Crop Capers

I've been trying for nearly a YEAR to actually attend a crop with a group I joined! It's only 2 bucks if you come, and it's in a private home not too far from me. I finally went Friday night, and even with all the chit chat I finished a page and worked on two others, that each need "just one more thing!" LOL!!! Oh well, progress is progress.

I followed one of my sketches (see it HERE) for this particular page, and I've been dying to scrap these a long, long time! We were in Cancun and the waiter was a hoot, Gabe got him to pose with the margarita as he was serving it, and the picture came out great...this was even before we had a digital camera, so no retakes on these pics! ;)

I've been SCRAPPIN' :)

I'm not someone who normally scraps pages with just ONE picture, but I had a special request for a one photo layout a couple of weeks back, and why not!? I must say I do have a few lonely misc pictures that must be scrapped this way.

When I organized my pictures the other day I found a fun one of G & Syd playing Xbox! This was PERFECT for the sketch, and I just had to scrap it! They love to play "Dead or Alive" which is a martial arts fighting game...it's kinda funny to see them sitting on the couch, and kicking each others butt on the TV - LOL!!!

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Tomorrow is Friday and I am really happy with the sketch I'll be posting on SCS. If you are one of my blog subscribers, you get a sneak peek! Can't see this one anywhere else (yet), and look at me...I scrapped a sample! :)
This is my girl when she was still a brownie, her first year selling cookies actually. I feel kinda like I cheated though. I didn't stamp ANYTHING! :O But I did use the super YUMMY Designer Series Paper only available through the rest of this month - it's called Afternoon Tea. I also used these WAY cute dimensional stickers from K & Company. They are all about scouting, and how could I resist!? I've actually been hoarding them since cookie season began this year, and still have plenty of them left for some more current photos.
My one and only Cuttlebug alpha makes up the first part of the title, maybe once I get caught up on my June goal I will treat myself to another one! ;)

I hope you are inspired. I think I'm on a little roll and I'm really looking forward to another Virtual ScrapBooking Night (VSBN). I'm hosting a challenge myself on Saturday for the preview. It's like a warm up, the "big weekend" will begin on the 28th. You should pop in and check out the action. It's always a lot of fun!!!

The List is HERE

The new catalog with hundreds of new stamp sets is right around the corner...to be released in early August, so it's time to say goodbye to a few. You have until August 10th to order and the NEW catalog will debut on August 11, 2008.

Click HERE to download an alphabetical list, or visit the promotions page of my website. There is also a listing by page number. That can be the easiest way to go though your catalog and make your final "must have" list of the retirees.

What's on mine?
A monogram or two...or three!
Best Friends Alphabet - GREAT for scrapping, and you can never have too many alphas! ;)
Happy Camper - I just LOVE this cute set!

There will also be accessories no longer available in the new catalog, check back for more details beginning July 21, 2008.

Summer Fun!

Hey there!!!
I have been blessed with a boss that respects me and values the work I do. I don't have a REAL important job, but at this small agency, what I do is vital to the daily operation. Therefore I am very lucky to be working part time for the Summer! My "new" office hours are 8:45 - 12:30 which allows me to be the one who feeds my girls lunch and we have LOTS of fun activities planned for all these afternoons we will share together! *BIG cheesy GRIN* hee hee

One thing we did last week to prepare was list things on paper that we want to do. I gave the girls the freedom to write down whatever they want, and they only wrote 6 the first day. ha ha They filled up a sheet in no time after that and have told me their favorites.

Yesterday we made a little time after our trip to the library to decorate a little jar to hold these slips of paper. My original thought was to let them take turns drawing slips out and we will mark the calendar for a few days, and leave a few days "open." Some activities will require planning, so I'm thinking that will be the best way, but I'm sure we can can choose from the jar and have a "surprise" activity once in a while! ;)

ANAL-ytical Organization

Yes, it's true! I have a dark side, I'm inflicted with the analytical-perfectionist disease! I'm sooooooo obsessive-compulsive about organizing things. Which is pretty funny, if you could see the HUGE mess in my master bedroom, you'd be really confused by this. I think the issue is that only I can see the final result (in my head). You know, the big picture. So until I am READY to make it happen, it ain't gonna happen!

