It's Challenge Time!! Spring Fling!! :)

Yee-Haw!!  It's a FANTASTIC Friday!!  The weekend is here, and it's TIME for a CHALLENGE!!  Did you get to see all of the SPECTACULAR projects in the last challenge!!  I was PINK with cheer!! :)  Thanks so much to ALL who joined!!

Before we get to this week's challenge details, I need to announce the ORANGE and PINK plus ONE winner!!  CONGRATS to:  Sherrie!!  Sherrie has a blog called "Sherrie Scraps with Passion" --  I'd love for you to pop over and visit her...  Here is her card!!

Isn't that POODLE-ERRIFIC???  Sherrie, be sure to contact me (scrapbookingwithamy at gmail dot com) with your address so I can send your pack of goodies out!! :)

Alrighty -- For this challenge, you're invited to a SPRING FLING!!  Feel free to GET CREATIVE with this challenge!!  You can make a card, layout, or 3D project *as long as* you use the theme *** SPRING FLING *** in your creation!!

What about SPRING inspires YOU???  Is it the COLORS?  The FLOWERS?  The BIRDS returning?  Whatever *SPRING FLING* means to you, we can't wait to see what you create!!

You can use ANY tools (your Cricut or other die cutting machine), you can stamp, use punches, or just use your trimmer!!  Feel free to make a card, layout, or other art project!!  This week, I have two FABULOUS friends to provide some inspiration for the challenge!!  Remember to pop on over to their blogs for more details on their projects -- I know you'll be inspired by all the projects on their blogs AND one lucky person will be chosen from the comments on their posts to win a little something-something!! :)

Linsey has created a BEAUTIFUL Flower Pot Pocket Card!!  Her blog is: "Outside the Lines"!! For more details on her project, please CLICK HERE!!

Beckie has created a STUNNING Tulip and Butterfly Card!!  Her blog is: "Just B Creative Crazy"!! For more details on her project, please CLICK HERE!!

Okay!!  It's YOUR turn!!  Show us your take on the challenge and create a card, layout, or 3D project using the theme "SPRING FLING" (spring colors, flowers, birds, etc.)!!  The challenge is open until Thursday, March 15th at 11:59pm EST.  You are welcome to link up as many NEW creations as you like as long as you follow the theme AND include a link to www.lovetocrop.com so that others may play along...  I also respectfully request that you do not "backlink" when entering the challenge (linking a project that was posted previous to the challenge date).  Thank you!!  You will need to enter your actual post link (not a link to your entire blog).  To do this, after clicking "Publish" on your post, click on "View Post" and copy and paste the address from your browser address bar into the Linky tool.  If you have questions on how to do this, please feel free to leave a comment with your email address, and I'll be happy to help.

Which Came First??? Blog Hop!! :)

Welcome to the "Which Came First???" Blog Hop!!

Who knew that a single piece of paper or a tiny rubber stamp would start an addiction that could overtake our dining rooms, living rooms, and bedrooms???   What started it for you?  Did you start by stamping cards and then progress to scrapbooking?  Were you an avid picture-taker turned cardmaker?  Or did you pick something from the start and stick with it?  Join us on our adventure as we share how we each got started in the scrapbooking and stamping craft!!  You'll find some fun stories, neat projects, and awesome folks along the way, we hope you'll enjoy each and every moment!!

Let's get hopping!!  If you've hopped over from Michele, then you are in the right place!!  If you've just popped in to visit my blog or are reading this via email and you'd like to join our FUN, then please CLICK HERE to start at the beginning with Lynda's blog...

For the hop today, I'd like to show you some of my very first "real" scrapbook pages and what it progressed into for me...

Truth be told, I was probably a stamper before I was a scrapbooker...  When I was little, little, little I received a set of tiny Hero Arts stamps and mini stamp pads...  I remember thinking that I was the cat's meow with those!!  I stamped everything in sight (paper or NOT!).  I made cards and wrapping paper and notepaper...  I even stamped little rectangles of paper and glued them into little "books" to make coloring books for my Barbie dolls (boy, do I wish I still had those to show ya!!  LOL)...

