Wednesday, February 28, 2007

New Priefered Memories blog banner

I worked on Lori's blog a little more tonight and made her a custom banner. Take a peek. http://lorifrailing.blogspot.com
Nikki

Gasparilla 2007

enough said. :)
Nikki

Get a hankie a napkin, something to catch the drool

...the next time you walk into K2. I walked in last night as Karen was putting out all the new Scenic Route (oh my gosh, its my fav), Basic Grey, Daisy D's, Cherry Arte... Needless to say I walked out of the store with one of each paper. I went back today (no not to shop) to change out the front windows of the store and of course the more I walked past the Basic Grey magnetic precision tool I talked myself into how much I needed one. Then as I was leaving the UPS man came with a box from Fontwerks and I just had to have one of each of their new papers and one of each of their journaling cards. You better get in their quick because their new CHA arrivals are flying off the shelf. Here is a peek at what the BG magnetic board looks like. It is so awesome...I am so glad I got it. They come with 8 super duper magnets as well as an 18 inch ruler that is magnetic too. Way Cool.
Oh, one more thing. Karen in now carrying Tim Holtz stamps. There are only 3 packs left!!!
I am so excited to start playing with all the goodies I have gotten over the last 2 weeks.
Dream, Design Create
Nikki

Monday, February 26, 2007

New Banner...

...thought it was time for a change. Not sure how much I like it, but the more I play around with photoshop the easier it gets. Some day soon it will look like I picture it in my mind... I think I need to go on 2 peas and buy some digital kits.
Dream, Design, Create

Nikki

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Cute Easter "Baskets"

These are 3 mini (about 3" tall), watering cans. I played around with some paint, alcohol inks (they just got them in at K2), ribbon, rick rack and flowers. We are going to do a class on these sometime before Easter. Either Karen, Candie or I will be teaching it. They may not look like this exactly... but something to this effect. We want those of you who have not played around with alcohol inks get to see how fun and cool they are. (It is a liquid ink applied with q-tips and different applicators). You can use alcohol inks on just about anything...I know I will have lots of fun seeing what I can alter with my new found love of Ranger Alcohol inks.
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki
PS they come in quite a few different colors and you buy them in sets of three.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Digital Tinkering Ink

All right, I know, it's a really simple LO but it took me over an hour to make it. I am using Photoshop 7 and do not know how to use it. I am trying to teach myself digital scrappin. I used the Tinkering Ink Westminster Collection CD. I just love the colors of this line. I will play some more and post them as I "attempt" (and I use that word loosely) more LO's. TFL
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki
PS anyone with digi experience out there reading this??? pleasssseeeee leave me a comment so I can contact you and ask you some questions! Thanks.

we are blessed...

...that K2 is our LSS (local scrapbook store).
I finished the treasure hunt today! yes, I actually made it to 14 stores in 3 different days.
I would only return to a few of the stores we visited.
K2 has some of the best selection of papers and embellishments in all of Florida. Karen is amazing at foreseeing what is going to be hot and new. I stopped in today to see what had come in from CHA and there were already things that had come and gone because of the treasure hunters grabbing it up. (They knew they wouldn't be finding this stuff at their LSS.)
On our excursion the other day we were all talking about K2 and how it isn't just a store to buy our supplies at. It is a meeting place, a scrapbookers "home" to hang out with our friends. Thanks Karen, Amy and Gail for making K2 for what it is. Can't wait to come crop and hang out with all my friends tomorrow night for the pirate crop.
Nikki

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Treasure Hunting...

...oh my gosh did we have fun yesterday!
Kim, her mom Dorothy, Amanda, Brody and me went treasure hunting. We had high hopes to hitting 9 stores, but only got to seven. We left Sarasota at 8:30 yesterday morning and headed north to Brandon, then to Lakeland (which had a really cool store-Violettes), north west to Lutz, then back east to Zepherhills, north to Spring Hill, then started our trek south to Palm Harbor (Ruban Rouge- which is a huge store with lots of yummy stuff), and then our last stop was one of the Tampa stores. We wanted to get to the Clearwater and Largo stores but we ran out of time. As it was, we didn't get back to Nokomis till 7:30 pm. We were exhausted but boy did we have a good time.
On Saturday (after I finished running the Gasparilla 15K) I was able to get to the Scrapbook Shoppe in Tampa (the store that headed up this Treasure Hunt), Whim-so-Doodle in St Pete, the South Pasadena store, ScrapHappy in Bradenton and then of course my favorite and local store K2.
Tomorrow I am going back up to the Clearwater and Largo stores, and then I will be done!
I have to be honest. I did not want to do this hunt at first. Kim talked me into it and I am so glad she did. I have had so much fun this past week.
If you did not treasure hunt this year, you will HAVE to do it next year.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

A unique birthday present

My sister in law Lori asked me to create her a blog for her photography. Well today I set it up for her and wrote her first post. Her blog is called Priefered Memories http://lorifrailing.blogspot.com You will have to check it out soon...when she learns how to post and has some of her work up. (She is the one who took all of the photos of me when I was pregnant and Brody's newborn picts too.) I guarantee you her photography will inspire you.
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

Brody




...these pictures are for our friends and family that don't live near us and want to see Brody and how he is changing on a daily basis right now. He is almost 11 weeks old and 14 pounds, smiling all the time and sleeping 12 hours at night. We are blessed with a wonderful baby. All I have to say is thank God for the book Baby Wise... we did it with Riley and got unbelievable results and now with Brody too.
Can't wait to scrap the latest photos I have of both Riley and Brody. What inspiration.
Love, Nikki

Riley and his best friend Gavin...




