Are you ready????

Wahooooooo, only 3 more days!!!! Yes, I am really that excited.


I am looking forward spending Saturday creating cards until my heart's content. Well, at least until the IU/Ohio game starts.
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So the other day I shared that I spent Saturday scrapbooking with Kimber. I didn't mention what my sweet girls did. It started with K saying that if I got to go scrapbooking she was going to pack up her stuff and go scrapbooking too. She planned on heading out to the backyard. After I successfully convinced her that the backyard may not be the best place to scrapbook, she decided on the basement. Her plan expanded from there. Since I was going to get to scrapbook with a friend, she figured she should do the same. And this is how the scrapbooking party at our house came to be. At one point she and L had 10 little girls over scrapbooking with them while my sweet husband sat in the basement with them trying to watch the football game. From all accounts the party, which morphed into a game of squirt gun freeze tag outside, was a huge success. Wish I would have been here to get pictures. :)
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I have been keeping busy this last week working on a fund raiser for the girls' school with my sweet friend, Amanda. The PTO decided that instead of raising money by selling wrapping paper and then turning half of the proceeds over to someone else, we would have a read-a-thon instead. Amanda and I are in charge of tracking the reading and weekly incentives for two schools. It has been a lot of fun but there is SO much to do. Another reason I am looking forward to Saturday! :)
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Before I go, I thought I would share a card I made last week for our challenge over at the Card-a-licous Blog. Janelle challenged us to create a birthday card using the colors yellow, red and blue. Here is the card I came up with.
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Don't forget to stop over at the Moxie Fab blog for a chance to win amazing prizes and to check out all the stunning cards being featured there all week. And come back here on Friday for a chance to win a VERY cool prize pack. See you then!!!

Everything that shines

OK, so it is not a new infatuation. I love using glitter, rhinestones, pearls, you name it on my projects. But Saturday I got to play with a brand new love. After soccer games on Saturday I got to drive up to Indy and spend the day scrapping at Archivers with Kimber. I miss our impromtu nights of scrapping and I had so much fun. Anyway, while I was at Archivers I stumbled upon the new embossing powders by American Crafts. Oh yummy!!!!
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I used them on two of my projects for Magistical Memories. I just love the texture it created on this White Oak Leaf chipboard. I am sure if you wanted a smoother finish you could add another layer of embossing powder. You can check out the Magistical Memories Blog for a quick tutorial.

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I created a second card using this great embossing powder. I also used black paint and glitter on the swirly branch from Magistical Memories and turned it on it's side to create the creepy tree. The little skull comes from the Love You to Death set.

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I did one other project for Magistical Memories while scrapbooking on Saturday. (yes, that is right, I only did one layout and a card-we may have talked a bit!)

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The gorilla is also a piece of Magistical Memories chipboard. I did this page for this month's challenge on the MM message board. The challenge is to use 3 tags and chipboard on a layout. There is still time to get in on a chance to win some awesome chipboard!
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Before I go I wanted to remind you that this Saturday is a very exciting day for all of us card makers-a whole day dedicated to card making. That's right, World Card Making Day!

I was honored to be asked to create a card for the count down to the celebration by Cath at Paper Crafts Magazine. So make sure to check out my blog for my card on Friday and then head over to the Official site for information about the activities that will be going on

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Make sure you get over to the Moxie Fab blog for to see some amazing cards from the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Poland and a chance to win an awesome prize.

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DON'T FORGET to check back here on Friday to see my card for the blog hop and a chance to win a cool prize from Paper Crafts.
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Have a wonderful week!!!

Magazine Winners, my Craftroom and Chipboard

Happy Tuesday everyone!!!

I have a few things I want to share with you. First of all, make sure you head over to Magistical Memories today and check out the awesome sale they are having. Use the following codes and save a ton on already reasonably priced chipboard.

Secondly, I wanted to announce the winners of my magazine give-away last week! Congratulations to:

Robyn Schaub
Connie

Linda Beeson

Ellen S.

Terri Davenport

Charlene

Stacey

Lisa T. Howard

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Please send your mailing address to lisadorsey4@gmail.com and I will get your magazines out to you as soon as possible. :)

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Finally, I thought I would share a few pictures of my scrapbook room with you. As I said in the last post I am still trying to get those last few boxes unpacked but my room is feeling much more under control.

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This is my work table. I love having all of that natural light to work with. My dad installed the shelves on the left of the window for all my ribbon jars. The white cabinet houses a bunch of misc. stuff: punches, DMC floss and twines, glitter etc. Under my table are paper shelves that I got from my LSS a few years ago. I have all my solids on the right, organized by color and the pattern papers are on the left by color as well.

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I love this wall! The shelves on the wall hold some of my favorite projects and pictures. (the layout on the left is actually straight IRL) LOL The colors are off a little but those cute little boxes are a fabulous, rich teal color and they hold things like tags, rub-ons, border punches, and bling (that is my favorite box) :) The large black canvas baskets hold bigger collections such as my silk and chipboard flowers and inks. That empty bottom right box now holds magazines. I found the round glass containers at Goodwill for 49 cents and they hold the majority of my buttons.

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I found this show rack at Target a couple of years ago and realized that is was the perfect size for all of my embellishment jars. Each jar is organized by color and has a second jar behind it.

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Have a wonderful day and check back in the next couple of days to see some projects I have been working on.

God is watching over our little ones

I know it is true but to see it happening is just awe inspiring. God it good and I just love when you can see a glimpse of the things he has in store for these sweet girls of mine.

So I just completed my second day of Jazzercise today. Man, I feel good but I am sooooo tired (and stinky!) whew! LOL Anybody else out there do Jazzercise? If not, what do you do to keep active. One lady this morning was talking about a Zoomba class she goes to. I have always thought that looks like fun.

