Making Meaningful Memories

One Hour Card Challenge at MSW Tonight

2011-06-11T22:21:00.002-04:00

2010-01-03T00:33:00.004-05:00

Well, it's now 2010 and it's been a LONG time since I posted anything here on my blog. I've been working full time since September and it has been a big adjustment. I absolutely love my new job, and my kids are attending school where I am teaching, so I still get to spend a good amount of time with them. I have managed to squeeze a few projects in here and there (see below) in order to keep up with my DT requirements at Scrappy Chic and My Sketch World, but will be "retiring" from both DT positions after January is through. I am hoping that I am still able to do a project here and there, but for now, need to focus on work and family. I hope everyone has a fabulous 2010...

Another Blog Giveaway... or two...

2009-08-08T11:12:00.004-04:00

Just thought I'd share a link to another great blog giveaway... If you are like me, the MME papers are something you wait for and can't wait to work with. Here's your chance to get some of the new ones!!!

My Mind's Eye Giveaway at "Created by Leanne"

Then there is Arlene at Butterfly Kissses who is offering an incredible blog candy giveaway! You definitely need to go check it out!

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!!

Card Patterns Sketches and More

2009-07-25T10:06:00.006-04:00

Here are a few fun cards I was able to create using the awesome sketches at Card Patterns. The first was done using sketch #23 and the other two were done using the bonus sketch from July.

And here's what else I've been up to for the past few weeks. It's been a long time since I've uploaded anything so I'm doing it all at once... The layouts first...

And then a few more cards. THANKS for stopping by and taking a looksie...

Looking for something fun to do next month???

2009-07-22T22:00:00.006-04:00

Check out the ABC Summer crop at My Sketch World. It's sure to provide you with tons of inspiration and great fun!

Awesome new (to me anyway) paper line!!!

2009-07-21T10:59:00.002-04:00

Check out the new Bella Blvd. papers being released this summer! I've never worked with their papers, but they look awesome and I may just be giving them a try. I especially like the super cute designs of the "Camped Out" and the fabulous color combinations of the "Plastino". Head on over to their blog to see a little sneak preview of what they have. While you're there read about how you can have a chance to win some freebies!

One hour card sketch at MSW!

2009-07-18T11:06:00.002-04:00

My Sketch World is hosting its first ever one hour card sketch challenge. Come on over and join in the fun!

Here are the particulars:
- Friday, July 24th
- Sketches posted at 9:00pm EST
- Finished cards need to be posted in the gallery and linked to sign in thread by 10:20pm EST.
- The 6 sentiments we are working with will be posted the day before so you can pull papers and get psyched up.
- 6 sketches will be posted and you will get one prize draw for each card completed and posted by 10:20pm EST.
- All action will take place the "Card Challenges Forum.
- WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!! Ummm...I mean....It's going to be a swell time!!

Card Patterns Sketch 22

2009-07-10T23:15:00.003-04:00

Card Patterns is a GREAT sketch site that posts a new sketch week - you should definitely go check them out if you haven't been there yet. Here's what I did with sketch #22...

Card was made using MME patterned paper, K and Co. Butterfly, Studio G stamp, and Misc. rubons that were in my left-over piles. TFL!

Free Cuttlebug!!!

2009-07-09T19:28:00.003-04:00

Melissa Bove is offering you all the chance to win a free Cuttlebug! For more details, check out this link! Good luck to everyone who enters!

My Girl Mini Album (Repost)

2009-06-30T11:41:00.006-04:00

Just wanted to re-post the images of my "My Girl" mini-album... they had to be removed last fall for publication... ENJOY!

Blog Candy Alert!

2009-06-07T13:16:00.004-04:00

Just thought I'd share another opportunity for some blog candy that I just read about... Head on over to Creating from the Heart for your chance to win some fabulous goodies! Have a happy scrappy day!

It's been a crazy busy spring and I'm finally starting to get a few spare moments to do some scrapping... I will be back to post some of my creations soon!

