"The" email...

I was thrilled to open my email last Friday night and find this:

Hi Amy!

Thank you for submitting your work to
our recent “easy and fast” page call. We would like to use your
project.

Congratulations! And thanks for being a friend of
CK!

Liesl Russell . Project Coordinator . Creating Keepsakes

One of my double page layouts will be in the upcoming "Easier than Ever 2" special issue. It won't be out until Spring, but when it is printed, I will be sure to share it with everyone!

46 Layouts (59 pages) & 12 invitations for October!

I know I have a day left in October, but there will no time for scrapping on Halloween. I finished the Layout A Day "Croptoberfest" challenge at Personal Scrapper with 46 layouts (a total of 59 12"x12" pages) and 12 birthday party invitations. Yay me!

5 layouts that I finished wouldn't upload correctly and it's getting to late to fool with them, so I'll get them posted later. I do have several to share though...

Every time I'd sort through my paper crate, I'd see the free 8x8 pack of We R Memory Maker's paper that I got free with purchase a while back. I decided to pull it out and work with it. It took a while to piece the 8x8 papers to get them to work on my 2-page 12x12 LO, but in the end, I scrapped pics from 2006 that are now ready to go in an album. The scallops bordering the page were inspired by a LO I saw in Scrapbook Trends.

I made it to Archiver's last weekend and was thrilled to find a 12x12 pack of Fancy Pants felt shapes for 1/2 price. I knew I could use them at that price! I couldn't wait to use them with the Cosmo Cricket papers I'd picked up to use with the boys' Camp Invention photos (thanks for the idea, Debbie!). I now have all of their pics from that week ready to go into albums.

Here's one for Blake's album. He was so proud of that rocket!
This one is for Kevin...

Kevin had so many inventions, I had to make a 3rd page!

This page for Blake's album describes their mismatched clothes day and crazy hat day...

Who could forget crazy hair day?!?

This one is for Kevin's album...

I have so many ideas for more LOs, but no time to make them!

Croptoberfest mid-month update

It's the 22nd of October and I have already met my goal for 31 layouts this month for Personal Scrapper's Croptoberfest. As of last night, I'm up to 34 layouts. If you factor in double page layouts, I've actually completed 43 pages so far. I am still going to try to complete a layout a day just to see how many I can do this month. (Yes, I'm an overachiever!)

I actually completed this layout on the 9th. It would have been Mamma & Pappa's anniversary, so I planned to make a layout with one of their old photos. Instead I came across this photo of Grandma Smith and decided to scrap it. I was able to copy the photo the photo that my aunt Missy had. I pulled out my September Project kit from Scarlet Lime and used it with this photo. Although the project kit was Halloween-themed, everything on this layout except for the cardstock and alphabet stickers were in the kit. I traced another scalloped circle and hand cut this one so I would have the color I needed. This is one of my favorite pages.

On the 11th, Erica gave us a challenge to use scallops on our page. I used my new Marvy Uchida scalloped circle punch on "Tricked out!" I saw a layout by Shannon Zickel in Scrapbooks Etc. that had bats on a white background. I think she had used stickers, but I was reminded of some Heidi Swapp foam stamps (with bats) that I had gotten on clearance cheap earlier this year. Most everything else for this page was from the September Scarlet Lime Project Kit - that's where the glitter for the chipboard star came from!On the 12th, we were busy partying with family to celebrate Blake's birthday, but after everyone left, I found time to make one page. Kevin received a skateboard for his birthday LAST NOVEMBER and I was until this month finally getting pics of him on it. He plays with it all the time, but I just never seem to have my camera handy. I used scraps from the April Personal Scrapper kit to make this LO along with some other Fancy Pants products I had picked up at Archiver's.I stayed up late on Blake's birthday after everyone went to bed (I couldn't sleep!) and finished three layouts. They knocked out a couple of the October challenges from Leah at Personal Scrapper and all three used the new October kit, too.

"Shelling Corn" highlighted a fall tradition - the boys harvesting with Dad."Backseat Entertainment" mainly used up some scraps with a couple pictures that matched. The boys love using the new DVD player on roadtrips. (Here we were going to Evansville for Tom's birthday.) I loved that my new $1 set of Studio G wood mount alpha stamps matched the font in my Scenic Route stickers perfectly. Leah had a challenge to scrap your fall favorites. I pulled together pics from our trip to a pumpkin farm and also one of our fall display in our yard. Used scraps from the kit (made my own 'tags') and an assortment of alphabet tickers. On the 14th, I finished off Leah's final challenge for October. It was to create a month in review LO for September. Instead of using pictures, I decided to just list the highlights. Photos from everything will have their own pages at some point. I used the last little bit of the kit for this one. I also got back to work on our Florida vacation album. These are some pics from our last day there while we played in the pool after the rain finally stopped.

Erica challenged us to pull out an old PS kit for a LO. I found the July 2005 kit with scraps and was able to match up pics from Tom's birthday in '05 with it. I kept the LO simple and use the papers to make embellishments. It's a finished page...The final scraps of the kit sat on my desk for 4 days (I wasn't feeling well for a few days), but I used them up on this random shot of the boys in March '06. The title reflects their ages at the time. I added some naked chipboard. Since I finished off my October kit, I decided to pull out my barely touched October kit. I found these last day of school pics from '07 to work with it and Erica's "use 4 or more pics on a page" challenge for the day Monday. It's not my favorite layout, but it's done.For a past "sports page" challenge, I finally scrapped these pics of Blake with his basketball trophy from March '06. His trophy collection has more than tripled since then!Yesterday was all about me...I had a couple pics of souvenirs I brought home from our vacation this summer. Every day I sit at the computer with "my monkey" looking over the top of my monitor at me. I found the coconut bank at a roadside fruit/souvenir stand on the way home. I fell in love with it. I actually lifted a layout by blondegrrlie/Lindsey, since Erica had issued a scraplift challenge. I was able to use an assortment of scraps for this page.

