Inspired by...

Here is my Sweet and Sassy layout inspired by Carole and Joanne. I was a pop dot fool on this layout. Each flower is pop dot and the petals are bent upward. I wish the scan showed the dimention better. It was really fun to give this look a try....but I have a lot to learn.

Warning...

The following links may contain unbelievably inspiring work that may compel scrappers to immediately drop what they are doing and scrap.

Whoa, you know with the number of blogs and online galleries out there, it's easy to get used to seeing phenomenal work out there. However there are still times when my heart stops and I am just in total awe. That happened to me today....not once, but twice.

While I was doing my morning blog surfingI noticed on the ScrapGenie blog that Becks added Carole Janson as a DT member. So I just clicked on her blog link and WOWZERS. Then a few hours later I got a comment on my blog from Joanne Bain- so I followed her link back to her blog and was blown away again for the 2nd time today.

Seriously, I am just amazed by the work of these two ladies. Both are from Australia and have left me itching to get into my scraproom and try to create a 3-D layout. Check out the amazingly cool dimension they add to their art by pop dotting and folding the paper. They look so cool on-line I can't even imagine how good they look IRL.

So without further ado, I urge you to go check out the work of these two amazing artist:

Carole Janson

Joanne Bain

I have guests in town this weekend but I sure hope that my next post will be a 3-D layout inspired by these ladies.

I am going to admit it....

I scrap almost completely for the creative and artistic outlet. Memory keeping has never been my top priority. I am not making scrapbook albums with the hope that they will be passed on for generations. From my first trip to the local scrapbook store it has always been about the creative aspect for me. I think this is why I have never been into long and meaningful journaling and why it doesn’t bother me when my pages sit stacked on top of each other for months in my scraproom. While I do prefer to scrap my friends and loved ones, I have no problem finding inspiration to scrap stock photos or people I don’t know.

There I admit it. Memory keeping is not my motivation.

Recently there have been many well know scrapbook artist taking a step back from the commercial aspect of the industry. Many of them are realizing they don’t have time for what made them get into scrapping in the first place – Memory Keeping. So many times when people get down about not being published or selected for a call their friends will rally and tell them to remember why they started scrapping in the first place – to record your memories to pass on to your children or family. These type of posts actually make me feel bad, almost guilty that Memory keeping is not what scrapbooking is all about for me but rather just a creative outlet. In some ways I feel that I am cheating the hobby.

I do love to look at my completed pages and remember the moment that is being captured, but I can get this same feeling from looking at a photo album as well. All the papers and embellishments do for me is add a creative twist to the photos. I do credit my love of scrapbooking with my desire to improve my photo taking and editing skills. I’m sure that I will be scrapping for a long time to come and hope to continue growing creatively through the process. If the result of this creative growth are scrapbook albums that get passed to the next generation it’s just an added bonus.

So there you have it…..I full confession!!!

Pumpkin Pages

Here are two new layouts I did with pictures from the pumpkin patch last week. The first one is not my typical style but I wanted to use my new Daisy D's paper and paper frills and had so many pictures I wanted to scrap. The second layout was done for a Speshal dare and I wanted to try out my newly purchased itty bitty actions.....still need practice with that but I love that blown out photo look. Thanks so much for looking.

Rosie will be scrapping on the View tomorrow or Friday

How cool is that. Rosie has been a scrapbooker for a while and this Thursday or Friday she will be doing a segment on journal/scrapbooking on the view. Linda Woods & Karen Dinino are special gusts who are promoting their awesome book "Visual Chronicles". They are going to be using Walnut Ink TintZ from Fiber Scraps. A huge congrats to Patricia (the owner and creator of Fiber Scraps).

I am just so excited to see Rosie scrap. I will be setting my TiVo for sure.

