The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Twelve

Woohoo!! It's finally over! I finished it with a card that just replaced the reindeer cards as my favorite for this year. I'll have to cram them in on the mantel now. This little cottage scene was made again with the Cricut Noel cartridge. I have had so much fun with this cart, it's totally renewed my respect for this machine. In fact, I think I'm running out in a few to buy another cartridge I've had my eye on!

The background is the SU! Top Note die using some BG Figgy Pudding(also used behind the scene with some SU! dsp) and I stamped the Santa postage with SU! Winter Post stamp set in versamark and then rubbed some Pearl ex over top. It worked FABULOUS! I'm so slow, I never thought of doing that before for a subtle image. Then I embossed a PTI sentiment in gold and added MS coarse glitter and some light accenting with Prismacolors on the cottage and trees. A little bit of SU! Alpine Originals ribbon finishes it off.

Hope you enjoyed the cards this year. It's been a challenge for sure. I'll be checking in soon with some birthday cards to share!

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Eleven

Today's card uses the MS branch punch again and this idea was one I borrowed from Mandy (mmferg) on SCS. I scored a piece of white cs along the outside and sadly, did this using my Fiskars paper trimmer. I'm really, really hoping Santa brings me a Scor-Pal this year :) It works in a pinch though. The little ornament is from the Quickutz Jolly holiday set this year and I embossed it through the Cuttlebug and added some MS glitter and gold cording as a hook. The alpha is Quickutz Rollerskate. Sweet, simple, with a little bit of bling.

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Ten

With only 2 cards left to make in my little self-imposed challenge--I've found my favorite. I just love this card. I tried out the coolest thing today making this one. I bought a stamp and stick gluepad back in February and finally figured out what to do with it. It works amazing with glitter!

This little reindeer is one of the to-die-for reindeer on the Cricut Noel cart I was talking about a few posts ago. He's the whole reason I caved and bought a Cricut cartridge. I think he's gorgeous and maybe I'll have to make this card for myself and place it on my fireplace mantel with the rest of my cards! I guess I'll skip mailing it to myself :)

Here's the supplies used:
Cricut Noel cart
MS glitter
Palette stamp and stick gluepad
BG Figgy Pudding paper
American Crafts ribbon
PTI stamps
SU! Baroque motifs stamps
Powder Keg embossing powder
SU! Top Note die

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Nine

Here's a card using an idea that's been showing up on SCS and blogs lately. This MS branch punch has got to be one of the best punches out there. There's so many things you can do with this one.



Supplies used:
MS branch punch
Cuttlebug snowflakes embossing folder
silver trim from M's
PTI stamps
MS glitter
red ribbon from M's

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Eight

I did the unthinkable last weekend and bought another Cricut cartridge. It's not that I hate this machine--it just doesn't fit my style most of the time. I did find this really cool Christmas cartridge with reindeer to-die-for and this flourish tree I used on today's card. Sometimes the Cricut does serve a purpose in my crafting. If you pick this one up, be forewarned--they don't cut very well under 2 1/2 inches and your speed needsto be on the lowest setting.

Here's the supplies I used:
Cricut noel cartridge
MS glitter
PTI stamps(sentiment)
Cuttlebug swiss dots folder
Michaels ribbon

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Seven

So my great idea of posting a card a day for 12 days hasn't exactly worked out and I'm a little stressed as mailing day approaches. I've also taken on a few going away gifts that I do for soldiers leaving my hubby's unit and that's going to slow down my card making too. Yikes!

So, to save some time, I'm not going to post all the little details on these. I'll just give a list of supplies that I used. If you have any questions about anything just leave me a comment :)

stamps~Wal-Mart
paper~BG Figgy Pudding, SU! Wintergreen dsp
ribbon~SU! Alpine Originals
other materials used~ Quickutz Moxie, MS snowflake punch, piercing tool,Prismacolors,SU! scalloped border punch, brads, MS glitter

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards( continued)-Day Six

I finished a card today!! It's pretty scary how many I still have left to do before the mailing date of Dec. 8th. This one uses the oh -so -cute Wal-Mart clear stamps that everyone's been raving about. I got a great clear image with these stamps!

