Challenge #4 and a long post

Time for the announcement of the 4th challenge.

I have decided to take on.....

Combine black & white and color in a layout

You can take this however you want.

I might go a different route with this one than one might think....we'll see.

I wanted to post a few more pictures from the crop....I'm sure everyone that is in these pictures will be very pleased to see that their close ups made it into my blog.



This one up here was being ornery and wouldn't let me take her picture.




Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE how fast my camera can take a picture. I can say someone's name and they turn and.... SNAP....I got their picture.

My old camera could never do that....I always missed all the good shots.


It is so good to be at home tonight with the family. I definitely missed them yesterday while I was at the crop. Even though they visited me a couple of times AND I came home to a clean house with all the dishes done....WHOO HOO....I told Troy I should leave more often!

This whole past week has just been completely screwed up with meals, bedtimes, naptime...you name it. So this week it is all about getting back on track.

As I mentioned before Khloe is in her "testing" stage. Which means she likes to try and get away with A LOT.

For the past month or so she has started hitting a little bit. Not real hard...just a little swat at us....when she is being ornery and doesn't like to do something that we tell her. Just for verification I will add that we DO NOT hit her....so this behavior is not coming from us.

Nevertheless, we don't stand for hitting at our house.

So when she tries to hit us we always say "Don't hit me" and then we explain that "We don't hit at our house." We always make her say I'm sorry when she does this. Usually resulting in a fight to get her to do so....but it gets done.

So today she started to raise her hand to me and I gave her the eye and SHE said "Don't hit me."

Ah yes, did I forget to mention that she loves to repeat ANYTHING that we say right now.

Now this wouldn't be that bad...because obviously she recognizes that she shouldn't be hitting us and that is what we tell her when she does it.

But of course my only thought is of me standing in the middle of Target with her again and all of a sudden Khloe shouts "Don't hit me." That outta be good, right? I'm sure I won't get any stares at all! I think we will be putting ALL public outings on hold for awhile....just so social services don't show up at our house.

Oh the joys of the terrible twos.....although people keep telling me that the twos are nothing...just wait till the threes.

We really can't wait....but moments like the ones that I posted over on my 365 days blog make it all worth it!

Challenge #3 Results

My challenge for this week was

Use a grid as a basis for a page layout

Here is my page that I finished....

I am pretty pleased with the results...especially considering the week that I had. It was a busy one. Although I did realize after I did this page that I have about 3 pages done right now of Khloe at 10 months. The real problem is that I still have about 3 or 4 different sets of pictures that I want to use and they are all 10 month pictures! HA

I guess when you have your first child you really do take pictures of EVERYTHING! But I can't bear not to use some of them.



I used my Marvy "Straight" Paper Crimper for the squares in the grid. I love this tool and use it ALL the time now! I need to invest in another one that makes a different pattern.

There is post number two today.

I will be back later tonight with my next challenge and also I will post more pictures from the event either tonight or tomorrow!

Snowflake Scrap

We made it!

12 hours.....that actually went really fast.

We had a blast....at least I did....I presume everyone else did to!

We even had a little jam out session at the end with a very enthusiastic dancer....thanks for the entertainment Melissa! :)

Here are a few pictures from the day



For being scrapbookers, I was in amazement that no one wanted their picture taken! :)

I did the flower tutorial and then after everyone had finished making their flowers I gave them about 15 minutes to create a card with it. I was going to judge and pick one. I honestly thought this would be an easy task...I mean what can one do in 15 minutes.

Well I was blown away. Here are the results of all the flower cards...I tried to capture them all...sorry if I missed a couple.



So as you can probably guess....I could not pick a winner. So I picked out three cards and let everyone come up and vote on them. These two tied.



So they both got a prize! :)

It was a great day and I think everyone had fun! Hopefully everyone got lots accomplished!

