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!