Here's the details:

I stamped the Christmas tree in SU! old olive on a plain piece of white cs I ran through the cuttlebug with the Nesties. I bought the Sizzix crease pad and found the A,C,crease pad,shim sandwich cuts and embosses the nesties in one pass!! I'll have to link the source of that info here in a bit.

The larger circle is SU! old olive cs and I added some chocolate brown 3-d paint. The porkies, of course, are from Wal-mart and colored with prismacolor pencils and baby oil. I added a few small glue dots to the tree and coated them with MS red glitter.

The sentiment tag was a punch I picked up ages ago from HL and I embossed the sentiment(another stamp from that set) and added some faux stitching with a piercing tool and pen. I finished it off with an eyelet and some AC ribbon.

The paper is BG Figgy Pudding and I machine stitched around the outside and the blue piece. The scallop was done using the SU! scallop punch and all other cs is just some cheap stuff I had laying around.

I'll be playing with this stamp set again on the next card!

I'm no longer a Black Friday shopping virgin...

Wowzers!! We cleaned up AWESOME today!! A few days ago I was browsing around our PX on post here and spotted a handbag that I REALLY liked. When hubby got home that night I told him about it but he didn't ask for specifics and I kinda forgot about it. Over the last few days I decided I'd make Christmas easy for him and drag him off to the PX today for my present:) I was pretty anxious driving over there. There was only the one bag and I REALLY wanted it. Well, it was still there!!! And the best part--all handbags were 25% off!!! Saved us about $30 but our day got better... We had all but decided against buying our son a computer bundle for Christmas. We really blew the budget on him last year and didn't want to make it a habit. Well, we were aimlessly walking around the electronics section and they wheeled up a pallet of computers for DIRT CHEAP. This computer is faster than our laptops and PERFECT for the kid so, as we watched people quickly snatch these up, we made a fast decision to grab one ourselves and now I'm FINALLY excited about Christmas this year!!!

We finished up the day with another awesome shopping experience at Kohl's and Target and I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping!!

So, no card today. But man did I have a fabulous day!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

No card for today-too much turkey going on here! Hopefully I'll pick it back up with Day Six tomorrow! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Five

Almost didn't make it today with a card to post. Did a little Christmas shopping and a last minute run for a few goodies for Thanksgiving dinner but I still managed to finish this one. I now think this card might be my favorite. I just love the chocolate browns and golds and I've been dyin' to use this reindeer stamp since last January when I saw it and ordered it just a little too late for last year's cards. Only bad part is I don't have much of the Basic Grey paper I used on this so I can't make many of them. Well, at least not many that look exactly like this one.

Here's all the details. The cute reindeer stamp is from the TAC set "simply Christmas" and I used the Labels One Nestabilities again. I stamped and embossed the reindeer on SU! close to cocoa and then sponged around the reindeer with SU! chocolate chip.I'm loving these dies and totally getting my money's worth out of them! In fact, I've asked for the other label sets from Santa. I used the smaller of the two Nesties as a stencil and traced around it with a gold paint pen. The card base is SU! chocolate chip and the red cs is from SU! In Color line from last year,embossed with the cuttlebug and then I rubbed gold pearlex over the swirls. The "joy" is Quickutz Dragonfly and the flourishes are QK also. Paper is from the BG Stella Ruby line and the ribbon is American Crafts. I used snaps (for the first time ever) and I love how much flatter they are on a card you're going to mail.

Best thing about my card challenge is I'm using up some stash and using stamps I thought I'd never get around to using!

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Four

Just a short post on this one. It's getting hard to find the time to make a card a day and then blog about it :) This one is for my brother and SIL. Let's just say I think they appreciate the non-traditional and I think this card fits that description.

The stamp is from a Penny Black set (this and every year) and I stamped it first by coloring it with a SU Bordering Blue marker and then stamped over it again with versamark and added the SU! iridescent ice ep. I don't own a "stamp-a-ma-jig" but I think I might just pick one up today while I'm out. I finally found a use for it. It's REALLY hard to line up a rubber stamp exactly in the same place twice. I improvised with a couple cd cases taped down--long story, suffice it to say, it worked.

I decided to add a little dimension with a QK present die and pressed the ribbon part of the die-cut down on a versamark pad and then coated with the iridescent ice ep and heat set it. The paper is a little bit of BG I had laying around from last year's Figgy Pudding line and the background was run through the cb using the swiss dots folder.

