            Describe your perfect day?  I couldn't possibly.  There are so many different types of "perfect" days for me.    

3.            If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?  I have always wanted to visit Africa.  The hubs tells me I need to see Hawaii and Australia.

4.            What is on your nightstand?  Nothing because I don't have one on my side of the bed.

5.            Early riser or night owl?  Early riser.  5am. Usually in bed by 10pm.

6.            Coffee or tea?  Coffee all day every day.  See Random Fact #11, above.

7.            You wake up to a rainy day, what do you do?  Scrapbook!

8.            You wake up to a sunny day, what do you do?  Get outside into nature with the kiddo.

9.            What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?  It's a 2-way tie here.  Peppermint Patty and Black Raspberry.  But not together. lol

10.         What was the biggest surprise of your life?  Finding out I was pregnant after years of trying without success.

11.         Favorite animal?  All of them.  Every animal on the planet.  They are all beautiful and amazing and awe inspiring.

So here are the crafty bloggers I am nominating for the Liebster:

Lisa-Marie:  http://bluebirdscrapper.blogspot.com/

Lizzy Hill (she's at 197...it's close! Haha)  http://lizzyhill12.blogspot.com/

Annie Claxton http://www.artyfartyannie.com/

Val Thorpe  http://valbellesramblings.blogspot.com/

Leanne Kroschel  http://leanne555.blogspot.com/

Stephanie  http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.com/

Kerry http://scrapbooking-fortheloveofpaper.blogspot.com/

Vicky Nardone http://veryvic.blogspot.com/2014/05/photo-shapes-memory-mondays-2.html

Patty http://asassyscrapper.blogspot.com/

Katie Lamb  http://whatkatiedid2.blogspot.com/

 And here are my questions for my Nominees (they're pretty random haha):

1.     What's your favorite song?

2.     Books:  Kindle or tried and true paper copies?

3.     What's your guilty pleasure?

4.     What would you do with $1million buckaroonies?

5.     What is the last movie you saw?

6.     Are you a cold or a hot weather girl?

7.     Are you where you always thought you would be?

8.     What's your biggest pet peeve?

9.     Cats, dogs, or neither?

10.   If you could interview one famous person (past or present), who would it be?

11.  Finish this sentence:  "My friends always tell me that I _______________."

Well, I guess that's it!  I did complete this in ½ an hour, so I hope you all won't find it too daunting to participate!  Thanks again to Rachel for the nomination!  Fun stuff!

Feeling Sketchy??

There's a great new sketch up at Sketchabilities today, featuring the first reveal of the new design team (and some returning, including me) design team!  CLICK HERE and come check the reveal out!  Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it.

I had so much fun playing with the background.  I had some gray corrugated cardstock left from the Collecting Moments kit from The Memory Nest  (CLICK HERE for more info on the kit and how you can get it 40% off!) and it was perfect for layering color and texture on.  I started with some mists, then layered gelatos, hand painted acrylic rectangles, and modeling paste over that.

I painted a wooden arrow white to point to my hairclip-that-wasn't-marketed-to-be-a hairclip.  This rhinestone and resin clip is perfect on a scrapbook page, but it's also perfect in my hair.  ;-)

I painted some wooden frames black to layer over the hand-drawn rectangles for dimension and then layered some Basic Gray frames over that.  I'm loving layered shapes.  You will be seeing more of this in my upcoming layouts!

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo,

Shawna

Great deal on past collections at The Memory Nest!

Leslie is running some great specials over at The Memory Nest this month!  She's offering 30% off all past collections, and, if you use my code below, you can get an extra 10% off!  I worked with the Collecting Moments kit from Fancy Pants and was super impressed with how versatile the collection was.  And, it was definitely new to me...I had never used any of the papers or embellies from this collection and had a blast putting together my layouts.  Here are the layouts I came up with.

I added a few odds and ends from my stash, namely the flowers, banner and butterflies.  The paper, the little word stickers, the small letters used and the "time" themed embellies are all Collecting Moments.

Again, all of the papers are from Collecting Moments, and I added in a few little flowers, a couple of flair buttons, and a vellum pocket that I filled with sequins from my stash.

With the exception of the "hi" button and the two frames, all of the elements of this page are Collecting Moments.

Come visit The Memory Nest Shop and score some deep discounts on all products!  Make sure to use my code below to get an extra 10% off already discounted supplies!

See you soon!

xoxo,

Shawna

CSI #122

Yep it's time for a new reveal at CSI!  And being that it's the 2nd week of the month, we have a fab sketch from the talented Miss Em Stafrace from PageDrafts!

Here's the case file and sketch.

And here's my take on it.  CLICK HERE for the rest of the design team's awesome work on this file. For my evidence, I chose a grid pattern and a tag/label.  For my testimony I pulled in the inspiration word "place" when talking about place value.  

Let me start out by saying I struggled like whoa on this one.  'Twas the mother of all case files for me. The color scheme AND the sketch.  I can't think of anything but pumpkins when I see orange and green together and I have the hardest time with banners...I can never get them to seem to naturally "fit" on my pages without looking like some foreign impostor.  Somehow, after 4 attempts I pulled this layout together.  And I'm glad because I really love these pictures because they showcase the little lady hard at work at school.  :)

I started out with some modeling paste, a stencil and chartreuse mist to get some numbers onto the background, since the layout is about math.

Then I cut out some banner shapes, hole punched them and secured them with jute twine.

A flair button, ink drips and wooden stars from Citrus Twist Kits.

And a description of Montessori methods of teaching math.

There she is!  My little mathematician working the "stamp game"! :)

Hope to see your work in the gallery this week!  Have a great weekend!

xoxo,

Shawna

CSI #121...Better late than never!

I had a crazy week.  Spent the majority of it finishing up the display signs for silent auction items at my daughter's school gala fundraiser tomorrow.  And get this.  I've been so busy I haven't scrapped in a week.  I'm getting twitchy. ;-)

I wanted to share LAST week's CSI reveal before this week's comes out tonight.  So, here's my layout for case file #121. (which you still have a couple of days to play along with, by the way!)  CLICK HERE to see the rest of the design team's creations!

Here's the case file.

For my evidence, I chose a map print accent (on the metal tab on the left), flowers, metal, and a lamp post. The journaling is hidden on the red tag and I chose to journal about a room in my house - my  bedroom.

I stamped the sun/moon onto cardstock and cut it out and highlighted it a bit with a watercolor pen.  I also stamped the lampost and fussy cut it, and covered it with Mod Podge modeling magic.  I love that stuff.

The "Under the Blanket" stamp is a Citrus Twist original and was just perfect for this page!

I made the bird medallion by fussy cutting a bird from some Maggie Holmes for Crate paper cardstock, adding a little ink behind it, winding some thread in, and sealing it all with the Mod Podge modeling magic.  Hard to see in the photo but it's a great little 3 dimensional addition to the page.

And there you have it!  Check back tonight when we reveal case file #122...it was my favorite for this month and I can't wait to share it with you.

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

xoxo,

Shawna