Thursday, February 26, 2009

Still no layout =(

Yes, I was all ready to scraplift one of my old pages. Real life just seemed to get in the way. I started it, but never finished it. It is sitting half done on my scrap table where I started it many, many days ago. Oh well, I guess there is always tomorrow. It's Thursday, and the weekend is almost here...yippee! I hope to have some time on Sunday. In the meantime, I do want to share a page that I did a few weeks back.
It was for a call, but I never heard anything...so I guess it isn't getting picked up. That's one of the things that you have to live with when you choose to put yourself out there in the publishing world...rejection. I have received so many e-mails regarding how to break into the whole publishing thing, but I never really have any special advice. All I can say is that you just have to submit, submit, submit. You also have to ready to handle the rejection. It is always great to get that call or that e-mail, but you have to be ready to just hear nothing. I am proud of what I have accomplished so far, and I do plan on keeping at it in the publishing world. It's fun, and it makes me some extra money to play with. I have also met a whole lot of wonderful people that I would not have known otherwise. So, if you even have the thought of being published, I say just do it! What do you have to lose?

So, this page here is another one for the Disney album. Our Miss Emily was crazy for all of the princesses at Disney, and I had to document that. I am really happy with how all of my Disney pages have turned out so far. I do one every now and again....when the Disney mood hits me! It was nice to do a girl page...I don't get too much of a chance to do that!

Well, off to do some more "real life" stuff...Hope everyone is well! Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Pencil Lines!

Long time...no blog!

I know, I know. I've been absent for the past few days. I have no excuse. I guess I just didn't have anything interesting to say or share. I do have something interesting to share today, though, so I'm glad you stopped by. I am still in the process of scraplifting my last layout, and I hope to share it with you soon. I did, however, have the honor of being asked to be the Guest Designer over at Pencil Lines. I was thrilled when I was asked. I even went ahead and created my own sketch...go me! Sketches rock. I think I have mentioned that before. I am a huge fan of the ever-so-awesome Becky Fleck and her PageMaps. She just oozes talent! I have used so many of her sketches to jump start my creative self, but I never ever entertained the thought of creating my own sketches. When I was asked to guest design for Pencil Lines, I was psyched to try my hand at it. So, here is the sketch that I came up with:

Now, I know that it's no PageMap because Becky just has a special flair, but I don't think it came out half bad. Here is the layout that I designed based on my sketch:

I used some of my favorite Fancy Pants goodies, of course. The doodle/hearts design is one of their awesome transparent overlays...love it! What is even more cool about my sketch is seeing how other talented scrappers interpreted it! It is so neat to see someone else use my sketch. Hop on over to the Pencil Lines site to check it out! You will love it!

I am off to do some school work today! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Scraplifting myself again!

I really had fun lifting one of my old layouts last week. I just received my new BasicGrey Marrakech in the mail this past weekend, and I am itching to scrap once again. I had planned on doing some scrapping this weekend, but well....you know what they say about plans! So, I am going to try for this week. Maybe I will start while Ryan is at karate today with his Dad.

I decided to lift this layout that I did in October 2006: This is my niece, Emily, from the summer of 2006. Boy how time flies, huh? I remember taking this picture, and it feels like it was only yesterday! I think that using Marrakech with this design will be great...I'll be able to use a lot of the great patterns for the strips! Cool!

Once again...thanks for stopping by...keep smiling and enjoy your week!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Facebook Fun!

So, who belongs to Facebook? Well, as of a week ago, I was oblivious! I had heard about it from my nieces who are in college, but I never gave it a second thought.

At the recommendation of a good friend and because our twen- (cough, cough) -tieth class reunion is coming up, I decided to join. I started to get requests from fellow scrapbookers to be friends and realized that I can make so many new friends that also love this great hobby of ours! It really is cool, and you can do so much more than just connect with old friends and make new ones. I created an album where I can post my layouts, I created some reminders, and I can also watch blogs all through Facebook! I love it! If anyone belongs to Facebook, maybe we can be friends! I added a link to my blog here for the Facebook Blog Network and also a badge. Kind cool....our world is getting smaller every day!

Well, off to do some school work and then hopefully scrap a bit today! Now, that would be fun!!! Enjoy your Sunday and thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

It's a lift!

Well, I did it! I finally finished scraplifting myself. It would have been easy and done within a few hours had I not gotten sick! Yes...I ended up with a 101 fever and a sore throat! I am still not 100%, but I do feel tons better. I've been in bed for the past 2 days sleeping and watching TV. I have been ready to jump out of my skin. I am not a sitter. I need to keep busy, and it is so hard for me to lie around doing nothing! Missing school has been killing me, too....but I don't need to be dragging my butt into school only to spread germs to the kids!

