I'm BACK!!!!

Whew, for the 2nd weekend in a row I had a good scrap mojo flowing. This weekend I scrapped just for me. No assignments or worries about insturctions and materials lists. I ended up making 7 layouts. That is a good pace for me. I tried to scrap some everyday photos - what's funny is that some of the best memories I have are captured in everyday candid shots. My goal this weekend was to work on my Heidi Swapp BPS layouts. I ended up getting distracted with other pages but did get sketches done and printed my pictures....so I hope to finish those during the week.

Here are two of my favorite layouts.....I will share the others over the next couple days.

This is my DH playing the guitar. I took these shots weeks ago for my HS BPS goal page (so you will see them again), but ended up getting side tracked and made this page instead. Please don't tell him I used crate paper Cowgirl collection on him....ooooohhh.

This page is me playing a game with my niece and nephew at Christmas time. Poor Aunt Missy had to remind both of them (but especially my 3 year old niece) not to cheat. Oh my their parents have some work to do....but I couldn't help but laugh. They were so cute. This layout made me so happy to remember that day.

Email Woes

With the amount of junk email that I get I should have known something was wrong earlier when I wasn't getting any emails. When I logged on this morning to find not a single email in my inbox I knew something was wrong. uuugghhh that is so annoying. I was able to get the problem fixed but will not be able to recover any undelivered emails....now I probably didn't get anything important....but I'm sort of obsessing over what I might have missed.

On a brighter front, Jim and I had a really great 3 day weekend. Saturday was errand day and lawn care day. We got so much done and we were both really happy with our progress. Sunday and Monday were a bit lazy. I did manage to get some good scrapping time in and for the first time since Christmas actually felt creative. I made 3 new layouts and 4 cards.....whew, it felt so good to be productive again.

This is not a layout I did this weekend, but it is one of my favorites that I haven't shared. It was part of an article on chipboard.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

One year ago today Jim and I had been in our house less than a week and were living on the dining room floor as our bedroom was being remodeled. For valentines day we had TV dinners and opened a bottle of wine. We were having trouble with our cable reception, his guitars were still packed, and my scrap stuff would still be boxed up for weeks, so we just sat together enjoyed each others company all night.

With the exception of sleeping on the dining room floor I think we are going to do the same thing this year. No TV, no scrapping, and no guitar....just good ole fashion quality time.

We have never really done much on Valentines day. Jim's birthday was just a few days ago and we went out to a very nice dinner last weekend. So this year we are exchanging cards and kisses....and knowing Jim I'll probably get a little Godiva (because he can't help himself).

So I hope everyone has a wonderful night!!!!

I did it again

Once again I have neglected my blog. Sometimes I really wonder where the time goes.

It has been over a week since I got back from CHA and I am still digesting all that I saw and going through the mountain of catalogs that I picked up. It's amazing how much stuff I missed. Overall I was impressed by the new releases and the show seemed to have a nice buzz but it wasn't crazy. There was a lot of talk about the fate of Memory Trends so it will be real interesting who decides to pull out.

Since I haven't been up to much the past few weeks I thought I would share the layouts I did for Technique Tuesday's booth. I had so much fun playing with these stamps....

On a side note my nephew turned 5 on monday. Oh my, I just can't believe he is alreayd 5. I called him and had a full on conversation with him about his birthday party. It literally seems like yesterday when I got the call telling me I was an Aunt....now he is 5!!!

Oh my I am so sorry

....for not blogging since before Christmas. I honestly don't know where the time went. Jim and I spent a wonderful week in New York doing everything we planned plus a little extra. Then we were able to spend New Years week at home. We both minimized our internet time and focused on getting stuff done around the house. That was a great week and we got a bunch of stuff done that had been lingering on our to-do list for months.

Scrapwise I have been focused on a magazine assignment and some CHA work. I was overly excited to get an opportunity to make 2 layouts for the Technique Tuesday CHA booth. Now that I have a little break before my next assignment is due I am hoping to get caught up on the Heidi Swapp BPS class as well as on my mission to make Christmas ornaments and decorations for myself (LOL...yes, I am really going to start this early so I have a chance of finishing by December). My goal is to hand make all the ornaments on my main tree. So wish me luck on those tasks.

I will be heading down to Anaheim in 2 weeks for CHA. I am very excited to see the new products and companies. Not to mention I will get to see several of my SoCal friends at the show. I also get to see Becks (from the UK) again so that is cool.

Well I am still trying to catch up after being off work for over two weeks. So I am going to sign off for now, but hope to be back soon with some new pictures.

