A week of celebration and lessons learned...

I couldn't believe it when I opened my email and there was Scrapbook Trends asking for a card that I had submitted. Now, I think I am one of the worst card makers EVER but this was one card that I was so proud of. I actually made it for someone special in my life but never did send it out and now I am glad that I didn't. LOL!

Now I can't wait to see the January 2009 issue of Scrapbook Trends! Yippeee!!!!

The Memory Makers Masters 2009 list was announced. I did attempt it but I think I disqualified myself because I forget to send in my release forms (if that even mattered) anyway, Congratulations to all the winners and runner-ups. I do have to say that I am very, very happy with the layouts I sent in. Here is one I did of Nick and his first year in 4-H:



On another note, Simply Obsessed is having their Design Team Call. I know a few of the girls on the current Design Team, from other boards and can I just say they have some talent over there! Good luck girls on your tryouts...I will be cheering you on.

Woohoo! I have been chosen to be the GDT in September at Simply Obsessed!

This is what I will be working with:


I am so stoked! I had orignally signed up to get the kit (as a treat to myself for my birthday) but at the last minute decided to throw my hat into the ring for the GDT spot. The task: Please create an altered school related item, ie. notebook, pencil box, lunch box, backpack tag, or whatever. So, I decided to use a 3 ring binder that I had sitting on my table and alter it to make a calendar for important school notes and function. I am so unorganized when it comes to that kind of stuff and with all the boys in football, concerts and homework assignments....I needed something. LOL!

So here is my calendar:


and a few of the months:






Well, I gotta run. It's time to pick up the chickens from the fair! I will talk to you all later.

Mark August 25th as a MUST REMEMBER DATE

If you want one of these beautiful kits from Coordinates Collections:


Johnny Appleseed

OR/IF NOT BOTH



Madame Butterfly

From Jaime, the owner and operator of Coordinates Collections

Due to my upcoming wedding on August 30 then a week-long honeymon, the
September website change and October kit/addons selection date needs to be
modified. So, the website changes and kit selections/addons will take place
on Monday, September 8 at 10:00 am MST and NOT Sept. 1.

September kits will be shipping out the 10-12th so a few days later than the
usual 8-10th date.

Also, any items you wish to have shipped with your September kits MUST BE
ORDERED by August 25!!

I just want to wish Jaime the best! She is so blessed to have found love with a terrific guy. Congratulations, Jaime! I hope the both of you have a wonderful wedding and a fantastic honeymoon. Woohooo!!!

*Back to School*

I am not sure if I should be excited or if I should be wishing it weren't so. I mean, I love that the boys are back to school and I don't need to worry about a babysitter but I don't look forward to the early mornings, homework and practice. Nope, not at all.

We managed to get most of the supplies purchased and a few outfits but we still need to head over to the mall for a few more things. My mom was nice enough to pick up shoes for the boys. That helped ALOT!

Speaking of *Back to School*, check out this kit from Coordinates Collections:



Isn't it bright and colorful! Perfect for *Back to School*? I am sure it can be used for other things to. Guess you will have have to stop by CC on September 1st. Hope to see you then!

**********************************************************************************

I got my first kit from Simply Obsessed and couldn't wait to create with it. I have had this picture of Nick and I sitting on my counter for a few days but couldn't get inspired enough to really get started...that is until I tore open my package from SO.
This is what I came up with:



It's a simple layout but I am very happy with it!

Well, I would post more but Doug is in a hurry to meet Auntie Brenda for Ice Cream. So we must GO NOW! Talk at you later...

I have been productive...well, sorta

I did manage to squeeze some housework and chores in between my hanging out over at SO and their Birthday Bash. I even hung my laundry out to dry. I impress myself!

I accomplished 2 single page layouts and 1 double. I haven't done a double in FOREVER but it was really fun. I used the August 12x12 sketch from Pagemaps. I changed things around a little but I really liked the way it turned out.

This was for Challenge #3-Build your own.

(the title is inspired from the song "These are the Days of Elijah")


From Brandy:

Here's a little twist on the ice cream motif -- let's build a banana split. Your call, but it has to involve double scoops (aka, a 2 page LO) and banana halves (pick any sketch from the Aug Pagemaps to inspire you) and three toppings.

Toppings are:
whipped cream: white flocking (check your kit!)
nuts: buttons
pineapple sauce: glitter
chocolate syrup: brown journaling
strawberry topping: ribbon
cherry on top: one burst of red (can be bling, paper, whatever)
sprinkles: doodling or other fun pen work

I just noticed that I used more than 3...oops! Still love the final project.

Bonus Challenge-Two Scoops



From Crystal
We needed to make a layout that has two pictures on it and with at least one circle.

Challenge #6-Unwrap some scrappiness!



From Deanna
I had to use some packaging from some of my scrapbooking supplies to create a layout.oing to unwrap some scrappy supplies and use the packaging on a layout.

I really don't think this is my best work of the night. I am going to blame my husband because he was sitting in here at the computer (in my way). Yeah, that sounds good.

I'm offically on VACATION!

