october challenge layouts & more

So it seems like I came down with whatever the boys had a few days ago - it went beyond just a "funky feeling" to say the least. Fortunately, hopefully, the worst of it has past because the belly is already starting to feel a bit better tonight. Twelve hours of sleep last night (with a few interruptions), lots of rest today (and lots of scrapping haha...) seemed to be the best medicine. 

The blog makeover is still on hold (mostly because I just don't know what I want - just that I want to change the look). Hopefully I will find the direction I want to go soon. So to fulfill my creative urges, LOL, I've done a bit of scrapping the past few days instead. Two are for challenges at SBG, and one was just for fun.

First up, my favorite, is one that I did for the October Frameworthy Challenge Part 1 @ SBG. This was my first time participating in the Frameworthy challenge, but I had a lot of fun trying out a new medium, forgetting some of the rules I always try to adhere to when scrapping, and just having fun doing something a little more quirky. 

People don't realize how much drama happens in a house full of boys... (click for full credits)

Next up is the layout I did for October's I Can Use That Font Challenge @ SBG. My favorite fonts seem to be those that are big, chunky and suited more towards titles, so this month I mixed things up and went with a handwriting style font for the challenge. Come and play with us!! Please???

Scrapping for Inky gives me a chance to use things I ordinarily wouldn't be able to use...

Other than the font, everything here is from Studio Manu's Harmony Page Kit. It's so beautiful and elegant.

Next up is the layout I created just because I wanted to scrap these pictures that I took of Jace while we were waiting for Jared's cross country race to start. Sometimes he is a good sport for photos, and doesn't act too totally goofy! LOL (click for full credits)


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Thanks for looking! My next blog post will be something besides layouts, I promise! :)

impossible to scrap just one

I'm beginning to believe that it is impossible for me to create just one scrapbook page at a time. Just one page and then stop, close Photoshop, and move on. Seems like an easy enough concept, but my creative juices get to flowing and it seems silly to stop while I'm in the zone. This pretty much sums up everything I do though. Once I get started on something I don't like to stop until I feel like I have accomplished something BIG. It's always all or none with me and I feel pretty frustrated when I can't finish something, so I never start or I put it off until there's more time. Unfortunately, there'll never be more than 24 hrs in one day though. I would probably be more productive in life, as a whole, if I could learn to control this "bad habit" and just do a little here and a little there of everything. That's the same thing as learning how to balance it all, right? Funny how even when I know what is wrong, it's so hard for me to put a fix on it. Ahhhh, I'm rambling on about the same ol' stuff again.

So back to scrapbooking. I have three new pages to share.

First, another page for my Stinky Inky Poo. And this time I controlled the urge to use her name in extra large letters as the title. Hehe. This was her first bath in the big tub. We found out that she already knows how to swim. She starts to doggy paddle as soon as you hold her over the tub. It's hilarious! 

Since our main bathroom is the ugliest Pepto Bismol pink you will ever see, I changed the pictures to B&W. Black and white works great for Inky photos because she is... well, black and white. Dianne Rigdon's Homey papers and elements seemed to be the perfect pop of color that I needed to finish the layout off. Gotta love scrapping for my doggie because it gives me a chance to use girlie stuff that I can't get away with using on layouts for the boys.

(credits here)
 


And below is a two page layout that I created for all of my "Mule Day" parade photos. I feel inspired to create more two page layouts with tons of photos more often. It's a nice feeling to have almost every picture I took that day scrapped and accounted for.

(credits for left page here, and credits for right side page here)

 

What else is going on in my world? 

The Boys:
Jace and Joey are still going strong in baseball/T-ball. Baseball has taken over our lives! Have I mentioned that lately? LOL They are loving it and having a great time though so I can't complain. As far as Jared is concerned, I had a very bad Mama moment last night! He left his phone in his jeans pocket, and you guessed it... I washed his phone. So it's currently buried in a bowl of rice in the hopes that all the moisture will be absorbed. He just got his own phone for his 13th birthday in February, had it taken up at school (and they kept it for almost three weeks) the first week he had it, and now this. Someone needs to be a little more responsible. Eeek. And I need to remember to check pockets! You'd think after killing 3 ipods I'd know by now. Sigh. Last but not least, Josh, our 16 yr old, is getting his license today. Well, I am taking him to take the road test at least. We always said he wasn't going to get his license until he was 18, but I think it's time. He needs to find a job by this summer (not to mention buy a car), and while I wouldn't mind taking him back and forth to work, him being able to drive will certainly come in handy.

