A Little Bit ’o Scrappin’

Here's a two-page spread that works as an overview of our summer. The calendar pages came from AdornIt (sorry, I can't find the link) and was provided for Big Picture's Big Wig Bash, a celebration of scrapbooking that featured projects from several of their workshops and classes. The blue cardstock is from Stampin' Up! (one of last year's In Colors) and the patterned paper and embellishments are from the Sassafras Lass "Life is Beautiful" line.

Check Her Out!

I know, I know, nothing new on the creative front in a while. I have been creating a bit in my spare time, but I also have been catching up on a lot of reading and TV. Now that the new season has started, I'm addicted to the box. Unfortunately, I have been falling asleep most nights around 10:30 on the couch, only to wake up during the late night shows. I think that's a really interesting time for TV; you can see just about anybody doing about anything at that time of night. I made a really interesting discovery watching Letterman the other night, the author and humorist Sarah Vowell. I had never heard of her before, although I must have heard her, since she is a frequent contributor to my favorite NPR radio show This American Life and also played the part of daughter Violet in The Incredibles. If you like David Sedaris' brand of humor, I think you'll like Sarah as well.

Sarah on Letterman

Short Interview in New York Magazine

Starving Artistamps Giveaway

The uber-talented folks over at Starving Artistamps are having a Halloween giveaway of their new releases. Head on over and enter to win! I am crazy about their Doodle Factory stamps.

Adding to the Family

It's not official yet, but we will be adding some small members to our household in the next week or so.... a group of hermit crabs to be exact. DD the Youngest is quite the animal lover, and wants to get those little pinchers into the house ASAP. (It's either hermit crabs or puppies, so we're taking the easier of those two routes!) I'm not so sure about it, but as an astrological Cancer, I have to admit that I'm a bit intrigued. If anyone out there has any crab-keeping tips, I'm all ears!

The Disney Magic Continues

Yes, it has been a year since we made the pilgrimmage to the House of Mouse. No, my scrapbook isn't done yet. (Is a scrapbook ever done? That is a question I ask myself quite often.) I haven't given up yet, though! I'm still crankin' out a few pages every now and then. this was one of my favorite parts of the trip... getting to be an extra in the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular! My only disappointment was the lack of Harrison Ford (although the stuntman was pretty handsome).

Summer Is Here!

I've had this song running through my head all morning, "What Time Is It?" from High School Musical 2. Yes, it's the last day of school here, and I'm just as nervous as the kids! They find out which teachers they'll have next year and who will be in their class, and it's just as exciting for me as it is for them. (Never mind the fact that we now have to figure out how to fill our days for the next couple of months... I'll save that for another post!)

I discovered a great blog giveaway today that I want to share with everyone. Starving Artist Stamps has a got the cutest pirate/tropical theme new release, and they're giving one away! Hop on over there and enter for yourselves. That's where I'm headed!

How Would You Score?

19 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

A Solitary Weekend

Imagine this. Your DH takes the two girls camping. For the whole weekend. Without you. Well, that's the boat I find myself in this weekend. They all left last night for an end-of-the-school year campout with the Adventure Princess group they belong to. What to do? What to do? Usually, I clear off the dining room table and spread out all my scrapping supplies and get to work. I think it might be too muggy today for that. 86+ and we haven't unearthed the air conditioner yet. Perhaps I'll head over to the lone surviving LSS in our area... I could clean up the living room and dining room without the fear of a return to chaos by nightfall... I could watch some movies that don't involve talking computer-generated animals or singing, dancing high-schoolers. Oh, the possibilities!


This is an art journal that I created for the afore-mentioned 28 Days class at Big Picture. I made it all by myself! The book is covered with papers, rub-ons, and diecuts from My Mind's Eye (Tres Jolie and Magnolia collections). The covers and pages are part of the stash that came with my Bind It All machine, which I used to wire-bind the whole shebang. I'll share some of the pages inside once the gang comes home from Lake George with my camera!

