A new slide show

Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

Happy Friday!!

Look at these fun fabrics I found (at Wal-mart of all places). I just love the yummy colors and designs. I tore little strips of them to use on layouts, journals, and whatever else needs a punch of color. This inspires me to create. What a fun way to start my weekend!!!
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

5 more LO's

I made this LO to show my love for sewing. All the elements on the page are attached with sewing pins.
This is the first time Ryan and Lori held Brody.
I made this funky transparency from a skull and crossbones I downloaded then traced. I hand drew the "love rocks". I journaled on another transparency and painted underneath it so you could read my journaling. I sewed the transparency down.
I found this great wooden soda box at an antique mall a couple of years ago and just love how it holds my supplies. I also love how the Jenni Bowlin and CI papers goes so well together.These are photos of this past Christmas.

Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

5 layouts

Pictures of Brody sleeping during his first month.
Sushi...one of my favorite foods.
Riley playing on the swings at Twin Lakes park.
I made this LO because my Grandma gave me a quilt this past summer. I mimicked the quilt design with patterned paper on my LO instead of a picture.
I love this LO. It is by far my favorite I have done in a while. I just love the 4 leaf clover I made with a pipe cleaner then I sewed all the buttons on. The picture captures the first time Riley ever held Brody on his lap...
TFL
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

...a new digi LO

TFL.
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

If you lose your Mojo...

The 2 displays I made for K2 hold 18 12x12 layouts. We try to change them out as much as possible...well for the Spring Fling we decided that Jocie, Kim and I would scraplift 6 different LO's. We are going to display the "original" under our three personal interpretations of the LO. I think that will be fun inspiration for everyone who attends. Then if you get "stuck" again you can do each of our special Scrap and Dash pages made just for the Spring Fling. Here are five of my six layouts...TFL (The sixth is at the store and I forgot to take a picture of it, will post it ASAP)

Dream, Design, Create

Nikki

Some new LO's...

Riley playing in our backyard with his favorite boy toy, his TRUCK!Pop Pop's birthday party.
Sean made this "card" for my 31st birthday in October... It was so sweet I just had to scrap it. He also planned a "weekend of love" and the itinerary is behind the card. It was so sweet and thoughtful (not to mention very romantic!)
This is a great family photo taken this past Thanksgiving day. I just love it (I already scrapped it in one of my mini albums...)!

Here are some new LO's I created. I just LOVE the new Cherry Arte papers...I am also playing around with my magic mesh again and I just love felt. (see there are 2 more things I could have added to "my favorites" layout- LOL!)
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

My 10 Favorite Scrapbooking Items are...

1. Heidi Swapp playing cards and bling

2. arrows, parenthesis and scalloped edges

3. transparencies (MME and Hambly)

4. cute retail tags

5. Autumn Leaves acrylic stamps and Tim Holtz rubber stamps

6. Rouge de Garance papers

7. pipe cleaners

8. vintage ribbons, trims and buttons

9. ledger/ office type paper and supplies

10. foam embellishments

...this is my list today, who knows what it will be tomorrow :)

i want to challenge myself to make a page like this every month or so, so i can look back and see how things change soooo fast in this industry!

Dream, Design, Create

Nikki

Tinkering Ink Digi LO

Here is another LO I made using the TI digi CD. TFL This LO is very simple but I do not have any other digi kits. I am doing this to learn Photoshop 7, it is getting easier as I was able to make this in 25 minutes...TFL
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

Happy Birthday Lori

Happy Birthday my dear sister in law. I love you. I am happy that we get to celebrate your birthday tonight. I am looking forward to it. Hope you enjoy your blog... and a few other little birthday goodies we got for you. (which you will have to display on your blog when you make it- just a little hinter :)) Enjoy the Hot Fudge Cake we (me and Riley) made for you.
Love, Nikki

Hand sewn Craft Apron

..I wanted a cute little apron while I am cropping or teaching classes. I went to Wal-mart and bought two .99 cent hardware aprons. I cut the strings off of one and sewed it to the other aprons pocket. (that is the pink stitching you see going across the front of the apron) Then I hand sewed on all the buttons. I cut the heart and bird out of some shabby chic like fabrics and sewed those on. I hand drew the legs and feathers on the bird. TFL
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

Rouge de Garance take 3

...here is my 3rd and final layout for the RDG design team application. This LO happens to be a 81/2 x 11. I wanted do show that I scrapbook in both sizes. What I love most about the Rouge de Garance papers is that I can do a LO about me, about my newborn and about my 2 year old boy and use the same line of papers. It works for anything you want to scrap about. Love it!!

Dream, Design, Create

Nikki

Rouge de Garance

...my stomach just did a flip flop when I read that Rouge de Garance is looking for 4 US designers (they are a French co, as if you couldn't tell by the name). I am so excited. I would be honored to be chosen...here are 2 of the LO's I am submitting. I can honestly say that I feel these are some of my favorite pages I have ever done. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out. If you want some of the Rouge de Garance papers for yourself, you better run down to K2 because they are going fast. TFL
Dream, Design, Create
Nikki

Spring Fling Scrap N Dash

For our fun filled Sping Fling Weekend crop coming up in two weeks, each of the Design Team members were asked to make a special Scrap N Dash. Here is mine. I hope anyone that lives in the Sarasota area will come for this weekend crop filled with give a ways, great food and lots of fun things planned. TFL

Dream, Design, Create

Nikki

Supplies: craft paper, A2Z pp, Fontwerks journaling tag, buttons (Joanne's), and Souffle pens in green and teal to make the dots and lines around the circles, Zig brown pen, Stampoutique stamp (if you decide to do this scrap n dash, you can add your own stamp with the theme of your page), Brilliance ink in coffee bean.

