Zva Blog Hop Winners!

Just a quick note regarding the winners of the Zva Creative blog hop!  Please find the winners' names and the amount of their prize noted below:

Michelle Woerner - $50.
Jules the blog princess - $50.
Karen Motz - $30.
Rbarakat - $30.
Scrappininak - $15.

Please send an e-mail to kimhughes22@aol.com and share your address.  We appreciate you playing along with us so very much!

This is also my last official post as part of the Zva Creative Design Team.  I chose not to apply to continue on for another term as things are pretty hectic for me right now between tball, soccer, puppy training, birthday parties and just the general craziness that comes with spring.  I have truly enjoyed every minute as part of this fabulous and talented team and cannot say enough good things about their products.  Good luck to those of you who have applied for the new team - I know I for one cannot wait to see what amazing projects the new team creates in the coming months. 

AC/Pebbles Product Swap!

Happy Monday everyone!  Yes I am still here even though from the state of my blog you might think I've gone into hiding.  It's just been a really busy past few weeks and my scrappy time has had to take a backseat to tball, birthdays, and the almighty puppy training.  LOL!

I did want to share with you a recent project I created as part of an American Crafts and Pebbles product swap!  As some of you may know American Crafts acquired Pebbles late last fall.  Pebbles has made some real positive changes as a result of this new relationship and I couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of it all.  And just to show you how well these two companies work together we've scheduled a "swap" this week on both the Pebbles and American Crafts blogs.  You'll get to see some of the Pebbles design team members incorporate American Crafts products into their projects and vice versa. 

I created this fun and bright layout about my beach boys using a combination of the Tree House collection from Pebbles and the Abode and Heat Wave collections from American Crafts.

The colors in these collections work together perfectly and it was a ton of fun to cut bits and pieces of some of the patterned papers to embellish my layout especially these clouds I cut from the Sunset paper in the Tree House collection by Pebbles.

Pebbles has always been known for their Candy Dots and now they've come out with Glitter Candy Dots - LOVE!  They look just like brads but are self-adhesive so no need to poke holes in your papers ... just peel and stick!

I love to layer stickers and pop them up with dimensional adhesive for even more impact and that's exactly what I did here with theses cardboard stickers from the Tree House collection from Pebbles.  I layered my stickers with some bits of American Crafts paper, American Crafts journaling stickers, and of course a little stitching. 

And finally my title using some new ABC stickers from Pebbles along with more punched and pop dotted bits of paper. 

It felt REALLY good to create this layout after not scrapping for awhile especially since the products were just so inspiring.  I hope you stop on by the Pebbles blog today and every day this week as we share lots of projects to get your creativity moving along.  Oh and of course there's a giveaway involved ... so be sure to get over there and leave a comment for a chance to win!  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Happy Birthday Brandon!

This little man is 4 years old today.  My how time flies!  I still remember the day I found out I was pregnant with him - a total shocker for my hubby and I since our first son was an IVF baby and we were told we had a one in a million chance of getting pregnant on our own.  But sure enough on the morning of Darian's FIRST birthday I realized I was late with my period and decided to take a pregnancy test that I had stashed.  And when it said positive I just about fainted - truly our own little miracle had happened and Darian had given us the best gift on his birthday that any mama and daddy could ask for - another baby to love!

Pregnancy with Brandon was eventful to say the least - lots of nausea and vomiting.  Moreso than Darian and so I was convinced until the day of my 20 week ultrasound that he was a girl.  But truth be told I was thrilled when the technician said we were having another boy.  It meant Darian would have a baby brother just 20 months younger than him - built in playmates and best buddies for life!

I had prelabor with Darian and of course the same went with Brandon.  At 37 weeks I had a regular OB visit scheduled but I wasn't feeling well that day and actually asked Salar to come home from work early and drive me there.  I knew I probably wasn't coming back home.  And sure enough when the doctor checked me I was 5cm dilated.  She contemplated for a minute whether or not she should send me home or not and I think I threatened bodily harm if she sent me back home because I knew I'd end up right back at the hospital in no time.

Labor with Darian was super fast and it was no different with Brandon.  I remember the doctor broke my water and said "settle in I have a C section to perform and then I'll be back."  Salar left to get the forgotten video camera from the car and ran into family in the hallway and didn't come back.  And I was in serious pain.  I pride myself on being very tolerant of pain but it was excruciating and I called in the nurse and told her to turn up the epidural.  She said "Oh honey you're at 10cm the epidural will do nothing for you now." So I pleaded to push and was told I needed to either wait for my doctor to be done with her C section or have an intern deliver my baby. 

