Cards!

Wow, I have been in such a card making mood for awhile now! I bought some cute stamps a few weekends back and have been just itching to use them. This weekend, I played around a little and made a couple cards, nothing too elaborate or special but it was fun to play! I'm going to try and make a card a week, kinda stock up on them so when I need to send one I have them, I've all but used up my stash I've had!

This first card was made with Bazzill cardstock, Making Memories patterned paper, my new Copic markers (whoo hoo), Amuse Art Stamps (they have the cutest designs!), my Marvy Scallop punch (since I'm patiently waiting on my Wizard so I can get some Nestabilities!), misc. ribbon and buttons. Not sure I like the buttons but, oh well...oh yeah, used some glitter around the rim of the cup to look like salt! I just love the "got margaritas" phrase, and I'm sorry about the color of the pic, for some reason I had trouble with the lighting yesterday and this was the best I got. It really is a cute shade of pink!
This next card I used Bazzill cardstock, Bo Bunny patterned paper, Copic markers, Stampin Up eyelets (I hardly ever use eyelets anymore!), some misc. ribbon and the stamps, well, funny thing is that there is no company name on them so I can't tell ya! I also used some glitter on the frosting part of the cupcake for some shimmer. The inside of the card says "wishing you a sweet birthday"..again, not sure what is up with the color on these pics but it really is a pretty green card!

Started the Cambodia album today, yippee skippy!! I am determined that I will complete this album. I have all my papers and embellies picked out, just need to decide on the pics, which I think I'll do as I go along...I'm using my Bind-it-All to create this album, pages are just going to be out of cardstock and I think I'll do chipboard for the covers...also trying to figure in my mind if I can somehow make some page protectors for myself...but, we are getting way ahead of ourselves here LOL! Lets just concentrate on making the layouts, shall we Cricket!!?? :)

Hope everyone had a nice Easter! Mine was quiet but nice, made enough food for an army so mom is coming over tonight for leftovers! Better go get things started!

Until next time,
Blessings!

Easter Blessings

Wishing you all a very Blessed Easter.


until next time,
blessings!

Blog Changes!

Okay, made a couple little changes this afternoon to the blog. First off, the name...yep, it's a pet phrase of mine and my bff's Carol so I thought it perfect for my blog name, was getting really tired of "My Little Corner" anyways!!

Second, took that little header I created yesterday off...course it had the old name in it and I just wasn't all that jazzed about it anyway, so I decided to put up a photo of a 6x12 layout I did of the best fur-dude in the world, my Oz!

Third, changed out the music. I so love my MCR, Gerard has a huge spot in my heart and fantasies (oy, did I just type that? LOL), but I found a great tune while surfing some other blogs (I admit it, I'm a blog Ho!) and I just had to have it on mine! Take That, love this song, it's not available on iTunes in the US though, that stinks...so, I'll have to come visit my own blog when I wanna hear it!

and lastly, I changed the template a bit. It's probably not that noticeable, but it stretches out more...

So, there you have it, It Is What It Is!!!

Until next time,
Blessings!

Spring??????

So, you'll notice I changed out my banner. Just threw this together this afternoon because I was so tired of looking at that snowy one each time! LOL I mean, after all, it's the first day of Spring here in Chicago, or is it?? Here I am, tired of looking at my banner on the blog of snow and what do I wake up to this fine Good Friday morning?? THIS!!!!!!!! this is looking out my front door! and this one is looking out my back deck at our yard (or part of it anyways). so, there is absolutely no sign of spring here, and I'm about ready to explode. I mean, come on, pluuueeeezzzzzeeee!!!! Haven't we had enough already?? I shoulda left my banner there since that about sums up what my life looks like LOL!! I'm not too jazzed with the new one, but just needed to throw something up there quick!

In happy news, I got my Copics today!!! Whooo frickin' Hooooo!!! I have been waiting for these lovelies to arrive so that I can start to play with some cute new stamps I bought. I've been in quite the card making mood lately but not having any markers or things to color with, I've had to wait! After dinner tonight (which is ordering pizza, I'll let the pizza guy deal with the weather, I'm not!), I am heading to the sCRAP room to do some stamping and coloring!!

Keep you fingers crossed for me that this snow stops soon and melts fast! I seriously can't take much more of this....

until next time,
Blessings!

CKU Chicago 2008!!

