It sure is quiet out there in blogland. Everyone must be extremely busy with their vacations and such. As for me, I'm still scrappin'. I think someone must have lost their mojo because I found it....made 3 more layouts over the weekend. I've been playing with the embellishments on this one for 3 days now. I've never done this much scrapping at one time...maybe it's the Starbucks.

Is anyone going to take Cathy Zielske's design class? I'm considering it...have to sign up tomorrow if I want to do it. I hate to start something that I won't finish, and 12 weeks from October right up to Christmas is really cutting it close. On the other hand, it's 12 weeks of hands on design, something like 36 layouts. I wouldn't make 36 layouts in a year! Decisions, decisions.

One Amazing Girl

Can you read that? It says ONE AMAZING ALBUM by Paige Evans. Album created by Dedra Long. This article appears in the August issue of Scrapbook Trends.

And on the Editor's page....

This is a terrible picture, I know, but I just wanted to show that another layout of Dedra's caught the editor's eye. I'm impressed... and Yes, I'm gushing.

Way to go Dedra!! You're one amazing girl!

A Blog Award!

How cool is that? My cyberfriend Erika, over at Scrapbook Obsession, gave this to me because I have the same warped sense of humor that she has. (I wonder how she knew that..) Anyway, she said some really nice things about my blog, and left me a really nice message to stop by her cyberhome because she had an award for me. So I go, and what do I see?! This adorable award with 7 little strings attached to it. I want to keep the award but those strings have to go, folks. And the only way to do that is to give them away! Are you ready to play? Okay, here goes....

The Rules of the Game
1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you’ve nominated.

So, here's my award which will be moved to a permanent home in my sidebar poste haste. Since I already have a link to Erika, I'll just link you to the original link because she was one of the first links I had on this blog. Link

Now I have to nominate 7 people to give this award to. Yay! And the nominees are...

1. My friend, Tracey Locher, at WhoooooHooooo , for her generous recognition of, (and link to), a major competitor in a design team contest. That was so cool, and so admirable.....she blogs with integrity!

2. Barb, aka Sawdust, a fellow boomer who never fails to stop by and leave an encouraging word. She's taken the big leap and started her own blog... Thought Connection, which I find very thought provoking. I think she planned it that way. Way to go, Barb!

3. Allsmiles, Creative Living because her blog is filled with happiness, because she's from my home town, and because her blog is just plain good! I love her pictures and her layouts, and her scrap space, her decor, her beautiful girls, her life! Yeah, I'm just a little envious....

4. Kary Lewis at Creating Chaos because she's the most down to earth person I've ever met on the internet, she's one cool lady and she creates beautifully colored layouts that make me very happy to look at! Like this one here. Unfortunately, she's lost a dear friend recently and my heart goes out to her.

5. Harley at Koala Fuzz who bakes and scrapbooks, takes fabulous pictures and makes adorable stick pins that she sells in her Etsy shop . Her photography collages are just as yummy looking as the cakes she makes. Beyond that, I just like reading her blog!

6. I am Derby because her profile reads..."Just another mom of two, thirty something year old whose life has all the excitement of a snail." I don't know, with two kids, several cats, and the myriad number of crafts she's involved in, I think she has a happy scrappy life.

7. And last but not least, this award is going right back to my fellow Journey fan, Erika, at Scrapbook Obsession, for knowing a good blog when she sees one. ;-)

That's all folks. Have fun playing..........or not! Please know that you're under no obligation to play....your name won't be deleted, I won't say bad things about you, and I won't boycott your blog. Thanks for stopping by!

This is the final layout from last week. I just had to make a few final touches and add the embellishments. Did that while I watched and/or listened to Paperclipping Live last night. If you haven't checked out Paperclipping yet, please do. Noell's insight into design and form has been so helpful to me. I'm looking at layouts with more understanding of design, therefore, I think my layouts are getting better....even if I am a "scooper".

Thanks for looking!

One Scrappy Weekend

I spent the weekend tearing, inking, and sanding...at least it seems that way. I like the look, I just never think about doing it so I kind of forgot about it. It's kind of fun, but since I don't have a lot of experience with it, I'm still testing the waters. Sticking to just a few colors for the layouts really saves a lot of time, for me anyway. I normally agonize over every decision, but if I keep my choices to a minimum, the decisions are easy, and I only have to agonize over the placement!!

I did this one on cardstock and I'm not that happy with it. I like it more when I use patterned paper, and for this picture especially, the color blue. It looks so much better against a blue background.



Here I used patterned paper, and I like this one so much more, but the scan was terrible so I took a picture of it.

Hey, I like this one...

