Cowabunga!! Having a little birthday fun!

Duuuude! So awesome you are here! TOTALLY!!  Ok, I'm done now...  How else could I introduce today's cards?!  I mean...NINJA TURTLES...Hellooo!!!

A recent check of my card stash let me know I was in desperate need of some cards for kids birthdays.  Now we know I have more than enough stamps, but unfortunately the kiddos in my life range from itty bitty and cute to I'm too cool to get excited over a birthday card (but don't stop making them for me...).  Most of my stamps are perfect for itty bitty, girly, or adult male, but nothing in the range of "I'm too cool".  Fortunately, I don't mind going shopping for some new things, especially if I know I really need them!  I found a super cool and fun 12x12 paper featuring the TMNT and knew it would work for those boys...um guys...  I wasn't sure exactly how these would turn out because there was one larger focal image and the rest was similarly sized background.  I ended up making 5 cards from this one sheet of paper!  I really like how the focal image worked on the first card, but have to admit that the others turned out pretty awesome too!  My biggest challenge was finding words/sentiments to fit.  I have NONE in my stamp collection and had NO luck finding something at my local scrapbooking store... I finally resorted to my cricut and MDS to make the perfect additions.

I cut the word DUDE! on different colors of cardstock, matted them on black and then again on the coordinating color.  I used the cricket cartridge Jubilee and also dusted off my Xyron sticker maker for these. So glad I didn't have to attempt gluing those skinny letters on there!

I created a postcard design in MDS to make the inside sentiment for the cards.  I love MDS for creating multiple or similar projects.  After I made the first design, I simply added more pages, changed the font color on the word Awesome, and printed them out! Piece of cake! Or should that be pizza?

The best thing about these cards is that two of them are going to grown, adult men!  Two of my nephews were a part of the original TMNT crew and still enjoy them.  The oldest was so wrapped up in them when he was younger that he would stop and look in every storm sewer to see if they were there! The other is now sharing all of his memorabilia with his son.  Great memories and I know they'll enjoy this flashback!

I hope your day is Totally Awesome and thanks so much for stopping by!

Card Recipes: Paper- Sandy Lion TMNT designer paper, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Only Orange, Basic Black, Whisper White, Accessories-MDS, Cricut cartridge Jubilee

Anything But a Card-Sparkle!

Hello! My poor little blog is feeling a bit neglected lately!  But I do have a new creation to share with you!  We are on week three of our SPARKLE challenge at Anything But a Card, and for my DT contribution, I made a scrapbook layout of one of my favorite stars who always has a sparkle in her eye!

The pink background, pink flowers, and glitter spray are from Kellybell Designs.  I also used #16 from the Days to Remember DSP, black grosgrain ribbon, whisper white scallop edge punch, and going gray star punch.

The photos are from my daughter's debut in her first musical, Mame.  She was a member of the chorus and had five dance routines to learn.  The singing and being on stage was a normal occurrence, but she was a bit nervous about the dancing.  Of course, if I wasn't her mother, I wouldn't have known that she was nervous at all.  She loved the costume changes and really enjoyed the whole experience.  Her final dress was a sequined flapper with a matching headband. Her earrings were very sparkly as well.  I knew right away that these photos would be my inspiration for Sparkle! After all, I can't think of anything that sparkled more than her smile on opening night!

I would love it if you would share your Glitter! Sparkle! creation with us!  Here is a summary of our current challenge...

The Challenge... Anything But a Card Challenge #33 - the word"SPARKLE"!! What does the word sparkle represent to you? Sparkle can be a personality trait, or a physical appearance, or an attitude. You could be inspired with the written definition; go with a passage from a book or poem - or even quote a song... and of course we include going crazy with bling!

Balance: As Shared by Shadow

Hello!  I'm back with another MDS digital scrapbook page!  While the girls and I were doing our Balance photo shoot, I took a few pics of Shadow and the kitties.  Looking at the pictures led me to think about the way a dog might view balance, although I'm sure he's much too busy being happy to worry about things like this...

As much as my serious journaling on my balance page helped me, I have to admit that the light hearted dogs-eye-view was equally as enlightening.  Here are some tips on balancing life like a dog...

-When people are grumpy, mad, or sad, you don't really need to do much. Just be there for them to make them feel better.

-When someone is annoying you (like pesky kittens), just get away from them.  If they follow you, find your Mom.  She'll know what to do...

-Show your loved ones, and everyone else, you are happy to see them-all the time!  You never know when your attitude will be rewarded with a special treat or even better, some love!

-When all else fails, take a nap!!!

