My First Published Layout!

I am officially a published scrapbooker!  Yahoo!

Fifteen years of scrapbooking.
Numerous tries.
Many rejections.

 

You will find me on page 205 in the June Issue of Scrapbook Generation's CREATE magazine.

Only one teeny, weeny, itsy, bitsy problem…

...they spelled my name wrong!  

Ack!  

Oh well, any press is good press, right?

I seriously could not be any happier!  It's a great feeling to see your work in a magazine!  Even if they're not really printed anymore...

Here is the LO in all of its glory:

I remember Gavin’s 3-month photo shoot…trying so hard to capture his new baby grin and new emerging personality and his first "tummy" pose.  So, when I was finally able to get it scrapbooked, my mission was exactly the same.  Imagine my delight when I found baby boy papers/stickers to match the stuffed-monkey-growth-measuring animal we’d been using all these months!

The LO was actually based on the April, 2014 Scrapbook Generation sketch.  They release new, FREE sketches every month.  I simply answered the call for submission.

Take a closer look at the detail:

Is that hand stitching you ask?  Yes.  It.  Is.  Painstakingly poked, threaded and stitched with three-ply embroidery floss.  But, I love the dimension it adds to the LO and it is so perfect for a kid-themed project.  If you are as old as me, you might remember the yarn stitching cards we practiced on when we were kids...with a giant needle!

I have mentioned plenty of times how much I love Scrapbook Generation Sketches/Books.  They really help me when my creativity goes on hiatus.

Most of the products I used were from Doodlebug Design (they make the cutest darn kid products -- bar none).

 

Products I used:

• Snips & Snails Icons cardstock stickers
• Snips & Snails Cute Cuts cardstock die cuts
• Snips & Snails Cardstock:
• Monkey Business
• Nursery Stripe
• Bazzill Cardstock
• Fancy Pants Royal Blue Large alpha stickers

Now, I just need to do the LO's for Gavin's 4 month shoot, 5 month, 6 month, One! etc. 
Get the picture?

Have a very safe and happy 4th of July!  See you on the flipside.

Niagara Falls

Well, what a neglected blog this is!!  I haven't posted in over two months...I've been a bit busy, I guess.

What's been going on here, you ask?  It'll take more than one blog post to catch up...but here's a start.

May was just so darn hectic!  We have three birthdays between April 22 and May 15, and Mother's Day was just four days before my birthday!  I really do like to celebrate my birthday all month long. For me, it isn't really a birth "day" -- it's more like a birthday "month." (Oh, my poor family!)  We had loads of dinners, presents and cake...and then just a week later...we went to Mexico!  A family-reunion-kind-of trip (more on that later)...which takes me right to June. 

June is just as busy!  We've got a one-year old!  Yessirree!

I did manage to squeeze in some cropping on National Scrapbook Day (5/3).  Spent the day with two of my dear scrapbook pals and managed to get 22 LO's completed.  I've got loads to share.

I am trying to go backwards and fill in some of the "holes" that are missing in my chronological scrapbooks. Our 2011 trip to Niagara Falls has a 100-page digital scrapbook, but it needed a traditional layout too! Celebrating our milestone anniversary was very special.  It needed to be memorialized, traditionally.  If you have not been to see the falls, I highly recommend you add it to your bucket list.

I based my layout on this sketch from Let's Scrap:

You will notice that the main photo of the sketch was designed to stretch across the two pages.  It could have easily been two, square photos, but I am totally fine with cutting my photo!  Panoramic photos are perfect for this technique!

 

The entire LO was made with the beautiful products from the Enchanted line by Creative Memories. So very sad to see this company go out of business.  I wish you could feel the raised embossing on the printed paper.  The ink splatters are printed on the paper, but it sure looks like I spent hours doing that...and no mess! I will be very stingy with the remaining product I still have in my stash.

Here is a closer look at the dimension and beauty of this line:

Thanks for dropping by...my next scrapbook LO I plan to share has been featured in a magazine!  Yes, that's right.  I've been published!  Woot!  Woot!  

Any Day Now...

...we are gonna have a walker!

Our grandson just turned 10 months.  He is taking his first wobbly steps all by himself.  He thinks it is great fun.  Lots of giggles. Purely a coincidence that he is wearing that particular onesie.

