Well, Here I Am!

Lest you think I fell off the face of the earth (!), I thought I'd better post finally this week. It has been a full - and very enjoyable - week!

I made a couple of things in the last week that I thought I would share with you. This first picture is a little 3x3 notecard box. Isn't it cute?! Such an easy pattern, and I needed a couple little gifties for people. So I thought this little box filled with little gift enclosure cards was perfect. Now for those of you with a keen eye, I actually colored a little bit on an image. I added some color to my Little Diva card with CTMH markers.

Did I ever tell you how much I love CTMH's Level 1 kits? I LOVE those pre-printed layouts just for weeks like this. When I don't have much time, I can still put together a beautiful 2-page layout. This family (even the furry kids) truly are my greatest blessings!

I will have some days off coming up, so I am looking forward to crafting more and sharing more in the week to come!

Thanksgiving Layout

You've seen these pictures already that I posted from Thanksgiving Day. Today I put them to paper (click on the layout to make it larger). I fell in love with this paper when I saw it - Little Yellow Bicycle diecut and lace paper. Gorgeous!

Along with it, I used: CTMH Colonial White, Vineyard Berry, Olive, and New England Ivy CS, Bazzill flowers, CTMH Chocolate and Colonial White Ribbon, and random buttons. The die-cut leaves, frame, and sentiments were cut using Slice cards.

Scrapping and Fishing...All in One Day!

What a fun day we had scrapping!! I thought a would share a few pictures with you. In the front row on the left - my niece Jessica and my sister Linda. In the back from the left - my niece Kristina, me, and my mother-in-law Sharon. So the hall pass was used, and the clapper worked great! I loved hearing that because then I got to see everyone's work and their creativity! Jessica and Kristina tied for the most pages done at the end of the day winning a card kit!

We played a couple of games during the day. I think the first one was much to everyone's dismay! I had everyone take out 2 sheets of matching paper that they liked and I gave them a 5x7 card base. Then they had to pass their paper to left and it was up to the person on the left to create a card for them in 8 minutes! It was a fun, fun game, and I liked seeing everyone work on a card quickly. Sometimes we might need a card in a hurry, and that's what I was trying to teach. I loved what everyone did! Kristina made my card from the Animal Cookies paper I passed her - and it is great! The best part was that everyone won (just the Ellen show!) and went home with a bag of cards and paper!

In the afternoon, I had everyone take out their ugliest piece of paper. You know we get packs or pads, and there is inevitably that one piece we don't like. We had to add one element and then pass it to the left. By the time it got back to the owner, it would have 5 elements and it would be BEAUTIFUL. I have to say, Linda's was the most difficult to work with. Brown peacock feathers - yuck! Am I right, girls? However, even Linda's was beautiful by the time it got back to her! Never underestimate any piece of paper!!

I have had request for the recipes I've used, so I'll put those in another post!

Now I have to bring you to the fishing portion of the day. Jerry spent the day fishing on Lake Superior on a charter. Oh, did he bring back some amazing pictures!! He is getting to be quite the photographer!!

I love the first picture because he purposefully caught the reflection of the cargo ship in the beautiful Lake Superior water.

Here's a morning picture on the lake. In the distance, there is quite heavy fog.

This is the catch of lake trout at the end of the day. Six of them fished, so this is a great haul. As I type, Jerry's portion is on the smoker. Do you like smoked fish? I love it paired with aged cheese. Hmmm. it will be yummy!

So it was a wonderful day for all! Our guests left by 6:30 last evening, and Jerry and I were sleeping by 7:30! Is that a sign of age? Please tell me it's not!! Really we both only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before getting up at 3:00 am, so the rest felt good! But again I say, it was a wonderful, wonderful day!! I can't wait to scrap again with my family, and Jerry and his buddies are anxious for their next charter fishing trip!!

Use Up Those Scraps!

If you go to Practical Scrappers this week, you'll find that the DT created layouts using scraps this week. This is the DT layout I submitted - and yep, it's all scraps! I'll tell you some more about it.

