Crunchtime!

As you may hve guessed, I have been devoting most of my time to scrapbooking my daughter's past few months. I have been working until 4 am or later, but i am still not going to get it done in time! I have been taking so long to do each page because I want them to look awesome. Well, they do! My husband came home from work yesterday and said, "What did you do all day?" and I said,"Scrapbooked." There is a new pack of paper that I have been using called, groovy girl. They have them for boys as well. I am really into using paper on every page and letter stickers. I like all the stickers that you can see through, too! They are so cool.

Tip of the Day: I ordered books from the library on scrapbooking page ideas and tips and one thing I read really stuck out to me. It said that when you are in a time of zero scrapbooking creativity, revert back to the comfy favorites that get the pages completed. Use ideas that you have used before, just change the colors. For me, I can look back years in my books and copy page ideas that I have used in the past. Chances are that no one is going to sit and look through all 8 albums of Jaelyn in one sitting! Even if they do, they probably wo'nt be concentrating on them as much as I was as I created them. Another good tip is to not be such a perfectionist! No one is going to get out a ruler when they look at the albums you make! Things I notice and pages I am never satisfied with, don't seem to bother other people.

Scrap Happy!

Planning my pages

Ok, now that I realized that I wanted to have the album to show at my daughter's birthday party, I have been working on getting it done. First, I had to find all of the envelopes of pictures. Then I had to put them into order. Next, I had to write down little notes to myself on the envelopes, such as "don't forget the Easter 8x10!" So that when I'm actually scrapping those pages, I can remember. My next step is to lay out the pictures on pages. Sometimes, I actually sketch little boxes on scrap paper. The little boxes stand for a page, and I have them in twos, just like an open page spread.I then write what I am going to put on each page in the boxes, that way I can make doubly sure that I haven't planned incorrectly! Finally, I'm able to scrapbook!
I have only completed a half of a page! So, I'd better get going!

Scrap Happy!

Satisfaction, (a hey hey hey!) that's what I say!

I just have to tell you that I have completed the 10th grader's album at last! I absolutely love the last couple of pages that I finished on Friday, but best of is the satisfaction of completion! I have already laid out my pages for the cruise album and I'm just waiting on 2 more rolls of film. I think I am going to be using a larger size album for our cruise because i wanted to try something a little different! I haven't done an album for myself for so long, and I'm feeling a littel selfish about doing the cruise before catching up on my daughter's. Especially with her birthday party coming up a week from now. I usually like to have her albums out to show everyone, and I don't think I could possibly catch up at this point! (Although I now feel very compelled to try!) I wish I would have realized this before now!

Tip of the Day: I just did a 2 page spread of kids playing on a backyard swingset. I wrote monkeying around, putting this title in the middle of the page, with "monkey" on one page and "around" on the facing page. I used some cute monkey stickers and bananas to embellish the letter stickers I used, and I was done. One monkey held the "m" in Monkey and the other hung out by the last letter of around. I used the bananas to curve around the "o and e". It wasn't totally an original idea, but it was pretty cute!

Scrap Happy!

Do you want to hear about my cruise!?!

I'm back from my cruise! I have never seen waters that blue, snorkled in the ocean, found conch shells as big as my head nor eaten quite as much as I did in this one week before! I took pictures of everything! I took pictures of our cabin door, the food, the dessert tables, each and every towel animal left for us, the lizard in Mexico that was as large as my foot, the cars driving on the wrong side of the road in Grand Cayman, the goofy looking Banyan trees in Key West and the ship from every angle! I have a head full of memories and notes scribbled on the back of any scrap of paper I could find. I have decided that I am doing my cruise pictures before anything else, once the 10th grader's 3rd album is done! I just can't wait to hold the pictures in my hands and create pages that will remind me of my vacation forever!

Work it, Baby!

