{an awesome giveaway}

have you seen Donna Downey's blog today?? Besides a great sale in her store; there is a giveaway going until 10pm EST tonight. The Quikutz Epic6!!!! Now wouldn't this be a great addition to my new scraproom???

No shopping for me today (well maybe a little internet shopping later tonight), just stayed home and finished up my DT projects. Loved, loved, loved the South Pole kit over at Coordinates Collections. I cranked out 2 more layouts & 2 cards this morning!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well I have my cooking done for the day. We'll be eating with my family so I only had to prepare an appetizer and a side dish. Trying a new appetizer...hot bacon blue cheese dip and the old stand by side dish of glazed carrots. We are leaving shortly for a day of visiting with family.

As promised here are two peeks from the December South Pole kit over at Coordinates Collections.






On this layout I added in a few of the chipboard letters from last months kit...I inked them a nice dark brown. I also highly recommend the Crate Paper-Season chipboard shapes that are available as an addon this month...I've used them on both layouts so far!

Well that's all for now...to everyone celebrating Thanksgiving enjoy your day and don't eat too much turkey!

Wow...

...still no pictures for you. The weekend just flew right by and I hardly spent anytime at home. None of which was during daylight hours when I could take some pictures to share with you.

On Saturday Fritz's team lost their game, but Becca's won their game. On Sunday the boys tied. This actually dropped them from 1st place in their division to 3rd or 4th (we'll have to wait on the outcome of a few makeup games to be played by other teams) Becca ended up having an assist on a goal and even though they still have to makeup a game they are the winners of their division!! I'm sure in the spring they will be seeded in a much tougher division.

The last 2 nights I've been playing around with my South Pole kit from Coordinates Collections. I've gotten one layout done and have ideas for 3 more layouts and a card or 2. Just hoping I can get it all accomplished by Saturdays due date.

Stay tuned for some sneak peeks in the near future.

So I've been slacking again...

...sorry :(!

Anyway...not much going on creatively. I have done a few pages in the mini album mentioned in the previous post. Maybe tomorrow in the daylight I'll get a few pictures so I can share.

Yesterday this arrived in the mail....


This is the "South Pole" kit being offered in December over at Coordinates Collections. The other kit is called "North Pole" and is a great Christmas kit(It may end up at my house soon too!) I'm hoping to get started with it on Sunday.

Guess what else arrived today???? The chair for my scrappy room. It is a bit bigger than I imagined, but it is comfy.

Tomorrow I have 2 soccer games & then 1 on Sunday. After this weekend soccer is officially over for Fritz(until March). Becca still has a makeup game to play...I think it will be played the weekend after Thanksgiving. Then, just then, I may have a little extra time to create and share.

TGIF and enjoy your weekend.

Starting a new project

in the middle of my moving project.

Remember last winter when I raved about those Fancy Pants mixed media books??? Well I stocked up on a few and had a chance to use a piece of one in a kit over at CC in July. Do you remember the wall art I made? (It will soon be hanging in the new room :wink:) Otherwise these books have just been sitting in a basket waiting to be used.

Today was the day...



I finally broke out one to create a mini-album as a Christmas gift. This will be a summer/vacation themed album. I'll be using the remnants of the "Oceanside" kit from last June I believe. (It had some Cosmo Snorkle & Fancy Pants Summer Soiree as the main elements) I also have the Summer Soiree Notebook Journal and some other fun stuffed pulled out to use...you can see a red Jillibean "Sprout" already. I'll keep you updated with the progress, but I would like to have it done by the end of the month so I can get it mailed off in time for the holiday.

Otherwise it has been a pretty productive day. Got out this morning before the weather turned nasty and got a start on my Christmas shopping. :smile: Stopped and picked up a blind at Home Depot for the window in my room. Started sorting/organizing again which when I ran across some summer/beach themed embellishments, made me decide to stop and get to work on this gift I had planned to make.

Today is Veterans Day here in the USA I want to just take a moment to say "Thank You" to all who have served and those who are presently serving our Country. I am very grateful for your service.

{oops!}

Well you know I've been moving,sorting, and reorganizing my stuff this weekend...I found a picture a friend gave to me to scrap still in the envelope. Now just a little background...when her daughter was a senior she asked me to do a book of school pictures for her kids. I finished said book with the exception of her son's Senior Year portrait and "First Day of 12th Grade" picture. Shortly after she got his Senior Portrait, she gave me one to scrap. I waited almost 2 years for his "First Day" picture. When she gave it to me in June, she said "I know it's late and I know your busy...whenever you get a chance " Well I put it aside and it got buried in the chaos of my life until last night.

So today after soccer (which we won :)) I scrapped instead of moving, sorting, & organizing.



Won't she be surprised when I give it to her this week.
I was sort of inspired by my last layout with the progression of pictures across the page, but since I had just one I made copies of it in a slightly smaller size...leading up to the big picture. This idea sort of came from a recent layout done by a fellow DT member over at CC, Kimberly Madrid. She used a series of wallet pics across a page with a few embellies it was totally awesome. You can see it here.

Speaking of the upcoming week...I have to go back to work. Ugh! Thankfully Wednesday is Veterans Day (ie a Holiday for me...kids still will be in school).

Have a great week.

TRYING to get ORGANIZED

I'm slowly getting there. As I'm moving stuff into the new room I'm trying to think about how I scrap. What should go where? What are my go to items? Should it be in the desk drawers or can it be else where in the room? I have 3 drawers down each side of my work unit. I had already decided that the right side would be devoted to holding supplies...pens, paints, pencils, brushes, glitter, punches, etc. Moved all that stuff in almost right away. Today I spent contemplating some of my embellishments.