For the next 14 days, I don't have to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock. YEAH! I did spend the first evening of my vacation helping my boys was their chickens for the fair. I was soaked when we were done. It wasn't something I enjoyed. I actually asked Rog to come home from work to finish setting up the barn so that they could have their own space and lay new straw down. Now we have to wait until Sunday when we take them into be weighed. I hope for the best but I really don't expect the boys to get Grand or Reserved Grand Champion. Which makes me sad for Doug cause he has worked so, so hard. When Ry was slacking, Doug was picking up the slack. I guess I can only wait and see.

After that adventure, I jumped onto the messageboard atSimply Obsessed to see what challenges that they were having for the Birthday Celebration! I managed to finish created by Jenni Smith, a Design Team member. The Vanilla Fudge Ripple Challenge. We had to use a black and white picture (to represent vanilla and fudge) and some type of scallop (to represent the ripple). Heres what I came up with:
Thanks Jenni for the challenge and the scraplift!

If you remember, Deanna Tagged me.

Which is very sweet. In Deanna's blog, she listed some random facts about her, so I guess thats what I am suppose to? What do I list and will it make you laugh at me?

I think from the time I was in 5th grade until I graduated High School, I moved 11 times. It was hard on me at the time but I think its made me who I am. I can be friendly and helpful.

I hate, hate berries. Any type. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries...yuck! I only eat them to make sure my children eat them. Just like spinach. Not a fan but I make it and eat it so that the boys do.

I love, love bluegrass music. I could sit and listen to it all day.

I dressed up and went trick or treating when I was a Senior in High School. My friends and I purchased those garbage bags that look like pumpkins, stuffed to fill them out and painted our faces. I think we looked cute. Oh, also that night, I saw 3 guys from the local high school trying to take some kids candy. They didn't end up with the candy.

In college, I traveled to Texas to watch our Basketball team play in a tournament. It was so fun. We were able to go to Billy Bob's HonkyTonk. So fun!

My Hope and Glory comes from Christ. I find when I drift away from that path, I become empty and sad.


Ok, I am done. I have to do the tagging. Right? Ok. I know that I want to tag...
Sarah,Leila, Jenney and Nicole.

What a week and its only Tuesday!

I think thats because I am on vacation next week. I wouldn't really call it a vacation, I mean I will be spending most of my free time up at the fairgrounds because the boys have their chickens up for auction. I took the boys for football sign-ups. I can't believe how expensive it is to have your children play sports. I mean, I ended up having to pay $255 for the football and its not live I can even keep the pads, uniforms or helmets. I have to return them at the end of the season. Wow! Oh, Doug did inform me he wants to buy his jersey at the end of the season. I think that was on $10 dollars. Anything for my children. I really never had the opportunity to be involved in sports, so I am always glad when the boys want to. Although, I don't think they are really aware of how much hard work goes along with playing. I actually had them running sprints. Is that what they call it when you have to run and bend down to touch the line and then run back to do the same thing? Does that make sense? They didn't last long. We are going to have problems with the helmets. Doug and Nick are NOT wanting to pull the sides to lift off. Instead, they pull the pads out and then pull off. We need to work on that. Practice starts a week from Monday. I can't wait! Better stock up on the powerade!

On another note, I entered a contest over at Color {Me} Daisy. This months contest was inspired buy the August kit Splish Splash. The details of the contest are as follows: Create any size layout using blue OR green, black, white and a Splash of color (your choice). The splash can be anything; however this color needs to be used in a small way to add impact to the layout. So here is what I came up with:



I know its simple but I am very happy with it. I just wish Nick had his haircut BEFORE that picture. I have a think with long hair on my boys. They ask and ask to grow it out but I can't and the country boy in Rog won't let them. LOL!

I also entered in a contest for Septembers GDT over at Simply Obsessed. I don't think I can share it yet but when they decide who the GDT will be, I will make sure I post it. I surprised myself with it. Not sure if thats a good or bad thing.

Oh, one final thing for tonight. Deanna has tagged me. I think Lyn tagged me once before but I was such a novice at Blogging, I didn't know what to do. I will work on that tomorrow. Gotta give it some thought! Thanks Deanna!!

August 1st

This month, I was the lucky one to recieve and play with Tim Holtz's Grungeboard. When Jaime let us know who was the sponsor for August, I was a little stumped. I had heard of Tim Holtz and Grungeboard but had never actually used it. The first thing I did was run over and watched the demonstration that Tim has on Youtube. From then on, I was excited and couldn't wait to get started.

From the video, I knew it was flexible but I didn't realized how easy it would be to color. I used paint, ink and some metallic rub-ons and was totally impressed on how quickly everything dried...and NO mess!!

This is first layout that I created using some of the numbers from Tim. Each sheet of grungeboard come swith many different sizes and styles of numbers. On my layout, 123456 and seven, I used 3 different styles of numbers and inked them with the Cat's Eyes Fluid Chalk. Oh, and the word AND is also included on a sheet of grungeboard.



You can check other projects that are using Tim Holtz's Grungeboard by heading over to Coordinates Collections Gallery. I hope to upload more projects after work!