Pay no attention to the grandma in the background.  She's just there to get him started.  His mommy was catching him on the other side and got some great photos of the new activity.  (I just had to animate them!).

I give him two weeks.

@ 9 Months

@ 9 Months, he:

• is a crawling machine
• pulls himself to standing on almost anything
• puts every "thing" in his mouth
• says "ma ma" and "ba ba"
• stands alone for about 5 seconds
• make "ooh ooh ooh ooh" indian noise (if you pat his mouth)
• is very curious and investigates non-stop
• first tooth is barely visible (but has broken through!) hence, the jaw grinding instead of smiles
• learning to wave
• had first "spaghetti & beef" (Gerber) last night!
• will walk almost any day
• will no longer sit still and pose for pictures
• somehow knows he is wearing a sticker.  Rips it right off.

And is loved beyond words.

Mardi Gras 2014

Soggy.

Wet.

Fun.

On Friday morning, as he likes to do, Bill enters my office and says, "would you like to go see the 4:10 showing of the Son of God, or would you like to go to Mardi Gras?"

What?

Are you kidding me?

Scramble.

We are lucky to have family in the travel-related industry.  A daughter-in-law who works for a hotel chain and a brother-in-law who works for the airline, but I was not optimistic.  Who is gonna score last minute travel discounts to Mardi Gras?

I was pleasantly surprised.  The hotel hookup was the easiest.  We were able to score an employee discount to the Ritz-Carlton.  The Ritz-friggin-Carlton!  And we were listed for the 9 available seats on Sunday morning. (I would've preferred going on Saturday, but we couldn't get the employee rate!).

I packed my suitcase haphazardly on Saturday night, fully expecting that we wouldn't get on the flight.  We checked in at the gate and not only got seats, but got premium exit row seats together!  We were going to Mardi Gras! (my second time...Bill's first)

We landed Sunday afternoon and headed to the hotel.  My first time at a Ritz-Carlton.  So impressed.

Room 831

The lobby.

The courtyard.
I can imagine it filled with happy people when the sun is shining!

Check out the gas lamps!

The Thoth parade was in full swing on Canal Street. Right out the front door of our hotel!  Pleasantly surprised.  The weather was great -75 degrees.  Bill immediately changed into shorts!  Nice getaway from the cold Denver weather we left behind.

It's Bloody Mary : thirty

 

 

"Hey, Mista!  Throw me something!"

We ventured up St. Charles that evening to watch the Bacchus parade.  Found us a nice corner with some locals who very generously shared their "homemade" bench.

Bill's never met a stranger!

Drink of the night?  Hurricane!

Bacchus King:  Hugh Laurie

  

Well, that lasted all of one day.  We woke up on Lundi Gras (Monday) to a whopping 41 degrees, a very big 35 degree swing in the weather, but at least it was dry.  Time to see the city.

Yes, we could have walked down Canal Street to the river, but where's the fun in that?  Had to ride a streetcar!  Love them!

Riverwalk

We were able to do a fair amount of walking around the city and I did my best to show Bill the sights.

Saint Louis Cathedral

Like my hat?

Jackson Square

So worth the wait!

Caught some great beads here!

We were lucky to catch a Second Line parade!

Louis Armstrong Park.

Infamous Bourbon Street

Original hitching posts.

The crowds from Sunday to Monday had greatly diminished.  We again watched the parade(s) from the front door of our hotel. Front row.  Bill bought "leave-behind' chairs.  Our hotel set up a door-front bar with food & drink.  Saweet!

Drink of this night?
Hot chocolate.

Royalty: John Schneider

 

King Quentin Tarantino

Most impressive of all the floats.

I checked the weather forecasts that night of Lundi Gras and knew we were in for a cold Fat Tuesday. I had planned to get up early, get breakfast, and line up to see Zulu, a parade which rolls through the Treme and Central City on Mardi Gras morning. Zulu celebrates Black culture, and their prized throws are hand-decorated coconuts. But when I woke up at 7:30 a.m., and heard the patter of rain outside, the loud patter of relentless rain, I was in no hurry. The rain kept a lot of people in bed: Zulu rolled as planned, and while most years the majority of spectators go home coconut-less; because so few people showed this year, everyone there got a coconut. We took home six coconuts. Six! And, some of the best darn beads yet!

