A Day Off From Creating...

Today I chose to go back to bed after Allie left for school. A dear friend whom I haven't spoken to in at least a month called and we talked until at least 1:00pm. (She called at 9:00am :)!) We plan aday together for this Friday. We are both off of work, and she has a lot going on and just needs someone to help her taker her mind off of things. Not sure what we will do. Dean is off as well and I know he won't say anything or be angry if I take the time to spend with her. Kelly over at My Bucket Overflowth has once again created works of art that have inspired me to make a card for my dear friend. I think that will be my project tomorrow when Allie leaves. I still need to go to the grocery store tomorrow, but I just haven't even wanted to create a grocery list. I hate making the same things over and over again. I get bored and won't even eat what I make because I am tired of the same thing every week. Dean is very picky so getting him to try something new is near impossible. Yesterday I played around with adding a playlist to my blog spot here. I added aobut 80 some songs and all are from different types of music and different eras. I am one of those people that do not care if the song is from the 80's, 20's, 50's, or the currents. If the song speaks to me and invokes a specific feeling for me, then I will download it. I have songs on there from Elvis and then from Paramore. Those two are at total opposites of the spectrum, but they invoke feelings in me and inspire. I would probably consider this a playlist for scrapbooking. So ideas are going through my head at a very rapid pace right now. Things are going to look pretty good in the future for us, and what is happening will allow us our family vacation/honeymoon (13 years later). We have a goal to take Allie to Disney World, Sea World, and the beach for her 9th birthday. The goal was looking pretty far out of reach until about 4 or 5 days ago. We received some good news that should allow us to set money aside for the much needed vacation. So with that in mind I am trying to look ahead to March of 2010, and planning her birthday celebration. I am hoping that Dinner with Shamu will be open for that week and we can celebrate her birthday then. She loves Orcas, and is really wanting to see one up close, and Dinner with Shamu will be perfect for her. We are hoping my parents will go with us and make it a family thing. We are planning on flying I think, as a few days travel time both ways in a car with my daughter would drive everyone nuts. So with hope in our hearts and hopefully money in our savings account we will be spending the first week of March 2010 in Florida. I am also seeing if Dean will allow me one small expense for myself and allow me to purchase a cutter that will do 12x12. I love the look of die cut paper, but hate paying the price for it. I want to be able to cut a 12x12 piece of cardstock or patterened paper and use it for a bkgd etc. And perhaps he will let me get some new supplies. I am hoping that we can get him a new/used car with the money as well. We have two vehicles that we will use for a trade in towards the new one, so we shouldn't have to do any financing. He wants nothing fancy just a nice car to drive. Probably wants air too. :) So looking towards the future it seems a bit brighter for us. I don't think he expected me to demand the vacation but I can't take one more vacation and not go anywhere. We neverhad a honeymoon 13 years ago and we have never gone anywhere other then Michigan for a baseball game with my parents, so I think that as a family we deserve to splurge a little and have a real vacation. So cross your fingers that all goes as planned and that March will be a bright spot in our lives. I am also planning a return to the Berlin Scrapbooking retreat in March as well. I enjoyed myself, though I didn't accomplish what I had planned, but it was nice to just spend time with my friends and not have to cook, clean, or take care of my daughter or grandaughter for a few days. No one screaming MOM!! It was blissful!! So I am going to sign off of here, and I will post a picture of the pick me up card that I want to get done tomorrow. Have a fabulous day and I will post more later.

Mother's Day Cards

I spent the morning creating these two cards for my Mom and my Mother-in-Law. They were easy to do and fun to create. I used Bazzil Basics Cardstock for the base then added a layer of Pistachio/Almond PP from the Two Scoops Collection by Basic Grey. Another layer of Bazzill Cardstock was added on one and then on the other a second layer of Pistachio/Almond was added. The butterfly stamp was from the Basic Grey Flutter Collection and was stamped with Black Soot Distress Ink from Ranger Industries and then embossed with fine black embossing powder. The insides were colored using Staedtler Water Color Pencils. The "Happy Mother's Day" stamp is from the Springtime Swilr Collection by See D's. The flowers are from 7 Gypsies Velvet Pink Posey collection with the center brad from the Making Memories Shimmer Brad Collection. The edges were inked using the Bazzinks by Bazzill Basics. The Sterling Glitter is from the Martha Stewart Gemstone Collection.

Ok today I received my package from LifeTime Moments, and it is fabulous. I ordered......

Flutter Bitsy Stamps by Basic Grey

Gazebo from the Wisteria Collection by Basic Grey

Dried Marigiold Crackle Paint by Ranger

Love Skulls Stamp Set

Dou Stamp Set

Blom Stamp Set

Tussie Stamp Set by Prima

7 Gypsies Velvet Flowers

Essential Flowers from Prima.