Finally, last night I scrapped my new fall favorite. I can admit now that when I worked, I had an obsession with purses. I had way too many of them and spent way to much on them. When I started staying home, it seemed like all of my personal purchases came to a halt so I could prioritize (wink, wink) and purchase scrapbook supplies. While we were in Florida this summer, we found an outlet mall. My sisters were excited to find a Coach outlet. Although the purses were pretty, I wasn't impressed. Later we came across a Lucky outlet. My sisters were thrilled to find the expensive jeans half price. I wondered around the store while they were in the fitting rooms and fell in love with the Lucky bags they had. It had nothing to do with the Lucky brand - I just LOVED the leather bags. I finally broke down and spent $70 for this (all leather) multi-colored bag. It was regular $148! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. So, I had to scrap it - right? I even scrapped the tags that came with it.

Have a great week!

10

Blake is 10 today! Where did the time go??? Happy Birthday, Boo!

Croptoberfest Part 2

This week I've stayed caught up with the LayOut A Day (LOAD) challenge at Personal Scrapper.

For day six, I completed three layouts. One was a double page LO for Kevin's album, but I'm not able to get it to upload to my blog correctly. "Be You" used a picture of Blake from this summer that I accidentally tinted purple when I was trying to make it b/w. I ended up pairing it up with purple and red papers by Sassafrass Lass and was pleased with the final LO. I painted some leftover lime green chipboard letters red to match the color scheme. "Big Pickin'" is for Kevin's album with pictures from 2006. He's really grown, hasn't he?! I used the October kit from Personal Scrapper for this one.
Last month I was so busy working on our vacation album, that I barely touched the September kit from Personal Scrapper. In the LOAD gallery, a LO by scrappinstar inspired me to pull out my kit and use it. I used a picture of Kevin at the lake this summer for "you" - it was the first of three LOs I did on the 7th.

I also used the September kit for a page about Kevin's awards day at school. "Kevin's Payday" was inspired by a LO I saw on the Prima blog by Cari Fennell.

"Connect" also used the September kit. I enjoyed scrapping about our nephews relationship with Blake.

Day 8 was a slow day...just one page, but it was a double. :) I pulled out my oldest Halloween pics, from '05, and enjoyed scrapping Kevin's pirate costume.
For the 9th, I had to keep things even, so I scrapped Blake's Halloween from that year, too.

Blake's birthday party/sleepover with friends was yesterday, so I didn't get anything completed ON day 10. I made up for it by completing two pages today though. For some reason, they are uploading turned sideways, so I'll wait to load them in next week's post. After 11 days, I'm up to 20 layouts. Woo-hoo!!!

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. We are having all the grandparents and a few aunts over for the family birthday party tomorrow night. Then Monday Blake will turn 10. Everyone told me when he was born that time would fly by. They were so right!

"Croptoberfest" (31 layout challenge)

I am participating in a challenge at Personal Scrapper. It's called Croptoberfest and the challenge is to create a layout a day or 31 total layouts for the month of October. There is a suggested challenge for most days, but you don't have to complete it for your layout to count. So far, I'm off to a good start!

On the 1st, I made a couple layouts for our vacation album, but I'm only posting my favorite. The challenge for the 1st was to use buttons. I clustered them together in the center of my chipboard sun. For Day 2, the challenge was to use circles. I used my new scalloped circle punch on both of these school layouts. We received an extra 8x10 in the boys' school portrait packages, so I quickly scrapped them. I used the new KI Memories school line for these two pages.

Day three had a paper piecing challenge. I didn't get too creative, but I did use my diecuts to shape an arrow pointing toward my title. These pics are of Blake climbing on a dirt pile on the lot behind our house last summer. The house behind us is finished and the pile is now gone. I did a second layout of the boys with my dad around his farm at Thanksgiving for Day 4. Yesterday I completed three pages for Day 5. The first layout was also entered in the Becky Fleck pagemaps contest (see previous post).

I did a layout of Tom and the boys over at his family farm, too. My favorite layout of the day was this one I did of Blake. He'll turn 10 a week from today and I wanted to do a page about how I feel about that. He'll be in double digits - he can't wait! This is my favorite layout from the week. I used the October kit from Personal Scrapper.
After five days, I'm up to 10 layouts. I like having that "cushion" with the boys home on fall break this week. Plus, next weekend we will be staying busy with all the partying we'll do for Blake's birthday!

PageMaps sketch contest

I completed this layout for a contest on the Page Maps blog. I altered the sketch a little subbing patterned papers in place of the pictures in the sketch and placed my photo where journaling was suggested. I used my new October monthly kit from Personal Scrapper to complete the page.

School Portraits

The boys came home today with their new school portraits in hand. I can't believe they are already in 4th and 1st grades. This Friday will mark the end of the first quarter already! I'm looking forward to having them home all next week for Fall Break. Blake will celebrate his 10th birthday on the 13th. Double digits...wow!