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!!!

5 layouts in 1 crop....No Way!!!

but yes it's even amazing to me, I finished (well almost) 5 pages at Wendy's crop on Saturday. Whoa, I am usually the queen of gab and have never done more than 1 layout at a crop until this weekend. I still did plenty of talking, visiting, and eating but also got 5 pages done for Susanne's store.

Here is the first one I did using one of the newer Center City Designs collections:

In short the weekend was just awesome. Wendy has an amazing house and a beautiful family - along with a fantastic scraproom. The crop on Saturday was great to see so many friends and meet new ones. Not to mention all the yummy food. Wow, I seriously can't wait to do that again.

So after seeing Wendy's embellishment storage I have been on a mission all night to take everything out of it's packaging and make it easy and accessable. I worked all night but haven't made much of a dent.....for sure I am going to like this system better. Thanks so much for the great ideas Wendy.

It's been a good few days...

Scrapwise. On Tuesday I got my hands on some of the new MME Bohemia papers. Love love love them, and cranked out a layout in record time....gotta love that.

Wednesday morning the first email of the day came from Wendy pointing me to the 2peas thread where I was POTD. Woo Hoo.....it's funny how a little thing like that totally lifted me for the day.

Yesterday I came home to a couple of boxes packed with goodies, including the new Heidi Swapp stuff and the 3 bugs new lines. Very cool stuff.

Last night I finished up a Christmas assignment for Papercraft Essentials (a UK publication) and packed for my crop at Wendy's tomorrow. I am planning to make layouts for my friend Susanne's LSS, so I decided to use pictures that were already printed that I had scraped before. So even though I knew what papers lines I was using and what pictures I was using it still took me several hours to pack.

I am so excited for my trip this weekend. Seeing Wendy and her beautiful family... and of seeing so many foxies. Woo Hoo...

LOVE this new line

I just got a few sets from the new My Minds Eye Bohemia line. OMG, this paper is to die for.....LOVE it. Here is a really quick layout I did of me and my niece taken in June. I really did nothing but add a picture and prima flowers to this amazing collection. The paper is so darn pretty I hated to cover it up.

The Graduate

This is my 2nd layout made for the Ali Edwards Designers eye challenge. This challenge was to cut a photo at an angle and then add triangle shaped pattern paper to the bottom. This is a photo from last year that has been waiting for me to scrap.

I also attempted the 3rd layout challenge to make your own pattern paper....LOL, that turned out so ugly I can't post....but will attempt again this week. I also got some assignment work done this weekend and have a few more things to finish up early this week.

Not much else going on this weekend. I saw Danea for a few hours on Saturday. Poor thing wants to scrap so bad, but with her right hand all wrapped up can't do much in the way of scrapping just yet.

My Weekend

This was a super fast layout. The last of many from this weekend. A BIG HUGE thank you to Kirsty for sending me the LUSH blonde moments papers....I just love them. I was running out of steam tonight and decided to see if I could do a layout in less than 30 minutes. Since this queen and co set matched the pinks and purples of the layout it was easy.... printed the picture, made the layout, and even got it scanned in under 30 minutes.....that's a world record, baby!!!

Not much other than relaxing and scrapping this weekend. I decided to enter the Scenic Route DT contest....so I made my 3 layouts for that. I know I will not make the team but it was just great motivation to use some of the cool products I already had on hand.

So it's back to work in a few hours.....I am sure hoping this week is better than last!!!!

You

Just playing around with freestyle again. I have so many of these queen and co. embellies with all the new ones on order....so I decided to play with them today.

Materials: Prism Cardstock, Queen and Co. Sequins, brads, ribbon slide, Autumn Leaves stamps, Prima flowers, Doodlebug letter stickers, Maya Road ribbon, CTMH white ink, and brilliance coral ink.

Stealing the show

My friend and fellow SBM DT memeber Annie is organizing an Ali Edwards Design Challenge. Here is my layout for the first challenge.


For this challenge I used pictures that were already printed and I had laying around for a LONG time. This is my oldest niece taken about 2 years ago. Thanks for the challenge Annie....I'm really happy for the motivation to use some of my "less than perfect" everyday pictures.

My first Fiber Scraps Layout

This is a quick layout I did tonight using my new stash from Fiber Scraps. Paper, fiber, tintz, tag stickers, and letter stickers all from Fiber Scraps. Other materials: Prism Cardstock, Junkitz flower, and bazzill jumbo brad.

Woo Hoo. Yesterday I came home to my copy of issue 19 of TSBM. I still have the giddies from seeing my article in print. Here is another layout I did for this issue:

This is my first publication of my youngest niece. She is so much bigger now, but this is still one of my favorite pictures.

We have scrap-ation!!!

Whew, the weather was even cooler today than yesterday....back down to our normal summer weather. I was finally able to get back into my scraproom. First I had to clean up a HUGE mess that I left behind from the last project - from 2 weeks ago. Once I got everything put away I had less than an hour to scrap, but I was bound and determined to get a page finished. I cheated a little and used a picture that I had already printed.....but here she is my first page after the heat wave.

This is a picture of me and my best friend from college taken about 2 years ago at her wedding shower. Materials: Prism cardstock, prima pp and flowers, foofala buttons, and BasicGrey ribbon. Even if she was a quickie it felt good to scrap again....I've got the itch. Tomorrow its back to my scrapbook magazine assignment.