The stamps come with mini pads and mini journal blocks to use the stamps on. I am going to work on Mother's Day Cards tomorrow. I need to get those done and in the mail ASAP. I will post pictures tomorrow. I am off to get Allie off the van and start dinner before I head into work for a long 6 hour shift, then I am off tomorrow and then I work and then off two days again. Yea. Have a good one!

No I Did Not Scrap!

Well yesterday was such a beautiful day. The first we have seen since August or October. I spent the day herb gardening. I went and bought a few new herb plants and some strawberry plants and planted those as well as mulching the herb garden and then setting up the water fountain. Today I have the grandbaby so I doubt if I will scrap at all. I will probalby wait until Monday and scrap when Allie is in school. I have a lot of things to scrap, and I am eager to work on some Mother's Day cards as well. I have an order of stamps and flowers comng from Lifetime Moments. I won a GC from there from Winterscrapfest, and I bought some stamps, flowers, and a sheet of the new Wisteria Paper from Basic Grey. I think that will be lovely for cards if I decide to use it for that. NSD is next Saturday, and I requested it off, but I have a feeling I am goign to have to work it, since my request was in a few days later then what it should be. I will see if I can get someone to switch a day with me. I was wanting to go with Amy and Della to scrapbook with Donna and the ladies from the weekend crop. If I can't I can't but I hope someone will switch with me. I have so much to do scrap wise that I would love an all day cropto do it in. Well I am off of here. Just popped on while waiting for WoW to upgrade and then I am back to fighting monsters. Have a great and wonderful day!

I am scrapping today!

Ok ladies. I have one errand to run at 9:00am and then I am coming home to my scrapbook room. I want to finish my sitting pretty layout of chloe. I will post a picture when I am done. I would also like to get started on a few more layouts if not get them done as well. I won a gift card for Lifetime Moments in their winter scrapfest and I purchased a bunch of new stamps and flowers. Kelley over at My Bucket Overflowth has got me wanting to stamp more. I need to get on those Mother's Day cards as well. That may be my project for today after I get done with chloe's layout. I will have to wait and see. The weather is supposed to be near 80 today so I am going to open the windows and doors, air out the house, crank up my music and go to town scrapping! I should be starting that no later then 10:00 as the pet store opens at 9:00 and I have to run in just for Crickets for my daughters fire bellied toads, and some shells for her hermit crabs that she got for her birthday. May even surprise her with a new one, if one of them catches my eye and screams Allie at me. LOL! So I am getting off of here, and I will post everything when I get it done. Have a blessed day!!

Wish me luck!

Ok I am forcing myself tomorrow to get out to my scraproom and create. I have been lax in my DT duties for Chris Durnan and am in desperate need of some screative juices to flow, but I will force myself to get something done. I have some photos from my scrapbooking weekend that I really want to create a page for. I am hoping to use some of Chris's pretty ribbon files to create something for that page.

My Vow!

Tomorrow come Hades or High Water I will get out to the scraproom and start creating. I just received my Scrapbook Etc newsletter, and I am eager to try some of the cool die cutting ideas. There were some really interesting ideas. I have never thought about using two different colors to create a title. There was a layout in the ideas using white with the primary word in bright red. It really made the title stand out. I am always looking for new ideas to make my layouts stand out. I am one who is not afraid to try new things. I stepped out of my zone and did the watercolor pencils, and my next thing is the Copic Markers. I heard they are fabulous to work with, and the outcome of your labors is exsquisite. I am waiting for Lifetime Moments to get them in, and I will probalby place an order. I would also like to get more into stamping. I have some stamps, but nothing that works well like the ones I am seeing on all the stamp sites. I would love to invest in a nice set that I can use for cards and layouts and gift tags. I have started tossing around ideas for this weeks Twilight Tuesday Challenge. It is based on the character Jasper and he is fast becoming my favorite. I was working on journaling ideas yesterday for this challenge. Now I am heading out to my scraproom to see if I can get at least one layout for my wedding album started. Have a good one!

Waiting Patiently for Pictures!

I placed an order last Thursday for pictures on DotPhoto.com . They shipped on Monday so I am hoping they arrive soon. I would love to get scrapping again. I would like to do some layouts for the Design Team at Visual Designs by Chris. I really do need to get out there and work on my Wedding Album. It should be something easy to do, yet I have no inspiration. I think because I love to throw whatever onto my pages, I won't do that with the wedding pics. I want them to stand out, not the layouts temselves. I have Chloe the next couple of days, so I will be up at 7:00 and stay yo, so I should be able to get out there and scrap. I will be dragging butt at work in the evening, but I should get some scrapping done if the pictures do show up.

Tag Swap!

If you are looking for some tags for all occasions head on over to Visual Designs By Chris's Forum. We are having a tag swap over there. There are a lot of great catagories, and more will be added if there is enough interest in that catagory. Hope to see everyone over there.

