Destinations.....

That's the theme that Luly chose for her circle journal. Now, I've been very blessed to be able to have traveled to some amazing places. I never imagined that I'd one day see China, or places like Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. I've been able to travel to Scandinavia as well and it's part of that trip that I chose for this layout. In October of 2004 I had the good fortune to "tag" along with Roger on one of his trips. We stayed in Scandinavia for almost a month and I saw Finland, Estonia and Sweden. Traveling to Sweden had been a life-long dream of mine, one that I had hoped I'd realize with my grandmother, who was born and raised in Sweden. In fact both my mom's parents were born and raised there and I grew up listening to stories of their childhood and home in Sweden. My grandparents passed away before I was ever able to travel back "home" with them and I honestly thought that I would probably never see Sweden. I can't tell you how emotional it was for me to be able to visit there that fall of 2004...walking down the streets, seeing the sights, eating foods I grew up on that my gran would make for me and listening to the language that I hadn't heard in the years since my grandparents had passed. It is and will always remain one of the sweetest moments of my life.

I, of course, used papers and embellies in yellow and blue (the colors of the Swedish flag) and journaled about my dream of visiting and how it was realized. I hope that Luly likes this layout, I'm pretty happy with it myself!



Until next time,
Blessings!

Wow, I'm honored and sharing the love...

I just visited my girlfriend Diana's blog and look what she so kindly bestowed upon me!!:

Oh my heck, that is so sweet Diana, thank you so much! I promise I am trying to be much better at updating my blog!! And now to pay it forward, here are the 5 girls that I think are "Rockin' Girl Blogger's": Cathy LeHay (your work is always so awesome and you update all the time!), Lynette (total eye candy, need I say more??), Chris Jenkins (you are always reliable for some GREAT tunage enabling and your photos are outstanding!), Rachel (you not only blog daily and are always sharing your cute projects but you blog for two blogs..you totally rock!), and Robyn Bedsaul (I love your art, and your awesome projects, and you were so nice to help me out with that bracelet kit...which I still have to make..oy, my bad!! and I'ved really enjoyed getting to know you!)

So there you are girls, I now bestow this honor onto you! Okay, off to get ready for a Harry Potter party...my first one, can't wait!! It's gonna be so fun to see Mandi (it's a surprise...she won't know she's going till we "kidnap" her and take her there) getting her copy of the book and talk about a layout in the making! LOL

Until next time,

Blessings!

Paper Scrappin!

Yesterday I spent a ton of my time trying to organize my pictures on my computer and my external. They were a disaster of a mess, folders not labeled, duplicates in various folders, junk stuff that I didn't need but hadn't taken the time to delete..you name it. I am almost finished and it feels so good. This weekend I am going to burn my pics and my digi kits to dvd's so incase this puter crashes (hush I even say that), I won't lose them all! So, what does a girl do after spending hours on the computer fiddling around with pictures?? Why, she scraps them!! I had gotten some new papers last week at Remembering When, the new Deja Views "Mango"(so lovin' the orange and blue) and I've been itching to play with them..I had this picture of Mandi that was taken a couple years back when we took her to Navy Pier for the afternoon, and after some Photoshop work, I printed it out and viola..I had me some scrap material. I cranked up my iTunes (gotta have my music playing while I scrap) and I got to work. This style is a bit different for me, but you'll notice I didn't give up the inking LOL! I'm trying to take little things from different layouts I see, to help me in my creative process...I don't really like the idea of copying someone else's design (not that it isn't totally cool, if ya give the appropriate credit, to do that), but I want my layouts to reflect more of my ideas than others...so, I scrap lift cool little ideas from other scrap divas out there...like the flower under the photo..that is thanks to Lynette, who creates some of the most fabulous eye candy I've seen evah!!

I also broke out the 'ol Creative Cutter for this one..I do like that little tool...sooo much fun, don't know why I don't hardly use it...that's another blog story...so, used some Bazzill (of course), chipboard, rub-ons, ribbons, paint, ink, Heidi Swapp ghost clocks and floral, buttons and brads, my Fontwerks Big Timber stamp set, some Primas and this is what developed: That is what I call a fun night...music playing and my paper flying!!

Until next time,

Blessings!

Friday date with digi!

Yep, tonight I had a date with my computer and some digital scrapbooking! I've been feverishly trying to organize the jillions of kits that I have on my computer, and while I'm no where near finished, I have enough that I could play tonight! So, after dinner, I turned on my iTunes, cranked up the volume and got to work! I have to say thank you to Chris who has enabled me with some of the most fabulous tunage to work to...anyways, I was cruising thru my files to find a photo to work with (that is yet another project that I need to do, organize the photos better and scan in some old ones to work with...ya know, circa before digi camera!) when I came across a pic that my girlfriend Mary sent to me awhile back, bam! that was the one I was going to use tonight! It's so amazing how totally involved I get into this. Time just flew by and before I knew it, I had created a layout. The creative process kinda takes me awhile...but once I get going I seem to be able to pull something together. This is what I did tonight, I have to say, I like it, and I hope Mary likes it as well! Like I said, this pic was sent to me, so I can't take credit for it, but I think that whoever took this shot of Mary, captured who she is so well.....