After a statement like that you might be surprised to hear I can scrap out of order. Well that's progress for me! I was stuck in a rut once, needing to stay in date order and NOT getting anything done except the baby books (since you HAVE to do them as the baby grows), and I guess I snapped out of it! Trying to stay chronological is silly!!! Why not scrap what inspires you now, and use up some older pics along the way for good measure?

Yesterday I was planning to to do just that. I have some cute NEW pictures I'm dying to scrap, and PLENTY of older ones lying about as well, but I was so disgusted with the tiny amount of usable workspace left on my counter, that I couldn't function. I ended up pulling things out of the cabinets beneath thinking I'd reorganize and get the stuff on top put away - HA! After it was emptied out I decided (for some unknown reason) that this would be the day I get ALL our pictures in order, and that's where I'd keep them! Never mind the poor neglected layout in progress.



Our pictures are already in photo boxes, and in date order...for the most part. But somehow the boxes have spread themselves to different areas of my master bedroom. Which makes late night scrappin' a challenge in itself. Imagine me looking for "that photo from 2003" and Gabe (Mr. wake up if the cat sneezes) sawing logs in the bed, not pretty! Makes it impossible to even go in there if he's sleeping. So I rescued the 2 boxes in the closet, 2 from the bottom shelf inside the TV armoire, and one in the corner next to the changing table/dresser. Let me tell ya, if we had a fire I'd probably go down with the ship, because I'd be all over the place trying to round them up along with our completed albums...which are in ANOTHER room! *yikes*

Just like most of us these days, I use a digital camera pretty exclusively. So you'd think I'd just have old pics and photo CDs. Well, not so much. I would say "oh, those pics are just too cute," and I'd copy them to a flash drive and get prints made with good intentions of scrapping them right away. Also, to save money, I try to order prints in batches of 50. So I've been collecting them in a drawer at my workstation (yes ANOTHER location) and they're crowding my embellishments! Fortunately I've labeled the envelopes for most of these with true picture dates, and I had to shift things around to include them in the photo boxes. But that's where I keep the CDs, so it's all good!



Now that the hard part is done and all my pictures are sorted. I'm on to phase 2. I plan to go through my albums and make notes of what is obviously missing. For example, my oldest has a March birthday, so if I open up the 2002 album and see Spring portraits and Summer vacation pics I know I need to pull photos to scrap her birthday for that year. I will also go through the archive CD to see if there is something out of the ordinary that I should include. Then I'm going to make a list of all the "missing" layouts for our existing albums and I'm challenging myself to finish at least ONE album this year. That way I can still scrap what I want and I won't be forced to stay chronological.

Well here's some more analytical craziness. I made a spreadsheet, which I'm sharing with you. >>CLICK HERE for a copy. I want to spread the organizational LOVE! hee hee Use it as a reference sheet to keep with your pictures. Just label it whichever year and type in the contents of your photographs. If you have prints like me, keep it in your photo storage with the appropriate year. If your pics are exclusively on CD, this would be a GREAT tool to keep with the disk. It will help you find that certain picture without viewing several disks or even going through a whole year wondering "when was that!?" You will have to view your disks to fill out the spreadsheet, but after you do, you'll be all organized!

Chocolate Makes EVERYTHING Better!

On Friday I posted my latest sketch on Splitcoast. I post a new one every week and you can always visit my blog and find them in the sidebar on the right.

I was inspired to scrap it with these fun pictures of my oldest frosting cupcakes. I had hoped to have it finished and post them together on SCS, but I only just got the layout taped down!

Gloria has always been an enthusiastic helper in the kitchen, so finding these pictures was a real treat! This was the night before her 5th birthday party, and she was so cute with frosting around her mouth acting so serious about getting them done!

I've been trying to use things I've been hoarding, and this chocolate paper was perfect for this layout. I also got creative with my punches again. and added the handmade cupcake embellishment. I really like doing punch art, this one was really simple. I just ran a scrap through the paper crimper and layered it with an oval I punched out. It's mounted on a few dimensionals to make it pop. Too fun!

If you are curious about the materials used for this, the supply list is detailed in my SCS gallery posting. Thanks for stopping by!!!

LADIES NIGHT!

