THIS

is what i saw when i walked out into the yard today.... 2 dogs covered head to toe in red shimmer..... how you ask.... let me tell you about this freaking shimmer.....



on saturday i recieved a scrapbooking kit in the mail
opened it to find a large RED ziploc bag...hmm, i thought, i didn't know ziploc bags came in red....
i proceed to open sed ziploc bag only to be covered by red shimmer as it comes flying outta the bag
urrgghhhhhh!!!!
so there was shimmer in the kit (like eyeshadow consistancy) that opened and ruined the kit and now also my shirt, lovely!

so i take the bag into the yard to salvage what i can in the kit
fill a bowl with water and begin cleaning anything i can
there i am covered in shimmer, my yard is covered in shimmer, and i realize this stupid kit is really not worth the trouble...
so i take what i saved into the house and left the bowl of now red water in the yard.
later that day, i see the bowl as spilled and the red water is all over my deck...
afraid it will stain the deck, i squirt everything off with the hose
as i clean out the bowl the h2o backfires into my face
now i am even more covered in shimmer
oh and i stepped in dog poop somewhere in the middle of all this...

it was like in movies when 20 thousand bad things happen to one person all within the span of 10 minutes... and you think, this would never all happen to one person at the same time..... yeah, i was that person

fast forward to today, well i thought i threw away the original ziploc bag.... but clearly i didn't cause the dogs found it, shreaded it and covered themselves in lovely shimmer.... i still havn't gotten it completly off them......

oh well, just another day in my crazy life.... and it makes for a good story too :)

two more...

here's two more from last weekend at the crop.... used up some of my RVA kit on the country one and the new Kristina Contes kit from SIStv for the london one...
tfl!

can i just say yum!

on the catwalk....

yippee! this LO is on the catwalk this week at SIStv thanks to this lovely lady. that made my day. i had so much fun this past sunday at the SIStv norcal crop in fremont... such a great group of ladies.

yabba dabba do!

gosh i haven't blogged in over a week.... oops! i was busy last week getting ready for a costume party and spent the week in meetings for work and other draining stuff like that... :(
but my weekend was great....
we had a blast at the party and our costumes were a hit... it took me 3 years to convince ron to do this one, but he did make the perfect Fred... hehe!
now i just want to scrap them!

RVA techniques

Here are how i did some of the fun techniques on my RVA layouts.... please comment if you have questions and i will totally help ya out!

A- this one is simple and so cool....
If you like the look of polaroid pics on LOs but don't have a poloroid camera or don't want to invest in one try what i did in the
Funky Finds LO.

#1: crop your pic into a square using your editing software of choice (phoshop etc) making the dimensions 3x3
#2: print on regular white photo paper
#3: when you cut out the pic, leave a 1/4 inch white boarder on the sides and top and a full inch boarder on the bottom

That easy... and it totally looks like a polaroid!

B- another easy one, but requires patients....
i love these little circles from the Jack and Abby circle quilt pp but i wanted them to have a bit more dimenssion, ya know?

#1 cut out the circles of your choice
#2 adhere to LO but only use a dab of adhesive in the center of the circle, be sure no adhesive is on the sides of the
circles
#3 use glossy accents or diamond glaze to cover the top of each circle
#4 let dry completely overnight... try not to get eager like me and poke it all night (he he)

once it's dry the glossy accents gives it some sheen and dimension but also since you only have adhesive in the middle it causes the edges of them to curl up... super cute in the album, hard to see in a photo... but here's a close-up



C- i screamed when this one worked!
#1 pick any pp or fabric (i used the Japanese woodland characters fabric from the kit on Imagination...)
#2 color copy it onto a piece of transperancy paper (from the office supply store)
#3 let the ink dry about 30 minutes


you totally just made your own overlay... try it with paper, fabric, whatever...

So there ya have it, hope those sparked some ideas! have fun trying them and let me know if ya do cause i would love to see the LO and how you guys worked it out!
Happy Creating!
-n

red velvet lovin'

these are the badboys i made with the red velvet art October kit... i love they way they all turned out, such warm and cozey colors that kit is filled with, lots of fun to play with. i'll be sharing some techniques later this month.. stay tuned. oh and go check out what the other GD's created with the kit.
happy rainy friday!

2 new things for fall!

a comfy orange hoodie and a pumpkin scented candle.... oh and i made cookies tonight too that we enjoyed while drinking our apple cider... yup, this is my favorite time of the year!

waiting for fall..

it's almost here, i feel it wanting to burst in.... it is getting colder at night and i am having the sudden urges for caramel apple ciders from The Bucks... i have been dying to take our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and corn maze in Petaluma, but no one else seems to feeling it so far.. :( i spent all last fall listening to her so i decided to dig that one out of the collection for the month. my scraproom looks like a tornado hit it and i have some serious scrapping to do tomorrow so i think tonight will consist of some serious organizing with the company of Desperate Housewives :)


did this one last week... love the pink and green together. almost everything is hambly overlays. the pic is from Brian and Sadie's wedding in august.
tfl!

battery charged....

and we're ready for a little self portrait loving....

i'm so mad my battery ran out...

and these were the only pics i got to take today in berkely shopping.... don't be jelous, but we hit up all the great places...
Urban Outfitters, Paper Source, Anthropologie, Scrapbook Territory and Nations for lunch!
I was crying all day about not having my camera to take some cool pics cause that was the plan, but i shot some with the Holga, so we'll see how those are once i develop them...

fall tv

did anyone see the new show Pushing Daisies last night??? I am hooked. Such a fun and innovative story line and visually it is amazing. it is being called a forensic fairytale.... It is on weds at 8 on ABC. this is the preview, but it pretty much recaps everything that happened in episode one. Check it out...



i totally love it.. thank goodness my tivo allows me to dual record cause i am into Kid Nation too.... i am and always have been a total tv addict.... i often get excited in the morning cause a certain show is on that night.... like tonight, the best night of tv... the office, greys, survivor, ER, CSI... mmmm, gotta love thursdays!

happy birthday girl!

i love you!

there's no place like home

so excited to recieve this kit... it should be in my mailbox anyday... can't wait to create with it.....






oh yeah, and this etsy artist is super bad



in other news, i am sick with the enevitable cold of all colds so i am pretty bumbed about that.... so off to down some NyQuil and hit the sack...
-n

it might rain on monday!!!

and i am so excited at the thought of a gloomy day! the rain makes me soooo happy.
i made this tonight cause i am hoping the rain will come...
the word this week at OLW was perfect



most everything on here is Love, elsie minus a few things... the flower is from a sweater that i was getting rid of. i hated the sweater, but the flower was cool. glad i finally got to use it.

the letters are the chipboard one's from jack and abbey, but i didn't want them with the pattern they had on so i tore off the top layer and ta-da naked chipboard... plus you can save the top and use it later... like getting double the letters in one pack. (i love doing this!)

i took this pic last year on my old camera and can't wait for some rain this year so i can get some better shots with the rebel.

tfl!
-n

full circle!

well things came full circle this baseball season... my dad and i went to the first game of the season against the padres and on weds. night we went to the last game of the season for the Giants, against the padres again. unfor-
tunatly, they lost both games.... but both fun none the less.

Brenda was there too with her family, so they came over to our seats and took some pics... glad they did cause i didn't bring my camera.

It was a sad game cause it was Barry Bonds last game as a Giant. Everyone has Thanks Barry signs and there were highlight videos playing at the middle of every inning. So glad i went. until next baseball season......

i {heart} green

yup... i do!
this is for the scrapjacked site. we jacked the talanted Sarah Bowen. She totally rocks. i went monocramatic on this one. i so love this Jenny Bowlin paper.
enjoy.
-n

so excited for this!

Across the Universe This movie looks amazing! Visually stunning and set to a beatles sound track.... can it get any better?
i love this trailer... hmm, i think i am gonna go tonight and see it....


and look at this imagery... yum!

ETA- went to see it with Angi tonight in pleasant hill and it was totally amazing! everyone applauded after... seriously... when does that ever happpen now a days??? must must see! oh and i just bought the soundtrack too! freaking awesome!

dying to share!

i've been dying to share this exciting news. I was asked to be one of the guest designers in October for the red velvet kit club!!!! I am so excited! Plus, look at the two talanted scrappers who I am sharing the spots with... freaking amazing Rebecca Sower and one of my idols, Celine Navarro. So cool!