*R*E*L*I*E*F*

aaaahhhh, the heat finally broke. When I got home from work last night the house was only 91 degrees inside, and it cooled off to 84 before we went to bed. I had a good night sleep for the first time in 10 days. It felt so good, but I didn't want to get up for work this morning. Today should be even cooler than yesterday.....so I have my fingers crossed that I might be able to get back in my scraproom tonight. Woo Hoo....that would be the first scrapping in over 2 weeks.

Here is a layout I did a few months ago as part of my doodling article for issue 17 of the Scrapbook Magazine. This is Wendy and I just before we left for an all day class - her DH took the picture.

I'm still melting

I so wish I had something more to share, but it is still to hot to do anything but lie around and complain about the heat. According to the news the heat is supposed to break tomorrow and be even better on Thursday....but that's what they said two days ago about yesterday and today... so I am skeptical yet optimistic.

I have a DT deadline looming near and if this heat doesn't let up, I might end up cutting my ear off to get it done (because for sure I will be insane scrapping in this heat).

We did call 3 different companies about installing central air....the soonest we can get it done would be almost 4 weeks from now. So we are going to stick with our original house upgrade plan and have it installed this fall (they are taking advantage of the hot weather and increasing the prices significantly)

I promise not to whine so much on my next post!!!

I'm melting!!!!!

As of this minute it is now 103 degrees INSIDE the house. I am literally melting. We are off to eat dinner in a well air conditioned resturant. Forget about any kind of scrapping. It's so darn HOT. I hope you all are having a better weekend than me.....uuuggghhh.

Good things come in threes...

Woo Hoo.....I have some exciting scrapbooking news to share:

1. I will be the newest member of the Fiber Scraps DT (starting August 1st). I am so excited about this opportunity and can't thank them enough for considering me. They have some very cool color combinations on their paper lines and I am really looking forward to working with them.

2. I finished my MMM contest entry (with paperwork) and have sent off to have pictures made of my pages. I plan to have the box sealed and in the mail by the weekend. While my experience is much different than last year, I am glad I decided to enter. In the end I enjoyed the process and I am quite happy with my entry. What's even better is that I really found a fondness for bright pages with multiple photos.

3. I got my next assignment for the Scrapbook Magazine (leave it to Natalie to pick a GREAT topic....a really hot trend) and another assignment for Papercraft essentials. Issue 17 of TSM which has my first article just hit the shelves this week. So I am excited to see this issue IRL.

With things the way they are at my day job.....it is so refreshing to get good news on the scrapbooking front. So I'm a happy camper for sure. Now I just need it to cool down a little so I could actually get in my scraproom and work.

Prima Freakin' ROCKS!!!

I finally got my hands of some of the new YUMMY Prima papers. OMG I LOVE them. They almost scrap themselves. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Look at those black rubons. That flower was so detailed and rubbed off so smooth and clean.

I am working on a special project and got stuck on my last layout. So I decided to take a quick break and play with my new papers. Papers, bloom, and rubons are all prima, Bazzill brad, and Heidi Swapp journaling spot and fuzzy rubon title.

This page took me 2 weeks

oooohhh this darn page. About 2 weeks ago I finished one of my favorite pages ever. Right after that I had the mojo flowing and started to work on this page. uuuugghh, I have been struggling ever since. I wanted to make a really special page with this picture of my mother and I, but just couldn't find a way to make it feel right. So after futzing around for 2 weeks I decided to call it a day and slapped down what I had and added the stamped title. This is far from my favorite page but I still love the picture and the colors. 2 good things came of this. First I found my new love of the versa magic chalk ink pads and second my mojo came back and I was able to get through two more pages after this. So here she is....the page that took me 2 weeks

4th of July

Coming back to work after a long weekend is always the pits....but look what I found in my inbox to cheer me up. Thanks to my brother and SIL for having such cute kiddies!!

We had a nice relaxing long weekend. Jim's mom is in for a visit. She has been helping us in the yard as she has quite a green thumb. Yesterday we went to a little festival in town, ate some junk food, and then took a drive down the coast. We were home before dark so we just watched the fireworks on tv. Tomorrow Jim and I are taking off work and we will spend the day up in San Francisco....so that should be fun.

Scrapping wise I have been in a slump but still got a little done. I finally finished a layout (that I will post later) that has been sitting on my desk for about 10 days. That layout just had me stumped, and after essentially giving up, I slapped it together and called it done. After that page I started working on my next TSBM assignment. Thanks to some expert advice from Wendy (suggesting to use the cheapo cardstock from Michaels to cut flourishy monograms on the pazzles) I was able to finish my 2nd page and start on the 3rd. Thank you WENDY!!

That's about all for now. I hope everyone had a nice 4th!!

8 1/2 x 11 ??

8 1/2 x 11 is all the rage, but I have been bucking this trend for my beloved 12x12. I haven't scrapped this size since I first started 6 years ago. But today was the day. I have seen so many awesome pages this size I wanted to give it a try myself. hhhmmmm, not so sure I like this too much, but I am going to make at least one album of my niece.

So here are my first layout for the book.