Where did these children come from?

Ok, yesterday we all got up early and Mike says, why don't we drive down to San Diego and go to the zoo? These children, who couldn't possibly be mine, said NO! Can you believe it?! No to the San DIego Zoo! They decided they would rather spend an hour at the park than all day at the zoo. So, sadly, that's what we did. Then we came back and they got to go outside while Daddy mowed the lawn. I shouldn't complain. I got my newsletter put together and a few things done for an upcoming craft fair, but seriously--I'd rather go to the zoo--LOL! I guess as an adult, you forget that simple things like the park and mowing the lawn are just as fun as a big trip. And how was your weekend?

Technique Focus: Paint

We just made these cards for my September Technique Night last Wednesday. The focus was using paint. I am loving all the goodies in CTMH's new distressing kit, including the paint and brushes. I love that it looks fabulous on dark papers and dries quickly. Here are some ideas for using paint on your scrapping and stamping projects:

Painting Techniques
1) Use white paint to distress colored cardstock

2) Use white paint for stamping on dark colors
3) Use white paint to create a journaling box
4) Mix white with re-inker to create custom colors
5) Paint dimensional elements/chipboard
6) Use paint to stamp or create journaling boxes on photos

Hint: when using paint, less is more—a little goes a long way

So Sorry

I know I haven't posted much this week. I've been so busy that I haven't had a chance. I promise I'll post some pictures later. I have some fun cards we did at my technique class this week where we covered painting. Such fun. I've also made a few other things, so keep checking back and I promise more art before the weekend is over :)

Right now, both boys are up and hollering for breakfast. Mike is out doing healthy running things, while I sit here with my chai tea vegging on the computer!

America at Home Project

Have you seen this? What a neat thing. I heard about it from Ali's blog. It's a really neat project. Here's the description:

No Place Like Your Home? Show Us.
The co-creator of the best-selling A Day in the Life and America 24/7 book series invites you to participate in America at Home, a nationwide photo project, September 17 to 23, 2007. For seven days, everyone in America is invited to join 100 of the nation's leading photojournalists to capture "the emotions of home." The goal of the project is to capture the extraordinary diversity that makes up American family life, representing a broad range of economic, geographic, racial, political, and socially diverse lifestyles.

They'll be using the photos for a book, website, etc. I just thought many of you would be interested since we all take so many pictures.
Here's the link: http://myamericaathome.com/index.php

Here are some fall pages

To get you even more in the mood. The pages of Mike and I sure make me nostalgic for living in Boise. I miss actually being able to walk outside and see fall all around.

Caprice Papers--can you tell yet how much I love these papers.

Enchanted papers. Wasn't sure abou the yellow at first, but I love the way they turned out. Sorry, they kind of blend into the table cloth. I should have taken the photo somewhere else. But you can see, even the colors of my house are fall colors :) Oh and yes a few of my cousins and my sis got cropped out of the main picture. I cropped it perfect and then the photo people re-cropped it. I need to get a new one printed, but until then, this is what I've got--LOL! I still love you Kevin, Matthew and Leslie--I promise!!

It's beginning to feel a lot like fall...

Everywhere you go :) We went from being in the 90's last week to a predicted high of 68 today--crazy. I'm sitting here in jeans and a sweatshirt, sipping chai tea and watching it RAIN. I've almost forgotten what that stuff falling from the sky is. The news said the snow level was going to drop to 5,000 feet over the next couple days. Huh--snow?! It's not even October yet. Not that I'm complaining-- cool weather is my favorite, but not COLD. I'm more of a 60's-70's weather gal.

Anywho, this kind of weather makes me want to create--or curl up with a good book. I have lots of stuff to make for an upcoming craft fair, so I'm going to resist the urge to do the latter :) I actually got two layouts done yesterday. I'll try and post them later when I have a chance to take pictures. For now, Austin, who got up super early this morning, is telling me that he wants to play webkins on the computer for a while. Who am I to argue since he doesn't have to be at the bus for another hour and a half and he's already eaten, gotten himself dressed and brushed his teeth--WOW!

Non-Blogging Fun

Ok, My friend Sarah tagged me to participate in a meme where I list three items I enjoy more than blogging. Actually she tagged me a week ago, but I'm finally getting around to it--LOL


Number one, of course, would be spending time with my family, which I guess would be a given. We love spending time outside--the park, beach, camping. We love visiting extended family too. We also love snuggling up and reading stories. Here we were camping up in Idaho (sorry need two pictures cause we didn't get one of the 4 of us).



Number two--again, no surprise, I love stamping and scrapbooking. Creating handmade things just gives me such a happy feeling. I never thought I was "artistic" until I got into scrapbooking. Now it's such a huge part of my life that I actually start going a little stir crazy if I go a few days without making something (it's a sickness, I know). Here's some fun fall stuff I made last year--LOVE this time of year





Number 3 is a toss up--Reading is definitely wahat I spend a lot of time doing. However, I also love to travel. Of course, in the last few years, the only traveling we've done is to Grandma's House in Idaho--LOL. Here's a layout from a camping trip we took to Otter Creek and Bryce Canyon three years ago--see it still comes back to scrapping :)








Now here are the rules if you want to play along:
After your intro, copy/paste this line and the rules below it: The originator wants to see how far it goes so please keep his link intact: http://rileycentral.net//
Encourage people to post with the incentive of a link by including those who have passed it along here:(Your link here and so on . . .)
Visit at least 3 on the list who’ve written and passed this meme. Leave them a comment.