Another Day

Well I was hoping to get more done on my little mini album that I am creating for Twilight Tuesday Challenges, but my DSD was over here all day and I was helping her look through online sites for a dress to wear to my DSS wedding the end of May. I did get the paper adhered and trimmed to fit the album. Now I get to create. I want to distress the edges or something of the album. Not sure how well that will work as it is acrylic. Not sure the stamp inks I have will stay put or smear off. I was hoping to get this worked on today, but I got up and caught up on Harper's Island that we DVR'd last night. Then I decided to call a friend to vent about something and then I worked on fried chicken for dinner. So my plans to work on my challenge album fell through. I am really aiming for Monday now. I think I am off and Dean works so Allie and I can head out to the scraproom and get creative. Well gotta go I think I am heading to the clothing store to look for shoes for allie. Have a good one.

Twilight Tuesday Challenges

I decided to join up. I know it is way to late in the challenges, but I think it is a good idea and will give me a creative outlet when I have nothing to scrap. So I started my 6x6 acrylic album that was sitting here. I bought it because I wanted to use it, but I was never sure what to do with it, so I am going to create a little Twilight album with some of the challenges in there. The first challenge I think I am doing is the What Team Are You challenge? Jacob, Edward, or Switzerland. I am also going to do my favorite quote challenge, and a few others. I think it will be fun, and it will give me a creative outlet for my Twilight obscession. :). So I got the paper attached to the pages, now it is just time to start creating. I will probably start that tomorrow. I will post it when I get the first challenge I want to do done.

My Day To Create!

My parents are coming up today to fit Allie and I for our wedding dresses. After they are done Allie is leaving with them to spend the night at their house. I am going to run to the grocery store and then I am going to create!! I decided to joing the Twilight Tuesday blog where every Tuesday they give you a prompt to create using something Twilight related. This will be my creative outlet until I can get some mojo going for the wedding album I am working on. There is also another project where you photograph things that you are doing or things that you see in your daily life in one day. Then you do a scrapbook layout with those photos for that day. I am thinking about jumping in and giving it a go. This sound like fun as well. So today I am going to start off today with the Twilight Tuesday Challenge. I will post my finished project when I get it done. Until then have a good day and happy creating!

I am in need of some creative sparks!

I would love to get out to my scraproom and scrap this coming week. Unfortunately I just have no creative drive right now. I like to work on swaps as a way to have a creative idea and outlet, but I am all done with the swap that I am in. I was just browsing the Twilight Swap at Scrapbook.com and wished now that I had not dropped out of it. I was so busy at the time when I signed up I didn't think I could do my creative best, so I dropped that and another swap. Now I wish I hadn't. The cards that the ladies are creating for the ATC are just fabulous! Oh well. Serves me right to panic and think that I couldn't do my best for these. How could I not. I love Twilight. Can't imagine not doing my best. I still need to work on my wedding album. I can do the single photo layouts, but those multi phot layouts are stumping me. I think I am in a multi photo layout rut. :( I used to be ale to only do multi photo two page layouts, but I have seen doing so many single page layouts that am finding it hard to switch back to the mulit photos. I did mange to do the singel page mulit photo layout in the previous post with no problem. The sketch was awesome and it really helped me to get creative.
I have volunteered to hostess swaps at Chris Durnan's Creative Forum. See the link to the right. I am hoping that people will post some swap ideas, and I will organize them and hostess them. This takes the pressure off of someone who is unsure of how to hostess, but wants to swap. I am heading over there now to post some ideas. Hopefully we will get some takers. Well I am off of here for now. Hopefully I can get some scrapping done this week to post on here. have a good rest of the weekend!

In Bloom

This layout was done using the April Sketch Challenge at Visual Designs By Chris Forum. Link is to the left. Becky Higgins is the sketch designer, and Chris Durnan designed the files for the Graft Robo etc. I used the owl file from the challenge. The owl was cut using the QK Silhouette then it was "Feathered" using the flocking from Doodlebug. The cardstock is Bazzil Basics and I believe the Patterend Paper is from DCWV. The flower is from a collection by Prima. If you want a challenge and need some inspiration head on over to the forum. Rosalie is hostessing this challenge!

Our Love

This is the layout that I was waiting for the ok to post. I used the Our Love File from Chris Durnan and it fit perfectly with this layout. Not too elegant, yet just right for this photo. The paper is from the Elegant Paper stack by DCWV.

Blog candy

Wow if you get a chance you need to head on over to Kelly's blog and check out her Blog Candy. She is giving away a wonderful prize package for her 5000th visitor to her blog. I love to read her blog. I am an avid follower and read it every time she posts something new, and her cards are just amazing. Please stop by her blog and give her some love!!

http://mybucketoverfloweth.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-candy-for-celebrating-5000-hits.html