Wow! What a total blast of a weekend I had! I had the wonderful opportunity to assist Debby Schuh in her album track, A Traveler's Treasury, at CKU Chicago 2008. Debby works for Anna Griffin, and I really love Anna Griffin papers and I am especially fond of Debby's style. Using tons of Anna Griffin products and an American Crafts 12x12 album, Debby designed a fabulous album that I had the pleasure of helping her teach to two wonderful groups of women who attended CKU this past weekend.

I had originally planned on attending this CKU but eventually decided that it wouldn't be in the cards for me this time around. I am so thrilled that I was able to "attend" as a TA for Debby, getting to see the fabulous new format for CKU, meeting up with some friends I have made through the various local CKU's I've attended, and while I wasn't able to create the album from Debby's track, I did learn so very much just from listening to her teach and helping others!

Let me tell you, it was hard work, but it was great! I really like the new format that CKU is doing and I know that I will be attending another one in the future!

Here are a couple of pics from the track, one of Debby and myself (ugh, do I look worn out or what? LOL), and a couple of the different class groups (one from Friday, one from Saturday).

Now I'm totally inspired to be scrapbooking but after a weekend away, leaving Roger and Mandi in charge of the house, well, lets just say that I have my work cut out for me here! LOL!! I have a ton of errands to run this week, cleaning in the house to do and general stuff that needs my attention but never fear, this weekend I plan on locking myself in my room and getting down to the business of scrapbooking!

Until next time,
Blessings!

Oh My Golly!!!

LOL, yep, that catchy little phrase of mine produced some giggles from the SIS's yesterday!

What a fabulous weekend it was! Friday night I scrapped, sharing in my last post the layout I did, and I'm still really liking those 6x12r's! Saturday I spent the morning cleaning the house and stuff...felt good to get everything all sparkly shiney and done! Then Saturday evening I picked up my "peep" Carol and we headed over to this awesome little boutique in town, Rustique. They were having their anniversary party and an open house, serving all kinds of munchies and wine! I love this store, they have the coolest home decor items, I swear, I could drop a bundle in there (and have! LOL)...we even tried a Frappavino! Yep, you read that right, Frappavino! It's a frozen wine drink and ohhhh, sooooo, yummy!! So after shopping, we then went next door to Rugan's, the martini bar (owed by the same people in fact) and we had a couple drinks and chatted for awhile...never mind that Carol said to me "I feel sorry for whoever sits next to that party", meaning the huge, loud and obnoxious 30th birthday party that was going on...guess what, it was US!!!!! yep, we sat next to them, but it was ok, we watched as the birthday boy consumed major amounts of alcohol ( and I totally don't feel sorry for him with what he was going to face eventually...can you say toilet!) LOL.

Sunday I had the extreme pleasure of spending a day with some of my SISter's from Scrap In Style tv, Nan, Martha and Sarah! We went to a local tea house and had a wonderful lunch along with some super yummy scones and pots of tea (I had my favorite, White Chocolate Mousse). After spending awhile chatting it up, we then went to a local scrap store and...Oh My Golly (there's that phrase again) , did I score big! Yep, got me an Amy Butler bag, her new release from CHA!! It is sooooo stinkin' purty, and totally called my name! Don't ya love it?? I so dig the browns and greens!



I have to admit, when I first saw these bags about a year ago, I wasn't too jazzed. I thought they were kinda big, too big for me, but let me say, after putting this one on my shoulder, it sold itself! It is so nice and soft, soooo stinkin' roomy and Martha was telling me her laptop fits into it perfectly! Cha Ching!! I am so taking it with me to CKU this weekend, plopping my old laptop and externals in it and away we go!

After our shopping spree, we decided to treat ourselves to some dessert and coffee. We tried the new little coffee shop/book store that just opened up in town but they had already closed for the day, at 3:00!! Who the heck closes at 3:00??? So, instead we went to the Italian restaurant across the street and had our treats....cannoli for me, lava cakes for Nan and Martha and Creme Brulee for Sarah! We sat there for almost two hours, having the best time! I am so glad to know these girls, thanks guys for a spectacular girls day out!

After dinner..(yes, the day is still going on), I came up to the sCRAP room and worked on a layout which I finished today! It's for a challenge I am doing and we had to do a layout based on our favorite song, band, etc...right now! My favorite band at the moment is My Chemical Romance...Oh My Golly (it's a total addiction now, I'll be saying that whenever I can!!), Gerard is just such a little cutie pie. I used the photo we took last March when we went to see them in concert, turning it to black and white. I used Bazzill, MM 5th Avenue (so love this line), chipboard letters for the title, and miscellaneous buttons. I really like how it turned out. The journaling reads: "How cool is it that "our" favorite band is My Chemical Romance! What a blast we had going to their concert, The Black Parade, in March 2007. The family that rocks together, stays together! Rock On!!
Of course, I had to change up the music on the blog and decided to post a video this time...this IS my favorite song by MCR, enjoy!

