in a funk.

I don't know what my deal is lately, I'm just NOT with it this month! I have tonnnnsss of new goodies that I haven't barely touched, projects I NEED to work on, but somehow it's just not happening.... So I'm making a vow to myself to get over it, starting today, with my first blog post in almost a month! [groan, I cannot believe I've been slacking THIS bad....]

Not getting to go to CHA last minute put me in a sad mood, and I haven't yet been able to pull myself out of it, I keep missing on opportunities, and I need a change! I'm hosting a Girls Night In crop on Friday for some of my Stampin Up lovies, which should be aMAZEing :] I love all the products in the new mini catalog and am truly excited about getting more crafty friends together to play this weekend! How can anyone not LOVE this stamp set--

Cannot wait for all the goodies to get here so the girls get to try out some of the new stuff! I LOVE sharing my favorite hobby, it's one of the reasons I scrapbook! Everyone in the industry LOVES it, and it's such a personal, FUN activity, I love being able to help each other out. Whether it's sharing a favorite item that you accidentally bought two of [LOL this happens way more often than we'd like to admit!!] or teaching a newbie how to make their first page, the commadarie is JUST incredible, in person, or across the blog :] So if we're scrappy friends, thank you for being there!



The overwhelming feeling of friendship that I've experienced especially lately in the scrapbooking world is DEFinitely helping me out of my funk that I'm in, and I'm thrilled to be throwing myself back into a sbooking mania-- getting ready for the garage sale at Simply this weekend to clean out unwanted products, waiting on my PL page protectors to get here-- can we say hurrrrayyyy to that one?! And along with preparing for a few baby showers in the next few weeks, I have a LIST of pages I WILL get done, because this girl wants things to change around here!

So, while this blog post may be a lot of words, it's also my promise to myself to get my butt in gear, and get going on turning this year around the way I wanted it to start out! Back soon with pictures of some finished pages, happy scrapping!

CHA-ganza.

As much as I don't want to talk about how sad I am to NOT be at CHA, and the reasoning behind it, I AM still excited to be involved with online chats, challenges and the excitement from home! After it's all done I'll be posting pics of what I think are the MUST haves from CHAWinter12, so make sure to check back for that later in the week!

But while all the excitements going on in Cali, here in Ohio I have off work until next Friday, so I'm staying busy by catching up [or maybe getting ahead? lol] on some scrapbooking thanks to the ladies over at Studio Calico, especially Nik & Stephanie, who are hosting CHA-ganza all weekend! 10 great challenges to inspire us to use up our kits, full of giveaways & fun! Of course I have to play along, and even did my first page last night, and I have to say I am VERY pleased with it! My printer at home refuses to work with my computer, so I'm making everything without pics, and then I'll add them all on later this week when I can use someone else's or get them at the store-- here's a sneak of my first one, for Kelly N's challenge to use circles, butttons & dots:

All the papers are from the Studio Calico kit, or the matching Crate Paper collections, and I cannot wait to punch out the pics to finish it, I'm really happy with how it has turned out so far!

Off to go play with a few more of the challenges, thinking of finishing up at least two of them tonight!!! Happy scrapping! Join us over in the Studio Calico community to play along!

just for amy.

Have you been keeping up with your photo a day?? I've been going out of my way trying to capture everyday moments, mostly on my iphone, and I love it! After work today, I went to my LSS, Simply Scrapbooks, because on Tuesdays some of the ladies crop every week-- my faves, Amy & Kathy :] Amy is a blog reader, and my fellow addict of all things scrapbooking & traveling, so she was a little upset about my lack of posting, so I figured I'd better get on it! So for today, my pic of the day is of the three of us:


So since Amy appears to be such a large fan, I'm making her a suprise with these older SC goodies I scored over on the twopeas website :]



I'm addicted to the For Sale or Trade board, all the ladies are so amazing-- buyers && sellers, so check it out if you need something! Now off to pack and organize, because I work a ton the next few days & need to get everyyyything in order for CHA! Not my biggest post, but soooo much going on right now! Lots of love and don't worry, you'll be getting LOTS of blog updates from Cali!!!!

