Progress!!

Well, it feels good to feel like I'm making some creative progress right now. I managed to get 3 scrapbook pages completed and a gazing ball that's only been in the works for 2 years now! This may not seem like much to the big time designers out there, but I'm pretty sure that none of them are reading this blog.

First, this is my gazing ball that I made from a bowling ball that I found at a garage sale for $1. I spray painted it apple green & then took those flat marbles in different shades of blue & made a design all around the ball. I'm really happy with how it turned out. Now, let's hope it holds up to the weather like I was told it should!

















Next is my two page scrapbook spread I did using the new Bo Bunny Popsicle line. It is the cutest stuff!! I added a lot of dimension on here for all the different styles of water I wanted to depict, since I couldn't make up my mind which I wanted to choose. *snicker* I added Prima blue bling swirls to look like the water continues to spray up off the photo. Then, I added some Quickutz flourishes that have a neat little POP to them. I had to add some pop dots underneath to keep them lifted in a page protector & I also added dimensional glaze to the part that's lifted. I like the look of a tone on tone title & I added some pop dots to that as well, so help set it off a little better.

































Then, I finally got around to making another page for my wedding album. I am terribly slow at doing this one....we will be married 9 years on July 15th. I still have a long way to go yet.

I challenged myself with this Rusty Pickle Chocolate Covered Cherries line. I love the look of the papers, but sure had a hard time thinking I could make them work for me. I think I did OK with them for these photos. The photos are really bad, but I had to take a picture of a photograph, which weren't great ones to begin with.

Then, the 2nd photo is the inside of the flap I created with the scalloped Rusty Pickle paper I used. I found that it was a great way to add tons of journaling without taking away from the creative design of the page. It makes for an interactive page, which I like. So, I might be using this technique again. I have not seen it anywhere else, so I'd like to think the idea is totally my own!

The journaling tells about how my husband and I made each of the individual cake stands ourselves. They were truly unique - kinda like us!

Well, I'll call it a day for today & hope everyone had a safe & fun July 4th.

God Bless and have a great day!

Slow & steady...

is how I seem to be scrapping these days. I'm not in any race or competition, but I have lots of projects that I'd like to get accomplished & Lord knows I have puh-lenty of supplies to git-r' done! If only the inspiration & motivation came to me as often as the urge to buy supplies hits me! hee hee! I am doing much better than I used to, but I'm also buying much more supplies than I used to as well - so am I really making any progress? Yes & no, so we'll call it a wash. I'm getting much more pages & projects done that I've needed to do, but my stash seems to be growing by leaps & bounds.







Here is a metal sign I made yesterday (sorry it's a little blurry - my camera needs some repair). I bought the sign at Hobby Lobby at 50% off & wanted to make it for my garden shed. I just didn't know what phrase I wanted to use & I finally found it. I cut out the colored vinyl with my Cricut Expression & used Jasmine for the first line of quote & Storybook for the word Garden. Tinkerbell & friends was for the flowers. They're a little brighter than I wanted, but didn't find the right shades I was looking for at my LSS, but they might be for the best, since my garden shed sits in a lot of shade & it's about the color of the blue in the flowers too. You just might be able to see it as you're pulling up the driveway! LOL!!

God Bless & have a great day!

Summer CHA 2009 peaks have begun!

They're starting to roll in more & more as CHA Summer 2009 draws near. How exciting to see some of the new releases from some of our favorite Scrappy companies!

Take Cuttlebug for example! I l-o-v-e their embossing folders! They're going to be giving us a count down peak for the next month of the new releases on their blog. How sweet is that??? It gets even sweeter, cuz their giving some candy to those that spread the word! You can check them out by clicking on the Cuttlebug display below!


I'm already loving the Christmas & Star releases so far! I can't wait to see what else they have in store for us! You'll want to see for yourself.

Testing...

Well, I used to be QUITE computer literate, but since I haven't HAD to work with a computer & all the latest programs like I used to, I have fallen out of the loop more than I care to admit. Believe it or not, I had designed my company's website all by myself! That was before child #2...things have progressed in the computer/internet world faster than I cared to keep up.

So anyway, enough blabbering about why I can't stay hip & up-do-date in the internet world; I created myself this cute little siggy for my blog & had to see how it looks. In doing so, I have to create a new posting.

