Scrapbook Answers

John gave me two issues of this new scrapbooking magazine and I can't tell you how impressed I am with it. After several days I'm still not through either magazine! They have some great articles with wonderful how-to's, great instructions, excellent product reviews and beautiful layouts. Plus, every issue comes with a great CD with all sorts of wonderful stuff including free fonts that are easily installed onto your computer! I had heard good things about the magazine before receiving these two issue but was holding out on subscribing. No longer!! I subscribed today and am looking forward to the next issue!! Check out there website here: www.scrapbookanswers.com

Merry Christmas!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! We were very busy but loved being able to spend time with all of our family! Just a few pics for you.

Every year I try and get a really good Christmas picture of John and I. My brother took this one on Christmas Eve at my grandparents and I'm so happy with the way it turned out!



John and I opened presents from each other on Christmas Eve as Christmas Day is so busy. It's nice to be able to take our time and share shopping stories while we are doing this; a very special time for the both of us. Here's both of us with our gifts from each other.

Paint Cans

I made these for 4 of the nieces (+ one boyfriend) and my dad as a way to creatively wrap gift cards. They are quart size paint cans that I got from Home Depot and then decorated with scrapbook paper and some ribbon, brads and paper flowers. Besides the gift cards, I filled them with all sorts of candy. The girls really liked them and I was thrilled that they after opening them they were coming up with different ways they were going to use them!!

Our Tree

It took me 3 hours to put the tree together this year but I'm very happy with the way it turned out. John and I finally found the tri-color lights that we had been looking for at Lowe's and I love the way they look on the tree. Almost every ornament on this tree has a story behind it which makes it very special to me. They are hard to see but the little maroon sled at the top is one I've had since I was 2 mos. old and it's always the first item on the tree and the last to come off and also the highes ornament on the tree, minus the angle of course. The little white bulb towards the top on the right, has a hand painted santa on it and is our new ornament thise year. I try and buy one new one each year from Bronners for me and John. The maroon bulb on the left side, in the middle is the one for our first year as a married couple and the two toned one on the bottom right (next to the purple one) is for our first year in our house.

Basement Progress

John just had some photos developed of the basement to show the progress that has been made. My dad and him have been working on this for quite awhile now and we are getting to the point of being able to put some flooring down! Yeah!! Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

These two are of the hallway before and after. Dad and John were shocked that I didn't notice that difference between the two in terms of the wall. If you look close on the first picture you'll notice that it goes in a little bit right before the hall ends. In the after picture it's a smooth wall.




The final project painted and you can also see a little bit of the oak doors they put in. This door is for the closet under the stairs.



And finally a look at the opposite wall. This is the wall you see when you walk down the hallway. It's two different shades of green. Also pictured here is the new OAK stair treads that will go in as soon as the tile has been laid in the hallway.

New Layout

This is the layout I created this weekend. It's a total scraplift of Lizz Parson's layout that was published in the Paperkuts book called Pet Friendly that came out a month or two ago. She used the Lollipop line of Basic Grey papers, while I used the Skate Shoppe Line. I also inked all the monographs and the tag with All My Memories chocolate ink (which took forever!) The journalling talks about how Callie acts like a dog sometimes: coming when John whistles, begging for table scraps and greeting visitors at the door. I LOVE the way this turned out!!

Photo editing

I recently received copies of some great old pictures of my mom's family from my Aunt Genny. I'm so happy to have these and look forward to scrapbooking them soon. A few of them had some tear marks or scratches in them and I've been trying to edit them to take out some the blemishes. I was really happy with the one of my grandma's family where I was able to remove a large tear and I just finished this one of my grandpa. I just noticed a crease mark still in the middle so I might go back and try and fix this but I'm really happy with the results. Not bad for an amateur. :-)
Before:


After:

More Scrapbooking

Actually spent some time scrapbooking Saturday night. One of the discussion boards I frequent had an online crop where we all chatted on our computers while we scrapbooked. It was lots of fun!! I didn't get a lot done but I did finish the page to the left of John and Callie. It was a very simple layout but I love the colors and the little MEOW license plate.