I will be sending out pictures in emails later for everyone as well as posting some more pictures tonight. You didn't really think that the close ups were going to get left out did you? :)

I have a lot more to post today including my finished challenge page from the week and my new challenge for this week. We have to head to a birthday party right now, but you will probably see at least 2 or 3 more posts from me today....as well as my updated 365 days pictures when I get back.

long days

These last few days have been really really long trying to work and get ready for the scrapbook event. I have tons and tons of pictures to post for both this blog and my other blog. But right at the moment I am headed to bed....sorry!

I will try to post tomorrow night after the event, but I will most likely just have a few BIG posts on Sunday.....thanks for hanging in these past few days. I was hoping to have internet at the event so I could post all day, but unfortunately that won't be happening!

Things will be back to normal come Sunday....well as normal as they ever are around our house! :)

paper flowers

I've been working on stuff for the event this weekend and decided on a little tutorial for my make and take....

Paper flowers

Love them!

I'll post the tutorial after the event.

I can't help myself

Here is my little darling...all innocent that she is.

She does this thing with her eyes when she wants something. She moves them all the way over and looks at you just out of the very corners and kinda tilts her head a certain way.

Then she holds up 1 finger and in the cutest little voice you can ever imagine, says "One more, peeasse."

IRRESISTIBLE...and the little rat knows it.

What, you ask, does she want?


POP

We are not huge pop drinkers at our house...usually Friday nights with pizza we have a pop...yes...usually only one a week...sometimes two. However Troy came in for lunch yesterday and had a frozen pizza and pop for lunch.

The little munchkin hears the can open and marches right over to the drawer and reaches her little paw in and pulls out a straw. She then heads over pushes up a chair next to her new best friend and cocks her head and pushes the eyes to the corner and pleads.


And as usual when this voice comes out this is the result......


Why does she love pop so, you ask?



Because it "tickles my nose" of course.

doodling

I have had a lot of questions regarding the Wacom Bamboo Craft Tablet I received for Christmas.

I honestly have not have that much time to play around with it yet, but I just wanted to post an example of what you can do with it....and one of my main purposes for wanting it.

You can use your own handwriting to write on pictures. I thought this would be a neat addition to my scrapbooking.

As I discover more things to do with it I will share. I have a few other things I'm working on right now with it...but they aren't finished yet.

Too many irons in the fire right now...especially this week getting ready for the crop on Saturday.

I'll be posting all week on things that will be happening this weekend at the crop. Can't wait!

P.S. This photo was taken with my old camera (not my dslr) I cannot believe the difference in quality. It is really hard for me to go back and scrap these pictures compared to my new ones!

Challenge #3

Alright I have my next challenge for the week picked out. I have decided on....

Use a grid as a basis for a page design

This one should be interesting. I have a few ideas floating around in my head for this one.

I better get moving on this one with the scrapbook event approaching this next weekend. That means I need to, in all likelihood, have this layout finished by Friday.

That would be a first!

Well first things first, I'm off to choose my pictures!

Challenge #2

WOW!

I cannot believe it is already Sunday night.

The weekend has flown by once again.

Unreal.

So I had planned to post this a little sooner today....but I fell asleep with Khloe at naptime and ended up sleeping for 2.5 hours. I know...definitely not planned for my day...but it sure felt good!

So here is my second challenge finished...whoo hoo! Only 50 more weeks to go! ha ha

The challenge was:

Highlight - don't hide - an imperfect shot

I did decide to go with the picture I had planned on. Here are the results

I always always keep the punch outs from my letters and try and use those in my layouts as well. It is a great way to get double the number of letters out of a box.

I had some cork board laying around from a bulletin board I did and decided to incorporate it into this page.




I really like how it turned out.

Doing these pages again has led me to remember how short on paper I am. I have tons of it...but not tons of full 12x12 sheets. I am really really trying not to buy too much more stuff until I use up some of my stash.

But a few things here and there though never hurt, right? :)

I will post the next challenge later tonight.