Take out Menu folder- revision

There was something not just right about the look of this take out menu folder. At first I could not place it, then I realized there were too many straight lines. I took my 1 1/2" punch and punched 5 circles and added one to each folder. Then I doodled around each one. That was what it needed. Now I just need one circle embellishment for the front cover...LOL Sorry the photos are bad, I had to use the flash and then the reflection...

Sarasota Half Marathon

March 4, 2007 @ 6:00am...

I did it in 2:20:55 (about 10-20 minutes faster than I thought I would finish). WOW!!! The run felt great, I hit my runners high around mile 8... Cathy brought me a care basket at the finish line with water, gatorade,band aids, advil, heat wraps and wine. It was so thoughtful. Thanks Cathy, Felic, Franklin and Grace for coming to see me finish.My mom was at the finish line to cheer me on as well. What a great day! (Oh, and Brody is 3 months old today.)I am so proud of myself.

Run on...Nikki

March is Women's History Month

(I took this from "Her Sports and Fitness" March/April issue)
Inspiring accomplishments in women's endurance sports:
1900-women compete in Olympic Games for the first time
1926- at age 19 Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, traveling 35 miles in 14 hours and 31 minutes
1960- Wilma Rudolph, who wore leg braces until age 11 from polio, becomes the first American woman runner to win three gold medals during a single Olympic games.
1966- Roberta Gibb becomes the first woman to run Boston marathon, sneaking into the race and finishing in 3:21:40. Women are officially allowed to compete in 1972.
1971- Adreienne Beames becomes the first woman to run a sub three hour marathon in 2:46:30.
1972- Congress passes Title IX, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender in federally funded education programs and providing a much-needed boost to women's athletics.
1979-Lyn Lemaire becomes the first woman to compete in the Ironman triathalon, finishing in 12:55:38.
1984- Ameriacn Joan Benoit Samuelson wins the gold medal in the first Olympic women's marathon with a time of 2:24:52. The same year, the first Grande Boucle Feminin, the Tour de France for women, covers 616 miles and is won by American Marianne Martin in 29:39:20.
1992- Paula Newby-Fraser becomes the first woman to finish an Ironman in less than nine hours (8:55:28). Two years later she wins her seventh Ironman World Championship title, more than any other athlete, male or female, and racks up her eighth in '96.
2002-Paula Radcliffe wins the London marathon, her first, with the second best time in the world, 2:18:56. She takes London again in 2003, with a new world record of 2:15:25 in only her third marathon.
2005- Nikki Cleary runs her first race, a 15K. She ran a 5 miler fun run, a 5K adventure race, and a 5K run that year as well.
2006- Nikki Cleary ran her first half marathon in 2:18:05 (I guessed on the seconds)
2007- Nikki Cleary ran a 15K in 1:41:56, just ten weeks after she had her second baby. She ran the Sarasota half marathon in 2:20:55 (just 12 weeks after her baby was born).

The last three milestones may not mean much to most, but to me they are huge. I never ran, in fact I hated running until I tried the Jeff Galloway method in October of 2004. It consists of a 2,3 or 4 minute run then a one minute walk. We train at 3/1 or 4/1 and then we race at 2/1. It is so much easier on your body, in fact I have never had an injury to date (besides your normal muscle soreness).
Run on.....Nikki

Take out Menu folder

This is going to be such a fun and practical class. It is a 3 ring binder to hold all of your take-out menus. I used the new Luxe papers and rub ons, a Fontwerks journaling tag, inks, AC felt thickers, steno paper and K&Co tabs. The tabs are labeled: Italian, American, Oriental, Misc. and coupons (you name them with your families most used categories). The front of every folder I put a piece of steno paper to write the names, numbers and notes of my favorite restaurants for quick reference. When you are in K2 next take a look at it. I am going to be teaching this in April two times (once on a Saturday and once during the week in the evening).

Dream, Design, Create

Nikki

Random thoughts

...about how much I love Anna Maria Island (AMI). There is nothing I do not like about this quaint little island. When we arrive (its a girlfriend destination at least once a year) we put on our bikinis, leave our cars parked and hop on our bicycles. We usually shop at the antique stores, have a drink at a few of the local pubs and dance the night away listening to our favorite band Dr. Dave at D Coy Ducks (a local hangout on AMI). The next day we relax by the pool, take uninterruped naps, eat whenever we want to...it is truly paradise.

We started this tradition 7 years ago, right before my wedding. I wanted to spend a whole weekend with my girlfriends rather than one night out on the town. Well, after spending 2 nights on AMI at the Anna Maria Motel we were all hooked.

I can not wait till we go out there this year. We are going out there in 2 weeks (not the girls) the family. It will be fun, but not the same...

Nikki