Design Your Life class and layouts

Have I told you I signed up for an online class? I did...it's called Design Your Life and it's via Big Picture Scrapbooking and is taught by Cathy Zielske. The class is a 12-week class and we do three projects a week...WOW!!! The nice thing is we get two projects on Thurs and I can do them over the weekend. Then a third comes a few days later (not sure how many...this is the first day). It's really cool, cuz there's a video and she shares design elements with us.

As you know, I'm a HUGE scrap lifter...I can lift just about anything. Some times it looks real similar and some times I just take a few elements from a few different layouts and combine them. The problem is, when I try to start from scratch, my layouts don't look very nice. So I am taking the class to try and LEARN about DESIGN so I can do my own layouts and not have to lift all the time.

OK, so here are the first two layouts from the class. The color scheme for the entire class is brown-green-red. All the layouts are based on Cathy's sketches. The 12x12 layout uses Granola alphas from Basic Grey and papers from the ACBailey May KOTM. The second layout is two-page 8-1/2 x 11 spread. It uses red CS from JoAnn's and stickers from a Disney kit I bought at Costco. I'm not quite sure why I'm into doodling, but both these layouts have doodling boxes around everything...
And I guess I should talk about the layouts...sorry. The first one I've blogged about already, it's the 2009 Alaska State Fair. The second one is the Go-Coaster at Disneyland in Jan 2009. I wrote about how Erica was really scared at first and we had to walk right thru the car the first time. But she finally gave in and eventually rode with everyone, including Grandma. The last part of the journaling talks about not letting Jeff fool ya...he doesn't like coasters and if you look closely you can see his white knuckles as he holds onto the bar.

Christmas Movie Layout Challenge

You all know how much I LOVE challenges. As soon as I read this blog post, I knew what move line I would use and what layout I would do. I played along with the "Christmas version of getting to know your friends" last week. In that email, one of the questions was "What was your favorite Christmas movie?" Mine is "A Christmas Story" and my favorite line is, "You'll shoot your eye out!"

So that's going to be the basis for my layout...and I have to have Erica take some pictures of me using my cute new S&W .38 revolver I got for Christmas...and it came with one of those red dot laser things (yes, I know what it's called...but saying "crimson trace" didn't really fit with calling it cute).

Check out the challenge and I hope it inspires you to scrap like it has me!!!

Happy Holidays...and some cute winter pix

Sorry I haven't been online much lately...it's been quite the busy holiday season for us! I guess I'll split the holidays and not only say Merry Christmas, but also Happy New Year! Be safe and enjoy the season!

I wanted to get family pictures taken, but we didn't get it coordinated in time (sorry Bryan). I still want to get them taken, though...and I think I found a good spot: Potter's Marsh in South Anchorage. We took a trip out there this weekend and brought along my new purse-sized camera to test it out and check out the scenery. Here are some cute pix of Erica (of course). I can't wait to get the new Bo Bunny winter line (the name has escaped me...Snowy something). You'll see the layout in January, I'm sure. And isn't that scarf the cutest thing? I made that for her and it seems to match her rosy cheeks perfectly :) Some of them are a bit blurry, I guess I need some more practice with this camera.

Some Christmas Cards

Well, I did it...Christmas Cards went out in the mail today. Jeff dropped them off at the Post Office for me (whew). He called and said he had a hard time finding a mail box that had enough room for them...and there were only 50. I joked and said, "Well, I guess I'm not the last one to send out cards this year...just the last one from THREE YEARS AGO." He had a good laugh over that one. But I've got news for him, one of my co-workers is working on FIFTEEN YEARS (although I think she was exaggerating a bit).

So here are some of the cards I sent out this year. I already posted the digital card...it looks better online than in person, I didn't use good paper for printing (sorry for everyone that gets one of those...I'm still learning).

This first card I *started* making three years ago. I used the Xyron Personal Cutting System to cut the letters and the ornament.

This next card is my favorite. I found it by googling "Handmade Christmas Cards." I'm sorry, I forgot what site it was on. It cracked me up when I saw it and just HAD to make some. I printed the sentiment onto cardstock, cut that out with a circle punch, doodled around the edge, put in an eyelet and small wire to make it look like an ornament (at least I HOPE it looks like an ornament). Hee, hee...I think it's cute. This one uses some We R Memory Keepers papers (I think...I can't remember for sure, sorry). The ribbon isn't tied very nice, sorry. I also made some with some bright Stampin' Up Christmas papers from a few years ago.

