Holiday Workshop

I know many of you are groaning because all the Christmas stuff is all over the stores and it feels so early. I on the other hand am giddy with excitement! LOL! Christmas is my fave holiday - celebrating the birth of Christ is something I look forward to every year. There is just something about it - it's magical. And it is one of the best times to let your creativity shine with the season. I have vowed to make many of my gifts this year and I am off to a pretty good start. Many have asked me over the years, "When are you gonna teach a class?" I have listened and after much contemplation, will be offering a holiday workshop! Class will be held here in New Market on November 14th. After the new year, I hope to offer some online classes for you all. Below you can take a peek at my creations that we will put together at the workshop. I had a ton of fun creating this little cottage - the lid is removable and you can load it up with candy, pictures, recipes, whatever will fit. I used some of the new Eskimo Kisses line from Basic Grey and one of my favorite Jenni Bowlin papers. Sno-Tex and glitter give the roof a wintry feel. Cute, huh?

This is a banner that was quite simple to make. I love the word "JOY" and can't wait to hang this up for Christmas time. I love using sheet music in my projects and I raided my mom's piano bench for some old music books!

My Christmas projects would not be complete without a vintage Santa image somewhere. This is a close-up of a little ornament that I am going to tuck inside my cottage for some lucky recipient to receive. I got the idea for the muslin rose from the Maya Road newletter. So easy and fun to make; you gotta try these!

I hope to see some of you who are local on the 14th - we will have a blast making these little treaures! If you are intested in getting crafty with me, shoot me an email to sign up or click the workshop link on my sidebar. That's all for now; be sure to check back on Saturday as I will be offering a RAK in honor of my birthday on November 1st!

XOXO Nik

Is it Fall or Winter????

According to the calendar, it's fall. But in Minnesota, that means snow anytime from October on. We have had a couple days of rain turning to snow then rain again. Wonder what today will bring? Looks like more rain or snow - we'll see. Both Cole and Desi are sick with the flu. I think Desi is past the worst, but still not feeling like herself. Cole has a temp of 103 and is coughing. If you think of us - send a few prayers our way for health. This flu is nasty! I am hoping all is well so both kids can adorn their costumes on Saturday. Desi did have a Halloween party a couple weeks ago and I was able to snap this cute little pic:
And here's one of the infamous frost on the pumpkin. Or in this case, snow on the pumpkin. For sure this will make a lovely scrapbook page, but it was hard to take since this was on October 12th!

On to scrappy news - I recently entered the DT contest at Scrappin Mojo and I was chosen to be their designer for the next 6 months! I am thrilled as this is the first forum that I ever visited and become a member of. I love these girls like family - they are wonderful and I hope you all come by and play with us. The DT challenge was to create a Christmas layout and I jumped at the chance to scrap this precious picture of my kids last year.

I used a lot of elements in this layout; distressing, inking, border punches, rubons, handmade paper flowers and glittering. I love how these letters turned out using some of Martha Stewart's tinsel glitter.

Here's a close-up of a paper flower I made by adhering several of the same shape flowers in varying sizes together. I used Glimmer Mist and more glitter to add dimension and shimmer.

All in all, I love this layout and will for sure hang it on my wall during the holidays. Thank you Jan and Terri of Mojo for asking me to be on your DT!! My other news is scrappy related too. Remember back in September when I guest designed for the kit club Back Porch Memories? The other day I received an email from Paula, the owner of the site and store in Fairbanks, Alaska, and she asked me if I would like to be one of their full time designers! What exciting news to be offered two DT positions in one day! I can't wait to start on both of these adventures. Make sure to come by each of these forums to visit me, chat and be challenged.

That's all for today. I'm doing good - 2 blog posts in a weekend! LOL! Stay tuned this week as I will be offering up a RAK in honor of my milestone birthday that is a week away. And I will have some other things to share with you all too; a holiday papercrafting class that I am offering, a couple glitter techniques, and maybe even a recipe. Enjoy your Sunday evening - XOXO, Nik

It's been a while - LOL!

One of these days I will get better at updating my blog on a weekly basis. Not sure why I get so distracted and don't get it done! Thankfully so many of you are better at it than I am because I get to hop all over blog land and ooooohhhhh and aaaaahhhhh over all of your FAB-U-LOUS creations! Fall is such an awesome season for crafting, don't ya think? It just gets you motivated to create with all the beautiful colors and the crisp cool air that brings about the hint that winter is on it's way. I was busy in September with a wonderful kit from Back Porch Memories. I had a blast being on their guest DT for September. This kit was packed with goodies from Pink Paislee, My Mind's Eye and SEI. Lot's of yummy colors to mix and match! Below are a couple of my layouts from the kit. I love the first one with my girls and the second one is my little guy Colson. As October rolled around, I was asked fill a guest DT spot at Scrappin' Mojo, my home base scrappy forum. The paper I was blessed to work with were from Paper Trunk - loved this paper!
They sent so much, that I still have sheets left over. The "Wrangler" line was perfect for some projects for Cole. I made this simple little name banner to hang in his room and a couple layouts:

This is my fave layout using the Paper Trunk papers from the "Socialite" line. The picture was taken just 5 days before Ellie died; she did everything with grace and always had a smile on her face. Love how her and Desi are holding each other in this photo.

