exhausted yet happy

I'm exhausted bec. I spent pretty much all day doing my scrapbook classes. Either preparing for it or actually giving/executing it. Lots of talking on my part but I think it went well. I love it when I get people that are just starting to get into this hobby super excited about it. It makes me feel great that I can rub off some of my papercraft enthusiasm to people outside of the hobby. Good stuff!

and Happy because of so many things....
-The classes were succesful and all kits were sold. First time since I started teaching classes.
-Last night after the kids went to bed, I watched my all time favorite movie with hubby.

I think this movie has everything good going in it- a great story line/premis, great actors, set at my favorite time period (old English time) and a great moral lesson. If you've never seen it, oh you are missing a ton!!!

-On friday I finally brought my camera to Marcus' school and got this photo of him and his principal.

why all the fuss? that artwork on the Principal's door is Marcus'. His artwork was chosen from all the kindergarten class by the school to be brought to a national artwork exhibit in Santa Clara a month ago. They only brought 6 artworks and his' was one of them. When they got back from the exhibit, they posted them all over the school and his painting was chosen to be placed infront of the Principal's office. How cool is that!!! I'm so proud of my little Picasso.

-another month has started and that means new challenges to try out. If you're like me then you're probably scouring the message boards and blogs for new things to try out. Well I have my challenge at SCS up today so try it out. Here's my sample:




-and finally just a little plug for a good friend and a great cardmaker that FINALLY opened up her etsy store. Check her great handmade cards here.

Till next time,
Grace

it's Card time.....

Having a packed day yesterday with classes (I ended up having two classes so I can acommodate all the people that were interested in my 6 scrapbook pages for $6 class) and family things, I ended up just doing cards last night. I still wanted to play in my scrap space but being to tired to think, I opted to make cards. It was a great way to relax and keep my hands busy while I watch the latest episode of Heroes online.

Anyways here's what I was able to accomplish......I've been running low on bday cards so I thought I'd make some more for my stash.

Happy birthday with crepe ribbon

this was inspired by the sketch at Card positioning system blog. I've been enjoying blog challenges lately, especially when it comes to cards. Everybody knows I need to improve on my cardmaking.


I got the chipboard frame from Making Memories and so was the title sticker.


At first, I wasn't sure about the color combo and maybe they still don't flow together for some but for me, I think it's alright. I really like the crepe ribbons from Jenni Bowlin. Fun stuff!!!

then over at Cuttlebug challenge blog they had a sketch for there inspiration/challenge this week and here's my take on it....

Happy birthday with butterfly

I feel so happy everytime I finish a card for this challenge cause it feels good that I'm dusting off my cuttlebug templates and putting them to good use. *wink*


This card was all about experimenting for me, from the way I was going to interpret the sketch, to the color to even the butterfly. I stamped the butterfly then colored it in with colored pencil then thought it didn't have enough life to it so I sprayed it with some glimmer mist (sadly you don't see the cool shimmer it gives) then highlighted the image more with brown fine point marker.

So there you have it, fun stuff over all.

Till next time,
Grace

it's been a while

gosh has it really been a whole week since my last post? time sure flies when you're having fun. And fun was just what I had last weekend. I was off from work last Saturday and invited a couple of my girlfriends to scrapbook with me. We didn't really do much scrappin since we had our kiddos around but the chatter was great.
I was ambitious and made page kits to accomplish during the crop and finally after a week, I managed to finish them off. Whew! This is by far the longest time it took me to finish a page. Imagine a whole week! Well let's just say that I was draggin my feet to get them checked off.
Here's what I made....

Take me for a ride

These are pics of the family when Mitch and Marcus was getting ready to hop on the motorcycle for our Stake's annual father and son overnight camp. This page really didn't take me that long if you calculate the actual time I worked on it. I love that Picassa can make cool photo collages for me. A couple of clicks and this collage of pics is what I got. Isn't it cool? And the best part, it eliminated the time I need to crop them. Woohoo!

I wanted to add some personality to the handcut circles so I added some machine stitching.


I loved this circle chipboard accent from a making memories pack. I cut it out and used the space inside for my handwritten journaling.


I didn't have a bright red alpha set and I wanted the foam feel so I painted my white thickers red to match my other accents. I added a line of paint on the top and bottom of the page to create a feel of tracks that the bike makes. More handcut circles with stitching here too.

Pretty Pig tail girl

this layout was a long project for me. I usually sketch out what I want to do with a page but this one evolved into something different. This page is about how at this time (March 2008) I finally got Maddie to put her hair up without too much fuss.


I used an old floral pattern paper here so to give it a little more life, I handstitched some of the flowers of it.


the title is a combination of thickers and die cut letters


to create a visual triangle, I added layered flowers in the same color as parts of my title. Flowers were created in the Cricut expression.

There was this one time!

this one was about Maddie's "first haircut". She and Marcus got a hold of some scissors and decided to chop away at her hair.


