WWwwwwwwwwwwwwooo Hoooo - New Blinkie and kit and layout!

 My new outlook on scrapping is fun and so, so, so enjoyable!  I love Dawn Inskip and Gabs is her CT Lead, and has been designing for a bit over at Scrappity Doo Dah!  I have been watching her close, cause she is funkified and I like that!  I won a kit and loved it.  Played with it, and then applied for her CT, and kinda hounded her (during the blessed soccer too) Go Germany!  I think she is gonna give us all gifts if Germany wins!
So her precious daughter is turning 7, and she made this kit for her:
Sweets for My Sweets:

I loved it and her CT-wow! They are some talented ladies, I was a bit nervous, as they had already done their layouts!! But I persevered and made a layout from my heart:

I am enjoying CTing all over and making fun layouts just for me also.  Scrap is good!

Getting READY to GO!

I have the afternoon nothing to do...kids are out playing and I NEEDED to scrap! I am all caught up with my CT obligations, awaiting new releases tomorrow.  So I thought I would do some shopping.
I found this mini kit of Cari Creates over at Sunshine Scraps:

Perfect for a little project.  My hubby of 20 years and I are leaving for 6 days.  Leaving my kids with a precious friend.  We are driving 10 hours on Sunday, and then 3 1/2 Monday morning to Prescott, Arizona!  It is for a conference for our church fellowship!  I am so excited to hear the preaching and see friends from all over!  I thought I could do a mini photo book, and this is the first page:

An epiphany of sorts!

There are these 3 ladies, that I chat with in scrapland.  They were like teachers, scrappers who are just beyond good, they are fabulous.

Kate from Scrap Book Graphics, the fearless chat leader of the Tuesday evening Ladies of the Night Chat.  She organizes with lists and games that make the chat hilarious and faced paced!  She also is a fanTAB ulous scrapper...she ALways has the wow factor, ALWAYS!
During the contest over 10 or more weeks, Kate taught me a lot about scrapping, blending and laughter at yourself.
The woman is HE larry US!
Then another named MissBehaving, I seriously thought she was an old woman living in a senior home in Florida when I first met her.  I had never heard of her, or her tutorials.  Yeah, I live under a rock!  Miss Behaving won the Layout of the millennium some where important.  She is that good.  She also teaches shadows and Photo Shop and people pay her...good duckets!
Then Chengie, who lives in Suriname, a country in South America, by Brazil! I actually met her because of a prank she pulled in chat, that I was privy too...it blossomed into a friendship!
These 3 ladies are my friends.  They babble to me, and help me to enjoy the scrap process.  I am on alot of CTs, I like to stay busy, and I like the designers that let me rearrange their kits.  I was getting rejection after rejection and I think it was miss be, says, what is your style, what do you love? I had no answer...I just did layouts.
Well, that night, or early morning I lay in bed, thinking what and why do I scrap? I like learning things, I love opening a new kit, and I love writing about the kits and the layout.  I really like the writing part!  I think actually that is why I apply, I like to send funny letters to the designers, and figure if they think I am funny, my mediocre scrapping will be okay!
So I got up this morning and made two fun - just for me layouts.  I laughed all the way thru them!
I have no credits, because this is just for me...and that is how I play when I am furiously creating an oasis of words in a sea of elements.
Rule #1 (this is my rule, not enforceable to anyone but me)

then Rule #2-

I have a few more...but have to pull them out of my head and heart!

Got a few more rejections, do I let that get me down?????????? no way

I got two emails, thanks but no thanks, and then my heart sunk when Clementine's list came out and I was not included.  I read the list and was like oh wow, oh wow, there is some talent! I mean they are really really good, and do the manipulative things with photos.  I make clusters and cute layouts.  I just think Clementine is a neat person, and I will stalk her in normal ways now! ha ha
So, I have 3 or 4 more applications out there....but I wanted to scrap today!  Luckily, Dawn Inskip, has a store full of kits I have not even downloaded (yet, but I plan on having EVERYTHING in that store eventually).
I already had Pets Rejuvinated:

 so I downloaded this one, Cabbage Patch

and pulled some fun things from Vivre (my friend Julie) of Julie. Itis. over at Plain Digital Wrapper

 Now I had the stuff, I got playing and laughing.  This is my favorite way to scrap...pics recently taken.  Giggling at what happened as I took the pictures.  It helps me enjoy scrapping all over!  Now I am also in the middle of Miss Behaving's shadow class, so I am getting a bit carried away with shadows at present time... I beg your forgiveness!

Nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon, now it is time for a little nap before church tonight!

Just in Time for Independance Day

I am so enjoying rearranging all the pretty goodies, that Cari has in her kits. This newest one is no exception:  Spirit of ‘76 {the kit} – On sale for 30% off all weekend!

