I've been scrapping....but not enough!!!

Have you ever felt like you were treading water and unable to keep your head above water???

Well, that's how I've felt this past weekend. Between Thanksgiving and all my CT commitments, plus working more hours at my job....life's been hectic. I have so many projects that I want to do and just can't seem to get motivated about them all! Lot's of my Christmas presents for the adults at least will be computer derived gifts....whether they be calendars or framed photo mattings! I also was so inspired by the ScrapBook Answers Holiday issue and all the neat little projects to do.....that I don't know where to start!

I was able to create a really special layout using Denise Bailey's new kit Winter Bliss and a new Snappy Scrap by Sarah Vandyke. I took this photo from my front livingroom window of my mom and the boys playing in the snow during one of her visits in 2004. The pic was too grainy for a large photo LO due to it being taken with a 2.0 MP camera. The polaroid frame element in Denise's new kit was the inspiration for me to use it....I also used the new Polaroid Transfer Action by PhotoBlast to make the look authentic!

View complete credits HERE

Speaking of PhotoBlast.....I just am in LOVE with his latest actions....especially the UnderExposure Fix Action! It seems ANY picture I take indoors doesn't have the lighting it needs for the photo to come out nice. This action really is magical! I can't believe how well it works with just the press of a button! I don't generally like to use my flash because I have a Sony Cybershot....the only BIG downfall with the Sony is the flash is so powerful! It leaves large flash shadows. The new Action is a godsend for me! I use it on just about every photo I take now!

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So, let's talk about Black Friday! Are any of you early morning shopper's like I am??? Ok, well Gene thinks I'm crazy but since Kyle was 2 yrs. old, I 've created a little tradition of going out to brave the shoppers on the BIGGEST shopping day of the year! I don't generally go out for anything special. I'm not one to stand in a horrendously long line to get a few bucks off something that's gonna be clearanced in a few months anyway....BUT I love to go out and watch all the craziness and just get lost in the crowd. This year I decided to brave shopping in the closest city to us that has a mall and several shopping centers. So, I set my clock for 4 AM and well....the snooze went off three times. I had a bit of a stomach ache and just didn't want to get out of bed. But, I wasn't giving up my shopping day. I was out of the house by 9AM and in the first store at around 10AM....just in time for the LONG line to get their items before the 11AM deadline for the doorbuster specials! I got to the mall and the traffic was horrible! Bumper to bumper going in AND coming out! I've never before witnessed that! I just blasted my music and laughed. I was lucky enough to find a spot at Toys "R" Us. I managed to snag two doorbuster items for the boys....a hot wheels race loop track that DOES NOT take batteries....runs on kid power! Gotta love that for only $15 and a Little Tikes piano band thing....microphone, stool and keyboard with other instruments for Joshua (I know I'll regret this later! LOL!) But it was only $15....less than half price and Josh loves music and microphones. The traffic was crazy, so I decided to walk down to the mall rather than attempt to drive through all the cars and waste my precious shopping time. All in all....I hit up Sears (a new Christmas suit for me!), Bath & Body Works, Victoria Secret, Children's Place, The Gap, Penney's, Macy's, Old Navy, HallMark, Target, & Best Buy!

Then.....after shopping and coming home to pick up the kids, I swung past our local Wal-Mart.....would you believe at 5 PM they still had a huge display of gameboy micros for only $39 a piece???? They had so many left over that they extended the doorbuster sale 'til midnight. I managed to snag two for the boys while they conveniently went to the bathroom and the store clerk swiftly rang them up and double bagged them for me....the boys were none the wiser! LOL! So my spoiled two boys will be getting not only a PlayStation 2.....with two games, but a gameboy each! Kyle has been begging for a gameboy and play station since he was 3!

We've held off this long.....so I guess it's time!

I love to get out there in the hustle and bustle and watch everyone try to snag the deals! The traffic was so bad....that I parked in a central location at the shopping centers and walked to all the stores. I probably put in two to three miles of walking if not more! Yesterday my left hip hurt so bad I couldn't MOVE! Literally! I couldn't sit for long at the computer either! :-( DH said, "You should train harder for Black Friday next year!" LOL! He thinks I'm crazy for going shopping like that too! But it's a tradition I started when Kyle was two and it's the only day of the year, I have no spending limit.....or at least a good chunk of money to spend and the whole day to myself to go and do what I want!

