Veterans Day!

Today has been very difficult for me, since my son left to Afghanistan last Tuesday. He called and said he was in Kuwait, but will be leaving to Afghanistan today. I am very proud of my son who had made an important decision to join the Navy, although I was against it at first. But I knew the decision was for him to make and I will always support him. This past week has been hard on my family especially Victoria and Isabella missing their brother already. Since today is Veterans Day I thought it would be wonderful to include these pictures on my blog. I also think about all of the families who have soldiers overseas taking care of our country! What a sacrifice everyone is making to keep us safe! Although it has only been a week, it has been very hard for me and can only imagine how I can make it through the next 10 months. But if my son is strong enough to be in Afghanistan, I can surely be strong for him here at home. So I ask this of everyone who reads this. Please pray for my son Christopher and for all of the military that are away for from their families.

How To Stamp & Scrapbook By The Scrapgirlz

Today was our first video presentation with The De La Torre Scrapgirlz. It was so much to record a How To Video with my daughters. My husband is wonderful and loves to work on projects, so basically it is a family affair. The video shows how you can involve your children and how we can spend more time together with our families and create memories with love ones. Recently, I learned to appreciate my family so much more, since my son will be leaving to Afghanistan in November. It makes you rethink what is really important and I had decided to dedicate more time with my family awhile back. Fortunately, becoming an angel demo with The Angel Company has truly been a blessing in my family. So I challenge you to create with your loved ones and continue to make those memories.....

Stamping Trash To Treasure!

Ok, I have to admit I am one of those people who loves to save everything hoping I will make something later down the road. What do I mean? Well, can you guess what I used as a box template? Yeah, your right a soap box! I love the size and thought hmmm, I can make something with this. I drew large flowers on cardboard and covered with TAC's beautiful Catelynne Fly With It Collection. The front flower was a scalloped punch and I decided to chalk the flowers to add a vintage look to them. Luckily my mother knits and has every color yarn you can think of. Great for embellishing a button from my mom's button collection. I used a tag from Catelynne Paper Pack Tags, TAC Ribbon from the same paper collection. The handle also has ribbon with Large Eyelets. The TAC stamp set I used for the Tag which says "Thanks" is from the "Circle Sampler" still can be purchased from our main catalogue. I found some packaging paper and decided to stamp circles and thanks from the stamp set. I also chalked the box and package paper. I am not sure if you can see it clearly. I just love creating from things you have already or find! I know I am not the only one who loves creating from trash! So if anyone would love to come forward and admit to creating art from their trash, please let me know so I can see your creations! Remember the first step is just admitting that you stamp your trash:)

My Mini Scrapbook album

Where have I been, well I just did a "Disappearing Act" from the blog world. Needed to time think, relax and take a break from everything in my life and spend quality time with my family. My girls start school next week and we have had a wonderful time together. Last summer I worked and I was away a lot, so this summer I decided to dedicate completely to my kids. Here is a mini album I created with extra school pics my girl's teacher had given me with their names. So I decided to make a flower out of a scalloped punch and added stickles "icicles", flower pattern from Catelynn FWIC (TAC) and DCWV Cardstock, used Black and White Ribbon (TAC) and butterfly stamp "Wild For You Stamp" (TAC). My girls cannot get enough from this stamp set. I can now carry this cute album everywhere with me to show off. Someone asked me recently, do you spend all of your time scrapping and stamping with your girls pictures? My answer is why "YES". I absolutely love and adore my daughters and son, so I hope no one is becoming tired of pics of my children, what can I say I am a proud mama. I hope you are enjoying TAC products as much as I am. The next time I decide to go MIA for a short while, I will make sure to give you a notice....but I will not be away for long.

Memorial Day Weekend !!

Memorial Day Weekend on Sunday we went to the park which is at the street corner of our house after church. We did not do anything special, but decided to relax and enjoy family time. My son went to the lake so he missed out on the picture. The great thing about these pictures, each of my daughters took them. They love to take pictures and have learned to do a wonderful job. My girls were fishing with my husband in the pond and we stayed until it got dark. By Monday I was exhausted, slept in and got ready for Tuesday. Just another family day at the De La Torre House:)

Fresh Spring Things Card

There was a TAC promotion a couple of months ago (Fresh Spring Things) which sold out and I was lucky to get from another angel. I love to surf other blogs and see everyone's creations. The beautiful thing about stamps you can use over and over again, put them away and bring them out and use them in another project. I love this TAC stamp set (Fresh Spring Things) and the Gentle Beginnings Designer Paper. Eyelets and Brads came with the kit as well. I just used black cardstock, ribbon, circle and flower punches, and used a silver gel pen to add some color to the cardstock and believe it or not I used a little stickles in the bunny ears and the 3 dots in the corners. Within the circle punch is a stamp set that is retired, but I will continue to use. This card is for my "Best Friend Judy" who I have known more than 17 years. I think everyone deserves a little card saying how much we appreciate them.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!

I made these "Mother's Day" Cards from what I had left over from my Angelee SWIC Set. I love the fact that after the cards are displayed for a while, they can be placed in a scrapbook or in a frame. Later, if wanted the actually pic can be removed from the card, since I used very little adhesive. The flower I created were from Build a Bug Stamp Set and yes more Swirls. Maybe I should move on from Angelee SWIC, but I just can't resist all of the possiblities with this beautiful paper.

