He Was a Little Sport

Fancy Pants Designs released an absolutely adorable collection Little Sport for the sportsmen and sportswomen in our lives.  My favorite thing about this collection are the balls: baseball, soccer balls, basketballs, and footballs.  They have the most whimsical touches to them and are seriously adorable!

Also adorable is DH in Little League :)  This collection was worthy for me to dig into the pile of precious childhood photos of DH that my mother-in-law gave me. 

I love Loni Stevens' designs in the Silhouette store. Judging from various blogs I read around the blogsphere, many scrappers share my sentiment as I have seen her signature handwriting adorning many fantastic pages out there :)  Here is a close-up of the title of the layout.  It's also very easy to create a shadow to mat the words, though I don't often do such matting, it sure is nice to have that flexibility when needed.

My family has been watching a lot of Olympics and particularly enjoy the less well-know sports in the daytime coverage. Tomorrow, my department kicks off its first fitness challenge. The goal is to have the highest average per person in hours spent in fitness for 17 days.  I have been asked to join a team and our fearless leader works out 3-5 hours a day and I'm not exaggerating. LOL.  So I am going to need to step up my game if but for the next 17 days.  Let the games begin!

My Hobby

I picked up some new papers at Archiver's last week and made this grand experiment of a layout. My judgement: too busy :)

It's just as well since "busy" is how I would characterize this other hobby of mine.  I mean it is all consuming and more consuming than scrapbooking at this moment!  My parents took the kids to friends' house last Tuesday and that meant an extra hour at the gym for DH and me.  I took a vacation day last Friday and that meant following my favorite instructor to another YMCA to take her class.  Obviously, it is really important to me right now. I just am not sure how long I can keep it up but let's worry about that later. 

I continue enjoying using my Cameo for various cuts.  Both the edged circle and these numbers are cut with the Cameo.  Even the rectangle for the off-centered journaling was cut after it was printed.  Obviously I did not line it up well for the cutter :)  

I am still purging!  It has slowed down significantly now that the obvious piles have been tackled. I find dealing with contents in boxes is a lot harder than messy piles.  I mean, the stuff is already in the box, what's the harm in leaving it there for now?  I am talking about stuff that are years old and obviously never used! Sigh...  Oh look at the time... off to the Y!  And tomorrow, Olympics!  

Creating Keepsakes Mixed Media Special Issue

Say the words "mixed media," I will immediately tell you that I am nothing but a pretender in that department.  Even so, when I was called on to create a project for the just released Creating Keepsakes' newest special issue: Mixed Media Scrapbooking, I dug deep and controlled all trepidation just long enough for the assignment.  



The reality is that I use mixed media elements in my projects on a regular basis but just don't necessarily think of these products as such.  After all, I am just a scrapbooker and not an artist!  But this scrapbooker uses paints, mists, fabric and much more.  Just don't ask me to use them all together, then I'm lost :)  

As usual, I created a two-pager (a very important and well-known requirement) for Creating Keepsakes magazine. These photos make me smile because I feel that they need no words of explanation!  I suppose we should get them together for a re-match soon.  It's been a while.

I used the Pink Paislee mistable letters and inked them with Rangers' distress inks.  Then I applied layers of crackle medium from Helmar to achieve the crackled and aged look.  I also applied the same medium on the ready-made Crate Paper chipboard pieces I used on the layout.  Though the process takes over 24 hours of application and drying, the end results are well worth the effort and time. 

To celebrate the release of this new special issue, CK is having a summer camp 2012.  Check out the details on the CK blog and join in on the fun!

The purge of my scrapbook room continues.  I am continuously distracted by the wonderful products that I'm about to throw out.  I have made way too many stops in between piles to make cards using products that are on their ways out the door. I definitely need to be more ruthless than I am right now!

Subtraction, Infinity

Two weeks ago, I decided to take on a huge home improvement project: to purge and to organize my scrapbook room.  To borrow a phrase from DH, I am attempting to subtract from infinity. 