I paid $50 to STAND is the grand stands three years ago and did not get a coconut.  I know people who have celebrated Mardi Gras many times and did not get a coconut.  We got six.

Six!

Some of the conversations we overheard:

• Coldest Mardi Gras since 1899
• It has rained every single time Mardi Gras has fallen on March 4
• I've lived here 26 years, first Mardi Gras I've missed due to the weather

Most of the bands marching on Tuesday opted out.  The parades were much shorter.  My pictures? Non existent! Pretty hard to balance an umbrella and a camera.  Yet, I managed just fine when the coconuts were being handed out!

Krewe of Elks
(aka the Truck parade still rolling @ 3:15)
Photo taken from the warmth of my hotel room
(notice the thinning crowds)

I still feel bad that Bill's first Mardi Gras was dampened by the rain. He could of cared less.  He was a throw-catching machine!  We brought back two big bags full of beads and every carnival-type-toy-stuffed-animal-thingy you can imagine.

To our pleasant surprise, the rain did not stop Mardi Gras. The place was not as crowded as on sunny years, but people were there, having fun.

Three fun days = 7 parades!

Wet.

Soggy.

Fun.

Tiggerific

Thought I would share a fun layout I completed at my mountain retreat last month.  It's really fun to create a layout with such cute paper & stickers...and of course, the cute subject!

Gavin showed up one day wearing this cute Tigger sleep-n-play outfit and it wasn't even Halloween!  And, yes...he was little.  Only three months old at the time (you caught me...a little behind in my scrapbooking). But, I don't care.  I enjoy working with photos of him at any age (and he's only 8 1/2 months old now).  So, cool it.

Once again, I started with a sketch.  This one is from Let's Scrap:

A closer look:

 

I did have to manipulate the sketch a bit to fit the format of my photos.  The main photo is horizontal and I wanted to use 4" square photos on the left.  I searched for some cute Tigger quotes on the internet and added the orange text to my main photo in Photoshop.  I also changed up the right side a bit.  Instead of five square photos, I used three, two of which are 3" x 4" verticals.

The Tigger paper and the stickers are from Sandylion.  The stickers have a clear background (love that!), and I hope you can see the shimmer.

The chevrons were fussy cut from two different colored MME chevron papers.

The ribbon is from American Crafts (attached with my Tiny Attacher) and the cardstock is a mish/mash from my stash (hey, new rhyme theme there!).

The black stitching under the title is simply a black pen used to create movement across the page. This is a very old technique (from my beginner days).  Resurrected!

Absitively,

posolutely,

splendiferous!

(in)Famous Couples Subway Art

With a new grandbaby, most of my free time has been zapped with babysitting.  Not that I mind, however, I really love this Grandma time with Gavin.  He's already getting so big!  But...along with that, means I have less and less time for some of my other loves.

I decided not to buy Valentine's this year.  Everyone got something homemade.  I had really good intentions and had loads of holiday inspiration (thank you, pinterest).  Well, let's just say...eight-month-old babies don't cooperate!  I had to sideline my big project for my dear daughter.  Gavin was having none of it.  I'm so glad I did get the onesie and the shoes done.

The big kids got pretzel hugs.  We usually make these at Christmas, but this year they were tweaked with pink & red.  Still just as yummy.

Bill is on a new "wheat free" diet. Don't ask.  It's always something with him.  He got none.

I have had a "famous couples" project in my head for quite some time.  I had planned to make a really big one on canvas for the upstairs loft.  I really had no idea what to get him this year.  It donned on me on Thursday, that I could just do a subway art famous couples and frame it for him.  Much smaller.  So easy. The hardest part was editing the famous couples.  There are many, and of course, I wanted them all.

It's been awhile since I made subway art.  I have made several...mostly for friends/gifts.  I had not made one for us.  This one is 8" x 10" all done in Photoshop on a chalkboard background. Took me all about 4 hours total.

Maybe I'll do another.  Bigger.  Someday...

I think it turned out great.  He loved it.