Slurping 101, a.k.a. Soft Serve

I did the layout above in record time. Well, for me. I scrap rather slow. I tend to over think things, which ends up in a lot of staring and re-doing. Not tonight. Slapped this sucker together in a couple of hours. Sewed, stamped, journaled and adhesed. Adhesed? Probably not a word...I tend to make up my own words. I didn't have a choice in how long to take. The challenge (Davinie's challenge to use a Studio Calico stamp on a project) was due by midnight. I had a couple of weeks to do it, but you know I seem to like last minute projects. The layout is about my trip to DQ with Jake. He normally gets a Blizzard, but in the car announced he wanted something new. He decided on a chocolate dipped soft serve ice cream cone. The kid was in heaven. On the drive home all I heard was slurping and MMMMing. Once home I looked in my rearview mirror and saw one happy boy with a huge smile on his face, which was covered in melted chocolate and ice cream. He's ten. Opportunities like this don't happen often and he even let me take a photo. Awesome.

Circle Journal: Layout for Aleida's Book

I had trouble with this layout. Aleida's theme was First and there just happens to be a million firsts you can choose from. I kept changing my mind on what my layout would be about. I wanted it to be perfect. I wanted it to be loaded and layered with eye candy. I wanted to make a page like Aleida would...stunning. Then it hit me...the layout was supposed to be about me using my style. I am not perfect. Never will be. I never load and layer with eye candy. Would like to know how, but truthfully I will never be...I am all about simple. So here it is. My layout, my style. It turns out a bit of Aleida is on the page. The punched out flowers on the first page were made using a punch Aleida gave me. She sure loved her Martha Stewart punches and wanted the whole world to join in on her obsession. LOL! :o)

Genuine Happiness

So late last night I receive an email from Judi with a layout challenge. No rules just post something by 10 a.m. the next day. Sounded easy enough, except that lady had all my mojo. I woke up early this morning, because all I did last night was stare and rip apart things. Up above is what I ended up with. I had one of Emily Pitts' layouts in mind as I worked on this. This one. I loved how she did her border and wanted to do a Denise version. I may go in and fill mine in a bit more. Who knows.

LAZY DAY

It is a lazy day today. Perfect napping weather. However, too many fun things to do to lie down. May go see a movie with my friend, Jenny. May run to the scrap store to buy things I really don't need, but have to have. May cut down some of my plants in preparation for winter. Uh...back up. What the heck? Am I channeling my mother? The last thing is certainly not fun. My mom started telling me last week it is time to do it, but I am much too busy scrapping and socializing. I know, Mom, I'll get to it. Dang...get that lady out of my head. :o)

Cards O' Rama

Made cards. I like the top two. The bottom one is ehh. I'm not good at guy cards. Do guys even like cards? Whatever. When I finished up that one I went to sign it and found out I made the card upside down. LOL! OK...dilemma time. Do I re-do it, trash it or leave it as is? I left it. I like playing tricks on old folks (kidding...Bill will get a kick out of reading that though.)

Other than the above I haven't done too much creating lately. Kind of lost my lust for creativity, but it is coming back. I have a circle journal layout and a Bind-It-All challenge to complete and a million more cards to make. Yep...you read that right...a million. Well, it feels like that. I am making my book club peeps a pack of cards as a little gift. I am hosting this meeting and I am no hostest with the mostest, so it shall be interesting. Wish me luck.

For Aleida........

Photo Credit: Aleida Franklin, http://ricanlaw.typepad.com/the_scrapping_rican/

This layout will be placed in a book with many other layouts created by her friends at Studio Calico, the law firm where she worked and other scrap friends around the WWW. Once completed it will be sent to her husband and children. I did a few things on this layout on purpose. Number 1 I used kraft paper, because all of my favorite layouts she did used browns and earth tones and Number 2 I used the Kaiser wood flower, because she had a love of all things Kaiser - especially the wood flourishes.

To save your eye sight and prevent wrinkles here is the journaling:

There is so much I want to tell you about your wife, your mom...my friend. So much that there is no way it will ever fit on this page. I will try, but at the end I know it will feel incomplete. First and foremost, she loved her family. Passionately. Never did a day go by that she didn’t have something wonderful to share about the three of you. Through her I feel like I know you without ever having met you in person. That love carried over to her friends. She loved her friends and had many more than you will ever know. She was a collector of friends. We have an email loop. We talked every day all day long. She brought all of us together. I am thankful for that as it is what is helping me and the others come to terms with this immense loss. There’s much more...she intensely disliked scrapbook idea stealers. She would say you can borrow an idea, but give credit where credit is due. She also hated people who slammed others. When her friends were slammed she fought back in their defense. She was feisty. She told things like it was. She had a naughty side to her. That was a good thing. Too many people worry about what they say. Due to that naughtiness you would not believe what she taught us. Maybe you would. She was super creative and adored scrapbooking. She was a ball of fire. She was a super woman. How can one person keep in touch with so many and not have super powers? She emailed and phoned everyone. I mean everyone. She complimented freely. She had a knack for knowing when someone needed ego building and did everything in her power to be the ego builder. She was hilarious. She loved to shock. She wanted the best for her family. She wanted the best for her friends. She is missed intensely by many. Me included. And this is not all. There is so much more I want to say to explain why I loved her. This is incomplete and I cannot find the right words to summarize, because there aren’t any summary words to fully describe what she was/is. No...this is not everything. Not even close.

