Ahhhhhhh. Surf and sand and sleeping in.

Back from the beaches of Destin, Florida. I'll tell you. Every time I visit the beach I am amazed. The water was so clear it seemed more like Caribbean waters, not the Florida panhandle. It's always clear but this time it was crystal clear. Beautiful. My son is at his dad's for most of the summer and I was sad he wasn't at the beach with me, boogie boarding and loving the water and sand. We'll make it back this year hopefully. What a relaxing long weekend! So it's back to the 'ole grind of work and everyday life. I need to get some design team work done, prepare for my alpha class and my card class, put together a 4 hour workshop for my "day job", and other daily odds and ends. The busy-ness is welcome while my son is away though. Helps to take my mind off his absence. I hope y'all had a wonderful holiday weekend, too.

Our first hospital visit

I guess I should be counting my blessings. It's his first visit to the hospital and thank heavens it was for a messed up toe and not something more serious. He was riding a skateboard in our little driveway without shoes and fell and cut his toe somehow. (He was wearing a helmet by the way. But seriously, he was going to get on the skateboard for a minute and ride slowly as he always does because he's no pro for sure. Lesson learned.) It looked awful and pretty deep but the doc thought the stitches could end up ripping out of the end of his toe and do more damage than good. Needless to say, my son was ecstatic that there were no needles involved. He cried so hard when it happened. Tears flowed non stop for atleast 10 minutes. He scared me! Then we get there and he's just the best kid. Brave. Open to whatever the doctor thinks is the best course of action. What a great kid. So no running for a while - which in itself will be torture to him. And the nurses just loved him. They even invited him into the special nurses room so he could watch Taylor Hicks take the crown! Woohoo! Long night. Phew. Glad my baby is okay.

Happy!!! Sad...

So I taught another doodle class last night - this one for 16-17 people - and every person there did a FANTASTIC job! It's always amazing to me that I have the ability to teach people something. Thanks to everyone who came to the class. I really enjoyed meeting all of you! And seriously, everyone there doodled!!! Woohoo! My next class is on June 12th at Scrapbook Mania in Bessemer, AL. I'll also be teaching a class on how to use alphas on July 8th and a quick card class on July 10th. The alpha class will cover how to use leftover rubons and stickers and diecuts so all those extra x's and z's and q's don't go to waste. During the card class, we'll be able to create 10 quick cards with patterned paper, cardstock, ribbon and a few embellies. If you'd like to sign up for either of these, just call Scrapbook Mania at 424-4246. On another note, my son is going to his dad's for SEVEN weeks starting this Saturday. I am so sad and am already missing him even though he's not gone yet. Every year it gets a little easier but it still breaks my heart to let my baby go away for that long. Ugh. I'll be fine and I'll find lots of things to do while he's gone but I'd rather have him with me. Of course, I don't tell him all that, I don't want him to feel bad about leaving his mommy or make him sad. Well, par for the course I suppose.

Cool stuff

Looking around for new fun products (as usual) I found a few things I can't wait to get my hands on. Yes, I know they aren't all brand new releases, but nonetheless. I want them. . Wild Asparagus Borders and Tabs and Wild Letters! Oooohhhh.... need them now! Anyone have these? How thick are they? Do they have adhesive on them already? Kaleidoscope Series 3 "Friends" coordinates. Yum. My favorite WA paper... Summer Days. Oldies but goodies! Prima Candies Sugar. So fun! Prima Chipboard Tins - in Spearmint. Look at those colors! Distressed Effects white rub-ons. Super duper cool. Basic Grey Wholy Cow Japanese rubons. Pretty. Chatterbox Label Maker white rubons. Neato daddy'o. And, did you see the Prima Paper Collections? I bought the Eire collection and man, the photos don't do them justice. Very rich.

Just loving this site today... The Dares

Foray into digital kit creation

I thought I'd go ahead and give it a shot. I'm pretty good with Photoshop. I'm a scrapbooker. I'm a designer. So, why not? This is my first kit. Pretty basic but has enough to put some cute pages together. It's available for download at E.B.B. Creations online store. Let me know what you think!

