There are Places I'll Remember...

The new song at Scrapping The Music is "In My Life" by the Beatles. It's such a beautiful song. The lyrics made me think of my childhood home:

The journaling reads: 3940 Unity. My childhood home. I lived from 4 years old until 7th grade, when the city decided to widen the highway and bought up all the houses on our block to make room for it. I have some great memories from growing up there and I dreamed I was back there for years after we left.

I used the Night Owl collection from SiStv, which I LOVE cuz there's lots of ORANGE in it, which is my favorite color! The mailbox numbers, the rainbow pin and little keys are all thrift store finds, and I also added the smiley face button from my own stash.

I am a little bleary-eyed tonight cuz I stayed up til 8:30 am (yep you read that right) working on my final Project Catwalk Project. It felt good to get it done though. Now I am finishing up my tutorials for the three projects. I don't know what will come of this contest, but I do know that it has really stretched me as an artist and I have learned so much from the whole process I can't even begin to describe it. I will be forever grateful for that.

See you all tomorrow! I wish you a good night's sleep and peaceful happiness on this last evening of November my friends!

Having Scrappy Fun This Weekend...

It's driving me crazy making all this stuff and not being able to share with you! I've got two of my three Project Catwalk projects done and I'm starting to gather inspiration for my third. I'm having so much fun with it - I can't wait to show you! I also finished a layout for Scrapping the Music. That one will go live on the STM blog tomorrow, so stay tuned! In the meantime, here's a couple of cards I made with the November Crop Suey kit "Strawberry Cream Gelato". I posted them on the Crop Suey blog on Tuesday, but in case you missed that I wanted to post them here too:Everything for this one is from the November kit, except for the newsprint flower, which is from The September Crop Suey kit. These kits last a good long time!

For the gnome card (don't you just love that little gnome stamp? He came with the kit!) I stamped the gnome thru a hole I punched in the front of the card. That way when you open the card you see this:
I love the double-sided paper in this kit - it's perfect for cards cuz you can show both sides! Everything for this card came from the kit except the pink rik-rak. The stencil in the upper left corner is from the prima flower packaging.

These cards, plus the bunny card I showed you earlier, are going to be given away as part of a holiday RAK at Scrapping The Music in December, so if you like them, stay tuned to the STM blog!

I will be back tomorrow with my new Scrapping The Music layout - until then - have a beautiful day!

So Thankful

Three years ago I was living life as a single woman in the city. I was fine, don't get me wrong. I loved having my own condo and living the urban life with my two cats. I didn't feel I needed anything else. But then, one late night in 2006 I did something that would change my life forever. I tried e-harmony... I met the most wonderful, funny, quirky, loving, crazy man! Fell madly in love, got married and inherited three awesome kids! Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve this much laughter and happiness in my life. So thankful to be able to say this is my family. This is a pic we took yesterday. That's our kids Tony, Steve, Becca, Becca's boyfriend Chad, Me (duh) and my handsome blue-eyed papermaker Michael. How great is that?

It's Tuesday Again and You Know What That Means...

Hey everybody I'm blogging over at Crop Suey today! I would love it if you come over and say hello!

Fabulous Slideshows and Brotherly Love...

Are they not the best pals or what? They make me smile!

I will talk to you tomorrow - I hope your Sunday is fabulous!

Reorganization Dreams Continue...

My stamps are out of control. I have too many. I used to be a Stampin Up Demonstrator and I collected a lot in those days, but I forget what I have, so I don't use them, and alot of them I have are no longer my style. Here's what they look like right now:

Even little Wilbie is amazed by the state of disarray they are in! So, here's my new idea - I found this at the Ikea website. Isn't it lovely??? I could just see decorating this up in pink and orange - maybe a little lime green thrown in. Perhaps some sort of groovy retro design on the drawer fronts...

I think as part of my reorganization project I need to purge my stamps down to the bare minimum. Only keep the ones I really love. And then buy one of the lovely cabinets pictured above and put it at the end of my scrappy desk - here (instead of the wobbly wood thing with the scarf tied around it): Then I can take the stamps out of those plastic containers and fill the drawers with them. How handy and lovely would that be???

It's good to have dreams...

Happy Mail and Organizing...

It was a fabulous happy mail day today! My swap yo yo's came and they are just a little pile of sunshine! Aren't they gorgeous? I haven't used yo yo's on layouts yet, so this will be a fun new adventure!