I'm probably going to end up spending a fortune on extra postage thanks to all the added dimension but Christmas is only once a year so why not, right?

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Three

Today's card is my hubby's favorite. I think it has a bit of a masculine feel to it and might just be given to his male co-workers. This one combines a little Basic Grey, a little PTI, and a whole lotta SU!.

The new SU! Top Note die makes an awesome background and a great addition to any card. The uses for this die are just endless. I actually bought it with journaling in mind for sb layouts, but I've used it to house a title on a sb page and now a nice backdrop for this stamp from the Lovely as A Tree SU! set. The trees were stamped with versamark and embossed with an ep from a little company called Powder Keg. I added some icicle stickles on them too. The ground is coated in Martha Stewart coarse glitter. I did a masking technique on the background using SU! soft sky inkpad and a sponge before stamping the trees.

I used a versamark pen around the outside of the label stamp in the SU! Winter Post set and then embossed with more ep and the PTI sentiment stamp was also embossed on the inside of the label and then punched out with the SU! label punch.

I'm making sure to use that snowflake border punch as much as I can. I had some guilt over buying yet another border punch but it's turning out to be useful.

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards-Day Two

Sometimes the simplest of designs are the truly stunning ones. I saw a card on Splitcoast a few weeks ago (Rox71 is the artist) that was so serene and gorgeous, I just had to try my hand at it. I was fascinated with the little upraised houses on the card and couldn't believe it was a Cuttlebug embossing folder!! I quickly snatched one up on the 'bay and this is my take on her beautiful card!

I used Prismacolor pencils and baby oil to color the houses and added Martha Stewart coarse glitter to the rooftops and ground. The snowflake is a Martha punch and also coated in glitter. Her coarse glitter is fabulous! I wasn't sure how much I would use it(and of course, bought the giant container of it) but now I'm glad I bought it. The sentiment is PTI's Holiday Wishes set stamped on the Labels One Nesties and I am SO happy with these stamps! There's 15 Christmas sentiments and they look fantastic stamped and embossed on the insides of the cards too. I also used the Martha Stewart snowflake border punch on the bottom and added a little holiday ribbon from Michaels.

It's very sparkly IRL and just hard to capture with my limited photog skills :)

The 12 Days of Christmas Cards--Day One

It has begun. The quest for the perfect Christmas card is well under way. I thought I'd have a little fun with this stressful time of the year and attempt to post daily for the next 12 days with a new Christmas card creation each day. Call me a crazy freak but I just can't be happy with one mass-produced Christmas card. I think it has to do with wanting to use the mounds of Christmas cr@p accumulating in my craft room. The guilt of limiting myself to just one stamp set or just one punch is too much to bear. So, let's get this party started.

Here's the first one and quite possibly will end up being my favorite one this year(a little too early to call). This takes a little bit of goodness from a couple of my favorite product lines and a few fun techniques thrown in for good measure.

The background was embossed with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder and the scene background is the Labels One Nestabilities cut out of various cs. The reindeer is from the Stampin Up! Winter Post set and embossed , cut out and pop-dotted. I used the Martha Stewart christmas tree punch and added some puffy paint and pop-dotted them and used more puffy paint for the snow covered ground. The falling snow and the northern star are from the SU! Itty Bitty Backgrounds and Snow Flurries sets. The sentiment is from the Penny Black "this and every year" set and embossed in gold ep and pop-dotted on a little bit of SU! dsp from last year cut out with a scalloped nestabilities. The branches are the Martha Stewart branch punch in SU! chocolate chip cs and the ribbon is SU! Alpine Originals.

It was a little time-consuming but I'll only be making a few of each design and this one was a lot of fun to make and I'm sure will be a lot of fun to give!

A fun timeline of pics

Here is a 2-pager I worked on yesterday for the circle journal I'm a part of on sb.com. We were asked to put together a layout of pics from childhood to present and share some inside info about who we are. It was fun searching through old pics at my parents' house looking for shots that weren't completely and totally embarassing. You just can't do much though about all those high school pics with bad 80's hair (for those of us unfortunate souls who had the great misfortune of being in high school in that less than memorable moment of style and fashion history). I chose to cut it all off in '90 and start over. Good choice, I think.

