Pinterest Inspired v2.0

I pinned this beautiful wedding invitation the other day and KNEW I had to scraplift it.

Photo Credit

The colors, the title work- everything in it is perfect and totally my style. I actually pinned it, ran from the computer and immediately started figuring out how I was going to get it done. This is what I came up with:

I know, I know, I JUST did a page about my husband and I but that was lovey-dovey and this is just some quick facts about us. =)
And, on Wednesday, I had a few cards up over at Pebbles. I used the Fresh Goods line for all three cards but tried to make them a little different in style.

The last one is my favorite- I love that honeycomb paper! AND, Pebbles just announced a new line called With Love. It's back to basics for Valentine's day with traditional red and pink PLUS kraft- sounds perfect, right? I'm already drumming up some ideas for valentines...
Anyway, I need to finish up some homework so I can have my weekend entirely free. I'm feeling like I could use a nap too; we'll see. Have a good weekend!!

Being Festive!

Okay, so it might be a tad early, but I made this blog banner a few weeks ago and have been itching to get it up ever since. Really makes me want to run out and buy some candy corn...

I've been busy with homework and such this week, but I've been a page making fool too- I just can't show you anything just yet. ;)
I DO, however, have a few cards that I made a while back that I haven't posted yet...

I made this for my husband on our anniversary back in August. We were married on 8-8-08, so this is me being witty. =) 

And this one is a really quick card I made just because. I'm really into the yellow/mustard and navy blue combo right now- trying to find a cute, comfortable fall outfit with the colors- no such luck yet.
I also have some cards up over at the Pebbles blog today, pop over there and tell me what you think!

Wine Fest!

This weekend I got to take a little break from homework and we headed out to Bad Durkheim and their annual Wine Fest. It was a huge fair with lots of food vendors, rides, games, and best of all- BEER TENTS. We let the kids ride some rides, rode some ourselves, ate lots of sweets, and then had a huge glass of wine to top it all off. Good times were had by all!

We will definitely be making a trip out there next year- probably sans children so we can enjoy the alcohol a little more... =)
I made this page with a September PageMap as I'm always short on time. I pulled out a lot of the oranges from the kit this time as festivals in Germany = fall, so I put a little seasonal spin in it. I added a MME brad and some vellum from my stash, too. I'm on a kit roll this week (I normally make one page with a kit once I get it and then don't look at the kit again for a few months...) so hopefully I can keep it going!

Sushi Love

I've been super swamped with school work as we enter the last week of the session so my scrap supplies have been sadly neglected. I decided last night that enough was enough- I put my homework to the side and pulled out my latest SC kit. I already had these pictures printed so I fought really hard with that kit to make this work- it was late and didn't want to make noise with the printer for new photos, and I think this worked out great!

Just a super simple but fun page! These photos aren't really the greatest quality but I think sometimes we get too caught up in trying to use only studio quality pictures. It's a shame really, there are a lot of stories you can tell whether the pictures are good or not! I'm trying to make a conscious effort to use a lot of these not-so-great, shadows behind heads, camera on the wrong setting photos. =)
Thanks for stopping by, have a great week!

You & Me

We've been introducing the new Pebbles design team for the last few weeks and yesterday was my turn! This is the page I created to "showcase my style" that went live on the blog yesterday.

9 times out of 10 I start with a basic grid to figure out where I want to stick things down. In order to keep it from being too boxy, I tilted the corner photo and added some extra wave in the clothesline. I think it helps keep things balanced but interesting.
For the title, I didn't have the right color alphas so I embossed them with Denim Zing- and voila! The perfect blue. I'll definitely be using this technique again- I have 29987329472 Thickers and never seem to have the right color.
Thanks for looking!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Yummies...

I broke out the fall decorations yesterday. I had to. Summer has been like a constant fall in Germany but it was depressing then- while everyone was out at the beach, or even just wearing shorts, we were gloomily looking out our windows at rain. Now though, since it's SUPPOSED to be that way, I'm suddenly in a better mood! Nothing says fall to me like this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies though, so tonight I finally got down to my monthly double-batch.

And because I want to share my fabulous fall mood, I'm going to give you the recipe! Actually, I found this on allrecipes.com a few years ago. You can see the original recipe right here. I've changed some things here to make it even more awesome...

• 1 cup Libby's Pumpkin Pie Mix
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chip

There's not a whole lot of difference here but I'll explain why I made the changes. First, for whatever reason, my grocery store doesn't carry canned pumpkin. A travesty. Instead, this pumpkin pie filling does the trick and adds a little something more. However, because it already has a lot of spice in it, I cut back a bit on the vanilla. It tends to overpower the pumpkin taste, especially when combined with the semisweet chocolate. Next, I add more cinnamon. I like my cookies, coffee, anything, with EXTRA cinnamon. You won't be sorry you added more, I promise.
Then there are a couple things to note with this recipe. Like I mentioned, the vanilla and semisweets tend to fight a bit. If you find it is just too much, go with milk chocolate chips instead. I love this version even better- I'm not a huge chocolate enthusiast so milk is more tame for me. You'll be tempted to eat these right out of the oven but be warned- there is a LOT of chocolate in there so that will be mostly what you taste. I think it tastes a lot better to let them sit out and get to room temperature- the pumpkin and cinnamon is more evident that way. The recipe mentions refrigerating them and that way is good too! Mmmm. Can you tell that I'm really passionate about these cookies? =)

In other news, check out my first ever design team post with Pebbles today! I'm so excited to be a part of this team; there are some talented ladies this year!
Anyway, thanks for letting me share this yummy goodness- now go! Run to the grocery store to pick up some pumpkin!

I'm back!!

I'm finally home from vacation and have had some time to get back into our normal routine over here. I've made it a point to get some scrapbooking in a little at a time (why is it that after only 2 weeks I feel like I'm a little rusty?) and got a page done, along with some things you'll be seeing on the Pebbles blog shortly!

I pulled a few of my favorite pictures from the trip and slapped them down in this page. Sometimes I think a quick and easy page is just what you need to "get feeling it" again- and I'm definitely feeling it! I could use about 10 more hours in a day to craft though...
Anyway, I can't stick around long today, I have a LOT of homework to do, but I'll be back in a few days with some of the other things I've been up to!
PS- I'll be messing around with the layout of my blog in the coming days so please bear with me as things look a little funky.