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Archivers make-n-take weekend

Here's why I didn't dig into my Swirlydoos until Saturday.

I went to the free make-n-take at Archivers and, of course, I had to do the mini-album class, too! This is a cute little album. The word "dream" is actually diecut foil letters. A real PITA to separate from the rest of the foil and the backing. Most of the ladies in class were not happy with how crumpled up the letters were by the time they separated them from the rest of the foil. I decided to wait until I got home and had my own tools so I could get those letters off. It does work better to use scissors to start and then separate the letter along with the backing. The backing helps stabilize the foil letter until you have it separated from the rest of the foil. Remove the backing last and then apply the letter-smooth out with your fingernail or a rub-on tool. But, I know I will NOT buy those letters-ever! I am thinking about using this litte album to record my dreams/goals.

Love those Archiver's make-n-takes. I always seem to make new friends or meet old ones there. It was good to see an old friend that I had not seen face to face for over 18 months. I almost didn't recognize her because she had lost well over 100 pounds! Wow! I was so happy for her that I had a hard time not just jumping up out of my seat and giving her a big ol' hug right there!

Meeting Allison

The March Swirlydoos kit arrived this Thursday much to my surprise! Of course, I had to oooo and aaahhh over it all! Thursday was the end of a very long week for me because I had three exams and worked four days in a row. Then, add to that another snowstorm on Monday-lovely driving conditions for an 8:30 a.m. exam. But, I was off to a jewelry party at a neighbor's house so no playing Thursday night. Finally got to sit down and play on Saturday. So, here is my take on the sketch for this month. I used the last of the pictures from the day my dd was born fourteen years ago. Everything is from the kit except the Prima "Say it in Pearls" and Prima leaves.  I even used the Prima packaging as a photo mat and the packaging from some Making Memories as a journal tag. The chipboard swirls were painted with TH crackle paint and the chipboard letters were inked then covered with TH Rock Candy.

These are the last photos of my dd. Here my nephew was meeting her for the first time. My mom and dad brought him up to visit in the hospital. Wonder what he was thinking!

I am off to play again. We have a Round Robin challenge over at Swirlydoos. The first week someone posts a layout and then each week a different person will lift the layout and post their version. So it is kind of like playing telephone. The first layout may look nothing like the last one or they may look very similar. It will be interesting to see what everyone comes up with. It is my week to post a lift so I better get to it! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Sweet!

My cute kids! They got into some chocolate and were so proud of themselves because they used the microwave to melt it! Chocolate smiles! Used Websters Pages and Prima flowers and lace.

Project 365 Week 3

Week three: continued my workout routine by doing elliptical machine and BL workouts with Jillian Michaels. Yes, she is tough! On the 15th we had a "nice" surprise- the garage door broke. Brandon and I tried to figure it out on our own. I finally realized it was a broken spring so Brandon hopped on the internet to try and figure out how to fix it and where to get the parts. But, once I realized that we should have had two springs, not one, I decided we better call a professional.

More of our typical week includes B-man on the 'puter and our Yorkie begging for attention. The highlight of my week was receiving my February Swirlydoos kit! Yes, I took a picture of my kit and scrapped it with the very same kit! Love my Swirlydoos!

Altered Art

This is a wooden plaque that I altered with 7G paper, gaffer's tape, Prima flower and pearls. Used some acrylic paint to distress the paper a little, added a few tags, and a photo frame. That's all! Made this for my grandparents for Christmas. Now, I want one for me!

Christmas 2006

All the grandkids by the tree before we let them tear into the gifts. It was hard to get a decent shot of everyone at the same time. Used the January Swirlydoos for this and lifted a layout by Design Team member Robin.

Project 365-Week 2

Brandon went sledding with some friends, I got some scrapping done (which reminds me, I don't think I have posted that layout yet!), Allison made brownies. I caught her showing off her one-handed egg cracking. I can't even do that! And, she is multi-tasking here-got the ipod going as well.

Another typical school night-homework. We celebrated Allison's fourteenth birthday, got one of my scrapping mags so sat down with a cup of Swiss Mocha to read it. And, my fave of the week, Brandon helping Allison with her homework. Ha! She doesn't like my help because I get too impatient. I could not be a teacher because I would expect the kids to understand after only explaining one time!

My bad!

I never posted the layouts I did using the January Swirlydoos kit. Ooops! Well, here we go.

Snowstorm 2007

Allison with my niece and nephew. Of course, my sis and I were inside scrapping!

Look at that giant snowlady!

My daughter and hubby getting her all put together.

Trying to make up for all the missing posts!!!

Here's an old photo of Grams. I plan to add a big tag with all my fun memories of Grams, all the trips to Mexico and Texas, dominoes, SkipBo, Phase 10, doughnuts, her cinnamon rolls. I will post the journaling when I finish. More February Swirlydoos here.

Vintage Photo

Used more of the February Swirlydoos for this and photofunia. This is a picture of my ancestors but I will have to have Mom help me out with who and when! {{{{MOM!!!}}} I knew I could count on Mom! She sent an email right away that this is a photo of her grandma Bishop's parents - Leonard and Anna (Bowers) Clement circa 1890. How amazing is that?!