It seems that I don't work on my scrapbooks when I'm really working the business end of scrapbooking! I had a busy last week! I had a Unit Meeting, where our little group of consultants get together and learn how to better our business. We usually get to talk about how our business is doing as well. I was able to bring 2 of my 3 consultants! The very next night, I had a get together, as we call them, and it was a big group. It was hard to talk over everyone, so I ended up just skipping the whole presentation and my sales suffered for it. It was a fun group of girls though. I took one of my new consultants to this and she made a short story card along with everyone else, since she hasn't really scrapped before. On Friday, I had an awesome class, and one of my other consultants was able to come with me. She was really helpful, totaling the orders, and lots of other things, It would have taken me so much longer without her help. At this class, I went through most of the presentation, and it made a big difference! There were several people new to scrapping, and I swear the hostess should be a consultant! She was so good at telling people how much better our cutting system was, she was incredible!!! It was a big help that she was there and showed her excitement in the product.
My door is always open to scrapbookers, even if I have company! I had a neighbor drop in for pages and protectors yesterday. I am going to try to finish the 10th grader's album by Wednesday evening, that's my goal! I'll let you know if I do! Can you believe I took 5 rolls of film in April? How much do you want to bet I'll take more than that in just my first 2 weeks of May?!

Tip of the Day: Out of Ideas?! Creative Memories has pages and pages of ideas for free at their website. Poke around a little, and you will be able to focus on a certain theme and look through the actual pages others have done!

Scrap Happy!

A nod to Vellum

I've been scrapping lately. Hurray, I'm working on my daughter's pictures and I have actually made a huge dent in it! I'm done with Christmas, except for journalling of any kind. I am definately adding that, but I just have to be "in the mood" to journal. I also need to be all by myself, is anyone else like that? The last page I did took me HOURS, literally. I had the idea, but I couldn't see how to create it! I have noticed a trend in magazines and on TV that I wanted to copy on one of my pages. I don't even know how to describe it, but it looks like someone has decorated the actual pictures, but not covering anything important, just the blank spaces around the edges. It has a western feel to it, at least it has in things I've noticed. My main objective was to achieve this look while still protecting the photos. So...I used vellum to make the designs around the photos, and since they are Christmas pictures, I used a snow flake punch. It is impossible to explain, but I will try to get pictures of it on here whenever I finish journaling. I was just a little proud of myself for doing a new idea!

Tip of the Day: I just found out yesterday that a new crop talk is coming out in May and it's ALL ABOUT VELLUM! I'm syked, and can't wait to order it and tear open that pack as soon as it comes and see all kinds of ideas about using vellum! If you don't know, a crop talk is a little lesson I teach at my workshops, and each person gets an idea sheet along with other very helpful hints.

Scrap Happy!

Back on Christmas

I've set aside the pictures of other people's kids and have started trying to get my daughter's pictures caught up. I am just working on Christmas Day and it is very slow going! When I do other's albums, I feel like I fly along, but with my own daughter's, I have no limit to the product that I can use, and that leads to tough decisions on what exactly I want to do on her pages. It doesn't help that I like her pages to be perfect! I did the cutest pre-Christmas page of a collection of pictures. I used the gift that was given out at my Christmas open house, the vellum strips. They are so cool that I have used them on several pages already! It really is enjoyable to be doing her pages!!!

Tip of the Day: It really is worth it to come to my Open Houses and other events where gifts are given out. These are things that you can't buy anywhere, so they add a certain originality to your pages. Having Unique pages is pretty important to me, so I almost always use the free gifts, as long as I don't run out before I set one aside!

ScrapHappy!

Princesses on Ice

Originally written on the 15th, but not published until the 21st!

We took our daughter to Princesses on Ice today. It was so beautiful! I'm so glad that I have an excuse to go and see these things! My daughter gives me that "in"! My fave part was when Gaston sliced the ice, sending up a spray of shaved ice at some of the observers! It was a 2 hour show, and included every single princess. Aladdin and Jasmine flew on the magic carpet and all of the princesses skated with their princes. It was really nice. We drove all the way to WV to see it because we missed it here. It was so worth it! Our seats were terrific! My daughter dressed as Snow White, who was her favorite of the day. My only regret was that she had to go to the bathoom at the end, right before Cinderella tried on the glass slipper! So, we missed that! We got back and I didn't want to walk in front of everyone at this point, so we watched the end of the show from the floor. But this was actually a blessing in disguise, because my daughter was right there when the characters walked around sayng hi to some of the kids, so she got to meet some royalty today. I hope my pictures turn out!

