Miss Me?!!

I've been getting these interesting emails, and today a text asking "when are you updating your blog"! LOL! It's nice to know you guys care and that I was missed! So.... where was I?! I started my new job last week and boy did I hit the ground running! Trying to figure things out, get to know people, I also have been given the job of editing all documents prior to submitting them to the 4 Star <-- now that makes me nervous! I also had 2 runs on Wednesday and the second one was in the rain. Guess what my reward was for that one?! I got a nice, nasty chest cold that just sucked the life out of me! I know, pretty picture right?! I had pneumonia really bad once so chest colds make me nervous!I went to work and did nothing else! LOL! I'm all better now though and here I am!
Our Father's Day celebration today was rather low key as we all took naps, together, like little monkeys in the bed! It was probably a rather hilarious site if you had been that fly on the wall too! I won the award for sleeping the longest....yeah me! So when we got up, I made dinner and boy was it good tonight! Mmmm! We had roast chicken & red bell pepper sauce over wheat noodles, a green salad and some Ghiradelli brownies! I don't understand the hype over these brownies though, they're not all that good - ugh! I prefer Betty Crocker ones with chocolate frosting if I have to eat some! LOL! Then again, I'm not a chocolate eater!
Okay so the best part of Father's day here?! We gave Brian a card/album we made using some of the BoBunny products we picked up at our LSS! Have you seen the album's made where each page is a letter?! I think at Marko's you can get them with the individual letters to spell out anything! Ooooh the possibilities there! This one came as a kit and turned out SO frigging cute! Here's some pictures!

Outside/closed


First 2 inner pages


Close up of the squirrel...yeah...long story but he liked it!


Next couple of pages...


The back...


The "giver" & her Daddy!


This book should have only taken me a couple of hours but it took me days! I could only do a little bit at a time for the obvious reasons! LOL! Brian really liked the final product too so, in the end, that's all the really mattered!

Until next time....

I hope you like it!

It's Killing Me...........

OMG! I have been neglecting my blog, neglecting my craft room, neglecting ME....the list goes on! This past week was one from you know where....H - e double hocky sticks and I have a strange feeling it's about to repeat itself! This week I have to include bucking up the mileage as hardcore training for the next marathon starts TODAY! UGH! Anyone want to get up at 0430 and train with me?! It gets kind of lonely out there.......anyone.....?!
Well part of what kept me busy is I put in 10 hours of overtime and as a contractor, you call it "free unpaid time" and one of the Colonel's I work for is leaving. LOL! I am VERY sad about that as I have totally enjoyed my time working for him. He's a TOUGH boss don't get me wrong can make a grown man cry (I've seen him take them out) but still a great guy! The protocol of his move from here to the protocol of his going to where he's going and the job he's going to is all huge and takes a lot of energy, mix that in with the rest of the regular work AND the fact I have another Colonel I work for and they both have been going out of town...sound like enough yet? No, I'm back up for the General's secretary so I've been going over there to sit a lot..... okay to the point now. With the Colonel leaving my going away gift was going to be something he won't have to dust, hang etc... I made him what I do best! A scrapbook! I kept the pages simple since it was sort of professional but, must say, a Bella stamp made her way onto a page ;) He he he! They're not too elaborate but, well he liked it anyway! Here's pictures of the pages! I didn't get too close up either because I didn't ask a single person permission to post on here so I thought this was the safe way!
















Still with me....Here's what I'd rather be doing...



Until next time....

Bragging......

Okay we all have something we like to brag about whether it's the ability to always find the best deals on the sales rack (gosh I wish that was me!)or, most importantly, the people we love! I can't tell you how many times I get asked if I have pictures of my kids! Well, not in my purse but every where else! So when I saw these little photo albums at the Target $1 spot (vortex to me - sucks me right in every time!) I knew exactly what I could do with them!

Here's what I'm talking about;

Before (this was actually the before of another book I did - I made quite a few of these!)