Time for Spring Cleaning

Here's a layout that I did for a sketch challenge in the "28 Days" class that just wrapped up at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Just a list of what I did on a particular day. This will be fun to look back on in 10 years or so, to see how different life might be. Materials used: Noteworthy patterned paper (Making Memories), Blue Sky and Baroque Burgundy cardstock (Stampin' Up!) Thickers foam letters (American Crafts), and Rhinestone Brads (Stampin' Up)

So I'm cleaning out my stamping stash in advance of our garage sale this weekend (in conjunction with the Village-Wide Garage Sale). The interesting things that are coming to the surface never cease to amaze me. So far the treasures I've unburied include: a full box of 20 Tazo teabags from Starbucks (best before March 2005); full packages of Stampin' Up! forms dated 2003 and 2004; lots of candy and chocolates (oh, the waste!) from past swaps going back to 2003, including some fossilized giant gumballs; and what seems to be thousands and thousands of cards and cardfronts! Since I've given up demonstrating for Stampin' Up! I'm looking to clean house, so if you're interested in picking up stamp sets at bargain-basement prices, drop me an email or comment on this post and I'll let you know the specifics on the sale. Here are the sets that I've got available:

Stamp Set/Price
Funky Favorites/10
A Little Love/8
Fun Filled/8
Love w/o End/8
Little Hellos/8
Tags & More/8
Letter Patterns/5
Simple Wishes/5
Nice & Narrow/5
Handcut Holidays/5
Stars & Swirls/5
By Design/5
Background Basics/5
Gently Falling/5
Wishing You the Best/5
Double-Line Doodles/10
The Wheel Thing/5
Sweet Shapes/10
Take Three/8
Polka Dots & Paisleys/8

Wheels (regular) $2
Double-Line Stitched Plaid
Great Outdoors
Many Mittens
Size It Up
Bloomin’

Wheels (Jumbo) $4
Flitting By

National Scrapbooking Day

Didja know that Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day? Well, it was. And I didn't manage to get in a while lot of scrapbooking. I tried, I really did, but it just wasn't meant to be. I did manage to get one 2-page spread done. Just one, but it's better than nothing! These pages were created using Stampin' Up's Summer Days Simply Scrappin Kit. I love the colors in the kit — Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi, and Real Red. They coordinate perfectly with the Diecut Blooms that are featured in the current mini catalog as well (so I threw a few of those in there too). If you want to see more great pages created with this kit, head over to my friend Stacey's blog.

Our Family Idol

For the last several months, our nephew Eric has been competing in an American Idol-style contest televised in his native Norway, called the LIPA Dream. The winner gets a scholarship to the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, which was founded by Sir Paul McCartney. We’ve been following his progress via emails from his parents and the show’s website and I have to say, this kid is remarkable! If you attended our wedding, you'll remember Eric as the cute little 5-year-old with the bowtie. Well now he's all grown up, very handsome, and I was shocked to find out, has been inhabited by the spirit of Led Zepplin! When he opens his mouth to sing, Robert Plant comes to mind. To say I was shocked when I heard him is an understatement! Check out the show, The LIPA Dream. While you’re there, you can vote for him by clicking on "Stem pa din LIPA-favoritt," then clicking on Eric's picture (bottom left with the red guitar). I will warn you that the video is kind of start-and-stop, so if you just want to hear a snippet of his singing, here's a link to Eric in concert. Oh, before I forget, everything is in Norwegian (except for the singing)!
UPDATE!! Eric won the competition, so he's off to Liverpool to study the music biz for the next three years. Congrats, Eric!

Stamp Camp Review

For those of you who missed out on the “Beat the Winter Blues” Stamp Camp last weekend, you missed a great day with lots of great prizes and projects. Here are photos of the projects we made. First, a stunning gift box with coordinating card. This presentation will really knock someone’s socks off! The box was created using two of my favorite new products from the Spring Summer Collection — the Embrace Life stamp set and coordinating Ginger Blossom Designer Series Paper.

Next, we created a bunch of cards, many of them using sets from the Sale-A-Bration promotion. At the end of the day everyone went home with 7 hand-stamped cards and a beautiful gift box (and many people brought home free stamps, embellishments, and hand-made door prizes!). Not a bad take for two-and-a-half hours of work!

Spring-Summer Collection 2008

As Eloise would say, “Oh, my Lord.” I totally forgot to tell you all, devoted readers, about the NEW Stampin’ Up! Spring-Summer Collection 2008 catalog! Well, it’s here, and it’s beautiful. Lots of great new stamp sets, some really gorgeous new Designer Series Papers, and tons of new accessories, including rub-ons, felt flowers, and more. Why doncha call me to book a workshop, then you’ll have one for your very own!

Check out the online version here.

Coming Soon: Sale-A-Bration!