So I held on for what seemed like an eternity but was probably only about 10 minutes.  As soon as they knew the doctor was on her way they got me ready to push.  She literally walked in the room, put on her gown, said "push" and then a quick "okay stop, he's out."  And just like that Brandon was born with one push ... or half a push ... or whatever you want to call it.  And I remember Salar saying "that's it?  That was so anticlimatic."  Men!  LOL! 

Brandon was the sweetest baby.  So calm and even tempered.  And then he turned two and his inner demon emerged.  Hee hee!  He is so much like his mama it's scary.  We are both stubborn and hard headed and often get into a test of wills (and I can't even say that I always emerge victorious).  And at the same time he is the sweetest, most caring little boy I could ever ask for.  He still has the most squeezable cheeks and gives the best "juicy" kisses ever.  He is full of energy and has an imagination like no other.  He makes me so very proud to be his mama!  Love you little man ... happy birthday!

Zva Creative Blog Hop!

Hi everyone!  Welcome to another Zva Creative Blog Hop!  We are all joining together today to share a project that we have created using some of our favorite Zva Creative  products.  I hope that you will take some time to join us for a TON of fun!

Each designer's blog will share a unique sketch that was created with paper ... and there's a twist! It's a sketch that's designed with both scrapbookers and card makers in mind.  In addition to having the design laid out for you, each blog will have it's own color combo.  The sketch can be turned and the color placement can be changed around.  If you see a flower element on a sketch, please feel free to change it to something else if you like.  Each sketch is a 6 x 6 page, but you can adapt the design to be horizontal, vertical or even a circle!  The colors don't have to be exact, just stay within the color family that's provided (including using a lighter or darker shade).  Adding neutrals like white, brown or black is ok ... and "making it your own" is always fun to see!

The Blog Hop begins at Kim Hughes' blog.  She is linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on.  There are 12 design team members, so be prepared to be inspired along the way.

We would LOVE to see how YOU create with ZVA CREATIVE products! Please use this sketch to create any type of project (card, layout, home decor etc.)  Your project must include Zva products to be in the running for one of the prizes.  Add a link to your project in the comments section under this blog post. (A permalink is best. but if you don't have that option, please list the post date of your project). You will have until midnight, Thursday, April 29th to play along.

Hidden on 5 of the blogs is a wonderful Zva Creative prize package ... Woo hoo!  Those blogs will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it's important to participate on as many blogs as you can (but you do not need to use all 13 sketches).  The 5 winners will be announced on Friday, April 30th.  We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to all of the blogs once again on Friday ... plus, you never know what kind of inspirational projects that you may find.

Zva Creative supplies used:
Corduroy Brads (BR01CB105)
Pearl Swirl (PE03CA113)
Dimensional Adhesive (AD01CB101)


Other supplies used:
Cardstock (Bazzill Basics)
Patterned Paper, Stickers (October Afternoon)
Punches (EK Success, Stampin' Up!)


Now please hop on over to see the talented Hilde Janbroers! Thank you SO MUCH for joining us!

The reason for my silence ...

... is this little guy.  Meet Buddy.  He's a 9 week old Puggle (Beagle and Pug mix) and joined our family last Saturday before Easter.  Don't let that innocent face and those sad little puppy eyes fool you though.  He is quite the ball of energy and has officially kicked my booty with all of his puppy antics (now I distinctly remember why we chose not to have another baby lol!).  Hence my lack of free time and absence from blogging.  He is a lot of fun though and the boys absolutely love him.  Knock on wood he pretty much has this house training thing down pat and the weather (up until today) has cooperated so we have been outside A LOT which has helped speed things along in that area.  He has decided that he REALLY likes piggies, especially the painted toenail variety, which means my poor feet are constantly under attack.  Ouch!  I'm working on a schedule with him though and he seems to be adapting to it pretty well so hopefully I'll be able to get back to scrapping (and back to blogging) soon!  :)

Happy Easter!

Hi Everyone!  Just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Easter!  The weather has been GORGEOUS here in New Jersey and looks to be in the 70s for Easter Sunday.  So happy that we will be able to have our Easter egg hunt outdoors in the beautiful sunshine.  :)

I wanted to share with you a little project I created for the Pebbles blog today.  Our theme this week on the blog is Easter and I decided to create some fun hanging Easter eggs using the Lil Miss collection.  This was such a fun and SIMPLE project to create.

 
Head on over to the Pebbles blog to see my instructions and complete supply list.  While you're there check out our new look!  My sweet hubby gave the Pebbles blog a little makeover and I absolutely love it!  Leave a comment and let me know what you think!  :)