I got this really cool container the other day and proceeded to fill it almost completely.



I love all the little compartments and the fact that it is clear. (Now when I'm working on a project I can just pull this out and see exactly what I have) I filled it with brads, photo corners, and photo turns. I got rid of so much packaging!!!

So the top drawer on the left side has my inks in it.

Then here is a look at the middle drawer.



And then this is the bottom drawer on the left hand side.



I figured most of this stuff gets used quite a bit in my scrapping and it fit nicely into small bins/ wire baskets which line the drawers.

Slowly I'm getting there!

My chair will be delivered on November 20th and then I can finalize the placement of the shelves to hold my papers.

I have some more organizing and sorting of embellishments tomorrow afternoon once we return home from soccer.

Mission Accomplished

All that was planned for today got done...WooHoo!

Becca woke up today feeling much better and no fever (kept her home just to be safe), started a beef stew in the crockpot, headed out on my shopping mission (by myself I might add...Dan stayed home with B), came home put away everything that was purchased (new kitchen glasses(we were down to just 3 from the original set plus a bunch of mismatched oddities), a pair of new shoes, a new shirt & sweater, some socks, and a bunch of storage items from the Container Store), voted, and then came home and got pictures of my projects from yesterday.

So here they are...



The Scrapbook Cafe provided me with some papers from the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses line and everything else you see here on the layout except for the cardstock, letter stickers/foam Thickers & the chipboard heart. On my 4x6 picture I used an Ali Edwards digital stamp.

When I have time (which is very rare anymore) I like to take my time and wrap my presents creatively. Here's a look at what I came up with using some more of the BG papers.



I just wrapped my boxes in plain brown mailing paper and then cut a strip of paper to make a band around the box. On top of each band I placed a paper flower. The big flower I recently saw directions for on the internet. (Basically it is a large scalloped circle wrapped around a large button or brad and then pleated to make the petals) I then glittered the middle of the flower. the flower on the small box is layered diecut flowers in 3 different sizes and the centered is a fringed piece of paper that you rollup, glue, then un furl the edges.

So that's it...my creativity from yesterday and a very productive day today.

{a new phone}

Well the phone fairy must have heard my wishes about getting a new phone because today while I was holed up in my room "creating"...3 Verizon bags appeared on my kitchen table.



Our contracts were up and we got new phones!!!! I am now the owner of a Blackberry Storm2...now I need to figure out how to use it. Good thing I'm on vacation and maybe able to take a few minutes and read the instructions.

So yes I did do a little scrapping today. I made 2 projects with some of the Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper (and some other goodies supplied to me by the Scrapbook Cafe). Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some pictures and then I can share with you.

Speaking of tomorrow, Dan & I had planned to go out on a little shopping adventure. I was hoping to get back to the Container Store, Crate&Barrel and a few others that hold absolutely no interest to my children. Plans have changed...I was picking Becca up from school today since she has Dance right afterwards. One look at her and I could tell something was wrong. Out in the car she announced she didn't feel well. Achy & an upset stomach. I took her temp when we got home...101.8. She's now Motrin'ed up and resting in bed. Dan told me he'd stay home with her so I could go out...hope all is well in the morning and I can get a little retail therapy in. It has been ages since I was out shopping by myself.

{poor neglected blog}

Yep, I've been neglecting the blogging world lately. So many blogs that I have to catch up...sorry blogging world. As you all know life is just crazy busy sometimes and my blogging time has suffered. To catch you all up my life is just full of running kids here, there and everywhere. You want your kids to be active and social, but at times I feel like I've gotten a full-time job as chauffeur. Thank goodness for car pooling...it has truly saved me some nights. Now if I just got a phone with internet abilities...maybe I could blog while waiting to pickup kids after practices :wink:

So it is the first of the month (November...can you believe it?) and I just finished posting projects over at Coordinates Collections as well as updating some contest info on the message board.

I told you I picked up a couple bottles of Maya Mists this month and was having fun playing with them. Here are a couple of projects using the Pumpkin Pie kit and some Mists.




Really most of this card came from supplies in my stash. The idea I had when I started this card looks nothing like the finished card. Originally I was going to spray the Maya Mist as a background...using some HS acrylic butterflies as a mask for my background, then piece together a flower out of pattern paper in the kit. Well I sprayed the mist and then put it aside to dry while I worked on some other projects. When I came back to this card I had just finished using a Prima felt stem on another project and still had the peel-off backing lying on my desk. Ah Ha...that white backing looks stunning... I wish I had used it as a mask! Well I did the next best thing...I glued the backing right onto the card. With the addition of some Pink Paislee letter stickers from my stash I created a simple elegant card...all the while recycling too!

Now here's the layout I gave you a sneak of in last post:



To start I laid out some fern leaves on my cardstock and sprayed with pink Maya Mist. Layering the pink over the orangey cardstock just intensified the color and when I removed the leaves I had a nice subtle background image. Everything on this layout was included with the kit except for the small Jenni Bowlin stickers"Gettysburg" and the Jillibean Soup Journaling spot(which I inked to tone it down so it would blend into the layout). The Maya Road chipboard letters which were included with the kit were sprayed with the blue metallic Maya Mist.

Well that's all I have for now. I'm on vacation this week, no trips involved. Just staying at home...maybe doing a little shopping, working on moving more stuff into the new scrapbook room, have a layout to do for the Scrapbook Cafe(hope to do that tomorrow), maybe just enjoying being creative in my new room and quite possibly finding sometime to blog.