Its the first! So this post is all about facing a Challenge! Keep reading.

Before I begin I have NO IDEA what is up with my photos running into the sidebar. I resized a few times with little success. I honestly don’t have time to resize each one for the 5th time, then reload! GRR This post ended up taking several hours because of it, and I am over it. I hope you get the general details of it all. SORRY!

Alexa-Beautiful Girl

It is NOT often I do a “scrapbook page”.

I have to be REALLY inspired by something to even THINK of it. I had a particularly inspiring “photo shoot” with my daughter Alexa. She is ALMOST 10!

She was in a Spring Concert at School a week or so ago. She looked ADORABLE in her new dress that she picked out. We curled her hair, and got her ready- all pretty, so we had a photo session outside before the Concert.

To me, these are some of the BEST photos I have ever gotten of her! She was SOOOO “Alexa” when she is NOT in front of the camera. She usually can’t pose or makes funny faces, when you tell her to smile. She just contorts her face so unnaturally! LOL! So I just tried to let her be natural, herself. Cracking jokes while I took photos. THAT actually worked!!

I KNEW I wanted to capture them in a special way-forever!

This page just FLOWED out of me so easily. I’m beyond proud of it-especially my SUBJECT-Alexa :D)

She, to me, is like a butterfly. Hence my page. It is more than just a pretty page to me. It is capturing my thoughts, feelings and journey with my little girl, who has changed so much over the last few years.

This seemingly fragile human being, that started with so many odds against her, and despite it all, has morphed from the caterpillar (who avoided getting eaten by the “birds”-aka all her life obstacles) into a BEAUTIFUL butterfly. Spreading her wings, and taking flight. Never did I think I would have such a blessing in my life 10 years ago. Many times I thought I would lose her sweet little life. I always cry when I type these posts about her. I hate that!

I could go on and on, but will end it there. I get very emotional when I think of Alexa and her journey through life. I already know I will ALWAYS be so proud of her and where she will be in life. I am now! And Im so thankful for our journey. ALL OF IT. Thankful that God chose me, off all the people in the world to take her journey with her. What a blessing she is.

Now I switch my emotional gears to the project challenge.

That then lead me to the challenge that Nichole posed for her design team.

We were to create our own embellishments, inspired by some embellishments on the market, that you could purchase. Our goal was to share how much more affordable-and even how EASY, it is to create your own.

I was inspired by Heidi Swapp Butterfly Ghost Shapes, that I had for like a year, and couldn’t bare to use up, since you only get 6 in a package for $3.99 and UP! That is INSANE.

See photo:

This is what comes in the package -these are the 3 shapes

You receive : 2 large, 2 medium and 2 small acetate butterflies as shown.

So I figured I could EASILY make my own, for FAR LESS! Maybe even BETTER 😀

I began my venture with Papertrey Ink’s Clearly Creative Cardstock

You get 10 sheets for $6.00. That means MY cost per sheet is 0.60 CENTS!

THIS receipt is the breakdown of the cost for making my OWN!!

Its actually CHEAPER than that! LOL! Read on.

So I used my Cuttlebug butterfly die for my largest butterflies.

You can get 15 of the LARGE butterflies from ONE sheet costing ONLY 0.60 cents. You’d have to buy 7 or 8 packages of the Ghost Shapes to get that many of the largest butterfly shapes-costing upwards of $28-$32! What a savings!!

For my Med. size I used a Whale Butterfly punch by EK Success

I always keep the paper backing on till I’m done so I don’t LOSE anything I punch/die cut!

Now I can get 16 medium butterflies from one HALF sheet-or 32 per full sheet of acetate.

I the used a Martha Stewart Butterfly punch for my smallest butterflies.

I got 28 per half sheet of acetate, or 56 per full sheet!!!

Here are a few of the shapes I got from ONE piece of acetate-and I could have gotten even more!

I just figured getting even 4 each per sheet is WAY more for your money ( UNDER 0.60 cents) as oppose to the $3.99 and up for ONLY 6 shapes that are store purchased.

That is where the recipt total came in

I then recycled the package that the Heidi Swapp Ghost Shapes came in, and put MY own butterflies inside!

This is actually FULL of various shaped butterflies for a FRACTION of the cost!!!

I used one butterfly that I decorated for embellishing the front.

This is the product with my finished scrapbook page, that utilizes my embellishments: one of each size butterfly ON my page

Here is how I designed my own embellishment further by getting inspired by ANOTHER product

Notice my “B”.

Now here is what inspired my butterfly design

These are self adhesive acetate letters by Making Memories that sell for about $6 each

I used the “B” on my page. I loved the addition of the COLOR and FLOURISH on each letter, so I used that to further inspire yet another embellishment option for my plain acetate butterflies 😀

Here is a bit of a closer look at the B and the dimension my butterflies gave to my project.

