Hello Again!

I have been a terrible blogger lately!  I just looked at the date on my last post....August 6!  Shame on me.  Once school started, my life just got so crazy.  But, no matter how crazy my life gets during the school year, I MUST find time to scrap.  It's the one thing that keeps my stress level under control. 
So...I was playing on pinterest this evening and found this blog.   Below is the link.  This particular entry has six ideas for making embellishment clusters on your scrapbook pages.  I always see these cute little clusters in magazines and online, and then I try it out and it never looks as good as the others I see.  I'm going to challenge myself to try a few of these techniques.
Also on the blog is a place to sign up for a 12-day FREE design class.  I thought, what the heck...it's free...I can always not do it.  I've already received my 1st lesson in my email and will be looking at it soon. 
So, in conclusion, I plan on scrapping SOMETHING this weekend.  I'm trying to wrap up my Phoenix album and will post all the pages on here as soon as I get it all finished.  I just love my pages I've done so far....

http://debbiehodge.com/2012/04/6-ways-to-make-scrapbook-embellishment-clusters/

Free Online 14-Day Class

I just signed up for a free class from Big Picture.  I did an online crop one Saturday, and it was great.  Thought I'd try this one out...it's free!  What do I have to lose?  Here's the link if you want to try it:

http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/summerfun12.php

More Cards

This set was designed by Gina Fraser.  I'm in her card club and we have one more month to go.  I'm signing up for another year...just can't get enough of it! 

I love this beautiful card.

Another adorable dresser card.

This one is my favorite of the day.  I love the colors.

New Cards

Went to a stamp camp on Saturday and to club on Sunday.  LOTS of cute cards.  The first set were designed by Kim Cash.  She has a stamp camp every quarter or so.  She's got a Christmas card stamp-a-stack coming up in September.  Let me know if you are interested, and I'll connect you with her.  Caroline went with me and did the cards also.  She really enjoyed it!  Here are the cards I did at her camp:

Now, this first card was not from camp.  This was my birthday card from Kim.  Love, love, love it!  It will definitely get a special display place in my scraproom.

This one is a gift card holder.  The base of it is actually an envelope.  Very cute.  I loved that fabric idea so much, I bought some from Stampin' Up yesterday.  That's my next new thing I want to try in my scrapbooks...fabric.

Love this shoe!

I've seen this drawer card on videos several times but haven't made one until this weekend.  I actually made two different ones.  I have more pictures to post so you'll see it on the next post.  Cute idea and not hard at all to make.

This one opens in the middle.

Simple Stories Website

I've recently bought some paper and embellishments from this company.  I just LOVE the cute themed papers and die cuts.  Check out the website for examples of their different products and ideas on how to use it.  Their products can be found at Archivers and I'm sure there's some other places as well.

http://www.simple-stories.com/

Out on a Limb Scrapbooking

Just added a new website to my links:
http://www.outonalimbscrapbooking.com/cutouts1.html

Cute layouts....

Old Layouts of Caroline

Caroline is 12 today.  I woke up and pulled out old scrapbooks of her.  I can't believe my old style.  I loved strolling down memory lane....

I LOVED this layout.  Now it makes me laugh...but it does make me smile because I love this baby book!  I know I've spent hours and hours of time making my scrapbooks, but now that time has passed since I've made them, I'm SO glad I have them!  I have always documented so many details of my girls' lives and now that I'm getting older I have forgotten so many things & I'm so glad I've got them!  They sure bring a smile to my face....

I used to do all sorts of paper-piecing projects.  They were fun to make!

My sweet baby girl

Kindergarten picture

2nd Birthday Party---Elmo!

Still love this Christmas layout!

I entered this layout in a contest on a local scrapbook store and it won 1st prize!  I was so excited!  I don't remember the prize though....

Love these pix of Caroline!

Well, I've been doing a lot of stamp camps and projects for my room...now it's time to get very busy on actually scrappin'.  Life is SO crazy right now, but I am forcing myself to get down to that room if only for a few minutes at a time to get some pages done.  I've got SO many ideas saved on emails, pinterest, and magazines!  Here is a page I've been working on this week.  I used my new stencils from Kiwi Designs (see website on right side) to make the borders and flowers.  The paper is Stampin' Up's new Summer Smooches paper.  Background cardstock is crumb cake.  Other cardstock colors are daffodil delight, real read, old olive, tangerine tango, rich razzleberry, and pacific point.  And, the pictures are my sweet Emily on her 9th Birthday! 

Cards from Jan's Stamp Camp

Went to Jan Burnett's stamp camp on Saturday morning and this is what we made:

My Lovely Scrapbook Room

I've been working hard getting my scrapbook room just exactly how I like it.  I'm not completely done, but here are some pix of some of my favorite parts!  I have a few more pictures, but they are downloading SLOW this morning so I'll have to post some more after work today. 

I bought these live laugh love letters as plain chipboard at Hobby Lobby.  I covered them with cute paper and Shayne hung them up for me. 

This is how I hang up my punches so I can see them.  I stole the idea from my Stampin' Up Demonstrator, Gina Fraser.  It's just shelving from Lowes.  I love that my punches are out where I can see them and they do get used alot!  My favorite punch is of course, my owl punch!

I took on old shelf from the girls' craft room that wasn't getting used and put all my stamp sets in there.  I now can actually see them and will hopefully get more use out of them!

My cards from various stamp camps

Love my owl rug that was a gift from my good friend, Kathy Golden.

My big owl was a gift from my good friend, Carrie Thompson.

My messy work space!

More photos will be posted later.....

Kiwi Website

When I was at the Louisville convention, Shannon (my sister-in-law) and I were just wondering around at the very end of the day and we came across this booth called Kiwi Designs.  The girl did this short little demo of some of her products.  I just absolutely LOVED the style of these layouts and she made it look so easy.  We both ended up buying 3 different sets from the company, and I got a card with their website.  Here it is:  http://kiwilane.com/gallery.html  I'm just getting around to checking it out again, and I've gotten REexcited about it.   Check out the layouts and go to their home page and see their technic.  The next opportunity I have at my scrap table I will be trying my new stencils out.  If I like them, I may buy a few more sets.  I just LOVE the look of these layouts!  Check it out!

Totally Bummed

I just read on facebook that one of my favorite scrapbooking magazines, Scrapbooks, Etc., is stopping the publication.  I just hate that!  I LOVE getting my magazine in the mail!   Here is the notification:


Meredith Corporation has made the difficult decision to close Scrapbooks etc. effective with the August 2012 issue. Scrapbooks etc. has been the longtime brand leader within the scrapbooking industry, but due to the longer term business forecast for the franchise and the industry, the corporation has chosen to cease publishing within this marketplace.
The August 2012 issue, with an on-sale date of June 19, will be released on schedule to our 350,000 subscribers and newsstand buyers through the scheduled off-sale date of August 14, 2012. The ScrapbooksEtc.com website will support the print issue throughout this time period as well.
Meredith Corporation continues our strong support of the crafts industry with our Holiday Crafts titles and our newest addition, Make it Yourself, launching in October 2012. And of course we will continue to serve the growing quilting industry with our multiple quilting titles and website, allpeoplequilt.com.
For questions regarding your subscription, please e-mail sbecustserv@cdsfulfillment.com. If you’d like to purchase past issues for use on a mobile device, go to www.zinio.com/sbe.
On a personal note from the editorial staff, we are grateful for your support through the years. We could not have asked for better readers, and we have loved seeing your scrapbook pages and craft projects in our inboxes, on our website, and on our Facebook page. You inspired us in our mission to give you the ideas and information you wanted to preserve your memories and express yourselves creatively, and we hope that we in turn inspired you to create great pages and projects.
We’ll be posting here on the blog for a few more weeks as the August issue hits newsstands. And look for a post celebrating some of our favorite projects through the years.
THANK YOU!

All Day On-Line Crop

http://www.bigpictureclasses.com/creativecrop.php  Here is a link to a 12-hour on-line crop for this coming Saturday.  It's free to register and there will lots of prizes, challenges, and scrapbook tips all day long!  Sign up if you are interested.  Let me know if you are doing it too!

Old Style Layouts

Emily's 9th Birthday is Tuesday, May 1.  I pulled out some of her older scrapbooks to reminise her younger years.  I absolutely LOVE my old pages!  I love the bright papers I used to use.  I'm also so proud of myself for including so many details of her younger years so I can remember the little things from her life.  I have done this for Caroline too.  Caroline's birthday is later in the month so I'll be pulling her old stuff out too.  Here are some of my favorite from Emily's preschool books:

My first package of Stampin' Up paper!

The 1st page I ever stamped!  I spent SOOO much time on this page and I still absolutely love it!  I'm so glad I still love my old style of scrappin'!