i've been getting some scrap on... finially!

AHHHHH - can i tell you how great it is to finially get something done? It really helps when there is no interuptions in the house. It's amazing what can get done when i don't have a tv blaring or kids running in screaming "MOM HE'S BEING MEAN", and then, that of course wakes up the baby. It's a viscious circle. But, DarRell took Sam and Daylon out for a boys day out yesterday afternoon, and Rianne was playing over at Ali's all day long so I had a good 3 or more hours just to myself! I was finially able to finish up my School Of Scrap DT layouts from our wonderful and generous sponcer, Club Scrap!

I can't tell you how wonderful this kit is!!! I received the Rhapsody kit. The first thing i did when i opened my package was oogle at the paper! This is my first time ever playing with Club Scrap. I've been sitting on the fence trying to decide if i want to take out a subscription with them or not. This kit is certainly making it harder to say no. The paper is to die for! It is ALL textured! And it picks up ink like a dream! So far i've only done six layouts from this kit. I've got enough left over to do at least six more, but i'm thinking probably enough for a dozen more maybe. And they have these cool badge holders that i REALLY want to make a mini album out of. My absolute favorite paper in this kit was the yellow patterned paper and the cream patterned paper. I scrapped some of my absolute favorite pictures of Rianne with those two papers!




I've been dying to scrap these pictures of Rianne when she was a baby. The cream patterned paper totally worked with these pictures. The work really well with the pictures without distracting. I was trying my hand at some funky sewing. Not sure i can pull it off though.


This is the left page of a two pager. I've been dying to scrap these for years (she was 6 months old in these pictures and she's now 5 1/2 years old!). I loved the flowers on this yellow patterened paper and i knew exactly what pictures i wanted to use the moment i layed eyes on it. I took the basic layout straight from their "Assembly Line" article in their ScrapRap newsletter they sent with every kit. Boy does that ever stretch your paper out!




This is the second page of the two page layout. I beleive i used every picture they took of her in these two pages. See the inking???? I LOVE IT! This paper picks up the ink in all the right places like a dream! I get all giddy inside when i think of all the inking i can do with this textured paper!!!!!!!!!!!!


Check out the versitilty of this kit! I even did a halloween layout from this exact kit! The orange in this kit is so rich! It's not a "in your face" orange. It's kinda muted and totally worked perfect for my baby Sam's pictures we took of him at halloween time!


<------ Check it out! More inking! Doesn't that totally rock! I absolutely LOVE these pictures of Daylon when he was a little guy (ok - he's still a little guy but he's not three anymore). Now i've got proof that he actually ate porkchops! Which until now, he's never beleived us!

I love how this paper works with everything. It's so versitile! The orange picked up the orange basketball in his shirt perfectly without over-powering everything.

Here's the second page of the one up above. I just love this layout as a whole. The blue paper has a pattern on it that i though would work great with the spraying water. I think it worked great! That blue paper did a great job at making the pictures pop! The tanslucent paper they had in the kit worked great at matting the one picture to make it stand out.

Now that i have !SIX! great ClubScrap layouts under my belt, i'm off to work somemore with this great paper!

ENJOY!!!!

AHHH... Easter

I think I can honestly say that Easter is one of my favorite holidays. It didn't used to be. In fact, Easter wasn't anything special growing up. We got Easter baskets on Easter morning but that was the extent of Easter. Once i got married, i fell in love with Easter. I could really do without the chaos of it all but it definitely is one holiday i look forward to. This year was no exception. It was CHAOTIC! I guess it didn't help with life being as it is right now. General everyday life is quite stressful right now, and i really don't see it getting any less stressful anytime soon. Add in a couple dozen more people and it's bound to get beyond stressful.

Easter went off as it usually does though. Our annual Easter Saterday celebration usually starts out with hurt feelings because someone wasn't invited (we've been doing this forever... and to tell you the truth... i've never been "invited" myself!). We spend all morning long playing phone tag with everyone else about when we are going up and who needs to take what, etc. Every year it's the same thing but every year it seems like a surprise to everyone. I'm just surprised that after 30+ years that everyone doesn't have it figured out yet (insert the rolling eyes here). All in all, it was a great time. The kids got their campfire, they rolled their eggs, and they had their easter egg hunt... and truthfully, that's all that matters!

is there anybody out there???