I hope this has inspired you take a good look at yourself through the eyes of your favorite non-human.  I would love to hear about the words of wisdom your pet has shared with you!  Have a great day and happy crafting!

ABAC Challenge- Balance

Hello! So glad you stopped by to visit!  It's my turn to share a project at Anything But a Card Challenges.  Our current theme is 'BALANCE' and you can share any type of project as long as it's not a card.  I love challenges like this because they are so open to personal interpretation.  What do you think of when you hear the word balance?

I realize that 'balance' can be perceived many different ways: equality, the balance of composition in art,  or having/creating physical balance, for example.  But today, I am thinking in terms of 'finding balance'.  Probably because this is something that I am forever working to maintain in my life.  As soon as I saw this theme, I knew what I wanted to do.  So I set off to have a little photo shoot to capture the thoughts that were swirling in my head, and then I put them together on a digital scrapbook page using MDS.  I hadn't made one of these in a while and thought it would be good to use my computer for something other than blog surfing and pinterest...  I had a bit of a creative epiphany as I was trying to coach my daughter through framing the shot and deciding which pose looked best.  I had both girls do their own balancing act as I snapped pictures, and I absolutely love that none of us did it the same way!

Page Recipe: Background and white alphabet from Kellybell, Stampin' UP kits used were Get It Done and Keep in Touch, and the splatter stamp is A Split Second. 

I know that people love to talk about finding the balance between work and home, or other areas that require balance, but I also believe that there is so much more to this than budgeting your time.  I also think that this can be more difficult depending on who you are.

When my oldest was diagnosed with ADD, I read everything I could get my hands on in an effort to 'help' her.  What I found was that she didn't need my help.  She wasn't broken, she just had a different way of seeing and doing things.  I also realized that while I didn't have a professional diagnosis, I too had ADD.  This explains why I can completely throw myself into a project, totally lose track of time, and 'check out' from everything else that is going on around me.  It also explains a lot of my procrastination issues.  Somehow, in my case, my personality and strengths led me to focus on and enjoy academics (which is why this was never perceived as a school problem for me).

So what does this have to do with balance and my page?  While you can't see my journaling (on a separate paper to be attached to the back), I wrote about the way my balance (and my daughters' as well) is perceived and viewed by others.  I tend to commit on an extreme level when I do things.  If I'm on a committee or volunteering, that will be my primary focus and other things can just wait.  I know I'm like this, so I try to only sign up for things that I am passionate about.  After all, if it's taking away from family time or me time, shouldn't it be very important?! I've worked very hard on making the word 'no' a part of my vocabulary, even when others are telling me that I surely have a little time to help with (insert  latest event here).  "No" has become a necessity to my balance.

I also explored the idea that my balance isn't always about making things 'even' as much as it is prioritizing.  My daily balance is NEVER equal.  Some days I won't touch a thing in the house because I'm busy reading, creating, or doing something with family.  Other times, I might commit several days to cleaning and organizing. I need to embrace the fact that my definition of balance is taking care of the priority for that day and not feeling guilty about the things that didn't get accomplished.

I think the hardest part of understanding balance is that it doesn't look the same for everyone.  I have a friend who travels a lot through her job, volunteers often, and is constantly on the go with her kids activities.  My initial reaction is to shake my head at how she chooses to balance her life.  But she is not me.  She is incredibly organized to a fault, has an immaculate home, and lives to have everything on a schedule.  This makes her happy and her family is very happy as well.  On the other hand, she could view me as being very untidy, unorganized, and (gasp) lazy as I read and create instead of 'doing things'.  Perhaps she does, but she also knows that I can drop everything to be where I'm needed, a luxury she doesn't always have.  Our senses of balance are very different, but we are both happy.

This page really helped me think about the way my brain works and using that to my advantage instead of trying to make myself into someone I'm not.  I also realized that I need to sandwich those nasty priorities (like cleaning) in between the things I love to do.  Make a card, do a load of laundry, make a scrapbook page, sweep a floor, do a journal page, wash dishes (hmmm... maybe do 2 journal pages before this one...)  But even if I don't get all of the cleaning done, I will still be me and that's not such a bad thing after all...

Well, I didn't intend for this to be quite this long, and I hope that it wasn't too 'bunny trailed' for you to follow my train of thought.  I also hope that perhaps it will help someone who is at this moment being too critical of their own sense of balance.  Life is too short to spend it comparing yourself to someone who is nothing like you...    I will be back soon with a Shadow scrapbook page that was also inspired by balance.  Have a fabulous week and happy crafting!!

