Another layout share

Yes, it is true. I actually created 2 layouts in one day! OMG...the sky is going to fall...LOL! Last Sunday, I created the last layout that I shared. I then went to try to wrap Christmas presents, and it just was not working. I was in such a creative mood that I could not bring myself to sit down and wrap. I just had to scrap. So, I tossed all the wrapping paper, tape, and bows back in the closet and headed back down to my scrap room. After cleaning the whole thing up just a few hours earlier, I tore the whole thing apart once again! It felt so good, though. So, this is the second layout that I ended up with.

Since scrapping time has been short this school year, I figured that I would go with it while I had the mojo and the time. I used papers from the Fancy Pants Splendid collection, and that glittery swirl on the left side is a Fancy Pants glitter cuts. Love them! I channeled some Cindy Tobey with the knotted ribbon....she just makes it look so good that I had to try it. This was actually a pretty easy layout to put together, and I would have been done with it a lot sooner if I didn't have the television playing in the background. I never really watch television, so it was a little distracting.

Anyway....I am off to enjoy some time with Ryan...we are working on a Club Penguin mission together. Gotta Love it!

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve here, and we are getting ready for Church and for a visit from Santa Claus. The eve is usually a pretty mellow day for us. We do our celebrating on Christmas Day, so Ryan will go with his Dad until it's time for bed. It's a nice day to relax for me, and since I am feeling a bit under the weather....I need it. I have been fighting something for a few days now, and I am hoping that it doesn't catch up with me for tomorrow. Ryan and I were in bed last night at 11:30 and slept until 10:45 today! I guess we needed the sleep. Looking forward to a nice relaxing vacation.
I just wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a joyous and safe holiday. I hope Santa is good to all of you. Enjoy your time with friends and family, and take a minute to count your blessings. I know I will be counting mine. Merry Christmas to all!

Creative Sunday!

Having a snow day on Friday gave me the chance to get some "real life" stuff out of the way. So, today I had the chance to do some fun stuff...scrapping! I brought out my Fancy Pants Daily Grind papers to create this layout about my first year teaching 8th grade.

I like the black background paper with it's grid...it reminds me of school. I also like how it makes the colors pop out at you. That small picture is of Ryan holding up the piece of paper that I received over the summer telling me what my "job" at school would be for this year. This has been quite a year for me, and I needed to get that documented.

On the Christmas front, I plan to sit down tonight with a hot cup of tea and help "Santa" wrap Ryan's presents. Ryan and I went out shopping yesterday (oy...that's a whole other story), and I am DONE getting gifts for the family, too. So, I have some work ahead of me. Feels good to be so close to Christmas and be ready! Hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday!

Snow Day!

From what I can tell, it seems like a lot of people experienced a snow day today.
This is what it looked like from my living room window earlier today. We got about 6 inches of the fluffy white stuff. Unfortunately, we didn't get to play in it today as it was coming down very fast for most of the day with sleet mixed in. I like to play, but I don't care much for the snow and sleet pelting me in the face.
I got a lot of icky housework done, which was good, but nothing fun...which was bad. I still have some Christmas shopping to do, so that will be tomorrow's fun! I also have a layout in the works that I hope to finish and share this weekend. Christmas is only 6 days away....are you ready?

CK 101 Expert Solutions!!!!

I know, I know...I seem to only post when I'm excited these days. Well, I certainly don't want to bore you all to death with my everyday ramblings about school, school, and more school. Since that is pretty much all I have been doing lately, I figured I would wait until I had something fun to share.

Well, I have something fun to share today. I was on the Creating Keepsakes website and found this baby up for pre-order:


This is the 101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking Special Issues from Creating Keepsakes. I have been waiting so patiently to finally see this as the cover layout was created by little old me! Go, me!! This special issues contains the artwork of the 2008 HOFers, the CK Dream Team, and the CK Scrapbooker of the year. It has been in the works since April, and it will hit the shelves at the end of December. I was thrilled to be able to contribute some of the layouts from my winning HOF entry along with some additional layouts.