Just stuff

Here's a lift of one of CamillaE's layouts. Love her work. This is a photo my son took of me and my daugher right before we left for her 5th grade graduation. Now, she is in her final year of middle school and will be heading off to high school in the fall. Papers are BG, flowers Prima, 7G tag.

Another fun layout of my daughter and her teammates. The only Swirlydoos here are the flowers. The rest is from my stash. This is a team picture of my dd and the rest of her Level 7 Gymnastics team after their competition at Navy Pier in Chicago. It was flippin' cold there!!!

How 'bout this?

Here's an oldie but goodie! A picture from early 1980's (I am guessing) of my mom, dad, brother, sister, and grandparents. Used 7G papers, some Prima flowers, and made my own grungepaper flower using the TH tutorial and svg for the flower. This is a lift of one of CamillaE's-I think she is awesome! The church I went to growing up had a "hobo supper" every fall. We dressed like hobos and everyone brought a can of something to dump in the big pots stewing over the fire pit. Then we had to eat the final concoction out of the original can that we brought. Good times!

More Swirlydoos

Still not done with the photofunia pictures! Used more of the February Swirlydoos kit to scrap my maternal grandparents this time. This is based on a sketch by Beggahuna. She always has amazing sketches. The pictures I dropped into this photofunia app are of my grandparents many years ago. I have scrapped these pictures in the past but really love them so I had to use them again.

This is my Grandpa Art. (Christmas 2008) I totally scraplifted this from Tina at Swirlydoos. She had the brilliant idea of cutting the middle out of one piece of diecut paper then layering on top of another sheet of the same diecut. I loved the look so much that I lifted her layout for this photo. Thank you, Tina, for such wonderful inspiration! All the papers and embellies are from the January Swirlydoos kit except the tulle and lace.

Project 365-Week 1

Here's the first week of the year.

I volunteered to work on New Year's Day, it's not like I went out partying the night before so why not work? And, yes I did start working out as I promised myself thus the photo of the elliptical machine. On the third I did some cross-stitching. Love Paula Vaughan patterns for this. And, a typical day you will find Brandon at the table with his laptop.

Well, the kids had an easy first week back since we had a snow day. Allison spent time relaxing with a good book and I was able to do some more scrapping. Found a great idea on the Prima blog about recycling their packaging to make cards. So, here's my first recycled card. Cute, huh?

Project 365

If you have been following my blog then you know that one of my New Year's resolutions is to do Project 365 this year. What that means is I take a picture every day of the year and scrap a two page layout for each week of the year. This is a great way to document our lives over the course of one year and journal about the everyday happenings that I might otherwise overlook.

Here is my cover page:

More of the February Swirlydoos kit here. Did I mention that I loved this month's kit? Oh, and it included the metal technique this month. Really loved working with the metal on this page (that black/silver strip down the middle of the page with the swirlies).

More Swirlydoos

Okay, this layout was for a challenge at Swirlydoos. I did miss the deadline because I was not able to get my picture printed in time to do the layout. The challenge occurred during the month that Patrick Swayze died so I wanted to do a layout about him. Without embarrassing myself I won't get into what the challenge involved. Just let me say it was supposed to be a layout about someone we considered good-looking and leave it at that! So, here's my entry.

Journaling reads: Patrick Swayze

August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009

I had a crush on this wonderful American actor after my best friend and I saw him in Youngblood. What a hunk! We also saw him in The Outsiders, a movie our Language Arts teacher let us watch. Then came Dirty Dancing which made him a huge star. And, let’s not forget the TV series, The North and the South or the movies: Roadhouse, Point Break, or Ghost. I admire him for marrying the love of his life in 1975 and still being married to her when he died of pancreatic cancer in 2009. Unlike many famous people he never made a public spectacle of himself. He was working on a TV series, The Beast, which was cancelled after his death.

It has been a looong time

I have been too busy to post on my blog lately. With the kids back in school, me back in school and trying to stick with my New Year's resolutions there just has not been a lot of extra time. Oh, and I am still working, too. If I do find some extra time I wonder into my scrappy room and play for awhile. So, I did over 20 pages in January. When I got the February Swirlydoos kit I just went crazy with the scrappin' and made 16 pages so far with just that kit. I was able to get a lot of pages done when I went to a school fundraiser crop event. Love crops!!!

Anyway, it is a snow day for the kids today and I chose to stay home with them. I still had classes today-our campus does NOT cancel for any reason. I did not think it was worth the risk to drive in today. I am sure I will still be a good pharmacist!

Well, here are a few of my pages.

This is my entry for the February sketch challenge at Swirlydoos. I took a photo of my grandparents and edited it at http://www.photofunia.com/ to get this photo. My grandmother just passed in January so I did a few layouts to remember her.

Yep, same picture in another photofunia app. Again, used the February Swirlydoos kit for this one. The quote on the side of the photo reads, "They have recieved their crowns." My cousin said my grandmother had received her crown when he posted of fb of her passing. I was inspired to use those words for from a Bible scripture on this layout.