Tip of the Day: The Frosty Prints paper pack, which is being discontinued, has some paper in it that looks just like cracked ICE! I can't wait to use it on these pages! Vellum would also make nice ice! Does anyone else have suggestions on making "ice"? I know that there is a kind of stone that you can use, but I wouldn't want to use anything that bulky on my pages since I use my real photos!

Scrap Happy!

Egg hunt

Our annual Easter egg hunt was a little different this year! We always go to Hailey's for the hunt, and dying of the eggs, but this year, we hosted it for the first time! It was fun stuffing the eggs and hiding them. It was really special because this year, Hailey has a little person of her own to hunt for eggs! So, we had the kids hunt, as we ran around videotaping and taking photos of them! My daughter was giddy with excitement! She giggled like a maniac as she raced around the yard gathering many more eggs than her basket could hold, because the baby really didn't get it and as soon as he found an egg, he just sat and tried to chew on it!!! It was great, and when my daughter said," This is fun easter egg huntin' at my house!" I had to run inside to write it down on the calendar exactly the way she said it! As it got darker, we brought the kids in to dye eggs, and that's when the baby decided he had had enough fun and just wanted his bottle and his daddy. My daughter was still having the time of her life, and she hadn't even thought of opening the plastic eggs she had found outside yet. She did most of the dying, and there wasn't a lot to be done, as I only boiled 14 eggs! We can never eat all the eggs we usually dye, and I feel so bad tossing them all out every year! We knew it was time to clean up when she started mixing the cups of dye, and overflowed one of the cups! I was in my picture taking rut, clicking away and only feeling like I had maybe 5 that turned out OK. I hate this!

Capturing ALL aspects of our life

During my last workshop, I received a call from my neighbor telling me that she had sighted a racoon on my roof! We didn't do much about it except to watch for our dog when we let him out. We have been hearing noises in our crawl space and even in the chimney, but my husband said he couldn't see any openings. So, we did nothing! Late last afternoon, I took the screen out of an upstairs window, to look closer at the roof and chimney. There, watching me, was the cutest little racoon face, just sticking right out of my chimney!!! That was it! I called the library for information (they are my 911) and they gave me a number and we had an appointment for this morning. Well, the Critter Guy was running early and he came, promptly took the racoon out, and had it caged in the yard. But it was a momma racoon, and after 2 hours, he still hadn't been able to get to the nest of babies. He ended up going to his other jobs and leaving the little ones here until he could get back, sometime in the afternoon. He had to take out a brick in our chimney to get those little things out, and he said that ours was the hardest job he'd ever had. Of course I had to photograph the drama unfolding, because this was a big deal to my 3 year old! I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the racoon peeking it's head out of the chimney, but at the time, that was the last thing on my mind!

Tip of the Day: If you hear something in your chimney, call someone right away, before it has time to make a nest and have babies! It would have saved me a lot of stress, not to mention money!

Scrap Happy!

It's a disease!

I can't believe that I have used as much film as I have these past 2 weeks! Usually, I try to keep myself to a roll a day when I'm on vacation, but I have been using pretty close to that this week! True, my brother is here on a short leave from Iraq, and I'm seeing my niece for the first time, and it is almost Easter...but that is not all! I have lost my touch! Seriously, I have been taking so many bad pictures! That's why I'm taking so many! I KNOW when I have just taken a bad picture, where someone's face was suddenly blocked or my daughter looked down or away just as I clicked it, so I end up taking another one! I don't even want to hear about digital cameras because I am NOT READY to get one yet! I don't find them to be as quick as mine, meaning, I want to take the picture as soon as I push the button, not seconds later. I do realize the benefits, but it just isn't worth it to me yet. I just get into funks where I can't seem to BE THERE for the moment, I just miss it. I'm in one of those photography funks right now!