What to do, what to do???

2009-04-16T20:27:00.002-04:00

Man oh, man is this weekend packed with scrappy goodness! Scrapbookdoodle continues with their month long birthday bash (until April 30), Creative Scrappers is kicking off their Birthday Bash (April 19 - May 3), and My Sketch World is beginning it's weeklong crop (April 18 - 25)! It is going to be tough deciding where to start!!! On top of it all, I have my DT stuff to work on for Scrappy Chic! And then there's my homework... Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

Great Chance for A Great RAK!!!

2009-04-07T09:44:00.003-04:00

Just thought I'd share a great new blog I've come across. Jennifer over at Phoenix Crafts is celebrating a year of blogging! In honor of that, she is offering the chance to win an amazing package of scrapping goodies (see pic). Check out her blog and you could be the lucky winner!

Phoenix Crafts

Good luck to all!!!

One more week until Easter!!!

2009-04-05T19:36:00.004-04:00

This Palm Sunday weekend has been a pretty good one around here... The weather was good enough for the kiddos to play outside most of the weekend and now we are settling down to get ready to head back to school tomorrow. We are looking forward to a short school week and a visit with my parents for Easter.

Since the kids were fully entertained with their friends, I had the chance to get some good scrapping done this weekend... I finished five layouts and several cards/tags. Three of them are for the month long crop over at Scrapbookdoodle.com and you can view them there (we can't post them anywhere else until the end of the month). My screen name there is Scrappy_Mom_in_MI. The others are below for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy your Easter week preparations and springtime activities this week!

Lookin' for some scrappy fun???

2009-04-02T23:12:00.005-04:00

Well if you are looking for some scrappy fun this month, head on over to Scrapbookdoodle.com and join in their birthday bash crop! It is Scrapbookdoodle's 2nd birthday and we are all celebrating with an entire month of challenges, games and chances for prizes! So, what are you waiting for? Click here to see what you've been missing!

Attention Card Makers!!!

2009-03-27T16:31:00.002-04:00

One of my online friends is hosting an event to help with her required fundraising for the Breast Cancer 3 Day... If you happen to make cards and would be willing to send just one of those cards to her, please check out the details on her blog: http://scrapinator.blogspot.com/2009/03/normal-0-false-false-false.html
I plan to send several cards since I have been making cards like mad lately and could never use all of the ones I have made! Hope you all can participate!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

2009-03-24T19:09:00.005-04:00

Went to the garage sale at Scrappy Chic this weekend and took my daughter... She took her own money and I let her pick out her own scrappy goodies. Shen came home with a good sized bag of rubber stamps which she has already put to good use. There were some great deals to be had for sure - some of the littler stamps she picked up were only $0.05 with the most expensive one being $3. She was thrilled!

I found a couple of great deals as well... An Autumn Leaves acrylic stamp set for $3, Acrylic block (about 3x4) for $2, a pack of rub-ons, a couple of chipboard mini-albums and some miscellaneous embellishments...

I headed for home so that I would be able to participate in the one hour sketch challenge at Creative Scrappers and ended up with this layout...

I was also able to finish up a layout for a challenge at Scrapbook.com using Graphic 45 papers and a bunch of cards for the month-long card challenge at Your Memories By Design.

Monday was back to finalizing my DT requirements for the month of March... Did a little mini-album for spring and LOVE the way it turned out. I still need to take photos of it so you will have to wait another day or two to check it out... Have a scrappy week!

Scrappy Weekend

2009-03-15T21:52:00.003-04:00

These are just a few of the pages I've completed this weekend... All of these were done using the fun goodies from the DT kit for this month at Scrappy Chic... Thanks a ton Staci for pushing me to use some products I may not have chosen for myself, but have fallen in love with now that I've experimented! It seems like Staci must have been checking out my photos somehow, because the papers she picked for me worked so well...

Hope you enjoy looking!