Here's to good weekends spent with good friends...life IS good!

Until next time,
Blessings!

More scrappin...

Weekends, gotta love the weekends! Weekends mean that I can stay up late on Friday and Saturday nights, something I really look forward to and hasn't changed a wink since the days I was in school LOL! It means sleeping in later on Saturday and Sunday mornings, something I totally appreciate since I loves me my sleep, and weekends mean a pretty loose schedule, gotta love that!

Last night I took full advantage of my time and played around in my sCRAP room! Did another layout, this one, 6x12. I decided on this size because the pictures I used were kinda small and I thought they would get lost on a 12x12'r. I had bought a few sheets of the MM 5th Avenue collection, along with the notebook and they had been burning a hole on my counter to be used! I really like how this turned out

So, I had taken Mandi to see "Into The Wild" (great film by the way, fabulous book!) and we were way early (kinda due to the fact that I misread the start time..oh well), and while hanging out in the lobby of the theater I noticed one of those cheesy photo booth thingys. I have never in my life used one before but I have to admit, I've secretly always wanted to LOL, so I asked Miss Mandi if she'd take some pics with me..I told her we could be silly but it might be fun! The picture quality in those things is terrible, but I love those four little pictures of her and me, and we got two sets and Mandi has her set hanging up on her bulletin board in her bedroom, which makes a mom feel good that her kiddo doesn't mind having her mom's pic hanging up amongst all the band hotties and anime characters that have taken over her board lately!

It's those moments in time that I hope she'll look back on when she is older and remember, those off the cuff, quirky things that we did together..and heck, if she doesn't, she's gonna have a ton of my scrapbooks to remind her!!!

Until next time,
Blessings!

Quick page!

So, I'm taking this Jessica Sprague class and totally diggin' it! We get emails each day from her with either fun downloads, extra info etc...and yesterday was an email with a midweek assignment. It included a free download for a cute-ass kit that also had a quick page element in it. For those non-digi out there LOL, a quick page is a layout, all done except you just pop the picture you want into it and add journaling if you like...bing, bang, done! I don't often like to use quick pages, for me, and only MY opinion here(LOL), it seems like that is taking the creativity out of my scrapping...you know, using someone else's design,however, I wanted to do this one because I am wanting to learn everything I can from this class, and not only were we learning how to use the quick pages, we were also learning to convert a picture to black and white.

So, here is the quick page I did last night. I have to admit, it is a really fast and easy way to complete a layout! On a sidenote too, I am pretty much using the same set of photos for this class, just incase ya notice that, photo credits to Chris Jenkins and Chris, if you are reading this, I used the color picture and tried my hand at black and white converting! (wink)



Oh yeah, I also want to say how much I LOVE a laptop! Now, I'm not stupid, I know that they are portable and all, heck, I see people everywhere with them, my own hubby takes his everywhere for use but I had always just had mine sitting on my desk in my sCRAP room, never really having a need to move it, ya know? Well, the other night, when I decided that I was going to go ahead and start this class, I also wanted to just hang out in bed, I was wiped out from a day of skating and it dawned on me...duh...take the laptop with you into the bedroom...you have freakin' wifi in the house you dummy! LOL..so I did and OH MY GOSH!! Why haven't I done this before? So, as I write this now, I'm plopped up against some big, cushy pillows on my bed, with the nice sunshine pouring in my room and I'm watching a movie and bloggin'!! Life IS good!

Until next time,
Blessings!

Photoshop!