I love the QK Nutmeg alpha that I used on this one! It's kinda chunky, kinda funky, and makes a statement. This spread is 8x8 so the alpha looks really large on here but would also look stunning on a 12x12 page too. (A great one for anyone on the fence).

Better luck next year guys.

It's a sad sad day here but somehow we found the strength to get up this morning and carry on. I couldn't even watch it last night. Had to keep flipping back on commercial breaks during The Race and The Unit and I just dreaded the moment when I knew Jeff would walk out to the living room and break the bad news. For any of you with a Red Sox freak at home--you KNOW what I mean. There was silence. And more silence. Then we went to bed. This morning was all business getting ready for work and more silence. He should be ok around lunch time. This will be a blip on the radar by next month. Maybe. At least there'll be no more weeknights staying up til 1AM. Can't win em all. But it sure would be cool.

WOOHOO!!

I just felt like saying that. It's Monday, I've been hangin' with hubby all day and doing naughty things like going out to lunch and scrapping! I just love days when the kid has school and the big kid doesn't have to work.

I used a few new goodies on this one that I've been dying to break out of their packages and a few techniques that I normally won't take the time to do. It was fun! I hand-stitched (some of my hand-dyed,hard to find and a little pricey cross-stitch floss--glad it went to good use) around the SU! Top Note die and pulled out the sewing machine too and added some zigzagging. I also love the look of thickers and love that I can make my own with my QK dies so I cut each letter 3 times and glued them together to get that "thicker" look.

I used the SU! scallop punch too. I like this one MUCH more than the Fiskars threading water punch. It's smoother, my Fiskars gets caught up and tears the paper, and I just like the tinier scallop this one gives.

And last but not least, I finally used some BG Boxer. I bought an obnoxious amount of this paper and this was the first time I used it. These are pics of my son on our trip to Orlando this summer. I may have mentioned he was like the girl on the cruise commercial??

The journaling reads:

I love how your dad captured this candid shot of you-the look that drove us crazy, the one that says vacations with mom and dad are just not cool anymore. I think you secretly had fun every now and then and maybe you'll take us up on bringing a friend next time.

Overcoming challenges...

I wish I could say I'm jazzed about the pics I took in Orlando this summer--but I'm not. It's just hard sometimes to focus(literally) on taking good pics when you're too busy having fun. But that's what life is all about, enjoying the moments--not worrying about capturing it on film. So, I started scrapping the pics from this trip a few months ago and I set it as a little goal to just go ahead and finish them up. My guys are excited to see them come to life on pages and that gives me the motivation to continue with these less than perfect shots.

I've really liked using the BG Ambrosia line for these amusement park LOs. These papers make me think of many very different uses like Asian themed pages, Halloween/autumn, and of course, these park shots. I'm sure I'll think of other themes these would be perfect for!

Getting back into it.

Got a little scrappin done over the weekend and it felt good. I think it's definitely time to focus on the hobby again instead of the state of the country. Yuck. If there's one good thing to come out of a recession, it's that I will be forced to use the stash I already have. I'm sure we'll see less product available and stores closing their doors. Hope that's not the case but it sure helps to justify all this stuff I bought and haven't used. I used some BG Ambrosia on this LO and QK Fiesta.

A very simple scraplift

I was pretty excited when I opened up the August issue of CK last month and saw Becky Higgins' very simple yet very classy and totally perfect framed piece on page 49. Yes, it's true. We've lived in this house for nearly 3 years and I have yet to hang one picture (well any piece of home decor at all) on the walls of our master bedroom. We finally got the paint color right 2 years ago and then the bedding came together a few weeks ago while shopping in DC and I found the absolute perfect art piece to hang over the bed just last week. AND-we hung it 2 days after buying it. That's a record around here, folks. Then, I see this classic beauty and knew this was what I have been looking for.

So, I found one of my pics from the desert garden in San Diego's Balboa Park that really showcases my favorite colors of lime/chartreuse green and peach/orange. The frame has a natural linen mat and coordinates perfectly with the other natural elements in our bedroom. And I'm hanging my own version of Becky's piece on the wall at the foot of our bed so I can wake up every morning to this beautiful sight.

It's all in the packaging.