LUCKY day.

Yes, Friday the 13th, is typically an omen to bad luck, but I'd have to say mine was WONDERFUL.

First, after work I ran down to the bookstore and picked up my FAVORITE magazine ever, Scrapbook Trends, with a few familiar faces on the cover>>

Congrats KP on being the cover girl :] Cannot wait to read it, but saving it for the plane.....

Then when I got home, it was time to watch 2 ebay items finish their auction-- SC Months & Day stamps that I've been dyyyinnnng to have, and WON woooot wooot! I love being able to find goodies online, it's amazing! && when I checked the mailbox, I got more happy mail-- the rest of the Elle's Studio goodies I ordered after being so in love with what I already got! I'll be putting them to great use when I sbook tonight, thinking about doing a few sketch challenges.....

Between scrapbooking and movies, there was a LEGO takeover && then:

Studio Calico SNEAKS  I cannot wait, February kits are known for being amazing, with all the new CHA goodies, seen a few sneaks on the chat boards, but definitely pumped to order the gits, they all look gorgeous, and the stamps?? AMAZING. I can't believe I'll be in California for ordering though, that'll make everything a little bit crazy! Thankfully, lots of the SC girls will be there for me to cry to when I miss an add on LOL. It was such a fun chat night, I love my sbooking lovelies!

12 on 12 in '12.

In the theme of today I will be listing off [12] things I'd like you all to know, that had to do with my day today:

[1] This year, I will be participating in the Take Twelve Challenge, by Ella Publishing, which you take 12 photos on the 12th day of each month-- what a GREAT idea for 2012?! I'm so excited about it, it's been fun capturing pictures of my day today!!!!

[2] IT SNOWED! Finally here in Ohio, there's some snow, it's been a weeeirrrd winter without it, now Caleb & I are hoping for a SNOW day :]

[3] It's JERZDAY. Yup, I'm a fan. Lol, gotta document the important things! Like when your shows come back on!

[4] Using up some of the amazing American Crafts papers I got from our Scrappy Girls gift exchange-- the colors were PERFECT for this instagram.

[5]  Sometimes it's SUCH a bummer to see all the awesome stamps I missed from past Studio Kits, so I've been watching on ebay && two peas and snagged this little bit of awesomeness :] I'm obsessed with "potty people" from Amy Tan's line, to all the shapes on the Cameo, but add in folk heart stamps & the LOVE [the live on is on my to visit list for sure] && this girl adds it to the top of her NEED list. LOTS of goodies have been rolling in, and I can only imagine how big my wish list will be once I get to CHA in a few weeks!

[6] I've been doing an AWESOME job of cleaning out my sbooking stash lately, making room to organize all my goodies into my cute new chevron bins from Target. LOVE them, and so glad I grabbed them up before they were all gone!

[7] As a result, I've been selling my gently used, never been touched before goodies-- hence my trip to the Post Office today, money made, packages sent! How could a girl not love making room for new things AND getting money for it?? Cha-ching! lol

[8] 12 Days into the new year, I feel so accomplished already, and it's unbelievable.

Now for a few shout outs to some AMAZING people:

[9] Faith Star is one of my favorite people on the planet, and her art is out of this world, go check her blog out, as well as her etsy store-- http://inspirationsbyfaith.com/

[10] Bought Ormolu products yet? Because if you haven't, check them out-- AMAZING.

[11] How about Marcy Penner? Seriously, go buy the stuff :]

[12] BTW, have I MENTIONED how utterly excited I am to be going to CHA in California??

Which also relates to something I CAN'T tell you all yet, but I am definitely beyond excited, and I know you will too! I'll give you a semi hint, and send you to this blog--Teresa Collins-- to see some GORGEOUS sneaks for CHA. There's a bunch out there already, and I cannot wait to see everything in person! Keep an eye out for an exciting post, I'll be telling you all my news later this week! Happy sbooking!

