ScrapFIT Color Challenge

Hi friends!  Over at ScrapFIT (my new favorite challenge site), they have challenged us to use specific colors in a layout: lime green, orange, purple or black.  Does that scream Halloween or what?  This challenge made me think of the page I did for Halloween last year, which I love.  Here it is:

My absolute favorite thing about this page is the stamped apple.  I wanted to include an apple to enhance the Snow White theme and the red in her dress.  I didn't have an apple stencil that would fill the page up as I would like, so I made my own!  I have a little mini apple stamp and I used red ink and just stamped away in the shape of an apple.  I absolutely love the way it turned out!  Snow White last year, Sleeping Beauty this year, a Belle costume from her cousin for next year.....I see a trend appearing!

Stitching and a Play List

Here is my work from our Amy Tan tutorial today.  She challenged us to hand-stitch.  I've done hand-stitching once before, but it was from a pattern, and this is free-hand.  I just wrote the letters and heart with pencil, pierced the paper, and stitched it while I watched Glee.  Easy peasy!

I was also thinking about music this morning.  When I scrap, I usually listen to Pandora.  My favorite stations are Korn, Lady Gaga, and Flo-Rida.  Quite the variety!  I also tend to listen to music on YouTube when I'm in the mood for something specific.  Here's what I'm obsessed with lately:

Let the Guilt Go - Korn
Airplanes - BOB & Haley Williams
Snuff - Slipknot
Ridin Solo - Jason Derulo
Club Can't Handle Me - FloRida & David Guetta
Only Hope - Mandy Moore
Britney Spears - Slave 4 U
Bad Romance - Glee cast
Dead Memories - Slipknot
Just a Dream - Nelly

What's on  your play list?

Draculas - My Review

I posted last week that I had been asked to preview and review a new book collaborated on by JA Konrath, called Draculas.  I finished it last night!  If you like vampire books and don't mind some blood and guts, I would definitely recommend this book.  I really liked it!  The best part is, it's only $2.99!  However, it's an ebook only, so if you don't have a Kindle or an e-reader, you probably won't be able to read it.  I really enjoyed it and I am so honored that he asked me to review it.  Here's my official review on Good Reads and Amazon:

I'm not a big fan of gore.  In fact, gory movies?  No thanks.  However, JA Konrath is one of my favorite authors.  I can't watch the gore, but I have no problem reading it.  I know, weird, but let's just go with it.  "Draculas" is definitely not one for the squeamish.  It's a VAMPIRE book, for real!  No gorgeous vamps here.  They don't sparkle, it's not ok for them to live among us, they're awful and relentless.  Through all the blood and guts (and there's lots of it), there's some funny and lovable characters and I found myself getting really upset when we lost some of them.  Even though this is a scary book, it was refreshing to read a vampire book that just scares the begeezus out of you, as vampires should.  Loved it and hoping there's a sequel, it could definitely keep going!

Cosmo Cricket anyone?

Hi friends!  I just found out that Cosmo Cricket is doing their Guest Design Team slot in a very unique way this month.  For the month of November, they are accepting nominations for their Guest Designer.  All you have to do is go to their blog and nominate either yourself, or someone else.  I'm going to go ahead and shamelessly ask everyone to PLEASE NOMINATE ME!  I've already thrown my name into the mix, but all you have to do is post a comment saying, "I nominate Sarah Swann to be the guest designer."  The top 5 ladies that are nominated the most will be in the final running, which will be drawn randomly.  Comments will be accepted all week, until next Monday I believe.  If I'm nominated enough and I end up getting the slot, I'll have a special surprise for everyone who nominated me, so get to it!  Again, I have the best friends who are really there for me and do these types of things for me.  I love you all!

Here's the link to the blog post to leave your comment: Cosmo Cricket

"Scraps" Book

Today is the first day of Amy Tan's workshop that I'm taking.  Her first tutorial was to make these adorable books using your scraps.  GENIUS!  I would never have thought to do that.  I've seen them on her blog, but had no idea how to do it and now I do!  What a great way to use your scraps.  From what I understand, we'll be using these books throughout her class so I'm excited to see what they'll be used for.  I made two of them today (because they're so quick and easy to put together).  One for me and one for Caylan.  I brought my scrap file out...yes, I have a whole file system...and let Caylan pick out some of her favorite papers.  It was fun watching her choose.  Here they are.

Mine.  I used some brads to keep the vellum from curling up.

Caylan's

I'll keep posting about this workshop, but so far it's awesome.  I already have two little books made, used up a good amount of my stash, and it's only day 1!

