Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Latch Card


Need to send a special thank-you off to a gal who's sending me some chipboard coasters. I've seen tons of cool projects with them & I'm looking forward to creating some gifts with them myself :) Here's a latch card that I did awhile back that I thought I send. It's the traditional way with the slits (I much prefer the window punchout & brads -- WAY EASIER). Just thought I'd scan it in & share before sending it off ;-)

Mail Candy


Don't you love getting something in the mail that isn't *junk*! (a.k.a. BILLS {LOL}) Well yesterday I got just that, a little mail candy from a fellow demo in Ontario - KA Beaudry! I'm really loving the Spring Mini, and this fresh, spring Set "Polka Dots & Paisley" is so fun. I must make some time this week to stamp up some cards. I have been concentrating on my scrapbook, but am feeling the NEEEEEED to stamp some cards (love that "instant" gradification!). :)

So it's the final day in February. Such a fun month for us it was (minus the sinus colds & stomach flu). We enjoyed birthday bashes and yummy cakes, as well as some warmer days & sunshine. I actually think next month might equal DRYWALL at the new house which is beyond exciting as it's been sitting for some time now (what do they say about a mechanic... his car is the last to get fixed. Well, think the same goes for the builder! LOL). So I may actually get some house photos up here in the next few weeks. Just deciding on cabinets, plumbing, faucets, fixtures, where to put this, where to put that -- WAY too many decisions for me. I'd rather STAMP! :)

Cheers everyone -- hope your day is sunny & bright.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Sand Layout

So here is the other layout that I did that I needed to upload on my computer. Thanks to Barb Tripps I was able to use the great shaker box she sent me & incorporate some sand I took home from the beach at Mazatlan :-) So here's that final layout that I had to just finish up from my day of scrapping. :)


Here's a close up of that sand shaker.

Foggy Monday

It is Monday, right? *LOL* What a week -- my friend was here with her children & saw just how crazy my life can be. Sweet Megan turned 10 and we had an amazing birthday bash on Saturday night. So fun with all those like, 10 year olds, like chattin' it up, like totally. *LOL* - did I really talk like that when I was 10?!! (smiles) Very fun. Of course the not so fun part was the night before up ALL night long (this is unfortunately NOT exaggerating) with my little boy with the stomach flu. Blek! Then yesterday my yougest girl (age 5) started. Megan is petrified she's NEXT. She just wants to be out of the house. We're going through hand cleaner like crazy!! NEEDLESS to say, my day of stamping with my friend on Thursday was DREAMY!! So fun. Here are the layouts I got done. :) Actually I did one more which I'll try to post today too. Just need to upload the photo. I have decided (with much advice from everyone) to get Photoshop Elements to work with. I'm excited to take a trip to Costco this week & pick it up :) YEAH! Ok. So here are my layouts -- a couple more pages done in my Mexico Album. The first one is of our amazing city tour we took. Just got off the ship & paid a taxi driver to take us all over the place - very cool. On this page I was able to use some of my new goodies - Prima Flowers! Love 'em. I used embrodery thread & made french knots for the flower centers.


The next page here is of the unbelievable Cliff Divers. Thank you Tepa Farias for the great photos. I missed the jump by a minute with my camera. I was so shocked these men were jumping off that platform that i couldn't get my camera up in time! This is quite a simple page, but the photos I think were great & I wanted to include them all. :)


Here's a closer look at one of the page elements. I really like SU's set Genuine Article. The direction of the arrow didn't work for me so my friend told me just to cut it in half and flip it around. Worked perfectly! :) I dragged the edges on an ink pad for a little added depth.