I am loving my decision to make this a goal for 2010. I feel like I'm going to accomplish so much more scrapbooking by doing these challenges.

It FORCES me to get it done! Which some weeks is what I need! :)

tgif

Ahhh another week done...well not quite. I still have to work a little bit tomorrow...but I love my Friday nights.

I did some printing on my new printer today. I can't believe the quality! I love it. I honestly think the pictures are better than the ones I have been printing from Snapfish. I'm using one of the pictures on my layout this week. It is soooo nice to be able to just print a picture if I need to instead of ordering one and waiting a week or two for it to come. I'm actually looking at getting the bigger printer that I had talked about earlier. It prints up to 13x19 prints. It is on sale this week for $100 and is usually $300. Can I really pass that deal up? :)

It is nice to have an early night at home. I got done working at 5 and we had supper, dishes done and bath done by 6. AMAZING!!!! I can honestly say that will not happen again for at least another 6 months. It is only 7 and we don't even know what to do with ourselves! Time to pull out a movie I guess!

love it

I've been searching out what photo to use for my next challenge and I almost can't resist this one. I love this picture...even though it is a little blurry in spots.

Still trying to decide...I have deleted most of my blurry shots simply because I always think I have better ones so why use a blurry one. So this challenge should be interesting.

I'm getting a little bit nervous for the scrapbooking event next weekend. I am hearing massive amounts of snow are supposed to be headed our way. I'm hoping we won't have to reschedule...aughhhh.

I should have known better than to plan an event during the winter, but it is always nice to get out of the house for a fun day. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I just ordered all of the gifts and prizes yesterday and am pretty excited to start putting those together. I'll give you a little sneak peak on one of the gifts....



I can't resist these Smooch inks...especially the new colors they came out with that I ordered. I can't wait to see them!

Challenge #2

After much consideration (I can't believe how long it takes me to pick out a challenge), I have decided on my next challenge for the week.

Highlight - don't hide - an imperfect shot

Translation: Have a photo that is over exposed, blurry, has shadows, etc be the focus of your page.

We'll see what I can come up with for this. I know I have had plenty of these shots...question is did I keep them or delete them?!?!


I have been keeping my eye on the Golden Globes tonight....kinda boring is the first thought that comes to mind....except for Ricky Gervais (sp?). I usually like to watch for the clothes and hair....I haven't seen anything too impressive tonight. Time for a break I guess...I can catch the rest on dvr tomorrow.

Challenge #1 Results

The first challenge I decided to take on was:

Let a song lyric inspire a layout

I decided to go with one of my favorite songs right now which is "The Best Day" by Taylor Swift. I don't know if anyone else is familiar with this song....but I about cry each time I listen to it.

I love it!

Here is my end result....

I love how it turned out. I love all of the bright colors, the big chipboard letters with the yellow brackets, using kraft paper instead of white, and most of all the simplicity of it.

I think this is the least amount of paper or embellishments I have ever used on a page....but I love it. Using less really makes the title and pictures jump out a lot more.


From the looks of it you probably would never have guessed that I struggled with this page. It had been awhile since I had scrapped a page and I am definitely a "thinker" on each page that I do. I can't guess the average amount of time it takes for me to complete a page. I always figure though....why wouldn't I take my time and make each page look as good as I possibly can? I want it to look unique and fun, otherwise I would just slap the photos in a photo album, right?

My objective behind Khloe's album is to have it be more of a story to her. When I do journaling on a page I make a heart at the bottom and sign each one with mama...and now as she gets older with mommy because that is what she calls me now. By the looks of all the pictures I have her books are going to be filled to the brim. I want every fun event included for her to look back on.

I will be posting my next challenge later today! If anyone is taking up the challenges with me please email me some of your pictures! I would love to see them!

glimmer

Khloe and I had our first real mommy/daughter shopping trip yesterday and surprisingly it went great! Even through the long car ride there really were no tears, no screaming fits, no temper tantrums, etc.