Starting TODAY I'm hosting a monthly technique class! I decided it was time to have something regular again. I have a new group on Meetup.com and the member list is growing. There is something to be said for having a set routine, and I look forward my monthly fix of craftiness. It's at 7:oo PM and I AM READY!

Each class I will focus on a specific technique. Tonight is shaving cream; so I did the background of this Artist Trading Card with shaving cream and ink refills. I used three colors. Close to Cocoa/Groovy Guava/Pixie Pink. Then I did a little stamping with A to Z Accents on pink card stock, did a little punching and layered them together. Isn't it fun?

I might just whip up a few more tomorrow. Sydney (my 6 year-old) is dying to make her ATC with shaving cream too, but she is planning a different color scheme.



Then for the class I made this Father's Day Card (with my dad in mind) using just a couple of stamps from the "In the Stars" stamp set. And I love, love love using chipboard!!!

Sketch O'clock

Well if you remember, my laptop has been having some issues. So we bought an external hard drive, and I copied ALMOST everything over then my wonderful man Gabe re-installed OSX and the Adobe Creative Suite. Everything was working great for about a week, and then *POOF* it won't boot up. I am so sad, but we are going to have it repaired.
Soooooo, I just posted another sketch that I literally whipped up in about 10 minutes using Microsoft Word. It is actually pretty easy to do them in Word if you are going for a simple layout. Just print and scan if you need to convert it to a .jpg file. That's why it's a little crooked. *oops*

A Cut Above

Happy Day, it tis the month of May! Man this year is flying by quick!!!
I'm posting to show off the wonderously wonderful ~ One Sheet Wonder

I'm having this little workshop tomorrow at 2:00 and I am really excited about the project...how can you go wrong with the Berry Bliss DSP and these YUMMY colors!?

If you are not familiar with the One Sheet Wonder, let me explain. You take a 12x12 sheet of patterned paper and cut off a 3 1/2" strip. You will be left with a sheet that is 12 x 8.5" this is important because the remaining sheet can then be inserted in your printer and you can print cut lines right on it. Otherwise you would have to cut in 4 sections and then cut down from there using specific measurements to achieve the card layouts I've designed. This is not difficult, but using the printer makes things WAY easier!



The pieces are paired up with card stock, stamps, inks, ribbon and such to create something FANTABULOUS you can keep for yourself or give away. It is a little time consuming to make 10 unique cards with the WAY cute tote to match, but it's is so worth every second!!!

Sketch Friday!!!

My latest sketch hot off the presses for todays challenge on SCS!!! YIPPEE!
I have a few others that I have not "formally" posted on this blog, but all of my sketches are available in the sidebar below, or you can visit my gallery to see them all. Happy scrapping!

A Page...

...with no PICTURES? Yes! This was a challenge from my friend Peggy on Splitcoast. I had been kinda wanting to do a page with all my crazy ;) lists and a photo was actually my only holdup! I'm freeeeeee! My page has a few drawings but no photographs, and I'm thrilled with how it came out!
Aside from the grocery list these lists reflect different things I need or want to do any day, any week...hopefully this year!!! And yes, I do LOVE wasabi peas a little TOO much! ha ha

Toot Toot

My pal Vicki is the BESTEST! She gave me this award: I feel so honored, thank you so much Vicki!!!
Make sure you visit her blog Stamped Smiles...it's linked on the right! :)

On another note, I was honored to be the Sketch Artist of the Week over on Sisterhood of Scrap!
Here's the article:
Featured Artist April 5, 2008
Thank you ladies for this, I can't wait to see some new interpretations of my sketch!!!