Tip of the Day: My favorite film developing lately has been a toss up between Sam's Club and Snapfish. I like Sam's because they are so cheap, AND they are the best quality I've found around here! They also have changed their policy and don't leave your developed photos out for just anyone to walk off with.
I like Snapfish for the convenience of walking just as far as my mailbox to send them and receiving them just as easily. The colors are usually crystal clear. I also like that I can get them online, even before I get them in the mail. One disadvantage is that they take a while to come back, even up to 2 weeks, and it's been a longer wait more recently than it used to be. Plus, they are too costly for my liking, and you have to pay S&H.

Happy Easter! Scrap Happy!

Playing at the Park

It was a great day for the park today! I went with my kiddo, her dad and our friends. I finished off my roll of film there, (the one I just started on Sunday!) because there were some adorable shots! I did miss one of my rules though. I didn't get any pictures with me in them! I just worry that my daughter will think I wasn't there! I got the cutest pictures of my daughter taking her 10 1/2 month old friend down the slide! I also got some shots of the glee on her face as her Daddy pushed her in the swing! She laughed so hard that she got the hiccups! But my favorite picture is of my friend's bottom half sticking out of the top of the enclosed slide as she let her little guy go down the slide for the first time! It's priceless!

Tip of the Day: There are so many photo ops at the park! It's best to go in the late afternoon if you don't want a whole lot of other kids jumping in the way of your pictures. It also makes for better lighting than the direct sunlight you'll get earlier. Have the adult pushing the kid on the swing pull the swing back and hold it for a second. This way, you get what looks like an action shot, without the action. Best of all, just watch the action, and click when you see that moment! No kid likes to have to pose in the middle of playing.

Scrap Happy!

Family togetherness

Today, my little niece was dedicated at church! I was able to take some cute pictures of the new family and our Pastor. I also was able to capture a cute picture of my daughter holding her tiny cousin, and I caught her before she slid off her lap! It was also a special Sunday because it was Palm Sunday! Our church hands out palm fronds, and I got a cute picture of my sister holding my daughter as my sweet little girl swatted her other aunt over the head with her palm frond!
My brother, fresh from Iraq, regaled us with stories of getting smacked by palm fronds still very attatched to the trees as they drove by! Best of all was having the family in church together. I'm telling you the truth, our section of the church sounded good this morning during worship! I miss singing with my family in church.

Tip of the Day: At this last workshop, 3 of us did the same page design on completely different pages, and it worked out great for all of them. The idea is taken from a french style bulletin board. It is a board with ribbons criss-crossing it, and the place the ribbons cross each other is usually secured by a pin. Then you can stick the corners of papers and photos under the ribbon to display them!
Changing this for scrapbooking; We used 1/2 inch thin paper strips and criss-crossed the page with them, all of us using different things instead of the pins at the crossings. I used buttons the first time, one of us used flor'de france for her stay at the Port Orlean's Resort at Disney, and the other used snowflake stickers for her page of her son because it matched his pajamas.

Scrap Happy!

Springdale Vendor Fair

I participated in a Vendor Fair this weekend, and it was fun! My favorite thing was a toss up between the chocolate at the Riverside Church's table, and getting to meet so many people from my area! I was able to talk to people I had met, but never mentioned scrapbooking to, people I had never met that were interested in coming to my local workshops, and even customers of mine! I had a great time talking and scrapbooking, and before I knew it, it was time to pack up and go home! I made lots of contacts and even some money. (everybody loved looking through the stickers!) Thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit! I was never bored for a second!

Tip of the Day: I made a sunset page today by tearing paper and making pink cloud shapes, which I then stretched across the top of the page. I also made sand at the very bottom of the page by tearing my tan paper in a thinish strip. I couldn't see just having a sky without the ground.

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And the Winner is...

(The page above shows how I made camo. See the Tip of the Day at the end. April 2007)

Howdy! I had a workshop last night, and at the workshop we had a small group, and two of them were brand new! We had the most delicious cheese and crackers, I'm telling you, it was hard to stop eating them! We also toasted S'mores midway through! I hadn't read the instructions, so we had to improvise and use tea candles as a heat source!
The gifts were packets of paper, stickers and journaling boxes, and I shared an article from Lasting Moments magazine about cleverly using your leftover papers and stickers.
As for the scrapping, we all participated in a page title for a page Hailey did of her son, Daniel in his crib. She really has an entire page of him standing in his crib, because he's that cute! I had the idea to write "Welcome to my Crib", which we all liked. But then Hailey pulled out these adorable frog stickers and said she wanted to use them on the page since they matched the mobile in his crib. We all started brainstorming ideas like, "This crib is Hoppin'" and other things of that nature! But the winning title came from Bekah, "Welcome to my Pad!" Hailey crafted a lily pad for the little frog in the middle of the page, and we all agreed it was adorable!!!