The only thing that comes to mind was being in Target and she was sitting in the cart trying to get her coat off and she has recently decided that she needs to do EVERYTHING herself. There can be no help from us. So I tried to help take her coat off and she SCREAMED...."NO...DO IT"....which translates to "No, let me do it and if you try and help me I'm going to let everyone in this store know what is going on." So I pulled back and kept my head down and tried to imagine that not one of the 50 people that were standing around me heard my daughter. Don't worry I have a really good imagination! Thank goodness that is the only thing that resulted in any kind of screaming yesterday and as soon I as turned away from her she calmed down and got her own coat off. PHEW!

We hit Archivers first....of course. For those of you who have never been in there...which I was probably the only scrapbooker alive who had not....get there FAST!!! I don't think I had ever set foot in one until about 6 months or a year ago. I know...can you believe it? So we started there and if there was ever a doubt in my mind that Khloe was not my daughter (even though the delivery process is still firmly implanted in my mind) all of my wondering has stopped. She LOVES that store. Which is maybe a little dangerous...but we have a few years yet I figure.

We picked up some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist...which I have never used and am extremely excited to try. I was going to pick up some of their masks, but decided I would just try to make my own on my cricut. I also picked up some of these Piggy Tales "pig tails." I've never used these before either and thought they might be something fun to try. Make some sort of three dimensional page or something. Interesting aren't they? They might require a bit more thought before I use them.

I am going to start work on my challenge page tonight...I work better under pressure. It should be a fun weekend!

a new day

Alright, on to better days after the one I had yesterday!

My original story yesterday was going to be about the new printer I purchased! I'm sooo excited to get it. I am probably in the dark ages for not having a photo printer, but I have been putting it off and putting it off because I just didn't want to do the research and didn't want to spend the money.

Finally I did the research and I decided it wasn't going to be too bad after all. I decided to go with the HP Photosmart Premium All in One. I ordered it directly from HP for two reasons. I figured if something was wrong with it I was hoping it would be easier to get it solved directly with them (I read mixed reviews on customer service) and also with me buying additional ink the printer and ink ended up being cheaper than anywhere else I saw it.

I really really really wanted a printer that would print 12x12 pages....but decided against getting one. Number one they were much much more expensive and number two I couldn't find one that I liked that came with a scanner. So I decided to go with this one.

I haven't had much experience with printers at all. For the money I thought this was the best choice to try one out. It was on sale and the ink is cheap...compared to others. In fact when I ordered the printer I got some additional ink right away too and one of them only cost me $5! Not bad....

I'm hoping to receive it before the weekend so I can try using it for my first challenge page....no I have not started yet.....eek!

live and learn

Well I had a totally different post planned for today until I tried to use my credit card this morning.

So this is just a reminder to all of you out there who use credit cards...which I would assume is everyone.

I ordered a new printer today (which I will talk about later now) and was trying to use my credit card to order it and the man kept telling me my credit card would not go through. I thought...ok this has happened before...sometimes when they are working on the computers at the credit card company for some reason my card won't go through at that exact moment. Run it again, I told him. Nope, sorry, he said, it won't go through.

So I got off the phone with him and called the credit card company. I immediately knew something was wrong when they directed me to customer service right away...I mean how many menus and pushing buttons do you usually have to go through to get to a customer service rep, right?

So the woman on the other line says "I'm sorry, but there have been fraudulent charges on your card, I need to direct you to security." As I'm sitting in my chair waiting, I'm wondering if I'm going to pass out first or have a heart attack and then pass out. You know that sinking feeling you get when your blood runs cold, you hands start to shake, and your heart starts racing.

Yep...that's the one.

So security comes on and asks me to verify everything of course...all while I can barely choke out the words because I'm so shaken up. Evidently at the end of last week there was a very small charge on my card...and then today there was a MASSIVE charge on my card. "WHAT?" I exploded on the phone....the poor woman on the other end was probably debating calling 911 for me. Between my hyperventilating and questions she kept saying "calm down ma'am...it's ok."

