I am psyched

When hubby said he wanted no commitments this weekend, just relaxation, I thought--yeah, what he really means is housework! But this weekend has been quiet, and for me, very productive. I made 13 cards, one mini chipboard album, caught up on my 365 Days of Me album, and finished another 7 layout pages.
I can now honestly say I have scrapped all photos of Halloweens and Easters past. Wahoooooooo!! It sure feels good to get more of the older photos onto pages. The only problem is: Where can I store/display my albums so that anyone can pull one out and start looking through it??? Right now they are stacked on top of my filing cabinet in my craft room. I would love that our living room is big enough for a bookcase or some nice big shelf, but all we can manage after the TV, couches and hassock/table is a long, narrow table by the front door. Right now the items under it all belong to Bella, but maybe she's old enough to look through the albums without crying for me to take the photos out. Hmm...

Prayers and thanks to all who serve and have served

Well, looks like the steaks will be cooked inside, as the torrential rains sweep across my little neck of the city. A good day to put things to right inside the house, and to spend a bit of time remembering all the people I know (and don't know)who are in the military, who are serving in the Mideast, who are retired from the service, who served their country in peace and in war, and finally those who gave their lives believing in peace and justice.
I have a total of 74 cards that I finished to send to our troops overseas, so they can send home their letters and well wishes with homemade cards instead of plain paper. The last of them are pictured above.
Both I and my husband served in the Army ( along time ago in a glaaxy far far away), as well as my father-in-law (navy) and my sis-in-law (army). Soon, my son will spend his time protecting us and our global neighbors, as he starts his Army Reserves career (fingers crossed).
Some time today please think good thoughts and gratitude to all who serve and have served, and the hope that those away come home in one piece.

Travel Mini Chipboard Album

After cleaning off my desk and putting my craft room to rights, I started my creative play time by embellishing and papering a chipboard album I picked up at the store. The covers were already decorated with a travel theme, so I used DCWV's Travel Stack to cover the six chipboard pages inside, along with a pretty peice of patterned paper in the photo window on the cover. A metal charm from JoAnn's Essentials line completed the album and now it's up for grabs at Scrapbook Place on the Party Board. It has a vintage look, and I plan on doing another one in a beach/tropical theme for those lucky enough to get away this summer.
Looks like we'll be staying home this year. We didn't go anywhere on spring break, which is our favorite time to travel south, nor does it look like we'll get away this summer. Supporting our adult son while Experian holds his life in their incapable, two-faced, lying hands has taken a financial toll on us. To explain my deep feelings against Experian, our son is a victim of debt fraud. After filing the police report and reqauesting action from the financial instritutions who evidently put "his" debt on his creit report AND GETTING NOWHERE WITH THEM (namely CHASE, NATIONAL CITY, HARLEM FURNITURE AND HSBC BANKS) we fileda dispute with Experian, who assured us that by PAYING THEM a monthly fee, they would help him get the bad credit off his record. Don't believe it for a second. They won't do anything except give the financial institutions ample time and many extensions of said time to drag it out. If you are in the same boat, make detailed notes of each phone call to Experian, because what one person says is totally different than what the next person says!
This has been going on since February. Out of five bad credit issues, three are left, one of which is a duplicate of another account that was cleared by the finanacial institution but was filed illegally by a collection agency. It seems they can get away with double credit hits by adding a couple zeros onto the same accounts.
Go check your credit report at www.freecreditreport.com if you haven't this year. You may be surprised by the results--we certainly were!
So my son, who has committed three years of his life to the Army Reserves, can't ship out to Basic Training until these issues are wiped off his credit report. Anyone know who can help? Lawyers won't take credit report cases.
So my son can't ship, he can't get a job because prospective employers check the credit report before hiring. His life is on hold because someone stole his name and information and racked up some illegal credit. And we're suffering from his depression and the cost of supporting him. Ugh!
Sorry, this was supposed to be a light offering about my creativity. I'll stop, promise!!

