National Scrapbook Weekend

I hope you are planning on enjoying the huge list of activities that are being made available all over the web for NSD. Bouquet of Pixels is just one of the awesome places where you can find fun, games, quick pages and freebies.

On that note, I am hosting my very first speed scrap on Friday 4/31 at 12 Noon Central Time. There is both a participation prize which will be available to everyone who submits a layout in the gallery and an overall “Best Layout” prize. You can find the chatroom HERE and the NSD Forum HERE.

Participation Prize

Grand Prize

To celebrate NSD, the Creative Team at Bouquet of Pixels is hosting a blog hop. There is a twist to this blog hop. When you visit each creative team member's blog, you will collect words along the way. At the end of the blog hop, you will email Tzigane with the phrase and your name will be entered in a drawing to win Sunset Funk, a kit by Inkin Creations.

I get to start that particular blog train so here is the beginning of the train:

In friendship's fragrant garden,

To find the next part, hop over to Jewel’s Blog http://bothmadandgenius.blogspot.com/

On a final note, the Bouquet of Pixels store is holding a scavenger hunt today to pick up pieces of the kit “Nature’s Beauty”. Here is a freebie Brag Book Page (I know everyone likes freebies and there will be LOTS this weekend) for you from that kit.

http://www.4shared.com/file/102739378/30700034/BOP_BB_TM_Natures_Beauty.html

I hope you have an awesome weekend and come away with not only new products and challenges but inspiration to do what we collect this stuff for – to record your memories.

New Construction

So what do you think of the new look? It took a lot of research to get the secrets behind a three column blog and in the end I found an awesome blog that had the tricks and easy-ish answers. http://www.threecolumnblogger.com/2008/09/three-column-minima-layout-version.html

I am personally tired of spring and am looking forward to the days of BBQ's, beach parties, graduation and weekend outdoor fun. Don't get me wrong, I live in Texas so it isn't like I am dealing with the yucky, cold, white stuff that some of my fellow bloggers are dealing with but I am so over pastels and flowers. This is the reason that I used such a summer kit. It is called Summertime Grill by Creations by Rachel and you can find it here at Pretty Scrappy. Here is the preview for the entire kit. As you can see, you can use it for all kinds of things.

My other choice is to use her Juicy Pop kit - which I might in a few weeks when I get ready for another change. I think I have WAY too much time on my hands. Unfortunately it is more like I can't sleep at night and I hate doing housework. Here is the preview of Juicy Pop if you want to get it for your own. Here is the kit at Pretty Scrappy.

I absolutely love all the doodles in this kit and since I want to do a bunch of buttons, this will be a great kit to learn with.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you like the new look.

National Scrapbook Day Events

I am hosting my very first Speed Scrap on Friday May 1st. Won't you join me and the other team members over at Bouquet of Pixels for the fun???

The Paper Iris Template Bonanza

Are you looking for some awesome, easy to use templates? I found a newish site where Leslie, the brain behind The Paper Iris, is giving away a new template every day for 75 days. She also has a store where she is selling the "Helter Skelter" template album which contains 12 - 2 page templates for $12.99. Here are a few of the templates she is giving away.

You can get these and others at her website HERE

Pretty Scrappy Speed Scrap

Kelly is hosting a Speed Scrap on Saturday. I'm gonna be there, are you?

Rain Rain Quick Page

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time you know how very much I love being on Creative Teams, how much they inspire me to get layout after layout done and how many talented and gifted designers I am lucky enough to work with. Last night, I sat down and decided to play around with a few of Julie's kits and am pleased with the outcome of my labors. Julie Marie Designs are available at Digital Candy and Enchanted Scraps.

I used her Cottage Rose Kit to work on some more of the pictures I have of mom and I when I was little and they worked so well for this. This kit would also be really nice for Mother's Day this year.

Here is what it looks like (see why I loved using it)





I also used it to finish a page I have been dying to make. This is three generations of weddings in my family. My Oma and Opa who are my mother's parents, my mom and dad, then Wayne and I. I am not exactly sure of the year my grandparent's were married but mom and dad were 1968 and Wayne and I were 2003. Notice the change in styles lol.



This is a picture that Wayne took last weekend while we were having our downpour of rain. We ended up measuring 10 inches in the bottom of a cooler that I had left open on accident. Ben enjoyed himself street surfing but I was worried that our poor fish would be washed out of the pond. As you can see, it got a bit full.

Credits: Rain Rain by Julie Marie Designs available HERE

Because I loved how this page turned out so much I decided to give it away as a quickpage. I hope you can find some use for it as well.