So she got me calmed down enough to explain what was going to happen. The guy was probably checking to see if the card worked by putting a very small amount on it and then wait a couple of days and sent the whopper charge through.

So thanks to some idiot who wanted to steal my credit card I now get to fill out tons of paperwork and have to worry about having my identity stolen.

At least there is a little light at the end of the tunnel...I do have 0% fraud liability on my card. Let's just hope that holds up.

Why me? I kept thinking. This kind of stuff doesn't happen to us!

BUT IT DID!

LESSON LEARNED!!! BE CAREFUL!

Keep your eyes open and check over your credit cards, personal information, etc. Make sure you know your credit card companies terms on fraud, because it can happen to you.

Trust me when I say you don't want to go through this mess.

So although it was not about scrapbooking...I hope everyone learned something today...because I know it was definitely a wake up call for me.

Challenge #1

Alright, it is time to start my first challenge from the
52 more scrapbooking challenges.

If you missed the post talking about the challenges refer back here.

I spent about 10 minutes looking through my pictures and I knew immediately which ones I wanted to use and which challenge I was going to take on first!

It is challenge #4 in the book (I will not be going in order):

Let a song lyric inspire a layout

I'm very excited about this one and the more I think about it, the more songs come to mind to use, but I know which one will be perfect for my page.

Hopefully you decide to join in the fun! It starts now!

been working

I've been busy for the last couple of weeks working on my announcement that is coming up. I'm getting pretty excited for it and hope to have it posted in a couple more weeks. I was going to post a little teaser....but I think I'm just going to wait till the project is complete.

On a different note...today was the last day for registration to the Snowflake Scrap. If you have not gotten your registration in please contact me!



I am gearing up for my 1st challenge that I will start on Sunday. First things first...my working space desperatly needs to be cleaned before I can accomplish anything. I also need to find some pictures and try to figure out what my first challenge will be.

I looked through the book last night and just for an instance thought that I had maybe bit off more than I could chew. But I think it will be fun and refreshing and a great way to get some creative juices flowing. So bring it on!


And of course it's hard to leave without a picture of Khloe. This is one I took when we went looking for our Christmas tree.

scrapbooking goal

I have been having a really hard time finding time to fit in scrapbooking lately and I definitely need to re-establish that in my life. So one of my goals this year is to complete all 52 of Elizabeth Kartchner's scrapbooking challenges from her new book

WHEW....I know it will be a challenge, but I'm up for it. I need something new and refreshing to help me get back into it. I figure I will take each challenge and work on it throughout a weeks time. I know I am already a week or so behind, but I'm sure I can play catch up at some point.

I wanted a few goals on my list this year that were definitely achievable, but not too easy. Allowing myself a week for each challenge SHOULD allow me to accomplish that goal (keep your fingers crossed for me). I'm planning to start on Sunday and will be posting the first challenge. After that I plan to post each new challenge on Sunday along with my page from the week that I completed.

That is my PLAN....should it not work every single week throughout the whole year it will be darn close...give or take here or there! ;)

The great part is when I announce which challenge I am taking on for the week you have the choice to begin that challenge with me! If you are up to the challenge of the week, email me your completed page at the end of the week. I would love to post some different examples of that challenge on my blog.

an amazing year

I have my goals in place and my mind ready to make 2010 an amazing year. I am watching Heidi's live webcast tonight. Troy was kind enough to put her to bed tonight...which worked out perfect because she wanted to lay with him tonight anyways! :)

I thought that I would share one of my goals for 2010 with you.

I have been having a really hard time finding time to fit in scrapbooking lately and I definitely need to re-establish that in my life. So one of my goals for 2010 is to complete all 52 of Elizabeth Kartchner's scrapbooking challenges from her new book. WHEW....I know it will be a challenge, but I'm up for it. I need something new and refreshing to help me get back into it. I figure I will take each challenge and work on it throughout a weeks time. I know I am already a week or so behind, but I'm sure I can play catch up at some point.

