... just Laura

CHA is finally here . . .

CHA is finally here ... and making memories is there announcing all they're incredible new product collection! and just because we're not there with them ... doesn't mean we can't join in on the fun! they are having a day of hourly updates and giveaways on their blog! you can win it before you can buy it ... how cool is that! so make sure and check it out ... every hour in fact. lol!

and i can finally share a peek with you. some great new collections and products coming out ... i had so much fun working with all of it! there are tons more where these came from ... but here's a project that i did using the new "spellbound" halloween collection.

edited to add: since a few people are already asking ... i got the paper mache houses on the clearance aisle at michaels for $2 each. they had tons ... so maybe you can still find them. lol! i did another set of them too ... hopefully, i can share them later!

so make sure you're checking in on the making memories blog ... all day long! and if you're looking forward to the SLICE coming out soon ... then check out this site as well!

the sketch book challenge . . .

i was honored when megan asked me if i would host a guest challenge over on her new site, sketchbooknz. she has a great site going ... lots of fun challenges and sketches ... and a great place to chat. my challenge was to use ribbons and flowers in creative ways.

 

another thing that i love to do ... is to really mix up my product. sure, the collections are always nice to use on their own ... after all, you know that it's going to coordinate. but i love to pull product from all different collections ... and to also mix older and newer embellishments together. everything on this layout is making memories ... but i still have a wide variety going.

and here is my matching card. same products ... same basic design ... just on a smaller scale.

so make sure and go check out her site HERE. you can find out more about the challenge and how you can participate! and thanks again megan for asking me to host this challenge!

stay tuned . . .

i promise i'll be back tomorrow! been a busy few days. the annual crab and shrimp boil at my brother and sister-in-law's house saturday ... and amanda's swimming/slumber party birthday party for the girls. sunday was a spur of the moment trip to IKEA for a shelf for our downstairs bedroom ... determined to make it a room that actually gets used. then all the normal housecleaning, errands, grocery shopping, and much more that always seems to eat up our weekends. back to work today ... except joe, who is on vacation. girls have bible day camp at the church this week ... just a few hours in the late afternoon each day. 

i've also been doing a little scrapping. learning some new things in photoshop ... or should i say i'm trying to learn some new things. lol! have a few projects and layouts going. some of which i will be sharing tomorrow ... but here's a HINT to tide you over.

a card and some scrappin stuff . . .

wanted to share the card i made with the scraps from the last layout. used lots of the same ideas and products.

same papers, same fun flowers, same journaling spot ... and added in some fun brads, a little ribbon, and a rubon. easy-peasy!

supplies:
pattern paper - ki memories
flowers - making memories
brads - making memories (velvet flower, blue heart), bazzill (polka-dot)
ribbon - american crafts
rubon - making memories
journaling spot - heidi swapp

gotta love the dimension on there. i can't do flat layouts. nothing against them ... there are some amazing designs without much bulk. but i need my bulk ... i need the extra dimension. a layout or card does not feel complete until it weights 4 pounds ... or until it requires a very tight fit in my page protector. lol!

a few other scrapping tidbits:

• i appreciate all the nice emails i've gotten about my layout in the making memories advertisement in the august CK. it was so fun to see it in there! and i think alyssa thinks it's pretty cool ... even if she doesn't admit it. i even had a friend of my mom's that called her ... she had been looking through one of her magazines and suddenly saw this girl that she knew looking up at her. lol! 
• speaking of kids in the magazines ... haley is having her little moment of fame. lol! i had a few things in the july issue of scrapbook trends ... and one of them was a layout about her. and i have one coming next month ... a layout about when she first learned to walk.
• how is this for a genious idea ... a GB for the scraproom? a "garbage bowl". the link is actually for the rachael ray one ... but it's a great idea that she has going. and one day i decided to do it for my studio. i have a good garbage can in there. but my island is also counter height ... and i stand to scrap. so i am constantly leaning down to throw things away. and i'm a very neat scrapper ... so every single piece of garbage gets thrown away immediately. lol! so i got out a nice plastic black bowl that i had ... and it's now my "GB" for when i'm scrapping. it's not huge ... but it's big enough to hold all the little pieces. and then i just dump that in my garbage when it gets full. saves me a lot of bending down all the time.
• did you catch the travel album challenge that wendy did last month on the MM blog? i'm a little late in joining in ... but i'm totally using her album idea! i thought it would be a great album for alyssa's photos from her hawaii trip last summer with her dad and her grandparents. so i have all my pages started and just have to start adding the fun stuff. then comes the photos .. that may take me a bit to go through all the photos they took and pick out some to use. but love the idea of getting in scrapped!

