My Disney Book

Just trying to get some more LOs done for my Disney album. Some of these may have been posted before or look familiar because of the LOs I did for my mom's Disney book. Enjoy!

Getting Organized!

Pretty soon I will have to give up my scraproom :( My in-laws are coming to visit for Christmas and then after that, the third bedroom will be turned into a room for my youngest DD. She will be 18 months... so probably about time she gets her own room (and out of Mommy and Daddy's!) So I've been trying to (slowly) get organized... here is what I've done this last week:

Cleaned up my desk area (for those of you who don't know me... Yes, this IS clean!)

I noticed that I tend to look for things based on color... so I bought some plastic containers for my ribbon and sorted by color. The containers are about half the size of a shoebox. Found some neat ribbons I had forgotten about!

I bought these drawers at Ikea this weekend. Just sorted all my flowers by color and I have six drawers left over. I'm going to alter these too... one of these days! :DAll the different drawers of flowers. From top left: Teal, Burgandy, Yellow, Green, Orange, Pink, Purple, Blue, Brown, White/Cream, Black/Grey, and Red! These drawers are pretty big too. Each drawer probably has about 200 flowers in it - except for the Black and Grey one. Um, I DO NOT need more flowers!!!


And these are the Ikea shelves that were given to us that I need to move into the bedroom so I can start putting stuff on them.
I also bought 12 glass bottles for my buttons and brads, but I haven't started on that yet. I wanna cry I still have SO MUCH to do. I have way too much stuff (SHHHH... don't tell my husband I said that!)

ADDED 15 Nov:
Also bought 12 glass bottles for my buttons at Ikea. Then I realized I have more brads than buttons, so I put brads in them last night. No joke, I spent 2.5 hours digging out all the packages of brads everywhere and sorting by color!!! I had so many brads not even opened! And I considered not opening them, but then figured they would get tucked away and not used again. So I ripped open about 6 new packages of brads, all the brads we get in swaps and for extras. EVERYTHING! And put them in jars!

Purple, Green, Pink and Blue were my fullest jars. Seriously, I must have about 300 of these EACH! I came to the conclusion last night that I DO NOT! need to buy anything else for a long long long time...

Tagged Again :D

This one is from Tara

Ten things I did this weekend:
1. Drove to the Netherlands - YAY!
2. Scrapped all weekend long with Marinka
3. Played with a Silhouette - so awesome!
4. Saw the North Sea
5. Met up with Petra
6. Played with Alcohol inks - and acquired a set - thanks Marinka!
7. Talked to Sierra and Ruby on the phone
8. Ate marzipan for the first time
9. Shopped at an indoor mall for the first time since moving to Germany
10. Went to Ikea - so in love with that store!

9 things on my agenda this week:
1. Pay for my table at the craft fair
2. buy a screwdriver
3. post office
4. clean my kitchen
5. try to get caught up on laundry
6. finish making items for craft fair
7. put together my Ikea drawers
8. scrap
9. dye my hair.... thinking red/auburn

8 shows I watched last week:
1. Are you smarter than a 5th grader
2. Shark
3. NCIS
4. CSI
5. Mickey Mouse (and everything else on the Disney Channel)
6. Jay Leno
7. Friends
8. My Wife and Kids

7 things I cooked last week:
1. Chicken Enchiladas
2. Macaroni and cheese
3. Chicken Nuggets
4. Baked Beans
5. Waffles
6. Eggs
7. Oatmeal

6 things I read this week:
1. CK Dec issue
2. Simple Scrapbooks Nov issue
3. Scrapbooks Etc Oct issue
4. ScrapGoods Message Board
5. Creative Express Message Board
6. Splitcoast Stampers Message Board
(I know... I'm obsessed!!!)

5 Reasons to be happy today:
1. I got to see Sierra and Ruby!
2. I made it home safely (although with a rather long detour)
3. I have lots of Ikea stuff for my scrappy room
4. I can sleep in my own bed
5. I have euro left over from my trip

4 things I need to buy:
1. a screwdriver
2. a table at the craft fair
3. stamps
4. secret santa stuff

3 people I saw this weekend:
1. Marinka
2. Petra
3. Marinka's gorgeous family!

2 things I am thankful for right now:
1. I am thankful I made it home today
2. My family loves me

One Final Thought:
I need to go to bed!