After


The process is easy actually. Simply remove the cardboard that comes in the front and back (save for another project or to use as insulation in your closet like I do!) and basically create a card front. One thing to remember is you'll see the back of the front and the front of the back (KWIM?) so use double sided paper or cardstock to keep it nice. For this particular book I found the cutest stickers on one of my Target "red sticker" hunting expeditions so, using my letters from PaperTrey Ink (which are clear), I was able to position the letters of the little boys name to look like the monkeys were holding them! The leaves are from the same sticker pack but the grass is actually a stamp from "The Rubber Cafe" - such a versatile stamp by the way! So, just decorate and fill with your pictures! At about $1 for each book and using your scraps, it's the cheapest, yet best, gift ever! I made one for my Dad even of our last marathon/5K walk event we did! He loved it! This particular one is for my daughter's friend who threw her baby shower recently, a thank you of sorts. I know I can hear my daughter, Jessica, now saying "Mom, where's Logan's"?! Ha ha ha the fun of telling her to wait....ha ha ha!

For the curious - my oldest daughter, Jessica, is due to have a baby boy any day now. He's going to be named Logan Greggory. Once he's born I'll need more of these as I'm sure I'll be getting lots and lots of pictures - right Jessica?!! LOL!

Monkey Mania

He he he! If my son knew I was posting this picture of him he'd probably kill me! I love it though! As I unpack box after box of "stuff", still an ongoing project here, I'm finding more and more things I "gotta do something with"! I saw I had that wooden painted Monkey from Michaels I knew I had the perfect embellishment for this layout and how it all started! I have a ton of pictures of my kids, before digital that is, which is a good thing until you try to decide "who gets the page put in their book"! That's a tough decision! Yeah I know, scan it in print out an extra blah, blah, blah! This was one picture from a trip to Milwaukee Zoo that we took with my in-laws one year a few years back. We rode on the train and did all the neat things there. When we stopped by the monkey area, well my own personal monkey had to imitate them! He's so cute! I also found the PERFECT monkey papers too at my LSS and, love when this happens, letters that match ON SALE!! So the adhesive was dry but that's okay since I usually add more of my own anyway! I used a couple of Making Memories brads to hold on the tag and voila! Done! I hope you like it too! Here it is;



Don't forget you can click on the picture to look closer up and if anyone really wants to know the name of the monkey and banana papers, just shoot me an email, or leave me a comment ;), and I'll be happy to go look! I'm being kind of lazy right now! It was a recent, within the last 2 weeks, purchase! I'm sure it's on the shelves, or online, of your favorite scrapbook store too!

Enjoy!

Until next time....

A Love Thang.....!

Actually, it's a love my kids thang! LOL! I was playing around with some pictures I had printed out a while back of my 3 kids. I think this picture was taken in 2002 and is one of my all time favorites! I loved how my oldest has her hair, my youngest is so sweet looking and my son, well to me he's just plain handsome!



I used SU real red paper for the solid red, I have no clue where the other paper came from (read that as a confession of a scrapbook paper hoarder!) since I pick up paper anywhere and everywhere! LOL! I used heart brads from Making Memories, the chipboard letter came from Michael's, ribbon is all SU, the button...well I'm a button hoarder too (falls under my embellishment junkie habit! LOL!). The brown circles are something I picked up last night at Michael's. I found my way back to their clearance section and saw these sticker sheets for $1! Now who can resist that?! It's only a dollar right?! Well it's okay until you have about 20+ items, then as my DH says "no longer a good deal"! LOL! Here's the thing about them though, they're not scrapbooking stickers but made to go on some wooden bangles that you could make yourself! I thought - why not?! I don't always go by the "Acid Free" everything way of scrapbooking but go with whatever I want - a little bit! LOL! Ooh and I got the "I Do" sticker from Target on one of my red tag hunting escapades! It was actually a wedding sticker that I got thinking I could use it somehow, well I did! I had to cut it from the sticker since there was three of them on there but it works...so I think anyway!

Well I hope you like it!