think that's it for now. i have 6 kids here that are telling me they're hungry. lol! usually, fridays are my easy days. but today i have 3 extra kids that have joined us for the day ... my neighbors (ziek and ayana), and ariana. so it's a bit hectic around here ... and noisy. lol! i'm thinking with that many kids ... chicken nuggets and tator tots are my best bet!

three days a week . . .

i wanted to scrap these photos of haley. i love those two photos on there ... the ones that i took while she was sitting on my lap. holding my camera above me and not even looking ... and still managing to get a great shot of her. so i made up this quick collage of photos in photoshop the other day. and then last night ... i created this layout.

this is a 9x9 layout ... love doing that size. this entire collage of photos is only 5.5 x 6.5 inches in size. love that i can get that many photos in just a tiny area ... and still have it look good. i kind of got away from doing this collage style printing lately ... but i created a few the other night and am looking forward to using them more ... because i love the clean look it gives.

and i made my choices really easy ... by using some fun ki memories product that danni sent me last week. the pattern papers and the super cute buttons. i took the little pop-dots off the buttons originally ... and was going to thread them on the flowers. but then i got lazy ... and glue-dotted them back on. lol!

i wasn't sure how i was going to add my journaling to be honest. i didn't have much room left. lol! i was digging through some baskets ... and came across these little journaling spots. they worked out perfectly. "tuesday, wednesday, and friday ... those are the days that we spent together". that is how i actually even decided what i was going to journal about. for me ... the journaling is usually the last part of the layout that i think about. and i usually base my journaling around whatever title i came up with ... from whatever product i decided to use. i never really start with my journaling ... that's the harder part for me.

i have a card already done with the scraps ... and i think it's the cutest thing. but i'll share that tomorrow. gotta spread out the creativity a little these days ... since there's not as much going on. lol!

supplies:
pattern paper, buttons - ki memories
puffy letters, flowers - making memories
rubons - doodlebug
journaling spots - heidi swapp

as for other stuff going on around here? today is joe's birthday ... the big 39! i didn't really think that my "38" sounded old ... but 39?!?! THAT sounds old. lol! omg ... you girls know i'm not trying to say anything with that, right?!?! lol! i was just being funny. so anyone that is 39 or a little older ... i wasn't being serious. lol! after all ... i still don't feel like a grown-up. he worked last night ... so he's sleeping most of the day. but he also starts his vacation today ... so he has the next 10 days off work. must be nice, right? lol! we're also really missing alyssa ... she's been at her dad's all week ... since he's on vacation this week. we all miss her ... but i think sarah has the hardest time with it. she's super bored (even with her BFF amanda here), mopey, and just quiet. not like her at all. but saturday, alyssa will be home ... and within about 10 minutes i'm sure they'll be back to their normal fighting and being annoyed with each other. lol!

5th avenue layout . . .

if you happen to check the MM blog today ... you might have seen a new layout from me. here's a peek inside the flap of the layout ... where i added my journaling.

i had wanted to scrap these photos of the girls for a while now. and what better to use with these photos ... than the 5th avenue collection! i had the little photos printed ... and they weren't really working in the design too well. so that's when i decided to make the flap ... and put them inside. i like how it turned out.

make sure and check the MM blog ... where you can see the entire layout!

my zany baby girls . . .

here's the last layout i did with that little freebie kit. when i first got the kit, i loved the "zany" sticker ... and the smiley face patch (even if does remind me of walmart ... which i can't stand). that was actually the reason i kept the kit out ... i wanted to use those. then the other night i remembered these photos.