Sometimes I like the giving of the gift bag and card more than the gift itself. I love it when someone we know has a baby. I love browsing all the new cute baby stuff and hey-it's a great opportunity to use my giraffe die (which I see is going for several 100 $ on ebay lately). wha?!? This gift bag, I'll admit, sucked up several hours of my time one afternoon but isn't it too stinkin' cute?? I stamped all the little giraffes and then painstakingly colored them in and added some glossy accents to the snouts. Found a good use for what's left of my paper stacks(what I didn't already donate to area schools)-just trying to use up the stash-and I think the green paper was perfect! Then I used a couple border punches including the leave it to weaver punch that I couldn't pass up with a coupon and really had no idea if I would ever use it. Now I know what it's good for!

It's fun packaging gifts in a special way. Even if it just ends up in the trash at the end of the day!

There's really no excuse...

I'm just a bad blogger. Life just gets in the way sometimes and I forget to update this with cool pics and other fun stuff. So we made our what's now becoming annual trek up to the DC area and I always love going up there. Know why?!? It makes me really appreciate where we live and how we live now. I have to admit it. I HATED living there 8 years ago and sometimes I long for big city life and excitement but then I get my quick fix on a week long trip like this and I'm good again for awhile. I don't miss things like the ever present parking lot called roads up there and I'm oh so thankful for my driveway and garage!! We truly are spoiled down here in the middle of nowhere and sometimes I need a swift kick in the a@# to remember that.

So last year we rode the train down into DC and I got some amazing shots down there-all of which I have yet to actually scrap-- and this year we decided to revisit one of our favorite spots, the Annapolis waterfront. It was gloomy and raining on and off all day but I was feeling nostalgic and really wanted to go see if the old restaurants were still there and if it just looked the same and it did!! It just felt like fall down there and made me not miss the passing of summer so much. We also checked out the townhome we lived in there (our military quarters that we also lived in there for awhile had long since been condemned and bulldozed-seriously) and the old neighborhood looked exactly the same! Well, they now have an extremely cool playground for the little ones that I would've died for back then for Chase and they don't take care of the yard nearly as good as we did :) We visited with my brother and his family too and it was just a nice trip all around. These are all shots of Annapolis.

Another year...Another CKC...

So hubby and I are back from Charlotte and hubby had such a great time he wants to go back next year :) No, he didn't hit CKC with me. Scrapbooking is just not his bag. Actually, his bag holds a butt-ton of Taylormades and he managed to find himself in golf heaven on Friday. He just went on and on about what a great day of golf he had. I couldn't get a word in edgewise about the sb convention. Too funny! I have to say I'm stinkin' proud of myself this year. A few days before leaving for Charlotte, I was really a little bummed that we had made these plans since I'm drowning in product here. I have a stack of paper sitting on the sofa in my scraproom desperately seeking a home and not enough layouts in my lifetime to use it all. But-I focused my energy elsewhere and scored BIGTIME on new QK alphas!! What's a girl to do when they're all on sale like that?? So, I picked up a slew of new ones (well, pretty much the rest of the new release I hadn't already bought) and just 20--yes, that's right--20 new sheets of paper. Some Pink Paislee and some sheets of the new BG lines. Oh, and some really cute Pink Paislee owl stamps. I couldn't resist. So, unlike last year where I came back with stuff that wasn't even product I really use, I bought stuff I LOVE and had a FAB time!! I think it made a huge difference that I knocked out all my shopping in a couple hours and then went to lunch with my friend Yvonne and just had a relaxing time. Hubby and I had the rest of the day to ourselves and it really felt like a little mini-vaca. I might even do this again next year...

My guys are trouble.

I did this one today in honor of their completely immature behavior whenever they get into the pool. Any pool. Most times I hang around for a bit and then make a speedy escape when I see a hotel manager making their way over. This particular night during our stay in Orlando, I didn't even go down to the pool. I was WAY too into Project Runway and figured I'd meet them down there when it was over. Well-no worries. They came back to the room after just 30 short minutes. Seems my hubby (while wrestling with my son in the pool) somehow managed to pop a guy in the face with his fist (totally unintentional) and they were so embarassed they left the pool. At least that's the story I got. Am I sure they weren't asked to leave by hotel management? no. Am I the only one that deals with this every stinkin' vacation??