Punch Drunk

Hola! I found a small amount of time to post and wanted to share some purty things I've been hoarding from you...not really, life has just been busy for me lately!
I've been wanting to make one of these boxes for quite some time now. Love it in this paper!! If you haven't done one, it's made by covering square drink coasters with patterned paper. I used ModPodge to keep the paper uniform with the entire surface.
As much as I love this paper, I decided to paint one coaster with white acrylic paint to add some contrast. Then I stamped on it. The brush strokes gave it some nice texture and made the stamped image appear distressed so I decided to enhance the look further by dragging my Apricot Appeal craft pad across it. Isn't it delicious? I used my Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes and simply knotted ribbons to hold the box together on the corners. The bottom piece is glued with ModPodge.
My last open house was earlier this month and we made this sweet card and a little stand up photo thingy...that's the technical term! *wink* The card includes a clear button, and I stamped the images you see through it! This photo doesn't do it justice, give it a click and you can see more detail in the background. I used a marker on a background stamp to give the rounded yellow card stock piece some texture.
More coasters, made into a mini photo frame. Super easy. I used the designer label punch from Stampin' Up! to do faux metal hinges! I just punched a cardboard box right over the edge so it was pre-scored in the center. You know, like a cereal box. And then I coated the cardboard with VersaMark then gold embossing powder, and heat set! Whip out the Crop-A-Dile again and secure with brads.
I had a ton of fun making these favors for my attendees and they were a little time consuming to put together, but oh so cute, and I love punches!!! Whoops I forgot to photograph the tab punch...that is the one you need to make these baskets; well that and the two ovals, and a few flowers. Aren't they adorable??
I'm still in the planning phase for my next workshop, but it will be all about punches! We will stamp and punch and CREATE! It'll be almost too much fun!!!

Whaaaaa???

...and just where have YOU been? Is what you must be thinking. Well being a cookie mom for Troop 920 has taken over my life and there has been very little time for crafty creations. But I have some things I never got around to posting, that I will be following up with later.For now, I have THREE sketches to share. I wasn't overly thrilled with the 5 photo layout, but it has had a great response so far. Check out these pages that were done with it!
HUGS,

Sally

A Sketch for VSBN...

Saturday March 1st at 11:00 AM CST I posted this sketch for Virtual Scrapbooking Night (VSBN), and yes I realize it wasn't night, or even in the afternoon. But by the time ALL the challenges were laid out it was WAY dark outside!

I scrapped a sample page using my sketch, and it really came together fast! It is so unlike me to only use one picture on a layout, but every now and then you have to try something different, and for this particular page I honestly only had one picture to use!

The challenges that followed mine continued though out the weekend, for a total of 12. If you have a gallery on SCS, it's not too late to check them out and submit a page of your own. CLICK HERE to see them all!

My crazy schedule over the weekend prevented me from doing more than one myself. But I was still online right after my challenge (chatting mostly) and I was eager to try a technique I wasn't familiar with. Anita introduced us to the Glitter Window, SCS has a tutorial for it, but it's really simple:

Just punch a circle (or any shape really) in your desired card stock, add a piece of clear packing tape over the punched opening, and sprinkle glitter on the sticky side. For my page I decided to minimize the spread of glitter by punching around my circles with the scallop punch. I just put it right onto my page glitter side down. Which means there is clear tape on top. I guess I could have "sandwiched" it with another punched piece, but I like my shiny "flower windows" with sparkle in the middle! This is the page I did using one of my sketches (backwards), and a close up of one of my "windows" above on the left!

Challenges a Plenty

A Sketch:

Well it's Friday again, and I've posted a DPS this week. It's not too fancy, but I think it'll be a fun layout to use, and once I pick up my photo order this week end I should be back on the road to Scrapville! hee hee


Something REALLY Unique:

My gal pal Peggy has come up with another really fab, think outside the box, scrapping challenge. First you take this test to reveal your crayon color. CLICK ME
Then you scrap "your color" and include it's opposite on your page. Your color should be the focus, and you can include other colors too, this should be FUN!
Here are my results...

You Are a Red Crayon

Your world is colored with bright, vivid, wild colors. You have a deep, complex personality - and you are always expressing something about yourself. Bold and dominant, you are a natural leader. You have an energy that is intense... and sometimes overwhelming. Your reaction to everything tends to be strong. You are the master of love-hate relationships. Your color wheel opposite is green. Green people are way too mellow to understand what drives your energy.

What Color Crayon Are You?

Delicious Divas:

Another regular challenge we have on Splitcoast is the Diva Designer Challenge. This week Ngaire Bartlam joins us and her challenge is a simple one. "To create a collage using LOTS of different stamped images. You can use this collage on wall art, or a card, or a scrapbook layout, or an ATC.. or what ever your artistic heart desires!!!"
She made an index book for her unmounted stamps, very cool!