This card uses some We R Memory Keepers papers, a Stampin' Up! stamp and a snowflake cut from the Cricut with the Winter Woodland cartridge. I also found this idea from googling "Handmade Christmas Cards." Beautiful and easy! I also used this layout with a bright blue, red, and ivory color scheme...sounds odd, but I think it turned out great (the papers were Scenic Route).

And Erica got into some of the fun. I found this idea on a Family Fun website. These are cards for the teachers at her Day Care.

FREE SCRAPBOOK SHIPPING TODAY!!!

What a deal!!! Shop for all your scrapbooking needs at ACBailey today, get free shipping, and orders will be received by Christmas!!! Use coupon code "FREE" when you check out. No minimum order to take advantage of free shipping!!!

Here's the link

Happy Holidays!!!

Denali Road Lottery

Denali National Park (aka Mount McKinley National Park) is not open to private vehicle traffic...except the last weekend of the season. In order to get a pass, you apply for the lottery in June. Here is the link to the lottery info and some early details for 2010.

Yup, you guessed it...I was selected as a lottery winner this year. Unfortunately it was on the weekend Jeff was hunting and I didn't really want to drive all the way by myself. So I asked Nicole and her daughter Bella if they wanted to go us...we had a blast! There was morning fog that didn't lift until we got to Polychrome pass, which I'm sure prevented us from seeing alot of wild life. The really cool thing is we heard moose in the rut. We also saw a lone, lame, caribou. I joked that we should watch it for a while and we'd probably see some wolves or a bear...although I'm sure it wasn't much of a joke, which was why he was probably alone. And Erica and Bella got to know each other better...and that started a new friendship.

Anyway, here's the layout. I used Bazzill cardstock, American Crafts Thickers, and stickers from our local scrapbooking store (thank goodness for Alaskana products!!!).

Digital Christmas Cards

Well, I'm actually gonna send out Christmas cards this year...I hope. I say that because I haven't gotten them out for the past three years. I try, I really do. I just don't know why I never get them out. This year should be different...I hope. Last year I finished making cards I started the year before, but I counted them and I don't have enough. Sooooo...since I've been playing with Photo Shop, I decided to try and make some digitally. Here's what I made (the only recent pix I have of the three of us).The template is another download from Scrapbooks Etc, the papers and tag were free downloads from the Holidays in Hand class I took at jessicasprague.com, the fonts are on my computer, and the swirl is from the Playground Digital Scrapbooking CD available at ACBailey.

If you are interested in learning more about digital scrapbooking (or just in learning how to use your software) you really should check out jessicasprague.com. I've taken a few free classes and am having a blast...that Christmas card is nice, right??? See, that should be proof enough!

Thank you card set

Well, last year I made a card set for Erica's teacher. Guess what I made her teacher this year? Yup, a card set. I found an article I cut out of the Paper Crafts magazine back in 2004 and have made a few of these sets now. This one is NOT the one for Erica's teacher, but it's very similar...OK, now I need to go take a picture of it and post it, don't I? I actually need to decide on a sentiment first, so it's not quite done...

I didn't initially choose these papers for a set, but this week's ACBailey Freaky Friday Challenge is to do a layout or project using red and green. I found some old Stampin Up papers that worked pretty nicely (except the flower looks too red...I'm gonna have to change that!). The set I made for Erica's teacher uses the DCWV Grade School Stack. It's really neat, but the papers were hard to work with cuz they were heavy weight.

True Love...already???

Going away from the Monstrosity kit, going back to Erica's birthday party...this is a layout from when she was opening presents. I have to give you some background, cuz it really makes the story:

Cecile is Erica's God Mother. She and I were pregnant together...her son is about 6 weeks younger than Erica. Before we found out the sex of our kids, Jeff used to joke with Cecile that "My son will do things to your daughter..." THEN we found out we were having a girl and she was having a boy...Boy did Cecile have fun with THAT!!! She STILL has fun with turning Jeff's statement around on him!!! So Ian and Erica aren't joined at the hip, but they definitely get along together (recall the layout I did last month about Erica getting her ears pierced? She almost backed out and Ian helped her pick out earrings and helped convince her to do it...and I'll have another football story one of these days, too).

Anyway, Dustin and Cecile are raising Ian very well! He is quite a gentleman and is learning early how to treat women properly! Ian likes to buy jewelry for Cecile...and asked to buy Erica a ring for her birthday. Cecile said OK and he even picked it out. It's soooo cute!! And Erica loves it! I thought Jeff wouldn't be very happy about her getting jewelry so soon, but he was good with it.
I used a T!m Holtz mask, smooch glitter spray, and Basic Grey patterned paper from the Feb ACBailey Kit of the Month (no longer available, sorry). I can't remember where the rubons are from, but the flowers are from the Stampin' Up! Pretties Kit as well as some Primas.