I LIKE THIS LAYOUT! I think it's cool... Yes, I made it! However, I totally copied the style of Iggydodie

I've been looking at her layouts for so long that I finally decided to scraplift her style and try one on for size. If you check her gallery out at Two Peas, you 'll see that quite a few people have copied her style....no great surprise to me, I've been wanting to do it for a year. I've tried from time to time but always gave up...until I really started to look at the construction of her layouts. It's not just the embellishments that she uses so well, but the paper and the colors that she blends together. She usually only uses three major colors.....in embellies and papers. How hard can that be? Especially when I have this entire block of coordinated printed paper, cardstock, and embellishments. So here I am, staring at a layout of Iggydodie's, and wondering how she decides where to place the paper, where to place the embellies, where to place the pictures. You know, kind of like scrapbooking 101. Geez....so, I said the heck with it. Nike* the damn thing and get it over with.

And I did.

And this is it.

And I like it.

And I hope I can make more just like it.

*Nike="Just do it"

Even when I use printed paper that forces you to place your pictures in a particular spot, they look like this, just so-so. They actually look better in person, but who'd believe it? Not me. I couldn't come up with an original idea if my life depended on it. This is why I admire everyone elses work so much and why I highlight other blogs here.
I've been looking at scrapbook layouts for years and I know what good looks like. I have great taste! I just don't have great talent. It doesn't stop me from scrapping....and it doesn't seem to stop my family from thinking I'm a creative artiste, but it is what it is.

I DO like my mini books though. They're cute and little and fun to play with.

Fourth of July Fireworks! Gorgeous Pictures

OHScrap! Hybrid Scrapbooking, Photography, Sewing, Crafting: Fourth of July Fireworks!

This is a huge cop-out on my part because I didn't take any pictures last night. I figured they wouldn't turn out anyway without a tripod and just be blurry. But Joscie......Joscie got some great shots and you know what? They look just like the fireworks I saw! Except for the water....and the skyline...and the ships....and...

Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone has a safe and sane holiday. I'll be going to the Civic Center tonight with some friends for a picnic and then watch the fireworks. I'm going to try taking some pics but I don't have tripod........everything I've read says a tripod is THE number one thing you need when photographing fireworks. I just couldn't justify the expense for a one time use.

Thank you, everyone, for your posts, emails and responses at CKMB. I'm so appreciative of this community!

Scrapsmack %$#@! Part II

I think I'm over being bashed at Scrapsmack. I've been thinking a lot about what one person wrote....


"She gushes about folks I've never heard of with as much gusto as she uses for Stacy Julian."


This poster seems to think that Stacy Julian is somehow more worthy of my gushing than other folks she's "never heard of". That's a shame...because I don't think Stacy Julian would feel that way. I'd say Stacy believes that everyone deserves to be gushed over and she'd be the first in line to do so.

I hate to point this out....and I adore Stacy Julian....but I don't think her scrapping is all that fabulous. I personally think there are a lot of people out there that are much better at creating layouts than Stacy, and they're not all celebrities! What Stacy is good at is SIMPLE scrapbooking and the philosophy that she teaches. She's a celebrity because everyone knows her...she has her own magazine, she's on television, she writes books, she travels the world, and she does it all while being a normal human being. Just like everyone else. Just like the people I write about in my blog.

So, does everyone deserve to be written about with as much gusto as I write about Stacy Julian? Absolutely.

I'm not angry anymore about scrapsmack. I'm sad. Sad that the posters are most likely scrappers that I know from CKMB, even Paperclipping. Sad that they're probably mothers who want to raise their children to be good people as adults....and yet look how childish they are, hiding out in anonymity, bad mouthing others because it makes them feel good. How sad that they're caught up in the mob mentality of a board like that. You know, I've been there, done that. It becomes a way of life and you eventually stop seeing the good in people, you stop smelling the roses. If you want to find something to complain about...........you will. It's a choice. Make the right one.

Scrapsmack??? %$#@!

Okay, now I'm just a little bit pissed. This site.........this anonymous member site, known as Scrapsmack, has people that troll the scrap boards and then post their negative findings. They obviously don't look for much that's good, don't see it if it's there, and don't like it when others do. The best they can do is find fault and put others down. And they have the gall, the absolute nerve, to say that I should get a life because I compliment other people!! LOL!

If my "kiss ass" ways have offended anyone, I apologize, however, I will continue to blog about whatever I feel like blogging about. And if that means that I like a site and want to share it, then that's what I'll do. I don't expect anything in return. They say I "gush"..........Eeww! I never thought of it as gushing.....I just like to talk loud...and I will TALK LOUD when I want to ON MY BLOG! And I like a little humor....so I try to be humorous. I don't think Stacey Julian is going to come knocking at my door because I blogged about her anymore than Joscie will be visiting from Hawaii!

I'm not lookin' for brownie points here, I'm just bloggin'. So please don't waste your time coming to my blog, or the message boards, just to put me down. You must have better things to do than to read my nonsense. And you shouldn't. Especially if it upsets you so much that you have to let off steam under an anonymous name.

See, I just let off steam and I now feel great! Great, I said! And I did it under my own name.

Don't take yourselves so seriously, folks. Life is short.

Be a Winner!

OHScrap! Hybrid Scrapbooking, Photography, Sewing, Crafting: MM, I'm sew excited to share some Making Memories with you!#links#links#links#links

Hey, check out Joscie's post! You'll be glad you did!