Happy Holidays

WOW I can't believe that Christmas is almost here. The past two weeks have been crafting crazy for me. Finishing up assignments, cards, and gifts...I'm sure most of you can relate. So I don't have anything new to share right now....but I will after the holidays.

Jim and I are getting ready to leave for New York on Friday. I am so excited about the trip. Of course the highlight of the trip will be seeing my nieces and nephew, but we also have a day planned in New York City. First the Radio City Music Hall show, then an NBC studio tour, a view from top-of-the-rock, and then if we have time a stop by the Morgan Museum to see a Bob Dylan Exhibit. Since none of us are brave enough to drive in the city we will take the train down and back. It's going to be a great day. To top all of that off, I am going to get real NY pizza and Italian food....something we just can't get here in CA. No matter how many people from "NY" that own resturants here in CA, there is nothing like real pizza from NY. Seriously, I think there is something in the water that make the crust taste so good.

I hope all of you have a happy holiday!!!!

Crazy for Canvas

I finally tried my hand at canvas creations. They are really very quick and fun to make. Both of these will be Christmas gifts this year. I have always sturggled with how to display handmade creations outside of my scraproom....so I love that these stand up by themselves. I am planning to make one or two for myself to put up on my mantle.

Jumbo Embellies!!!

I'm finally able to share a few layouts I did on super-sized embellishments. I know Wendy is going to love the picture in the 2nd page.....wozers look at that red hair on my niece.

Holy international blog batman!!!

OK, it really is the silly things that bring this girl joy. With the link from Pencil Lines my blog has been getting a lot of views since Sunday. In the past 24 hours I have had 50 visits to my blog (way more than usual) with a very interesting distribution that I got from my blog counter (and I love statistics):

• Over 50% of the visits came from outside the USA.
• People from 9 different contries came to visit. A big huge hello to my UK friends, but I also had visitors from Canada, Australia, South Africa, Singapore, Sweden, Netherlands, and Spain.... that's quite a list!
• 16 people linked to me from the pencil lines blog
• 3 people found me using google search for either "Missy's Muses" or "Missy Neal" - on a side note have you ever googled your own name - it's funny what comes up.
• 8 people leaving the blog clicked out to the Pencil Lines blog

Man, I really wish I knew who was stopping by to take a look. I would love to think about having friends in all these great locations.

Well thanks to everyone who stopped by....you really made my day.

Check out this weeks Pencil Lines guest member

Woo Hoo....a little tooty toot for me. I am so proud to be this weeks guest designer for the UK's smashing hit sketch challenge website: Pencil Lines. Each week this amazinly talented group of scrappers put up a sketch challenge. This week I was the lucky designer of the sketch and also made the following layout for the challenge:

Totally in LOVE with 8x8

Gosh, I feel so guilty for neglecting my blog the past two weeks, but it's been a little crazy. My dear MIL was in for a visit this week and we had a lovely time. We even ventured to the shopping mecca of Union Square San Francisco for a little black friday shopping. The good news is that I am now 90% done with my Christmas shopping.
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Scrap wise I have been working on a 8x8 album for my MIL and found out that I LOVE this size. It's just perfect for a 4x6 picture. I also went on a mission to use up some of my older embellies.....just look at these pages and you are sure to find some blast from the past items.

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About a year ago I did CKU masters where had a circuit of these 8x8 pages. I was not impressed with this portion of the CKU and thought I would never do this size again. That was until I found a super cute album that was just too perfect to pass up. So I decided to make my MIL a little album for her birthday. Oh my it was like heaven. The pages were fun and went together so quick and easy. I will for sure be doing another one of these. In the meantime check out some of the super fast cuties that went into my MIL's album:

Sharing my Bling

I haven't been scrapping much lately and what I have been doing can't be shared just yet, so I decided to share 2 of my favorite layouts from the current issue of the Scrapbook Magazine in the article on Bling.

The first is a layout of my Grandparents who were married for 57 years. My grandpa passed away earlier this year so it's really a tribute page to him. The 2nd page is my niece playing in the flowers at my moms house. I have scrapped this picture before but I just loved the way the colors in this page looked.

Thanks so much for looking.

It's time to vote...

For everyone in the US today is an important day. Remember to get out and vote...it's important and your civic duty.

Since DH and I moved since last election we had a new polling location. I was surprised when I got to the polls at 7:00am today and there were already 15 people ahead of us in line. It took almost 45 minutes to get our votes cast, but it was well worth it. A lot of my friends are voting absentee, but for me there is something that just feels good about standing in line to cast my vote. I am wearing my sticker today and hope you all do the same.

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