I do have to say that today, Brooke & I drove over to Warsaw because they have been having the greatest deals on hanging baskets & flowering pots! They get cheaper every week too! Last year, my hubby, Alan, made me this awesome flower bed bench from an old bed I found at a garage sale for $2. So, I was able to buy 5 big pots of New Guinea Impatiens for $15 before sales tax. I can't really take a pic of it currently because, much to my disappointment, the bed is made of nothing but glued together sticks of wood. After the first rain, everything started to separate into little chunks. Needless to say, it doesn't look nearly as impressive as it does here. I bought new finials, but DH hasn't had the opportunity to put them on yet.

So, if I can keep the plants alive & get the bench back to looking half-way decent, you may get an updated photo before summer is over, but I would't hold my breath if I were you. ;)

God Bless & have a great day!

New project to share...

My dear Memory Zone Design Team Co-Member, Kelly C. came up with a great challenge for the month of June. You can check out the details here.

I love the idea of using craft paper with red as the main accent color, that I just had to participate this time. Since I had just gotten a few pics of Brooke picking strawberries the other day, I figured I better get at least one of them scrapped. She wasn't very fond of the process, or the heat that day, & she definitely wasn't expecting the BUGS! OMG!! So, I may never get her to go strawberry picking again. (tsk!)



I used my Cricut to create most of the designs on my page using Home Accents, Home Decor, George & Lyrical Letters.

You can't see clearly that I used pop-dots on the berries in the corners, along the berry border at the bottom of the picture & the ladybug.

I wanted a patterned paper with strawberries on it, but all I could find was this sweet Creative Imaginations Cherry paper, so I took my Black Diamond Stickles to add "seeds" & turn the cherries into strawberries (sorta). I thought the white flowers sorta looked like strawberry blossoms & they add some nice contrast to the page, or so I think.

I was very pleased with how the page turned out & love how striking it is & yet simple. This was a true test of how good my new printer works for printing borderless photos too, & I am thrilled with the quality of the Epson Workforce 500! It also makes your photos water-resistant! And they are, to a certain extent, of course. I mean, let's be reasonable, paper is only paper.

Tomorrow is Father's Day & I pretty much have Alan covered, even though we'll only be spending the morning with him. He has to work on a side job, unfortunately, so he won't be spending the beautiful day with his family or finishing up the pool deck. That really stinks for him & us. But bless his heart, he's doing it for his family. I do plan to make him breakfast sandwiches, since that's what he's chosen & he doesn't get to have them very often, because Brooke usually wants baycakes (her word for pancakes since forever!) then, we got him a new cell phone & a Weird Al video DVD & some 80's DVD set that he had requested a looooong time ago. Jordan paid for the Weird Al DVD & a pool theremometer. I hope he's happy with his gifts, but he WILL complain about something, mark my words!

On the other hand, I think I need to be heading to Lowes, or a local restaraunt, to get my own father a gift certificate, because otherwise I don't know what to get him. He doesn't want for anything & never says that he wants anything. He was wanting a flagpole at one time, but I think he has put that wish aside as they're not sure if they're staying in the house they have right now or not.

OK, so that's enough ramblings for right now. It's hot out today & I've been inside the air conditioning for most of the day, so I think I should go out & enjoy some heat for a change!

God Bless & have a good day!
Beth

Going to the Oprah show...

Well, call me a bad blogger! I went to the Oprah show back in April & never did post my pics about it. DUH!!! Since you're not allowed to bring any kind of photography paraphernalia into the studio, these are the only photos that I could get. They're still cool to have though!
You'll have to excuse the gaps in text, I'm having some issues with getting Blogger to work in the fashion I would like. So bear with me here, please.

The show that day was Dr. Oz's last taping with Oprah before getting his own show in the fall. The members of the audience all received these Neti-wash pots to clean out your sinuses with a saline solution. I STILL have not tried it yet, since I seen the video of how you run the water in one nostril & it pours out the other just kinda grosses me out! Call me chicken (bock-bock!)

Here is my husband, Alan & I in front of the Harpo Studios sign. It's hard to get the entire sign & the large "O" at the top into the picture & still see them well.












This is the view of her studio from the side. This is a huge improvement from when I was there back in 2005.

























This is the angle from the sidewalk catty-cornered from the studio. This sidewalk runs along the front of her store. If you notice the large metal "O" here, these are at the top of all the railing posts in front of the store. Kind of a cool detail, I thought!