I'm in love...

with the MM Passport line!!! I've had these papers laying around for a few weeks now and just wasn't sure what to use them on. Well, duh. Vacation, what else?? I had some kinda fun on this one. Sadly, the green paper I used on the lettering doesn't show up when photographed but it stands out nicely IRL. I'm having camera issues this week.For all you QK freaks- it's my(hangs head in shame) first use with Biography. I know, crazy, huh? Used all kinds of awesome stuff from this line and I'm SO glad I picked up the stamps! And the scrap mojo continues...

How's this for creepy??

Been busy today with mojo flowing and decided to knock out these pages for the CJ I'm involved in. This is Rebecca's (flowerpower) CJ Do You Believe? and focuses on the paranormal. We had a bunch of questions to choose from and I chose to answer whether I believe in ghosts. This was partly due to some playing around in Photoshop yesterday and creating a photo collage for something completely unrelated. Hubby was so blown away by the results, he suggested I do it again for this CJ. I have to say, I'm stinkin' proud of the creep factor on this spread. It came out just as twisted as I predicted it would! The merged images are pics of my great-grandmother and I just changed the opacity for extra ghostliness. No matter how hard I try though, I just can't capture with the camera the transparent elements on this. Kinda like taking pics of ghosts, I imagine?? It was fun and I'm covered in ink and paint tonight. oh-and adhesive. Definitely a change of pace from my norm and I think the girls were expecting cutesie out of me. I think they'll be surprised and hopefully a little creeped out!

My first cj pages are complete...

Well, excluding my own, of course. These pages are for Shawna's (Saucier131) cj Say What?!? We were asked to do a 2 pager on a word(s) or phrase that we find ourselves using A LOT and try to incorporate pics of us using our word or situations where we would definitely blurt out our word. This was actually much more difficult than I anticipated. No, not figuring out which word or phrase is my signature but trying to find just the right pics for this. I think by now anyone who knows me knows how much the word "stinkin" flies out of my mouth. I felt some pressure in trying to fulfill the doodling requirements on these pages as well. I just don't doodle. Guess I'm just a neat freak like that. Must have order and all. I cheated and used templates but I DID come clean with everyone on that. And faced a bit of ribbin' for it too!

I need a 12-step program...

The first step is recognizing you have a problem, right? Ya see, I have this little sub-addiction to my main addiction(that being sb supplies,of course). I cave at the sight of a new QK release. I can't help it. There's no stopping it. Just when I think I have enough stinkin' fonts around here, I convince myself there's always room for one more. Or 4 more, whatever the case may be. So this last week has been interesting for my mailman. I wonder if he wonders what the heck I'm ordering?? I think the mailman knows more about our lives than we do.

So, with the release of the new 4x8 alpha,which I wasn't too sure about on day 1 of the release, I then felt compelled to finally pick up the 12" platform for the Rev. I mean, ya never know when you might want to buy a 4x8 alpha, right? Quickly realizing I had no real need for the 12" platform without a 4x8 alpha, I then picked up 2 of those. One just wouldn't be enough justification. But in order to truly appreciate that 12" platform I needed to cut something 12" long so I then picked up 2 of the 12" borders. After all, those scallop borders are stinkin' cute. But then we need to back up a step. Two days prior to this, I had already convinced myself that my true love lies in the 2x2 alphas so I shamelessly picked up "just one more" of those. Now this morning I see a deal on a third 4x8 alpha I would be a fool to let slip by.

All said and done, I have had packages arriving all week from various QK meccas around the country (because in order to really justify this I had to shop around for the best deals-none of which was possible through one store as many of these were sold out at one store and not the other) and my mailman can now cancel his gym membership since he's having to step out of his little white truck and walk up to the house to leave the packages.

And now I feel like I've done my good deed for the week in keeping him healthy and fit.
I wonder what QK will release next month?

Whew! It's been a crazy couple weeks!

But we're back from Orlando and gearing up for another school year! This summer has just flown by and I can hardly believe the kid will be a sophomore this year!! What an awesome-ly relaxing vacation we just had-believe it or not in Orlando of all places! Here's some pics of the week long seek for the ultimate thrill ride. I have to say there were a few coasters at Islands of Adventure that nearly knocked my socks off! I mean pee-your-pants exciting! The Hulk I believe was my favorite. If you've never been on it or heard anything about it-you WILL NOT be expecting what's in store for you at the beginning of that ride. Totally cool!