The title was inspired by a movie quote. I used the line that was made famous in American Pie. Remember that girl that kept on saying.... "there was this one time, in band camp!" I thought of adding some laugh here. *wink*


I gave the ghost shapes more color by adding paint to them.


I kept some strands of her hair when this happened (of course I did, after all I'm a scrapper) so I made a handmade pouch for it by stitching some plastic onto the star accent.

a Dora invasion

this one was about Maddie's toddler bed when we first set it up. She was so excited in sleeping in it.

I added a lot of texture here with the buttons, plastic and felt alphabets.


I added white paint to the green background for some soft feel to the page. Handwrote the journaling in this scallop trim from Creative Imaginations.

and then on Sunday, I played with some scraps and made two cards...

I'm so thankful for you

I've had the bird rubon for a while now, I'm glad I'm finally finding a use for it. The card sentiment is from a text paper from Teresa Collins.

live.laugh.love card

You can't tell but I actually sprayed the light brown flower with glimmer mist. It was originally white, too bad you can't see the fun shimmer the mist gave it.



ok so there you have it. Hope you find some inspiration from here and create this weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

lots on my mind

Oh don't you just love life?! It's full of surprises and things never seem to slow down. I'm feeling that right now. There's so many things on my mind right now. Here's a sampling (pictures + words) on what's keeping me busy....

My table is so messy!!! I went scrapbook shopping yesterday (Friday). I'm so surprised at how much stuff I got. See this table, it's brimming with things!


Some of them are for my class next Saturday. Oh by the way there's still spots. Check this post for more info on that. Here's a little sneek peek.



But the rest was just for me. I went to the ribbon store and got a little to crazy. Here's a pic of the computer table with my trims. This is a before picture of them before they were all neatly organized and put away. See this post to know how I store them....


I also used up my prize from winning the Tallmouse contest and stocked up on the basics (cardstock, pattern paper, adhesives, letter stickers, etc) All fun stuff.

After the "fun" stuff was put away, I started making my class kits for next week's class. I'm so excited about this. I think there's going to be a little of everything for everybody. Lots of easy techniques, cute ideas, ways to cut cost, etc.


So there you have it. A little peek at what's on my mind.

Till next time,
Grace

a ribbon storage solution- the "ghetto" way

Did that title grab you??? hehehehehehehe.

If you've read my post about my scrap space you've probably learned that although I admire those spaces that all storage containers coordinate or was custom made, I know my reality and that it is finding things around the house that will work.

Such is the case with my ribbon storage and I'm here to share my "ghetto" way of organizing them.

I was in a shopping mood yesterday (friday) but more of that in a diff. post. Anyways, although I like the look of "brand" name ribbons, I get the bulk of my supply here. It's ribbon heaven. And the best part are the prices. They sell the ribbons, trims, laces, ric racs, etc by yard. You cut your desired length and the price ranges from .20 to 1.00 per yard. Yes you heard me right .20 cents for a WHOLE YARD!!! I love that place. Oh and right now they're having a deal that if you come between 7 am and 11 am, you get an extra 10% off your ribbons.

So here's what I brought home...


And because I needed to put them away, I thought I'd share with you all how I store them.

I do it three ways.....
Ribbons in spools are put in the bottom basket of this rack....

I also have some in clear containers.

Trims that are thicker than 1" are folded and placed inside snack size ziploc bags. I made a hole on one end and connected them all together with a key ring. I told you "ghetto". It works for me though cause the clear bags let me see what I have and bec. of the ring, I can hang it up anywhere I want and they're all in one place.




and then for the smaller ribbons, I use this...

tape and scrap chipboard

I roll each one up and tape the end


then organize them by colors here...

This is a toolbox that I've had for a long time. At one point (about 4 years ago) all my embellishments fit in this box. Yes can you believe those times. It's sounds so ancient since I can't hardly fit all my spools of ribbon here!

So there you have it. If you're looking for an easy and inexpensive way to organize ribbons, try my "ghetto" way. *smile*

Till next time,
Grace

trying out new things....

I got tagged by a good friend (Rochelle Spears) and I liked the idea behind the tag so even though I NEVER EVER participate in these things I'm going to break my rule just this once....

Here's the deal....
just go to the place on your computer where you store your photos, then to the 6th folder, then the sixth photo. Take that photo, put it on you blog & tell it's story. So here is mine:

Now for some reason, I had a hard time picking a picture cause when I went to Picasa, the sixth picture from the 6th folder wasn't a picture of a person but a project and I really didn't want that. So I went to "my pictures" document/folder and in the 6th folder, there was no 6th picture! I know I'm making this more difficult for me than it should be so I just went to the first folder (2004 pictures) and picked the 6th picture.