Anyway, I am having a wonderful day at home and I hope you are having a wonderful Mother's Day Too!!!

Love Scrapbooking!!!!

It has been so long since my last post. But here I am again ready to create and display my love for papercrafts and my family. I found these pictures in my cabinet and pulled them out and instantly knew what paper I would use. They had Angelee written all over it. My daughter Victoria on the right also is a big fan of Angelee. Sometimes when I am tired and my girls want some love they ask me if we can "TAC Together" Meaning lets do some scrapbooking or card making. They love TAC as much as I do. I noticed as time goes on it just gets better. The pictures do not do the paper justice. You just need to buy some for yourself to see how beautiful this paper really is. For all of you who have missed me this past month or so. Thank you its so nice to be missed!

Love Scrapbooking!!!!

What can I say "I love to Scrapbook". I decided to take a long break from the blog world. I feel refreshed and relaxed and now its time to have some fun! I am such a big fan of TAC! I love Angelee SWIC and will continue to use it probably for a Mother's Day Card too this week. Usually I use an entire Designer paper pack to make scrapbook pages, cards and papercraft 3D out of an entire kit. Materials I used were the Angelee cardstock, Angelee Ribbon, Butterfly Swirls and Flower Bet stamps and Violete Ink (TAC). I did use a couple of silk flowers and a flower chipboard I had laying around. Once again TAC can be used with everything else as well.

Hello There Card

This past weekend we celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary and decided to spend it with our children on Valentines Day. When we were younger we would make reservations at a restaurant and wait for hours to be served, since our anniversary is on Valentines Day and celebrating with half the world. Now years later we decided we would rather spend it at home, make a nice dinner and have some cake (by the way I love to bake) and be with our children. I had some time to sneak in a card.

On this card I used Mimi Designer Paper from TAC, Hello There Stamp (TAC) and Prisma Colored Pencils. I really need to work on taking pics, since my lighting is not right. But I know you get the idea. Thanks for stopping by....

One Lovely Blog Award!!

This is a wonderful award that I received from by buddy Susie. Thanks so much Susie for all the love you have given me. I am so excited and have 7 people listed to pass along this lovely award. I know you will agree these individuals have great inspirational blogs.
Christina
Carol
Jen
Seleise
Barb
Heather
Maria
Check out these blogs and prepared to be inspired!!

Award!!

I received this award from my lovely friend Susie. She has been so kind and if you get to know her she is a wonderful person. So thank you Susie for all the love you have given me:) Ok enough about my bud Susie, lets move on to the fun stuff. There are two individuals I have in mind who deserve this blog award. Check them out and you will agree they are well deserving!

Diana

Bridgett

These ladies I admire the most. So please stop by and give them some love because I know they will appreciate.

My Valentine Baskets

I started my Valentine gifts for my family. Luckily, I have my daughters to help me out. I decided to use my Uptown Girls Wing it Collection, Black and White Ribbon, Circle Sampler Stamp, a small flower punch from EK, and larger flower and Circle Punch. Although my first love is scrapbooking, I have somewhat strayed off to stamping and papercrafting. Some days when I am scrapbooking, I have my daughters, my mother and my husband involved. I am so excited that my son will be coming home soon, completing the remainder of his term in the reserves. Although he will never admit to anyone, he does like to sit with us and scrapbook;)

My Twins Valentine Baskets

My girls work on papercrafts with me everyother Friday. We make it a family event and the other Fridays is either movie night or a Family Night Activity. My life became very busy last year and I felt I was not spending enough time with my daughters or husband. I decided that Fridays would be family night. I do not answer the phone or have guest over. I try to focus on my family. It has been working out wonderful and I feel so much better spending this scheduled time with them. Of course they love stamping and scrapbooking and are big fans of TAC. As you can see they have different personalities. One of my girls is daring and loves sports. My other daughter loves to draw and dress like a princess. Lucky for me I have an instant class with my daughters to scrap with:)

My Lil Scrapbook

Here I decided to use scraps from Penelope SWIC to create a lil 4x4 scrapbook. I am still working on this one, I used Forever Stamp (TAC) throughout the book and drew some swirls of my own. I plan to add family pics for Valentines Day. I really love this Paper as you can see. After I add my pics I will probably continue to add more embellishments. I love the Shabby Chic look, sometimes way overdone, but its what I love. Thanks for stopping by.....

My drawing card creation

I drew a flower and decided to color it with with Prismacolor pencils, used Penelope SWIC paper and tied a nice ribbon. As you can see I need to brush up on my drawing skills lol

Harvest Bear Card

I used Harvest Bear Stamp and Swirlgigs Stamp (TAC), Penelope SWIC designer paper and cardstock and Prismacolored pencils.

Penelope'ed Out

I spent the weekend working on Penelope SWIC and I am Penelope'ed out! On the left I made a card with Vintage Bear Stamp, my middle card I drew a flower of my own and on the far right I made a small book from the scraps left over. I have scrapbook layouts, but need to print Thanks Giving Pics and will post later. This is a lot of work, but love creating!