Love this lady!

I saw this and had to share. I laughed so hard. Hope you enjoy it :)

Finally Finished all my Swaps

For this month anyway! Here's one I did for the Stamp of the Month swap I'm in. This is October's CTMH set. I have a thing for snowmen :) It's hard to tell in the picture, but all the white "snow" is Liquid Applique, so it's all puffy--1st time I've tried it, and I'm loving it!

How weird is this?

I took the quiz and came up with my BIRTHSTONE--Amethyst. Guess it does reflect who I am--LOL! Must also be why purple is one of my favorite colors.

Your Gemstone is Amethyst

Dignified, impressive, and wise. You have a deeply spiritual soul

What Gemstone Are You?

You should see these drawings...

A friend of mine posted the link to this blog. Carrie at Organized Chaos is amazing. Plus she is actually giving away a chance to have her draw one for you--wowsa! Check it out.

Ticket for All Seasons

So I got this stamp set thinking it would be cute for scrapbook pages. Then silly me signed up for a card swap with it. I don't know why, but I have had more trouble making cards with this set than any other in quite a while. Anyway, here's a couple cards I came up with. While I love the colors of the fall one, it seemed a little busy for my taste, so I'm leaning toward the Caprice one (I can't get enough of this paper!). It's funny how sometimes creating can be so easy and other times nothing looks right. This is one of those times. Oh, the inside of the sun card says "you brighten my day" and has more flowers. Off to make 19 more :)

Caprice Cards

I made these cards as a gift for my sister. These were made from Korin's 10 card template. The card holder was a scraplift of one I did at a LSS make n take. I used CTMH's Caprice papers, Playful Flourishes, and Doodle Alphabet, as well as various "saying" stamps. Enjoy

I know I haven't been around

We've been in and out of town for the last week. At the age of 83, my grandmother passed away. I've been blessed to have all four of my grandparents be a huge influence on my life and I will miss Grandma immensly. While her passing was so sad for our family, it did bring all of us--my cousins aunts, uncles, everyone together. We got to enjoy each other and reminice together about Grandma. The boys had fun playing with their cousins. We wanted the kids in the family (7 under the age of 7) to walk awy with good memories from the week, so we planned a beach party and pool party for everyone to get together. It was bittersweet, but wonderful to be together.

My mom found some wonderful pictures of Grandma and Grandpa from the 1950's that I can't wait to get copies of. They were so glamorous. I'm going to have fun scrapping those pictures. I'm hoping to create a family history scrapbook in the next few years. Something to pass on to future generations before all the stories are forgotten.

I heard a song that my friend Sarah( partyof5) sent to me today that sums up my feelings over the last week perfectly. It's "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney. I couldn't find it to add to my playlist yet, but you can watch the video on youtube--here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ySSg4QG8g

I am hoping to get caught up this week and post some projects I've recently finished and some pictures from the last week.

School Days

I know I already posted the first day of school pictures, but I wanted to post the layout too. I love the way it turned out. I used CTMH's School Zone papers and coordinating Ribbon. It's also one of the new Imagine layouts. I blew the picture of hime walking away into and 8x10 because that picture chokes me up every time I see it. My little guy going off to school. I'm so happy I had a little time to play :)

What a crazy day...

We went to the beach yesterday. My sister talked me into actually going out into the water. We got out there, and I kept telling her, I have my glasses on, I shouldn't be out here. I then said I was going back because I was worried I'd lose my glasses. Just as I turned around to head back, I got knocked by a big wave, and guess what? You got it, I lost my glasses. No back up pair, no contacts, and we had both cars down there, so I needed to drive home. Without them, I can't see more than a few feet in front of me.

So.......we left the beach and went in search of a Costco. I had two little boys who were very unhappy to be leaving the beach 20 minutes after we'd arrived. My mom, sis and Mike weren't too happy either. So we find a Costco and she looks up my info and says, well I have bad news. WE don't carry your contacts at this store and even if we did, your perscription is expired, so I can't sell you any. The lady was awesome though. Once I told her the whole story, she went into the actual eye exam office and came back with a pair of contacts that were close to mine and a bottle of solution--free of charge! You've got to love Costco! Of course, I'm still without glasses for awhile, which stinks because I hate wearing contacts from the time I get up until I go to bed :( I'm also sad because I LOVED those glasses. I wasn't even going to replace them this year, I was going to just get new lenses. But hey, at least I can see.

I won, I won, I won!

I just found out that I one the layout contest at our LSS, Scrapbook Boulevard! WOOHOO! I'm so excited! If you want to see my page again it's here http://scrappernic.blogspot.com/2007/08/contest-page.html

Now to figure out how to spend my prize credit...