Scrapbooking is good...

We had so much fun today walking around the showroom floor and taking it all in. I think the first day of the show is always a little overwhelming and you feel like you are rushing around to see everything. The second day you can relax a little, because hopefully you've seen most of it and can go back and look closer at all the cute projects and ooh and ah about details. But here I am rambling and you just want pictures...:) I had a layout on display at the October Afternoon booth that I had no idea would actually be displayed! That was a fun surprise!

More from the same booth using the new Seaside collection...

I just loved this card and phone displayed together.

Lexi had her sweet pinwheel layout on display there also! How cute is this?

Onto the American Crafts booth. I just snapped a few shots of the things that really caught my eye. There is no order here...just eye candy.

We all loved those tiny rosettes with the pearl centers. They are brads people...brads...genius!

New thickers...I think we need them all!

Dear Lizzy had a darling set up in their booth. These paper flowers were tucked into old soda bottles.

I have so much more to share...but it's so late!!! (Or I guess I should say...early...lol.) Back tomorrow with more! Hope you had a fun day!

CHA!

OK...you would think that after being surrounded all day by beautiful brand new scrapbook products...I would have at least ONE photo to share of some of the goodness. Instead I have lots of pictures of me looking quite crazy eating a cupcake from a sweet little shop called Sweet Mandy B's. Holly and Lexi are the best for letting me drag them around town. I love this city...I love these girls...I would love to live on this particular street in fact. Chicago + Heidi = a very good thing. (We like each other!)
I think this picture really says it all. I picked a red velvet cupcake, Lexi got a creamsicle and a snicker doodle cupcake and Holly picked snicker doodle also. So yummy...especially the frosting.
Lexi knows how to take a mean cupcake shot. (And by mean I mean great...me...not so much!) Holly made me promise I wouldn't post a picture of her eating her cupcake. I will honor her wishes tonight because she is super tired and hasn't had much sleep the last 2 days.

Lexi had to take several shots of me however, because unfortunately I am completely inept at getting one good shot that doesn't look like I have crazy eyes or like I am attacking the cupcake.

See...I told you. (I bet you're glad your reading this right now...this is just sad.)

Afterwards we drove downtown to see the city lights. It was my favorite part of the night. Did I mention how much I love Chicago...I think the girls are probably sick of hearing me talk about it by now.

I'll be back tomorrow with LOTS of scrappiness...promise. Hope you had a good day too!

It's not all bad out in the country...

I have a peach tree in my yard. It only produces fruit every other year...and this is the year for peaches! My whole kitchen smells like fresh sweet peaches.
Good thing I love them! I need to get some more recipes of yummy things to make with them. Happy Saturday!

Newsletter!

Time for another Freehand Scraps Newsletter! I can hardly believe that July is slipping away! If you haven't had a chance to take a look at our July kit "Hula Hoop" there are still some available!
I wanted to share a few projects from the gallery this month that left me feeling inspired and ready to create! Here is a great card that Lexi made this month. I love those layered flowers so bright and colorful...and you know I love the polka dots!
Here is a great layout by Amanda Smith. I love the over sized picture and the crinkly circles...so cute!
My sweet sister came up with this beautiful layout from a recent trip to Scotland. I think these three projects show how versatile this kit really is! I love them all!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I'm headed out in the morning for Chicago and CHA! I'm so excited to see all the new scrapbook goodies! I'll be posting lots of peeks on the blog so check there for more!

Summer hair...

When it's hot outside...I refuse to blow dry my hair and prefer to wear it up. Especially since I live in the hot and very HUMID weather! So I have been growing my hair out and I am always trying out new things because I wear it up a lot. Well new to me at least. I get so bored doing the same with it everyday, so today my hair looked like this. I had a few people stop me and ask me who did it and when I told them I had...they wanted to know how. (Plus I need to say...do you know how hard it is to take a picture of the back of your head? It's hard!!)
Start at one side of your head with french braiding and move towards the other side...adding pieces from above and below as you go.
When you get to the other side of your head instead of braiding it all the way to the ends of your hair twist it up so there are a few pieces above the top of the braid and pin it with a bobby pin. I sometimes take a few of the longer layers and make a curl and pin them in. You can make it as messy or as perfect as you like it. I use hair spray (the kind especially for humidity) to hold it all in place. This braid survived my Body flow class and a run tonight. I guess I should have taken pictures of it prior to that! LOL! Hope you had a great Monday!

S-o-l-o...

I'm riding solo for the next few weeks as the kids are with their dad for his visitation. Saturday was a hard day...made better with the help from a few of my friends...hello girls night out! So instead of dwelling on how much this time in the summer stinks...I am focusing on the positives. First things first, this morning I only had to get one person ready and out the door for church. I didn't have to cook any macaroni and cheese, or chicken nuggets all day. I only had one bed to make instead of 3. I spent a leisurely afternoon reading and blog surfing, and I didn't have to get anyone else anything. I scrapbooked and organized and picked up, and there was no one to get any toys out. But really I would much rather have made 3 beds today and picked up 1,000 toys and eaten macaroni and cheese for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to have my two little sweeties tucked in their beds right now. The end.
Tomorrow will be a brighter day...I'm sure of it!