My trip to the Shack

I spent this past weekend at a wonderful bed & breakfast called the Shack for a scrapbooking retreat. It was wonderful. I went with several ladies that I met through John at the store and their friends and relatives. We arrived at the Shack around 3 on Friday, settled into our rooms and waited to get access to the conference room. We had a little time so we went and sat by the lake and just enjoyed the wonderful weather. By 4 we could get into the room and we began organizing tables for everyone. After that the tiring task of hauling all our scrapbooking supplies down the stairs to the conference room began. I think I got all of my stuff down in about 8 trips!! The look on the faces of some of the other guests was great. I think they were stunned by the amount of stuff we dragged in! Then the fun began. All of our toys came out and the scrapping began. We scrapped until dinner at 5:45 (Chicken breasts, fish, roast beef, potatoes, veggies, and rolls). Then back to scrapping until banana splits at 8:45. YUM!! This is one of the best parts of staying at the shack. I had Mackinaw Island Fudge & Cherry Chocolate Ice cream on mine. Back to scrapping. I worked on a couple different pages and also finished all the iris folding on some Christmas cards for a swap I'm doing. Went to bed about 1 am. Breakfast the next morning was at 8 and then more scrapping, until lunch which was very disappointing (turkey and mayo sandwiches..yuck!), moere scrapping until dinner at 5:45 (Coleslaw salad, fried chicken, potatoes and gravy, several veggies and rolls...yum!) followed by more scrapping until banana splits at 8:30. This time I had two scoops of Cherry Chocolate...YUMM!! I worked on a bunch of different pages, and while each page seemed to take awhile, they all came together really well. I never felt like I had scrapper's block. I did take a short break Sat. afternoon to go sit by the lake, with my feet in the water and to make some phone calls. I also had a small break later that night to talk to John for awhile...even though he said he was on vaction from me. :-) Kathy, Angie, Mindi, Nancy and I all scrapped until almost 3 in the morning. Angie left to go get pizza sometime after 1 only to return with a box of pizza rolls they had got at the gas station as this was the only thing that was open. You had to be there but it was hilarious!! Anyways a little bit before 3 we all headed to our rooms to crash. We woke up around 8, had breakfast and then the laborious task of packing everything up, carrying it all up the stairs and back out to our cars began. I was surprised that it didn't take as long as I thought it would and I was packed up a little after 9. The 5 of us sat and talked for awhile, figuring out the details of our Passport Weekend coming up this Saturday and then I was off. The trip home was uneventful and I was back in GR a little after 11. It took me much of the day, with a long nap in the middle to unpack everything and get it back organized in the scrapbook room. The trip was wonderful and so relaxing. I can't wait until March when we go again!!!

Here are my three favorite LO's from the trip:

These are my tulips at my house from this Spring. The spot on the left will be for journalling.



This is the trees behind my house a few weeks ago. It's also the last LO I did on Sat...well Sunday morning, finishing around 2:30.


And finally my very favorite LO of Callie sleeping on my lap:


For more information on the Shack please check out their website at:
http://www.theshackbedandbreakfast.com/

Finally Finished!!

After many, many months of trying to figure out how to scrap this picture, it's finally done. And it's about time as the picture is seriously 2 years old. I had originally thought I was going to do a pink background but just couldn't get it to work. When I finally decided to change it to green and with the help of my Pages By Design system, I finally came up with something I was happy with. Everything has been inked. All the green paper was inked with pink all the pink paper with green. The titles were printed off on my printer using CK Jot font and the tag behind the main picture pulls out to show another picture of Callie standing on the door of the dishwasher.

Scrapbook shopping!

My trip to Okemos and Lansing were both very successful, and I feel like I have just about everything I need for my trip to the Shack in a couple weekends.

The new store call Photos to Scrapbooks in Okemos is a nice store. They had a lot of new stuff including the new Basic Grey Papers and the Pages by Design System. I had been debating about buying the Pages by Design system but after hearing many great reviews and finding a store that carried it, I decided to purchase the starter kit, which comes with the first edition of templates, the idea book and the second edition of templates.



The staff at Photos to Scrapbooks were great and even gave me a quick tour of how things were laid out when I arrived. The only thing I didn't care for was the way the store was laid out. Everything was by theme: travel, christmas, school, wedding, etc. They didn't have any just general paper aisles and it felt like everything was spread out and that I had to do a lot of walking in circles to find what I wanted. Plus, while the store was very good sized, with a great cropping area, it felt like they could have had a lot more product. I suspect with time this will be true. Overall, a really nice store and definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

After spending entirely too much money at Photos to Scrapbooks, I still stopped at my all time favorite scrapbooking store, Pages in Time in Lansing. They always have everything I need when I need it. Surprisingly they didn't have the Basic Grey Paper or the Design System I bought at the previous store so I was really happy I had already bought them. I still found a lot of great paper for the list of pictures I'm hoping to scrapbook at my retreat, along with a new bottle of Prima flowers. :-) After a little over an hour of shopping, I made my purchases (under $20 thanks to a full punch card :-)) and headed home.

Upon arriving home, I was happy to discover that my latest Scrapgoods box had arrived and was waiting on the front porch for me. A great kit. I can't wait to try the metal embossing technique, however the colors are really formal...blacks, whites, reds and I'm not sure what pictures I'm going to use it on yet.

A great scrapbooking day though. I know have lots of new goodies to play with...just have to find the time. :-)

Callie attacking John

This happened awhile ago but it was just too funny not to share. John came home from work one evening and was just sitting on the floor reading the newspaper. Callie came over and just started batting at his leg like it was something evil. She did this for quite awhile and I was able to catch a few seconds of her antics on camera. After awhile though she just laid down and stared at his leg. We never did figure out what it was that she thought was so awful.

To see the video clip just click on the little blue triangle and it will open in a new window. (You may have to click the play button in that window as well. )

John and Callie

Just a few pictures of John and Callie that I wanted to share. Callie and John have been doing this since she was a kitten. They'll just sit by the screen and watch the sprinklers, bugs or whatever else might be out there. These pics were taken back in June 2005.








Did you see that Dad?

Scrapbook Layouts

I've been scrapbooking for just over four years now and it's seriously turned into an addiction. What started out as a small hobby where all my supplies fit into one small bag, has now turned into an obsession that fills an entire room of our house. Here are a few of my favorite layouts:

4th of July 2005 :


Mega Meet:


Callie:



Halloween 2004

Callie

This is Callie. She's a little over two years old and is very spoiled. I adopted her from the Lake Haven Animal Shelter when she was about 7 weeks old. She is my pride and joy. I'm sure there will be many more pictures of her to come.

Welcome

Welcome to our blog!
Sara