I've been tagged! Don't run away...read on...please?

Okay, good. This will be a nice way to spend five minutes of your time; I promise! I was tagged by one of my favorite, most talented papercrafter blogger friends, Mustang Sarah. Her work is incredible! If she is not on your list of favorites, put her at the top! Go here: http://creationsbysarah.blogspot.com/

The tag goes like this: Write 8 of your blog friends names in a unique way and post them. Then come back over and let me know. You must write the blogger's name that tagged you, then add 7 others.

Okay, I may be creative in some ways, but this one is difficult for me. Sarah, you did a great job with this challenge (you will see how amazing she is when you visit her blog) and I am so honored that you thought of me, but I am changing the rules of the challenge. Sarah, I loved how you did your 8 names; especially mine!

Here is my challenge: I am highly motivated by music (as is my daughter, Julia aka "June junior"). Post as a comment a song and artist that highly motivates you.

Here is mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myTzrtr46dI Il Divo & Celine Dion "I Believe in You"

(The entire song is beautiful, but the chorus is especially meaningful for me, since I am following my heart and my dreams!)

Lyrics:
Lonely the path you have chosen
A restless road no turning back
One day you will find you light again
Don't you know
Don't let go the chance

English chorus:
Follow your heart
Let your love lead through the darkness
Back to a place you once knew
I believe, I believe, I believe in you
Follow your dreams
Be yourself an angel of kindness

There's nothing that you cannot do
I believe, I believe, I believe in you

Tout seul tu t'en iras tout seulCouer ouvert à l'univèrsPoursuis ta quêteSans regarder derrièreN'attends pasQue le jour se léveSuis ton etòileVa jusqu'oì ton revê t`emporteUn jour tu le toucherasSi tu crois,si tu crois,si tu crois en toiSuis ta lumièreN'étint pas la flamme que tu portesAu fond de toi souviens toiQue je crois,que je crois,que je crois en toi

Someday I'll find you
Someday you'll find me too
And when I hold you close
I know that it's true
(Repeat English chorus)


What, are you still here? Leave your comment and go visit Sarah's blog!

Back to 2004 project

I made the "Discover Play Create..." photo mat from a January 2004 Memories class using SEI papers. I used QK Paige to create "LIVE LAUGH LOVE", then realized that I did not have a second coordinating 12x12 sheet of SEI paper to create the right hand page. I thought of calling Tracy to see if she could hook me up with some if she had it in her stash... but then I decided to trim the SEI paper down (left page) and try to make something else work. I bought 2 sheets of yellow scalloped Bazzill and I mounted both SEI elements on it, then mounted on white cs. I know I said I wasn't gonna buy more stuff, but I only purchased 5 sheets of cs to complete scrapbooking all of 2004 (the rest all came from my stash!!!) Remember I also bought the Bazzill pink scalloped circle and pink Bazzill cs used for photo mats from the "Book Worms" layout. (Hey, I only spent ~$4 on the 5 sheets total). My crate of old kits is still looking full, but now I can rifle through each kit; they are not crammed full :) I will continue to try to use my stash first when I get going on 2005, but I'm sure I will have to buy some stuff. I'm not gonna force the pictures on an old kit just to use it up if they colors don't coordinate with my pics. I think I am happier with how this layout turned out than if I had only used SEI.

Surprise! November 2005

I told you I would post July 2004 today, but at the insistence of my new friends at AFSC, I'm posting this page today. I designed this page for my next "Teaching Techniques" class at AFSC (Ashburn Family Scrapbook Center in Ashburn, VA). Here were the requests I received:

1. Use Technique Tuesday stamps (owner)

2. Teach us to emboss (employee)

3. Use the Stemmar epoxy clips (another employee)

4. Use journaling block (customer in class)

5. Use autumn papers, not Halloween nor too Thanksgiving-like (another customer in my class)

6. Show us a page using lots of pictures (yet another customer in my class)

7. Use Basic Grey Mellow papers Automne, Seasoned, and Ebb (okay, that was me...LOL)

#1,2,4 I stamped and embossed this Technique Tuesday journaling block.

#3 See vertical picture of me with Kathryn pushing her baby stroller.

#6 I used 6 pictures on one page :)

#5,7 Look at the papers I chose...okay, Blogger Buddies, how did I do?

