So Much To Do!

Okay, raise your hand (or hands) if you feel like you have so much to do ... and just not enough time in the day to get it done? Can you see me waving my hands, wildly in the air?!

Spring has begun to arrive, and with that there's a flurry of household things we'd "like" to get done. This coming weekend is the start - a contractor will drop by to give us a price on new gutters for the house. We suspect that they need replacing - each time it rains, we have two corners that drip, all the time. The corner joints have come apart ... rusted ... don't know. Then there's the new mattresses that the beds need ... a new fence ... new retaining walll ... *sigh* on the "fun" side, with the weather finally turning a little warmer, I'll be able to get some painting completed inside the house - got downstairs in the living and dining room, and then upstairs, in the exercise/spare bedroom. The colors are all picked out - it's just a matter of it being warm enough for the paint to dry. I love painting :)

On the scrappy side of things, I've started my CT assignments with Scrap It Sassy - I have an opportunity to work with multiple designers each month. Here are my first pages with Crystal's Soft Lavender kit:

... and over at Get Digi With It, Heather has a great collab kit out with the girls at ViVa Artistry: Route 101. Look for a few things with this kit in the coming days ... meanwhile, check it out - there's sssssoooo many goodies in there ... it's amazing!

... AND at Making Memories For You, I'm getting ready to start a one-month guest CT assignment. I've had the opportunity to work with a great kit donated by Raspberry Road Designs ... but more on that tomorrow, when I can post my layouts and card (yes, another card!).

... AND (didn't I just say that?! LOL), to top it all off, I STILL find time to scrap for fun. This page uses a few things from Two Peas - Perfect Pet by Rhonna Farrer, and frames from Naked Stamps Sheets #2 by Meredith Fenwick. The dog is such a clown, and she has such an expressive face - how can anyone resist, huh?

Okay, back to work - got a lot of things on my "to do" list there, too! LOL

The Secret Is Out ...

Okay, so if you follow my blog (and thanks, BTW!), then you probably saw my little "secret" message from the other day ... so ... the information is here now :) Take a look ... take a good look at my blog ... something has changed - well, not CHANGED, exactly ... more like ADDED.

Update: March 27

Well, Sam, you got it right - I got accepted on a DT/CT at Scrap It Sassy! I get to work with a bunch of designers every month, each with different styles ... it's going to be a lot of fun! :)

I've got a secret!

Sssshhh ... I've got a little secret. Check my blog in a couple of days and look carefully - look for something that I'll be adding! (Thanks Deborah!)

Inspiration from Grunge

Another grunge-style page? Yep. Thanks to Cheryl for the inspiration, and her template challenge at Raspberry Road Designs. Cheryl had created a Valentine's-themed page on love ... and then I took my version in a totally different direction - dark colors, grunge ... and I love it! This page is a little different from my usual things, but then again, remember the "Stop" page I did the other week for HeatherT with her Industrious kit? Well, I guess this one isn't so much of a stretch then.

Credits: Pop Culture kit, Raspberry Road Designs

Almost there ...

Almost to ... to ... the big 4-0! Ouch. He he he ... I'll call Mum and tell her on my birthday - make HER feel old instead of me! Cruel, huh - yeah, but funny! LOL Have no idea what DS and DH have planned, but at least their talking about "something", so that at least is nice. Most likely it will be dinner out somewhere.

Been busy scrapping away. Got all my items completed for my Guest CT spot at MMFY for April. I've been using a great donated kit from Raspberry Road Designs (thanks Susan!), and got three pages and a card done, so far. Yes folks, you read that correctly - a card! Actually, DS likes it so much, he's asked me to get 10 or so printed for him to hand out. This is only my second card, and it's an interesting process for me. Cards - for me - are much more simple in their design (vs. a full page with photos, journaling, etc.) ... and yet ... I struggle with getting the composition "just right" LOL. I can't wait to share what I've created ... and will do so on April 1st. I'll be running three challenges at MMFY next month; I hope you'll stop by. I'll have a scraplift challenge on April 5, scraplift with a twist on April 10, and journaling on April 15. Each challenge will be do-able in digital, traditional or hybrid form ... page or card. In fact, the scraplift with a twist challenge will even work with altered items.

Got tomorrow off from work, so I'll be scrapping some more - but not before I head to the DMV to get my drivers license renewed. Seems I can't do it online; need a new photo. Is it just me, or does everyone else dread the thought of a new license picture? No sleeping in for me tomorrow ... the DMV opens at 8 a.m., but I'll need to be in line around 6:30 ... 6;45 a.m. at the latest. Yep, more than an hour before they even open the doors. They take everyone first come, first served, so I don't want to dilly-dally around and spend the bulk of my day waiting for a number to be called. C'mon, how long can a new license take? Not long, right? Hope not, 'cause then I've got grocery shopping ... steam clean the carpet on the stairs ... take the dog for a nice long walk (providing the weather is good - snow flurries are forecast) ... seems that whenever I get a day off, a day that is "supposed" to compensate me for working longer hours during the week, I never take it as truly a day of rest. There's always errands to run, appointments to keep. LOL *sigh*

Okay, back to work!

Grunge = Great!