Please leave a comment either here or on 4shared, everyone wants to know they are appreciated.

DOWNLOAD

Layouts

I have been having fun making layouts and catching up on some of the back pages that I have. Here are the latest.

Last weekend we had 10 inches of rain and the street in front of the house filled up past the sidewalk. There was a car down the street that was on the verge of getting flooded so I decided to pull out the trusty camera. Ben decided to grab his skim board and enjoy the weather.

I was able to use another one of my CT kits from Bouquet of Pixels called April Showers. It is the May Collaboration kit and I loved it for this page.

Credits: April Showers, Collaboration Kit by Bouquet of Pixels

I know that it is wierd to scrap Christmas in April but I tend to scrap what interests me. I also pull out random Creative Team kits to see what I can come up with on a whim. This is one of the CT kits from Late Night Scraps called Christmas Cookie.

Credits: Christmas Cookie by Late Night Scraps; Cookie Alpha by Hummie

And finally I am able to use some of the kits I bought ages ago to scrap some of the much older pictures I have on my hard drive.

Credits: Harvest by Calalilly

Easter

I know I am almost a week behind in posting my Easter pictures but life seemed to have gotten away from me this week. We went out to mom and dad’s house in Cat Springs after church and spent the entire day in the GORGEOUS weather. The morning started out rainy and wet, the start of second service was even heralded with thunder and a downpour of about 2 inches of rain. We were sure that the Easter Bunny was not going to be able to put in an appearance and we would have to hold an inside hunt. Lunch was potluck (per usual) and really yummy. Mom cooked brisket and the rest of us brought a side dish of some sort. As we were getting lunch ready the ground dried up and it actually got hot. By 2pm the bunny had come and the kids were dying to get outside.


Since the kids younger than mine are only 3 - 9 years old, the bunny had to be pretty obvious about his hiding spots. (The garden is in the fence due to all of the deer that try to snack on the tomato plants).


Uncle Wayne got the sizeable chore of keeping the kids in the house until everything was ready. Just before they were ready to go everything had to come to a halt since Papa's camera ran out of batteries. I thought the kids would go crazy from the extended wait. Finally they were given the green light and were out the door with a shot.




Aunt Jo was helping Grant ensure that none of the eggs were left in the yard.



After Rachel and I emptied her eggs she needed to collect a bag to keep them in. I was amazed at the amount of "loot" they all collected.




Since it was so beautiful out we spent the remainder of the day outside on the porch. Mom and dad got to play with all of the grandbabies in between their playing on the swing set, riding the lawnmower and blowing bubbles.




(Shelby is the newest of the grandbabies, she is 5 months old now)

I have no idea how he managed this but dad actually fell asleep on the porch while the rest of us were talking loudly around him.

The rest of the sisters left around 5pm to put the kiddos down for a short nap (or an early bedtime) and Wayne, Ben and I stayed around to talk, help clean up, and finally left around 8pm. All in all it was an Awesome Easter Sunday and as was repeated and proclaimed "HE IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!"

Precious Petals Freebie

Before I get to my stress relief of scrapbooking, I have a quick update on the drama of being a parent for anyone who actually has read, or cared about my extra grey hairs (and yes, I have read the comments and APPRECIATE them). Josh decided to stay with his girlfriend's mom until Sunday night when Liz had to go back to school. He claimed that becuase I didn't call him, he didn't know what time church was in the morning so he decided not to go. The last 7 years the sunrise service has been at 7am - same time, same place. That was hard to remember I am sure. Anyway, we are working on being able to speak civily to each other at the moment.

Ok - on to why you are here!! Scrappy Shannon released another new kit!!! And again it is adorable. All pinks and greens with fresh flowers and greenery. I love the glitters, flowers and there are so many frames it is beyond easy to use.

Here is the preview, look at all of the different pieces.

You can find the kit here at Pretty Scrappy

Here is page one that will be created from this awesome kit.

And I created a freebie for you as well.

You can download this quickpage HERE.

Please leave me a comment to let me know what you like, what you are looking for and if I am on the right track.

