My Scrapping Life

Happy Independence Day

I can't believe it's nearly the middle of the summer. So much to accomplish individually, but more importantly, as a family and home this summer, yet so much still not done. Wow. It's July 4 already (ok, in a few hours it will be). So far, just working and planning going on. Girls are busy and happy. Swimming lessons I are half-way over; session II yet to come. Another Girl Scout day camp this month. I hope God continues to guide our little family and reveal his plans for us as we move though the next month. Mailed a few happy cards ~ probably won't land at their destinations until Monday, but I wanted to make them anyway, knowing they'd be late probably. Ahh well. Used red cardstock for card bases and white for background. Old MM and Sweetwater patterned paper, plus Glaze pen for detail used for die cuts. Stampendous stamp. Doodlebug shapes Cricut cartridge used for diecuts. Sorry the pic is small; it's a cell phone pic.

Happy birthday this coming week to two of my favorite cool chicks! To Tori and Dawn ~ hope each of you has an awesome birthday!!!!

Ooooooooh, Glimmer Mist.....

Finally broke out the Glimmer Mist....and I gotta say, it's pretty cool. I bought some, but didn't want to use it until I was sure I had practical uses for it. I figured out something I wanted to use it on last night, so I tried out the pink. Really like the results. And don't forget that I am in total scraplift mode...this idea from a Scrapbooks, Etc. page I saw. Not totally loving so much patterned paper, but I do love the paper here, WRMK's Tiffany line from the spring. Used the matching chipboard here and there on these pages also. Flowers are Heidi Swapp, Bazzill and, I think, Fancy Pants. Note the title word, "play," cut from the Cricut cart "Graphically Speaking." I used a Crafter's Workshop template and sprayed with Bubblegum Glimmer Mist to get the swirly pattern on the title. I think it's pretty cool for a first effort.

Did a matching page tonight for other girl's book...same Tiffany paper, but this time, used the Pearl Glimmer Mist to bling-out the flowers. Nifty, huh? not sure if it shows in this pic though, but the flowers are very glimmery. And, yes, thank you, it IS another scraplift. ;)

In other news, TGIF! :)

Scraplift fever

Thank you, Creating Keepsakes, halloween 2008 issue. It was on the desk; I needed page ideas; I scraplifted. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Summertime begins

Although we seem to be having our fair share of rain these last weeks, today we had a nice, hot summer day, and the timing was perfect for the girls' Girl Scout "Everything Wet" summer day camp. They learned about ponds, fish, conservation, and other fun things. They got to play in the park wading pool, too. That was their favorite part, I think, but they insist it was the fishing. Em says she got a little fish!

The girls had a Day with Nature day camp on Tuesday, but those pics are on my small camera that I haven't uploaded yet. They had fun on a nature hike, playing with dirt, making a snack mix and their own nature collage. A fun day!

Here are a few pages I completed a few weeks ago but never uploaded. I did each of the girls a page from a kit I had, so those look nearly identical. Those pics were taken last summer. Then there's Em's skater page like Maddie's that's in an earlier post. Skater pics are a couple of years old. Fun stuff. :)

Ta da!

Cake class is stressful, but I managed to do this earlier tonight in class:

 

Oh, the wadded paper towel will be removed from the bow once the fondant is dry enough. Not great, but kinda cool to be able to do even this small design!

Let them decorate cake

Yep, I'm taking another cake class. Actually, it's the same class series, class 3. I already took class 1, and the instructor says order doesn't matter between 2 and 3. Three was next, so that's what I'm in. Turns out, I need the supplies from class 2, so I'll be buying that kit on the way into class tomorrow night. Ahh well. It's better than buying the tips one at a time, I suppose. :)

This class is "more advanced" as we're working with tiers and fondant. Can't wait to do my first fondant cake tomorrow night. If it works out, I'll show you what this stuff becomes:

 

 

And this is for Teresa - I thought I had more page images, but I could only find this one. I made this page a few weeks ago. I have a similar one called "Skater girl" of Emmy in her skates. I also have those couple with the class kit (with the brown Thicker chipboard letters), but haven't photographed those. Tonight I need to make a birthday card for BIL. Otherwise, I look forward to some power scrapping.....sometime soon, I hope.

Memorial weekend, things breaking, and school's out

It's amazing how quickly the school year has come to an end! We've had so much going on in the past month or so....I can't believe how much and how quickly time has flown.

We finished our girl scout year last week. The girls were so cute, and the older girls bridged to Brownies with one of our parents as their new leader. I'll miss them!

We also had a great time over Memorial Day weekend with Oma and Opa visiting us. We all went to the Zoo and the girls got new bikes as very nice presents from their grandparents. Much appreciated and loved!

Obviously, we had a great time with Oma and Opa!

Right after that, though, things went downhill. AARRGGHH! The clothes dryer stopped working on Monday, and the first repair appointment we could get was on Saturday. That was ok though, because when the internet and phone went out later in the week, that repair appointment was available for Saturday morning, too. Nice, huh? And let's not forget Tuesday, when husband limped into town on brakes barely working just as we needed to be at the aforementioned girl scout awards night. Yeah...that was $800 well-spent but badly timed. Well, that amount includes a day of rental car since it was school exams and we had to have two cars. Sheesh, right?

Ahh, well, I do have a few scrapbook pages completed, but I don't have those pics on my laptop. I used a kit to do a couple, then have a couple with photos that are a couple of years old. I'm pretty happy with myself for getting some older photos scrapbooked finally. Just cute shots of the girls I've always wanted to do some things with. I also made a set of notecards for their teacher's gift basket, but didn't get a photo. I've also been totally cleaning out the scrapbook stuff. I really want to get it down to the basic stuff I really want and use and not so much fluff stuff that sits. Good plan, right?