For two weeks now, I have been in there, ruthlessly going over my huge stash and tossing things out of my room.  My mother has been helping me a little and taking over some of my stash that she likes.  I have distributed several boxes of stuff at work.  This Wednesday I had a friend over and she went home with 8 inches of patterned papers (She measured, not me!) and magazines galore.  So far... you can see a few empty shelves but that won't last long.  I will be dragging things out from the dark corners of the scrap purgatory, you know, where supplies go to be forgotten!

It is definitely a long and arduous process. As much as I would love a room transformed overnight, I just have to chip away at it a little by little every day. I didn't accumulate this stash over a period of two weeks, so shedding the excess will be a work in process for weeks (if not months) to come.  I also need to figure out a way to maintain a healthy stash, but that's for consideration at a later time. 

I do have a quick little card to share.  The owl and the sentiments are from the Silhouette online store.  Both designed by Lori Whitlock and they are adorable! 

The heart pin is from Purple Cows.  It is by far my favorite tool/embellishment from them and I love using them on cards and layouts.  

Oh, as a part of my purge, I have distributed a large number of cards that I have made over the years for design team assignments or publications.  This little guy has already been given away, woot woot!  One last comment about my purge: so far, no fewer than eight layouts have been sent to the paper recycle bag.  What a great feeling that was, lol!  A'ight, time for some TV to numb myself before another work week starts! Good night from my little corner of the world!

Congrats Banner - Fancy Pants

Happy weekend everyone! With July 4th on a Wednesday, I took a couple of days off and had a mini-staycation! We saw two movies in the movie theaters. That's two years worth of movie-going in a matter of three days for me!  I must say Madagascar 3 in 3D was thoroughly entertaining! Polka dot, Polka dot, Afro!

Now that it's over, I am officially buried under a lovely box of Fancy Pants Designs papers, hot off the press!  Have you see the new CHA releases preview on the blog? I seriously look forward to creating some projects and sharing them here soon!  So far, I have cut into the Good Life, a totally fresh collection with a very current look to it. I created a layout with it that even my parents approve! They should since it was a photo of them, hee hee.

Meanwhile, I made a banner for a co-worker's daughter's high school graduation that was posted on the Fancy Pants blog last month.  The Off to School collection with Fancy Pants artisan chipboard banner pieces make the whole project easy to coordinate and assemble. Apparently the graduate was delighted with the sketcher shoes on the banner because they were her favorite.  My friend asked me "How did you know?"  I did not, but obviously paper designers at Fancy Pants Designs know what is hip, hop and happening in the world of fashion and patterns! lol.

Today the temperature is finally at a manageable level!  We are very thankful because First Born had an outdoor swim meet and we did not all bake to death!  Granted I was hardly there since I was scrapbooking but DH was a volunteer timer for the whole meet.  So now it's time to kick back, relax and enjoy some pizza for dinner!  And again, happy weekend!

Beach Down the Boardwalk

After nearly three months of absence from Archiver's, I stopped by and found a few adorable collections to purchase. We R Memory Keepers is one of my favorite companies whose products are irresistible as far as I'm concerned.  I came home with many sheets of paper from the Down the Boardwalk collection and went to work immediately.  I feel out of practice because this is only the second layout I have done this year that is not for any design team.  That couple of months of non-stop reading really put a damper on everything else in life, lol.


I used some well treasured October Afternoon stickers on this layout.  Does anyone else have to talk herself into use beloved stash? On the one hand, my scrapbook room is exploding with my stash and on the other, I have such a hard time parting with the stash!  Big sigh.  I also put my Cameo to good use with a machine cut title designed by Loni Stevens.  I absolutely love everything she has in the Silhouette store and I will have them all eventually with my subscription :)

I have a little short break from work coming up around the 4th of July holiday.  The oppressing heat means a lot of time indoors and scrapbooking, lol.  Here's to hoping at least.  Have a wonderful July 4th if you celebrate this American holiday!