I went in the way back pictures to do this one...a float our church did years ago in Alamogordo.  It seriously was one of the best floats ever.  People were standing as it went by and cheering!
Makes you proud to be an American and even prouder to be a Christian! 

just funny things

My EHD, external hard drive died. I had just backed it up! well actually, transferred what I wanted and let the other stuff die with it. Very nice feeling!
Our local Winco, grocery store is remodeling. These are the signs up all over the store, so you know:

Can you see it? I just giggled...I bet you do too! lol

Abby is now the chicken girl of Yuba City. She sat in the coop. We had just moved it, so the floor was cleaner than the normal...nastiness.

She sat and feed them tomatoes. These girls love tomatoes! Two are a bit more tame, so she got to pet them. Abby is a bit scared of them, but she has much patience.

Here is a small video of her with the chickens


The little voice at the end is Anna, in two casts, that due to the dirtiness of the birds and things that can get on her casts we can't wash...she still has 4 more weeks of waiting to go in the coop!

We have a busy weekend. Tony is doing the Wednesday Bible Study on End Times, and last week was The Rapture! We had a full house and some fired up saints! We have outreach tonight.
It is a huge street party, last year, Alamogordo was here for it...thousands of people. This year our core of folks are gonna witness and invite to a movie;

Anna gets x-rays today on her arms. We have a follow up appointment Monday, so he can check and see how she is healing! We want the doctor to be amazed as they are both healed!

Carolyn Rose Kite-makes me smile.

I am on Carolyn's Team, for way over a year, think I am actually coming up on my 2nd year.  I have never downloaded a kit and not had her a kit within 48 hours!  I really love playing with her kits and love being a rabid creative team member.   I want her to be able to use my work for advertising.

Enter click, click, clicking of my EHD on Monday.  My smart hubby says, it's dieing hon, transfer all your stuff to your hard drive.  I listened! I also downloaded a few kits, and unzipped and filed...oops I filed on dying EHD.  It died.  Carolyn's new awesome and HUGE kit was on it! So now I can't get to it! She goes live with the kit, and the links are different.  I am freaking, and she resets my links and tells me to relax.  I can't, I have to get this done...aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...I sleep. 
Wake up to rebuy the in the store kit, I am telling you GO TO PICKLEBERRY POP and buy this kit!  Right now it is 35% off! Good deal!
Fruitopia!  It is huge:

 I played and got some funny pictures of my girls eating watermelon...Anna so cute in her watermelon colored casts, and Abby loving the yumminess of watermelon!

Salon FUN

Pickle Berry POP's Dawn Inskip has a fun new kit; The Salon

I had a blast playing with this kit.  The girls had given their hair for Locks of Love a few years ago, when we were still in Alamogordo, New Mexico.  I have had a layout done, but not the right elements, as soon as I saw this kit...I pulled my "work in progress" file out!

I also just wanted to play with the other fun elements, so I found this old pic when the girls were just 4 years old! oh so so little:

Just a fun time, love to play with Dawn Inskip's hand drawn ORIGINAL kits! 

A chance to win a kit!!!

This could be yours, easy peasy!

Detail LINK

Just in time for the big 4th of July!   Get ready now for fireworks and celebrating freedom! 

I won a KIT!

I was boppin' around digiland, and hadn't been to Scrappity Doo Dah...so I got myself all registered and looked around.  A few familiar faces, and some new ones.  Very welcoming place.  Those who know me, know that I am not a buyer of kits, but a connoisseur of creative teams.  I was also scanning the landscape for a designer named Gabs, whom is on Dawn's CT also.  She has a call going on, and I wanted to see her work in her house.
Well, she had a free pick a kit from my store and you might win!  I picked this nifty keen-O kit;

It is called Awaiting, and the colors of my dear Anna's casts. Yes, she has two! One green, one pink and the whole thing screamed make a layout of Anna!
I won it!!!

I love Gabs-Art! I then as a glutton for punishment, sent a begging letter to her for a spot on her CT.  Since I got 2 rejection letters today...and am a tough ol' bird...I figured...hey give it a whirl...worse she can do is say no! 
On a whole different note! I am taking classes from the great Miss Behaving over at Deviant Scraps.  A shadow class and an into to photoshop 101.  Both are superb, and my brain is oozing out of my ear with the knowledge!
Here is a little taste of my newly aquired shadows:

It is hard, she is tough, and has a full class.  I have been faithful to throw papers and drop books thru most of the class today. 

Flights of Fancy takes off!

Yeah, I know bad title, but let me tell ya, it is a beautiful kit; Flights of Fancy at Sunshine Studio Scraps, by the awesome designer Cari Cruse.  She is a hidden gem, I tell you...her blends and papers are wow, wow, wow...and she has an eye for putting a kit together. 

I had a picture I had to scrap...my kids being HE larry US....leaving notes on the door for our neighbors and me to read!  WE is Busy...little punks! As homeschoolers, we already get the weird looks, so the grammatically challenge sign...egads:

I hope you pop over and give Cari's designs a chance...she is really a superb designer!

Julie. It is.! and Remembrance

Have I told ya'll lately how much Julie. It is. is just awesome?  She lets me babble to her late into the night, makes me laugh, let me be on her CT and has beautiful kits.  She scraps her kits, which means when she is making a kit, she has a layout in mind for pictures, and it is rather cool to me.

