37 and counting

Thought I'd share this layout. I found some time on my 37th birthday to reflect and design. I'm so glad my mother kept all those photos from when I was little. Came in handy here. I used: Kaleidoscope Sisters Solid/Lime papers Scenic Route Charlotte Scrap Strip #1 paper Scrap-eze Custom Cutz Flowers Junkitz Expressionz Rub-ons Bazzill Wings Really Big Brads - White 3/8” Scrap-eze Ribbon - Lemonade Basic Grey Lollipop Shoppe Monograms Basic Grey Undressed Chipboard Monograms

I want this book but can't find it. Anyone? Ideas for Decoration by Marthe Seguin-Fontes, Robert Seguin January 1977, Book, Illustrated

Moving forward

Been a few days... Easter was terrific. Took my son to Six Flags. We had a great time. Got back around 6 pm and still had time to enjoy the perfect day and when to the park to play some football and basketball. My 5 days off were wonderful! Now it's raining and the 10-day forecast shows the same for well, 10 days. My submitting for design teams and publishing is paying off. I submitted for these calls this past week: Frances Meyer DT Cards Magazine Sept/Oct call BH&G Scrapbooks Etc. Page Call for Christmas Simple Scrapbooks - Virtual Page (digital sb'ing) Scrapbook Answers magazine Make A Wish call So far, I've been notified that I'm a finalist for the Frances Meyer DT. I'll have to design a couple of things for the next round. I should know on May 5th if I've done it! Fingers crossed! Have to be at the local scrapbook store I'm teaching at for Customer Appreciation Day today, so I'm off to make some tags to hand out about my next class. Have a good one people!

Cards cards cards.

The April Kit available on EBB Creations included some really great papers including some Wild Asparagus (a.k.a. WA). I created a Thinking of You card. It turned out pretty I think. What do you think? I used Wild Asparagus All Boy Stripe/Orange papers, Bazzill Wings Really Big Brads , Scrap-eze Ribbon, Diecut alphas - Accucut, Sharpie marker (for the faux stitching), Duck adhesive Now, to whom do I send this?

Looking forward to taking the next 5 days off. Yippee! We laid off a bunch of people at work this past week so there is a lot of weirdness and uncomfortable conversations around the halls. I'm grateful for my job but am really looking forward to getting out of there for a few days. So what am I going to do with my time off? Well, the answer is both good and bad. I'm going to scrapbook. Good because I want to and am excited about having all that time to do it! Bad because I think it's supposed to be sunny and pleasantly warm outside and I really think I should be out there doing something like gardening or whatever. Maybe I can scrapbook outside! That actually sounds like a nice idea. We'll see. Hoping to scrap some layouts for myself this weekend - not for any design team or scrapbook store. I'll post what I come up with! Have a great weekend everyone.

I've decided to start entering more contests and submitting more pages for publishing. I do struggle with the thought of how much time it will actually take. As long as I keep my priorities in order, I think I'll manage to stay guilt-free... 1. Keep my son engaged with fun and educational things and experiences, play play play 2. Spend time with my new man a couple of times a week 3. Keep the house straightened up half the time, look past the dust! 4. Hire someone to do the heavy yard work and just do the mowing myself, maybe plant some flowers So, my first entry will be... Scrapbook Trends August 2006 Magazine Call Due April 15th Will work on it tonight.

Woohoo! Steelers will be in Atlanta on October 22nd. I hope hope hope I can get tickets. I haven't seen the Steelers play in person since the very late 80's when they had Rod Woodson and Slash playing. If I can't get to Hotlanta, I'll shoot for Cinci. I have to see my Steelers play this year somewhere!

We're waiting on tornados to come on through. Schools closed at 1:00 and work closed at Noon today. Of course the weather was absolutely beautiful and sunny and warm all day til the sun went down. Now, it's just a waiting game til they say, 4:00 in the morning. Great. Oh well. We got out of work and school and had a great day playing football and just hanging out. I should scrap something while I'm waiting. I got the most wonderful photos outside today too. Can't wait to see how great they look printed out and/or enlarged to 8x10.

Oh! I forgot! Woohoo! I've been published. This layout, entitled "Precious", was published in the most recent issue of Paper Arts magazine. It was a whole page, focusing on the journaling aspect of this page. It was originally created for a challenge on EBBCreations.com. Yay for me!

Somehow I'm going to do it. I'm going to end up in the scrapbooking biz somehow. I can feel it. Sure, I'm in a fantastic position right now. My job is great, my family life is awesome, my love life is just wonderful. But that creative bug needs fed. Do I finish that book I've been working on? Do I create digital scrapbooking elements? Do I teach classes? Open a store? Design product? Lots to think about. Still, somehow I know that in the next few years, something is going to change in my life that takes me down a whole other road in my career. How exciting!

Yes. Seriously. I scrapbook. What's the big deal? "Why is that so funny to you?" I ask. In fact, I LOVE to scrapbook. I love paper and pens and markers. I love paper cutters and stickers and fibers and ribbon. I love taking photos and going to crops and conventions and designing layouts til 3:00 a.m. And mostly I love that my child will have something to remember all those special childhood moments, and a few things about me as a person, too. So here I am. I'm coming out. I'm a scrapbooker and I'm proud. Stay tuned for lotsa scrapbooking chatter and tidbits. It's really for me because I do realize this will probably be of no interest to anyone but myself but whatever. If you don't like it... change the channel! :-)

Scrapbooker of The Year Hmmmmm. Debating on entering this. Check it out. It's 20 layouts. I can do that. I have this weird obsession though with wanting to IMMEDIATELY post my layouts to a scrapbooking forum and well, you can't do that with the layouts used to enter the contest. Not that I'd even win or anything but boy, it would be fun if I did.