My 15 minutes of fame!

LOL!! Well, sorta huh? It came this week, yep, my copy of the new Memory Makers idea book "601 Great Scrapbook Ideas".
It seems like ages ago that I decided to take a chance and submit a layout for this call...my first time submitting and I can't even tell you how excited I was when I got the email from them saying that they wanted my layout! I think I flew around on cloud nine for months!! Silly huh? I don't always think I need validation for my scrapbooking, in fact, while I like that others may think my layouts are nice, I do them the way I want because ultimately, they are for me and my family! But....it is very nice to have your work recognized by a magazine as being nice enough to feature in one of their books, that does make a girl feel really good about oneself!

So, after sending off my layout and all the necessary paperwork, the wait began...it would be months and months before the book would be in publication...well, it finally is and I now have my very own copy in my hot little hands!! I couldn't share the layout before, but now I can....soooo...here ya go, pics of the layout in the book...I'm a geek, you can say it! LOL!! Excuse the poor lighting in the picture...my house has seriously no good light for pictures at this time of the day, but I figure you get the idea, right? Plus, I was just do excited to get this on my blog to wait another day...again, geeky right? LOL!

and here is a closer look at the page...still a geek, I know! Again, bad..bad..bad lighting but oh well...
and, just so ya can see a decent shot of the layout, cause I know you are all so totally wanting and needing that too LOL...here it is!
Obviously it is a picture of my wedding day...and yes, the photographer was contacted and signed off the necessary waivers and agreements for this layout to be published, and yes Memory Makers is aware that I didn't take the picture myself (which wasn't in the requirements to begin with...just so ya know!)...
I loved the look of the scalloped paper by Creative Imaginations but wanted to use a patterned paper by Foof-a-La, so I traced the Creative Imaginations paper and then hand cut it out...I'm seriously love using black and white in my scrapping and these papers are one of my favorites!! I painted the chipboard letters and distressed them, I created a faux-label holder with Bazzill cardstock and stamped the word "forever", a Stampin' Up! stamp in the center on vanilla cardstock....a 7Gypsies label holder holds the date of our wedding, adding some buttons, flowers and some sheer black ribbon tied along the side finished it off! Viola, there it is...my 15 minutes of fame...along with hundreds of other talented and creative scrapbookers with which I am honored to be published among!

Thank you Memory Makers! Thanks for making this scrapbooker feel special, if even for just one moment in time!

Until next time,
Blessings!

Tree Trimming...

well, tonight was the night! I've had the tree up, and lit for about a week now, but tonight my mom, Mandi and I finally put the decorations on it. Would you believe I didn't take one stinkin' picture of the event?? What the heck kinda scrapbooker does that make me?? LOL Thankfully, Mandi was camera happy tonight and I've got a nice set of pictures to scrapbook! If I might say so myself, she's not half bad at picture taking either! While listening to some Christmas music and sipping on a glass of champaign (yes, I said champaign), the three of us did a nice job of trimming the tree! In fact, my mom, who isn't the best photographer around (sorry mom, but you know it's true...) took this picture of Mandi and me. I haven't cropped it or anything, just wanted to throw it up on the blog and share....
I know it doesn't show too much of the tree, and the skirt isn't in place yet, but I like this one...gotta love any picture I get of Mandi and myself really!

So, that's it for me....kinda tired, think that champaign made me a bit groggy so I'm calling it a night...putting on the pj's and climbing into bed..visions of sugerplums will dance around in my head tonight...Gosh, I love this holiday!

and, by the way...my little girl is in her place on my tree......

Until next time,
Blessings!

Holiday music has arrived and a new banner!!

It's here...it's here!!! well, I've been listening to holiday tunes for a few weeks now, just LOVE my holiday music!! I swear, nothing puts me in a better mood than some good ol Christmas tunage...soooo, for those that don't enjoy it, you'll have to mute me or stop the player LOL!! I wanted to show videos of all my favorites but, alas, not alot of them actually have videos, so I've created a playlist with just a few of my many favorites,and I'll probably be adding more as the season progresses, but this will get us started!

Also have a new little banner up for the holidays! This is my most treasured ornament. Yep, this little pipe cleaner, glue globby girl is my most favorite!! Every year as a little girl I would decorate the tree, hanging this little girl, an ornament that I got from my grandma, last on the tree in a place where I could see her twinkle and shine from within the tree lights. My grandma and I would sit on the couch at night with the lights of the tree glowing and watch that little girl hang there and we would talk, sharing precious moments together that I treasure even more than this ornament. Every year to this day, I decorate my tree and place her on it at the very last so that I can be sure she hangs in a place of honor where I can sit and watch her, and I remember my grandma!

Wishing everyone a happy and blessed holiday season!