Next, Fedex brought my new Non-Conformist collection from SiSTV! It is YUMMYYYY!!! So chock full of goodness! My favorite part is the carnival fan! Oh, and the red houndstooth gaffer tape! Oh, and also the imported sequiney flower thing. Oh heck - I LOVE IT ALL!!! Can't wait to create with it!

Okay, so on to other news: The organizing has begun in my scraproom! I started with the desk area. I forgot to take a picture of what it looked like before, but I must say the setup wasn't working very well. Now it's absolutely grand! I'm so happy with it - it seems like there is more room, and I finally have a good spot for my paper cutter:
Ahhhh, that feels better already! One step at a time...

New Projects and Thinking about New Year's...

Can I just say that the November Crop Suey kits ROCK!?! I had so much fun Monday night creating stuff with Bree's Strawberry Cream Gelato kit! I even entered the Dreamgirls challenge! I've looked at their challenges before - they've got an awesome design team and some really fun ideas; but this is the first time I've played along. The challenge is to make a layout about something you are thankful for, and you had to use masking and metal. Here's what I came up with:

Everything I used is from the Crop Suey kit, except for the green number 4. I did the masking with oil crayons, and the metal is a brad that's in the red flower under the 4.

I also made a notecard with the November kit!

So, it's that time of the year again. The time when my thoughts start turning to fresh starts. Have I mentioned that New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday? I love it because it always gives me a chance to honor the year that is coming to a close, as well as think about what I want for the future. A time for re-organizing, re-evaluating and re-prioritizing. I love that. This year has me thinking about a couple of different things that relate to scrapbooking and my art. The first is that I need to purge and reorganize my scraproom. Now, all in all, I love my scrappy studio, but I must admit, there are a lot of little piles and cubbys crammed to the point that I don't know what's where anymore, and that's not a good thing. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about:
Piles of boxes of incoming and outgoing mail.
These plastic drawers don't open and shut very well, so I never go in them. I wonder what's all in there.
Layouts end up stacked on shelves like this when I am done with them, cuz my 2008 album is full and I haven't gotten a new one yet.
and bags of purchases get shoved into a cubby because I don't have a place to put them.

All this just makes me realize I need to tweak my system. Time to purge, sort and reorganize. In the coming months I plan to make it an ongoing task and I will share my progress with you - just in case it's helpful to anyone else who might be in the same boat!

That will be, of course, after I finish the next Project Catwalk challenge, which was just announced today - it's gonna be fun and exciting, and I think its safe to say I'm going to be busy for the next two weeks!

That's it for today friends! I wish you inspiration galore and the confidence to follow your dreams!

Two New Projects Over at Crop Suey...

I'm blogging over at Crop Suey today! Come on over and say hi! Pretty pleeeeeeeeease.....

The Crop Was A Success!

It worked! My new idea for crops worked like a charm!!! Yeay!!! By pre-planning my designs and projects, I was able to get three and a half projects done - I think that might be a record for a one-day crop!

First of all - I was so excited to finally get a Zutter Bind-it-all Machine! I have been wanting one of those for ages, and my AWESOME hubby Michael bought me one because he was proud of me for being in the top five of Project Catwalk! How SWEET IS HE? Anyway, my first project was to figure out how to use it, and bind my homemade planner. I had originally bound it with three rings, but I decided that might be a little unwieldy to use that way on a daily basis. I'm really happy with how it turned out:
then, I made up our family Christmas photo cards on the Sony picture maker and got them all printed out (I'm not posting a pic cuz I don't want to spoil the surprise for my family);

then I produced the rest of my 70's ATCs for the decades swap,

and finally I got about halfway done producing my 80's ATCs for the decades swap. (I had designed these earlier, but didn't get to post them until now).

It felt fabulous to get so much done, and great as always to see my friend Christina!

Now my plan is to spend a little time each week designing projects to assemble at my crops. I think I will dedicate a bucket in my scraproom to collecting the "kits" I make up. Then, when it comes time for the crop - I can just grab the bucket, add a few things like glue and scissors and go!

So, do you go to crops? How do you prepare? I'd love to hear!

Trying Out My New Crop Idea...