First of all, those pictures are priceless to me. Those are pictures of me at 1 and 2 years old. In the center, I put a picture of my Shane at 18 months old. This layout will go in my heritage book.

I used scraps of Emporium paper from CTMH. You know, those 1/2" - 1" pieces you cut off that you don't know what you'll do with anyway if you save them. That is how I created the background for the pictures that actually looks much like a piece of paper from that packet. The elements on the top of the page are pieces that I saved because they are big and interesting. I didn't know I would be making patterned paper from them at one point, but that's what these scraps did! Covered in Liquid Glass, these make a very nice top to the page. All the mats and little pieces of cardstock came from my scrap basket. You have one, don't you?

I challenge you this week to make a layout completely from scraps. When you are done, post it with Mr. Linky on the Practical Scrappers blog. Let everyone see your fabulous work!

Just Give Me Tuscany...

I have been spending the last coupling of days working on our Mediterranean Cruise album. After two albums and so many pages, I am about 10 pages away from completely it. Yippee! I wanted to share this double layout with you from our day in Tuscany. I have to give credit to some wonderful friends for taking some pictures of us. On the right layout, we didn't even know we were having our picture taken. Jenny-May shot that picture and sent it a couple months after the cruise. Oh, Jenny-May, what a gift! The left layout pictures are thanks to Sara. She grabbed the camera and took pictures of us. Thank you so much, Sara! These pictures mean the world to us!

For paper and ribbon, I used Cosmo Cricket from the Fleuriste line. The letters and metal accessory are CTMH. The loads of flowers are from Prima Naturals and Bazzill. You can click on the layout to make it larger.

This was our favorite port. We dreamed of going to Tuscany, and here it was for us to take in. Let me tell you the journaling on the page, and you will know what this day meant to us. "Tuscany was a dream come true for us. We always wanted to walk 'under the Tuscan sun.' the vineyards were amazing to see. Villa Maionchi was so green and beautiful. This truly was a day dropped from God. From lunch in the vineyard to our kiss in the courtyard, the day was perfect in every way."

Capturing My Joy

I can't even begin to tell you what it means to me to spend an evening with two "main men." On this Friday evening, I got to do just that. I know some people would look at our little family and wonder why it is such a precious thing that three of us would have time together. Well, Jerry works erratic hours as an auto body painter. He's been with the company 20 years, and he generally works a good day shift, but if there is work, he stays. And if he is busy, he will go to bed extremely early so that he can make it through the next long day. Shane many long days as a Manager of a tanning salon (yes, it's a great business!), and I never quite know when he'll be home. Other than to sleep - that's a certainty!

So when we were all able to go out to dinner, well, I loved it! Jerry treated us to fajitas at Chili's. We ordered the combo for two and then my boys wanted to try the Texas Cheese Fries and the Snacking Onion "things" with jalepenos. What a great meal of laughter and hot, spicy food!

Now that you've heard a little bit of the story, I'll tell you about the layout. We took the pictures in our backyard. I chose Paper Loft Well Worn paper for this along with 2 sheets of sanded down textured CTMH Outdoor Denim. The flowers and large letters are die-cuts from CTMH (a promotion last November). The epoxy letters are Latte from DCWV. All the Outdoor Denim accessories are from CTMH.

I've got journaling tags stacked on the side and attached with large brads. I don't mind if people that look through my books read the top tag, but there are some things written on the inside tags about our conversations that I want Shane to remember in his older years. That's part of my legacy to him on these pages.

Another thing. This pages is the Grand Finale pattern from the CTMH Imagine book. The right side easily allows for a 2" x 10-1/2" strip of typewritten journaling. I RARELY type anything in my books. I use tags, I print, I use cursive, and sometimes I even make mistakes. I think it's really, really important to handwrite as much as possible. I know in this day and age when all want our pages to be the prettiest or the most perfect, we often turn to the computer to journal. But, oh, how the story will come alive in 50 years when Shane is explaining this night to his children and running his hands across my handwritten tags. So I've learned to love how I write - whether it be good, bad, or ugly.

As always, click on the picture if you want to take a larger view!