Scrapbooking Retreat

I'm heading out this weekend for a scrapbooking retreat with a wonderful group of ladies (we call ourselves the ScrapDivas of Oregon). I used to scrap with this group a lot, but lately our retreats have been fewer and fewer. Such is the stage of our lives right now. I'm still pretty impressed that I've been with this group (we have our own Yahoo group) for about 5 years now. I've not scrapped w/them for about two. It's going to be a blast!

Now can someone explain to me why when you are going away for three days scrapbooking, the smallest bag you pack is the one with your clothes and toiletries?

Smiles all!

I want to be Amy!

I saw this on Maria Grace' Momentary Bliss blog. I want to be Amy. I'm wishing I'd continued my dream of being in Musical Theater somewhere.

Enjoy!



Best Wedding Toast Ever!!!! (Amy's Song) - video powered by Metacafe

Free shipping and 9 cent prints!

Snapfish has a limited time offer (ends on the 29th) of free shipping with their regular 9 cent prints. This is a great deal! I've used them in the past with no problems.
(use this code: PRTFREE08 when you check out)

Thought some of you might want to take advantage of this deal. There's probably some fine print (which I haven't read yet--going to upload some pics now) so be aware and don't blame me if things aren't quite what you thought.

Otherwise, enjoy your cheap prints and free shipping!

Smiles!

Busy Mom gettin' it done!

Whew! In the last two weeks I've been to two concerts (one elementary and one middle school band), one play (middle school), Hubby went to the track meet at the same time as the elementary concert, he also moved his church office to our new building the same time as the band concert (he's the financial clerk for our ward--our church only has volunteer positions--no paid clergy), worked just over 50 hours, made several dinners, taught three scrapbooking/papercrafting classes, had one date with said hubby (Indy 4--really good!), shopped, cleaned, planned lessons for my work, led the music at church, planned w/my parents for my baby sister's visit this weekend, made samples for next month's classes, did a senior picture photoshoot and other various and sundry mom things. I'm glad school's almost over! Then we get a different kind of busy, but I don't have to work. (My job ends with the school year).

I had a wonderful email feedback from the ALBM class. I'm going to ask her permission to post it here. It really warmed my heart. It sums up the reason why I work so hard to create and teach these classes--it makes people happy about themselves. (I even have a corny tagline--"Empowering Women Through Creativity" It works for me). I'd love to know how the rest of you did.

Thanks for everything! Here are some shots of the abovementioned busyness:

The Pea Princess:

Cinderella's Prince:

Clarinet Playin' (mine's the curly haired one):

My favorite shot from the Senior Pic Shoot:

Hambly Rub-Ons and Paper Samples

I was asked to use some new Hambly papers (journaling bits) and rub-ons for samples for the store (Stampin'Cat Studio). These are 8x8 pages, and a 4.25x5.5 card front. Paper is by Bazzill and BasicGrey. Loved the rub-ons. Wish I had more!Photo of C. "Life's too short to be still"Photo of J: "It's hard to look this good"

Stamp is from Amuse Artstamps.

You've Got to See This!

I was taking just a quick minute to scroll through my Inbox when I saw this post from Nichole Heady's blog. If you haven't "met" Nichole Heady yet, you are in for a treat! She's the owner/designer/papercrafter extraordinnaire of Papertrey Ink (a place I could easily spend hundreds of dollars a month); most recently she was on the staff of Papercrafts magazine. She launches new stamps sets mid-month; she gives sneak peeks on her blog of the new sets and highlights projects you can do with those sets. She has a VERY talented design team! You have to go and see what they did with one of this months sets:

GO SEE THE MAGIC HERE!

(you won't be sorry!)

Interwoven Slit Concertina

This is the next class I'm teaching at Stampin'Cat. It's something I saw in this book, and just fell in love with. It's not hard--but it's not easy either!

The quote is by Anna Quindlen (and one of my favorites),

"I walked for miles at night along the beach, composing bad blank verse and searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me."

I think she's talking about searching for a romantical-type partner. What I love about this quote is the bold reminder that we can take care of ourselves. We Captain our own Ships; we control our outcomes. This quote is so powerful for me, it's like a thump in my chest. If I want to change something in my life, I have the power to do it.

Happy Mother's Day (!) to all the Mother's out there. I hope your day was wonderful!

Specs: The cardstock is a shimmered cardstock from Paper Accents. The stamp is by Judikins (Mod Garden); the white pen is by Ranger. The handwriting is my own.

Need a Quickie?

I've decided to start doing a little more regular scrapbook inspiration--quick projects, quick page layout ideas, a journal prompt or two, and so on.

Here's a quick Mother's Day idea, in case you don't have anything yet for that wonderful holiday:

HP Zen Matchbook Album

It's a pre-made digital MiniBook that you print out at home and just add pictures. The embellishments are there for you and everything. How cool is that!

Enjoy!

Let's Talk about Love!

Staying in Love takes work. It just does. Ask anyone in a long-term relationship and they'll agree. It's not all sunshine and roses, nor is it a bodice-ripping romance all the time (some of the time maybe, but not all the time! *wink-wink*). In June, I'll have been married for 15 and a half years. My parents will celebrate their 39th wedding anniversary, and Joel's parents will be married for 51 and a half years. I think they'll all agree that staying in love takes work.

One of my favorite songs about staying in love is by Kathy Mattea. Go follow the link, watch the video and come back. (and if someone could tell me how to put the video directly in my blog, I'd love the help. I've tried to follow YouTube's directions and came up with nothing). Now my DH and I don't dance on our porch surrounded by gauzy curtains (in fact, one of the things my hubby made quite clear as we dated was that dancing just wasn't his "thing" and that's okay), but we do try to continue to date each other. Sometimes we just sneak away for an hour--Starbucks for cocoa and a rice krispie treat, browsing at Borders,--basically some time just for us. We do things that remind us how much we need romance. It's something we need on a regular basis. Chances are you do to.

Go find something that keeps those home fires burning for you and your sweetie. You'll be glad you did.

ALBM--The Home Stretch!

Our last two page spreads need a few things. First, cut out the title and ink the edges as usual. On the "Dear Me" spread, you'll need a picture of yourself in high school. This goes on the left hand side of the page. Any picture of you in your older teen years will do. On the left side, you'll put a letter to yourself. Whatever you wish you'd known when you were acutally IN high school (where we think we know everything, but it isn't until much later when we realize that we don't). Be thorough. I'd encourage you to use your own handwriting for this one. If you have a lot to say, put the pages of your letter in an envelope and attach it to the page instead of the actual letter.

The last section ("Next!"), you are making a list of things to do before you're dead. The sky's the limit! Do you want to travel? Learn a new skill? Run on the beach in a bikini? (that was on a friend of mine's list--not on mine. But I admired her spunk and she inspired the idea of this list, so I put it in). This list can be fluid, but do give it some thought.

That's it! You're done! I hope you've enjoyed this little project. Would you like to do more? Please leave a comment, and link us to your project. I'd love to see it. Would you do anything different as to posting it on the blog? (I know it was a lot of posts, but it is a whole book!) Did you need more pictures? More step-by-step instructions? Was there too much instruction? I really want this to be something successful for you, and I'd love to do more tutorials in the future. I will have a pdf of the entire project available for download at some point.

Thanks for playing along!

Blogger ate it

I had the finishing post for the ALBM project ready to go, and blogger ate it.

I'm still here---just battling some kind of sinus cold as well as single parenting it while DH is in Boston for the week getting started on his new job.

Just wanted you to know I was thinking of you.

Be back soon.