This is a bootleg photo I took inside her store. At the time that I took the shot, I did not realize that you weren't allowed to take photos inside. I did not get caught taking this shot because I didn't use my flash. Later, I got busted trying to take a picture of the girl at the register.











This is the ONLY spot in the store that you are allowed to take a picture. This is the chair that Oprah used to sit in before she remodeled her studio. I must say, this is NOT one of my better pictures of me.












This is the window display of the Oprah store. It's kind of hard to tell in this photo, but the opening in the window is surrounded by a large "O" (...notice a pattern here?)

This is a key fob I picked up at the "O" Store for my sister. I should have checked closer, because it has an etched water spot on it that won't come off. Luckily, my sister won't care.



This is a coffee mug I picked up for myself at the store also. I love the design & there were a ton of color choices to pick from. I also picked up a plum colored one for the lady that was willing to watch Brooke for us that day. Bless her heart, she was wonderful!!

I'm getting caught up....I think!

I have to say, it's been a busy month for doing projects that have deadlines. I've met most of them, but still dwindling away to finish the last touches on others. I had to complete a baby book before the end of May for my sister's staff manager. Here is the post showing that book. It's pretty simple, but since she's not a scrapbooker by any means, she thought it was amazing. I was happy with how it turned out, considering I did 13 pages AND the cover, inside & out, in less than a week! If anyone knows me, I don't pump out the projects all that quickly, so this was a major accomplishment for me!

Below is a graduation card I made for the son of some friends of ours. I had just used a pretty simple design & added some touches of orange, since his school colors are orange & black. I haven't heard his or his mother's thoughts on the card yet, but I hope they liked it.

















Next, is a word sign that I altered by special order for a lady that frequented my booth at a spring craft show. She loved the ones I had, but none of them matched her decor & asked if I could do a special order. It took me 2 months to get it done because I was having some difficulty finding the tan, brown & sage green in patterned papers. Finally, when The Memory Zone had totally redid their inventory, they must have decided to bring out some of their old stuff & there it was! Not that old, but a bit older Making Memories papers that were perfect, oh so I had hoped....

I finished the sign in a day & showed it to her & she said she "absolutely loved it!" The colors were perfect. I hope she wasn't just saying that, but she seemed genuinely happy with the sign.

I know you might not be able to see some of the details, but the "F" & "L" are embossed with some Cuttlebug embossing folders. Maybe, if you click on the picture, it might show you a larger image. So then, I also took the same green embossed paper & put it under the leaf cutouts on the "M" for another little added interest. The lady thought there might be others that she works with that might want one of their own, so she asked me for my name & phone #. I guess we'll see!

Well, I think I will call it a day today. Been really busy with 2 Bible school sessions & swimming lessons every day. I'm kinda whooped!

God Bless & have a great day!
Beth

It is June, right?

Well, for being the 3rd day of June, you'd never know it by how the day looks & feels here in North Central Indiana. It's only supposed to be in the low 60's for a high today. Global warming? Come to Indiana my friends, you'd never believe what the scientists are telling us. We haven't really had a warm May or June for several years now.

I do have to say that this has been the most normal winter & spring we've had in ages. I think with all the reduction in driving automobiles & trying to cut back on natural gas usage, because of the ridiculously high fuel prices, it just might have helped a bit in that factor. It's just my theory...

So, I've been kinda blog hoppin' this morning, because it is so cool & gloomy outside today, that I came across this blog that is having a pretty awesome Blog give-away! You gotta go check it out & maybe even try for your own chance at winning it! The blog is by Melissa Bove & her blog is called "Creating from the Heart". She has some very creative inspiration to look at, as well. Trust me, go check her out! You won't be disappointed - even if you don't enter her give-away.

Well, some good friends of mine are in the process of having their baby boy today. Shoot, he might even be here by now! I've been working on another baby boy mini album for her too, similar to the one posted below. I've only gotten up to month 6 completed, but making good progress on months 7 & 8-need more cardstock. I most likely won't be getting the book to them until this weekend, at the earliest, so I have a few more days to work on it. I'm putting quite a bit more detail into this than the last one, that's why it's taking me longer, but it will still be 2-13 page mini albums in 2 weeks. That's an all time record for me!

And so, I'll end this for today, but be sure to check out Melissa's blog!

God Bless & have a good day!
Beth

Memorial Weekend

So, the Memorial weekend is over & it's back to the routine, except for one less day to work in the week. I don't have a job outside the home, so it's only different that my hubby will be away for work 4 days.