Credits for this layout are as follows: Black paper: SClingerman, Green paper: unknown, Dreamer word art: Photoshopbrushes.com, Swirls: Michelle Coleman, Eyelets: Jeannie Papai, Paintstroke: SMD Brushstrokes, Font: Georgia

(also as a side note...I'm just learning all the "rules" for digi...I've got most of the credits for this layout, please forgive me if I've missed something or goofed..give me time I'll get it right!

so there ya have it...how I spent my evening, feels great, now it's time to shut this puppy down and grab my cup of tea and my new book,

until next time,

Blessings!

Colors of my world...week one!

Red!! Okay, not my favorite color in the world but there are a few of my favorite things that are red, so that is what I chose to use for my first layout in the "Colors of my World" class taught by Carol Wingert at Big Picture Scrapbooking. This is such a cool class. Each week Carol with focus on a new color and teach us a new technique that we can use to create layouts to showcase all the different colors of our world. In the end, we will have a ton of layouts to complete an album about our colors. I am working in a 9x9 size, can't wait to have it all complete and sitting on my coffee table!!

So, what red things did I use? My favorite redhead, Raggedy Ann. I have always loved Raggedy Ann, she was my doll as a baby, toddler and little girl (I still have my very first Raggedy Ann, sans most her hair and clothes...she is over 40 ya know LOL), and I have quite the collection of them in my scrap room. Next, I love barns. Just have a thing for them is all. Red barns to be exact! We have a pretty cool historical red barn just minutes from my house so I went there to snap some pics. Photographer I am not (I'm trying but just can't seem to get the knack of this!) so the colors are a bit off but I used it anyways, and lastly, I love apples..how convenient that they are red! So here it is, my week one red layout (don't ask where the pink is yet LOL)!!

Next order of business, my music! I've gotten a ton of new tunes that I'm crazy for these past couple days..loving the Keane music, it's been blasting on my iTunes like mad but I also have this new Gwen Stefani tune that I am totally jamming too...thought I'd mix it up a bit and put her on here today...LOVE, LOVE this song and who doesn't love Gwen, she is sooo beautiful, one of my favorite female artists! Trying to work on these dang margins too...one day I'll get it!

Until next time,

Blessings!

Comfort Food...

Another interesting topic for a circle journal. That is what Diane's cj is about, comfort foods. Now, I have a few different comfort foods, potatoes are always on the top of my list, my Gran's cooked rice, another favorite for making me feel all warm and fuzzy but I chose to do my layout on, what I believe, to be my happiest of comforts, chocolate! I'm a true chocoholic, an addict to the core, I seriously crave the stuff 24-7 and I just shake my head in disbelief when I meet that rare person who says to me that they don't like chocolate..WHAT??? Are you for real??? Come on, that has to be a joke right?? Who doesn't love, desire, dream, crave and covet chocolate?? Chocolate with nugat, nuts, caramel, marshmallow, fruit! Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate (I know, not really a chocolate). I'm totally not kidding you, I love it all!! So, when Diane's journal arrived, I knew that exactly what I was going to do! I used Fancy Pants papers, Bazzill, transparencies, ink, paint, ribbon, buttons, brads, staples, florals and chipboard. I stamped a chocolate chip image, scanned it, enlarged it, printed it, traced it, cut it out in chipboard, painted it, distressed it and plopped it on the page! Whew!! I also painted some raw chipboard letters and distressed them, and in what colors..of course...brown, chocolate brown to be exact! Diane asked that we keep to the colors of her journal, how lucky for me that she used green (my favorite color), brown (my second favorite color) and blue!! Anyways, pretty happy with how it turned out, typical for me to tear and ink but heck, that's me!! Diane also asked that we include a favorite recipe of our comfort food...well, I don't often make chocolate bars LOL but I did get a FABULOUS recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies which Heidi Swapp shared a while back on her blog. Seriously, these are to die for!! My grandmother made, in my humble opinion, the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, however, it was her magical touch to the Nestle Tollhouse recipe that created them, no recipe other than that and since her passing I've not found a cookie to compete...until these. Never fear Gran, your's still rock my world but I've now found something that will at least satisfy me in your absence. I included that recipe for Diane.

Okay, now that my chocolate craving is now at an all time high, I guess I'd better go raid my pantry for that last truffle I stashed in there!

Until next time,
Blessings (dipped in chocolate of course!)