Are you ready for tomorrow?

Tuesday September 4th is the first day of 52 days of happiness I made my cover page this morning - I was up and awake too early today!

Of course there's Prisma Glitter on it - anything I do is never finished until is has glitter all over it!

See you tomorrow.

SHOW ME.....YOURS

Oh Me Oh My!

I am SOOO excited - I am in the middle of mindless blog surfing (which are, of course, all scrapbook blogs) and I happen upon one which lists our 52 days of happiness challenge! You can see Allisons blog Stampin' When I Can here.

It's coming - my head is buzzing!

Edited August 28th
It's going to be BIG - but it's going to be small. It's something I'm hoping new & old can have fun with - for just a few moments a day! Any ideas yet?
(in case you haven't noticed I am trying to tease you - but it's not working is it??)
Two more days and I'll tell all - promise.
Edited August 30th
It is going to be an altered pack of cards (I'm thinking this is what you guessed Jenn) That's why there's a 52 in the picture above. 52 cards - 52 days - that makes it a BIG project. A deck of cards makes it a pretty small piece of art (everyday!). I'm thinking this is something old scrappers needing something different will love it, I'm thinking new scrappers will enjoy the smaller canvas.
It's going to be called "Reasons to be Cheerful" and yep, you guessed it, everyday you have to scrap a reason to be cheerful on an altered playing card. Even if one day the only reason to be cheerful is because the sky is blue - or the phone didn't ring - or the baby didn't puke!

I bought my deck of cards at the dollar store last week. I think a 2" binder ring should be man enough to hold all the cards together - and tied up with the (optional) ribbon. This is an ideal time to use paper scraps we've been saving - this does not need to be a colour co ordinating exercise - it's about realising how much we have to be happy about!

I'm using a joker to make the front & back covers in advance. That gives me 52 full days of fun.

We start on Tuesday September 4th. Any ideas why?

Are you with me - or am I doing it alone?

I don't want to be the only one posting a card every day - so I want yours too!

EDITED AGAIN August 30th
I've nearly finished Jenns challenge - anyone else. Send it to me to post!

EDITED EVEN MORE TO SAY:-
Stamp club is next week Friday September 7th at fionas - did everyone get the email?

Just received Tammi's 7 things July Challenge layout - check it out down there with all the others!
You guys are so great at this!

Pausing... for a brief commercial break

Brought to you by Jennifer Gibson.

This is coming to you a little late, and I am feeling rather guilty about it.

I was honored with the task of posting a challenge on July 30th, and as usual, life got in the way.


So without further adieu, here is another installment in the "All About Me" series of challenges.

This one is going to get you digging into your past. What do you remember most from your childhood?

Is it...

-cabbage patch kids
-leg warmers
-puffy, smelly stickers
-Atari
-birthday parties at Mc Donalds

Or maybe it's...

-wearing lots of "plaid"
-loving the Brady Bunch
-Bazooka or Bubble Yum
-having to get off the couch to change the TV channel
-The Love Boat

You know your a child of the 70's/80's when...

Show Me

Here's Karen's:

View it on Two Peas too

Friday morning was wet & stormy - remember? So after watching Franny's Feet on TV Georgina wanted to make a treasure box just like Franny. This is what we cam up with:



This one's a bit more finished - she is older and has more staying power! Totally Georgina's idea to make it look like a present with the ribbon on top.

Spencer is so comfortable with all the tools and cam up with this colour combo (green is his favourite EVER colour)




He TOTALLY wanted to put the snakeskin paper on the bottom of his box!


My turn to show and tell now: This is the 10 from 1 card collection in the upcoming August workshops




























I used the Floral Tapestry paper pack from CTMH and lots of Prisma Glitter - as you can see I'm not big on extra embellishments (buttons, ribbons etc - I'll get there eventually!)

I know I said Monday - hey, maybe Friday is the new Monday!!!

I have had many ideas for the next challenge floating around in my tired out brain but none of them really gripped me - you know? Then Jenn was here yesterday and we had a brief chat about the challenges and that got me bouncing all over the place. One thing she did mention was getting someone else to post a challenge.

Famous last words JENN. You will be the challenger for the week I am away. I'll set you up and you can post on Monday July 3oth!