these were photos that were taken at all different times. and normally, i would keep them in order ... with whatever other photos i had taken with them. but as i was looking through the album ... i kept noticing these cheesy smiles over and over. so i started pulling out totally random photos of them making these faces ... and i thought it would be fun to put them all on one layout. and THIS is the layout ... with a selection of those photos.

seriously people ... how cute are the girls?!?! believe me ... there were many more photos like this. lol! took a lot for me to narrow them down. then i just trimmed them to size and arranged them on a white sheet of cardstock ... to make them look like the collages that i love to do nowdays. then i just embellished around the photo collage ... adding bits and pieces as i went. i think it's a fun layout ... makes me smile!

supplies:
pattern paper - reminisce (striped), american crafts (yellow one)
stickers - 7 gypsies
ribbon - lil davis
smiley patch - no idea

and a LOL layout . . .

wow, 2 posts in one day. but i couldn't resist ... had to share this layout. the card i posted earlier today was made with the scraps from this layout.

how perfect is this ... a layout about how i use "LOL" way too much! i knew when carla sent me this stamp that i had to do a layout with it. and i even worked in the creative cafe ticket strip that danni sent me ... that one strip made this layout and both the cards. everything else on this layout was from that little kit i got free in an order recently. the papers, the cardstock, the flowers and brads, the stickers. i just stuck with what was in there ... less thinking that way. lol!

  

when i was cutting out the turquoise circle for my title ... i cut it too big. so when i was trimming it down ... i ended up with this thin outline of a circle. glad i saved it instead of throwing it away ... worked out perfectly for the top of the layout. i pop-dotted the circle ... love me some pop-dots and use them on just about everything.

i love doing layouts like these. no photos ... just fun everyday life stuff that i don't always think to get down in writing. i need to do more like this. this layout will go in my "all about me" album ... which to date, has about 4 layouts. lol! btw ... this is a 9x9 layout. i have one more layout using this same product that i'll share tomorrow. it's of the girls ... when they were teeny tiny!

supplies:
cardstock - bazzill
pattern paper - reminisce (striped), american crafts (yellow one)
die cut strip - creative cafe
stamp - stampabilities
flowers - american crafts
brads - bazzill
stickers - 7 gypsies

a LOL card . . .

last night i finally had some time to scrap. and i'll be honest ... i had a really hard time getting anything started. i did a slew of assignments in the month of june ... a ton. and i find that after doing assigned stuff .. i sometimes have a hard time going back to scrapping just for the fun of it ... just for me. i actually do better when i'm being told what to use or what to do with it. when i don't have any quidelines or rules ... i actually get overwhelmed with all my choices and have a hard time just starting anything. so last night ... i finally just took out this little kit that i had gotten free with an order from scrap supply a while back. i have 2 layouts on my desk using just the kit ... they're almost done. and then i made a couple of these cards too.

and i had to use this stamp. my good friend, carla, had sent me a little thing of goodies for my birthday a few weeks ago. and the thing i loved the most was this stamp ... "LOL" ... how perfect is that for me! it's from stampabilities. 

will share the layouts a bit later. one of them has super old photos of the girls too ... some really funny ones. off to work on the 73 different things i have started this weekend!  

supplies:
pattern paper - reminisce (striped)
die cut strip - creative cafe
ribbon, flowers - american crafts
brads - bazzill (large), i don't know (little)
stamp - stampabilities

a project and some more photos . . .

when i saw this ribbon canvas on the talented keisha's blog a while back ... i knew i had to make one. we had just recently gotten all that yummy making memories ribbon ... and i thought it was such a fun idea to showcase a ton of it.

i pretty much kept with her exact design and ribbon placement. when something is done so perfectly ... why mess with it. lol! although the only canvas i had was a little bigger ... so i added in a few ribbons. and yes, i see two spots on there now that i was going to go back and add a thin ribbon ... going to have to fix that. i had all the ribbons on here a few days after seeing hers ... and that was over a month ago. this morning i wanted to finish it. so i had these little photos already printed and decided to just use them. then just found some buttons, flowers, clips, and pins ... and finished it off. everything on here is making memories. thanks keisha, for such great inspiration!