Fiber Scraps Lunch Bag Book

I made my first lunch bag book well over a year ago and have been wanting to do another one ever since. DH and I went pumpkin picking last weekend and I figured these fiber scraps paper would match perfectly. What you can't tell from the photos is that the bags were distressed with walnut stain TintZ before being decorated.

Fiber Scraps Projects

After coming back from Memory Trends I feel so motivated to create. Here are a couple quick projects I did using Fiber Scraps products.

A decoupaged ornamet

And a gift bag

Vegas Baby

Woo Hoo....I just got back from an exciting and exhausting 2 days in Vegas. I'm actually glad to be back at work - SITTING.

Memory Trends seemed quite a bit slower this year, but there was plenty of great stuff to tickle my fancy. The highlight of the trip was meeting up with Natalie, Becks, and Michelle not too long into the show on Tuesday. I am still feeling quite compelled to speak with a British accent. In fact in my head I am writing this entry with perfect English diction. I learned quite a few new words and phrases that I must practice up on for our next visit. Michelle and Becks were booked with meetings so I had the extreme pleasure of walking the majority of the floor with Nat. Come to find out that Nat and I are like Yin and Yang when it comes to scrapbooking tastes. She is drawn to the contemporary lines with geometric shapes and open space on layouts. I on the other hand still love the vintage, grunge look of Cosmo and similar lines.

There was clearly a theme to this years show: Bling, Chipboard, and Clear stamps. Many companies combined the first two and had chipboard bling. Scrapworks and a few others figured out how to bake the glitter right into the chipboard when it is patterned….this keeps the glitter on the chipboard and off your hands. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to work and found glitter in my hair or even on my face. So baked on glitter is the hot set up.

Now a few comments about the products and booths:
• Crate Paper, Crate Paper, Crate Paper……OMG, this stuff is just absolutely to die for. The Christmas line was probably my favorite of the show.
• The new BasicGrey fruitcake line was also a fantastic Christmas line and one that will certainly be finding its way to my scraproom.
• The 7 Gypsies booth had some of the most amazing projects. So grungy and yummy!!!
• The layouts and creations in so many booths were just amazing, but I have to say that some of my very favorite pages were in the MAMBI booth. Yup, the MAMBI booth. They have a bunch of new bling words and shapes that are fantastic, but it’s what their designers did with them that impressed me the most.
• Scenic Route was another super cool stop. With a new line and the coolest GOLD chipboard letter. Very very cool.
• Not to be outdone by its last releases Cosmo Cricket is out with new lines that I LOVE even more than the last lines….seriously, I didn’t that that was possible.
• Technique Tuesday (OK I am a little bias here) but OMG the stamp sets and booth layouts are so amazing. I just LOVE the fact that they feature so many layouts with such great texture and polished details…..LOVE LOVE LOVE this booth.

After writing way too much detail that would probably be way too boring for anyone to read I decided to delete that and talk about the highlights:
• My flight was right on time Monday. I meet up with Danea and Susanne at the hotel and we had a good catching up session.
• Danea had her wrist cast all blinged up, looking so cute, and got a ton of comments on it.
• Susanne was as cute as ever and looked great!!!!
• Monday night I hit the shops at Caesar’s and the Venetian before going back to the room
• Tuesday I hit the show floor early and hooked up with Natalie, Becks, and Michelle for a few minutes and walked the floor with Nat until lunchtime when we took a break to eat.
• After lunch we walked the floor a bit more before finding a seat at the QuickKutz booth where Natalie introduced me to her very cool friend Melanie.
• My feet had had enough so I walked back to the hotel and meet back up with Danea and Susanne. Susanne was not feeling too well, so Danea and I went out to dinner after walking all the way back to the show so Danea could order one of those fancy shmancy massage chairs.
• After dinner it was back to the hotel for a little relaxing and tv.
• Wed morning was breakfast with Natalie and Michelle at the Winn Buffet (enough food for the rest of the day) and back to the show.
• We walked for a bit and meet up with Becks for a little rest on the floor outside BasicGrey. A much needed break for my feet!!!
• I got a very nice surprise to run into WENDY at the prima booth. Holy cow, Wendy showed me some of the most amazing creations she made for the show. Totally amazing stuff. Prima had probably one of the biggest releases at the show. Some really great stuff coming.
• We were just about finished going up and down the aisles when I saw Suzy at the canvas concepts booth. That woman is amazing….totally uplifting and bubbly all the freakin’ time. We stayed for a few minutes and snapped a few pictures.
• I finally got a picture of Becks and I as proof that she is ‘real’ and not my imaginary friend. This gives me plausible deniability for when packages arrive and I tell DH they are samples from Becks. He will never know that Becks/ScrapGenie does not distribute Queen & Co, Heidi Swapp, or Autumn Leaves (oooohhh).
• It was about 4:00pm when I meet back up with Danea and Susanne for a little more walking and then back to the hotel to pack up my bags and head for the airport.
• Once again my flight was right on-time and smooth as silk.