365 Project:
I've all but fallen off and been run over by the 365 Project bandwagon, but I'm trying really hard to catch up and jump back on and get back into the habit of taking a photo every day. Since May is my birthday month, perhaps I will put extra effort into it. I'm not giving up just yet!

Cooking:
I burnt my hand THREE TIMES on the oven rack last week. Twice on my middle finger and once on my thumb, which caused a pretty nice blister. News flash: ovens are hot!!! Another sigh. I still plan to share some of my dinner creations here. One day, one day...

That's it for today.
I'm going to challenge myself to blog at least one more time by the week's end, even if I gotta do it from my phone again darn it!

springtime-funkity-funk-funk-funk

You know, there's nothing like four boys being on Spring Break (for TWO WEEKS) to turn your world upside down, just when your brain was needing a little more peace, tranquility, and order. Ugghhh. I'm in a bit of a funk. A rut. A bad place. But I think I'm on my way out. Fortunately, I found a little time (and mojo) over the past few days to create some layouts. That was good therapy. :) And this morning, those four kiddos went back to school (YAY!) and while I should have used every second of the day that they're out of the house to try and catch up on laundry and other housework ... instead I have spent the past hour and a half uploading my latest layouts to galleries, dropping some comments here (not enough though sorry!)and there, etc..., etc... What bothers me is how much time it takes me to do this sort of stuff (although, considering how easily distracted I am, I shouldn't be surprised). Is it just me? How much time do you allocate each day or week for layout galleries?

OK, on to the layouts...

Here's one for my oldest, Josh (credits here):



And one for my little girl, Inky (credits here):



Truth be told, I am really missing my boys. I can't say I miss all the bickering, fighting, and mess-making, but I miss there always being someone around who thinks I'm awesome and reminds me of that often. Most often it has to do with whatever I have just made them to eat, and it usually goes something like this: "Mama, you make the best peanut butter and jelly sandwiches EVER! Man! You ROCK!" *wink* LOL I am kinda, sorta kidding about the PB&J part. Actually Jason recently replaced my oven control panel last week, so after more than a year of not being able to use my oven, I'm just getting back into baking... not so much desserts, because the only thing that keeps me from eating an entire pie or tray of cookies a day is not allowing pie or cookies to enter my house except on very special occasions. I have absolutely no will power when it comes to sweets. None. But when it comes to meals, I am having lots of fun trying out some new recipes and revisiting some old favorites. Cooking dinner is fun again! Boy was I getting sick of cooking only on the stove-top or in the crock pot! Perhaps I will share some of my favorites here soon. Or at the very least, photos.

Speaking of food, it is time for me to get my grocery list (not to mention myself) ready to go do a little shopping! Then back home to hopefully do the previously mentioned laundry/housework that I would love to get done before school is out.

365 project: i'm doin' it.

Oops. It's been a little bit since my last post. I was doing good for a few days there though, huh?

You see, I promised to catch up on my 365 project pictures in my next post, and being a girl of my word, I felt like I couldn't post until I was actually ready to do so, so I kept putting it off. And I had pictures on my camera, pictures on my phone, pictures with an incorrect timestamp (I really should just set the time on my camera in order to help relieve some of my frazzled-ness), pictures that needed to be resized for web, levels adjusted, etc..., etc...

Now I'm all caught up, more or less (minus the few days I have not taken photos), with them at this point. However, being that we are already in mid-March, I realize that I can't very well post 70-or-something photos in one blog post. Can I?   Hmmmm.... No, I'd better not. hehe. So. Today, I will just start with a few of my favorites. By the way, if you are a facebook friend, I am putting all of my 365 photos in an album/s on facebook, too. Just so you know, they are there for your viewing pleasure. I have been pondering whether or not to post them at the 365project.org site, flickr, or somewhere but I think I am going to stick to randomly posting them here and on facebook. If I have the time, I might start an additional 365 blog. I know that would help me keep up with the journaling that goes along with them. Finding the time to catch up with the past three months though, is easier said than done. Or, I could make the time for it, like I do scrapbooking, and let everything else fall to the wayside. I'm bad like that.