Until next time

Love Circles

Well I promised you a tutorial and, believe it or not, here it is! This is something I saw somewhere on line but can't remember where so, if it's yours please forgive me and give me your name so I can give you credit...until then, read on! I made a great scrapbook layout using a photo that I had printed out in Sepia. With my Valentine's colors including so much brown I've been doing that a lot lately! I used some more of the Cosmo Cricket "Chemistry" paper , "Strip Tease" from The Rubber Cafe. I went with a circle theme on this one too! Seems like I'm really into circles lately, big contrast to my DH who's into sharp corners! I think it's the military in him! You wouldn't have enjoyed the conversation where I tried so hard to talk him into curtains with circles on them....needless to say I have plain curtains! Anyway, you don't want to hear that story! LOL! So back to the scrapbook page, I even softened my corners with a corner rounder for this one! LOL! No sharp corners here!

I used the huffing/marker technique for the word "Love" in the white circle and used different size punches to make circles out of scraps from other projects too! I had some fun silver adhesive buttons to add some extra texture. I also felt like it still needed "something", something different so I added some fun punched circles using something you might not have thought of! Take a look at my second picture to see what I'm talking about!




I used a circle shaped plastic embroidery canvas "thingy"! I can't remember what they're called. I remember my Mom was AWESOME at creating all sorts of things from this plastic canvas. They're inexpensive and can be bought just about anywhere! I used my paper piercer and just did the circles randomly around the page. I think I got my "something different"! What do you think?!




The circles would be a fun element around another circle shaped element on a card or something wouldn't it?! I even saw star shapes, squares, etc. They come several to a package so you could even do a swap with your friends! Just have fun with it!

I hope you liked my little "tutorial" of sorts!

Until next time....

Easy Peasy Photo Album

Okay, when I said that title to myself it sounded good! Now I'm thinking "does that conjure up a picture of mushy peas?"! LOL! Anyway, I thought I'd share a few of the fast gift ideas I have in case you could use them too! These are also inexpensive since I usually am either adding them to another pile of gifts or need about a 100 to gift out for friends! So, this year for my Dad I got him a couple of shirts - boring right?! Well I try to add a little fun something in there for him and I found a neat little light up magnifier for one box but needed something for the other one. This past September when he came up to walk the 5K with my daughter and I, and then be at the finish line when we all finished, we took a ton of pictures! I thought to myself "what a great gift opportunity! I took one of those little photo albums that are plastic with a cheesy cardboard insert in the front of something goofy and turned it into an album so he can always look back and remember the fun of the weekend of the marathon! My cost?! $3 is pretty much all I spent for this gift. The album itself was $2 and the Air Force paper was a $1, the sticker quotes, brads, and all the paper are scraps from other projects! How can you beat that?! I did use a Kodak machine to print my pictures. I chose the 2"x3" option that makes 4 per normal size print. It's a great option when you need to put a lot of pictures in one spot!. My cost for these photo albums was probably around $1.50 but check your store in case $$ is different!

Before and a still before but not quite as before as before....make sense?! LOL! Aaahh my world...it's a happy place! LOL! Anyway...


The final cover


A couple of the inner pages using a variety of scraps I had, literally, lying around! Don't forget, if you really want to, click on the pictures to enlarge them!





Photo album - $3
Photo printing - $1.50
Weekend of fun and memories - priceless!

Now, to make one for my brother too!

Until next time....

Forever.....

Forever is a long time isn't it?! That word seemed perfect for my project I was working on! This past Friday when I participated in a "Virtual Scrapbook Night" the guidelines were "black & white" for referee's and other football type of things! If you weren't into football (umm, that would be me!) then anything black & white would work! Soon as they said those colors I remembered I had a picture I had copied of my parents cutting their wedding cake. It was going to go into "my" scrapbook eventually so, why not now! Anyway, here is my interpretation of their Black & White theme;



Edited 02/12/08 - Picture was removed for publication! YEP! It's going to be in an "On-Line" magazine! YEAH!!!