Her newest kit; Remembrance is full of rich colors and distressed textures, Remembrance is perfect for scrapping everything from patriotic photos to masculine layouts. (some good description there huh? it is all Julie. It is.  Really.) I stole it from her kit description in her store over at Plain Digital Wrapper.  You see I do this to see if she reads my blog, I know she does, but it makes me feel good when she is laughing.

I had a really good time playing with this kit.  I know it is for memorial kinda layouts...but remembrance to me, is things my kids do.  So I remembered my girls and their smiles with matching holes in mouth from missing teeth.

I had a blast with the title...probably should have been bigger, now that I am in critique mode....but it was fun scratching the words on the wood!  Scratchy nail font and lowered bevels are fun!

Anna Bo Update

Monday morning, I got the insurance run around with the receptionist.  She was rude and snippy, and I was angry....very angry.  I called all around, found out she was lying and called again.  I was very business like and kind.  She hemmed and hawed and would not agree to see Anna.  By this time, I didn't want anyone in that office touching my little girl.  I am clueless to insurance.  I called around and found a clinic that said, bring her in at 1:30pm today...I cried.  The receptionist was so sweet and kind.
We got there and it was packed, wall to wall folks.  I had forgotten the insurance card (it was on my desk from all the phone calls I had made that morning) and my driver's license was in a book I had brought to the emergency room on the Saturday of Anna breaking her arm.  Luckily, I had my old New Mexico driver's license with me!!!
The nurse that took us in, was sweet and helped me to unwrap Anna's arms. 

The Doctor was even better!!  He was patient to Anna.  He explained what he was doing.  Once he relooked at the x-rays, he said, she had broke her right arm twice (little bone and big bone) and her left arm once.

So casts were next.  Anna had already told me her hopes for a bright green and bright pink colored cast. 
The nurse says let me tell you the colors we have, "Blue, purple....."
The doctor interrupts and says, "Pink and Green." 
Anna was flabbergasted. We told them that is exactly what she wanted.  The doctor chuckled and the two of them did marvelous team work, wrapping her arm:

 They had to set the bones.  I didn't realize that.  Once the casts were on, the doctor pulled her thumb toward him and the nurse pushed back on Anna's shoulders.  It was a lot of pressure, but Anna is so tough:

She really does amaze me, to be so small and just the best little patient.  So she is all classier with casts.  The doctor told her to use her arms, not to use a sling.  Run, play, but no swimming!

Anna is doing all that and more!  She carries her sharpie around so anyone and everyone can sign her casts.  She loves the questions and attention.  She can feed herself almost everything now, and can read books!  She is even still doing math and grammar!  ha ha I so win the mean mom award!

Templates that are What...Quickpages???

Quick pages are usually a flatten page..you pop a picture in and done.  Dawn Inskip has done Above and Beyond templates!  They are indeed Above and Beyond! These templates have the opening for a pictures, but layers that you can rearrange, change the papers if you want, and elements that all match lovely.  You can add to them if you desire! The even come with lovely shadows!  I love this newspaper one, look at the glasses! The glass seems to magnify and everything!
I did a layout of dear Anna and her broken armS, yes, both of them!

I played a lot with this one, changing the colors and brought in some of Dawn Inskip's other designs. To highlight the Sutter Buttes mountain range here in our town!

This one comes in blue or pink, and I played with the blue one, to do a layout of Eric.  He is making breakfast for the whole family on Christmas morning.  I love that he is wearing his new San Diego Charger football jersey and my apron to keep it covered.

All of these templates are available NOW at Pickle Berry Pop with a 20% savings as new releases...hurry!

I found an AMAZING designer!

I love to read CT Calls, I like to look at the new designers, or at least new to me. I stumbled across Cari Cruse. You all probably already knew about her...but wow oh wow! I loved her CT call ad, and then went to her store over at Sunshine Studio Scraps.
Look at her newest:
That kit alone made me smile and want to apply, then I went to her blog. She is a homeschooler who survived!! I loved her whole attitude. I sent my begging letter, and she chose me!! I am very honored!
Her blinkie made me out and out giggle:Mad skills! oh this is gonna be fun!

Last time I take off!

It is safer, I tell you to stay on line! My daughter broke both her arms Saturday! I have some fun news to tell later...but just wanted to let you know, you can see my "real" life blog HERE

Double Trouble

Having children can make for an adventure! My kids love garage sales. They get up early on Saturdays to go around the neighborhood. It is more for the search of free things!
I send the cell phone with Eric, in case they find something we can not live without. When the home phone rang I figure it was them with such a find.
It was Eric, with his big voice, "Mom, can you come get us on Crest? Anna fell and broke both her arms."
I whooshed around the house getting keys and Tony jumped in the van and we drove around the block to my crying girl!! They had her in the shade. Her bike was all mangled.Apparently, she had crashed the front of her bike into the back of Eric's.

She is a little trooper, this video had me rolling: