Yet another

Credits can be found here.

Part of the mad scrapping as of late is that I decided to participate in the Matter of Scrap challenges at SM. You get a point for each LO and depending on your # of pts at the end of the month, you get a discount code for their store. I'm saving mine up for a $5.50 gift certificate instead of a monthly discount. I have to get to 60. That's a dang lot of LOs. Maybe I should re-think this..... but I'm enjoying it sooo much!

one more for today

On second thought, make that two.

I'm really loving my new photoshop!! Add to that the fact that I have NO schoolwork and I'm pretty much in scrapbook heaven. Ooooohhh yeah....

Ellie Lash's "Something Wild Freebie" for the green background and the alpha-- the whole alpha as a freebie!

Summer Drigg's "Gratitude for the flower and other papers

Jeni Hopewell's "Benjamin" for the metal tag

Andilynn Design's "Wordalicious" for the word art and "Space" pack (template #3 rotated)

Dh and I for the cute kid in the picture (ok, yes, there was also some divine power involved in that...)

and:

I have no idea the credits on this one. I started it back in Sept. and really don't know where all the pieces came from. Its a good thing nobody reads this......

December QP Exchange at SM

The kit this month is "Benjamin" by Jeni Hopewell. Cute kit. I'm planning on using the other QPs I get to do a page for each month of The Baby's life. Cause I've been quite the slacker in keeping up with his infancy...... :D

Just a few LOs

From what I can remember, these are all with 'Comfort and Joy' which is a collab kit from Scrapmatters.

Quick Quick Page

The QP was red with a hole for the picture. The challenge was to make it your own. I did. :D

The QP is from Ellie's Angels CT Blog and I used the "Countdown to Christmas" daily download kit from the same site for embellishments. The 'magic' word art is from Andilynn Designs' "Wordalicious" and the alpha is "Cian's Alpha" by Ellie Lash.

Britt-ish Designs date stamp and template
scrap girls 'refresh' kit for flowers, doodle border, 's' and 'w' alpha, and circle mat
ellie lash's 'star gazing mini kit' for blue paper

And it's totally the third page I've done today. :P I would have a fourth, but my PSE has decided to go cRaZY and not listen to the mouse. Niiice. I'm hoping tomorrow it will let me save all the extractions I had been working on......

show me your tongue!

Fun times with the family for Thanksgiving!


Britt-ish Designs "The Brighter Side"

Halloween 2008-- check

Page OnePage Two

I used this cute kit from Britt-ish Designs:

check out my sidebar.

something fun to do... because, really, I'm not busy enough. :)

so, will you join me?

I got this cute halloween poem from the MOFia board and wanted to use it for the sisters I visit teach this month. Yesterday I spent a little time putting this cute card together (with lots of input from Amanda). Either today or Wednesday I'll be making gobs of pumpkin chocolate-chip cookies, plating them up and attaching the card.

Maybe you know someone you could pass the love on to? So, here it is:


I tag anybody who reads this to print it off and find a cute or creative or fun way to share it with THREE people.. hopefully people in real life....... but it has to be THIS WEEK (duh!)

And please remember that I have a tracker so I will know who visits and has read it and I will be asking you about it...... ;)

You can right click to save as.... on your computer and then print it the same you would a photo. I recommend this way so you can print 4 per page.

I guess I should give some credits: The Bright Side by Britt-ish Designs (green string, orangey hole-y thing, flower and buttons) and Spook-alicious Add On by Simply Sweet Designs (brown paper and pumpkin).

The Spook-alicious Add On is a freebie by a designer at Scrapmatters. It's really cute!

Poor, neglected scrap blog....

So, I was feeling a little adventueous and decided to do the speed scrap at scrapmatters tonight.

Whew.

The good news is that I survived.


I am, however, reminded of why I stopped doing speed scraps.


I'm just not that creative.

And, I'm totally ok with that. :)

I used Ellie Lash's "Adam" and "About a Boy"; SuzieBelle Design's "Stella Freebie" and SM Collab Kit "Friday Flea Market"

I think that's it.

Just for the record, I'm still working on that 1st day of school page..... it's still not 'just right'. Reminds me of why I stopped scrapping... I over-analyze things. :)

I made a wreath for Lil Wifey

I kinda think it needs ribbon. But it still looks pretty dang awesome....... (in my humble opinion).

Sleepyhead

Cause he's sleepy, like that. ;)
I especially love his lower lip... too cute! (Although he is drooling all.over my bed... maybe I should re-evaluate this situation...)

Credits:
'Star Gazing'
'Luke'
'Wish Garden Mini'
and
'About a Boy'
All by the talented Ellie Lash

Friday is my official 'scrapping day'.

So if I seem to have dropped off the earth, it's just that I'm scrapping.

Unfortunatley, today I spent a good deal of my available time organizing and backing up both computers. (I've had the replacement for that silly external hard drive but just found the nerve to trust it again this week. Necessity does strange things to a person.) So, I only got one LO done.

Page 1- London Bridge
Credits:
"Tuesday Template Challenge" template by Sya's Blueprints
"Gypsy Song" by SuzieBelle Designs
"Too Soon" by Shabby Princess, overlay
"Vellum and Black" alpha by Ellie Lash


Page 2
Credits:
"Gypsy Song" by SuzieBelle Designs
"Too Soon" by Shabby Princess, overlay

I also took time to go shopping with my gift card for winning Fan-Fare Sunday over at Ellie's Angel's CT Blog. Here's what I ended up with:


I also 'got' a big ol' wish list from shopping her store at Scrap Orchard. You should go check it out. I love everything I have of hers.

First Day of Pre K (8-15-06)
Jeni Hopewell's "All American Kid" Ellie Lash's "Barely Sliding By"

Nostalgia = new page even when I have other things to be doing.

BlankieClick here to see credits.
If you go look at the credits, you're not allowed to laugh at my scrapmatters gallery. They just opened a new site and all my uploads are gone..... gone..... and I've been busy with other priorities lately..... so..... my gallery is, *a-hem* lacking.


To say the least.

;)

These first two pages I did with "Birthday Bash" by GG Digital Designs. The first one I think I used a few things from "Being Bold" by Digi Keepsakes by Monica. The third page is mostly "Being Bold" with the 'tease' tag from "Little Boy Blue" by GG Digi Designs.

Make a Wish
The Baby's 1st Birthday
The Baby's walking everywhere!
And I'm loving QPs this week!! I've gotten several pages from last year done by using a simple QP. Yay! I've just got one more day of London to scrap before my classes start on Tuesday (that's what? 3 LOs?). We'll see if I get it done or not. It all depends on naptime. ;)

What I've got so far

Bumping b/c I added several pages:

NOT a scrapbook page (gasp!)

Sometimes, I do projects that do not involve pictures or papers or even the computer.



Surprising and amazing, I know. But I am a multi-talented woman.


*giggle*





No longer a 'top secret' project
Ashley loved it and I am really happy with how it turned out. As it went, the edging was the most difficult part. I couldn't decide on one, then I had to improvise because I mis-read the directions, and I had to take some out and start over... but in the end, I'm glad I used the edging I did-- the ribbon really makes it, don't you agree?

And now it's done..... I should probably start another one so it will be done for the next new baby's shower instead of hospital gift. *laughing at my bad planning skills*

It goes too fast....

Two of my favorite scrapbook pages of all time are the boys' "Watch Me Grow" pages. I love to see how much they change over the course of the first year. So, I was anxious to get this one done for The Baby. And I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I wish I had more space for journaling, just a few more comments I wanted to make, but it will do. There's just too much to put on one layout!!

So, here it is:
Page 1Page 2
Credits: "Lil Brudder" by Britt-ish Des
Which, I might add, is one of the first digi-kits I bought and I have used it and used it and used it. I have very few kits that I use as often as this one. It's just very versatile (maybe that's because it's perfect for my style and my boys?) with elements perfect for my boys. So there's my shameless plug. :)

I'm still working on my London book and will continue to add the finished pages to the slide show below. So, if you get bored, check it out. It might have something new.....
hopefully I'll have that finished in the next two weeks. That's my goal, at least. :)

Loose end

I took advantage of Dh bathing the boys.

I needed to finish this page before I could start another from the same trip. So, finally, here it is.
Hopefully it's big enough you can read the journaling and make sense of the pictures.

"Private TMR" by Teresa P.

And here's another that I needed to add finishing touches to:

"Just for Mom" by GG digi-designs

Our zoo trip got cancelled. So, here's what I've done today:

Note to Self: Marriage
The challenge is to write a note to your younger self. There's too much to say! So, I narrowed it down to the topic of marriage (cause I had a few pictures of that) and this pretty much says it all. I enjoyed this challenge... maybe too much.

Credits:
Shabby Princess "Festival", "Promise", and "Too Soon"


Love at first Sight
Ok, after I finished this page I realized that I did a paper scrap page of this photo shoot a few years ago! grrrrrr.... I'm going to have to keep better track of what I do! Anyway, I love this LO more than the paper one I did before, so it's still going in the album! :P

Credits:
Shabby Princess:
"Vintage Florals" (pin)
Ellie Lash:
"A Mother's Love" (flower)
"How She Shines" (ribbon, stars, paper)
"Scatter Sunshine" (paper).
All are minikits from her blog!


I have one more half done, that I will finish after the boys go to bed. And then just two more to do before Monday to get the free kit for doing all the challenges. I feel productive~

Snap and Scrap Challenges

Blowing Bubbles
Credits.

Last speed scrap for a while

"Riptide" by SuzieBelle Designs
"Too Soon" by Shabby Princess (grunge overlay)
"Basic Stiches" Dynamic Brush Set by Scrap Girls

I think that's it.

6/24 Speed Scrap

We spent spring break in 2007 in Santa Fe and stopped at Palo Duro Canyon on the way home. This was the most relaxing part of the trip!

River Stroll
Credits:
"Star Gazing" and "Little Bird" by Ellie Lash
"Just for Mom" by GG Digi-designs
"Waiting for Summer" alpha by Andilynn Designs
"Make a Wish Element Pack" by Eirene Designs

And here's the speed scrap directions (given at 10 min intervals for an hour):
1. Pick 2-3 pictures, black & white or color, and arrange them in a line or a grid. That's kind of two instructions for the price of one. It was hard to get it down to seven total directions!
2. Pick your background paper—it needs to be black or very dark brown or very dark blue. It can be plain or patterned.
3. Place your pictures on your paper and stitch them down. You read it right—they must be stitched down. I don’t care how much stitching, but every picture has to have at least one stitch on it.
4. Title—Your title must contain two words and only two words. You can use a font or an alpha or a combination of the two.
5. Elements—Whatever elements you choose to use, must be tucked part way under at least one of the pictures. No floating elements!
6. Almost there—now use a definition to define one of the words in your title. It should also pertain to your layout—the dictionary is fine. It can be word art or just text.
7. Last one! For this LO you can’t add any real journaling, just your definition and names of people in the pictures and the date. Of course what you do with it after the speed scrap is up to you! But your definition should really cover most of it.

I'm calling it practice for the speed scrap

But maybe it's just because I didn't want to do anything else. Either way, here's what I did after the boys went to bed:

"Berry"Helpful Hands
It's for the Tuesday Template Challenge that ends at midnight PST, so I made the deadline by an hour and 30 minutes!

And because of the hard drive failure, I used all freebies that I've gotten in the past few days! Niiiiiice!

Credits:
"Text Path Template" by Britt-ish Designs
"Star Gazing" by Ellie Lash (white stars)
"Heart Song" by Ellie Lash (green paper)
"Scatter Sunshine" by Ellie Lash (side border)
"Wild Weekend" by MissMint (denim hearts, sprinkles, small white paper, staple, bubble wrap print)
"Little Firecracker" by Brianne Hafen (alpha)

And this week, there are two-- TWO speed scraps. And really good participation freebies... so stay tuned, I'll be sharing my finished projects (as long as the kids cooperate!).

Anxiety

*sigh*


Where do I begin?

Do I start by saying my mother-in-law's computer spontaneously died a month or two ago?

Or with the simple fact that I purchased an external hard drive to support my addiction?

Maybe I should start by talking about irony.

Defined by Wikipedia:
Irony is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what a speaker or writer says and what he or she means, or what is generally understood.
In modern usage it can also refer to particularly striking examples of incongruities observed in everyday life between what was intended or said and what actually happened.
There is some argument about what is or is not ironic, but all the different senses of irony revolve around the perceived notion of an incongruity between what is said and what is meant; or between an understanding of reality, or an expectation of a reality, and what actually happens.
Irony can be humorous, but it does not have to be.


You know what?