Just knowing who is featured in this book makes me know that it will be a "must have." I am on pins and needles to get a copy. You can pre-order it here on the CK website. I am going to....have to get copies for the family!

And keep your eyes on the CK website when the new years rolls around because they will be having a launch party there to celebrate this special issue! It is sure to be fun!

We have a 2 hour delay today, so I get to enjoy some free time this morning....yeah! Hope all is well with everyone and you are all getting ready for Christmas! Enjoy your day!

So excited & a layout!

It was a rough week in school getting back into the swing of things after the Thanksgiving break. The students were NOT ready to be back which made for a difficult teaching environment. They did eventually settle down by Thursday, so I guess all turned out okay. After a particularly hard day on Wednesday, I came home to toss myself on the couch. I had a terrible headache and needed a rest. The light on the answering machine was blinking, but I figured I would check it later since it was probably someone responding to Ryan's birthday party invitation. Well, I forgot about that light, and it was not until much later that I actually remembered that it had even been blinking.

To my surprise, it wasn't a party response after all! It was a girl from BHG Scrapbooks Etc. calling to publish 2 projects of mine in their magazine! I was so stinkin' excited! I have been having a really tough time getting pubbed by BHG. I have been feeling a bit like they weren't liking my style too much, so this was a really pleasant surprise! So keep your eyes out for their May/June issue because yours truly will be in there...twice!

Speaking of not getting published, I thought I would share a layout with you that wasn't picked up. This one was so much fun to create because I had a chance to dig out my old, old college pictures for it.

Yes, that is me and my college roommate back in 1989! It felt so good to scrap something other than Ryan or kids. Not that I don't love him, but I never get to scrap ME! So, this was a blast. I kept those old stacks of pictures out because I hope to scrap more of them...maybe I'll get them all scrapped before Ryan graduates college!

Well, thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your weekend!

More Fancy Pants Fun!

Thank you to everyone who left such nice comments about my layout the other day. No matter who you are, I think it always feels good when someone takes the time to leave a comment and brighten someone's day. So, thank you all for brightening my day!

I love it when I get on a roll. It is especially great when I have time. There's nothing worse than being in the mood to scrap but not having the time. Thanksgiving break was good to me. I got all of my homework done for my College class, and most of my lessons done for school. I had to take a break from all of the intellectual things and spend some time being a bit creative. I created this layout with the limited edition Fancy Pants Arctic Chill collection.

The background is the Dotted Swiss Cardstock from Bazzill, which is one of my new favorites. I just love the texture that it has, and is comes in so many awesome colors. As you can tell, my layout is not a winter theme at all, showing that you can use the Arctic Chill collection for anything...not just winter!

Once again, I am proud to say that I used an awesome PageMaps sketch for this layout. While I have been in a creative mood, I have also been pressed for time. Becky's sketches are just perfect for when I am on a time crunch. I just pick a sketch that has the amount of pictures that I want to use and go from there! Perfect! Thanks, Becky!

Well, thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day!

Here's to Creativity!

Ahhhhh...finally the chance to create! I really appreciate the time that I have to get some scrapping done. It is such a great release and so relaxing. Fancy Pants has a great new line out for Christmas called Happy Holidays. It is whimsical and fun and filled with great colors! I had taken a few pictures of Ryan as we decorated the tree this year. Not our "official" Christmas pictures, but some quick shots for fun. They were perfect to use with this new line.

I adore the new printed chipboard shapes that Fancy Pants has come out with. Not that I don't like plain chipboard. It's fun to be able to design the colors of a title by either painting them or covering them with paper....but, it is sometimes nice to just throw some already designed chipboard onto a page with ease! My title, the star, and those cute trees are all printed! Go grab some because they are awesome! By the way, my design came together super easy with a PageMaps sketch from the fabulous Becky Fleck! She so rocks!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your week!