Signed up for the Jessica Sprague online class, "Up and Running With Photoshop" in the hopes that I can finally master Photoshop Elements and use it for my digital scrapbooking! I love doing it digi style and had been using Microsoft's Digital Image Suite for my program but since Roger got me my Mac, I've been without a program to use! I ordered Photoshop Elements 6.0 for my Mac but it isn't being released until sometime this month...okay, I can wait, but then this class was being offered and I was like..heck, I wanna take it! I had heard such good things about her classes. I decided that I'd sign up for it, being that all your classes are archived for you, FOREVER! I said to myself, well, I'll sign up and then when I get the software, I'll just go into the archives and watch the classes and do the assignments. The only downside is that I would not be able to be active on the gallery or the message boards for the class. So, yesterday I was sitting, thinking (I know, scary huh? LOL) and I thought to myself, how freakin' different can it be from my pc version to the Mac version? I mean, yeah, some of the commands are going to be different but the basics to using the program should ultimately be the same...I had PSE 4.0 on my pc and so I decided to go ahead and start learning! After all, once I receive my version for the Mac, if I'm having any troubles, I can always access the archives and re-learn if necessary...and...if the first class is any indication, really, the only difference is the command to save...so, with that being said, I did the first lesson, and you know what? This old girl was able to retain the info! I completed the first layout and am pretty jacked about this! I had dabbled in PSE a bit before but got frustrated and gave up! Jessica's instruction is so awesome and it made total sense to me! I, even now, think back and can remember exactly what I needed to do in order to create this layout....
I used a photo taken by Chris Jenkins but just cropped it down to the small size required for this layout. I did one thing different though, I left justified my journaling. She had us right justify it but I just like it better my way..go figure! Yay for me, maybe I can still learn a thing or two huh? LOL

I really enjoyed my Microsoft program, it was very friendly to use, but I am trying to wean myself away from the beloved pc and use only my Mac. It's been a slow process and I'm still learning to use it but I do like it...I think once I get my PSE for it, I'll be super happy! I've missed my digi scrapping....

Until next time,
Blessings!

Another one for the dog...

Okay, so I'm totally diggin' on these 6x12 size layouts! Here's another share of a layout I did this weekend for Oz's album! Used some new (to me) Creative Imaginations papers and how bout this, I finally used those EK Success clear stickers that I've had sitting in my stash for like ever!! Talk about feeling good about using up old stuff, in fact, the only new stuff on this layout is the patterned papers and I only bought 3 of them so it was like a total investment of $2.50, WHOO HOO!!



In my non-scrap life (like there is a non-scrap life??), I've been hitting the ice (not literally..yet anyways) everyday! Today was my first "class", it's basically just time with an instructor on the ice to work on stuff I want, not like a structured class or anything. My skating teacher was telling me that she thinks I'll be back to jumps and spins in no time, and I was like "Hell no!" LOL...I might give a spin a try but as for jumps, my old body doesn't need to risk breaking something! It was nice to be told that though, made a girl feel good! I have to say, the extra hour of exercise a day feels really fabulous too! Now, if I could just keep those boxes of Girl Scout Cookies that are sitting in my pantry from calling my name, we'd be set!!

Until next time,
Blessings!

for the love of Ozzi!

Wow, what a wonderful weekend this has been! The weather has rocked, almost (and I say almost LOL), feels like spring might just come our way. Spent Saturday afternoon working on finishing a gratitude journal for myself. I have to take pics yet so I don't have that to share today, but it felt good to get that done! I was inspired by Mizzm, aka, Michelle. She had the cutest one on her blog and I thought it was such a cool idea I decided to do one for myself. I used only scraps to make it, and that was awesome! I also hit the local scrap store yesterday afternoon and picked up a couple new things, some Cherry Arte, Creative Imaginations and Kaiser..oh yeah, got a MM 5th Avenue spiral journaling book, soooo awesome!! Then mom and I (she was with me) went to the new coffee spot in town and had a coffee and sat, it was nice. We took Miss Mandi out for pizza last night and then I came home and hung out on Scrap In Style at Traci and Michelle's Party! While "partying" I completed this layout of my favorite little friend Ozzi!! It's a 6x12 size and I'm loving them. I'm actually doing a whole scrapbook of him in this size. I have had a hard time finding a 6x12 album local so I broke down and ordered one online, can't wait until it comes and I can start filling it up with my layouts!

I used Bazzill, Basic Grey's Two Scoops line of patterned papers, Creative Imaginations and MME transparencies, Heidi Swapp and Tim Holtz Grungeboard alphas, Prima florals, and some miscellaneous buttons and ribbon. I know I'm prejudiced and all but OH MY HECK, I just love this little guys face, isn't he the most kissable, smootchable, huggable, cuddleable (is that a word?) little fur-dude ya know?! LOL



It's now 1:00 p.m. Sunday and I'm thinking I want to scrap some more! The sunshine and nice temps have put me into such a great mood!

Hope everyone is having as nice a weekend as I have had....bummer that we can't have just one more day...puhleeze???

Until next time,
Blessings!