So that’s my trip in a nutshell. Blogger Beta is acting up on me again….so I will be back later with pictures.

Be Silly

Crate-Birdie-Class
Originally uploaded by mjneal.

Well it looks like I figured out how to load a single photo from flickr, but still don't know how to do multiple photo loads. I'll keep working on that.

This is a layout using the new Crate Paper Birdie collection.

Blog neglect

OK,let me first say that I switched to Blogger Beta and now I don't know how to load pictures anymore. So I will have to figure that out as I have some new stuff to share.

There is no real reason for my blog neglect. Work has been work and I really haven't been doing much scrapping in the past week or so.

I need to get ready for Memory Trends. I am headed out to Vegas after work on Monday and will meet Danea and Susanne who will already be there. So that is something to look forward to. I'll be sure to take my camera and get lots of pictures.

Now I am off to go figure out how to load pictures again so I can load my recent layouts.

Tagged by Wendy

So I was tagged by Wendy:

The rule is to list 5 weird things about yourself or your pets and then tag 5 friends and list them:

Gosh, I don't know that enough people read my blog to tag but I'll try: Annie, Carrie, Danea, Juls, and Hebe

Since I don't have any pets I guess my weirdness has to be all about me. Here goes:
1. I am the most picky eater on earth. I don't like any sea food at all, the only veggie I will even consider is corn, and I eat my burgers plain. The good news is that any kind of sweets or Chocolate is not a problem.

2. I have to hit the snooze button each morning twice or I am grumpy all day. I NEED that 18 minutes of grog time before I get out of bed, or I am off kilter all day.

3. I eat the same lunch every day (during the week)....and have since I was in grade school. (pressed ham sandwich, small baggie of pretzles, and an applesause cup).

4. I hate feet - especially mine. I have a giant big toe. Growing up my family called it bongo because it was so big. My shoe size is at least one size larger than I should wear just to make room for that darn toe.

5. I talk to my pictures. Most of the time I am just saying hi to my nieces and nephew that I see more in pictures than in real life. But the fact remains that I talk to the pictures.

Oh my, I love this paper line

In the past I have sturggled with some of the GinX lines with the bright colors and bold prints....but I just love the look of this line. I am so into these colors right now and just love the look of the blue and orange together. To make sure it was girly enough I added the GinX chipboard flowers to the title and the new Bazzill blooms at the bottom. Thanks so much for looking.

Another routine weekend

So this weekend was yet another routine weekend where I didn't get as much done as I wanted to - both scrapwise and yardwork wise. It was quite nice and relaxing but now that it's over I feel like I wasted time. O'well there is always next weekend.

I did get some scrapping done. Here is a layout I made just to play with my new GinX papers and pictures my mom took last weekend.

Look how big....

ooohhh my I can hardly believe my eyes. I just saw these two in June and they already seem so much bigger. This is another layout that I did while my mom was out for a visit. I just got that chatterbox paper and wanted something neutral to match their cloths.