Boy that got me into some kind of a Pink Floyd mood! WOW!
...............................
Hello?
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone home?
...............................
ok..... never mind! LOL

Ok - anyone reading this, and makes a comment gets 10 school bucks from me. Cause you are going to want a LOT of bucks!!!!! I promice you that!!!!!

Talk? apparently it's over-rated

My husband, i'm sure, would totally agree with that. He's one to talk in circles. You know what i'm talking about. You ask a question, and you sit for 20 minutes as they talk on and on about something that you don't even have a clue how it came up and you still don't even catch a glimps of a answer. UUUGHHH.... yup, i think he got that from his dad... DEFINATELY! To every question, there is no answer but a dozen or more questions, and then they are angry that you ask again. If he's not talking in circles, then it must be a yes or no question........ which, as i was talking about earlier, there is no answer. So... i've decided, who needs to talk.


With that being said, i'm not saying anything more, but posting the last couple of layouts I've done. They are a bit different but, they are done...... and not so horribley bad.

And before i stop talking, because apparently it's over-rated, i do have to say... i'm so in love...

*sigh*

can you tell i've been watching me some Antonio Banderas?

*sigh*

I was reading a blog a few days ago that mentioned a place where you could create your own little self-inking stamp. Not being able to stand the curiosity, i went and had a looksie for myself. I came up with this little gem:



wouldn't this be the coolest thing ever to document your scrapbook pages?
I'm really considering buying it. With everything said and done, it's just shy of $19.00 minus shipping and handling. Maybe it's just because it has my name on it or maybe because i just love to spend, but it just seems like so professional, doesn't it? But, like i have anything to be professional about anyways. I've always said that i do my scrapbooking for myself and nobody else... i totally stick by that. But don't you just love the little plate in the middle where you can put the date or something? i just LOVE it!

On another note... Did i mention that i cut my hair? Yup, i did. And when i say "i cut my hair..." i mean... "I" really did cut my hair. Like, as in me getting out the hair clippers, throwing on the longest foot in the kit (which so happened to be a 1" foot), start shaving my hair by starting in the middle of my head, get what i can by myself and then having DarRell finish the job. Really, it's not as bad as it sounds. No, i'm not crazy, and i didn't do a Britney Spears off-the-deep-end hair cut. I just seriously needed a trim. I've done it before. Why didn't i go and have it professionally done? Well... my hair has been super short most my life. I HATE to go get my hair cut, so when i do get around to getting a haircut, it's usually long. I just don't ever know how i want cut and it usually turns out blah, and i hate paying for something that just turns out "Blah". So when i do go in and get it professionally cut, i tell them i want it SHORT. Every time, they have refused to cut it as short as i want it. And it's not like i'm cutting it unreasonably short. What i want is something managable and something that looks good on me. But, i guess that since i come in with long hair and i want it all chopped off they are scared that i won't be happy with it or that if i'm unhappy with it, i'll sue them or something. Ya.... WHATEVER! So now, instead of doing it that way... i do it my way... and honestly, it doesn't look bad at all. It takes a few days to get used to but i like it.

Here, judge for yourself.

Let me know what you think.

Too short?

Does it look like i did my own butcher job?

here is one for comparision:

DarRell finially says he prefers the short hair over the long hair expecailly when it's REALLY long. He says that long hair just doesn't fit me.

1. Find the nearest book: ok - next to the bed..... hadda pick one (i have about 4 or 5 there) so i picked the one that i thought would be most interesting
2. Name the book & the author. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
3. Turn to page 123. got it
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog. But I was unable to understand the differnce, if there actually was any. It seemed to me that the difference did not lie in the actions of the one or the other, but in the church's attitude when she judged this act or that. I remember the discussion with Umbertino.
*** ok - that just sound just not so interesting at all. It's a hard book to read but it's absolutely one of my favorites. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a murder mystery set in an Italian abby. It's SOOOO good. If you do decide to read it, i suggest reading it with "The Key to "The Name of the Rose"" since it was translated from italian to english. The "key" gives you a background of the time and explains a few of the going ons at the time and how things worked at that time and then it translates some non-english pasages in the book to help clear up some confusion while reading it. You can still read it and get the full effect of the book without having the "key" and knowing the translations but if you are like me, it drives you crazy to know what they are sayng!
5. Tag three more folks. hmmmm.... ok.... I tag.... Lisa (cause i KNOW you read), Kim (just to get your butt moving into starting your blog! LOL) and Kerri (cause you just don't update yours enough!)