It's not funny.
____
The Story
____
The past three weeks, one of my little projects has been to organize all of my digi-scrapping files from two computers into one massive folder. The problem has been the two different computers. The laptop has some things and the desktop has others. And I can't keep straight who has what. When done, I will have one folder with sub-folders for all my kits, templates, fonts, brushes, and completed pages. Organization is always a good motivator, but I was also encouraged by my mother-in-law's recent, unexpected hard drive failure. She lost all of her pictures (some of which were the only copies), files-- everything. So, I took this as an example of why to have an external hard drive and back up the things you want to keep. Thus, my project of the past three weeks began.

I started by copying all of the files from the desktop to the external drive (that I'd like to refer to as the POS, but because I'm a lady, I won't. *deep breath*). Then I hooked the external drive to the laptop and started cutting and pasting all the goodies off the C: to the external. Any that I accidentally made a copy of, I deleted. Why? Because I would soon have a nice, concise folder to copy to the C: and I wouldn't need all that excess junk. When the recycle bin was full, guess what? Oh yeah. I hit the "delete these files forever" button like it was nothing. I don't think I even hesitated.

Meanwhile, every new page I created and every new picture off the camera got saved directly to the external. To keep things tidy, you see.

Do you have a good picture of what's going on here?

My C: on my laptop is nearly EMPTY of digi-goodies. The external drive has the ONLY copy of LOTS of goodies.



So, using the available foreshadowing clues..... tell me, what do you think happened?
























After an hour of my own trouble shooting with the company's website, I broke down and called the tech support.

After another hour on the phone with some guy who could barely speak English, and was annoyed at ME for not understanding him, he calmly said,
"Well, ma'am, it seems as though the drive is no longer working. You can contact our data recovery company. After that, contact our waranty department to find out about a replacement."

And that's it.

I called the data recovery people. STARTING at $700. Going up to $3500. May or may not actually retirieve any of your data.

*deep breath*


*shake it off. it's ok*


So, my almost youngest brother has a friend who works for Geek Squad. He offered to use their technology (at no cost) and see if he can save any of my files.




We find out tomorrow night (hopefully).




And I am beside myself with anxiety when I think about it.

If I don't think about it, I'm ok. But when I do, I almost need a paper sack to breath into.

Not only the fact of how many HOURS of work will be GONE FOREVER..... but also the fact that some of my favorite pictures, that I can not re-create, will be gone forever.

And it's ALL because I thought I'd be smart and back up my files. All because I didn't want to suffer through losing them if a hard drive failed.


See, I told you irony isn't funny.

It's "Speed Scrap"

So, the truth of the matter is that I barely slept at all last night. And no nap time today. And I was pretty stressed out so I wasn't going to play. But then, I saw the freebie.

I'm such a sucker for good freebies.

It doesn't help that I played last week not knowing I was playing for a very girly mini-kit that I will likely NEVER get to use. So, I was a little bitter about that......

Anyway, here's the page from this week's, very difficult, I'm tired and should be in bed, but worth the freebie, speed scrap:

Heck, yeah-- it's a two-page LO! I'm just awesome like that :P

Credits:

"Little Boy Blue" by GG Digi-Designs

"Lil Brudder" by Britt-ish Designs (staple)

____

And just now, it struck me-- have I already done a page of these pictures? Oh heavens, I hope not! But, honestly, with the day we've had... it wouldn't surprise me. At.all.

Good NIGHT!

I should do more brag books

Because I could get used to feeling this productive.

Check out what I did in a mere two hour quiet time:








All above are courtesy of Britt-ish Designs "Lil Brudder Brag Book". The next two are altered for size to fit in the brag book.





So maybe I'll finish it before her bday on Saturday.

I'm fresh out of titles.

Check it out.
It went well. :)

Credits:
"Leave the World Behind" and "Happy Little Bluebird" by Britt-ish Designs
"Refresh" alpha from Scrapmatters
"Express Yourself" (laugh everyday stamp) from Shabby Princess
Racketty Scrappety Template 54

Splash
Right Side I did the first one (Splash) for the speed scrap last night. I wasn't totally happy with it, so I made some changes and this is how I like it. :) And I also used it for a challenge at Snap and Scrap. They are giving away a really cute circus kit for participating this month, so I want to get it! Anyway, I did the right side while the boys were at swim lessons tonight (irony?) and The Baby was napping. I should have been reading Twilight, but I wasn't.

Credits: "Leave the World Behind" and "Tabby Dates" by Britt-ish Designs
"Happy" and "Just Words Stickers" by Mari Koegelenberg
"Walking on Sunshine" by Veronica Hurley
"Flutter By Me Freebie" by Brianna Cox