Hooo Do You Love?? Mini-Album

2009-03-11T14:31:00.006-04:00

Just wanted to share this fun mini-album I just finished about a week ago as part of my first month on the DT at Scrappy Chic... As fun as this album was, it was definitely a major project - I worked on it for about ten hours at the all night crop at Scrappy Chic, and that wasn't counting the time I had already put into it before the crop. I am happy with the results though...

Hope you all enjoy!!!

Amazing Month

2009-02-17T21:14:00.005-05:00

Wow! What a month...

I just found out that I will be a Card DT member for My Sketch World! It is an awesome new forum that compliments the blog that has been around for nearly 2 years (Feb 19 is the two year anniversary and start of the weekend long crop!!!) Stop in and check out the fun this weekend!

Between this and my new responsibilities at Scrappy Chic I will be sure to keep busy with plenty of scrappy projects! Here are the first layouts I've created for Scrappy Chic!

2009-02-08T01:20:00.005-05:00

Just finished a couple more pages using the song "Colors" by Kira Willey as inspiration... The black one was also done using the sketch from week #37 at Creative Scrappers. It's been a hectic weekend since this is the weekend I have school, but looking forward to starting a new week and getting some good scrapping in... Tuesday is the first meeting with the Design Team at Scrappy Chic! Looking forward to meeting everyone and learning some more details on what we will be working on!

Doing the Happy Dance

2009-02-05T10:26:00.003-05:00

Got the phone call I've been waiting for last night... I was picked to be on the design team at Scrappy Chic - my favorite LSS for scrapping and shopping! I still don't know a lot of the details (the DT coordinator will be setting up a meeting soon) but I do know that there are four of us on the team and I have been asked to create monthly pages and projects for display at the store! I cannot wait to get started! I will post pics of my submission once I stop in the store and get pics of everything! Oh yeah... One of the layouts I submitted was the "I am Yellow Today" layout from a recent post if you want to take a peek!

Scrapping the Month Away

2009-01-31T02:07:00.004-05:00

Wow! It's been a busy month for scrapping... The month started off with a bang when I squeezed in an all day crop with two of my good friends at my favorite LSS! Then came an online crop at one of my favorite scrappy sites, Scrapbook Doodle... I made a TON of cards and even finished off a few layouts.

Now as the month draws to an end, I'm headed back to my LSS for the day, AND I've found another amazing scrappy site that is having their on-line crop this weekend. Come on over and join me and the fantastic girls of Your Memories By Design for a fun-filled weekend of inspiration and challenges! I absolutely LOVE their unique offerings in their shop and the incredibly friendly atmosphere of the site - I'm sure you will too!

What a better way to spend Superbowl Weekend??? Oh, yeah... Wish me luck as I will be submitting for my first attempt at a LSS Design Team later today!

Latest and greatest...

2009-01-24T13:30:00.003-05:00

I've been busy scrapping away these last few weeks thanks to a few challenges and an online crop I've been following. I made a ton of cards as well as a few layouts. One of my favorites is this one that I did for the Scrappin the Music Blog using the song Colors by Kira Willey. I absolutely loved the lyrics and just happened to have a series of photos of my daughter making a variety of faces... Here's the first of what I hope to be a series of several layouts inspired by the great song!

Photo A Day Challenge: Jan 4-8

2009-01-08T23:37:00.002-05:00

Just some random shots that I took as part of a photo-a-day challenge... I missed on the 7th, and only took photos of projects on the 4th and 8th, but I'm working at getting better...

Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-04T23:02:00.015-05:00

Well, I've finally gotten some new goodies finished up to share! It was so great to get to crop with my good friends this past Friday. I didn't complete any 12x12 pages, but I finished two mini-albums and started a third. Here are the two that I finished!

This first one is a mini-album that I plan to give to an aunt of mine who will be getting married at the end of this month. It is approximately 12 inches wide and 6 inches tall. I used alcohol inks on the acrylic cover (Currant and Copper) and used DCWV Papers throughout. The flowers are a variety from Prima and Bazzill and probably some miscellaneous others.