So, anyway, here is my new page:

Here they are side by side:
I was looking for an excuse to use some of my BasicGrey stash. I am such a hoarder of that stuff, and I have no idea why. I think that I just love it so much that I don't want to use it because it will be gone! Since I am (im)patiently awaiting the arrival of their new Marrakech line on my doorstep, I thought it would be the perfect time to use the Offbeat that I have been hiding away!

Well, I am off to rest a bit more. I hope everyone is having a better week than me. Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, February 09, 2009

Scraplift yourself!

Sometimes I get into a sort of funk, and I feel like I don't have a creative bone in my body. It usually happens after a big assignment or a trade show that I design for. I guess I just kind of use up all of my creative energy and am left with nothing. So, instead of beating myself up for being so lame, I decided that I was going to find an older layout of mine that I wanted to re-create with new papers, pictures, and embellishments....a scraplift of myself.

I started browsing the scans of my old layouts and found this one that I like:

I still like this layout after about 3 years, and I thought it would be great to see how a scraplift of it would turn out. So, I am taking a few hours tonight to scrap. I deserve it! I spent the entire weekend either doing work for school or doing homework for my night class. Everyone needs a little break every now and then, right? If you are looking for some scrapping inspiration, give it a shot. Try scraplifting a layout of your own that is more than 2 years old...or you can even scraplift the layout of mine above!

Stay tuned in the next day or two for the results! Thanks for stopping by and have a super night!

Friday, February 06, 2009

Creating Keepsakes has a BLOG!

Good news, people! Creating Keepsakes has joined the blogging world.
I am very excited about this. I love their mag, and I am thrilled that they will be blogging along with the rest of us dedicated bloggers (ok...somewhat dedicated bloggers, in my case).

You can check out their new blog here!

I'll be posting more this weekend with another layout. Thanks for all of your sweet comments on my last layout. You guys really know how to make a girl feel good!

Happy Friday!

Thursday, February 05, 2009

A Disney Page

I am slowly, but surely scrapping my pictures from our Disney trip this past summer. Since I took almost 1,000 pictures, I am guessing that it will be a while until I am done. I am in no hurry, so no biggie. I am not creating an album that has any particular theme with specific embellishments or papers. I may, in the future, decide to do a mini, but no plans yet. Right now, I am just picking some pictures and creating pages. I do plan on putting all of my Disney pages into one 3 ring binder, so I guess it will eventually be an album of sorts.

This page is dedicated to our visit to Animal Kingdom. I have no intentions of scrapping every picture that I took, so I pretty much just chose some favorites from the day.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the jungle leaves underneath the title. I got the leaf design from a piece of clip art from the Internet. Did I mention how much I love my Silhouette? Well, if not...I love it! It saves me so much time. I love hand cut titles and shapes, but using the exacto knife took me forever. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it. It was sort of relaxing, but the time factor was an issue. But, not anymore!

Another awesome thing about the Silhouette is that I can purchase individual files online from Quickutz to use with it. They have all kinds of shapes and borders and things. Very cool!

I have another Disney page that is coming up in the March issue of Memory Makers magazine and one in the May issue of CK . If you're a subscriber to either magazine, keep your eyes peeled. I can't wait to see them in print myself! I still get excited about getting published...it's just fun!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Winter "Blahs"

I guess it has been a while (a week to be exact) since I have posted. It just ended up being one heck of a week. It started with my buddy getting sick last weekend....the dreaded stomach virus. I felt so bad for him. Since it is best for me not to miss school, he stayed with my Mom & Dad, and they took great care of him. Then, we ended up having 2 snow days from school. Yuck! I know that lots of kids and teachers love snow days, but not me. It only means that you are stuck in the house with nothing to do in the middle of the winter, and then you will end up staying in school longer at the end of the year when the weather is beautiful. Add to that the fact that my grades were due and the tons of homework that I had for my University class...and it was just a "blah" kind of week. So, I am optimistically looking forward to beginning a new week. Ryan is better now, and my glass is half full...LOL!

On the scrapping front, I do have another layout to share. This time, I used the new Fancy Pants Delight line by Nancie Rowe Janitz. It is very fun collection. I especially love the colors...they are so bright and cheerful. You can stop by the Fancy Pants Gallery to see some other great creations from the Fancy Pants DT.

I had this layout started before CHA, but the journaling just was not working for me. So, it had to sit half done while I figured out what I wanted to say. Journaling is really important to me, so I hate to rush it. After Ryan got sick and spent time with my Mom & Dad...everything just came together. In addition to my new Fancy Pants goodies, I also got a chance to use my new Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder. If you click on the picture, you will see that my circles are dry embossed with it. Fun stuff!

I hope that everyone is well and having a great weekend! I am off to finish some school work...and maybe do some scrapping if I work fast enough. Enjoy your day!