So, how was your Holiday Weekend???

And the winners ARE......

Ok, you've all waited long enough! I'm sorry, I got stuck working three FULL days and a boyscout outing with my son yesterday!

So without further ado.....the winners are.......Commentor #3 & 5....as chosen by DH! LOL! I yelled over my shoulder...hun pick two numbers between 1-7! LOL!

So Meems & Heather are my winners and I'll be emailing you shortly with your GC!

I wish you all a very safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

We'll be having dinner at my SIL's, and in the afternoon DH has to work.....so that means some scrapping time for me!!!!

Have fun!

Sorry for the delay!!!

No, I haven't forgotten or changed my mind about the GC LO contest! I had some things beyond my control come up and will be posting tonight the gift card winners!

I'll be updating this post and posting at DST when I do!

Thanks for all the participation! I loved looking at all the beautiful LO's and it was very inspiring as well!

New Layouts & GC giveaway!

Well, I've been a busy little scrapper this weekend! I've had so much inspiration and I've done a bit of digi-shopping outside my CT kits.

So I did up this layout to go with the fall leaves one I made featuring Kyle and wanted a companion page with Joshua in it. I like to do two pagers that coordinate so they look nice in an album. (Not that I've gotten a complete album together yet! LOL!) I'm just kinda thinking ahead for when I get the layouts I've done all printed.

So here's the page I did with Joshua. I loved the carefree look on his face and the leaves floating down in the picture. I've been experimenting with using clusters of elements and really like how they've been coming out. I used so many different designers in this LO! I really dove into my "stash" and loved it!

Complete credits for this page can be seen HERE

So after doing that page.....I get an email from my NEWEST CT Designer, Carole Neale! Did I even mention that I was named to Carole's CT???? Well, I was and I SOOOO love her stuff! She's always got the neatest word art (did I mention she does the word art for my Scripture Challenge at DSS? If not, you gotta check it out!

Anyway, she emailed the first CT kit for us to do our layouts with. And the kit is fabulous!!!! It's a very fresh take on your Christmas Scrap Kit, called "A Doodly Christmas" and will be available in the DSS store soon! So for now, I'll give you a sneak peek and the layout I did yesterday, while I was in scrapping mode. LOL!

Complete credits can be found HERE

Be sure to check Carole's Inspiration Gallery for more layouts using this kit....there is so much in the kit, it's impossible to do just one page with it!

What? You wanna see the kit preview???? Well, I hope this is ok with Carole....HERE it is! I LOVE it....especially that doodled word art Christmas Tree I haven't used yet! But will soon!

So keep checking the DigiScrapShak.com store, it'll be available REAL soon!

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The Funky Playground opened yesterday and there were bunches of little elements and goodies that caught my eye! At first, I thought to myself~Self....you're only gonna get a few things.....but after seeing all the gorgeous layouts and some of the elements from the Funky Playground being used on layouts in the gallery at DST....I just had to go back for more!

So they have everything marked down to 25% off for the Grand Opening and I filled my cart....'cause if you spend $20 or more in an order...you are enetered into a drawing for a free Gift Card! Well, I came up a little shy and thought what the heck!!! I'll put two $5 gift cards in my cart and give them away on my blog! LOL!

So here's the deal.....I wanna see a layout that YOU did using something, anything from the Funky Playground store! Link me up in my comment section! I'll be sure to leave you love and TWO lucky commentors will be gifted with a free $5 GC to the Funky Playground! It's that easy! I'm gonna let my son pick the two lucky numbers, just so it's fair! LOL!

Be sure to leave me the link to your layout AND your contact email so I can contact you if you are a lucky winner! Please have all links posted by 9PM EST 11/20/2006! I'll announce the winners in my next blog post on Tuesday the 21st!

If you haven't already been there.....go check it out!
Funky Playground

GOOD LUCK!

Turkey Dressing

What a great week!

We spent Monday evening as a family working on a craft project for Kyle's school. It's a tradition at his elementary school that every year all the students grades K-6 get a paper tracing of a turkey shape and they take it home to decorate it in a costume to escape the Thanksgiving Holiday. It's really a neat project, because the whole family gets to be involved figuring out what to "dress" the turkey as and what items we can use that we have around the house. After they are done, the students bring them back in to class and the school hallway walls are lined with decorated turkeys. Some are very creative!!!

This year we decided to "dress" our Turkey as Santa! I had some old candy wrapper foil in black, red, silver and gold and we used buttons with glitter glue, cotton balls to trim his suit and make a beard. We took a mini fudge box and wrapped it to create a present. We were pretty proud of our work. These pictures are horrible as they were taken in the evening with flourescent lighting, but this will give you an idea of the finished project!


So Wednsday, I go to pick up the boys from daycare/preschool and find out that Kyle had a horrible day at school and then proceeded to go fist for fist with another student at daycare. That wasn't all....Joshua was swearing (he said damn, damn, damn) and spent some time out time. Oy-Vay!!!!! SO, at the ripe age of FOUR, Joshua got his first lesson in washing his mouth out with soap! We used ivory...so it wouldn't hurt him. Gene got so upset, when I pulled out the camera in the middle of the "lesson" to take some pictures! How could I resist that poor adorable face with those drooping, I'm so sorry eyes! To our disbelief, he put the soap on his tongue and rubbed back and forth all by HIMSELF!!! Can you believe that?

Here's Gene scolding him to NEVER swear again!

And the after photo! That didn't taste very good Josh did it? He replied, "It didn't taste bad!" So I asked him, "Do you want some more?", reply: A very serious "NO!"


So, I don't think he's gonna be using bad words again in a very long time!

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Well, to switch gears, I did a new layout that I positivley fell in love with! All the products on the layout below are from Gina Miller Designs I used this month's duo kit, "Foxxy" with Corina Nielson, some papers from Gina's, All About the Paper collection, top ruffle from the mixed bag bonanza, deco stitches, and sketch set 7! Date Stamp from Toni Berman
PhotoBlast ProRose Gold Action on photos

Complete Credits HERE

Well, off to start the weekend right....laundry! Night!

Autumn Leaves

Wow! Has it really been a month since I posted last? I knew I was slacking, but not that bad. Ok, well, I have BIG plans for December, so I'll be preparing for that this month. I wanna share some freebies with all my digiscrap friends.....so be sure to bookmark my blog and visit every day in December up until Christmas....there will be something new everyday.

We had a GORGEOUS Autumn day here in NW Pennsylvania yesterday. I brought the kids home from school and Gene(DH) had raked a big pile of leaves in the yard for the kids (and me!) to play in, before he left for work. The kids eyes were all BIG and starry eyed, but I made them wait to jump in 'til I got my camera ready. LOL!

Here's some pics from yesterday playing in leaves that I edited so far using the WONDERFUL PhotoBlast Actions (couldn't live without them!)

and here is the first half of a two pager LO that I'm working on for the Sketch Template Challenge at DigiScrapShak! I was so happy that Sarah VanDyke hosted the template for this challenge and her new kit Pumpkin Patch had awesome texture and colors for these photos! I just had to give it a try....I still need to add some elements and a TITLE (any suggestions for one? I'm stumped....I don't want it to be something generic) but here's the rough draft!

Complete Credits HERE

I got a new CT....I'm so excited to be designing LO's for Denise Bailey!

Her designs are AWESOME and I like her grungy eclectic chic feel to her papers & elements!
Here's one of my latest LO's using her kit, Little Prince

Complete Credits HERE
I have another surprise too....but can't announce right now! You'll just have to wait and see....but I'm about to burst with excitement!

Well, I think I have this organization thing figured out. How to do more than one thing at once, I think they call that "multi-tasking"??? I used to be really good at that, but my poor brain has suffered lots of terminal memory loss since the birth of my boys (along with some of my sanity perhaps???LOL!) So, I'm struggling to get with the flow of things, school, work, home, raising my three guys (yes DH is in that count too!) and leaving time for myself without neglecting my family. I THINK I have struck a balance, just hope I can keep it up!

I'm gonna go get dressed and ready for the day. TTYL!