My sister received one of those magnetic photo albums when I was about ten...  She would spend hours trimming her pictures into silhouettes and making collages on those pages -- Then she would cut titles from magazines and add talk bubbles to the pictures of all the fun times she was having with friends...  A few years later, I received my first magnetic photo album and couldn't wait to use all the tips and tricks I'd learned from my sister for all of MY pictures...  I even had a Kodak DISK camera (who remembers those???), and I used that to take TONS of pictures!!  Sadly, I haven't found that album since the fire back in '99...  And what a reminder THAT is to back up your photos now...

Anywhooooo...  In 1998, I attended my first Creative Memories Workshop...  And I was HOOKED!!  It wasn't long before I started doing my own workshops (to support my habit).  Times sure have changed, because this was one of my first pages way back then (I actually think I made this one at one of the workshops I attended before signing up myself!!)....

Yep!!  THAT was the Creative Memories way back then...  A strip, a shape, a corner...  Some stickers, some markers, some journaling...  BAM!!  Done!!  :)

I quickly learned to get a little fancier...  Clusters of colorful shapes, those punch out die cut shapes, fancy marker letters and doodles, rounded corners on the photos, and TWO DIFFERENT SHAPED photos on the same layout!!  GAH!!  What was I thinking???  An oval, a circle, a bunch of triangles???  Anyone else DIZZY???  :)

I finally managed to get my hands on one of those fancy "Idea Books" that were all the rage...  I also got that fancy wavy cutter that laid over your cutting mat...  AND letter stickers were introduced to my collection...  Ahhhh...  Now that's nice!!  :)  Say what???  Can you believe I actually journaled right on the page???  Who does that???  Now we have to have journaling boxes and fancy printers!!  :)

About a year or so after I was buried in scrapbook paper, fancy tools, and adhesive, I was invited to my very first....  (insert exciting fanfare music here)...  STAMPIN' UP! PARTY  ...and life as my husband and children knew it was O-V-E-R...  I dreamed of all those magical inks and stamp sets...  I spent hours perusing the catalog and carefully checking off the sets I had, the sets I wanted, and the sets I couldn't live without...  I purged the hallway closet of coats and boots and umbrellas and filled it with organizers filled with scissors and adhesive and paper...  When that overflowed, I asked my dad to build me two 8 foot high cabinets with adjustable shelves... And he did...  And it, too, began to overflow...

For a while, my two best friends and I would congregate in my living room to stamp, punch, and color every piece of paper in sight...  We had collections of cards for every occasion, and I sincerely believed that I had to make 30 of every card we created!!  Keeping whatever I was scrapbooking in mind, I began to make cards that I could save in my scrapbook (does anyone else see the insanity here???)...  I mean, I was already taking pictures to go with the stickers that I bought, so why not make cards for the pictures I was taking???  The card shown above is the postcard that I made for each of the cheerleaders that made the midget football cheerleading team with The-Girl-Child that year....  The actual card that I really did send to The-Girl-Child is carefully preserved in her cheerleading scrapbook...  The one above is the one I preserved in my (are you ready for it?) "sample" scrapbook...  E-gads...  I'm feeling a little nutty here now.

And time marches on....  I switched to black pages and thought I was a rebel for that (GASP!! Who knew I'd use patterned paper as a background in future days???)  This is the layout opposite the page with The-Girl-Child's "Congratulations!" post card (sorry, the other layout has all the first and last names of all the cheerleaders, so I didn't feel it was appropriate to share)...

So what about NOW???

Sometimes I dabble in digital scrapbooking (see more details about this layout HERE)...

I still use black background pages from time to time (you can see more of this layout by CLICKING HERE because YES, that really is Mark Ballas with The-Girl-Child!!)...

I still have a RIDICULOUS selection of stamps -- digi, rubber, AND clear!! (you can see more about this card HERE)

I still use a LOT of Creative Memories products (you can see more of this layout HERE)...

And these kiddos are STILL a few of my favorite things!! :)  (see more details on this layout HERE)...

Thank you again for checking out my blast-from-the-past and caught-up-to-the-future projects...  I'm the LAST STOP in the hop today; however...  Please remember to visit all the stops for MAXIMUM ideas and LOTS OF FUN!!  ** Don't forget!!  There's some EXTRA SPECIAL blog candy JUST for today's hop!!  You can find all the details HERE!! :)

Until next time,