I've learned so much about myself as a scrapper over the years. I love to get fun stuff (and free stuff, when that works out somehow!), but I really have limited space, and, even if I didn't, I want to simplify. I love embellishments and patterned paper, but I can truly only use so much in a given time no matter what, so I want to weed stuff out with that in mind. I like a cardstock background, and I know my favorite colors and textures. I love patterned paper, but I know what I like and what I don't and how much I'll use, which is NOT more than a couple of sheets of a line. I'm rarely stamping on pages anymore (still for cards though!). I like die cuts, if they are up-to-date ones and cool, not "clip arty" ones. I like ink and black and brown pens. I like ribbon and still like brads. I like some chipboard but not going overboard. I still like flowers.

I don't so much use little printer things (Design Runner), too many "grand adhesion" embellies, matchy-matchy embellies, epoxy, jumbo chipboard letters, stuff that's too fussy to be worth the time, and I'm sure there's more.

Let me give a shout-out to my Cricut Create! A great Mother's Day present that I asked for after months of thinking it over. I didn't want to house nor afford the Expression, but the Create is great because of the extra features it has. I got a couple of cartridges used and a couple new on sales, and I'm lovin life. I joined the lss's Cricut club for discounts on supplies and rental carts, and hope to make use of that. Die cuts have come sooo far, and I hope to really incorporate designs into my pages. I made some chipboard Doodlebug embellies the other day for the fun of it, using the Deep Cut blade housing. I also cut a fun vinyl image for my craft room wall...a butterfly with a trailing swirly. Fun stuff...wanna do a crown for above each of the girls' beds soon. :)

So there you have it...a bit of catch-up. Really into the scrapbooking thing right now more than other crafts. OH! My cake-decorating class is starting tonight, class 3. Class 2 is later, but after class 1, order doesn't matter. I actually have to still do lesson 4 of class 1, which I had to miss because of Girl Scouts. More frosting in my weeks to come...lots and lots of frosting....yipes!

Ace of Cakes

So I had my first cake-decorating class. The prep with the frosting was much more involved than I thought, and I was running all afternoon Monday doing the prep then getting to class barely on time after husband got home. I wasn't totally prepped, as my bags were supposed to be trimmed and have those cupplers in them already. Oh well, it worked out. We learned that star tip that makes the decorative cake designs as well as the writing tip. No one's looked great, but it comes with practice. I got behind because my pink gel had, surprisingly, already been opened by someone before I bought it, and I had to run out and buy another tube before I could transfer my clip art. So by the time I got to my borders, I was literally just rushing through it to get done on time. The store is closing when the class ends, so we have to finish up on time.

My clip art was this cute little walking cupcake. The instructor said just 3-4 colors for the design. I let the girls choose my colors, hence two pinks. Next time, I'll vary it up a bit, plus I bought some extra tips so I won't have to wash them out so many times in class. Everyone was doing that though.

Here's my little cake...and this is a cell phone picture. I forgot to take a better one before we cut it last night. The frosting recipe is KILLER, btw. The class was worth that alone! I realize looking at this pic that it seems the cake is all smooshed down on the sides; that's just the foil-covered cake board. The cake is straight and my white frosting actually looked pretty smooth in reality, especially for a first-effort. :)

Life happens

Seems like it's been forever since Easter. Busy busy around our house, that's for sure. I have lost track of my scrapbooking mojo! That's no fun, and I plan to get back to it this weekend. Dear scrapbooking space, please get ready to let me scrapbook -- and to make 56 cute bonbon tags that the PTO needs next week. lol  Plus 9 journals for the end-of-year Girl Scout gifts. And, scrapbooking space, please try to contain yourself. I think I want to set up the guest room again soon, and I will have to find another place for you in our tiny house. The basement is still not ready...summer's coming though, and husband will fix you right up.

Knitting.....alas I haven't seen much of you since Jury Duty two weeks ago. I spent over a week on jury duty, including being on a jury that ran into the next week from my assigned week, and I did a little knitting while waiting around. Nothing since though....

Life! My gosh, life. We had our ups -- paid off the husband's car!!!! Felt like burning something like you do your paid mortgage.

We had our downs -- husband's car  broke down Friday and became a flower pot. Thermostat stuck closed and melted the engine. Yea! Paid-off car with $6000 book value suddenly worth......nothing. Well, not nothing, but not $6000 either. Siigghh....

The up side -- new car, for me. Yeah, right, like the husband gets the new car to put those commuter miles on? Not likely!

I must add that I didn't realize I looked so frumpy on this day until seeing this pic, but it was raining a lot, and I had been up early at Girl Scout camp, and I got rained on, so frumpy was I, lol.

We also had a Girl Scout scrapbooking class this week. Don't the girls look cute?

And I have to add that we've had spring only on and off here in the midwest. Some days are beautiful, others really suck, with lots of cold, rain, and, I swear, snow one day not long ago. On one of those pretty days, however, I took the girls to Snookies Malt Shop right after it's opening day. We'd never been before, and it was a lot of fun. The only thing missing was Daddy!

Happy Easter

Well, I had typed a very long, witty post, but somehow Typepad freaked out on me and even on the saved copy, so I lost that post. Anyway, Happy Easter! Here's a pic from the neighborhood egg hunt today, and a page I did last week using my new Diesel QK alphabet I got for a steal on ebay. It would have been a better 8 1/2x11 page, but I'm trying to finish filling the girls' 12x12 books before downsizing. Here's a pic of my Easter cards, too, now that they are all mailed. :)