The best part of this trip had to be returning to the luxurious resort we stayed at down there. We looked forward to hanging out at the pool every day or having a few drinks on our florida room patio on the top floor. You've seen the cruise commercial with the teenage girl who scowls the whole time and won't be caught smiling or having a good time, right? That was Chase. Just too funny. Didn't know whether to laugh or scream at him but in the end, he asked if we were going back next year. WTH???

I'm sad to see the summer come to an end but looking forward to a few upcoming trips I'm taking with hubby later on this month. Only this time I think we'll leave the sulky one at home :)

Ready to mail!

I'm so stinkin' proud of myself! I finished my cj pages BEFORE the deadline, thank you very much. I only had a month to do these and procrastinated until this past weekend. I think I'm definitely one of those people that works better under pressure. So I'll stick this in the mail tomorrow and anxiously await the first journal to be sent my way! Unfortunately it will arrive next week when we're in Orlando on vacation so once again, I'll have only a few weeks to work on the 2 pager for that album --but no worries!!

We're really looking forward to this trip next week. Hubby needs a break from work BAD and I need a change of scenery AGAIN. I think I'm looking forward to going to Sea World the most. I know it's crazy but no matter how many times I visit that park--San Diego, San Antonio, and now Orlando--I NEVER get sick of it!! It's my absolute favorite and can you blame me?? They have been incredibly gracious to active duty military over the years and who can argue with free beer tasting??? Anheuser-Busch ROCKS. Plain and simple.

So my cj topic was "The little things in life that make you smile" and here's my 10 little things:

1. Sitting on the patio with my morning java in my favorite mug

2.Hearing The Cure's "Just Like Heaven" come on the radio, out of the blue

3.Abby's frog-butt

4. A warm sandy beach

5.My stuffed sea turtle

6.Wearing a new outfit

7.Eating cake-my guilty little secret

8. Getting a package in the mail-especially if it's a new Quickutz alpha!

9. Curling up on the sofa and watching "So I Married an Axe Murderer" on a rainy Sat. afternoon

10. Having friends over for a BBQ on the weekend

Doesn't take much to make me happy--obviously.

First try at a CJ...

I've been more productive in the past 2 days than in the past 2 months! Here are some pages from a circle journal I'm participating in on sb.com. Because I'm totally freakin sick and tired of crappy people and crappy vibes--my topic is "The Little Things in Life that make you smile". Hoping this little book will cheer me up whenever I look at it! If you're not familiar with a circle journal-a small group of online friends exchange albums with their own specific topic and each person does a layout for each book. In the end, I'll have a completed 8x8 album with my pages and pages from some extremely talented ladies that I've come to call "friends" from my fave scrapbook mb. I can't wait to get the first album in the mail!!

Grrrrr.....It's Monday.....

I forced myself to go to the gym and run this morning even though every muscle in my body is screaming from a long weekend of wakeboarding. I can get up every time now on the board but it's the staying up for longer than a few minutes that's kicking my butt. Our friend Scott assures me he'll have me doing flips over the wake by the end of the summer. Yeah, right.

Yikes! Where has the time flown??

Hard to believe we're nearly halfway through June already! I haven't had much time to update this (not that anyone really reads this?!?) and finding time to scrap just hasn't happened. BUT--this was my entry for the annual Pagemaps contest a few weeks ago. I used the March '08 sketch and had these pics laying around that seemed to fit it perfect. Poor hubby just can't seem to get back to Mass to catch a Sox game so it's kinda a little joke between us that he's his own little Red Sox Nation wherever the Army sends us. It was a big loser but I loved how it turned out and hubby did too.

The hot summer days have set in here and you can pretty much find us on the lake wakeboarding all summer. YES--I learned how my 2nd try!!!! Got some great pics of my son learning to waterski too so I'm feeling a layout coming on here soon!

Happy Mother's Day!!

Here's a little gift book I whipped out yesterday to give my mom this Mother's Day. I used a BasicGrey chipboard album for this and it worked up super fast. I started it with a pic of her and and my grandmother and included pics of her and my brother and I and then all of the grandkids. I finished it up with current pics of my family and my brother's family and put a few poems in there about mothers and one about grandma's too. Just a fun little book for her to share with the rest of the family next week when they make another trek up north. Now I get to kick back and relax and enjoy my day while hubby does the laundry and the yard work :)