Holiday Weekend

I cleaned my craft room yet again! If I had a better system to keep organized, I wouldn't have to keep cleaning my desk off so much. When I get the muse (and the time) I just go gangbusters at cards, altered art, albums, and layouts. I often have just enough time to create, but not enough time to clean up after myself.
I hereby make a vow to try to clean up after each project, and put away new items I may purchase right as soon as I bring them into the house. I further vow to use up more leftover papers, instead of tearing into fresh sheets and making more leftovers.
This holiday weekend will be my testing ground. I don't plan to go anywhere or do much besides a little laundry and a lot of crafting.
And now that our office is starting summer hours, I will have Thursday mornings off, and all day Friday off until the end of July--hurray!! I can start making pages again, and organizing my photos for more pages. Can't wait for tomorrow, so I guess I'll crawl into bed now. Happy holiday weekend all!

birthdays and sympathy cards

I had a chance to run away into my craft room on Sunday, so I finished up a couple sets of card fronts for a card swap on Scrapbook Place yahoo Group. I have a love of monkeys so my friend Lelia sent me some images of the cute monkey whose eyes are popping out at the birthday cupcake in front of him. I colored two images with copics, the first being the entire image and the second using just the cupcake and the monkey's eyes. Thewn I attached the parts of the second image onto the same area on the first image, giving the scene dimension. I also used Liquid Glass on the cherry and his eyes, while using Stickles on the cupcake's sprinkles.
So many of my swap mates for the sympathy cards had asked me for images of Calla Lilies from Stampin Up, so I thought I'd use a different flower, although the lily is standard on this type of card. Just a tiny bit of black Stickles on the flower heads for a conservative pop.

Gorjuss card

I am now the proud owner of TWO Gorjuss girls. It's slow but steady. I save a small portion of my pay every two weeks, but there's SO much out there that I want! LOL
Here is my newest possession. The designer paper is from the Paper Studio. I bought a box of pre-folded cards w/envies at Hobby Lobby, using my 40% off coupon. I love the colors and patterns! I recycled the bow from a Christmas gift I received last December, and used my Copics to give my girl some color.
Gorjuss girls are just so...well, gorgeous!

Hanglar Card

I just got some beautiful images from my scrapping buds. One of them was a HAnglar & Stangler, and I couldn't wait to make a card. I have to get my hands on some of these stamps!

Flower Fairy Card

love flowers on cards, so when I saw this fairy, I fell in love with her. I believe she is from Stamping Bella, so correct me if I'm wrong. I colored her with Copics, gave her a little glitz with Liquid Glass, then cut her out and placed her on a very large flower. I also cut up a small flower and adhered the petals to her petal skirt. She looks like she has a secret that is just bursting to come out any second now, don't you think?

scrapbook retreat results #2

I don't know what's up with Blogger, but now everytime I upload photos, I get a bunch of "computer-speak" i/o pics, until I publish the post. So I don't know which photo will pop up first.
Anyway, Sunday morning when the craft opened, there really wasn't much time to do more than make a few cards. The materials for these cards was in a card kit. I love the House Mouse images, but I don't have a good handle on coloring animals yet. But you know what they say, practice makes perfect!
The Halloween page is from 2008, which was my daughter's last night of trick-or-treating. (sigh)
I am now up-to-date on both Christmases and Halloweens. And I broke into my stash of old paper photos from eons ago, organized a bunch and scrapped them this weekend. So not only are my 2010 numbers on track for my goals, but I am finally getting control over those old photos that I can't "enhance" digitally.
I'm feeling empowered!

Cropping Weekend Results

I love this page I just made this weekend. My crafting group gets together for a weekend away, and I just unpacked my bags and took pics of everything I made. I finished 30 pages and made 4 cards, ate lots of good food, laughed until my belly hurt, shopped until I dropped, learned a new technique, caught up my 365 Days of Me album, and had a blast with my sister.
All in all, a great Mom's Day weekend, topped off with my family picking me up from the crop location and taking me out to lunch at the Sushi Station (yum).
Hope everyone had an equally enjoyable Mother's Day!

50 Fast and Furious Cards

I had to open my big mouth and tell my boss I would love to make thank you cards for all the volunteers by Monday. I wonder if she realizes that at the very least I'm getting reimbursed for supplies. I did it, though. I used my Cricut "Walk in the Garden" cartridge to cut a card front with a window saying Thanks. I used all my leftover pieces of patterned papers for the face, and bought a new pack of black cardstock for the front under the face. Then all I had to do was cut and fold fifty white cardstock cards, and finish them all off with whatever bling I cound find lying around.
I'll bring them into the office tomorrow to stuff into envies (also on her dime)and label. Meanwhile. nback to my craftroom to clean out more extraneous items to give away!