Anatomy of a Card

I am in the process of making cards for the Arts and Crafts Bazaar at Ramstein Nov 17-18th. I figured I could try to get some extra cash for the holidays by selling the things I love to make out of my surplus of stash!!! I'm trying real hard to dwindle down my ever-growing scrappy supplies, much to Dustin's chagrin, it is not working. Oh well!

So I have a favorite card that I've made many times because I really just like it. Nothing fancy, its just fun and elegant. Because it is my favorite card, I decided I would make 12 to offer for sale at the Bazaar. The anatomy of my card follows:

I got my stamps and ink out and started to stamp the images. Remember, I wanted to make 12 cards. So I get a piece of white cardstock out and proceed to stamp 12 images of my 'CosmoBella' Oops... I can only fit 10 on the paper. No worries, I'll just make 10 cards :D

Upon further inspection of the images I notice that I must have gotten too hurried and wasn't taking my time to not get blurry or over stamped images. Happens quite frequently actually... maybe I should slow down and pay more attention to my stamps.
See the blurry or faded parts the arrows are pointing to in the above picture. This was the case on 3 of my 10 images. Not bad odds really. And not a problem, I'll just make 7 cards (for all of you who are challenged, 10-3 = 7 ) LOL!


Then I proceed to color in my images. I love to use the Stampin' Up Watercolor Crayons with a paint brush. I just dip my brush in water, drag it across the crayon, and apply to my image. After CosmoBella was all colored in, I took a Gelly Roll glitter pen to her drink, belt and sandals. Now, the following image is kind of hard to see, but inside the black circle, I got a splash of green paint on her shirt.
Being the perfectionist I am, and the fact that I want to SELL these cards, I scrap this Bella as its smudged. Okay, no problem, I can still make 6 cards. Good thing I didn't cut card bases for 12 cards - LOL! So I cut the card bases and layers and stamp 'Celebrate' on the Bling Bazzill. One of them came out smudged (I really need to pay more attention :eyeroll:)

See the shadow? That would be overstamping. Oh well, just another card for my stash box!

So finally I get all the cards assembled. Woohoo! I have 5 cards to sell... from the 12 I started out making! JEEZ! I must be having an off day. I made 12 Christmas cards last night and only messed up 1, so I came out with 11!

Here is the final product. My CosmoBella "celebrate' -ing. Don't know why, but I just really like this card. Maybe because it has scallops, or bling bazzill (shimmery cardstock), or the fact that I get to color Bella in and coloring is soothing! Either way, I hope these cards sell at the Bazaar or an awful lot of you will be getting card packages for Christmas!!

I've been Tagged

Okay, I've been tagged and I've been lazy about doing these, so here it goes:

*4 MOVIES THAT I CAN WATCH OVER AND OVER

10 Things I Hate About You
Wedding Singer
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Pulp Fiction

*4 TV SHOWS THAT I WATCH

CSI
Law and Order
NCIS
Bones

*4 PLACES I HAVE LIVED

Kaiserslautern, Germany
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Tucson, Arizona
O'Fallon, Missouri

*4 FAVORITE FOODS

Chocolate
Pasta
Pizza
Brownies

*4 FAVORITE COLORS

Purple
Pink
Green
Brown

*4 PLACES I WOULD LOVE TO BE NOW

Anywhere in the continental US!
Paris
Alaska
London

*4 NAMES I LIKE, BUT WOULD NOT NAME MY CHILDREN

Elise
Chloe
Savannah
Ryan

Okay, now I'm supposed to tag someone... hey, YOU! yeah YOU! reading this right now! TAG! YOU'RE IT!

More Layouts :wink:

Two Recent Layouts

This first layout was done with Love Elsie PP, fabric paper, bling bazzill, misc brads and Queen&Co Felt border. Its for the Q&Co Felt Frenzy Contest over at HappyNScrappin' The contest is open to anyone so check it out! And wish me luck ;-)
Added: this LO was featured in the "From the Gallery" section of the Creative Express Online Newsletter (10/26/07) :D


This layout was for a 'Telephone Scraplift' challenge at ScrapGoods. We have a layout to start that gets emailed to the first person on the list, who does her take on it. Then it goes to the next, and the next and the next. Kind of like playing 'Telephone' Its fun to see how the layout evolves. And we all use the current month's kit so it gives us more ideas on how to use our kit. Alhtough, I skipped the October SG kit - BLASPHEMY! so I used the March SG kit instead (us skippers were in our own group). Really liked how this one turned out :D

My Holiday Weekend

So even with my bad news on Friday, I was pretty productive this weekend. I made some cards for World Card Making Day (Saturday) for the DT Challenges over at Creative Express.