I wanted a few goals on my list this year that were definitely achievable, but not too easy. Allowing myself a week for each challenge SHOULD allow me to accomplish that goal (keep your fingers crossed for me). I'm planning to start on Sunday and will be posting the first challenge. After that I plan to post each new challenge on Sunday along with my page from the week that I completed.

That is my PLAN....should it not work every single week throughout the whole year it will be darn close...give or take here or there! ;)

The great part is when I announce which challenge I am taking on for the week you have the choice to begin that challenge with me! If you are up to the challenge of the week, email me your completed page at the end of the week. I would love to post some different examples of that challenge on my blog.

reminder

I just wanted to remind everyone that the deadline for the Snowflake Scrap is January 8th...which is Friday! So if you have NOT gotten your registration forms in....get to it! :)

If you are interested in coming and did not receive a form in the mail please email me and I can get your registered! My email address is paperscrappin@q.com.

Hope to see everyone there....and also hoping for good weather!

Our life....365 days a year

Last year I came across an idea to take a picture a day for 365. I honestly can't remember where I saw it...there are so many people doing it now. But of course it was in March or April when I saw it so I thought it was kinda pointless to start then. I put it on my to do list for 2010. Well the clock struck midnight the other night and I started clicking away on my camera.

I have had my scrapbook layout for these pictures all planned out for awhile now. I also thought it would be something fun to share with everyone, but I wasn't quite sure how to go about doing that. I didn't really want to take up a post on my blog with my "picture of the day" so....what to do?

I was going through my blog roll to see if I could find a solution to my problem and I clicked on to Talia's blog. She is also doing the 365 pictures. She decided to start a new blog just for the pictures....duh, why didn't I think of that?

Sometimes you just need someone else to flip that switch for you.

So the work has begun on my new blog! Just what I needed...one more project, right? There will be a link to the new blog on my sidebar in case you decide to check it out. Don't expect anything to fancy! I just think it is such a great way to capture those everyday moments that we always just let pass us by. I know I will have fun looking back on all those pictures someday!

It isn't too late to start your picture of the day! It only takes a minute!

I have a little bit bigger announcement that will be coming soon as well!

welcome 2010

Doesn't 2010 feel good?!?!?! I am sooo ready for a fresh start, new opportunities, and new achievements both persnally and professionally.

I decided to start my year off by putting my goals in writing on New Year's Eve.

Then yesterday I checked out Heidi's blog and found her idea for a "simply amazing" year. I can't resist...it looks too "amazing" to pass up! So I am going to print up my sheets for it today and get started. I'm so excited for this journey in 2010!

Also, if you have never checked out House of 3 and you are a digital scrapbooker be sure and check it out while you are printing off your sheets for your "simply amazing" year! I get a lot of my digital stuff there. They have great items and lots of fun ideas!

Meanwhile, at my house....we are kid free! My parents took Khloe last night for a sleepover and she is spending most of the day there today. Which means.....lots of scrapbooking time for me. I can't wait to get the creative juices flowing! I also have a lot in store for my blog this year and can't wait to get started!

I'll leave you with a picture of Khloe I took the other night. We have had a few trying weeks/months at our house. Khloe has definitely discovered her independence and likes to see how far she can push it sometimes. I guess that is what they call the "terrible twos." You know, you just always hope your kid somehow passes that over...but it didn't work out for us.

She is also getting teeth and only has two left to get...thank goodness! She has NEVER done well with teething.

Hopefully 2010 also brings us some more sleep at night. She was sleeping through the night for awhile after she got her tonsils/adenoids out and now we are back to not sleeping through the night.

Does this ever get any easier? On second thought....don't answer that...I don't think I want to know! :)

But moments like this make it all worth it!