Something New

 Well, since I've received my card in the mail, I'm pretty sure it's safe to post one of the projects I've been working on.  My nephew is getting married this December and he and his future bride asked if I could make a Save the Date design for them.

Of course, I was more than happy to help!  Any reason to play!!!  I made several prototypes and then we got together one evening so they could view them and do any tweaking that needed to be done.  Their colors are silver and purple so they had a lot of options, but we finally managed to make something that they both liked.  The faces are purposely blocked to protect their privacy, but you get the idea.  I love that their 'babies' are in the photo with them!

I created this as a 4x6 project in MDS and then saved it as a jpeg so they could take it to their favorite printing service.   I really like how the printed versions turned out!

This was the first time I had ever done a commissioned project and I have to admit, it was a little daunting!  Usually I just follow my muse and make whatever appeals to me at the time.  Even when I've made cards for others, I usually have a lot of leeway on the artistic design.  It was hard for me to come up with a variety of designs that might appeal to different tastes, but in the end it worked out pretty well.  

I had to laugh when we first started and I was showing them different ideas.  Neither one of them would give me a 'like it' or 'hate it' until I finally assured them that I would not consider it a personal attack if they hated any of the options.  It was quite productive after that!

I was also amazed at the amount of money brides and grooms spend on invitations, decorations, etc!  It's quite fortunate that Alex has a very crafty mother and aunt to help create all of those special things!  As the date gets closer, I will share the shower invitations and other pretties we are making for their special day!

I hope you have a wonderful day and find some time to be crafty!! Thanks so much for stopping by!

A Little Digital Play Time

Well, hello! I am so glad you stopped by! Especially since my sporadic posting hasn't given you much to look at lately... I am starting to wrap up my final year of teaching and while my stress level has gone down a little, there are a lot of things that need to be handled before I leave. So bear with me if I'm not around as much.  I promise that by the end of May, you will be seeing a lot more activity on my litttle ol' blog!

I do have a little something to share with you.  I recently signed up for a MDS class with my upline, Kelly.  A few of us meet every other month and work on 3 different digital projects.  This is the card front that we made. I had never used the digital card format because I wasn't sure about printing it out and having that be my card.  Kelly shared with us that she sizes her cards a little smaller than  a standard card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2) so that she can mount the digital print onto cardstock. Now, perhaps many of you are thinking this is not such a revelation, but it really opened the door for me!  I ended up using this idea not only for this card front...

which simply was matted onto a piece of soft suede and sent to my brother in law for his birthday, but I also created two Easter card fronts for my niece and nephew, made them even smaller, then added ribbon and a bow to my nieces, and added buttons to my nephews.  

Of course, I thought about taking pictures of the completed cards after I gave them away... so you are only seeing the digital fronts.  Sorry... 

I think I will use this idea for cards that are being mailed and need to be fairly flat.  It's also a great way to make cards when you are short on time and can't pull out all of your crafting supplies!

I hope you enjoyed my little experiments today and in case you didn't know, Stampin' UP has recently announced that they are making MDS a lot more affordable! It is now only $19.95 to purchase the full software program, and believe me, that is an amazing deal with a lot of digital material included in the price!  This is the exact same program that was previously offered for $79.95!!!

Well, I'm off to finish some laundry so my family has clothes to wear tomorrow... They are SOOOO needy!!!  :)  Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting!

Oh! I almost forgot! I will be back on Sunday with a project that has been cooking my brain!

Anything But a Card Challenges-Lucky Number 13!

Hello and welcome to my little ol' blog!  Today begins the second week of Challenge number 13 at Anything But a Card and I have to admit that I couldn't wait to work on my project for this one!  Since it is our 13th challenge, we are asking you to use 13 as your inspiration.  It can be lucky, unlucky, superstitions, or anything using 13.  I, of course, took the lucky approach since 13 is my favorite number!

I wanted to create a scrapbook page showing why I love the number 13, but two of the pictures I wanted to use were already scrapbooked and one was in a frame.  So I scanned the pages and picture into my computer and created a digital  scrapbook page using MDS 2.

While I love the hands on approach to traditional scrapbooking, it is so convenient to use MDS, especially when you don't have the actual photo to place on a page!  Plus, it is a lot easier to try out different ideas and layouts when you can delete anything that doesn't quite work! Initially, I used the photos as squares, but I decided I liked the circles better. Try undoing that with an actual photo...

And yes, that baby faced boy is my wonderful DH and that skinny chick next to him is me (amazing what 2 kids, almost 19 years, and less exercise does to a body...).  The middle photo is a picture of the house number on the porch of our first home, and the last pic is my 'not so tiny now' DD1.

I hope you enjoyed my Lucky scrapbook page!  As this is posting, my girls and I are preparing to head back home from a weekend retreat in Gatlinburg.  Thank goodness for post scheduling!!  Have a fantastic week and no matter what format or medium you prefer, happy crafting!!

Page Recipe: Cardstock-Love Letter patterns 10 & 11 DSP, very vanilla, Stamps-Schoolbook Serif Numbers, Embellishments-Taffeta Trimmings ripple & short bow in basic black, Font-Lobster Two

Anything But a Card Challenge 12- My little Moon Pie...

Hello and thanks so much for visiting my blog!  Today, I am sharing my design team project for challenge #12 at Anything But a Card Challenges, Share the Love.  I had some fun scrapbook page layouts in my head that I wanted to make for this challenge, but once again, life and reality got in the way of my crafting time.  So instead, I am sharing the treat wrappers that my DD and I designed for her class at school.  My girls have been making their own Valentines since they were in Kindergarten, usually using stickers and glitter glue.  As they became older, they wanted a more 'mature' version (apparently candy is mature after age 8!), and we started making Valentines that doubled as treat holders.  

We were having a hard time coming up with an idea this year.  We walked the candy aisle at Wal-Mart trying to come up with a cute pun for the treats, but nothing seemed quite right.  My favorite was the bag of Smarties and the quote "If you're a smartie, you won't break my heartie!".  It received the eye roll that I was expecting and we starting laughing loud enough that people began to look to see what was so humorous in the candy section.  Before we headed back home for the day, we stopped by Rural King (a countrified version of a retail store) to buy dog food.  We saw a display of Moon Pies and inspiration hit! "I'm over the moon for you!"  This received approval from both girls, so we bought mini moon pies for her class of 32.  Then we went home and designed the tag using MDS 2.  If you ever need to make multiples of something, this is the most wonderful way to do it.  We designed a tag using the program and then saved it as a jpeg.  I opened it in my photo printing program and set it to print wallet size photos-9 tags per sheet!  Here is a picture of the tag from the MDS 2 program...

 We cut out the tags, mounted them on a square of black cardstock, and then mounted that on the wrapper made from white cardstock.

 and here is a picture of the opened wrapper, complete with a chocolate Moon Pie...

My daughter will be writing her name on the top inside flap before delivering these to her classmates.  As we were putting these together, I kept thinking about Big Bang Theory and that maybe even cynical and overly critical, Sheldon would approve of this choice...after all, his Memaw does call him 'Moon Pie'...

I hope you enjoyed our little Valentine's treat idea and maybe it will inspire you to make something 'punny' too!

Project Recipe: MDS 2, Whisper White and Basic Black cardstock, sticky strip(holding Moon Pie to cardstock)

MDS 2 supplies-background is Love Letter pattern 9 DSP, cloud stamps from On the Go(one is mirror imaged) colored whisper white,1 1/4" circle punch filled with barely banana, medium heart punch filled with Love Letter pattern 6 DSP  I drop shadowed all of the elements to give dimension and used a text box over the circle punch for the sentiment (sorry don't remember the font...)

Scrapbook Monday- the last of the Disney album!

Well hello there! Hope you had a great weekend!  We are celebrating Labor Day today, so the girls and I have a day off of school! YEA!!!!  DH is also off work by some bizarre chance, so hopefully we will find something fun to do!  Sleeping in is on the top of my list, after that, I'm good with just being able to do whatever!  Might even get some crafty time squeezed in!

I want to apologize for my lack of creative posting and commenting lately.  I have been battling a major head cold for a week.  One minute I would feel fine and then suddenly it was like being hit by a truck.  So I have been running on what little steam I had to keep up. But I'm almost 100% again, so look for me to be peeking in on your blogs soon!!

I am sharing the last of my Disney pages with you today.  These are still from Animal Kingdom and are pretty simple.  It is so amazing to me how easy MDS makes it to make a nice page with little effort.  Even a fancy page doesn't take too much time!  I have to admit that while I LOVE using MDS and it has made this album a piece of cake to finish in no time, I really miss my 'hands on' pages.  So I will be sharing some paper crafted pages next time.  I'm sure MDS will still be making an appearance from time to time!!

Even with a fast pass, we did have a bit of a wait for this

ride.  It was SO worth it! Even though we knew that trenching and 

natural barriers separated us from any real contact with most of the 

animals, it was so amazing to be so close to the free

roaming animals.  The ostriches even laid their eggs right next to 

the road we were riding on!

All of the shows at Disney were fantastic, but we were

completely wowed by The Festival of the Lion King.

Amazing scenery, gorgeous costumes, and so much talent 

in one show!  The acrobatic 'monkeys' (actually real people 

in costume) were fantastic and we all had chills as

the cast sang the grand finale song!

As we were preparing to leave, I happened to glance over

at a couple who had stopped on a bridge and were looking

at the trees.  They were filled with hundreds of white birds,

who were coming in to roost for the evening.  We learned from

a cast member that they were native birds and were free to

come and go as they pleased.  They simply chose to roost

in this spot.  Again, we were so impressed with Disney's 

efforts to make this a true place of conservation.

Well, that wraps up my little peek into our summer vacation.  I hope you enjoyed the pages and maybe found a layout to use, or bit of inspiration from them.  Have a wonderful week and happy crafting!!

Scrapbook Monday-Animal Kingdom

Well, hello there! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!  I had a bit of a monumental weekend as I celebrated a milestone birthday.  I'm not saying how old I am, but it rhymes with shorty!  I remember when I used to think that this was old.  Now I'm thinking it's all a matter of perspective!  I can't be old yet!!

I am reaching the end of my Disney pages as we come to Animal Kingdom.  This was the last park we visited and while we really enjoyed this park (just might be my favorite), we were glad to be heading for home the next day.

One of the coolest things we went to see was It's Tough to be a Bug 3D show.  Lots of special effects like smelling a stink bug, feeling the 'acid' from one of the bugs hit our faces, and all of the creepy crawlies that were moving under our seat. One awesome show!! DD#2 liked the buggy 3D glasses so much she wanted to keep them!  The large boulder looking thing was being touched by almost everyone who passed it.  After reading the sign that it was a dung ball, lots of EEEEWWWWs rang through the building.

We had lunch reservations at Rainforest Cafe and I couldn't wait for the girls to have their first experience with this wonderful eatery!  They had so much fun checking out the front of the building and wanted to pose by the sign.  Jaws hit the floor as we entered and they saw all of the extravagant decor.  The food was wonderful and we each ordered a different dessert and then had a little sampling party. Yummy!

We had the most wonderful time wandering around the park.  There were so many animals to see and the landscaping was beautiful and very nature inspired.  We rode the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch and the girls had a blast exploring and learning about conservation.  DD#2 even had a lengthy discussion about animal poo with one of the animal care specialists.  He commented that we must live on a farm since she wasn't at all inhibited by the feces talk.  She quickly informed him that they help Grandma and Grandpa clean out the chicken houses and sheep barn.  It was fascinating to see how much work goes into keeping all of the animals healthy.

I am almost to the end of my Disney postings, but never fear, there will be plenty of other great projects to share!  I am a parent volunteer for DD#2's Girl Scout troop this year and they put me in charge of the scrapbook.  Guess I'll HAVE to stay caught up on that one!!

Have a wonderful evening and an even better week! Thanks for stopping by to visit and happy crafting!

Scrapbook Monday-going random

Hello! So glad you stopped in and I hope you had a wonderful weekend! 

Until today, I have been posting my pages in chronological order and keeping with one park.  But I refuse to be 'that lady'. You know the one that holds you hostage while you see 1000 vacation pictures, that while they are lovely, they all start to look the same and it gets really old really fast...  So I am going to bypass several pages that have similar layouts to what I have already posted and will post some different styles and my favorite pictures.

Nothing so special about the layout, but I love the pics!

This was at the Crystal Palace.  They had the most 

wonderful topiary characters at the entrance.  These were

made of tons of little artificial flowers!  The girls loved

having another character dining experience!

I LOVE Epcot! Something about feeling transported to

different lands without a passport that is truly magical!

My sister and I spent some quality time in the Germany

section.  DH and the DDs were impressed and a little

embarrassed as we began to hum and sing along with the

music playing in the stores.  Little did they know that we

grew up listening to A LOT of German music.  We ooohed 

and ahhed over the old world ornaments and the ornate

cuckoo clocks.  The only thing that didn't tempt me was

the beer-yuck! Never did acquire a taste for that! 

Once again, DH questioned my sanity as I took a pic of

the roof garden and asked if we could do something like

that on a shed or garage.  Good thing he loves me!  By the time

we reached the pyramid in Mexico, I was so thankful there wasn't

an authentic set of steps to enter the building!  We were

almost finished with the park and my feet were begging

for mercy!

Well, I hope I didn't bore you too much with my little vacation display!  I am almost finished with the album and am so glad I did these while everything was so fresh in my mind.

Have a wonderful week and happy crafting!!

Scrapbook Monday-Epcot continues...

Hello! So glad you stopped in to visit today!  By the time most of you are reading this, I will be immersed in the first day of school! I have two classes today and many are first year students, so I will be on my toes all day!  I will also probably be exhausted by the time I get home.  Good thing it it also DH and my anniversary. No cooking for this girl tonight!!

I have a few more MDS pages from our Disney trip.  These are from Epcot in The Land section, and also Imagination.  These are very simple and super clean pages.  By the time I had the pictures where I wanted them and the journaling done, there wasn't room for much more!

 Living with the Land was the first ride we went on after 

dinner.  The perfect thing to allow our food to settle as

we enjoyed our boat ride through the greenhouses.  The

plants and gardens were amazing!

The Imagination section of Epcot was a great interactive

area of the park.  We took a Journey into Imagination

with Figment.  It was pretty cool in that you didn't really 

see a lot, but as you heard different sounds, you could

imagine what was going on behind the doors and then

there was the lovely skunky smell at the end of the ride.

The girls loved the activities available at the end of the 

ride and even emailed their own version of Figment

to our house.

Now that school is back in session, I may not be posting as frequently.  I am planning on keeping the Scrapbook Mondays going since I really need to work on the mountain of photos and images that need to be printed!  Of course, when I keep taking pictures, I don't get any closer to being caught up! Oh well, all the more reason to use the wonderful supplies I already have so I can get some new goodies!!

I hope you have a wonderful week and thanks so much for stopping by to visit me today! Happy crafting!

Scrapbook Monday- On to Epcot!

Well, hello there! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Our's was quite busy!  A nearby small town had their local festival and DD#1 played in the whiffle ball tourney. They lost, but with a team name like The Bench Warmers, I'm not sure they were planning to be the best team there!  The divisions were 12 and under, 13-18, and adults.  Her team was the youngest group in the division, but other than the first game, they kept the scores very close.  They had  a great time, and DD & two other girls on the team had the pleasure of whacking the ball past one of the boys on the other team who seemed to be of the opinion that girls couldn't play ball.  Made her mother so proud!  We also had DH's 25 year class reunion this weekend.  We had a great time visiting with out of town friends and didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning!

I have a few more MDS scrapbook pages for you today.  These are also from our Florida vacation and feature some of the pictures from Epcot.

I used the picture of Spaceship Earth (the Epcot ball) as my

background for the family pictures we took at the entrance 

of the park.  I think it worked well to get that picture in

the album and made a nice introductory page to this part

of the vacation.

DH and the girls worked together to play different math

themed games to fill a piggy bank.  Youngest DD really

wanted to do this, but I think Oldest ended up enjoying

it every bit as much!

The light bulb in these pictures is actually projected onto the wall 

and then spotlights light up the area below.  Oldest DD saw it and 

ran to the wall.  True to her theatrical nature, she struck a silly 'aha!' pose 

and I managed to be ready with the camera.  DD#2 was not

to be outdone and came up with her own 'thinking' pose.

I have to share this story with people who will truly understand and feel my frustration!  Since Stampin' UP is offering special pricing on digital pages during the month of August, I am determined to finish this album so I can get all of the pages printed and save a little money at the same time.  I had finished placing my pictures in the layouts (no scrapbooking, just picture arrangement) and had moved onto the disc containing the pictures my sister shared with me.  I was almost finished and was working on adding the DSP and embellishments to a page when my computer glitched.  I decided to close out the page and when the box popped up asking if I wanted to save this page, I checked no.  My thinking was that if it was something messed up, I could go back and redo that page from the beginning.  Imagine my reaction when I pulled the album up to show DH how much I had accomplished and all of the pages I had worked on that day were gone...  I actually let a few choice words fly before getting a grip and then just kept repeating "You've got to be kidding me..."  DH didn't quite understand why I was so upset until I told him exactly how many pictures I had arranged that day (there were over 200 on my sister's disk, plus the ones I had just finished from my files).  Then he wanted to know how long it would take to redo it.  Not something I wanted to think about after spending the whole morning working on them!!  So my plan for today is to try this again, only I will be much smarter and back up the pages as I go!!  Wish me luck!

I hope you have a wonderful week and happy crafting!

Scrapbook Monday-The last of the Hollywood Studio pages

I have been working away on my Disney pictures! I am dreading the bill for printing these, but it will be so nice to have both girls' albums done at once.  I am amazed at how much easier MDS gets every time I use it.  Through trial and error , and an awesome class from my upline, Kelly (Thanks, Kelly!!), I am learning all kinds of ways to create my pages.  I'm also looking forward to the release of MDS 2, which has even more wonderful features and techniques. Stay tuned for more details!!

But on to my pages... Once again, I forgot to document the patterns of DSP and elements... Oops!

This page features pictures from our dining experience at the 

Sci-Fi Drive In Theater.  This was by far, the coolest place ever!  

Our table was a convertible car with small tray tables and bench 

seats.  Add to this the giant drive in movie screen showing old 

cartoons and Sci-Fi movie preview, AND a 'starlit' sky and we 

had the most amazing experience!  The food was yummy too!

This page is a variety of different places we visited at

Hollywood Studios. We went on the Great Movie Ride

and had a blast.  Our tour guide was super fun and when

we were hijacked by a gangster, he asked our girls if they 

ever robbed a bank.  They giggled and replied that they had 

not.  Then he wanted to know why.  They immediately 

pointed to their Daddy the police officer! So funny!

My last page is from the Indiana Jones stunt show.  We were amazed

by the skills of the stunt actors,  the special effect, and actually feeling 

the heat and pressure from the explosions.  This is the one page that I 

remember which DSP I used! It's from the Well Worn set and I thought

it went well with the adventurous theme of the pictures.

Well, that's all I have for now.  It is actually Sunday night as I create this post and tomorrow morning bright and early, we are going out to eat breakfast with my nephew before he moves to Wisconsin.  He recently took a  position as an assistant track coach for a college, and we are so proud of him and all he has accomplished.  We will really miss him, but are so thankful he found a job in his desired field!  But a 7 am breakfast date will require a decent nights sleep, so off I go!

Have a great week and happy crafting!

Scrapbook Monday at Hollywood Studios

Well, I survived another year of Kid's Camp! This post was created in advance because I knew that when we arrived back home on Sunday evening, I would be wiped out and not feel like doing anything but getting a shower and crawling into a real bed!  I'm hoping after a morning of sleeping in, I will feel much more human and find some time to create in between loads of laundry!

I have four MDS layouts for your viewing pleasure today.  They are all from Hollywood Studios.  We were told by several people how crazy we were to go there during the Star Wars weekend, but we figured why not get the added benefit.  All things considered, it wasn't insanely crowded and most of the people were waiting in line at the character meet and greets so we pretty much breezed into everything else.  It was however incredibly HOT! Good thing this was the smallest of the Disney parks!

Entering the park-a view of the sorcerer's hat, views of the 'streets' of Hollywood, 

a picture of the Roger Rabbit billboard (Catie loves this movie!)

pictures from Beauty and the Beast- a fabulous show with gorgeous

costumes, great effects, and wonderful singing, also our first show

A trip into Animation gave us some insight into creating an

animated movie.  I fell in love with the replica of the artists' 

work areas. They were a creatively cluttered and messy 

dream!-must be crafter's envy!

The girls loved seeing all of the Brave displays.  They also took

a short class to learn about drawing characters.  They both left 

the class with their own sketch versions of Dopey from 

Snow White. Super Cool!!  We even got a quick peek at 

Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl on their way to a greeting

station. The girls reverted to youthful giggles as the 

couple waved at them. Silly Mom did not have her camera

ready and missed that shot...

I am a very bad blogger and forgot to write down exactly which papers I used...  Still not used to this whole digital scrapbooking thing!

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful week and that all of us find some time to be crafty!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Scrapbook Monday-Magic Kingdom

Hello! So glad you popped in to visit me and my little ol' blog! I am always so happy when I see I have a new follower or read someone's comments! It really is so amazing to me that out of all of the various blogs out there, we manage to stumble across others that really speak to us and make a connection that while it's not a 'physical' friendship, it still picks up our spirits and inspires us to try new things and keep creating.  So I really appreciate everyone who stops by to visit!

I know it's hard to believe, but I have more MDS Disney pages to share.  I feel like that lady.  You know, the one who invites everyone over for dinner after her vacation and then shares her 5 hour slide show with them...  I am hoping that since they are scrapbooked pictures, you will forgive me!  The three pages below are from our first evening at Disney.  We went to Magic Kingdom and managed to finish about half of the park before the fireworks began.  It was a very enjoyable evening and we actually had a nice breeze and cooler temps. 

Pictures from the restaurant... our first stop.  Check out

the Lady and the Tramp artwork on the plate-it was

CHOCOLATE!!!! So cool!

It was incredibly crowded in front of Cinderella's castle,

making picture taking a little difficult...

Various pictures from our evening.  After this page is printed, 

I'm going to let the girls do the journaling on the back to 

capture their impressions of the evening.

I had hoped to check out a website a friend of mine used for her Disney album, but without internet service, was unable to do that.  I'm hoping to find a day this week to download some Disney digi art and I may end up changing some of my original layouts, as well as use them on the new ones.  I did manage to make my own little Mickey head using buttons!  The first two pages used the brocade dsp in brocade blue.  The third page is real red with a brocade blue distressed stamp around the entire page.  I also lightened the opacity on the red so it wasn't quite so bright.

Well, that's it for today... Unfortunately, I have reached the point in my summer vacation where I have to start working again.  Mostly from home, but it makes me realize I don't have too many lazy days left... and I'm already cringing at back to school shopping and book rental!  If only summer could last another month!

Have a great week and happy crafting!

Scrapbook Monday-You know you're a scrapbooker when...

It's another Scrapbook Monday and I have several digital layouts to share today!  My family is always laughing at the bizarre things I choose to photograph.  Like the food on the table at Thanksgiving, or the new backpacks on the first day of school,  or candy and coffee packaging...

They are not scrapbookers, because if they were, they would know that the dinner table picture will tell my great-great-great-grandchildren what we ate, the backpacks become a trip down memory lane for my kids "Remember when you LOVED Dora?",  and the candy and coffee shows future chocolate and caffeine addicted family members that they inherited that love from me.  My sister (who also scrapbooks) and my girls, however, understand that you know you're a scrapbooker when...

...you take pictures of signs, towel art, walls, and even the toiletries from the hotel.

...buildings, water parks, and walkways are frequent focal points in pictures.

...your hotel suite's every detail is forever preserved on a page.

...your children vividly remember exact moments, each time they look at their scrapbook.

Words can not do justice to explain how wonderfully, magical our suite was.  It was almost surreal being at the resort!  I can not imagine the time and talent that came together to make this amazing place.  The cast members were fantastic and always had a smile and an offer to help with anything.   It was so fun walking into the building after an exhausting day at a park to see someone smiling and saying "Welcome home!  What did you do today?"  It was not a 'cheap' place to stay, but was worth every penny we paid!  And since we don't go to Disney every year (this was the girls' first visit) we decided to splurge and have the full effect!

I was very naughty and did not make a list of anything that I used on these pages...  The main colors are brocade blue and real red, and I made the fish on the second layout by combining oval punches with heart punches.  The Disney script was found at Urban Fonts and was FREE!!

I like to think that 100 years from now, someone will look at my pages and think "That is so cool!" or "Look at those shoes!" or "Wow! Did you see that OLD TV?!"  At least, that's what we do when we look through all of the old family pictures.  At best, I am leaving a visual time capsule of our lives for our future generations.  At the very least, I am gossip fodder for current family members.  "Did you see her take a picture of the birthday card/grill/car/cake on the floor(true story!)/chickens... Well, she's always been a little odd..."  Little do they know, I will be the cool and crazy, crafty lady that our future family knows so much about!! So who's laughing now?  Yeah, I know... it's still them laughing...

I hope you find some time this week to be crafty!!  Don't forget to take some pictures too!

Scrapbook Monday- Still at the beach...

It's Monday once again and I have a few more pages from our Panama City Beach portion of our vacation.  Again, very little journaling, letting the pictures tell their own stories...

I really wish we would have planned at least another day for the beach.  One evening was not nearly enough time to properly enjoy the sand and water.  I think our next trip to the ocean will have more relaxing and resting time and less regimented schedules.

The second page is views of the ocean from the car as we were leaving Panama City Beach, and one of the orange groves we passed on our way to Lake Buena Vista.  You can't really tell in the picture, but we could see oranges growing on the trees as we passed.  It was raining as we arrived at Disney -typical of Florida this time of year, I'm told...  But it did not diminish our excitement as we arrived at the most magical place on earth!  

I still have a lot of beach pictures that I did not scrapbook.  These will probably go into divided page protectors (photo album style) and be placed with the scrapbook pages.  To be perfectly honest, this will probably happen to a lot of pictures!  I love to scrapbook, but my attention span for one project does not last long!  Probably why I always do Christmas and vacation pictures last!!

We finally received some much needed rain yesterday evening.  We went out to eat for our niece's birthday in a neighboring town and it starting pouring rain!  I was never so happy to be soaked! It stormed enough that the power went out and we ate our meal with only the light from the windows and the emergency lights.  Great mood lighting and a memorable evening for my niece!  We were just glad that the kitchen was still able to make our food!  It was quite disappointing to arrive back at home to realize that it had only sprinkled there.  But shortly after settling in, it did rain a little more.  We are still far below what we need and the fire hazards have not been lifted, but at least some of the dust was washed back where it belongs!

Hope you have a fabulous week and happy crafting!