Scary Coaster

Here's another layout from the Sassafras Lass Monstrosity Kit. I posted some random pictures from the Alaska State Fair a few weeks ago. These are the roller coaster pictures where you can see (up close) that Erica is not quite sure about the coaster, then she's OK with it, and finally she's having a blast and not even holding on. She really enjoyed the coasters at Disneyland, so it surprised me that she was a little scared at first...

Aren't those alphas the cutest thing?!? Some of them have little monsters in the centers. I also added a cute monster feltie to the layout.

That's how I roll

When I first saw the Sassafras Lass Monstrosity paper kit, I thought it was too wild and crazy. Then I saw some cute layouts with it, and thought about my daughter, Erica. I knew I had to use it!!! So you're going to see a few layouts in the next few days with this paper kit (by the way, it includes, (2) sheets each of (6) papers, an alpha sticker sheet, a cardstock sticker sheet, and some journaling tags). This kit is a DEAL!!!

For Erica's 6th Birthday party she had a Rollerskating Party. This kids were having such a good time that after we ate pizza, ice cream, and cake, they wanted to go skate more instead of open presents...so that's what we did. Erica opened presents later with some neighborhood kids that came to the party. So here's the layout of the actual party...Erica's face was nearly the color of her red/pink tie-dyed shirt...what a hoot!!!

Sierra - Freaky Friday Challenge

This week's Freaky Friday Challenge at ACBailey is to scrap someone or something you miss. I scrapped my favorite memory of my Granny at Christmas last year with one of the ACB challenges. I wish I could've scrapped my Grandfather this year, but I just couldn't seem to find the right inspiration to do him justice...I guess I still miss him too much.

So I picked a fairly easy subject...or so I thought. I adopted a retired racing greyhound in 1995 and had her until 2003. I have three series of pictures of her. One when I first adopted her, the second was our first Christmas together, and the third was our last Christmas. I didn't even realize that until I started posting the layout...and that's when it hit me. She was my "girly girl" and I miss her so!!!I have to to share my favorite story about her. She had her own couch, and was not allowed on "our" furniture. When we were around, she never broke those rules. However, we'd come home from work in the evenings to find our throw pillows on the floor, so we knew she was breaking the rules. To see if we were right, we set up a video camera on our mantle facing the couch. It recorded 1 or 2 seconds every 30 seconds. It showed us leaving in the morning with her at the top of the stairs watching us leave. As soon as the garage door closed (or so it seemed), she was up on the couch making herself comfy. She got up, ate (presumably), came back, and slept most of the day...on the couch. Then, as it was getting close to us coming home, she positioned herself where her head was on the arm of the couch watching down the stairs. As the garage door opened, she jumped off the couch and ran to the top of the stairs, eagerly greeting us at the door as if she had done nothing wrong. What a hoot!!!

And supplies for the page: Papers, button, and brads from the ACBailey Dec 2008 KOTM (Wassail papers from Basic Gray), alphas from Pink Paisley, journaling spot from Sweetwater, and unknown misc ribbon.

Dec Daily

Wow, another post today. I just realized I've been slacking (already) on my Dec Daily project. BUT, I got some good stuff today!!! Erica's PTA hosted a pancake breakfast with Santa...and Mrs Claus was there, too...I've never met her in person before...how cool is that?!?!? So here's a pix of Erica with Santa.She said she didn't know what she wanted for Christmas. I said, "Erica, you've been telling me ALL YEAR that you want a Nintendo DS." And she said, "Oh, yeah...I would like a DS." Santa responded, "Hmmm...those have been pretty popular, I'll have to check and see if I have any left." Have you ever heard of Santa not having enough toys??? I bet for the right child who was good ALL YEAR, he'll be able to find enough to go around (wink, wink).

Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh...and I almost forgot. I got a beautiful picture of the sun coming up behind the Chugach mountains this morning at the school. It shows up a little more red than pink and purple...I was about 2 min late in getting the perfect PINK highlights. Oh, well, this is nice anyway!

Layout/Project of the Week at ACBailey!!!

Woo Hoo...I just saw that my altered clipboard got picked for the layout (project) of the week. Check it out in lights here in the gallery. Woo Hoo.