The solid color paper is SU, don't remember where I got the black and creme DP, the ribbons are from Michael's and from a scrapbook store, the flowers are from the wedding flower tins at Michael's and the bling is from Michael's $1 vortex/spot! I also got the vellum words at Michael's! I used the SU stamp set "Baroque Motifs" for the bottom and the punch is an old Fiskars punch I have had for while! I never really used it until I saw someone demonstrate a neat idea with the new SU scallop punch not too long ago! I thought why not use it in this layout! I like it!

Well I hope you like it!

Until next time.......

She's So Tiny..

Yep! She was! My third child was almost 1/2 the size of my first two kids! She weighed in at 5.02 lbs where my other two weighed in at 8.07 lbs and 8.09 lbs! I had this picture in my photo box and had this paper in my scrapbooking area and when I thought about it - they were a perfect match! LOL! Her little foot looks just like the foot print on the vellum paper! I have no clue where the papers are from since I've had them in my possession for quite a while now! LOL!

She's about 3 weeks old in this picture and my DH had her in her chair watching him make fudge for a school project! We have slides of pictures of her watching him - wide awake for the most part too! Can you believe he gave her her first taste of chocolate then too! LOL! Not much has changed since then either!



I hope you like it!

Until next time.....

Getting "Scrappy" Today!

I've been "scrappy" today, yesterday and the day before! LOL! I got to finish up some more layouts - yeah me! One just "happened" after a trip to a local scrapbook store! I found the PERFECT paper for a picture of my youngest daughter on her first day of kindergarten! She just "had to" give the teacher an apple, her dress had apples on it so the theme had to have apples! Well take a look at the layout below and tell me - was it not the perfect paper?!!




The background paper, if you're interested, came with a sticker on the back saying it's from Provo and is called Grade School Foil, Learning Tree. The rest of the paper was scraps. The stamps are SU Tart & Tangy and Jumbo Outline letters.




Here's my son on his 9th birthday! He was so excited to have all those gifts and the big one, believe it or not was that hat! LOL! It was called a "Lost Kid Hat" when we got it and it was the "hot item" at the time! LOL! Doesn't he look happy! The layout was part of a challenge over on SCS! The bright yellow paper is SU as are the other solid color scraps again! The balloon paper (the patterned paper) is an old sheet from somewhere! LOL! The stamps are part of an SU set called "Birthday Whimsy" and "Big Birthday Candle" and the number came from my new toys, I mean set from JustRite stamps! You'll be seeing more of these! LOL! Of course, the punches are from SU too!

Well thanks for looking,

Until next time........

My Fat Ribbon Entry..

Over on "Stampin When I Can", Allison is having a "Fat Ribbon Contest" of sorts! I usually can't think of something or just don't have time to play but, I got to this time! We had to use a "fat ribbon" - hence the name! LOL! Here is my entry;



I used a couple of neat things in this layout, cute kids picture (he he he!) and I had to try some of the flowers I had just laying around (okay really they were neatly bottled up but begging to be used!), buttons, rhinestones (blue flower centers) but can you see those little tiny circle mirrors, the ones in the middle of the bigger flowers?! Cool huh?! Got those from Starbucks! Yep! Sure did! Timing was perfect last year and I went to one just as they were taking down their holiday decorations - I acquired as many as I could! LOL! I got lots of these mirrors off one of the wreaths to use in my projects! Okay, now back to the layout! Mandy had challenged us, last week, to use rub-ons in our cards well, I took it one step further and chose to use one on here! The scroll design at the bottom is a rub on from SU but, I only had one! So, what do I do? I take my white gel pen and copy it up top! Can you tell?! The really pretty fat ribbon was tied around a gift from a friend of mine - Chantal! I sure do miss her something fierce! She was the sweetest person to hang around, we had SO much in common! I hope she reads this so she knows how much I miss her and she calls me, writes me, something........ She was busy moving at EXACTLY the same time as us too! How weird is that for having stuff in common?!!

So anyway I hope you, and Allison, like my entry!

Until next time......

Getting Scrappy Now!

Here are a few of my scrapbook pages! I hope you like them!

Until next time.....