Anyhow, this is where I was thinking, while lounging by the pool yesterday afternoon.
I only just noticed, I only just realised how much I had missed conversations with Spencer. (I know I'm a rotten parent!) We talk about the funniest things while we're out running errands in the van or just hanging out just he & me.
I noticed because these last few days we've been back to almost normal, no visitor and Georgina out at camp it's been regular he and me days again. And he's started chatting again - (because there's no competition for my attention & ears now).

Yesterday while were in the van on our way to his hair appointment he made up a quiz - and I had to answer his questions on how things were made or worked. He would tell me if I was correct or not with the answers!
It reminded me of the many conversations we had about how Spencer used to work at Zeprent (?) where he used to be a train driver when he was bigger.
I need to scrapbook that before it gets lost in the cobwebs of my mind.

GET TO THE POINT!! I hear you cry. Sooo, here's the challenge:

STOP! Listen to your kids today. Hear what they are saying. Create a page about something they said, or a conversation they had, with someone today.

SHOW ME

This is a tri-fold/triangle card I made last weekend - and took it to the stamp club meet on Tuesday night. I think everyone enjoyed making it. I love any chance to use the watercolour pencils and prisma glitter (don't think you can see the glitter in the photo - but I used it to add some sparkle to the fairy and to highlight the fairy dust around "
for you"







Check out the July Challenge post - I've had layouts from Kari and Jenn which have now been added.
I guess I'll have to get another one posted on MONDAY.

Wednesday night was scrap night - and Georgina joined in the fun. She had been wanting to do a 7 things about me layout - just like her Mama - and then ran out of room on her 9x9 layout size! She's very happy with what she produced though - and honestly I had very little to do with it! (she wouldn't let me!)
And I love this! I love the picture of her and the colours she chose and all the sparkly elements - she did a good job - didn't she!

JULY CHALLENGE #1

Saturday's date is 07.0.7.07. That got me thinking.....

What if I was to give you a list of 7 things with which to build a page
Photos; Patterned Paper; Journalling; Cardstock; Brads; Techniques; Stamps and then said you had to use only one of one item, two of another, three of another and so on until you for to seven of the last item in your list?
What if that page was then about you? and how about that page had to be SEVEN things about YOU, right now, today?
Here's the one I made yesterday. My list goes like this:
1 photo; 2 stamps; 3 techniques (sponging, inking, scissor distressing); 4 patterned papers; 5 pieces of cardstock; 6 brads; 7 things about me (journalling)!

I guess we could make it really fun and make that page at 7am on July 7th, 2007 - but I can't imagine there's anyone up for being here at 7am!

SHOW ME

EDITED 08/07/07 TO ADD: Kari's the first one in with a layout for this challenge

Excellent job with the hand drawn doodles and the colouring Miss K!


EDITED JULY 14th TO ADD: Jenn has been working away and as usual amazes me!

Here's how Jenn used the supply list:- 1 photo, 2 pattern pages, 3 techniques (inking, sanding, cutting -circle), 4 cardstock papers, 5 brads, 6 stamps, 7 journalling.

Here's Tammi's reply to the challenge - WOW - great job Tammi! Here's Tammi's supply list:-
1 photo, 2 letters, 3 cardstock, 4 techniques (stamping, inking, scissor distressing, and sandpapering—I actually had to use a nail file as I couldn’t find any sandpaper), 5 stamps (the ‘A’ , ‘L’, ‘B’, ‘E’ and ‘C’ in 5 of my sentences), 6 embellishments (5 beads? and 1 flower), 7 Journalling.

Notebook

I'm not the most prolific scrapbooker (or blogger for that matter) butI am a hoarder and a keeper of MANY scraps & pieces of paper & memorabilia BUT all these reminders of days past accumulate around the house - ending up nowhere - collecting dust!
Then with a little bit of (more) inspiration from The Big Picture I came up with this solution.



A place for all of us (KAGS) to keep all our notes, scraps, tickets and tags.
I did consider making monthly pockets - but as it's already July - and my sense of order says you can't start a monthly book in July - I have tabbed sections for each of us individually, a section for "home" and one for the garden (I'm thinking it's a place I can keep plant tags safe for next year).