Hope you enjoy looking through it!

This is the second one... I was so excited about how the first one (above) turned out that I just had to do another mini-album while at the crop. I really don't have any definite plans for this one - I just fell in love with the papers and the super cute album shape! The album is a Cosmo Cricket Blackboard album and the papers are Dream Street (Mairzy Doats Line). I added a couple of transparency pages in between the album pages thanks to the suggestion of my scrappy friends who were at the crop with me! Thanks Gals! I'm considering submitting this to the design team call for the LSS that I was scrapping at that night... We'll see if I can complete the other requirements in time.

(Had to remove the pics since it got picked up for Scrapbooking.com mag!!!)

Finally back!

2008-11-30T21:46:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been three long months without scrapping!As I was packing up my family's things to head to head up north for Thanksgiving, I received an e-mail about the one hour sketch contest at creative scrappers.com, so I took the bait... Here's what I came up with...

Now, creative-scrappers.com is hosting a sketchfest for the next week (Nov 30-Dec 7) and I can't wait to see if I can finish any more pages! It is gonna be kind of tough since I have to finish my course work for the class I am taking (final class on 12/6) plus getting ready for the holidays, but if I can even manage to squeeze a couple of layouts in by Sunday evening, I will be happy! Stop by their site and check out all of the fun things going on this week!

End of Summer Blues...

2008-08-31T22:53:00.004-04:00

Totally getting bummed out about the end of summer... Summer is definitely my favorite time of year - LOVE the warm weather and the relaxed pace of everything (not to mention baseball season!)

This year is going to be especially hard for me though since I will be working full time (even if it is only temporary) teaching Biology at the high school in town. I am scheduled to fill in for a teacher who is out on maternity leave until the Friday before Thanksgiving. After only subbing a few days each month on a day to day basis since my dd was born, I am really feeling a bit overwhelmed at what I've taken on. It's bad enough that it is going to be full time, but it is compounded by the fact that the only Biology I've had is my own 9th grade Biology class (many moons ago!) It's not like I don't like science, it's just that my major is chemistry and minor is physics...

Anyway, I know I am going to have a lot of support from the administration at the school - they are even letting me take my kiddos to school on the first day of class so I can get pics and see them off... DS starting his last year of elementary school (boo hoo) and DD going full day for the first time (boo hoo too!!!)

I guess my point in this whole post is that for anyone who visits occaisionally... I may not have any time for scrapping/photography/blogging during then next couple of months (although if I can manage to squeeze even a few minutes, you know I will)... So take care and I'll see you when time allows!

HAPPY FALL!!!

Awesome Blogs

2008-08-20T00:51:00.002-04:00

Just thought I'd share some blogs that I've run across lately - all of which are offering some sweet RAK's/giveaways:

http://pamelasworldofscrap.blogspot.com/
http://bobunny.blogspot.com/
http://www.cosmocricket.blogspot.com/

Or offer Awesome Tutorials:
http://www.yosemites-scrapbook.blogspot.com/
http://scrapperlicious.blogspot.com/

Will add more as I find them! Enjoy!

Fancy Pants DT Submission

2008-08-11T00:54:00.014-04:00

I decided to take the chance and send in my work to the FP Design Team Call... Can't be picked if you don't submit...Right? Well, there have been several issues with the submission process and e-mails being sent back to everyone. The layouts and project I am working on sending in are below. Wish me luck!

Catching up

2008-08-03T14:43:00.010-04:00

It's been awhile since my last post... Things have been pretty busy. The last few weeks of July brought a mix of great scrapping news my way, but life in general has been a mixed bag.

I am excited to say that I have SIX items being published in the month of August!!! All are in on-line magazines, but this is truly a record accomplishment for me. Two of my layouts will be published in Scrapstreet.com's magazine and three layouts plus my acrylic album will be published in Scrapbook News and Review. To top it off, I was selected as the Guest Creative Team Member for the month of August at Scrapbook Doodle! This is my first ever creative/design team selection! The kit for August that I received to create with is AWESOME - you should really check it out! A few of the things I was able to create using it are below. The best part is, is that I still have tons of goodies left to creat more wonderful pages!