For the record, I would like to say that I am a totally amateur photographer. I am not doing this project to prove my photography or photoshop skills, but I am doing it to have fun with my camera, photoshop, and most of all my family. This project has become a new way to document a year in my family's life. We will have an amazing visual journal covering an entire year, that every single one of us took some part in. My sons are really into it... "did you take your photo of the day yet, Mama?" , "hey, this can be your picture of the day!", "Mama... you forgot your camera!!!!" LOL

OK, enough rambling. Here are a few of my favorites so far:




 

 

 


That's all for now. Thanks for reading :)

most recent layouts and creative teams

Since I am on another hiatus from designing/selling, I have time to focus on getting caught up on my scrapbooks. And I am WAY behind. My budget for scrapbooking supplies is pretty lame at this point in time, so being on a couple of awesome creative teams helps me accomplish that goal. I'm currently creating for Kim Jensen of ScrapDish.com and Dianne Rigdon of ScrapArtist.com. I don't have their blinkies/links set up in my sidebar yet (adding that task to my ever growing To-Do list), so I wanted to give them a big shout out in this post. Hi Ladies! You ROCK... thanks for letting me create layouts for you!

These are my most recent pages (click them to be taken to the gallery where you can see supply credits), oldest to newest:








I'm off to drop off a trunk full of outgrown clothes at the clothing ministry that my Mom is in charge of running. Just one step towards a more clutter free home. Not doing so hot with my time management as of yet, but I am battling the clutter, which ought to count for something.

Next blog post: catching up on my 365 project pictures.

a "girlfriends" collaboration

I got together with a few of my friends and put together this fun new collection called Girlfriends! We've just released it, and it's on sale now 25% off!!


You can buy the alphas, papers, elements, or templates separately, or buy the whole thing and SAVE even more!!    EDITED to remove invalid links.

Girlfriends is brought to you with love by great friends: Amy Knepper, Jessica Bolton, Kim Jensen, Melinda Staley, Robin Cabana, our friend Rose, Tania Shaw, and Tracy Blankenship.

Check out these fun layouts!
by Raji (rsk)

by Robin (rmcabana)

by myself, Jessica Bolton




The following two layouts use templates from the kit




Hurry over now!!  Sorry, it's no longer available.

have you seen my poochi?

If you have, it will be easy to understand why I blog so rarely (it's so easy to blame everything on the dog!). I am sure I haven't introduced her here before. Her name is Inky Doodles and she is an (almost) 8 month old long-haired chihuahua. She really keeps me on my toes and I often feel like I spend half my life with her outside waiting on her to go potty (needless to say after having her for four months we are STILL working on housebreaking)! Oh, she is a spoiled little thing, but we love her sooooo much!

It should come as no surprise that I had to create a digital scrapbook collection in her honor, appropriately titled "PooChi"! However, this is a great collection for pooches of all shapes and sizes, not just the tiny ones with oversized ears...










PooChi is available as a full collection as well as individual pieces: elements, papers, and alpha.
Also, for a limited time, the full collection is 33% off and the other pieces are each .25 off!

For a little inspiration, Eclectic Team Member Emily, who has her own special poochi, created this layout...


Hardly anyone has time to make scrapbook pages during the summer months - it's way more fun to be out and about making memories, so for more inspiration and a little help to you, I have created two quick pages, or "eclectic pages" as I like to call them, for you to download. I kept them simple so you have plenty of room for your title, journaling, and extra photos.


Click the image or download HERE. If you'd like to share them with your friends, please be sure to send them to my blog to download them, rather than file sharing. And as always, my free downloads are for personal use only! Thanks for your cooperation!

Want a chance to win a $10 credit to my store at FPD??? It's easy! To play along all you have to do is...

• download the above quick pages
• use either one of them, add your photo/s and make it your own (use any additional designs you'd like)!
• upload your finished layout to a digital scrapbook site gallery or any photo sharing site
• come back here and leave me a link (in the comments) to your layout
• deadline is Tuesday July 7th

Next Wednesday I will randomly choose one lucky lady's (or dude's!?) name out of a hat to win the $10 credit!

Thanks for reading!