Tip of the day: To make camo, which is really "in" right now, simply tear brown, tan, and different dark shades of green and layer it randomly all over. Another way to make camo is to carefully cut the same colors out, fitting them together somewhat like a puzzle.

Scrap Happy!

Easter Memories and traditions

Growing up, I knew the real reason we celebrated Easter. In fact, in my family, we went to church on Easter Sunday, as we did every Sunday. But other than that, we didn't celebrate. We didn't have easter egg hunts and visits from the easter bunny. We very rarely had an easter dinner. I have pictures of us from one Easter when I was in my early 20s, and my boyfriend at the time, now my husband had given me roses. I have pictures of my siblings and our family dressed up, and then a picture of my little brother holding a piece of pizza over half his face, our easter dinner! I remember that Easter was very special, and I loved to steal away to my own little church in the woods, where daffodils grew. Nowadays, I still avoid the Easter bunny, because he is just a distraction of what Easter is all about. My husband and I hide an Easter basket for my daughter, but it's from us. (That is the one thing I missed as a kid!) She has gone on egg hunts, and dyed eggs, but mostly because it was important to my friend Hailey, so she organizes this and invites my girl. I love dressing my daughter up in a special dress, squeezing into our full church, looking at the stained glass windows, and celebrating that my Savior is alive! We have Easter dinner with our families now, both my husband's and mine together. One new tradition I have personally, is watching the Passion of the Christ. I do this prior to Easter, to be in the right mindset. I do it alone, because it's rough and I sob through a lot of the movie. Easter is special to me, a time of new life and new commitments.

Tip of the Day:
Easter page idea:
I have a page of pictures from church one year, and I made an empty tomb for the page and wrote, Jesus is alive! I put some flower stickers right outside the cave. I made the cave with the cutting system, using an oval for the tomb, and cutting the bottom off to make it flat. I made the stone in front of the tomb with the circle punch, and layered the hole it left in yellow. This makes it look like the yellow is in the cave.

Cm has a new pack of stickers that is called Delicate Days. I can't wait to use them this year!

Lambs, flowers, chicks, bunnies, crosses, stained glass, baskets, nests and eggs all work with the Easter theme!

Scrap Happy!

A little bit of this...and that!

Stolen moments of scrapbooking are getting me far! I just did 8 pages yesterday in 2 hours. I was working on the book for the 10th grader. I am aching to get to my daughter's pictures, before my husband and I get back from our getaway in early May. The only problem is that Creative Memories is coming out with all new Disney stuff! I wish it was coming out earlier than May, because I want to use it now! It is so cute, and It feels like it was made just for me since I am the Disney Freak! There is an album, a Mickey maker (punch), and papers, it even looks more grown up! So, maybe I'll use this stuff for my cruise, since it is a Disney Cruise!

I am also very excited, with March being over, because I signed 3 consultants, plus one that just signed up for all the stuff in the kit! I am signing another consultant this week, as well! I am very happy that my business is doing so well! It's the reason I'm able to ge on this Cruise! I really feel blessed.

Tip of the Day: With all of the flowers outside blooming, and smelling so yummy, I'm starting to think about Easter pages!
*The cutting system has an egg shape that I use for Easter eggs, just using marbled papers and others.
*I have made an Easter basket out of paper and stuck stickers in it, as well as some green grass, created by cutting green paper really thin.
*For a "Dying Easter Eggs" page title, I used white letter stickers and colored them in pastel colors for a dyed look.
*One year, my daughter got a giant chocolate egg! I have a whole page dedicated to it, with the page title how she used to say it, "Choc-O-lot" I used brown paper to make several sizes of eggs. I think brown and pink, like the color of my daughter's dress that year went really well together!
*I made some of that plastic grass you get for easter baskets, by shredding pink paper very finely. I taped it using double sided tape and stuck it to the page in a nest shape. I stuck an egg sticker in it, and a chick sticker just nearby.
*If you run out of "g" letter stickers like I did at Easter, just use a lower case "q" (Cm makes their sassy ones without a hook in the back) and a comma, and cleverly cover the spot they meet with a sticker or die-cut.
*Last Easter, I stuck with my new favorite scrapbooking theme of making all my pages of an event go together. I used 2 pieces of paper from the textile pack on every page for the whole month of March.
I'll put more Easter Page ideas on another day's blog!