Teen Drama Update

Josh came over twice on Thursday and it was so weird having him ring the doorbell like a regular visitor. He had called around 4 telling me that he wanted to talk but didn’t want to talk to Wayne because he was SURE that Wayne was going to tell him that since he messed up again he was cut off completely. It is really hard to have a conversation with someone who is already so sure of the outcome. I really didn’t think that he was going to show up to talk at all so I was pleasantly surprised that he not only showed up but was willing to listen. He stopped by before dinner at his girlfriend’s house to talk for a little bit but I told him that nothing was going to be solved because dad wasn’t home. He wasn’t happy but I really didn’t care. When he showed up after 8:30 I didn’t really have anything left to say to him so I sat and listened to what he and Wayne talked about. Basically Josh likes the freedom of doing what he wants but misses his family, stability and even some of the rules. Unfortunately, his girlfriend had already arranged for him to stay with her this weekend so instead of deciding to behave and come home, he is staying with her. I told him to bring the house key over Friday morning since he wasn’t coming home – which he didn’t! As a matter of fact, he hasn’t contacted me since then. I have gotten a few texts from Liz but nothing from Josh. I am thinking at this point that I have nothing else to say to him and he can bring me the key and make his own way in the world, especially since I just got a $700 hospital bill for his stupidity and stitches when he was throwing his knife in the air and missed (see in stitches layout if you are interested).

I am NOT a happy momma!

Josh

Well I had hoped that Josh was going to come home today to discuss what was going on but instead he called and yelled at me. He and I started out the conversation alright but it quickly deteriorated. He has been so angry lately and I still don't know why. I didn't think that this was going to end up this way but what do I do? Any ideas?

Alaskan Cruise

So, those of you who have been scrapping digitally for a while, have you noticed just how fast digital scrapping is compared to traditional scrapping? In June 2007 Wayne and I went on a one week cruise to Alaska on the MS Noordam, a Holland American ship. We had so much fun and I haven't even tried to court how many pictures we took on this trip. That being said, I still am not finished with my book!! I have scrapped 37 pages (not bad but not done) but I am missing some pretty important pages that hadn't done because it costs quite a bit to print 8 x 10s and 5 x 7s of some of the pictures I wanted. Also, it seems like such a waste to print 4 x 6s just to cut them into smaller pictures to fit all around a layout. In January of this year I discovered digital scrapping and have done over 100 pages. Please don't think I do nothing all day, I just don't sleep lol. Of course, until this week I didn't even THINK about mixing the types of pages in my book. Now that I have started I am having a blast, AND I was lucky enough to have found two different kits that work beautifully with the existing pages I have already made.

Friendship Kit by Theo Cosgrove available at Scrapgirls

and Jitterbug Kit by Scrappy Shannon and Stacey Cossley available at Pretty Scrappy

These are the layouts I have finished so far, and I can't wait to print them at Costco this week and add them to the book. I still have some stickers from the traditional book that I know I can add to the printed pages.

Title Page - this is one of my favorite pictures of the main glacier in Glacier Bay, one of the single prettiest places we saw while on the cruise.

Credits: Friendship Kit by Theo Cosgrove

Departing Seattle

Credits: Jitterbug by Stacey Cossley and Scrappy Shannon; Template by Yin

Ports of Call:
Credits: Friendship Kit by Theo Cosgrove

Formal Fun:

Midnight Dessert Buffet:

"Silly Summer Fun" Quickpage Freebies

I have another couple of quick pages for you today, this time using Lisa Minor's kit "Silly Summer Fun". This is a really cute kit, easy to use and full of fun elements and papers. One of the other wonderful things about her kits is they are all $1.00. That's It!!! And she has some really really cute kits. You can find all of her kits at her store at http://www.scrapdebris.com/.

Layouts:

So, you may have noticed that I did layouts of my baby Josh tonight. Today he and I got into a HUGE fight and he left. I think he is going to come back but he is 18, independent and we have had so many issues lately that I'm not sure. I do know that we still love each other, I know that I am worried about him eventhough I know the kid he is staying with and trust him as much as I can trust another 18 year old, and I know that he and I said some things that were angry, ugly and just plain mean. While I told him to leave if he wasn't going to change his ways I wasn't really interested in him leaving but I had to let him go and not call him back to make sure he knew I was serious. Sometimes, I HATE being a mom. I know that God gave me this child on purpose, usually to remind me how much garbage I gave my parents, but the instruction book isn't specific on what do to now.

Ben came in after Josh left to check on me. I told him that it wasn't necessary and he informed me that Josh had given him specific instructions to make sure I was ok because he had been a - well let's just say he knew he had messed up. Ben wasn't sure how to deal with it all. He really doesn't like the fighting, is conflicted about Josh leaving and hates to see me cry. It was emotional.

Ok, now that I have bored you to tears, here are the quickpages. I put both pages in the same zip file and you can get them here.