J & K 2nd birthday party

Yesterday was a long day in the car driving 1/2 way to NC and back to pick up our girls. I planned to post last night, but we were so tired, we went to bed after putting the girls to bed. It is so nice having them home! Friday night I attended a crop and I finished, yes, FINISHED scrapbooking 2004. This layout is still of June 2004, so I will post the next layout each day this week. Since my girls are home and school does not start for us until after Labor Day, I won't be getting much scrapbooking done anyway! We rarely take many pictures; we are such bad parents that way! So I usually don't have a horrible time deciding which pictures to put on a layout. For this layout I had plenty (thank goodness for their grandparents...these pictures were taken by them!) What do I do on the rare occasion I have lots of pictures? The nine square layout (right page). The left page highlights the birthday girls, then my mom and my maternal grandparents, the cake my mom made for our luau themed party, and the birthday girls playing with the gift we bought them. The moving truck unloaded our stuff in this house exactly 5 days prior to this party. I had my parents & in-laws helping me unpack, take care of the girls, break down empty boxes, etc. until we had the whole first floor ready for the party, pictures hung and all! I had purchased a sheet of Embossable Designs in April 2004, knowing I would use them on this scrapbook page. Thursday, while still in my brain fog, I decided just to go ahead and cut the whole page out, so when my fog cleared, I would be ready to get this layout done. My wonderful husband gave me Bazzill Bling trios (all 5 packs that were available at the time) for my birthday or Christmas last year (or was it the year before?) I have a hard time cutting up those beautiful papers! I used Bazzill Bling for the blue base of both pages, and pink bling for the photo mats. The white mats are regular Bazzill cs. (Click on the pic to see better detail.)

A little too cute for my taste...

I ran out of white Bazzill cs I was using to mount photos for 2nd B-day party layout, so I moved on to other pics taken in June '04. These were two of the first kits I bought at Memories the first day I found the store and decided I wanted to learn to scrapbook. So I purchased these papers and dry embossed frogs in June of '03(the frogs came on a sheet, and I cut out these three frogs by hand.) These pages are a little too cute for my taste, but I do like them. These pages will remind me of how much my tastes have changed :)

I did the same thing when I first got hooked on rubber stamping. I bought stamps that (for me) are a bit too cute, and now I never use. I hold on to those stamps because my girls like to stamp with the cute stamps. But in the interest of getting caught up on my scrapbooking without buying more stuff, I went ahead and used these pages.

Card Makin' with Scrappin' Scraps

My next scrapbook pages will be of the girls' 2nd birthday party. I'm feeling a huge brain fog right now, so I'm taking a break.

Instead of filing away the scraps of dp in my already overflowing accordian file, I decided to try to use them on cards first. The top left card (and subsequent use of white scallops on two other cards) are scraps left on my table from my All About U card class (blog entry: http://simplyelegantpapercrafts.blogspot.com/2007/07/all-about-u-card-class.html). I added a Bazzill chip to the front. The other four cards are made from some of the dp from my Happy Easter 2004 layout that I blogged 3 days ago.

Good news! Most of you know I began selling my greeting cards at Greenberry's Coffee & Tea in Leesburg, VA, 6 months ago. I average selling 8 cards per week. This month I began selling at the Greenberry's in McLean, VA. The first 10 days, I sold 15 cards in McLean! The manager called me Tuesday night and told me the good news. My dh had a meeting the next day in McLean, so I sent him to do inventory and re-stock my little basket. So this means in a non-holiday season I need to average 2.5 cards per day to keep up. I did not make any cards yesterday, so I made these 5 today. These would not win any card contests, but they will sell. Which one is your favorite? Please leave me a comment :) I love comments!

2 year portraits taken ~3 weeks before they turned 2

To continue yesterday's story, during those 3 weeks without Doug in May 2004 I had lots I wanted to accomplish before relocating from NC to VA. The cats needed their annual exam, the girls needed their 2 year well-check, and I wanted to get their 2 year portraits done by our wonderful photographer in Harrisburg, NC. Tony Barnhardt of Heaven Sent Photography see his webpage and view his work at: http://www.hvnsnt.com/home.html). My blog pic does not do him justice! Anyway, I knew none of this would get done in a timely manner if I waited until after the move to VA. The girls would turn 2 years old a week after closing on the houses. I taught this class at Memories. As soon as I saw the dp I knew it would be perfect for these pics!

Mother's Day 2004

This was a one page kit I stretched to two pages...too crowded for one page anyway. This was the day my husband left for an overseas business trip for 3 weeks. That was a long three weeks. In that time I packed our house in NC, my paternal grandfather passed away, closed on the house in NC, relocated two children and two cats to northern VA, closed on our new home in northern VA, and my husband returned from overseas the day after closing :) We loved our neighborhood in NC and the Charlotte area, but we love it here too. My friend Dianne says I would bloom wherever I was planted. Maybe. As long as there are good scrapbooking stores nearby, I guess. This transition was very easy for me (except for leaving my Supreme girlfriends in NC) because I am originally from MD, about an hour and 15 minutes from here. So I returned to Redskin country, the same newscasters, and radio djs I grew up with. And I am only an hour from my parents and my maternal grandparents. This is home for me.