One thing that made me wanna do this tag is bec. this picture is one of those almost forgotten ones. It brings back a lot of memories for me. From what we were doing at that time (we were at Grandma Tolman's house swimming) to how little my son looks in this picture. I think he's just a little over a year old here. And comparing it to the way he is now, man! he's only 5 years old and yet he stands a little above my stomach when measured!

So there, now I know I'm supposed to pick people to tag and really don't know who to tag to get them to do it so (i'm breaking a rule here again) whoever wants to participate, have at it and leave me a comment on what you got/picked/did so I too can be inspired!

OH and on a side comment- I don't have anything against Tagging. I like to read what people have to say in their tags, I think they're fun but I just don't have time to do em and to tag other people. So I hope I don't offend anybody. If you like to tag, I say, tag away!!!!

Till next time,
Grace

Valentine "family" date

days before the big "hearts" day, Mitch and I were contemplating on what we were going to do to celebrate. We've made a decision a few years back that we won't have dinner that night cause we don't want to be amidst all the crowd. Not that we don't like crowds, we just know that restaurants will be more pack therefore harder to get seated fast and if we wanted to watch a movie, the pack crowd will turn us off too.

We usually celebrate the day before or after but since those days won't work we settled for Saturday morning. A friend gave me the idea of a "breakfast" date. I liked it and decided that the whole family should go on this date. This way we don't have to find a babysitter and we can have some much needed bonding time since that's hard to find nowadays with our schedules.

So the plan was made- breakfast at IHOP. I have a coupon so we thought it was a good idea. While passing by the Norwalk Cheap theater, I saw that they had Madagascar 2 showing so that was added in the plan to. After breakfast we were going to see the movie. Everything sounded so good in our heads. Even when I told Marcus the plan, he got all excited.

Then Saturday came.....

We went to Ihop. I got the stuffed french toast. yum, yum, yum!!! And took these photos.....





Marcus took this one of me and Mitch. Another budding photographer in the family.


The kids' faces lit up when they saw their fun food!

So we all enjoyed our breakfast and when it was time to pay, I busted out my coupon and the waiter sadly said that they can't honor the coupon. I guess I forgot to read the fine print. Darn those fine print! After a sigh of disappointment we paid the $38 (including tip) that we owe. Mitch and I was inshock at our bill. Imagine for a family of four (2 being very small children) we can spend that much in one meal. I guess that's why we don't eat out that much.

So just a little setback, I say to myself..... I was even amused at the car when Marcus busted out his toy camera and started shooting at Maddie and me. Very cute!


Since it was still early for the movies, we headed to costco to pick up a sensor light. Again we had a coupon! Yep, that's part of my life now- coupons and I love it.


So after running a few errands to pass the time, we headed to the theater. I go out and look at the movie times and guess what------- no Madagascar 2. I didn't realized it was already out on DVD therefore it's not going to be in the theaters anymore. Aarrggghh, what happened to me? I didn't make sure all the details were squared! So we went home. Kids were sad. But I told them we'll watch Bolt that afternoon. The first screening, I said. Got home, Mith did yardwork, I went on the computer, kids played with neighbors and before we knew it, we've missed the first screening.

By this time, nobody was in the mood to watch a movie. Everybody was occupied with a different thing. After Mitch got done with his tasks, he just went to the video rental place and got Madagascar 2. So that night, we watched it at home.

I guess not everything was lost. We did get our breakfast date done, eventhough more expensive that what we've anticipated and we did get to watch the movie, just not in the "big tv" like Maddie had hoped for.

So there you have it, hope you all had a great Valentines day. Hopefully more "romantic" and better planned than mine.

till next time,
Grace

and the blessing keeps on rolling....

I know my family's probably sick of all these "scrapbook" posts but before I share pics of my valentine date here's one last share of happy news.

I got this fresh from the mail today (March issue of Memory Makers magazine)


and found this on page 83. that's me! Sorry for the bad picture. I was feeling lazy to get my camera out so I just scanned the page.



then I borrowed my mom's March issue of Creating Keepsakes


and saw my first photograph published on page 28. That's Marcus' back by the way. Oh and in the mag we edited that bar on the bottom left hand side.


Ok so now that that's out of my system, I promise some pictures of the family coming soon.

Till next time,
Grace

get a LOAD of this....

SoCalScrap.us has decided to clear out about 90% of the store.
There are huge discounts! HUGE!
You don't even have to worry about the shipping because all the money you save will cover it and more!
Check out all of the sales categories.
EVERYTHING .25 cents !!!!
EVERYTHING .50 cents!!!
$1 bin - Everything is $1!
****20% Off Sale
****30% Clearance Sale
****40% Clearance Sale!
****50% Clearance Sale!
****60% Clearance Sale!

Even if something is not on sale, you will always save at least 10% off the MSRP.
You can't go wrong at SoCalScrap.us!
Come and get your scrap supplies now before someone beats you to it.

oh and if you spread the word about this, you might just get this...


learn more info here.

Till next time,
Grace