and just a few more photos from yesterday. nothing crazy ... just some everyday photos.

and this last one ... that looks terrible in color ... but looks pretty cool in black and white!

it all fell apart today . . .

so yesterday, i was feeling so organized and on top of things. i knew since today was tuesday ... that it would all fall apart. tuesdays are my craziest days ... and always the days that drain me the most. i had 7 kids here today ... all day. this is really the first day of having them all together ... since the girls just got out of school. and right up front i'm saying my disclaimer. this is just sarcastic, good old venting ... nothing to be taken too seriously or personally. love the kids ... love spending my days with them. in fact ... here's a photo of 4 of those kids ... just to prove that i love them!

that being said ... i had kids here for 11 hours. and during those 11 hours ... why is it i spend about 80% of my time in the kitchen? started with breakfast. i actually only had 5 kids to feed breakfast too. but i did the babies first ... and by babies, i always mean the little ones under the age of two. then i did the big kids ... and by big kids, i mean anyone over the age of two. lol! next thing you know it was lunchtime ... 7 kids to feed. but big kids first ... because the babies were still waking up from naps. then one baby ... then another one when they woke up ... and then another one added in. you can't hold those babies off ... when they wake up, they want to eat NOW! i think lunch took me all of 2 hours from start to finish ... preparing, feeding, cleaning of kids, cleaning of dishes. here's a rough estimate of just 2 meals.

• breakfast for babies: 3 waffles, 2 bananas, handfuls of cereal, raisins, and 3 sippy cups of milk
• breakfast for big kids: 4 slices of sourdough toast with butter, 1 bowl of jello (odd combo), and 2 cups of apple juice
• lunch for babies: 3 hot dogs (think what you will about hot dogs, but the kids love them), macaroni and cheese, a can of cut up pears, gobs of cut up grapes, green beans (niko loves those), goldfish, and 3 sippy cups of milk
• lunch for big kids: 6 hot dogs with ketchup, macaroni and cheese, gobs of grapes, 2 apples, cheez its, 4 cups of sunny delight

and i kid you not ... half hour afterwards ... i had ariana asking me when snack time was! lol! and she asked over and over and over and over and over ... because that is what she does. "why can't you tell us it's snack time?". then she would close her eyes really tight and say "i REALLY wish you would say it is snack time". and i would reply "then you just keep wishing REALLY hard and at 3:00 it will be snack time". lol! that girl is so dramatic.

and i snapped this photo for no reason. but when i saw it on the computer ... i had to laugh. because you see sarah trying to usher all the kids out of the bathroom? that is normally me. lol! because you know that there is just no way that i can actually go in there by myself. and if i ever shut the door ... they sit there and bang on it and fiddle with the handle. and frankly ... it's just easier to have them come in with me. i drink a TON of water ... so i'm in there all day long. and the whole 10 seconds it takes me to tinkle ... gets drawn out because i'm keeping little hands from unraveling the toilet paper, flushing before i'm done, getting in the garbage can, and trying to climb up on my lap. then i have to get them all out of the bathroom. it's not that exciting ... i'm waiting for the day when they decided the coming with me isn't that much fun. yeah, right!

and then this crazy girl. gotta love ariana ... she's super funny! sarah got this blow-up guitar the other day at an arcade spot with amanda. so ariana was carrying it around and really getting down with it. she even did a knee slide with it for me for a photo ... and i didn't even ask her to do it. so i was in the kitchen (no surprise there) ... and i hear her say:

"i hate that stupid" ... and immediatley i started to say her name the way i say it when she's in trouble. and the girls all stopped what they were doing and had those looks on their faces like they knew i was going to be mad. because in this house ... we don't say "stupid" or "hate". the girls actually grew up thinking those were bad words ... as in swearing words. but then i heard her next few words and i knew exactly what she was talking about ... and i was laughing so hard!