Happy Easter 2004

I really like this layout. My favorite so far of 2004. I bought this kit from Memories. I did not actually teach this class. Maybe Tracy taught it? I only made a few subtle changes. The title, "Happy Easter" was supposed to be stamped with foam stamps and green paint. I opted for pear Bazzill and QK Tangerine font, which may not have been the better option since it is a little lost on the striped dp. My other change was not using any ribbon. I love to use ribbon on my layouts, but I decided to use my new revolution flower die (see the large flower in bottom left corner of Julia's page and the 3 flowers on Kathryn's page.) Thank you for leaving comments on the previous layout posts. It really keeps me motivated to know you are looking :)

Finally...April 2004 done

I did not care for the layout that these KI papers came from, but I liked that the designer had paper pieced bright pink flowers, so I did my own thing. The kit provided only a 6x6 piece of bright pink cs, so I bought this Bazzill scalloped circle (2 sheets) to do the center circle, the "Book Worms" title, and "Julia" and "Kathryn". I also bought a sheet of lighter pink Bazzill cs for the photo mats, date, and "Book Worms" shadow. I don't know why my pictures look sooooo dark on the layout. They are a little dark (I'm not a good photographer), but not as dark as they seem on my blog. The Book Worms title is QK Tangerine font. I LOVE that font!!! The names and month are QK Katie font (my other favorite.) We are off to drive towards NC now. My f-i-l needs a girl fix, and he is driving 1/2 way to northern VA. We will meet at a Cracker Barrel and switch cars (we have car seats). I will have 5 days, no girls. I already miss them, but I hope to be a scrapbooking fool this week. I will post my 2004 Easter layout tomorrow...

March layout

Yeah, I know. A March layout that looks like Valentine's Day. But I was wearing one of my favorite red shirts in these pictures AND I am getting caught up on my scrapbook AND using my stash to get caught up.

These are actually two different croppin' cards, and not meant to be a 2 page layout. I changed the one on the right quite a bit, so you seasoned Memories folks may not recognize it.

February 2004 scrapbooked...

You might be thinking I am neglecting my children to do these layouts...the truth is I have lucked out so far with pages I made last year (last year's attempt to use my stash...I started to randomly make pages from my Memories class kits in hopes of getting caught up someday...)
Like yesterday, this was actually a one page kit (I think the right page). I used the scraps from the kit to create the left page. The stitching is actually rub-ons that were included in the kit. All I had to do to complete was mat my photos on white cs, print out my journaling, and use my QK Paige font for the title. I'm liking this instant gratification...

Scrapbook layout for January 2004

Here are my little cuties at age 19 months. This one was easy. I made this layout about a year ago, so all I had to do was crop my photos, mount on white cs, then journal. My journaling is usually minimal; in this case it involved their names and the date (bottom right corner) on white cs, then punched with the SU! slot punch. I love that punch! Anyway, I forgot how much Julia liked her "hats". In these pictures she is wearing a Coldstone Creamery ice cream bucket, and my Washington Redskins hat I wore in elementary school (I told you I saved everything!) Julia is my blue-eyed girl (light brown/almost blonde and Kathryn is the brown-eyed beauty/brunette. (I think if you click the pic you can see more detail.) Thanks for stopping by!

Next project...Scrapbooking Julia & Kathryn

See this black notebook (pictured bottom left)? This is filled with scrapbook pages I have made (at least partially) waiting for photos and photo mats. Behind the notebook and to the right of it is an overflowing crate of scrapbook kits. The crate is so full there are kits propped in front of the crate!

The last completed page in my scrapbook of my girls is December 2003. Now that I have the girls' photo albums and art work albums updated through June 2007 (yea, me...Tracy and Lauren thanks for cheering me onwith your blog comments!!!), I developed pictures I'd like to scrapbook for 2004. Here is the goal...think smarter, not harder...I want to use pre-made pages and/or these scrapbook kits as much as I can to help me catch up faster AND use up what I already own without buying more stuff (okay, I can hear some of you ROTFLOL! I know, I know, I've said that before and yet I buy more stuff.) I am very picky about my decorative papers matching the colors in the photos (i.e. the outfits the girls are wearing), but I hope to be able to find kits that coordinate well with my pictures. I will post the layouts as I complete them. They may not be new and trendy, but I'll be using my stash and what was trendy for 2004, at any rate.