Scrap Happy!

Scrapbooking with Friends

Last night, we had more than a workshop; we had a bonding of women! My sister-in-law is here with her baby girl, and she is fussy in the afternoons and into the evening. All evening long, we women passed her around, shushing and swaying, snuggling and burping the poor little thing. Amazingly, we all accomplished album making as well! It was a group of women, working together, giving motherly advice and telling stories of the time our kids did this, or "I heard of this method..." all working towards a common goal, and all the time, it was edifying. I love this about our group of scrapbookers! I don't ever feel disappointed after we meet, like I used to when I scrapped other places. I always feel like I have completed some pages and filled some place inside that only the fellowship and conversation of good friends can fill! Even with the stress of a crying little one, I felt at peace, because I was among friends.

Tip of the Day: I completed 14 pages yesterday!
For an idea on a bowling page, try this: I wanted the page to be girly, so I chose to use pink, both for the bowling ball and the pins. The lane was drawn with a pink pen, with lines wider apart near the bottom left hand side of the page that got smaller as they stretched to nearly the upper right hand side. Don't put it all the way to the top, because you need to leave room for the pins.
Bowling Ball: I used pink ( of course) paper with a bit of a marble look to it, punched a circle with the circle maker and drew 3 dots on it, with a black outline on the dots, just on one part, to give it some shading. I placed it at the widest part of the lanes, down near the bottom of the page.

Bowling Pins: I folded a piece of pink paper so that is was 4 pieces thick and cut the pins out freehand. I just drew two lines (for the rings) around the neck of each in pink, and stuck them at the smaller end of the lane.

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Life Through the Eyes of a Three Year Old

So, it's been awhile since I've written and scrapped, since I've been very busy getting everything ready for our guests. I'm pleased to announce that my sister-in-law and little tiny niece are here! I was able to pick up my daughter's roll of film in my spare time :) , and the pictures are so interesting! What other way can you see the world literally through your child's eyes? One memorable picture is of her dad and I at our brick, the one he bought me with our names on it and the date of our wedding. It is also very strange to see myself as the subject in so many pictures! I'm usually the one TAKING the picture! Sure, many of them are tilted at an odd angle, and our heads might be chopped off completely in one or 2, but what's important is that it's her memories, recorded on film. There is one picture that really stood out to me. It's a close up of my chest, and at first that might seem like an automatic dud, but looking closer, I noticed the dogtag that I wear around my neck to remind me to pray for my brother. I started wearing it daily just days before she took the picture, because he is in the Army and had just gotten deployed while we were at Disney World. This is one picture that will be treasured, not for the quality of the photography, but for the time in my family's lives that was captured and held forever in that one, fuzzy picture.

Scrap Happy!

Making room for growth and baby

Well, I have been working all day today on my business, in my pajamas! Isn't that cool? I did take a few breaks form the computer for lunch and a couple of board games with my daughter. My sister in law and the baby will be here in just a few days, and since they will be staying here, I have been digging all of the baby stuff out of storage and cleaning everything up for their visit. That has taken up a lot of my time, but not all of it! I am squealing with excitement to announce that I am now a Senior Consultant! This basically just means that I have 3 consultants signed up now. But it is a promotion and I'm happy! But I'm boring you! I don't really have much to write about, as far as scrapping goes, because I've been all business! I did take my daughter's roll of film to get developed yesterday and I can't wait to see the photos! They are from when we were at Disney World, and she took them with her own princess camera. I love seeing things through her eyes. Speaking of which, she is trying to get my attention, so I'd better go!

Scrap Happy!