This is gonna be a kit you don't want to miss... packed with some love, elsie, basic grey, fabric and more. Come check it out. I'll be posting at the end of the month some of the things I create with this kit.

okay, off to work,
-nikki

inspired

inspired to create this layout after talking to my aunt Karen. She was telling my about this Jimmy Buffett song and how my uncle Steve was going to play it at his birthday this year.... unfortunatly he never got that chance, so I put the lyrics on my page about my birthday as a shout out to him.

love this paper by jenni bowlin. the large diecut paper is actually cream on the inside, but i put a hambly overlay on top to brighten it up.

i promised Karen I would post this so she could see the final outcome. enjoy.
off to watch Big brother finale...

busy week!

sorry for no posts this past week. it was a busy one. we had jen's wedding on saturday and it turned out great. i got a lot of great pics of them... we'll share later this week....
this layout makes me smile. first because i finally got my hands on the Love, Elsie Lola Line via ebay and second cause Kacy and I always talk about about what we would do if we one the lottery....

what would you do? what would the very first thing be? not a bad scrapbook page promt...

the first thing i would do is rent out a huge vacation home in Fiji and fly everyone I knew out there for a week long party/celebration/vacation.... hey, it's nice to dream....

happy monday!

remember??

what were you doing 6 years ago today? i was geting ready for school and had the weird feeling to turn on my tv to watch the morning news (seriously, we enver watch tv in the am, but i just felt this weird desire to watch the news) low and behold the tragidy unfolded.

not much to say today, just some time for reflection... oh and if you havn't already, watch the Nick Cage movie The Twin Towers.... really good... and a true story... well obviously a teru story but the actual characters are reall to IRL.
enjoy your day.
-n

poor poor brittany....

i was so hoping for the ultimate brit-brit comeback last night when ms. spears opened for the VMAs... no such luck
she was tore up from the floor up, ya know!
i kept saying to my ron, why does this suck so bad (the entire show)
cause i remeber when it was the ultimate thing...
he said cause we are getting old
i said he was old, but i wasn't
a few minutes later i saw there was a special about a human calculator on tv

"dude, ronny, let's watch that instead...."
-pause-
"OMG, we are old, we'de rather watch about the human calculator on discovery than the VMAs on MTV....."

so yeah, we turned it off pretty soon in...

guilty.

guilty of being a terrible speller. it's who i am. a bad speller. there. it's out.

but isn't that green lined paper coolio... yup, another part of the sonora high collection.
and, a freaking scantron... totally forgot about these (and my weekly trips to the SSU bookstore to purchase them) until deb gave me one the other day... she totally knew i would love to rock it on a LO.
thanks girl.
-nikki

yippee!

i order my new posters last night from here
i got 7 of them and want to get all different frames and do them all over like a mosaic on the big wall in my living room. we got the five pictured in the below post and also these two. I also have an andy warhol picture (the marilyn monroe one) that is currently in my studio. we are gonna move that into the LR for over the tv as it fits in with the new pop theme. then i just need to get some fun and funky brightly colored accents for the rest of the room... yippee!


what do you all think about getting a collection of things like this to hang at all different lengths in one of the corners (remember we have high vaulted ceilings)
i can't wait till it's all done! will post pictures then....

eye candy!

i've had this ad hanging in my at studio for a few days now and everytime i see it i feel so inspired... i freaking love it!
had to share... hope it inspires you too!
happy thursday.
-n

eta- this isn't a poster, it is just a magazine add for juicy couture that i have hanging on my inspiration board

today is the day!

today's the last day for the
scrapjacked
august jacks...
this is such a fun site to play along at.
each week they show you someone's LO and then everyone "jacks" the LO with their own interpretation.
So this last month there was 1 a week courtusey of the effer dare girls.
this last week there were 3 jacks.
It was a blast to participate in.
Thanks scrpajacked girls for all the fun.
here are all of my jacks

this one is one of my faves....

this is the picture of a loser!!

oh my gosh... i'm so dumb! dude, look at the below mentioned site and tell me that doesn't look like $88.... brenda just called and said how much would you love me if i could get you those posters for less that $80.... when i insisted that she would be my BFF she said to press apple+ to enlarge the screen.... OMG... they are $9.99... i thought
"damn, those must be some gold plated posters for that price!"
but know the good news is new art for the LR coming atchya....
btw, ron swears i need glasses, i don't think so, it really does look like an 8..... right......

too much $$$

urghhh.... i have wanting to change up my living room and make it more "us" and just havn't seen the right things for it yet... until today... found these lovelies courtesy of elise. she discovered them here

too bad they are all eighty eight freaking dollars!!!! ughhhh, outta my budget... but at least now i have some inspo
here are the ones i would put up...

a little LO to document my thoughts the other day....

well really these are my thoughts all the time, but i saw this pic the other day, posted it, and have wanted to scrap it since then....
so
taa daa!
this is my new sonora high kit from SIStv. that place is amazing... so positive and full of creativity. I have been hooked since i discovered it in july...
if you are a scrapper and havn't checked it out yet... DO! you don't have to pay anything and you don't have to order the kits if you don't want to.
TFL!