2008 Scrapbook page layout #'s 1, 2 and 3

This picture STILL cracks me up. From New Year's Eve-Rob took it of us (our silly 'holding the camera at arm's length' style). Sorting through photos earlier this month I realized we have lots of these shots (comparatively. nothing like the real scrappers with their hundreds a month.....) and I decided to commit to a "2008 Just the Two of Us" book - at least ONE photo a week - of us together - taken in this manner. (PS - Aimee--I really do do that kissy face thing! Can't stop myself! hee hee)

Heidi Swapp clear frame, edges painted with Copper Liquitex paint; purple cardstock, chipboard letters and fibers from Portafolio Scrapbooking tote kit (thanks, Cohens!); acrylic journaling stamp from dollar bin at Michael's; Micron black fine point pen.

Two more pages.....Saturday the 19th and Thursday the 24th...I love getting pages DONE and in the BOOKS!

INSPI(RED).

So.... I've sort of had a "thing" about staying away from HALLMARK stores for quite a few years now. It started after I became a Stampin' UP! consultant and invested the better part of my retirement fund in card-making supplies (oh the stamp sets!) - I decided I should be MAKING cards not BUYING MORE. And so.... Hallmark was on my "do not call" list. And though I love their cards.....I didn't really miss it - and even though I am not a SU! consultant now, I still make my own cards. So flash forward to now.....over the holidays my sister Jackie introduced us to the BANANAGRAMS game and I HAVE TO HAVE MY OWN...so I have been stopping in Hallmarks looking for the damn thing (how can the TOY stores not have this game?? geez). So tonight....I stop in a Hallmark on route back from a jaunt to (the sacred!) Anthropologie (cue the angels!).....but they don't carry the game......BUT......OH MY!! THEY ARE DOING THE RED THING! And just like I HAD TO HAVE the INSPI(RED) GAP teeshirt when it first came out....I had to have the INSPI(RED) Hallmark gift wrap STUFF. Hey Aimee, does Donna Downey know about this yet??

By the way....DH insists on pronouncing this "inspi-red" (inzpa-red)....it's a spacial thing I guess...he doesn't get the brilliance of the whole RED thing, whereas I adored the whole business model and all of its marketing genius right away...JOINRED.COM...it's brilliant, isn't it?

(What isn't brilliant is my use of so many ....'s....)

One Word. Year Two.

Loving Ali Edwards' Weekend Creative challenge idea, tied in with the One Little Word. I've been mulling over my WORD choice....which is "BREATHE." Something especially pertinent today as I am fighting off a cold/stuffy nose/chest congestion (ew). Something that reminds me to stop, think, TAKE A BREATH before acting, reacting, or speaking. (A lesson I have yet to master. Is this all sounding familiar? Didn't we go through this with the word GRACE last year at this time? uh-huh.)

So....I am off to get some FRESH AIR. And BREATHE a little....(taking a break from a dreaded work report that is due Monday.) I will take my camera along and try to capture some images of my word....just LOVE Ali's idea there....

And I will consider how to keep this word in front of me more consistantly this year...

Art. Get some on your walls!

Remember way back when Rob surprised me with a print from Linda Woods' etsy shop after I swooned over the JOURNAL REVOLUTION book? Well...I had every intention of framing it RIGHT AWAY....and purchased the frame I wanted and got it home and painted it.....and then....realized it was TOO SMALL!! EEK!!! So back to ACMOORE I went...and they were out of the larger size...

...and then the holidays and all ....

But this week I snagged some time after work for a latenight trip to AC Moore and armed with my FolkArt metallic acrylics....(Metallic Peridot and Metallic Rose Pearl) I painted the raw wood frame and voila! My treasured print from Ms Woods is on the wall! Can you see how artsy I was with the touches of the rose paint? Oh yeah....two colors of paint. That's right.

Journaling

One of my FAVORITE gifts this Christmas was the journal Rob bought for me....something I had admired while browsing together in Barnes & Nobel....something I wouldn't have bought for myself (lately I have been making my own journals - or buying "handmade" ) - but this one reminded me of the years when I purchased the "Old-Fashioned Country Diary" (whatever happened to them? I filled every inch of those pages with my scribbles --most of which is illegible to even me!) Loved that each page has a quote and the quality of the paper is scrumptious...each season the hues change--and I plan to change INK COLOR accordingly (messed that up by starting with BLACK ink.....going to swap over to a sepia tone for the rest of January : ) It's the little details that appeal to me!

So here's to the elegance of journal writing...or keeping a diary...AND....the excitement of starting a FRESH one.

And extra exciting - I have been on the waiting list for a monogrammed journal from Rebecca Sower and she wrote to me this week to tell me it is READY!! ooohhh....I will share pics when it arrives!

2007 - Scrappies

Adding some scrapbook projects and pages while I try to figure out how to make a "sidebar" spot for them (I really need to move to Typepad, don't I? sigh.)

Mini book of Halloween and Fall Fun with Mikayla & David! love you 2!





Minibook to celebrate my sis- and brother-in-law's 15th anniversary. Love you guys!

Our vacation scrapbook for the week in Mexico that was not to be (due to HURRICANES!) We went back to Universal instead. Still had a fabulous time, as always! LOVE YOU GUYS!

Got Paint? Big Picture Scrapbooking Class...

...with Emily Falconbridge (goddess, she herself!) Whew. Signed in today - just under the gun!! I think the deadline to sign up is tonight? Get on over there and play along! http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/gotpaint.php

So here is my start of the first project...an Art Journal (to hold all the paint techniques we will be learning over the next 4 weeks.) I started painting some chipboard letters for my cover title and realized I did not have an "L" - hence..."Journal" became "Journey" -- works for me!!

Love Miss Emily's style and OH MY the gallery is filling up with some GORGEOUS work. Inspired am I!

New Year. New BANNER NEEDED!

Ok...this is going to be the year I get some cooler banners going for the old BLOG. I have photoshop now (don't know how to USE IT PROPERLY)....and I have collected some digital brushes (again...have not mastered them).....so I am going to JUST DO IT (RISE UP AND CREATE, RIGHT LADIES????)

Stay tuned.

Be right back with that.

Happy New Year!

Wow. That went FAST.

The Big Bash was a big success. One last thing....add the photos to the party guestbook (doing double duty as a scrapbook of the BIG EVENT.)

Whew. Here's to a brand spankin' sparkling New Year!