Another fave - Ellie and baby Colson. I wrote a note to Cole on this one:

Each day for me continues to bring it's own set of grief struggles and at times it can be very hard to move forward because I am constantly thinking about Ellie. I have never wanted to get to Heaven so badly - it is difficult to think that it could be 40 years or more before I get to hold her in my arms again. She keeps me motivated with my creativity, however. She was my crafty partner and when I am working a project, I can almost feel her next to me asking how she can help. Recently Desi and I organized my Clip-It-Up. I could not help but shed some tears because Ellie helped me put it together and get all the little clips on there. We spent about an hour and a half arranging it a couple years back. It's those little memories that get the best of me and cause a mini breakdown. God, do I miss my little girl.

Thanks for looking my sweet blog friends and I will be back tomorrow with some exciting news to share! Until then - be blessed!

XOXO ~ Nik

New Look and a Guest DT Spot!

Ok, so I was not very good about getting back to blog after our little vaca to Colorado! LOL! Sorry about that - the rest of July and most of August has been so busy as I am sure most of you can relate. We had a fantastic, relaxing time and here are a few pics for you. This is the gorgeous Rockie Mountains - beautiful. For those of you that have been there you know what I mean!. The pictures just do not do this country justice. We saw all kinds of wildlife in the mountains. Including this fella, a large, and I mean LARGE moose! We were fishing on one of the streams in the mountians and this guy and a friendjust passed us by. A little scary for us, but glad I got some great pics!

We did lots of fishing and more fishing! I cannot belive the size of the trout in the Colorado River. Of course, this picture of me and the little fishy at the end of my line is not what I am talking about, but this was the only pic Pat took of me fishing. We grilled lots of yummy food; here's a picture of the steak kabobs we grilled at the fishing hole one night:

And here is my sweetie pie by a gorgeous waterfall we found as we did some hiking one day. Love his big smile; this trip is just what he needed!

On to scrappy news! I am thrilled to be the guest designer for Back Porch Memories in September! If you have not been over to their site, please go check it out. They have awesome kits at a very resonable price and a wonderful forum full of sweet and talented ladies that I know will inspire you. I have been a lurker on their site for almost a year and decided to enter the contest. So excited to have won! Also visit the gallery to check out the great entries; each was fabulous and very creative. Below is my entry; little Miss Ellie playing T-Ball. Finally got these pics scrapped after two years! LOL!

I have also been playing around with my Webster's Pages papers thatI simply adore. Here is a layout I did for an online crop challenge over at Scrappin' Mojo a couple weeks ago. Thanks Sophia for an awesome challenge and to Jan and Terri for having such a fun scrapbook community to be a part of. I LOVE these girls! This layout of Colson seemed to take me forever, but I am happy with the results. Sophia wanted us to use stitching and an envelope on the layout and here is what I came up with:
And you will notice that I finally have changed my background and header on my blog. It has been in need for some time now! Thanks to Deb at Sparkling Scrapbooks, I found a great little blog that has the cutest blog designs. Go check out Cute and Cool Blog stuff to get your own. She also does custom work too. I am loving the new look just need to add a few more details. Hope you all had a great weekend and I am hoping to be back tomorrow to share a couple designs from a fun kit that I recently received. Until then, be blessed! XOXO ~ Nik

Off to Colorado and a little TOOT!

Well, Pat and I are packed and are headed out to the mountains of Colorado until July 18th. We are so blessed to be given this trip by a friend of ours and are really looking forward to spending some much needed time with each other and just relaxing. I am hoping that Ellie makes it known that she is with us in the mountains - God, do we miss her.

For the first time ever, I have a little toot to share! Today I got an email from Memory Makers saying that they are featuring my American Classic layout in the online gallery as the featured layout! I am thrilled as I have not been submitting any work for months and just started to again. Go check it out at Memory Makers - woo, hoo!

Please pray that we have safe travels and the Lord continues to heal our broken hearts. I'll be back to blog on the 20th!
XOXO ~ Nik

Another Monday

Are Mondays hard for you? They are for me. Even though I am a stay-at-home mom and I do not have to head to work outside of the home, Mondays have always been a challenge for me. I am hoping someday I can embrace them as a new start to the week and jump out of bed ready to tackle everything. But for now, I still have trouble with Monday. Hope you all had a great 4th of July and were able to capture lots of memories with your cameras. I am relying on my niece Lindsey for my pictures since I just didn't seem to pull the camera out this weekend. I know she got some great shots of Cole and Desi and I can't wait to see her talented eye got on film. Lindsey is only 18 and she is so gifted when it comes to taking pictures! Below is a layout of Cole that I did using one of her photographs. Pretty good for just a kid, huh?