...I took these photos of Riley and Gavin after school last week. They are holding their valentines they made at school. The last photo is of them watching the movie "Cars" (their favorite right now).
-Nikki

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Love is...



a full circle". I made this adorable album from circles I hand cut out of chipboard. I covered the chipboard with the Basic Grey "Blush" collection papers. The "love" chipboard on the front cover is from a Maya Roads album I cut up (I covered the letters in buttons and fabrics). The album is held together with rings that I tied valentine strips of fabric to. I embellished the pages with Hambley transparencies, Thickers, stamps, pipe cleaners, buttons, felt, Jenni Bowlin chipboard and journaling tags, metal embellishments, doodlebug paper frills, tags, MME flowers and transparencies, MM ledger paper, a paperclip, a heart doile, and AC felt flowers.

If you like this, I am going to be teaching it at K2 on March 10th at 10:30, and immediately following is my free ATC (artist trading cards)class at 1:00.

The price is yet to be determined... keep checking the K2 blog at www.k2scrapbookstudio.typepad.com Karen will post it sometime this week or early next week.

You will need at least 4 pictures (I used 6 of varying sizes: wallet, 4x6 and 5x7). You really need the pictures for this mini album it would be very hard to add them later. They can be themed about anything you love ie: friends, family, pets etc... I used 2 pictures of Sean and me, a picture of my whole family, one of Sean and Riley, Riley and Pop Pop, and one of Brody.
Please leave me a comment if you have any questions.
Dream, Design and Create
Nikki

Back to Basics






I was reading through my past AEzine (Ali Edwards) newsletters to just take a break from scrappin and to get some direction on which project to start next. Well, a couple weeks back Ali challenged us to scrap a LO using only our "essentials". I sat down and really thought about what my essentials are for making a LO (minus any tools): cardstock, pens, a stamp (and inks), and patterned paper. There is not much more that I would feel is "essential". The next day I was flipping through all my photos to be scrapped and ran across our "home" photos. They are photos I have been collecting in a pile since we moved in. They timeline our demolition, renovations and change of decorations over the last 6 years. They are photos that I know Sean would love to look at over and over (mainly because he did all the work). He did an AMAZING job on every project he tackled too. I remembered the challenge and thought these would be the perfect photos to make into a mini album using my "essentials". What a perfect Valentine gift for Sean too.
My friend Cathy C. gave me a 2 ringed mini album with black paper, and that is what I decided would be the perfect start of my Valentine's project.
The pages turned out even simpler than planned. I punched a partial circle out of each photo then drew dots in that circle. (i wanted to do something throughout the entire album to keep a nice flow throughout)I journaled using my white pen on the black pages, and my black photo signature on the actual photos. I embellished the cover and I think that was about it. The album turned out to be 29 pages (about 62 photos). TFL
Happy Valentines Day Sean.
I Love You-Nikki

Monday, February 12, 2007

Treasure Hunt

... for scrapbookers. How much fun is that! 14 participating scrapbook stores from Zephyrhills to Sarasota. We have 9 days to see them all. You have to spend 5 dollars (like that is going to be hard :)) at each store to get a stamp. If you get a stamp from all 14 stores your name gets put in a drawing to win 1st place a 50 dollar gift certificate from each store, 2nd place a 25 dollar gift certificate from each store. You will also get a goodie bag at each store! Too fun.
A couple of us are going on Tuesday the 20th to as many stores as we can get to. We are starting as far north and working our way back south. It is going to be a fun day with the girls (and Brody). Can't Wait girlies!!!

Who else has my name???

I was checking out Kim Bolyard's blog http://www.itsallaboutme.typepad.com and found this cool site, and I just had to do it too!
Wow, 22 people have the same name as me!

HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are:
22
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?


Nikki

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Love Notes class...

...was so much fun today. Thanks to all you girls who showed up! For those of you who did not bring photos, I hope you went home and completed it. You know Valentine's Day is only 4 days away! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment on my blog with your e-mail addy and I will get back to you ASAP!
Dream, Design and Create
Nikki

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Photography Inspiration

This is the most beautiful photography website I have ever seen http://www.lorivrba.com
All the photos are in black and white and completely stunning. If you want to be inspired check it out. It makes me want to take all my photographs in black and white!
Dream, Design, Create

Monday, February 05, 2007

Love Notes mini album






I made this cute mini album today. If there is any interest, I will be teaching this class on Sat at K2. Megan is unable to teach, so I said I would. I made this album with the new Paper Salon Valentine's paper, 4 MME transparencies, and some fun embellishments. Come and join me on Sat. it will be tons of fun. TFL
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki
PS i lifted this cute idea from Ali Edwards.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

ATC class today

Get out your deck of cards, scraps, and your stamps (our "supply of the month) and come and play with me at 1 today at K2 (it's a free class). If you have never tried it, it is so much fun!!! I always have fun give aways too!
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki