A few more scrappy things...

Dog-Gone Cute.. Ashii and Logan. Summer 2008

Riley's 1st Grade End of the Year Party. 2009

Camping Warwick Woods 1996

Summer 2008

Boys will be boys.. Spring 2008

Divas Summer 2007

Halloween/Black and Orange Tags.. Memory Scrappers Swap

Poolin' Around July 4th 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

No not Christmas, though I do LOVE the holiday. I'm talkin' BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!!! My kids have officially been back at school for three weeks and I am LOVIN' it.

For the first time in sixteen plus years I am KID FREE five days a week, seven hours a day. I ADORE my children but I SO need the downtime!!

I've been utilizing my newfound freedom to so some serious scrappin' and also attended an all day crop last Saturday with my best friend Deb. We have a FABULOUS time and I accomplished quite a bit. (BOUGHT quite a bit too, lol)

Our weather has finally turned chilly and I can smell fall in the air. This is one of my favorite seasons. I love the way the air smells, the anticipation of the upcoming holidays and the vibrant colors. I can't wait to take a road trip up the mountains to get some fab fall pics!

I hope everyone is doing well and being crafty!

I wanted to share a few of my most recent layouts with you:o)

This was done for a Sketch Challenge on one of my Yahoo Groups. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

This is a layout for the 8x8 "About Me" album I am currently working on. That little darlin' is me! I was about 2/3 years old. (My parents didn't habitually date pics. GGGRRR!!! LOL!)

A snowy day in 1976!!! Me, my younger brother and our twin neighbors.

Another layout done for a challenge in a Yahoo Group. In Memory of Memom. My Grandmother who passed away in 2006.

My very first Christmas!! 1969. Also for the About Me album.

National Scrapbooking Day Part 2

After a lot of running around taking care of some errands and "To Do List" chores I finally got around to settling down for some serious scrappin'! In honor of NSD our scrapbooking group held a "virtual crop" of sorts. Our mission? To scrap as much as possible. And also complete some special NSD Challenges by midnight CST (the time zone our group owner lives in). We were given five of them. I managed to finish four of the five and was spent! I tend to spent an inordinate amount of time on each layout so each of these took me 1-2 hours to complete.

One of the challenges was to find a sketch, any sketch, and use it to create a layout. I chose a sketch from the April issue of Scrapbooks, etc. One of my all time FAVORITE scrapbooking magazines. The sketch is pictured below with the layout I created underneath of it.

The picture is of my daughter and her Godfather, our nephew Joseph.

This is the layout I did for the "Quote Challenge". We were to use a quote within the layout or as our inspiration for the layout. I chose the quote.. "The only thing worth stealing is a kiss from a sleeping child" ~Joe Houldsworth. The sleeping child is my son Riley when he was still a toddler. My children have the uncanny ability to fall asleep anywhere and in any position. (They take after their father)

This was for the "Scrap a Song.." challenge. I chose Kenny Chesney's Don't Blink (like ya'll didn't see that one coming considering my OBSESSION with all things Kenny). I chose random pics spanning several years of my children, myself and my husband.

This next layout is definitely up there with my all time favorites. The pictures are from Thanksgiving in 2005. In October of that year my Grandmother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and the chances of her beating the disease were slim. We all knew it would more then likely be her last Thanksgiving with her. I put on a brave face for my children's sake but I remember how hard that day was and yet so very precious to me. I cherished every moment and took tons of pictures so we'd always have them to preserve the memories.

My Grandmother was my biggest fan and the most incredible woman. She passed away less then two months later. I thank God that he gave us the time he did with her and that we were all able to be together for Thanksgiving and later Christmas. She was two weeks shy of her 83rd birthday when she left this world. I miss her terribly and live each day in a way that I hope continues to make her as proud of me as she always was.

I love you Memom.. and I wish I could have just a little more time with you. I still feel your absence as sharply as I did three years ago.

National Scrapbooking Day!!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day everyone! I've been a scrappin' fool as of late and haven't had much time to blog. Below are many of the layouts I've completed in the last couple of months. All but a few were done using sketches by Becky Higgins for inspiration.

I LOVE working with sketches!! I find I complete layouts much faster and can tweak a sketch different ways to come up with unique layouts over and over again.

All of these layouts were done with papers and embellishments I've had on hand for as long as TEN years! I'm a member of a FABULOUS on line scrapbooking group, Memory Scrappers, and each month we have a "Use It Up" challenge. Our fearless leader, Jenn, "assigns" us several challenges throughout the month and all must be completed using only materials we already have. (Participation is optional) Since Jenn started this I have been much more motivated to scrap and get all of my families precious memories preserved in albums.

I've probably done more layouts in the last three months then I have in the last YEAR! So THANK YOU Jenn for being my inspiration and getting me back into my beloved hobby! YOU ROCK!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my Cricut Expression?

I went a little hog wild this past week buying new cartridges for my Cricut Expression. I found the Doodlecharms and Paper Doll Dress Up cartridges on sale for $29.99 at http://www.hallmarkscrapbook.com/ and simply couldn't pass them up. I also bought the Tinkerbell and Friends Cartridge via eBay. All three arrived before the end of the week.

So my daughter Sydney (9) and I have been playing all afternoon. Below is the cheerleader we made using Paper Doll Dress Up. I found the "recipe" at
http://somebodyscrapme.blogspot.com/2009/03/cricut-cheerleader-recipe.html.

We've also made two Congratulation/Baby cards for my cousins Tara and Todd who both had their first babies recently. (Haven't taken pics of those yet)

Tara and her husband are now the proud parents of twin baby girls! Caroline and Chloe. They arrived a little early at 33 weeks but are doing quite well. My cousin Todd and his wife have a bouncing baby boy. Ryan Jack. He weighed in at 7lbs 1 oz. I can't wait to meet them!

I dropped a small fortune at Babies R Us this morning buying clothes for our newest family members. But I couldn't help myself. Much like I have no self control when buying scrapbooking items I probably have even LESS when it comes to baby stuff.

And now Sydney and I are heading back to our scrappin' station to play some more.

A Scrappy Weekend!

I've been a scrappin' fool for the last few weeks. Since getting my Cricut Expression I've found myself much more inspired to work on things. I absolutely LOVE this machine!

I thought I'd share some of my "creations" from the last few weeks..

These quotes are for a swap I'm participating in on one of my Yahoo groups. Total made=5.



Just a random layout of my daughter...

This is a Mosaic Inchie.. these were also made for a swap. Total made=9...

This layout is an 8x8 and I made it for a Challenge on one of my Yahoo Groups... we were to make a layout using the letter "M"...

Another random layout....

Another challenge... (do a layout of an inanimate object)

Challenge layout.. (use the #2)

BLOG CANDY ALERT!

One of the blogs I follow is giving away some yummy blog candy! Check it out!

http://scrapinglori.blogspot.com/