I just love HeatherT's new kit, Industrious (available at Get Digi With It). It's kinda grungy, which is perfect for LOs about my son - a teenager ... perfect! DH took some photos of the kids playing in our first official snowfall of the year (6+ inches; schools closed for two days). He was a little distance away, but Heather's 4-photo frame worked really well for this - and the grunged edges helped disguise things I wanted to hide LOL

Things are looking up!

Wow! What a year, so far - and it's barely March! LOL Sure, there's a lot of things happening personally, but my scrapping "stuff" is taking off, too ... first, my LO in Memory Makers magazine is out in the current issue (page 15) ... then I make HeatherT's CT at Get Digi With It ... and now I'm one of the guest DT members at Making Memories For You for April. I'm working with some great digi kits (thanks Susan!!) and can't wait to show you everything - but ya gotta wait until April 1st! LOL Yeah, I'm such a tease.

I must be on a scrappy roll of some sort ... nine pages in two weeks. NINE! Here's one I completed yesterday for a pink color challenge at MMFY - you just KNOW I had to scrap some more pages from our recent trip. So, here you go:

Credits: White frame from Template #7, Erica Hernandez; doodle heart (recolored) from Pixie Props, Tia Bennett; butterflies (recolored) from Natali Designs; inked edge from Element-ary Inked Edges, Carina Gardner; everything else from Hopes & Dreams collab kit from Oscraps.com.

But wait, there's more! No, not a set of steak knives ... or a shammy ... another page! This week's digi challenge at 2Peas was to use a child's book for inspiration. Um, my child is a teenager and doesn't read much ... off to the internet. I kinda wanted to do a fun page on a Dr. Suess character ... but ended up with another author ... and Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman. Let's see ... a bunch of dogs get into trouble ... and ... yeah, you can guess who I scrapped here, right? LOL

CREDITS: Papers from Fungo Green (Christy Skaggs), Heatwave Mini kit (Leora Sanford), Please Refrigerate collab (Grier/Paige), Dirty Stocks (Kate Teague), Thrilling freebie (Cherie Mask); frames - Film Fun (Kate Teague); MultiFoto template, modified (Anna Aspnes); title fonts Impact and AL Serenade; journaling font Century Gothic.

WHAT?!

It's MARCH 1st?! OMG, what happened to February? Okay, I think I need to stop and smell the roses a little more! LOL

Been busy, busy, busy with scrapping things. I did some pages for Kate Teague at Two Peas ... experimented with an overlay from HeatherT's Innocent Surprise kit (yep, the overlay even works on a larger scale!) @ Get Digi With It ... and then put together a DT call submission at Making Memories for You -- pssstttt ... check out the last picture in this post! Oh, and I finished up the March/April ezine for Making Memories For You, too - a bumper 26 pages! Here's the pages I completed:

Credits: Covered Stamp Sheet Set 1, Meredith Fenwick; Posted Cutie stamps,
Kate Teague; paper from Back2School freebie, Shannon Freeman;
Variety Show Stitching, Tia Bennett; word art, Natali Designs; staples - misc.

I just adore this picture of Maeghan and Aiden. We haven't seen Maeghan in a few years - heck, have only seen Aiden through pictures. So, when I checked out Maeghan's MySpace page and saw this one, I just HAD to do something with it.

Credits: stamp frames - Covered Stamp Sheets Set 1, Meredith Fenwick;
paper from The Basics Beige, Kate Teague; everything else from Natali Designs.
Photo taken by Walmart Studios.

I had SO much fun with this next page! A friend on the Two Peas message boards posted a photo she'd manipulated with some filters from Topaz Labs. Wow! I've downloaded the free trial and had a blast! Oh, and I included a close-up here of the detail - see those little heart bubbles? I made those myself!

Credits: Triptych photo frames from Rhonna Farrer; paper from

The Basics Beige, Kate Teague; "pure" tag from Into The Woods,
Kate Teague; stamps from Posted Cuties, Kate Teague - all from Two Peas.

Cameron (or Cam-Cam) is adorable - at 1 y.o., he loves dressing up in his sisters 'stuff' - mind you, his Dad's not thrilled with the fairy wand or purple shades ... but oh well.

Credits: Background paper from Dirty Stocks, Kate Teague; alligator stamp(recolored) from
Posted Cuties, Kate Teague; "fun" and sunburst/circular brush from Key Lime Pie,
Kate Teague; photo frames from Film Fun, Kate Teague - all Two Peas; burlap heart
and X-stitch from DDE; wordart and "bling" from Natali Designs.

Credits: postage stamps from Posted Cuties, and paper from The Basics Beige,
both by Kate Teague (Two Peas); photo overlay and "perfect" wordart from
Innocent Surprise by HeatherT (Get Digi With It).

What's this?? A ... a ... CARD?! Yep! Part of my DT submission at Making Memories For You was to create a card. The photo looks a little backwards, but I think you can tell that I decided to create something on both the front and back of the card. The grunged out grid for the letters on the front comes from Template #3 by Ali Edwards, while the flowers and butterflies come from HeatherT's A Touch of Ginko kit.

Today I have to catch up on household stuff - you know ... laundry, dishes, cooking. Better get to it!