Scrappy Sunday

I have been SOOO busy already this year, but it's definitely a good thing!

Everyone in the scrapbooking community has been SO pumped for Project Life, and I do like it, but I'm not going to try to do every single week, I'm kind of going to do my own thing with it. Since last summer I have been using the Doodlebug albums-- which they come with a few PLish page protectors, so I'm going to [sometimes] add those into my normal albums. I'm thinking this'll be an awesome way to incorporate the project into my other scrapbooking pages, especially since there are such AMAZING supplies for PL out this year! I think it'll be especially fun to add in Caleb's albums, so each year he'll see how much busier life got lol

CHA is only about 3 weeks away, and I am beyond excited! Sneaks have started from the companies, which means I'm even more excited about getting to see them in person. PLUS it'll be my first time ever in California && I get to see a bunch of the girls-- what more could I want?? Oh yeah, and DISNEY is down the street?? This is going to be such an incredible adventure-- I've already got my Amy Tangerine book ready for scrapping the trip as I go :]

In the meantime, I got this awesome
box of goodies the other day >>>

 

I was lucky enough to only work for half of the day today, so it's been a Scrappy Sunday :] 
Started a page of Caleb's with Instax pics [[I'm absolutely in love with the Kesi*art goodies]] & then decided to do the Sunday Sketch for Studio Calico using stuff from the new Shooting Gallery Add-On, mostly October Afternoon products. Here's my layout for the challenge with a few closeups:

Loved participating in a challenge, especially one from Celine-- check out her blog, she's AMAZING!!! && a total sweetheart :]

Now, back to watching Boy Meets World && scrapping-- night lovlies!

post christmas craziness

As we get closer and closer to the new year after all the holiday excitement, I am just SOOO thrilled to be so READY for a new year! I cannot wait to finish up projects from last year and get started on 2012. Tonight's the presale for Studio Calico && the kits just look amazingggg, by far I want everything lol Keeping my fingers crossed that it works out and I can grab some during the presale, and if not maybe grab up the rest at the regular release. Those kits will definitely get me started off with a good amount of new supplies-- and I think this week I'll be grabbing up some of the things I want; some Elle's Studio, some Ormolou-- little things I want to grab up with the year added in.

I'm proud to say that I at least kept up with grabbing details and remembering to take photos for DD everyday, but being sick did put me a little behind, but not so bad that one day won't finish it up. I loved the project, loved being able to see everyone else's as we worked on them-- I'll definitely do it again next year! Here's a few pics of some of my faves, I'll do a round up prolly next week after I finish up! Our family Christmas isn't until this coming Friday, so I think I'll be extending mine to the 31st, which will be fun with Caleb being out of school.
With him being home, I'm off work a little bit more this week, so I plan on getting crafty! Getting ready for reveal chats with the ladies tonight & get in a bit of sbooking-- peeks later!

no snow in ohio??

What I love most about scrapbooking is that there's always something new! Products are constantly coming out, fads happen, everyone shares tips & tricks-- and you can always feel included, whether you're brand new or have been doing it for years. Twitter has opened a whole new level of social media for me, I love being able to talk to the girls, post pics, see what everyone's working on as it happens. And when new products come out-- like the NEW Amy Tan minibooks, one's just gotta know all about it! Beyond excited about them, because I just LOVE using the instax, instagram & Pivi printer, so I can't wait to get my hands on these & start using them for trips! I'm especially excited to get one in time for Winter CHA :]]]

With my December Daily I'm getting plenty of practice with on the go scrapbooking, I don't know if I'll remember how to do pages when I work on them next LoL I'm in love with this project, and so far, I'm keeping pretty caught up, leaving a few things left to add in in case I see any super cute ideas I MUST include-- as pages get posted on pinterest && blogs I feel the need to scraplift some of the really cute ones! I'm proud, because I've been pretty sick, but I HAVE still been doing the pages & such, just not blogging about it! But, of course with today being Caleb's first day of break, we had PLENTY to do today [seriously, we woke up early and were go, go, go, I can only imagine two more weeks of this lol] and when he wanted to get crafty, I figured it'd be the perfect time to start on my pages!