We didn't do anything special at all for the weekend. We picked up my sister, who has Down's Syndrome, for the weekend. We don't always have her stay with us during the Memorial weekend. Sometimes she has plans with others where she lives & wants to be there instead. It does kind of make it nice, because then we can do what we want as a family without having to figure out how to accommodate my sister's "needs" with her medications & breathing machine, etc.... She's not much trouble really, but I'm just not used to having to worry about some else's med schedule. I'm just not a very good hostess, I guess. I'm not used to it, since we rarely have visitors & we didn't when I was growing up either, so I never was taught how be with guests. I do alright, but my husband is much better at it. It's also weird for me to treat my sister as a guest. She's my sister that I lived with & helped take care of for 18 years.

Anyway, my sister's staff manager just had a baby boy on Thursday. I wanted to make her a small scrapbook of her baby's first year with a page for each month. It's not a fancy book, but I was pleased with how it turned out. She's not a scrapbooker, so she might appreciate it a little more than an avid scrapbooker might. I only had a week to work on it, plus I made a matching card to give with it & I even covered the book itself with flocked paper.

Here are the pics of it (the last photo is of the card & if you click on a pic, it will show you a larger detailed version):







































































Have a great day & God bless!!
Beth

Waaaay late, but....

I came across this poem on Cosmo Cricket's blog today & just HAD to post it here. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, but most of all, it will make you glad that you're a mom (if you are) & it will make you appreciate your own mom (hopefully).

Happy Mother's Day!

This poem was read in my church today, and I loved it and just wanted to share. Have a happy Mother's Day!!

For All Us Moms Out There

This is for all the mothers who have sat up all night with sick toddlers in their arms, wiping up barf laced with Oscar Mayer wieners and cherry Kool-Aid saying, "It's OK honey, Mommy's here."

For the mothers who walk around the house all night with their babies when they keep crying and won't stop.

This is for all the mothers who show up at work with spit-up in their hair and milk stains on their blouses and diapers in their purse.

For all the mothers who run carpools and make cookies and sew Halloween costumes. And for all the mothers who DON'T.

This is for the mothers who gave birth to babies they'll never see. And for the mothers who took those babies and gave them homes.

This is for all the mothers who froze their buns off on metal bleachers at baseball games Friday night instead of watching from cars, so that when their kids asked, "Did you see me?" they could say, "Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world," and mean it.

This is for all the mothers who yell at their kids in the grocery store and swat them in despair when they stomp their feet like a tired 2-year old who wants ice cream before dinner.

This is for all the mothers who sat down with their children and explained all about making babies.

And for all the mothers who wanted to but just couldn't.

For all the mothers who read "Goodnight, Moon" twice a night for a year. And then read it again. "Just one more time."

This is for all the mothers who taught their children to tie their shoelaces before they started school. And for all the mothers who opted for Velcro instead.

This is for all the mothers who teach their sons to cook and their daughters to sink a jump shot.

This is for all mothers whose heads turn automatically when a little voice calls "Mom?" in a crowd, even though they know their own offspring are at home.

This is for all the mothers who sent their kids to school with stomach aches, assuring them they'd be just FINE once they got there, only to get calls from the school nurse an hour later asking them to please pick them up......right away.

This is for mothers whose children have gone astray, who can't find the words to reach them.

For all the mothers who bite their lips sometimes until they bleed - when their 14 year olds dye their hair green.

What makes a good Mother anyway?

Is it patience?

Compassion?

Broad hips?

The ability to nurse a baby, cook dinner, and sew a button on a shirt, all at the same time?

Or is it heart?

Is it the ache you feel when you watch your son or daughter disappear down the street, walking to school alone for the very first time?

The jolt that takes you from sleep to dread, from bed to crib at 2 A.M. to put your hand on the back of a sleeping baby?

The need to flee from wherever you are and hug your child when you hear news of a fire, a car accident, a child dying?

For all the mothers of the victims of all these school shootings, and the mothers of those who did the shooting.

For the mothers of the survivors, and the mothers who sat in front of their TVs in horror, hugging their child who just came home from school, safely.

This is for mothers who put pinwheels and teddy bears on their children's graves.

This is for young mothers stumbling through diaper changes and sleep deprivation.

And mature mothers learning to let go.

For working mothers and stay-at-home mothers.

Single mothers and married mothers.

Mothers with money, mothers without.

This is for you all.

~ Author Unknown ~