Happy Monday everyone!!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Coming up for Air


I think I'm back! Whew, caught that nasty cold & flu bug -- not fun. I confirmed yet again that I do NOT make a good sick human :) Not sure what I'd do without my Advil Cold & Sinus! LOL It's been a whirlwind here as we were all pretty sick for a few days and then so exciting as we celebrated Megan's 10th b'day yesterday (funny how that was fun, but the COUNTDOWN is ON for the REAL birthday party A.K.A. friends all coming on Saturday!!) So yesterday she came home from school and I had hidden clues ALL over the house and she had to follow the clues, solve the riddles and find her gifts. Such fun and it took all afternoon until supper time. Her brother & sister were just as excited running around the house with gleeful screams that they found another clue! Kids are SO fun!! Anyway, TOMORROW is my scrappin' DAY so hopefully I'll have some things to show you Friday. For now, I found an older card I made (anyone recognize the set?) using the Latch Card technique. Not sure if you'd *technically* classify it as a technique. It's very easy to do when you use the window punch (one of my favs!) and a couple of brads to hold it into place.
Just thought I'd better show my face & a little sample (excuse the poor scan, imagine it looking MUCH better *LOL*) before going under the craziness of my week again. Hope to pop my head back up for air on the weekend ;-)
cheers!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Weekend Treats

I had an order arrive today :-) Looks like I'll have some playing time this weekend... or at least on Thursday when my scrappin' buddy arrives & we spend the day stamping & scrapping! What FUN!!!



Love some of the paper too!! Always like it when I can find a good orange :)

The Party Countdown

Well my first baby turns 10 next week -- where does the time go? Yesterday we tried to get the invitations JUST RIGHT -- :) My first draft was a no-go, but then I created this card & she loved it. YEAHHHH!!!!

She loves purple, so I went with Almost Amethyst :) and added a bit of So Saffron. I used the circle punches to create the '10' tag using the metallic silver paper. Next Saturday is going to be a full day/night with the girls, but SO MUCH fun too. Megan can hardly wait. She took her invitations to school today to hand them out. So fun. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but for the flower centers I used some Platinum liquid pearls. Just adds a little sparkle & texture. Felt good to stamp up some cards -- been scrappin' like crazy the past while (ok, crazy is stretching it, but for me... a lot more than usual) :) LOL. Weekend is here - yeah!! I got my run in this morning even though my head cold seems to be winning the fight. I keep telling myself I'm NOT sick. Being a Mamma though & having your sick babies coughing & sneezing directly into your face is cause for concern :) Crossing my fingers I'll keep it at bay -- sounds like I could milk it for some extra sleep time though -- don't you think? ;-)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Friday, February 09, 2007

Mazatlan

Started a quick front page for day six with our next geeky "get off the boat" pic! LOL last night before Survivor :) Yes, I'm a survivor geek!!! Although let the record stand that I do PREFER Amazing Race!
I ordered some Prima flowers (still not here - or even shipped :(...) that I thought would look good on this page, but I'm impatient when I get a page going. So I found some orange flower eyelets in my stash & used those up in the corner instead. I'm not sure if you can quite tell in the photo here, but I used the negative image for my day six title... just cut out the letters & threw them out & used what was left :)
Tomorrow brings a sleep in (yeah!!!!) and a soccer game (looks like the rains will continue.... soggy game tomorrow!!) and hopefully time to do my next page :-) I know I haven't shown cards in awhile... I'll have to get some of those done to show you. My new stamps from the spring mini arrive tonight so I best play with those a bit over the weekend as well. Have a great weekend!!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Here's DaaaaaaaaY Five! :)

I still need to figure out how to take a proper photo of my scrapbook pages. This one I had to angle a bit to keep the bedroom light from glaring off of it. I did finally figure out NO FLASH, but when I take the photo in the night it's hard to avoid that overhead light and be able to crop it without seeing behind it. I blew up this photo to an 8x10 to get a good look at the size of tree and how HIGH the little platform above is. I had some cool textured paper that I thought resembled bark well & used it on this page. :) So fun to actually start using all the goodies I've collected along the way. For awhile there I thought I was more of a collector than an *actual* scrapbooker! LOL. Feels good to finally being USING things :)

that's a pizza box behind the photo! :) A new one that is! LOL... although pizza does sound good!! They are perfect for organizing papers!!
Here's a closer look (above) at my stamping directly onto the photo. I was just praying that I wouldn't slip!! :) StazOn is perfect for a photo-finish.
Here's page two. It was hard as I wanted to include all these photos, but didn't want it to look like I just stuck 6 photos to a page. LOL. So I tried to do a little something to each photo. For three of them I just added journaling & used the window punch to punch it out. I then attached with a brad. Another one I used a black frame around with an epoxy word "WONDER" at the bottom corner. At the top I stamped in stazon directly onto the print & then in the very bottom photo I used photo corners. I was pleased how it all turned out with the base Old Olive cardstock.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

sick, sick, sick....