So I was thinking I need to do some updating on my blog. A new banner, new profile pictures, etc. Any ideas for me fellow bloggers?? I feel like I have not updated very much since all that has happened with Ellie and I just need a little blog facelift, KWIM? And if you got some suggestions for me send them my way. There just might be a little RAK involved if I pick your idea! Wink - wink!

Speaking of RAKs, my pal Pinky has a great little giveaway today, Head on over to her blog and post a comment. She needs 40 comments to give this RAK away so go and give her some lovin' on her blog. Enjoy your day all and I'll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more layouts that I have been working on! XOXO ~ Nik

Cosmo Cricket!

I had a blast on the scrap retreat this past weekend! Even though I feel like I did not get as many pages done as I would have liked, I did get two projects done that I have been itching to do for several months. I will post them tomorrow once take pics. I did finish this little layout of my little guy Colson. I love the Cosmo Cricket and Fancy Pants lines! Cole was only 2 months old here and now he is a year. Time goes by way to fast!

So, who doesn't love CC??? When I came across the news that they were having a DT call, I scrambled to post my entry. What I love about Cosmo Cricket is their ability to be both whimsical and beautiful all at the same time. I have to say that they have cornered the market on quality, creative and simply fabulous scrapbooking products. Below you will find only some of my work that has used Cosmo Cricket. I absolutely adore their products and thought why not give this a whirl. What started it all for me was the "Wanted" line. I loved it so much that I bought the entire line two times over and even painted my little Cowboy Cole's room according to these colors! Here's a picture frame that I did with the "Wanted" line:


Along came "Girl Friday" and again I was in love. How perfect are these papers for the little girls in our lives?! Here's a wall plaque that I made for Desirae:

The "Hey Sugar" line won my heart again and I had fun playing with the big cardstock "buttons" and sweet papers:

"Dutch Girl" - I fell in love with her the moment they released her! Here's Ellie and Desi in 2006:

And another layout utilizing the "Hey Sugar" pretties:

Thank you Cosmo Cricket for letting us all enjoy your product and creating such fabulous items to work with! DT or no DT, I am a CC girl for life! XOXO ~ Niki

P.S. I almost forgot to post my blog winner from the Scrappin Mojo Blog Hop! Stella, you are my lucky winner! Congrats Lady and I will have your prize out to you this week. Thanks to all who played along with us this weekend. It was wonderful to see some familiar faces!

Summer Soiree Blog Hop and Giveaway at Scrappin Mojo

So much has happened since Ellie's home going to Heaven that it will be hard for me to re-cap. Each day I struggle to make sense out of my life without her in it and each day it seems to become even more difficult. The pain that lives in my heart is so heavy; it can cloud even the sunniest of summer days. I do have many things to be thankful for and one such thing is my ability to get my thoughts put down on my layouts and crafty projects. I have been on two scrapbook retreats since I last posted and also was named one of the June guest designers for Scrappin Mojo. Excitng for me, as this is the very first online forum I ever visited and I continue to post my work there because I love the Mojo girls. I feel like we are a little family! I have lots of layouts to show you that I have been working on, but I will save that post for later in the week - promise! This weekend over at Scrappin Mojo we are hosting a Blog Hop with lots of prizes and one grand prize. All you have to do to participate is leave comments on the participating blogs and complete the challenge they have posted. Head on over to Mojo to register and play along with us and don't forget to check out the awesome grand prize from Bo Bunny!

So if you are playing along, my challenge to you is to create a layout using red, white and blue as your color scheme. I had fun working with an older kit that I had from Jenni Bowlin - love her kits! Leave a comment here so I know you stopped by and I will enter your name into a drawing for a RAK from me! And don't forget to post your completed layout in the gallery back at Scrappin Mojo for a chance to win the grand prize.

And if you wanna keep hopping along, please visit Diana's blog for your next challenge. Have fun and don't forgot to leave comments for my RAK. On Monday I will put all the names in a bucket and let Desi pick out a winner. Enjoy your weekend everyone and don't forget to check out Mojo for the official Blog Hop rules! Enjoy and Happy Scrappin!

Miss You, Ellie Belle

I do not have a lot of words today as Ellie's passing is still very fresh and almost seems unreal to me. However, I felt moved to make a small post to the scrapbooking community. I am in total disbelief at the goodness of so many who do not know me personally, but only through my pages. I cannot describe how touched I am by your kindness and generosity - Thank You. Ellie loved to create and often would sit by me when I would upload layouts and projects. I know that she will be watching over me, Jesus at her side, continuing to be my inspiration for all the pages to come.

Forever free, Ellie. I miss you and know you are near. My arms ache to hold you and kiss your sweet little face. If one day in Heaven is like 1000 here on earth, wait for me for about 15 minutes and I will be there with you. Love you, baby girl ~ Mama