I LOVE THE WEEKEND! YEAYYYY - Happy Saturday everyone! Today is my monthly crop day with my girlfriends again and I'm really looking forward to it! Last month I learned that trying to design WHILE chatting with my friends is a task I'm not very good at! So this time I am trying out my new idea - do your designing ahead of time so you can just do mindless assembly work at the crop. I discovered a side benefit of doing it this way - LESS STUFF TO HAUL! Okay, I am one of those people that owns the HUGEST imaginable wheeled rolling thingy and brings it to crops filled to the brim with everything I can possibly fit in there, PLUS, a couple of other totes piled on top of it. My arm and shoulder usually suffer terribly after a crop from hauling it all! LOL! Well, because of my planning, this is all I'm bringing tomorrow:
I can hardly believe it myself! That is the smallest amount of stuff I've ever brought to a crop, and I have 4 projects planned! I have two ATC swaps to assemble, Digital christmas cards to make, and my homemade planner to bind. Everything I need actually fits in this one small tote! Kinda makes me wonder what I'm forgetting! I will let you know how this new system works when I get back...

Tonight there is a fun pajama party planned at SiSTV! It starts at 8pm and they are going to have all kinds of fun things going on! I will be there after I get back from my crop - probably not til about midnite, but hey - it's a pajama party so it will go into the wee hours of the morning! I hope to see you there!

I will leave you with a picture of the look I got the last time I tried singing in the scraproom late at night:
Umm - yeah. I couldn't decide if he was mesmerized or irritated. LOL.

I wish you tons of inspiration for your weekend, and I will check in with you tomorrow! Take care!

Happy Happy News and Projects to Share...

Today was a very exciting day for me! The top five collections were chosen for Project Catwalk and ... my name was on the list! I cannot begin to describe to you how exciting it was to see my name there! I don't even know what to say, except for that I am very honored and very grateful!!! The final challenge will be posted soon and I am so excited to be able to continue this journey for one more week! I can't even imagine what is coming next!

Two of our three kids had birthdays last week! Becca turned 19 on Tuesday, and Steve turned 17 on Friday! I love this picture I got of Stevie blowing out his candles and just had to turn it into a layout right away - I used the November Crop Suey kit:
Click on the image to see the details better. I love that Sassafrass Lass paper - if you click on the image you can see it up close, and it really looks like soft, worn cordurouy!

I also finished my 70s edition of Bree's Decades swap. The 70s were a time of many transitions for me - I went from the age of 11 to 20, and as you can imagine, my musical tastes changed quite a bit thru those years! When I think of the 70s, I think of everyone from the Jackson 5 to John Denver to Aerosmith! LOL! Anyways, I ended up choosing the groovy Jackson 5 for my cards, and here's how they turned out:
I used Lucy Folch's Revolution line of papers, hand-drew the old J5 logo on some plain orange cardstock, and doodled around the edge.

Last but not least, I went thru the paper swap papers, took out the ones I wanted and added papers from my stash that I'm ready to say goodbye to. Here's the pile that will be making its way to Maria - the next one on the swap list. Maria I hope you find something you like!

That's about it for today folks! I will be back soon with more to chat about! Have a wonderful, wonderful Friday!

Kawaii Swap Love...

My Kawaii Swap Box came today! Yeayyyyyyy!!!! Oh my word!!! My partner (and sister) Renee went all out! I can't even fit it all in one picture! Look at all this fun goodness!
I love the hostess cupcake lunchbox! and the Hello Kitty tupperware! and the kawaii characters ice cube tray!
look at all this yummy fabric!!! and that's a Hello Kitty kleenex box cover in the back there!




it's deco tape heaven! Yeay!!! I totally APPRECIATE your generosity Renee! You are the BEST!!! I can't wait to organize it all and start creating with it! This is SO INSPIRING!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT ALL!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH RENEE!!!

Beautiful Papers...

I want to share with you the beautiful papers that arrived in the mail yesterday! It was my order from Lucy Folch - She's a fashionista at SiSTV, and someone who inspires me with everything she creates! This is her newest paper line, and I ordered it directly from her - it came all the way from Sweden! Take a look - there are six double-sided papers - aren't they GORGEOUS!!! (The back sides are cropped to see the detail)














I can't wait to start creating with these treasures! If you would like to order a set for yourself, go to Lucy's blog - the instructions are there!

I also got these extra papers from Lucy! Three adorable owl designs:







aren't they just the CUTEST??? Oh, and how about these vintage children's book pages in Swedish (at least I think it's swedish)...
So much fun! Yeay!!!

That's the good news...

The bad news is that I did not do my Scrapping The Music layout. I tried, but I think my brain is just mentally exhausted from the Project Catwalk challenge. Rats. I feel bad about that, especially since I am the one that picked the song. I am still going to try to get it done during the week tho, and it can go in the slideshow. I LOVE the song and its such an empowering one to scrap about!

The song is "VIDEO" by India Arie. Head on over and check it out - I hope you want to play along!