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

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

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

There are: 22 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Nikki

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

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

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.

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

a few new pictures of Brody

...bath time and Pop pop's birthday party!!

A few picts of my scraproom...

...flowers, ribbons, stamps and thread!
Nikki

a box arrived...

... i haven't posted in a couple of days, but I got my RAK box of goodies from Rebecca Sower.

Nikki

World War II Planes

...on display at the Venice airport. I decided to take Riley to see them. When we got there he was so excited. He thought that was the coolest thing. We crawled inside and got to see where the soldiers sat, and the automatic guns they shot out the windows. It was an amazing part of history to see up so close. It was the highlight of Riley's week.

Nikki

Pens, Pens and more Pens

...yes, I finally gave in and bought the 24 pack of fine tip Sharpies. I have been eyeing them for months. I came right home and started playing...oh so much fun. TFL

Dream, Design, Create

Nikki

Scrap-a roo bars!!!

Scrap-a-roo bars! Can you say YUMMO. Amy made us these deliciously sinful bars for our crop sat night at the studio. They were sooooo good. Here is the recipe: (just in case you want to join me in a five pound weight gain by just looking at them!!! :))
Bring to boil: 1 cup sugar and 1 cup light corn syrup
Add: 1 1/2 cups peanut butter, 1 tsp vanilla and 7 cups Speical K cereal and press into a 9x13 pan.
Melt 6 oz butterscotch chips and 6 oz chocolate chips and spread over bars.
ENJOY!!!!
Nikki

Jeanine where are you???

...I am looking for Jeanine. You left a comment on my blog last week. You know my mom and dad. You taught with my mom in Omaha. I told my mom that you contacted me and she was so excited. She wants to talk to you, so please e-mail me at nikkiclearypta@comcast.net and I will get your info to my mom.
Thanks Nikki

Garage Sale a sucess!

We had so much fun on Saturday. We had a steady stream of customers till about 1:00. Kim, Jocie and I sold, sold, sold. As you saw by my last post, my car was full and all I came home with was one small bucket of supplies. (which I will be donating to the ATCers.).
Thanks for making it such a success!!
Nikki

packed and ready to SELL

... at the K2 garage sale tomorrow!!! Talk about spring cleaning. Whew, glad that room is cleaned out. Now I am ready to create, create, create. First though I need to SELL, SELL, SELL! If you live in the Sarasota area, you need to come to K2 Scrapbook Studio tomorrow and check out the sale. There will be 6 of us with our tables loaded.

I have TONS of paper (10 for a dollar) and embellishments (2 dollars each or 6 for 10$). It is priced to sell (the embellishments alone run 4-6 dollars each reg price!). I have about 6-8 books for 3 dollars. Lots of other goodies. Believe me, I will give you a deal. I also have lots of FREE stuff too (don't I always!).

Come out and support your local scrappers!!!

new shoes

...i hate breaking in new running shoes. I guess that is why I have been an Adidas follower from the first slip of my foot into their shoes. You do not have to break them in- ever!!! Yesterday I had a limited amount of time, and went to my favorite store for sneakers. Well, they were out of Adidas, (how can you be OUT of Adidas)!!! Needless to say I was VERY disapointed. I did not have time to go anywhere else and I had a run this morning. I bought a pair of Nike's. I wore them around yesterday and practically got a blister from just walking, Yikes. So this morning armed with band aids and socks that are higher than I like I went for a 5 mile run. Happy to say, NO BLISTERS! These babies need to be broken in before my 15K Gasparilla run February 17th. They are pretty cute though (love the pink on them).
Nikki

I love these photos of Riley and Sean. They go out on our lake in the canoe at least once a week. They have so much fun...
This LO's was really fun to make. I used the new MM, Foofala and Daisy D's paper. Sewed them with a zigzag stitch. Used Rhonna flourishes stamps, Fontwerks and 7 gypsies stamp. My new souffle pen, MM kraft words, AC flowers. (I got all the supplies at K2). TFL
Dream Design Create
Nikki