Doodle doodle doodle

I am so looking forward to teaching the doodling class next Monday. My biggest challenge is going to be whittling down all the things I want to teach to just 90-120 minutes. The class is now SOLD OUT! It's going to be so much fun. I'll be discussing different types of pens and markers, pigment vs. other kinds of ink, acid-free, pen widths and different uses, and of course practicing some easy doodles and ways to use your own handwriting - even if you think it looks awful. We're going to do a simple one-photo layout with various styles of doodling around the photo. I hope after the class the participants will feel less fearful of ruining their layout and more confident about adding their handwriting and personal hand-written touches to their scrapbooks.

I was looking for that...

While scrapping for NSD a couple of weekends ago, one of my Sizzix diecut alphas had mysteriously vanished . I looked all around me. To no avail. I cut another alpha. This morning before work, I noticed a little something on my doggy, Neo's chin. I am still giggling about this. THERE IS MY "R"!!!!!! I was so excited about uploading this photo to share with my scrapbooking friends that I never removed the diecut from his little beard. I'm sure it will turn up again. LOL

Rainy day.

Yucky weather today. We had a soccer game at 9:30 and it rained for about half of it. My son scored the best goal I've ever seen him score. It's so funny how he kind of just runs around the field just doing whatever and then it's like someone flips a switch in his body and ALL OF A SUDDEN he's this awesome soccer dribbling scoring machine. He was weaving in and out of people, shooting for goals, tricking people out left and right... it's like someone lit a fire under his you-know-what. Fun to watch. Hard to understand. But I love it!

Wow. I looked at some of the work of other people who made the FMDT and holy crap! These women are talented. Maybe I got in by accident! hehe JK. Have a great weekend and Mother's Day!

I did it!

I made the cut! I'm one of the newest members of the Frances Meyer Design Team! Woohoo!!!! I'm a little excited here... trying to maintain some composure. hehehe It's so validating to know people like my stuff!!!!

Signo's ROCK

I have got my paws on them. The elusive white pen. The Uniball Signo UM-153 Broad Opaque White Pen. I found them and bought two dozen. That's right. I bought TWENTY-FOUR of these babies. I doodled at every traffic light this morning in my black-papered journal. It flows like melted butter and so far, hasn't clogged. Like most pens, if you move too fast, the inkflow is thinner but any normal writing speed produces a really nice line of white pigment. Now, I suppose I'll be finding out the true shelf-life of these babies given that I have enough to last at least a few months. :-)

Mmmmmmm. Coffee.

I'm particularly enjoying my java today. In fact, I am on cup number two - one more than usual - only because it just seems so wonderful today. Even more wonderful is my nine-year-old son. He woke up, got dressed, took the dog out, got his own breakfast, put his bowl in the sink, and got his backpack all ready this morning. No stress. Heck, I didn't even have to ask him to do any of it except take the dog out, which he did right away! Time will tell if he is working up to asking for a visit to Chuck E Cheese, or maybe a R/C airplane or something else. But right now, I'm going to enjoy how incredible and responsible my child is, along with my second cup of joe.

Another from NSD

Markers are a girl's best friend.Well, maybe not every girl's but definitely mine! I created this layout, entitled "Blow", to show how doodling can take a rather plain, unexciting layout and really add that extra little bit of something without detracting from the photo or message. I used only cardstock in this layout to really keep it simple. I used Faber-Castell PITT, Zig millenium, a pink Sharpie, and white Zig Opaque markers. TFL!

I really think I inspired some people! Woohoo! I know I certainly was! The National Scrapbooking Day (NSD) events at EbbCreations.com were fantastic. One of my challenges was for people to use the doodle sheet I created to do some doodling on their layouts! I was so impressed with what everyone did! It felt so good to share what I love and to help other people create something that means a great deal to them. Sometimes I'm really surprised at how much I've grown as a scrapbooker and to now be teaching others is really fantastic. Now I'm really looking forward to my doodling class on May 22nd at the local store! As a matter of fact, here's the doodle sheet. Check it out! It's a PDF file by the way. I also had a photography challenge that went well. Great day all around! I created this card for NSD. It was a card challenge with a sketch by a talented member of the design team. I used a pack of paper and diecuts I got at Target the other day made by Colorbok. It was actually very cute stuff!