Unfortunately, life in general has not been the greatest, but we are trying to look on the bright side... DH lost his job at Ford due to the cutbacks. He has a great attitude about the whole situation and has not been that happy in his job during the last couple of years. The fact that it is summer and there are so many things to do around the house/with the family (more time with the kids!) helps as well. If something else comes up relatively quickly, this would actually be a blessing! Let's keep our fingers crossed!

DS finished up baseball season... His team was eliminated from the playoffs in the first game, losing badly to a team they have beaten in the past. It really seemed that his team was half asleep on the field that night... There's always next year! The loss that night allowed the majority of his team to get together a couple of days later (when they "should" have been playing in the second round of the playoffs) for a pool party to celebrate the end of the season. DS was fortunate enough to play one more game - the all star game! He was picked as one of the top four players from his team... What a thrill for him.

DD is chugging right along in gymnastics class this summer. This week, she made it to the very top of the climbing rope for the first time. It's amazing how quickly she is learning things and getting stronger now that she has moved up in the classes. Only one more week of baseball and tennis for her... We won't know what to do with ourselves once all the activities have ended!

The month ended with bad news about a 9 year old little schoolmate of DS and DD who has been battling lymphoma for the past nine months. On August 1st, she lost her battle and has moved on to better things. These next few days will be difficult ones for our community. I don't think that anyone in our relatively small city hasn't been touched by her story and her life. Earlier in the year the city banded together and held a fundraiser to help her family with medical expenses and raised an incredible amount of money. There were nearly 100 items donated for the "Chinese" auction plus approximately 50 items in the silent auction. In the first hour of the benefit alone, $1000 in 50-50 tickets were sold. I think that every teacher from the school was there volunteering in some way. I know that today at the viewing and tomorrow at the funeral, the family will receive the same support. Please pray that her family can find the strength to make it through these days and weeks ahead that will be oh, so difficult.

Well, enough for today. Hopefully I will do a better job of keeping up next month!

Old Time Favorites (and a couple of recent faves too!)

2008-07-18T11:10:00.012-04:00

Just going through some of my old layouts and remembering how much I loved some of them...

I just loved the title I came up with for this one...

This was my first attempt to submit to CK for the Becky Sketch... It didn't get selected for the mag, but I really loved it. It was also my first attempt at using color select in Photoshop...

I loved this one because of the action shots and the journaling...

My dd enjoying a donut... A completely unintentional "passionate" shot which turned into this layout.

I love this one for the photo and the fact that I did it as a gift to a friend and former student... The young lady who is pictured was a student of mine six years prior to the photo being taken, then her younger sister just happens to be the same age as my ds and now her mother and I play wallyball together. I saw the photo one day when I was substitute teaching at the high school and had the chance to look through the yearbook... I called her shortly after that and asked if I could get a copy of the pic so I could scrap it for her. I ended up doing a few pages for her, but this is still my fave.

This one of my ds just came together... Love the swirls and how it represents a blustery winter day...

And finally two gifts that were given to two very special people... First my ds third grade teacher's gift at the end of the year - this was also the first item I ever had accepted to the BG gallery.

And second, I did this layout for my dear friend whose husband was killed in a horrible car accident last June. I had her youngest daughter in my Sunday School class when she was three, watched her on the days mom had to work when she was in K with my ds and have now discovered that mom and I share the passion for scrapping. The journaling is the lyrics for the song "Everything I Own" by Bread (which is on my playlist if you care to listen). I heard the song just after the accident and ended up crying as I was driving down the street listening. I knew I had to do this for her at that point.

7 Random Facts (Scrapbook Doodle Summer Blog Party Challenge week of 7/7)

2008-07-13T00:48:00.004-04:00

Some random facts about me...

