Finally!

Our vacation has come. We left at o'dark early Saturday morning and made great time to NC. Only 5 hours with a gratuitous stop at Starbucks. I'm not sure who was more excited by this stop - me or the kids. If DH didn't have to stop he wouldn't. He orders regular coffee at Starbucks. Maria loves her iced vanilla latte and Nick is my hot chocolate boy - no matter what time of the year it is. I have to have my Chai latte.

We spent some great time on the beach until we could get into the house. Yesterday was a gorgeous day right up until the thunderstorm hit, but by then we had headed off the beach, taken a dip in the pool and were inside cleaning up and getting ready to have some lunch.

We spent time last night watching the Olympics. How about Men's swimming relay team? Was that not spectacular?! We loved that finish. We watched a bit of the women's gymnastics heats. I'm always amazed at the routines on the balance beam - 4 inches - can you imagine the concentration they need for that.

DH is golfing this morning, so me and the kids will head out to do a little shopping and then hit the beach this afternoon. Hope you all have a terrific day.

My Favorite Things (Stamps)

My Favorite Things is this month's sponsor at Scrapbook Playground. They have the cutest little sets that are great for card making and can be very adaptable to your LOs. Come check out the work in the Design Team Gallery for My Favorite Things Remember to check back again on the 20th for our newest creations.

This LO was created using the snowman stamp set. Kimmie sent me images from the stamp set she received and then I enlarged them on my printer/copier. Then I placed a transparency over the top and traced it with Dimensional Fabric Paint from Plaid. I love the effect.

Contest at Scrapbook Playground

For August we want to see your layout using stamps in a creative way - so dust off those old stamps you have stored away and have some fun with them!!!!

NOW - for the RULES!!!!! lol

*8.5x11 or 12x12 layouts only - no mini's, no cards.

*one entry per person

*you can not win back to back challenges - but don't let that stop you from entering because we love to see what everyone can create!

*you have until 8-31-08 to get your entries in the correct gallery http://scrapbookplayground.com/pp331/showgallery.php?cat=994

*all work must be yours - no scraplifts or sketches, please ask if you have any questions - visit the Contest Forum over at the playground!

This is what you can win:

On a roll!!

This has been a great week. I won a contest at Unpubbed Blogspot and they made me their famer for the week. How cool is that. Here's a link:

http://www.unpubbed.blogspot.com/

Today I won a DT Challenge at YMBD (Your Memories By Design). This is a great site and you should come on over and check it out. The ladies are super friendly and they will be having an online crop in September that sounds fabulous. Here's a link:

http://yourmemoriesbydesign.ca/phpBB2/index.php

Deja Views and SEI - ROCK!!!

I can't say enough good things about our wonderful sponsors for July at Scrapbook Playground! Deja Views and SEI! We were all sent a huge amount of supplies - wonderful papers, glitter diecuts, chipboard, ribbon, brads, alpha letters, puffy stickers and much more. Yummy, yummy, yummy! I loved the colors of the Deja Views Little Yellow Bicycle line and the texture on the SEI Dill Blossom line was to die for. I've included a few samples of my LOs here, but head over to Scrapbook Playground to check out the galleries for Deja Views - http://scrapbookplayground.com/pp331/showgallery.php?cat=990/ and SEI - http://scrapbookplayground.com/pp331/showgallery.php?cat=990/

Dream Street Papers Blog

Dream Street Papers is having a little contest on their blog thanks to Kim Moreno. Hi Kim - how ya doing? I just have to say I adore your beach album on today's post - it totally ROCKS!

Anyway, about the contest. While some of the ladies are away at CHA Kim's giving you a chance to win their new 3 lines. And boy are they yummy! You haveto create 3 cards using DS papers. I didn't have much DS left, but just enough for 3 quick cards. Hope they like them.

Twice in One Day!!

Kimmie and Corey are keeping me on my toes and keeping my blog updated for sure. I wonder if this was Kimmie's intent all along. She's always after me to update my blog. Well, here ya go sweetie - two in one day!

I had to do another challenge to use the scraps from my LO to make a card. Since I used no PP I really had no scraps, so I kept with the same theme and just made a cute summer birthday card using the same supplies (SU Stipple Shells Stamp Set, Stickles, SU Ink and pop dots, but I did use leftover CS scraps - yay me!) Hope you like it.