______________________________________________________

In other news, have you stopped by School of Scrap lately? The new month brought in all new challenges, and boy are they great ones!
Advanced Math
Music
Shop
Economics - this is my class....... do stop in and join us! This month is to use your fibers and ribbons stash! LET'S USE THAT STASH!!!!!!!!!
Correspondence
Literature
Design
Marketing
History
Photo-ology 101
Art
Weekly Sketch Challenge
Elsie Weekly Challenge
and there are a ton other things there...... go take a look.

Anyone reading this and making a comment will get some school bucks from me!!!!! Cut-off date will be one week from today...... so you have till March 13th to get some extra bucks!

{inspiration} and such

You know how they say that you can find inspiration every where you look? I TOTALLY believe that. Just look around you and see what you are missing. My greatest source of inspiration? Take a wild guess... I'll wait. Give up? Ok - I'll tell you... WAL-MART!!! Who knew that Wal-Mart of all places would be my source of inspiration (although i'm betting Target would have better inspiration. If only i had one even remotely close-by)? I honestly ache to go there when I'm feeling down. It feeds my need to shop but i love to go just to look at stuff. I've seriously thought about taking my camera with me and snapping pictures of what inspires me, what grabs my attention. I imagine that they would ban me from Wal-Mart if i did that. Imagine them dragging me out screaming and fighting.... EAK - not a pretty sight. So... instead of standing the chance of being banned, i go from isle to isle fondling everything.

For instance... I just LOVE these underwear:

I saw them and HAD to have them. Not because i needed them by any means but because the colors just jumped out at me. I HAD to have them so i could...

ok don't laugh at me or think I'm off my rocker...

so i could touch them. Take them out of their package and fondle them. It is crazy because it's not like i could feel the colors or anything. But, in all honesty, I bought them so i had them for reference. I LOVE the color combinations. It's so so Elsie feeling to me and i envy her work till it makes me crazy in the head. How crazy is that???? Honestly! Buying underwear because the are a pretty color... you'd think i was a 16 year old again!

Here's more inspiration I've found:

aren't these this the cutest little shirt and pants ever? i bought them for Rianne because i thought they were just so awesome. But do you want to know my first thought when i saw them hanging on the rack? "OOOOOHHH! that would look really awesome in a layout!". That very thought sealed my fate... into the shopping cart without a second thought. Crazy, I know. But who could pass that up? Look at the texture! The bling! The colors! I totally wish they had it all in my size!

here's a few other victims of my search for inspiration:

another killer shirt where my first thought was how i could incorporate it into a layout

the top to a bottle of sunflower seeds... totally reminds me of those BG holy cow rub-ons:

And i actually bought this shirt for Sam not only because the colors are just yummy but because of the great quote on it. I knew that i would never be able to remember it when i need it so i bought it so i could go back to it when i wanted it.

check out the quote on this shirt:

"Be yourself, don't ever let anybody change your ways.

Always follow the right path even if doing so, will not please the ones around you.

Try to help others in need, what you do today will help you in the future."

Such a deep thought for it being a shirt for a baby!

and how is this for inspiration!

it's the new ad inspiration from marketing class at School Of Scrap. Elisa really brought her game! Isn't this the most inspiring thing you've ever seen?! I want this as a poster on my wall in my scrap room. Who cares that it's a liquor ad. Who would have known??? It took me forever to even figure out that it was one! I was totally enthralled in the fact that there was so much in it that i loved that i couldn't pry my eyes off of it. Every time i look at it i see more stuff that i didn't see the time before. I could just sit here and look at it forever. It's love at first sight.