Until next time,
Blessings!

scrappin'

Happy Saturday! Just playing in the sCRAP room today...ran to Michael's this morning and picked up some silk Poinsetta plants for the front porch and one huge one for the house...slowly getting a holiday feel around here and I'm loving it!! Gotta go video surfing and find some holiday tunes to put here today too!!

So, still finishing the cover of the planner but I thought that I'd share a layout I did a couple weeks back. I'm still playing around with Photoshop, learning how to add color to a black and white photo and having fun with that! This was a picture I took of Miss Mandi when we went to the pumpkin patch about a week before Halloween! Used some of my new Melissa Francis papers and embellies that I picked up while I was out in Phoenix in September...just love the vintage look of her stuff!! I also used some fabric that I had...as a border along the bottom and then I covered a piece of chipboard with it as a mat for the embellishment!


Got some big stuff planned for this weekend...again, can't share :( well, come of people, it is the holiday time right now!! LOL

Roger just walked in the door too....how's that for timing? He's been gone over a month now..wonder if I'll remember what he looks like? LOL!! Better go say hello huh?

Until next time,
Blessings!

so, it's been a couple days....

since I told ya'll I'd post pics of my project I was working on...what can I say, I've been super busy deep cleaning the house and finishing up some other things...have even been putting up a few Christmas decorations!! Yay!! I love this holiday!!

Okay, so I've been making this for a Secret Santa gift, it's a 2008 planner. It includes a two page layout for each month. On the left side is a calendar and on the right side is a place for notes and a place for adding birthdays and anniversaries to remember for that month. I used the new Sassafrass Lass line, Bazzill cardstock in black for the inner pages, chipboard for the covers and miscellaneous buttons, florals, ribbons, rub-ons and metals for embellishing the pages. I used my Bind-It-All to punch the holes in the covers and pages and a wire coil to hold it all together! Because it's kinda chunky (LOL), I added a 7Gypsies door knob and elastic band to the covers to help keep it closed. The only thing I need to still do is finish the actual cover...I have chipboard numbers that I am going to paint and Diamond Glaze so that it reads 2008 on the cover and of course add some pretty ribbons to the coils...include a nice pen and viola!! There ya have it!! I had fun making this and I sure hope that my person likes it!!

so, without further adieu: The planner!!!

Still waiting anxiously on the arrival of my copy of the Memory Makers new idea book "601 Scrapbook Ideas" that I was lucky enough to have a layout in!! I've seen the cover and a few of the inside pages and all I can say is WOW!! Can't wait to have it in my hot little hands!!

Okay, that's about all I got for today! Beware those of you who are not fans of the Christmas music!! Next week the blog goes Merry!!! Tunes for the holidays..can't wait!!!!

Until next time,
Blessings!!

Still here...

Hey, I'm still here!!! I know, bad blogger...no updates in so long but I've been busy with a ton of layouts (can't share yet..sorry!) and a project that I worked on all weekend...will share some of that later today or tonight, promise...

so, in the meantime, don't give up on me!! I am still here and will be back shortly!!

Until next time,
Blessings!

November has arrived!!!

well, another month has gone by and here we are in November! Now the countdown to the holidays will really begin. In fact, today when I was running errands, I turned on my radio station (one of 3 I listen too), and they have converted to their "All Christmas, All Day" format!! Yep, Christmas music!!! I love Christmas music and I can't decide if I think it's too early to start listening to it but when I turned on the radio and heard the music, it made me smile! so, guess that means I'll listen!!

I've put back my music!! Yep, had to remove it for the you tube Halloween trailer, so if you wanna listen to the trailer, you'll have my music mixing in LOL!! Oh well...anyways, LOVE Michael...this song just makes me smile...I figured that even though I enjoy the Christmas music now, I won't subject all of ya to it..yet! (wink wink)...but, beware, come the day after Thanksgiving...it'll be jamming on my blog!!

So, yesterday was Halloween. We didn't have nearly as many trick or treaters as we normally do? Wonder what is up with that??? I have a couple bags of candy left over..will just throw it in the freezer I suppose or if I go to a crop anytime soon, just bring it along for that! Mandi went to her friends neighborhood, which is about 5 times the size of ours and came home with quite the haul! She really didn't "dress" up....in fact, she looked more like a normal 14 year old then anything LOL...but, for her, it was different than her everyday look. I put some black eyeliner on her, she wore all black and a dew rag on her head! Oh yeah, can't forget the black nails!! I think she looked great!! Here are a couple pics of my girl from yesterday....
course I hadda have a picture of my little Oz man with her too!! All in all, she had a great Halloween!!

Alright then, so, it's November....Christmas music is playing and I wonder....is it too early to put up the tree???
Until next time,
Blessings!