Now, I won't have all my bits & pieces in a million places - I'll have a million pieces in one place!

I'm thinking this could also work for a pregnancy journal, a wedding planning book, a travel journal - I could be making a stack of these!

Watch for the July newsletter - there are some workshop dates on there to come make one with me!

When we all begin to scrapbook I believe we all do the same thing, making pages about the places we've been, the people we've visited, the things we've done.

It's very easy to get caught up in organising the photos and scrappin chronologically so that every thing runs smoothly and to a greater plan.
But, we're never going to get caught up and therefore we're always going to carry the guilt, we get stuck on creating the baby's first year - for a child that's already 5 (or 10!) Meanwhile we're missing out on the memories of NOW.
If we're always tied up in knots about the the things that happened last year how can we ever be really free to just create with what inspires us today?
Sure, the places, the visits, the achievements, that's proof that we're here, we've lived and we've taken the kids to all the right places, but what about all the other things in between, the stuff that really matters, the stuff that will be remembered?

* weekend breakfast rituals
* just woken up faces
* books & favourite toys
* a certain brand you always buy
* things they say
* how someone always sits or stands

It IS the LITTLE things that are the BIG things.

As some of you may know - or have noticed - I haven't actually scrap booked in MONTHS - I've spent most of my time creating other stuff (I should probably call it art - but I'm not copmfortable with that!!)
REcently, I've been getting the "tingle" and desire to sit and scrapbook has been growing. Two things got me there.
1. I've finally got my head around Cherish (the book from Close To My Heart) and all it's ugly (to me) illustrations and now I LOVE IT! Just like CTMH says in their tag line this book really does make scrapbooking Faster, Simpler, Easier.
2. The Big Picture - I've been buying Simple Scrapbooks (the magazine) a while now and am loving Stacy Julians philosophy - I ordered her book The Big Picture (that everyone describes as inspiring and/or life changing!) within a few pages I was inspired and motivated to get down to that new room of mine and create away!


Both pages started out from Cherish, the quad bike one uses CTMH paper pack Best Friends Forever and the mail box one uses paper from Sandylion's Kelly Panacci line.
I just need a title to fill that top left corner.



See the white stamped ink? That's the new White Daisy stamp pad from CTMH - it's sooo much better than the original and I love that too! It's also the first time I've stamped on a photograph.


And I feel great about scrapbooking out of chronological order and just working on something that jumps out at me. I'm free!

June Challenge I

Here it is - this thing has been swimming around in my head for two weeks now and has developed and grown into the first ever challenge on Paper, Trimmer Scrap!

We're going to start off by getting personal. This one's about you. I'm not going to ask you to revel your innermost secrets - so don't start to panic!

I'm going to ask you to document a day in you life. Take your camera everywhere show me what you see.

*What's the first thing you do in the morning? Put on your glasses? Make coffee? Go for a walk?
Breakfast - do you participate?
*Take your camera to work - and while it may not be possible (or ethical) to photograph your colleagues you can show me what you see. On your desk - do you have your own coffee mug - are you a neat pile of work kind of girl - or do you like to spread?
Are you a list maker? Do you have a day timer?
How do you end your day? What makes your day?
What can't you live without?
This page is about you - the world from your eyes.
These are not questions you have to answer with your photographs and subsequent layout - merely the springboard to get you thinking and composing.

Show Me

This challenge will run until June 23rd. Layouts can be any size (6x6, 9x9, 8x11, 12x12 or 12x15) any number of photos can be used.



EDITING ON JUNE 24 TO ADD
Jenn G has risen to the challenge and completed the project. Any one else? I can't goad to much - as I haven't yet completed this challenge myself! (Ooops!) Well done to Jenn for doing this and in a style that's outside her scrapping box! I love it!

EDITED JULY 5th Here's what's kept Kari so quiet - not a day in the life of - a whole month - and a month that shows the change in career. Well done to you Kari and thanks for sharing!

Getting there.....

But while I am I just found this - a site that gives colour combinations for all the CTMH colours! I just like having fun playing with all the colours - keeps me amused for ages! Try it here. I will also add it to the side bar for future use.