"i hate that stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive. you're a redneck, heartbreak who's really bad at lying. so watch me stike a match on all my wasted time. as far as i'm concerned, you're just another picture to burn". yep, the girl was singing taylor swift ... and she was singing it good! i joined in at the end ... and she just gave me her big smile. although she told me that she was singing carrie underwood. whatever ... i'm a fan of both of them. it was so funny though.

see ... that wasn't so bad of a vent, right? lol! i went from griping about my crazy day ... to highlighting a great moment in the midst of it. there are always plenty of the good little things throughout the day. which is why ... even though i'm exhausted beyond belief and have not an ounce of energy left ... i will get up and do it all again tomorrow morning!

and then the scraps became a card . . .

i had to make a quick birthday card today ... since alyssa had a friends party to go to tonight. i just grabbed some scraps that were still out from yesterdays layout ... and made up a few of these.

 

once again ... some making memories pattern papers. once again ... some cuttlebug swiss dot embossing. i have been wanting to use these little calendar tags that i found a while back ... they're so cute and i thought they'd be perfect for cards. i'm not big on how i circled the date ... "june" and "30" were right next to each other ... so it looked a little funny to me. then i just added some ribbon (that i have no idea where it came from) ... and some little leather flowers. i think the flowers are EK success ... i had these 3 left on a sheet ... so i plopped them on.

 

you ever have one of those days where you feel like you're totally caught up? today was one of those days for me. laundry is totally done and put away. fridge and pantry are filled up ... i even washed and cut up all the fruit and veggies. assignments totally done ... mailed off today along with a few other goodie packages that i put off a little. paperwork is done and filed away ... bills are paid ... receipts all organized. my scrap space is clean. new ink cartridges replaced in my printers ... so no more warnings every time i print. i just feel caught up some.

i'm sure tomorrow it will all fall apart again. i think i have 8 kids here tomorrow ... so it's going to be crazy. i guess i'll enjoy the quiet, calmness of tonight while i can! 

the little layout that became a bigger layout . . .

i'm seriously loving this next layout. sure ... it's got a cute photo i took of my neighbors, ziek and ayana. and sure ... i used the new "hul.la.ba.loo" collection from making memories. but there's another reason i love this layout.

 

this actually started off as a 6x6 layout ... and ended up a 9x9 layout. you can see it now, right? the white 6x6 layout only had the photo, the green and blue pattern paper, the flower pattern paper with a few silver brads, and the yellow string tied around it. that's all it was. i was actually starting this for an assignment ... until i found out i was using the wrong stuff (one of my many brain fart moments i had last week). so then i had this little 6x6 layout partially done. what would i even do with this thing ... i don't keep any 6x6 albums anymore.

then i remembered seeing jennifer mention something she did on occasion. on this post here ... she shows how she takes 8x8 layouts and turns them into 12x12 layouts. of course ... for whatever reason ... i remembered this at like 6:00 in the morning yesterday. i wasn't even awake yet ... just woke up for a minute and though of it ... and then went back to sleep. so last night, i decided to give it a try ... and i love how it turned out!

notice all the swiss dot embossing. apparently, my cuttlebug is totally addicted to the swiss dot embossing folder ... the other folders are starting to get jealous. lol! i've been using that folder on EVERYTHING ... just love the simple, yet fun look it adds. and these tiny alpha stickers ... love using those! although i'm always completely paranoid ... asking my girls "how do you spell "really"?" ... "how do you spell "other"?". lol! i know how to spell them .. but leave it to me to get the stickers on and have it be misspelled. lol!

i've missed my 9x9 layouts. that was all i did for about a year or so. but lately i seem to have gotten back into the 12x12 more ... which i still love. but the compact size of the 9x9 is just so cute ... and i still managed to get all sorts of fun stuff on there. and this thing has tons of dimension on it. the 6x6 layout is pop-dotted ... the title circle is pop-dotted ... the "v" is pop-dotted ... the flowers are 3-dimensional. fun stuff!

have you seen this yet . . .

i've been waiting to see when this fun new making memories collection would hit target stores. and a friend told me yesterday that she saw it at our store here in town ... and i've seen some other people talking about it. this new collection is called "hul.la.ba.loo" ... and it's the cutest stuff. i can't find a link anywhere to show you ... but here is a little peek.

these are just a few super, simple cards ... simpler than what i'm used to doing. but these were part of that batch of cards i created a while back ... the ones that were supposed to be the least amount of steps as possible. lol! but isn't the product cute? there are so many fun embellishments to this collection ... it was hard to pick and choose what i wanted to use. lol!