Open house!

First of all a huge thank you for all of your sweet comments about my little scrap space. You are all so kind! I wish we all were neighbors and could get together to scrapbook every week, I have a giant sized room that would fit us all! The open house today was a lot of fun! There was a pretty steady flow of people coming and going...and when I finally got to sit down tonight I felt exactly how I felt when I used to work in retail. T-i-r-e-d! But it was so fun! I love it that I share this hobby with so many great ladies! Thank you to everyone who came. I think I actually could open a small scrapbook store...seriously! So thanks for taking some of it off of my hands!

So I got a Prima newsletter in my inbox today...look at that cover of their new summer catalog. The first thing I thought of was if I was a clothing designer I would make a dress with a bodess covered with these beauties with a full short skirt. Can you picture it? I would have to tone down the dressy-ness of it by throwing a jean jacket on with it...and maybe a pair of Chuck Taylor's. Yep...pretty perfect. Maybe I will make that dress a reality someday...my Mom is coming to town and she is a sewing genius. We shall see.
And speaking of CHA...it's coming up in a week or so and I am getting super excited. I love getting to see all the new products that are coming out...and have been getting my fair share of sneak peeks and it all looks really fun! Besides my sister and Lexi are going with me...and we are going to have a blast!

Shiny Little Studio

I always love looking at other people's scrap rooms and scrap closets...and dining rooms that have been taken over by the love of paper and scrapbooks. Don't you? So inspiring! I started out by scrapbooking on my oversized coffee table...using my giant red couch as a chair. I feel for the girls who came over to scrapbook and didn't once complain about their aching backs after a late night crafting session. You know who you are girls! You're troopers. I then bought a cabinet that was going to be perfect for housing my ever growing stash, but it had a rather smallish work space so I still ending up using my dining room table. Have you ever been there? After my dining room table there was a time when I was using the ping pong table in our basement...but I don't even want to talk about that. I finally have a scrapbook room...it's a dedicated space just for ME! It's not perfect or fancy shmancy...but I love it.


I have a little girl who frequently likes to come in and spin on my chair. :)

The best part of the room is all the windows and natural light.

Where do you get creative?

Quick!

Here is the layout I whipped up this past weekend. Everything is from our latest "Hula Hoop" kit except for a tiny little monkey tag by Elsie Flanagan and the alphabet from a past kit.
More glitter buttons! And how cute is that green October Afternoon paper? Love it!

Can't believe this was only 6 months ago! They already have changed so much! No more missing teeth in the front for Tanner.

Now head on over to Freehand Scraps and get a kit while you still can! I'll be back tomorrow with photos of my very clean (still is!!) scrap space. Hope you had a great day! :)

Mondays are good...

I got a lot crossed off the long to-do list today. I've been getting ready for a big Freehand Scraps Open House this Thursday. If you live in central Illinois...you are all invited! I have tons of stuff to sell, lots of extras and great deals! (Email me @ heidi@freehandscraps.com if you want directions!) The best news of all is my scrap studio is totally clean and organized. I can now see the surface of my desk! It's a miracle! I am usually a very organized person, but my scrap space is the one room that is always out of order and messy. I like to leave it all spread out as I am working. I always have lots of projects going at once. So the tidiness of it all is just so nice! I purposely kept walking past just to see how nice it looked throughout the day today. It's maybe going to be the inspiration I need to keep it that way? We'll see. I need to take some pics to share tomorrow. I also made another project using "Hula Hoop" and will take some photos of it tomorrow to share here.

Happy Monday!

How many pictures does it take?

(This may be my longest title for a post ever!) Here's a few more layouts from my gallery...I already explained the title of this one, so I won't go ther again. I think this sheet of patterned paper might be my favorite from the whole kit. Maybe?
I used my scalloped circle punch to make a little flower and used the little arrow paperclip from the kit for a stem.

Love the grid Pink Paislee artesian tape! I layered it here with some masking tape I added with a few scallops.

I added a little note to Papa in this envelope. My girl doesn't have too many favorites. But her Papa is her favorite person on the planet...besides me and Tanner of course.

Glitter buttons...they add so much pop to your pages.

And this one is where I dreamed up the title for this post. Our annual Christmas card photo shoot. Always a challenge. It's always so hard to get one good shot.
I used a straw to flick 2 different colors of paint on the background patterned paper.
I trimmed this little yellow dotted shape from a sheet of October Afternoon paper. The title needed a little pop of color behind it I thought.

This camera die cut was also one of my favorite things from this kit!

Hope you have a happy weekend!! And for the people who posted the updated blinkie...email me at heidi@freehandscraps.com with your addresses so I can send you out a prize!