Tracy and I taught classes at Memories and one of the perks (besides an AWESOME employee discount) was for every class you taught, the teacher received two class kits. One to make for the store to keep as a sample and the other for herself. Alas, Memories closed the east coast stores earlier this year (a moment of silence, please for my happy place closing.) Okay, so most of the time after making the store sample, I did not want to do it again. Hence, the overflowing crate. Confession: I have two more crate fulls in the closet! One filled with mini book kits, and another with Travel kits, Heritage kits, Calendar kits, and 12x12 craft keepers labelled with various themed stickers and embellies e.g. alphabet, baby, school, fall, winter, spring, summer, etc.

Check my blog when you can to track my progress :)

Nice Matters Award

The Nice Matters Award is a friendship award. This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Ila nominated me for this award. Thanks, Ila! Check out her wonderful cards here: http://artfullyila.blogspot.com/ I understand that I have to pass it on to 5 other nice bloggers. I have made quite a few blogger friends since beginning my blog June 1st, but here is my list:

1. Tracy http://suzyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/

2. Jean http://prettykittydogmoonjewelry.blogspot.com/

3. Lauren http://llaurenb.blogspot.com/

4. Ingrid http://scrapbookmaniaandmore.blogspot.com/

5. Corie http://creationsbycorie.blogspot.com/

Art work: before & after picture

Ahhhh...I finally got all these pictures in Julia's art work albums and Kathryn's art work albums. I've already picked out a few pieces I wish to keep, and the 4 piles you see are waiting for the grandparents to choose what they want before the rest goes in the trash (dating from Jan. '06-June '07). Okay, so I have not started on a fifth pile of art work, the one from camp this summer. The last day of camp is Monday (camp party.) So I can take a break and start a new project, right?

To Do List / Clutter / Craft room

Answer me this: Do any of you have a "To Do" list that has items on it that are a year or two behind? This is just one of the three piles of Julia & Kathryn's art work sitting in the floor of my craft room. After pre-school let out in June, Doug and I did a whole house clean out. My craft room is the tiniest bedroom, but somehow when the rest of the house got cleaned out (even the garage), everything we did not want to get rid of ended up here.

I am blogging this so that my blogger friends can hold me accountable. I am on a mission to get this room cleaned up and organized again! It is making me nuts!!! I never seem to have enough time just to get a card made, but I am determined to make this work. I will go without sleep, if necessary, but I want it done! Like all of you, I have a lot of balls I am juggling. Even though there are never enough hours in the day, sometimes I get more done when I have too much to do. It's times like these when I work on something I probably really don't have time for, but it feels good getting it done even though there are other things to do of higher priority. And some how I get it all done when I am determined to do it.

On Monday's post I mentioned I worked on updating my photo album, Julia's photo album, and Kathryn's photo album. I was 21 months behind, and now I am caught up. So next chore? Get caught up on the girls' art work. I am 17 months behind on this job. (Not counting the pile from camp this summer!) Doug helped me take pictures of each piece of art work for each child. I have gone through and picked out a few special pieces I wish to hold on to. Now the piles are waiting for the grandparents to choose what they wish to keep. The rest goes in the trash. I have the pictures developed. 7 boxes of photos to sort and put into their art work photo albums. I am dreading this chore (I always do) and I keep promising myself I won't let it get so far behind...

So will you be my cheerleader?

Caardvarks Challenge: Easy as 1,2,3!

The current challenge is to use 1 embellie, 2 patterned papers, and 3 flowers. This was perfect for me since my craft room lately has been a disaster area...worst it has ever been. I usually can't create in such a mess. Clutter makes my crazy. Yesterday my husband had the girls out for a little bit, so I took that time to try to clean it up. I have so many projects going at once right now, and I don't want to put away certain supplies until they are complete, kwim? One major project I started in June is getting our photo albums caught up. I was 2 3/4 years behind! My husband and I developed the photos and sorted them, but I had not placed them in the correct albums. All of this was in the floor! So this is where I started. After putting all the albums away, I moved on to my craft table. I uncovered these American Crafts papers I used in a previous post, with the large decorative brad. I had intended to use the flowers on that original card, but it overpowered it. So I decided on this simple 4 square design, one of my favorites to use scraps. What do you think?

10 layer card. Count 'em! 10!!!

Using my scraps again. This is not a new layout by any means. I've used "LOVE" and "NOEL" in this square before, but never with so many layers. This simple basic design took forever! I felt like every square needed a little "pop". So I matted each pp (discontinued MM) on white cs, trimming closely. The letters are stickers. Digressing here...when I first started to scrapbook 4 years ago, I only really knew about paper piecing, MM coordinating papers, and letter stickers. When MM discontinued these papers soon after I got bitten by the scrapbooking bug I actually thought, what am I gonna do now? Funny, huh? I've come a long way from that time. I was inspired to use my stickers and these papers again when Nathalia posted a blog entry where she used some old tired stickers that she made new and cool. Check out all her fab creations here: http://funkyphreshpapierkreations.blogspot.com/.