 

i do have a few more small projects using this collection that i'll share tomorrow. they each just need a little finishing touch added on. i also have a few other scrapping things i wanted to share ... some fun stuff i've gotten recently in the mail from thoughtful friends! 

feeling a little better today ... a little more "on the ball". just mailed off 2 big boxes of completed projects ... feels good to have those done even if i ended up being a little late. lol! the desk is completely cleaned off and ready for the next few things i have to get done this weekend. i have the laundry all put away ... and a few more loads going. dishwasher is running right now. amazing what i can get done when the house is quiet. the girls are out doing stuff ... alyssa is at her dads ... and sarah went somewhere with amanda for a bit. haley is still home sick ... but hopefully feeling better by now. and niko is taking his afternoon nap. one of these days i will learn to relax at naptime ... but usually i rush to see how much i can get done. lol!

why i'm missing in action . . .

i know i've been a terrible blogger this past week ... or two. but i have reasons. the oddly, condensed version for your reading pleasure.

• super, crazy busy with assignments and deadlines ... it's all great stuff ... just busy
• and inconviently, everything i have done scrapping-related lately has gone to heck ... seriously
• my creative mojo is there ... but yet stuff isn't working out
• anything that CAN go wrong with my scrapping ... HAS gone wrong
• someone told me once they didn't think i was capable of creating anything crappy ... i'm here to tell you i CAN
• last weekend was crazy with parties and birthdays ... and i havn't caught up since
• it's been ugly around here this week ... fires somewhere near by are making for terrible air outside
• but it's been hot ... i hate when it's hot
• and i'm trying to keep the kids inside ... especially since i needed to get refills for alyssa's asthma meds
• my miss haley has been home sick all week ... we miss her
• i think nikolas has missed her too ... at least i'm convinced that is what he's been trying to tell me all week
• we're year-round school here ... and doing all the year-end stuff this week
• alyssa played in the band at the 8th grade graduation ... i only teared up twice ... and i didn't even know anyone graduating
• a HUGE amount of papers have come home from school ... that happens when they clean out their desks
• awards ceremonies today ... but i didn't go to sarah's because i didn't think she was getting an award
• turns out she did get an award ... perfect attendance ... 1 of only 6 kids in three entire grade levels
• alyssa got perfect attendance too ... 1 of only 4 kids in three entire grade levels
• alyssa got honor roll ... perfect 4.0 all year long ... she also got the citizianship award for her class
• kids officially finished school as of 12:15 today
• kids were officially bored by 1:30 today ... and home for the next 6 weeks
• i had to say "goodbye" to someone today ... and it was so hard ... incredibly hard
• i've been thinking of her all day ... and everytime i do ... i cry hearing her "goodbye" to me replay over and over in my head
• and i very rarely cry
• except graduations where i don't know anyone
• i have a load of laundry laying all over the fooseball table ... i can't seem to find the time to put it away ... so we dig through it to find what we need
• we have no real food in this house ... nothing that can be turned into an actual meal that is
• i had to do a firedrill today ... i never knew i was supposed to be doing firedrills ... i found this out an my surprise inspection a few weeks back
• i had till the 26th to fax it in ... and the dude called me on the 24th to check on me
• i told him that i never do anything until the day it is due ... that's how i roll
• i don't know how you really do a firedrill with 3 babies under the age of 20 months ... i just explained to them that i would scoop them all up and carry them to safety
• i know ... it's a serious matter ... i'm just being sarcastic and a pain
• it feels like friday ... even though it's thursday
• i think it's because of the excitement of the last day of school
• although technically ... it'll be friday in one hour

so random ... but that's how i'm thinking these days. i do have a few cards that i hope to share in the next day or two. i was holding out until the product released ... but a little birdie told me she came across it at target today ... so i think it's safe to share. just give me a day or two to try and catch up!