Finishing an album

My trip to France happened more than five years ago, and I'm still and I reckon I'd be working on those albums for years to come! Over NSD weekend, I did finish the cover page of one of the albums as a part of the challenge at Scrapbook Obsessions. I used Graphic45 paper, what else, huh? In keeping with the rest of the album, this page is very simple and flat, since most of the pages in that album were completed circa 2003 and 2004.

I am not posting this for the layout, but for the picture in the layout. Parce que ca fait deja cinq ans depuis j'etais en France! Que je voudrais rendre une visite a Paris avec mon mari et mes filles. Mais nous devons attendre, quand les filles sont un peu plus grandes, peut-etre dans cinq ans? On verra. Pendant les cinq ans prochains, je reverai. Un jour, je vais retourner!

Droooooooooooooooooool

I would have used that title on the layout if I had that many "o"s to spare! Just a layout I did nearly a year ago now! Boy was I prolific on maternity leave?! Nowadays I'm delighted if I can make into the "teen" counts per month on layout production. This time last year I hit a record high of 34 layouts in August! Sigh... maternity leave, how I miss the "leave" part!

Someone Please Pinch Me!!

No WAY!

I made the Graphic 45's design team!!! A manufacturer's design team!!! Little Me!? Wow, I'm out of this world excited!!

Huge thanks to J.R. and Chantele for using the Times Nouveau line in the April 2008 kit!!! Have you seen this previous post on the things I created using that line?

I don't think I'm coherent right now! When I read Christie Gardiner's email this morning, I almost fainted!!

And of course, I come to find out on Lynnise's blog that she will be on that design team as well!! O M G. Seriously, out of this world excited!!! I'm freaking out!!!

Arrows!

I have various layouts on my home computer that I did in the last couple of years. Before I started this blog, I rarely photographed my layouts other than for Scrapbook Obsessions newsletter. Since I'm working on newsletter layouts again, I thought I would post some older layouts. This one, I really like this idea. Do you have those scenic route diecut arrows? How about use up some miscellaneous photos like this?

Happy Birthday Lorie!

It doesn't really count as my birthday card to Lorie, since it was "commissioned" by DB, but I can post it here anyway, right? What a fun fabulous mix of paper if I must say so myself, LOL!! It's the paper group I used to create a layout for Becky Fleck's sketch challenge. I should be able to post that soon after the contest is over.

Winner!!

I entered this album into 2peas Maya Road Mini-album contest over NSD weekend. When I checked the message board and saw the winners announced, I really did not expect to see my user name as one of the two albums selected to go to CHA at Maya Road's booth! You know what this means? My little house album is going to live one of my lifetime dreams/goals: to go to CHA!!! I'll have to live vicariously through that little thing! Maybe Colette's purse album can tell my house album all about the big event and what to expect, how to act, how to behave appropriately should there be a Tim Holtz sighting! Maybe my house album will bring me back a CHA souvenir or two, sigh... one could only hope...

Rusty Pickle Rules!

Rusty Pickle posts a monthly challenge on its blog. I am participating for the first time! After all, can I really resist a sketch challenge?! LOL.

It was not easy picking from my huge collection of Picklelicious products. My gosh I have so much RP stuff! Even I was amazed!! In the end, I used Girly Girl line from several years ago. I would buy that line all over again in a heartbeat. Classic stuff!! The only non-RP product used are the rubon letters 'old', even the trim was from a RP class kit.

She's a year old now, and I so dearly dearly miss those newborn days, without the recovery and exhaustion though! LOL!

Fun Bright Busy

Well, I've noticed that my recent layouts are tending toward a bit on the busy side of paper selections. hmm... I made this one for the Becky Fleck's Pagemaps contest, but I submitted a different one, so I'll post this one now. It goes without saying that I see flaws left and right as soon as I get the image onto blogger. C'est la vie!