It STILL has yet to really snow here in Ohio, and Caleb and I cannot complain about this enough! It's just NOT what we're used to, and we both LOVE snow, so we're getting a little impatient. Plus, I was SO looking forward to incorporating snowy images into my DD, so it's a bit of a bummer, I'm saving all these cute wintery things just in case.... To make up for it, and to decorate Mammy's house for her, we decided to make snowflakes-- hilarious, and time consuming and FUN. While he finished that project and we watched a movie, I started on todays page--



The instax photos are truely the best part, because he went and "made it snow," on Mammy, all over the kitchen floor, on our tree, everywhere. Now if only the weather would get the clue!

featured.

Elle's Studio has a link to my blog today for using their products in my December Daily! I feel so loved :] It was a great suprise when I jumped online to catch up on all my favorite blogs! The great part is, I'm using more of their products for todays page!!! Here's a sneak of today's foundation:



Waiting to send an order out to postalpix & Dec 1-9 will be finished! LOVE this project!

It's finally snoooowwwwing here in Ohio, so I'm hoping I'll have even more great photos to put on once today's over! Short post today, sadly this girl's gotta work all night :[ Playing in the snow sounds like so much more fun! Have a happy crafting weekend!!!!

a lot like christmas.

I bought multiple kits to use for my December Daily, knowing that even though it was the first year I'd be making one, that like with all projects, I go alllll out lol. Studio Calico & Ali Edwards teamed up this year to make a kit, with a perfectly sized album, but sadly I missed buying it. Which turned out AWESOME, because as you read before, I WON one :] Totally amazing, absolutely love it, thanks again Elizabeth!!!! I also purchase Elle's Studio's two winter kits, 'Tis the Season & Jack Frost. Combined with products I picked up from October Afternoon, Evaliscious && Ormolou I am soooo unbelievably excited about this project!

Lots of scrapbookers encourage everyone else doing this project to start off with foundation pages, which I sort of did. But with so many products to include and soooo many ideas, I did things a little bit differently--I collected first. And by collecting, I did everything from surfing blogs, pinterest and instagram photos of previous years and what people are already doing this year. Then I took the idea of keeping the items for the project in a specific location, like gluestick girl's idea-- because I am also a container lover and adored the idea of being able to cart around the supplies to work on this everyday project. Combining those together, I have ideas & lists [I'm a Virgo, can you tell??] that I think will really help me with having things to write about, and take pictures of every day of December.


[DECEMBER] The Studio Calico kit came with these ammmazing blank kraft calendar pages & I'm so excited to have a few leftover for other projects! This was one of the things I worked on when I was making my foundation pages, using little bits & pieces from alllll of the things I collected, and leaving some to fill in later, it's a perfect start off for my December pages.

Unlike some, I did choose to start my album the day after Thanksgiving, because for me, Black Friday is really the starting point of the Christmas craziness, and it just HAD to be included, especially this year! And I'm still waiting to do the outside of my album, which I know is a first for most people, but I really want to see the inside done & then decide what exactly I want the outside to look like.

One of my favorite foundations was made by Nancy who has definitely sparked a creative bug in me that even without being able to attend the event this year, has made me feel every bit of a sister from being so inspiring & helpful. I loved how she used rhonna designs ditigal kits to make her album, and will be incorporating some of those designs into mine as well. But aside from the products she used I totally fell for how she had so many different sized pages; from the date column, to the baseball card holders, to journaling pages, envelopes-- much more like the on the go albums, like Amy Tangerine's that I fell in love with-- perfect for memorabilia!



[December 5] Cut out a silhouette snowflake pattern, and used the outter edges as a mask for some Studio Calico Mr Huey's LOVE how it turned out, and I'm sure I'll be using this technique with tons of shapes for this album & pages later :]

So fellow bloggers, I hope you get some good ideas, inspiration and HAVE FUN with your December Daily, because I already know it will be one of my favorite projects, I'm so glad I decided I took it on!