Just playing around with some new goodies.

This is a really quick page I did of my niece at the beach. I basically just wanted to play with my new Queen and Co. goodies.



These are some older pictures of my nephew that my brother took. I just love his little playful smile that he has in these pictures. I am not usually one for these bright bold colors but I love this scrapworks line.

Be yourself - Fiber Scraps

Here is my latest layout made for my September Fiber Scraps DT assignment. Yes, I have scrapped this picture before but I loved how his shirt matched the papers - so I used it again.

Materials: Fiber Scraps Pattern Paper, Prism Cardstock, Autumn Leaves stamps, and Lil Davis Chipboard letters. The title was cut using the Pazzles Mini.

No Masters for me

Well the good news about not being selected as a MMM is that I can finally share my layouts. I know a lot of people are keeping them private in hopes of other publication, but I really wanted to share. Here is 4 of my 5 layouts.....and they are some of my favorites.

Here you go:

Remember Me?

Oh man I feel so out of the loop. With my moms visit this week I have not checked email, blogs, or MBs in a week. It feels like I have been gone for months. I sure hope you haven't forgotten about me.

Overall my week with my Mom was great. We spent a huge amount of time scrapbooking and shopping. We each got 5 layouts done. The highlight for her was a trip to Suzy's garage where we almost mauled the UPS man when he came in with the new bazzill mini blooms. Good times, good times.

We also did a few non-sb related activities. Including a drive up the coast, cloths shopping, and breakfast at her favorite restaurant (twice!).

This has been a very rough work week for the company I work for. There has been a lot of news press about our impending layouts. So it was actually nice to be out of the office not thinking too much about events I can not control.

Here are a couple of the layouts I did while my mom was here.:

This is me and my mom at Suzy's garage - aren't I brave for posting a picture with no make up on?

This is the new Cosmo Cricket Wanted line. Oh man do I LOVE this paper.

These are the cutest pictures of my niece on the beach. She was laughing so hard. This is one using the sassafrass lass papers and stamps.

I still LOVE scenic route

even though I was not selected for their DT. Of course with 400+ entries I am not too disappointed....I really didn't think I had a chance to start with. While the entries did not have to be "never before seen" I kept mine unposted until now. So here is the first of 3 layouts I did for the contest:

I just love this picture of my nephew taken last year at the pumpkin patch. This is one of the older SR lines but still one of my favorites.

The MMM winners should be announced either late next week or early the following. I am really looking forward to seeing the winners list ... mostly so I can share those layouts as well. One of them is probably my new favorite of my work. So I'm excited to share.

Can you believe I am still working on organizing my room. This turned into a much bigger project than I thought. I still have a significant amount of work left to finish. However with my mother coming in for a weeks visit I could not let her see my room in the state it was yesterday, so I quickly put everything away for now. At least I can get back to scrapping in there....but I am determined to finish up the organizational overhaul after mom goes back home.

Organizing....

After this last week, I actually think scrapbooking might have been a hobby invented by the owners of sterlite. It seems that finding the perfect storage and organization is a perpetual quest. Over the years I have found some solutions that work for me that will never be changed, but I am still looking for the easiest way to organize others.

After a visit to Wendy's last week I decided to copy what she did with combining a bunch of embellishments into a single little drawer with no packaging. So this week I have been working for several hours each night to unpackage and combine my supplies. I have been working for hours and still have so much more to go. I've already been to target 3 times for additional storage and have at least one more trip to go (and another one to the hardware store for a nuts/bolts container)

Tonight I am planning to rearrange some of the shelves in my storage cabinet's and get everything put away. I need to get working on my next magazine assignment and want to put the final touches on the layouts I did for Susanne's store. Right now my work table is under a huge pile of supplies.

So that's why I haven't posted anything new....or even scanned the other layouts that I did last weekend for the store.

The perfect scraproom.....is a never ending journey!!!