An Announcement:

Once again it is time for Virtual Scrapbooking AKA VSBN! Tomorrow at 1:00 PM CST the first challenge will be posted and it will be followed by 3 others. Each challenge allows 2 hours for you to create, and then TIMES UP! Well you don't have to scrap the challenges as they are posted, you don't have to do them in order or even do them all. But it's always a lot of fun, and I usually get a lot done during VSBN, so stop by, we'd love to have ya!

Sketch Friday!!!

I'm really excited about my newest sketch. I actually just did this yesterday afternoon while my sickly 3 year old was napping.
Once I had it done I was wishing I could go ahead and scrap with it, but she did not sleep long enough for that...I am a pretty slow scrapper. I do have plans to use it ASAP! Hopefully I can squeeze in a little "me time" tonight or tomorrow.
I actually wish I had a specific event or series of photos in mind, but I haven't sorted through them lately and I have a BUNCH that have never seen the light of day (they're still on my laptop)!

I hope you are inspired and if you scrap with it, please link back here with a comment or on SCS, I would LOVE to see what you do!

My Valentine!

I spent a few minutes this afternoon working on this card for my dad! It's not real masculine, but I like the colors and that little mouse with the GREAT BIG heart is just so darned cute!!! I'm thinking if I get it in the mail today he'll have it by Thursday! My dad went through a knee replacement a few months back, and over all he's doing GREAT! He is incredibly resilient for a man of his age, and since he was the "first man" in my life, he deserves something special!

Last Friday I got to run off and leave my family behind to spend time with my friend and upline Debbie! She had her monthly stamper's club meeting and even though I'm not really a member, my sister and I are always welcome to drop in. We had a good time stamping together...it had been a while, and it's always nice to sit back and do someone else's projects for a change...aren't these cute???
The candybar wrapper, uses the set "Simply Said" and was a fun project. It was quick and really easy to do!
The card involved masking off the word "hi" and sponging on Old Olive at the bottom. If you haven't tried this technique before, it's a simple way to make a BIG difference and I'll be focusing on that again in more detail soon! It also features a stamp from "So Many Scallops" available FREE in the Sale-a-bration mini. It's really cool to stamp an image and then punch it out with a coordinating punch! Another fun item from the mini is the "Love & Happiness" rub-ons, isn't this little candle ADORABLE!? I think Old Olive is one of my favorite colors!

Itichin' for Stitchin'

If you are following my sketch challenges, you've already seen this one from last Friday, but I was pretty impressed with myself for getting it done. YAY me!

I've had computer issues since the end of May 2007...SOMEONE put scrap paper in my CD drive and I hadn't taken the time to make an appointment and have a Mac Genius evaluate the situation. Well now it's come back to bite me. Somesort of system glitch is causing a problem with some of my applications. I need to upgrade my system software (or just reinstall), and in the meantime, I cannot use Photoshop, Illustrator, or any Microsoft applications.


With this issue came another, my inability to create sketches! Oh NO!!!! Well, I couldn't let that stop me, and since I had a pretty simple idea in my head, I decided to try MS Word as a sub. I use it at work for letters, and my desk isn't so demanding that I couldn't spend a few minutes a day tweaking my creation until Fridays post! So there it is above.

Over the weekend my WONDERFUL husband Gabe managed to get the paper out, and my CD drive is operational again. *YIPPEE* Can you believe there were FIVE small pieces of card stock in there!? I don't think I have to worry about a repeat incident. When I first discovered the paper in there, the girls were pretty bummed because we were on a road trip and they couldn't watch DVD's .

Here is a page I did Sunday using the sketch. The "innocent" child you see there is VERY LIKELY the cause of all my laptop grief! Can't sell her in a garage sale, heck look at that smile, how could I? She sure makes me appreciate her sisters a bit more, and I guess payback is hell...right Dad? LOL!!!

The page itself came together really fast. I just drew a heart on the backside of this patterned paper I had and trimmed it out. After taping it down, I ran it through my sewing machine. I adore using machine stitching on my layouts, if you haven't tried it you should. There are LOTS of ways to play with stitches and faux stitches are ALMOST as fun!