ScrapFIT

I have found, yet another, awesome scrapbooking challenge blog...ScrapFIT.  The name really stuck out to me, and I love the premise of it, exercising your creativity!  I took advantage and made this page that I love.  I finally was able to put some of the gorgeous glittery paper to good use.  I had no idea how I was going to use it, but I finally figured it out.  Sometimes paper is almost too pretty to use.  I'm trying to get over that and make pages with them.  And then, there are some that are hard to use because they're so pretty that you don't want to cover it up with those pesky pictures, right?

The challenge for this post was to create a page using a Halloween song as the title.  I used "This Is Halloween" from Nightmare Before Christmas (makes me want to watch it again!).  I listened to the Marilyn Manson version from the Nightmare Revisited album while I made the page.  If you haven't heard this album, do it!  It's awesome!  My favorite is "Kidnap the Sandy Claws" by Korn.  They're my favorite.  Ok, back to the LO!

I really like how it's a Halloween LO, but it's still pretty and girly and feminine, just like my princess is.

10.10.10

In honor of this unusual date, here is a list of the top 10 things I'm looking forward to right now:

1. Amy Tan's workshop that starts tomorrow.
2. Getting lots of scrapping and reading done this week.
3. Disney on Ice next weekend.
4. Starting my Christmas cards - when you make them yourself, you gotta start early!
5. My husband's check-ride this week so he can FINALLY be done with training.
6. Checking items off my "32" list, already got to check off two of them!
7. Hearing from my DT and page submissions that I've been putting in.  Fingers crossed!
8. Catching up on the shows that I've been neglecting this week.
9. Getting into the gym and REALLY working out.  Gotta get back on track.
10. Creating some really cool pages and projects.

I'll be scrapping a lot this week, so I will be sharing a lot as well.  I have some pages and some cards to make.  Can't wait to get started!

Time to play catch-up

Hi!  So our friends left this morning and it's time to get back to our normal life.  We had such a great visit.  It consisted of:
1. Lots of beer and wine.
2. Dawn's homemade sticky buns...oh my...
3. Guitar Hero.
4. Pima Air and Space Museum.
5. Sonoran Dogs from El Guero Canelo.
6. Dogs being spoiled by their kids.
7. A visit to Tombstone for some awesome history.
8. Dulce de Leche fudge.
9. Caylan having some live-in friends for a few days.
10. Catching up with some of the best friends we have!

In some cool news, I was contacted through Good Reads* by one of my favorite authors, JA Konrath.  He writes a fantastic detective series that I love so much.  He sent an email and asked if I would review a book he collaborated on (written under the name Jack Kilborn).  He asked if I would read it and write a review on Amazon and Good Reads before the release date, Oct 19!  I was ecstatic! It's an ebook so I was able to put it on my Kindle. He sent it to me and I started it last night.  It's a horror book about vampires, so I'm expecting some scary stuff coming my way soon.  In light of the due date, I've had to put The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest on hold for a couple of weeks, since I'm only 25% through it.  *If anyone is on Good Reads and wants to be friends, my user name is Sarah Swann!

Finally, it's my birthday!  The big 3-2!  I'm planning to relax today and get some scrapbooking prep done.  I have a few little things to catch up on and I'm going to be applying to some Design Team calls, so I'll be getting those organized.  My husband is making dinner tonight and we'll be enjoying some lemon cake.  And I plan on putting a pedicure gift certificate to good use this weekend!

A little MIA, just a little.

Hi everyone!  Thanks for all of your lovely comments!  I really appreciate them and they make me smile!  I will be a little MIA this week as we have some friends from California staying with us for a few days.  Not to worry, I will be back on Thursday (my birthday, actually) with some pics and updates.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Also, remember that Kelly Purkey Sketchbook 2 class I took a while ago?  Well, she's just posted that she's selling the PDFs for her 2010 classes (including that one) on her blog.  This is the last time they will be available, AND they're 20% off the original price.  If you want some awesome inspiration, this is the girl to get it from!  I quickly purchased the Sketchbook 1 PDF since I missed the first class.  Hope you all can take advantage of it!

Holy Giveaway Batman!

Hello everyone!  If you haven't heard yet, Studio Calico is doing a crazy giveaway!  They just created a new blog and it's gorgeous.  In celebration of it, they're giving away some amazing prizes, including a FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION!  I can't even contain myself!  So, here's how it works.  They're giving away a bunch of stuff in pairs.  So all you have to do is go to their new blog and post a comment.  The comment should read like this: My name is ______ and SwannPrincess sent me here.  SwannPrincess is my user name for SC.  Then we'll both be entered to win some awesome prizes, including the one-year subscription.  If you already have a subscription, they'll just cancel your monthly payments for you.  How exciting is that?  So, if you haven't already, please go to this amazing blog and put a comment on there for us to get some awesome stuff.  There's nothing to sign up for, just post a comment.  Contest ends on Sunday, Oct 3 at 11:59pm EST so get to it!  And thank you!