No new pics this week... my little girl is home sick and is quite like her Momma when she's sick.... needs CONSTANT attention! *LOL*. Mooooooooommmmm... i neeeeed water, moooooooom can I please have a snack..... moooooom can you help me walk to the couch... She's doing quite a bit better today than yesterday (her "spice" is back today)... but thought she should stay home from school. We have allergy testing this afternoon -- poor thing. I think I'm more anxious about it than she is. It'll be great to figure out what she's actually allergic to!!
On a STAMPING/SCRAPPING note.... I'm working on my excursion pages. We did a jungle tour zip line during one of our port stops on the cruise. We weren't allowed to take our cameras, so I just caught a few shots before/after. I think I'm going to try stamping DIRECTLY onto the photo(s) as they ALL fit on one page and I need to dress it up a bit. You'll see soon. It's my get-er-done project of the week.
Thanks for the comments & emails! Keep them coming, I love to hear from you all. Sounds like most of you print off your own photos if you want something smaller than 4x6. Good to know. Santa's list is growing already!
This photo was taken last fall... me & the kids (thanks Daddy for takin' the pic!) Had to include ONE photo! ;)

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Squeezed in a page

I don't usually scrapbook on white. Guess I'm a color freak, but I saw a layout in a magazine & I loved the crispness (is that a word?) of the page. I needed something with color do go beside my FUNKY page, but didn't want to "match" this time. Do you always do 2-page spreads? I'm torn. Before, I never did. Each page was it's own event, own color scheme... then I started to do the 2-page layout & I loved the look of that. Now of course I'm torn. I must admit, this is the FIRST time I've scrapbooked 12x12, I'm usually a 8.5x11 (I think we're a dying breed!) and even enjoy the 6x6. All this to say I'm LOVIN' the 12x12. All that space to play!!! So, here's the next page in my album. I quite like it... love the chipboard letters (or in this case, a number!). I tried to incorporate some circles again so it at least tied in with the neighboring page ;-). I'm looking forward to my next page layout, our jungle zip-line excursion!!! So fun. And I blew up the main page to 8x10. Been slowly planning that one in my head. :) OK, here's a *green* question... is there a place to go to have your pics developed SMALLER than a 4x6 or do scrappers print these smaller sizes at home on their computers? Happy Sunday!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Work in Progress....

What a full day!! We were up and at a soccer game in very CHILLY conditions. Just spitting rain, but almost snow... BRRRR.... boys played a great hard game though & I love watching! Then we flew to Joshua's clubs' car race event where he placed in the top 10 for fastest car!! YEAH!! It's just been a fly-by day. I lost Word & Excel on my new computer (yes, I could cry... they put a TEMP on my computer not the full deal -- not impressed!)... so I've been stewing over that one this weekend too. Dislike my computer misbehavin'! Of course I have a hard copy *somewhere* in the storage unit so that would be like searching for a needle in a haystack! Still not sure what I'm going to do so .... I decided to SCRAP & STAMP! Fixes everything doesn't it? :) Working on a page to go next to my funky one below.... hope to finish it up tonight/tomorrow & get it posted for you to see. With my computer not fully functioning I'll have to journal in my own handwriting (blek). I know, I know... *they* say that's good to include it on some of your pages so those looking back can see your penmanship (or lack thereof!!) .... so I suppose I will do my best & hand write my journaling.
Hope you're all having a fabo weekend!!! I did find a Word & Excel VIEWER download online so at least I can open files to view them (doesn't really help me much though does it).... stewing again, better get back into that stamp room!