I can't tell you how inspiring the ACBailey Design Team is...I have been picked for three layouts of the week and the Freaky Friday Challenge TWICE. The FF Challenge winners get $10 Gift Certificates...is that not cool or what?!?!? If you are not participating in their challenges, you're crazy!!!

By the way, you should check out this week's Freaky Friday Challenge...it's not only inspiring, it's therapeutic! I have completed my layout and will post it tomorrow. Remember, you can get a $10 Gift Certificate if your layout is picked!!!

Dec Daily...Dec 1

Well, I didn't get to post this yesterday so I'm a bit late, sorry. I'm going to try and keep track of my Dec Daily on my blog. I think it's going to me melded a bit with the Holidays in Hand class I took from Jessica Sprague.

So Dec 1 I was supposed to take a "Welcome to Dec" pix of everyone in the family...didn't do that. Jeff shoots in a trap league on Tues and Erica had girl scouts. So I'll do this on the weekend. But the GS meeting had a WONDERFUL thing for me to put in the Dec Daily mini album:

A friend of mine is battling breast cancer. She's a very busy, involved, and sweet woman. One of the things she's been involved with is a partnership with a local Army platoon at Ft Richardson that is deployed. She was considering letting go of her partnership due to the time and effort involved, but ended up keeping it when they reached out to her...it was a VERY touching story for me to read on Veteran's Day. Anyway, she asked her friends and family who have been following her journey to send letters, cards, care packages, etc to them as a special thank you for their support to her.

Mixed in with this timing, our GS troop has been looking for a service project. Well, when I heard this, I knew it was the perfect project for our girls. Juliette Gordon Low is the founder of Girl Scouts America. She was born on Oct 31. Oct is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Juliette Gordon Low lost her battle to breast cancer. My friend had a double mastectomy on Oct 31. Wow...it was meant to be.

Sooooo...last night was a meeting night and the girls made Christmas postcards, homemade Christmas ornaments, and brought extra goodies like a mini tree (for the ornaments), chap stick, individual drink mixes, hard candy, jerky, mini hand lotions, etc. We will be sending a BIG care package to the platoon this weekend.

What a great service project for the girls!!! And it had a good holiday foundation...so that's my Dec Daily for Dec 1. Now, I just need to figure out how to capture all that in a mini album...ugh!

HUGE Crab Legs...and Featured Layout!!!

As you have seen, I've been participating in the ACBailey Freaky Friday Challenge each Friday in the month of November. I JUST realized I haven't posted the Nov 27 layout, so here ya go. Oh, and I just got a notice from Memory Makers Magazine that this layout is featured this week online (WOO HOO!!!). Here's the link!!!

This week's challenge is to do a layout about a holiday meal or recipe (Thanksgiving or Christmas). Well, our favorite recipe is "Sweet Potato Goo" also known as Sweet Potato Casserole...not the kind with marshmallows, it has crumble on the top (ha, now you know why it's our favorite). Anyway, I made TWO casseroles this year and wouldn't you know I forgot to get pictures. But, I do have pictures of last year's Christmas (or was it Christmas Eve? I'm not sure) dinner. These crab legs were soooo big (how big were they?). They were soooo big we had to break them in half just to get them in the pot to cook. I can usually eat 4 or 5 crab legs (yes, I'm a piggy), but I think I only ate 2 of these puppies. YUM!!!


These products are from the ACBailey Nov Kit of the Month (SEI papers, misc buttons, flowers, chipboard), Pebbles Inc ribbon from the Aug Kit of the Month, and Maya Rd chipboard from the Dec 2008 Kit of the Month.

Oh, and here's a funny sweet potato goo story: I went scrapping all day on Friday and Saturday. I called Jeff to say hi and to talk to Erica. On one of the calls he says, "That goo tastes different today." I asked him if it was the goo in the left over tub or the one in the casserole dish. He confirmed it was the one in the casserole dish. I replied, "That's because that one hasn't been cooked yet." Ha...

Crop for Cancer announcements coming soon

For those of you in the Anchorage area (or close enough to come visit), Dec 15 will be the "Big Reveal" on Crop for Cancer 2010. I can tell you this much for now:

Date: Apr 10, 2010
Time: 10am - 10pm
Location: ConocoPhillips Atrium

This is an American Cancer Society Relay for Life fund raising event. Our goal this year is $30,000. We have been the top team in Anchorage for four years running, and then slipped to second in 2008 and third in 2009. I'm hoping this year we can really get some momentum going and get back into first place.