1. I have lived in 3 states (Illinois, South Carolina and Michigan)
2. I love Christmas music and can listen to it year round (especially stuff like TransSiberian Orchestra and non-traditional stuff like Mariah Carey's Christmas album)
3. I love listening to High School Musical CD's with my kids in the car (even though I won't let them know that!)
4. I can't get enough of watching my kids sports activities
5. My favorite food group is definitely carbs - I could eat breakfast all day long (cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, bagels, muffins, french toast, etc. - especially with fruit and nuts added!)
6. I hate when women wear too much purfume and you end up smelling like them if you get too close (think hugging your family members etc.) but don't usually have a problem when I get a good whiff of someone wearing a great mens cologne (even if it is a bit strong)
7. I hate shopping for clothes especially when I really need to find something for a special occaision - Either I can't find anything that fits the way I like it to or I just can't find anything I like...

Tagging: Staci (http://stopitsscrappintime.blogspot.com/), Cheryl (http://www.scrapbook.com/blogs/30781.html), Susan (http://www.scrapbook.com/blogs/156181.html), Jennifer (http://www.scrapbook.com/blogs/123715.html), Heidi (http://www.scrapbook.com/blogs/42834.html), Martha (http://www.scrapbook.com/blogs/23502.html), Jan (http://www.scrapbook.com/blogs/127239.html)

Baseball 08

2008-06-30T02:22:00.003-04:00

Ok, so not quite sure why the slide show stopped showing the photos, and couldn't figure out how to replace the slideshow with a new one/edit the slide show, so I just made a new slideshow, and a new post and deleted the original one which was dated Tuesday June 24...

I just love watching my son play baseball. He TRULY LOVES the sport which makes it even more exciting. If he is on the field, he is happy! Here are a few shots of him during a few of the games he's played this summer. Last night was his first "real" chance at pitching - He ended up being the winning pitcher and only allowed 2 runs in three innings, with5 strike outs! He did pitch one other inning when our regular 9 year old was late getting to the game, but was replaced by that 9 year old once he arrived. This week the regular pitcher is on vacation in Florida and it has given ds the chance to SHINE! The coaches seemed really impressed and were raving about the way he pitched last night. Hopefully, he will get the chance to pitch some more during the next couple of weeks and into the playoffs! I am so excited for him since this is something he's been wanting to do all season! He can't stop talking about what a great game it was last night. It was the first time we've won against that team in three attempts this season!

My First Acrylic Album

2008-06-30T01:57:00.003-04:00

Well, I finally got around to using this GREAT acrylic album I picked up at the Mega Meet in May! Loved working with it and found it to be the perfect place to "store" some of the portraits I took of Lara in her dance costumes this year. Thanks for taking a peek!

2008-06-25T17:06:00.005-04:00

Well, dd finally did it! She's been asking me if she can get her hair cut for the past couple of weeks, and today she actually went through with it! She cut it herself about 18 months ago (much to my shock and heartbreak) and once I got over the inital moments realized how cute it looked shorter. Well, aparently she agreed since she just discovered a photo from that time frame and decided she wanted it to look like that again. I figure now is a great time to let her do it since it will be so much easier to handle over the summer months, plus it was long enough to donate to a local place that only requires 6 inches of hair for kids with hair loss. I am so proud of her and she looks even more adorable than ever (if I do say so myself!) Pictures coming this evening after ds baseball game (can't be late for that!!!)

Before:

After:

First Attempt at portraits

2008-06-23T02:07:00.002-04:00

Just a few images of dd in her dance costume... These photos were taken in our family room with a makeshift backdrop and only the natural light from the windows and skylights. We were a bit rushed since dd decided she wanted to get her hair cut (significantly) and I wanted to get these portraits done as she looked for her dance recital (two weeks ago). My camera is a Canon S5IS and I used the action and portrait settings to get these photos... Definitely a FIRST attempt with minimal planning and props/equipment. Let me know if you see any you like!