Here is what I did:

I just stamped my acetate butterflies using the flourish from With Sympathy, and White StazOn

I added my color by using my own technique-Poppin Acetate with Jewel Tones Pastels

In SECONDS-a gorgeous butterfly embellishment!

I added some adhesive pearls to my butterfly centers, and was DONE!!

one more photo

So there you have it!

Now I can make SO many various embellishments JUST like these to suit ANY project!

I can die cut or punch ANY shape from the acetate I want or need, and I can embellish it without worry if I ruin one!

Supplies:

Stamps: With Sympathy (Flourish on butterflies), Friends til the End (flowers on white layer), Beautiful Blooms (sentiment)

Cardstock: Clearly Creative, White, True Black, Hibiscus Burst

Ink:True Black, Hibiscus Burst, White StazOn

Pebbles Pearlescent Pastels

Vintage Buttons , adhesive pearls, Making Memories Adhesive letter B

Cuttlebug butterfly die, EK Success butterfly punch, Martha Stewart punch

Now be sure to check out the design team!

Im sure this will get you making your own embellishments in no time, while saving yourself some money and using what you have! WIN! WIN!!

I hope you enjoyed my project 😀

Thanks for stopping by. I’d love to hear your thoughts, or if you give this a try too.

Well tomorrow is the BIG Release for All That Scraps!

Everything I have previewed over the last few days will FINALLY be available to you! YIPEE!!

Check out the blogfor more peeks and your chance to win todays set.

Feeling Fowl?

This set is called Get Well Critters from the  Cookie Crumbs (aka Diane Zechman) line

Oh and yes this horrific photo was taken the same day as the last bad 2! LOL!

I have to say I ADORE this card! I love the FARM FRIENDLY (hahahaha) colors, and especially the layout!!

The chicken, to me, is cutest image in the set. I just loved him when I saw him-along with the sentiment.

So I hope you like the set too.

Now onto a personal level

SWING SET UPDATE:

8 hours in, and its still not done! My body hurts. So YES! “I ” am feeling “fowl”. We had some very big unexpected issues arise

The WORST part-the darn company “forgot” to include the instructions (we printed them online-all 48 pages!!!) some of the wood pieces and ALL the hardware! So Jay had to go out and BUY over $100 worth of nuts, blots and washers!

He spent 3 hours at the store getting every nut and blot known to man, while I was in the backyard, trying to keep the kids entertained at home, while sorting out the wood pieces, and then laying each one out on the ground in section for the pieces for

The rock wall, Swing Post, Ladder, Base, sides etc

Now if you KNEW me, you would know Im your typical GIRLY GIRL. This is so not a Lauren activity! LOL! Figuring it all out was far from enjoyable.

Keep in mind they label NOTHING! So I have to MEASURE each wood piece to ensure its the correct one-YEAH! So not fun.

It is also missing some decorative elements-like ONE window, the roof awning for shade, the chalkboard and swing stuff. GRR!!!

So after spending SO MUCH money on a swing set, to be missing so much is seriously upsetting. After we got the 2 HUGE heavy boxes down our HILL in the yard, we realized just WHAT the heck was missing. Had we known it was missing like everything other than the WOOD, we wouldn’t have LUGGED it down our HILL of a yard!

Keep in mind Jay has 2 herniated discs, and the shots have done NOTHING. We are looking at surgery-so I had to do the brunt of the lifting and pulling.

I called Toys R Us FUMING over our findings. Their response was-pack it back up and return it then!

NICE. Oh and not happening after I got THAT far into it.

I am calling the manufacturer tomorrow and trust me, someone else will know just how fowl I feel.

Toys R Us said they had NUMEROUS boxes like this missing hardware, and key parts to the set. I want to know how you can charge like a 1,000 for a wooden swing set, and NOT make sure EVERYTHING is included?!

OK Sorry-Im just very upset about this whole situation.

They should at the least ship out what was missing, and refund the hardware we HAD to buy (since we PROMISED our kids we would put it together this weekend) Can’t make them wait the 3 weeks for shipping hardware! Summer will be half done!
Granted I don’t mind that some of the decorative stuff will be missing-like the roof and whatnot. They can still PLAY and use it.

Anywho-enough of that disaster.

I hope to share HAPPY photos of the ids playing on the half decorated swing set this week! LOL!

OH! I will definitely keep you posted on what the swing company has to say.

Tomorrow is my Papertrey Ink Design Team Challenge! You won’t want to miss that. I busted my HINEY on it.

OK back to the yard