What to do while your niece is missing....

My niece came over to play today and instantly abandoned me to play with the neighborhood boys. I feel used. Not really. Spent the time making one birthday card. Now I am off to hunt for her. It shouldn't be so hard finding a girl riding a red bike with a bird house hanging off the handle bar, right?

Well...dingety dang...Imagine That....

I read Aleida's blog. I read Liz's blog. I read the post that held this prize on both blogs. I completely missed my name. Both times. How in the world I did that I will never know. I mean I am so into myself my name normally just pops out at me. Kidding about that. Seriously, thank you Aleida and Liz. You both continually make me smile.

The rules for the award are - (1) The winner can put the logo on their blog. (2) Link the person you received your award from. (3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (4) Put links of those on yours. (5) Leave a message on the blogs of the girls or boys you’ve nominated. So here goes:

You must all check out their websites.

Aleida's Blog: The Scrapping Rican. She is witty, "naughty" at times, immensely creative, has the cutest family, etc. You will love her blog. She also is involved with Scrapping the Music and It Takes All Kinds. Check ALL of her out. OK, Aleida...I know where you are going with that last line. :o)

Liz's Blog: Life at the Polka Dot House. Liz is hilarious, she says it like it is and is another immensely creative person. She has a regular feature on her blog called Ew to New, which proves that creative part I just mentioned. She is a crazy crap scrapper. Not my words...that is what the challenge site - Scrap Your Crap - lists her as. I like the title myself. Why does everything always have to sound pretty in the scrap world? Blah.

I am going to elect the following as they continually make me smile and inspire me:

Barb - Bab's Babble - Barb is hilarious and extremely creative. She is always up to some kind of fun. Go through her blog and find the posting and photo of her and her husband in the mouth of a big fish. You definitely have to see that.

Waleska - Talking to Myself - like heck she is talking to herself. I'm listening and have been for awhile. How could you not when you get blog entries loaded with eye candy. W is multi-talented. She is a scrapper that you want to emulate and on top of that she takes stunning photos.

Judi - I Have No Blog - It's the truth. She doesn't have a blog, but her emails and postings on Studio Calico are filled with fun, laughs and creativity. So I am making an executive decision and awarding her this prize pre-blog...because although she is dragging her feet quite deeply in getting one, Liz will talk her into one soon enough and it will be brilliant. She can then place this on entry one.

Anilu - {No Shrinking Violet} - Anilu is one of the nicest people you will ever meet in your lifetime. I love reading her blog to see her scrap layouts and buys, but mostly I love hearing about her devotion to her beautiful daughter. Anilu is the mother you always wanted packed with creativity.

Greta - I'm Unique Just Like Everyone Else - I don't care if Aleida also chose her. She's my friend, too, and I like her blog. Greta comes off as shy and innocent, like me. Like heck. Her blog title claims she is like everyone else. That's hockey hooey. She is as unique as it comes. First off, she plays hockey with professionals. Well, she did one time and knocked him on his butt. Go read about it on her blog and as you do that check out her recently posted mini-album. Try not to drool.

Jacquie - The Big Reveal - Jacquie is a Minnesota defector, but I still like her. Probably because she is awesome - as a person and as an artist. Her blog is loaded with bling. That word doesn't do her justice. Her layouts are exquisite. Loaded with layers of goodness. When my creativity grows up it wants to be just like her creativity.

Oh and I know they both awarded me, but I am giving them a little more. So my number 7 goes to both Liz - Polka Dot House AND Aleida - The Scrapping Rican.

Well, folks that about does it. Enjoy.

When you haven't done a thing, you just pretend...

This isn't done, but fearing a deluge of emails from my friends saying I was shirking my blogging responsibility I thought just post the dang project unfinished. So here it is. Much like me...almost done, but never quite there.

These were chipboard tags I found at Paper Source. I covered them with pattern paper from one of my Studio Calico kits, slapped on some Moo photos and kaiser wooden flowers and then had each kid sign their name. Voila! This portion is done. The back is not. On the back I am making up a short questionnaire for them to answer. I want them to write it out with their own handwriting. The tags are all attached with a nut and long screw. I think previously I mentioned wanting to use hardware. Well, this is a start. The Sawzall comes out next week.

I did another mini-album last week. Due to my procrastinating the creating almost did me and I swore off mini's for life. I am over that. I'm a dweeb. Basically, it was a challenge set by Barb at Studio Calico. She had ten questions that you were to answer and create a layout. Fun challenge. Here is a photo summary of the book.

The rest can be seen on the member gallery at Studio Calico.

Alrighty...school started this week. The boys - not too excited - started on Tuesday. The girl - almost wet her back with excitement. She started on Thursday. She loves Kindergarten so much that when her mom (my sister) has gone to pick her up each day she can't find her. Each day this little girls runs to the lunchroom and tries to sneak a free lunch with the "all day" kids in her class. The teacher has ok'd that Em can now stay and have lunch with her class. How could you turn away any kid that actually wants to stay at school? A few photos:

Well, that is it from here. Happy weekend to all.