I also have been trying to get caught up on my albums. I'm only a few months behind (snicker snicker - at least its not a few DECADES!) So I made myself do some layouts this weekend as all I ever do is make cards anymore! LOL! Thanks for looking!

Thank You Card Challenge

Christmas Card Challenge

Halloween Card Challenge

Friendship Card Challenge

Birthday Card Challenge

This LO features the 'Clear Page' technique. This technique was featured in the September ScrapGoods kit. The idea is to make a clear page that 'sits' on top of a paper page. SG gave us these clear, thick pages that will slip right into a page protector! So here is what I did with mine. Love it, and now I'm not so intimidated by the clear albums I've been hoarding!

Top left: Clear page stacked on paper page. Top right: Front of clear page. Bottom left: Back of clear page. Bottom right: Paper page.

This is Sgt. Wills! Sierra loves to dress up in Daddy's uniform and help him recite the Airman's creed.

This LO is from July 4th. Karis was all snugggled up next to Mommy (it was about 50 degrees!) and out like a light after the fireworks. Such an adorable pic, one of my favorites!

Doodling LO. Just playing around with my pens and doodling! I can see a lot more doodling going on my LOs from now on!

This LO is for Karis' first birthday. The paper on both sides is the exact same, but I photographed them separately and this is what I got and I'm too lazy to do it over.

Thanks for looking!

Shrimp and Scallops!

Chipboard cards

Another {Caardvarks} challenge. Use chipboard on cards. The first one is a Maya road CB paisley that I painted and then stamped with at Technique Tuesday paisley stamp. PP is Fancy Pants and a K&Co rubon.


This is one of my favorite (recent) cards. The chipboard is embossed! Yes EMBOSSED! with the cuttlebug! I love that little green bug! I covered the chipboard with brown cardstock then embossed it and inked it to get it to pop. Thanks for looking!

Another LO

Just another layout I did last night. This is me summer 1985 at my Grandma DeSalvo's house. Note the horse trough as the pool. And what a ham for the camera!

Sticker Shock!!!

So this week's challenge over at {Caardvarks} is to use stickers. I dug out all my old stickers, flat, glittered and 3D and had a blast!!

Got one LO done for each of the girls!

So I've been in a scrapbook rut. Been making TONS of cards, but I can't seem to scrapbook. I decided to get myself out of my rut this weekend and scrap at least one page for each of the girls books. Here they are. Now, of course, I want to scrap more, and my printer is out of ink... again! GRRRR! I'm am ALWAYS buying ink, I should buy stock in HP Photosmart Ink Cartridges!!!

This LO is for the Gettin Sketchy September Challenge.

These next two layouts are done with the Daisy D's Fall in Love line. I was given these papers from my Secret Sister over at ScrapGoods. Incidentally, I was working on these layouts (and a card) while waiting for the topper to change and show the options for October. I had just finished Karis' LO when I went and the topper was changed!! And guess what paper is featured in October - LOL! Daisy D's Fall in Love!! Check out their site and order a kit if you love what I've done ;-)

Caardvarks Micro Challenge - Beads

Did this card for the Micro Challenge over at Caardvarks. Beads are glued attached to the embossed flower and die cut flourish (from the cuttlebug - my new favorite toy!) . Thanks for looking :D

Caardvarks Challenge

Did this card for the 'Eat More Fiber' challenge over at Caardvarks. Used Cosmo Cricket Storytime patterned paper, a Heidi Swapp chipboard 'b' and prima flowers with seed beed centers. I stitched the PP and pocket to the card with Stampin Up Soft Subtles purple fiber. I also wrapped the fiber around the 'b' to cover. Thanks for looking :D

New Layouts

Here are some recent layouts I've been working on. This one is based on a sketch from Gettin' Sketchy
Captain Jack Sparrow - ARR! Used the SG August kit for this one.

MUAH! Karis kissing her baby dolls. Used the SG July kit for this one.