Remember the good old days of Januarys past, when Stampin' Up! offered free stamps thru their “Sell-A-Bration” promotion? Well, those days are back, with a twist! Now called “Sale-A-Bration,” you will once again be able to get free, exclusive, limited edition stamp sets with every $50 order you place starting February 1 and running through March 17. If you host a home workshop during Sale-A-Bration, you'll receive a free set for reaching $300 in sales (and that's in addition to your FREE hostess benefits). Also, anyone who joins as a demonstrator during Sale-A-Bration can choose any stamp set--a value of up to $47.95--from the current catalog. It's an awesome time to start Stampin' Up! Call me to book your Sale-A-Bration party now. I'll be offering a special gift to all hostesses during the months of February and March, so call now to book your date!

Download your own copy of the Sale-A-Bration mini catalog!

My Creative Classroom Grand Opening

I’m becoming a big fan of online classes, and here’s a new site with lots and lots of offerings, My Creative Classroom. This week is their grand opening, and if you register for their newsletter you can enroll in their free classes this week!

More Layouts

I've been doing a lot more scrapping than stamping these days… it seems to be a January habit of mine. I get into a flurry of scrapbooking to try and remember the year just past. There have been some great challenges posted online lately, so these are some of them that I have participated in.

This is a page about my oldest DD. The challenge involved choosing a word from a list given, then scrapping about it. They were all kind of unusual words, but there was no doubt who I would write about when I saw this one! All elements from "Embrace Life" freebie digikit by Sande Krieger for Memory Makers. Font is CK Becky.


This traditional page is, obviously, about my favorite color. I created the photo collage in Photoshop and had it printed on an 8x10 sheet. Cardstock, ink, alphabet stamps, and chipboard heart from Stampin' Up!, patterned paper by Rebecca Sower.

iScrap Blog Challenge

There’s an online crop going on this weekend over on iScrap, and it’s a blast! I’ve only completed one page, but I do have 4 more in the works which I’m hoping to finish today. This particular challenge involves a blog post. I’ve got to answer 5 questions and link them back to my blog, so here it is:

The Power of 5

1. Five things I can’t scrapbook without: My Mac, stamps, ink, a good journaling pen, Tombow Mono Adhesive.
2. Five places I have traveled to most recently: NYC, Walt Disney World, Bethlehem PA, Philadelphia, Schenectady (woo-hoo on that one)
3. Five things I watch on TV: Young & the Restless, Sopranos reruns, CSI, Criminal Minds, As the World Turns
4. Five foods I can’t stand: This is a tough one, because I love just about any food! Definitely raisins, sardines (DH eats them for lunch almost every day -- blech!), cooked broccoli (love it raw, tho), raw onions, and baked beans.
5. Five reasons to visit iScrap!: Contests with amazing prizes, inspiring work, challenges and crops to get you scrapping with ease, discounts on supplies, and FUN!

Still Cruising on a Layout A Day

Still managing to keep up with the Layout A Day challenge, although I realize it is only Day 4! I’ve been too lazy to dig out all my paper, adhesive, stamps, and embellishments, so I'm sticking with the digiscrapping for the moment. That’s probably my favorite part about it—it is largely mess free. I’ll have some details on the new Stampin’ Up! Spring-Summer Collection catalog in the next day or two. They’re running a Valentine’s bundle promotion that I will tell you about as well. In the meantime, a couple of Christmas layouts to share.

Both pages feature images from Shabby Princess’ “Twas the Night” kit. The first page I created from scratch, and used the font Didot for the text. The second page is a Piece-A-Cake quick page that was included with the kit. Font is Cheryl by FontGarden.

Stamped Goods

Here are a couple of projects from last month that I neglected to post. The first is a shot of the three cards created in last month’s Stamp A Stack class. The participants created 5 each of the cards, for a total of 15 ready-to-mail Christmas cards!

The next is the gift I made for all my daughters’ teachers this year. The tin and the stamp set (Holiday Treats) are from Papertrey Ink, and the cardstock, ink, brads, and patterned paper (Wintergreen) are from Stampin’ Up! These were soooo easy to make. Just stamp on standard address labels and wrap them around Hershey’s nuggets candy. Add a stamped greeting, and voila! Instant gift!

Get a LOAD of This

In an effort to jump-start my scrapbooking for 2008, I signed up for yet another class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. The best part about this one is that it is FREE! It’s called “Get A LOAD of This: A Layout A Day in January” and that pretty much says it all. Hurry over there and sign up. There are hundreds of layouts in the class gallery already, including this one, chronicling our non-New Year’s Eve party. We just hung out in our jammies, watching Dick Clark just like the old days.