Oh second child, fussy does not even BEGIN to describe her! Daycare is going to be rude awakening of the most unpleasant kind for all involved! At least the daycare center can't page us and have us pick her up like the church nursery ladies can!

I Will Miss My Summer Bliss

This layout is really about me. Summer is almost upon us. Nice weather is short-lived in Minnesota. I have chosen to be stuck at work, at my job, at my career. I will miss the freedom and leisure I enjoyed on my maternity leave this time last year. Caring for a newborn was and will always be difficult and challenging, but at least it was away from work. Nice break it was, and I miss it.

H A P P Y

I finished the HAPPY mini-album this weekend. The album came with SO May kit, but the pictures I ordered of the Second Child did not get here till last Thursday. I used the Basic Grey Sugared line, which was featured as a mini-kit add-on to the May kit. Once I realized that I could not finish it in time for the newsletter, I used a lot more supplies not included in the SO kit or add-ons.

Mini-albums are really a ton of work. A lot of planning and forethought must go into it. However, once they are done, it is a little bundle of never-ending fun and rediscovery of the little details tucked into the gem.

May Newsletter for Scrapbook Obsessions

The May newsletter for Scrapbook Obsessions has been posted. Here are the layouts I did with May kit. First is the monthly sketch. I am super honored that all my fellow design teammates created a layout based on the sketch. Thank you guys so much!! Group hug!!!


This layout follows the sketch very closely. I spritzed glimmer mist into the air and caught drops of them to create the shimmery edges of this layout.



Since the paper this month is Prima and I thought I would go all out with flowers for a change. This is definitely not my usual style, but it was a lot of fun making it. It felt uncomfortable "piling" things onto the layout. The cheapskate in me kept on saying "What are you doing? save that stuff, save it!!" :rolleyes:


This really isn't quite like me either! But the white cardstock and the discussion on the boards regarding white space triggered this layout.


One last thing, we welcomed Jan to the design team!! Not only are her layouts feasts for the eyes, she herself is a knock-out beauty! Oh to be so goodlooking like Jan...

NSD, Celebrate Properly

I headed to the Shop, an LSS, first thing in the morning. My goal was to be among te first 25 people to qualify for a free gift, and I made it.
This LSS is 8 miles from my house, and therefore qualify as "too far away" in my book! I realize how ridiculous that is, but I really abhor driving THAT much, especially in the winter time! So I only really go there once a quarter. It is an exquisite shop with lots of unique and fun things that I can't find elsewhere, but I must be "determined" to shop when I go there.

Most things in this store are priced higher than other places I visit, online, or at Archivers. For example, the Noteworthy die-cut sheet was $1.30, when the MSRP is $1.00. However, I had a 25% off the entire purchase coupon, and when I buy, I do buy all out. Here's a picture of my loot this morning. Who knows when I will actually get to using these things? But it sure is fun having new stuff!

Now I'm going to do challenges on the SO board!! Hopefully it will be a productive weekend, scrapping wise!!! Cheers!!!

Simple and flat cards

On the SO message board, Nancy asked us if we make and give away scrappy gifts. I make a lot of cards to give away. I insist that my mother-in-law not buy any cards and she gets yelled at by me every time I find out she has bought a card. How do I find out? I ask her every time I see her or on the phone with her. My reasoning is that I have moutains of supplies and even more of scraps, I can easily make cards at no cost other than time! Here are two little examples made with scraps. Sure, the chipboard isn't scrap per se, but remember mountains of supplies? It's money spent already, might as well use it!

I do want to point out that I used a Martha Stewart border doilie punch to make the card on the left. I think it is a new obsession, border punches!!!

Watching the Tudors

What can I say? Colette got me hooked on the Tudors! And watching one episode at a time is just so unsatisfying! Since I'm still up, I thought I would continue to load up some older pages, one at a time.

I did this for Method Playground's challenge: use something other than a stamp to do stamping. I used a stress ball to make those circles, they are rather cute and fun to make.