The Comcast guy was out working on my computer AGAIN yesterday. That makes 5 times since we moved and 4 in the last month or so. What is so frustrating is that my internet goes down and they can never get out here until 4 or 5 days later. Grrrrr..... Thankfully this time they were coming out for a different problem with our TV and then were able to work on my computer.

Anyway, while he was here working on my computer I decided to work on one of the three boxes that is still left to unpack in my scraproom. I have been putting off unpacking the box with my copies of magazines that I was published in. Why, you may ask? I have decided that when I die my girls are going to look at this stack of magazines and wonder what in the world their crazy mother was doing saving these magazines and toss them. SO I have started putting a white label on the cover of each of them with the pages my work is on. I figure that way at least they can look at the projects one last time before the toss them. LOL

Here is the fun part! While I was going through those magazines I realized that there are several that I have multiple copies of. Here's what I've got:

Paper Crafting 3 Ways

Memory Makers Idea Gallery


Paper Crafts July/August 2009 (that is my Wishing You card on the cover!!!)

Before I started designing for Emma's Paperie I worked on with Cindy,the sweet owner of Emma's Paperie, on two of her books. I just love all the art work in this one. :)

Be Mine Book (2 copies)

Scrapbook Etc. August/September 2009

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Scrapbook Etc. January 2009

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So here is how you can get one of these magazines. It is simple really. We have been so busy lately with sports after school that I feel we have fallen into a dinner rut. Just leave me a comment telling me what your favorite meal is to make when you are in a hurry. Feel free to leave me a recipe if you want. Also, if one of these magazines appeals to you more than the others, feel free to leave me a note about that too. I will draw names next Tuesday.

You can click on most of the titles to get a little peek as to what is in each issue. There's really some amazing work in these issues.
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If you know me, you know I cannot leave you without sharing a project. So today I have a card to share with you. I created this sketch for Emma's Blog a week or two ago.

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Here is my card based on the sketch.

Make sure you check out the Emma's Paperie Blog for everyone else's take on my sketch. (You may have to scroll down a little as I am behind on posting!) Sorry :(

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Sitting in the sun...

taking in a game. That is the way I spent my weekend. I am happy to say that soccer games have started up again. :) I love watching the girls play soccer and this weekend was perfect weather for it.

I promised last week that I would post some pictures from our trip to Chicago last weekend.

We hit the Field Museum on Sunday. I thought the Pirate exhibit was great although, L had a different opinion. She was fine posing with the pirate outside but she didn't care too much for the exhibit. :)

There were a lot of exhibits that we couldn't get pictures of but I DID get a photo of the Sue, the famous dinosaur who greets museum goers as they enter the building. :)

On our way out of Chicago we stopped at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

The exhibits and the animals were just gorgeous!

This rhino was acting a bit tempermental. When I went to take his picture he turned his backside to us. We were able to get a glimpse of him over a fence though. K took this picture for me while sitting on DH's shoulders. She is getting to be quite the photographer, don't you think?

And of course we couldn't leave Chicago without stopping at Geno's East. Yum!

I also have another project to share for you. I haven't done a two page layout in quite a while and it felt good to get the pictures of the girls' birthday party done. Love the way this turned out. Sorry it is a bit small. You can click on the image to see it in more detail.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your week is wonderful!

Yes, I am 40

OK, so I decided not to try to hide it, because really, who am I fooling? LOL Truthfully, I love being 40. I am so truly blessed at this stage of my life. There is no other place I would rather be. I have two amazing girls who make me laugh and smile every day. I have the best husband I could ever ask for and wonderful friends! 40 is great.

My sweet family gave me a trip to Chicago for my birthday. The girls made me these cute passes for our trip. It is obvious that they both put so much work into each and every one of these. I plan on working on a mini album this weekend to keep them all in. Here are a few of my favorites.

We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Catch 35. Love the "fancy" chairs and piano on this pass. :)

If you ever have a chance to visit the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago I highly recommend it. What a beautiful zoo and it is completely free! (I will share some of my pictures soon)

This one cracked me up! Notice that is me, watching t.v. while my sweetie packs everything up. LOL They wanted to pack before the trip but DH told them that I might want a little bit of control over that. What a smart man!

Definitely took them up on this one! Love, love, love Garrett's popcorn! Obviously so do a lot of other people. We waited in line for 35 minutes but it was so worth it!

We didn't get a chance to take the girls up on this coupon but I just had to share it anyway. My oldest DD wrote me this great pass and sang it to me to the tune of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." :)

This is probably my favorite one (free shopping without complaining). The part you may not be able to read are the little speech and thought bubbles coming out of the people. I am saying "Only 1 more hour" then my sweet DD says "OK" while in her head she is thinking "you've done 10 already" LOL

Needless to say we only went to two stores and one of them was the American Girl store. No real shopping but I figure I need to do that with a girlfriend anyway. :)

I thought I would share a project with you also this morning. I created this gift box for the student teacher in K's class that will be leaving soon. All the instructions and supplies can be found on the Emma's Paperie blog.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Fall is in the Air

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Oh what a wonderful way to start the month of September. I just love crisp, cool autumn mornings and today was no exception. This is definitely what I missed when we were living in Texas. .

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I have made a decision to encourage my girls to ride the bus every morning. I know that may sound a bit odd but I drove them every morning last year. Why you may ask. The bus shows up in our neighborhood at 8 am but the kids don't get to school until 8:50. That is a lot of extra sleep they can get in the morning. I have decided to have them ride the bus though (despite their complaining) because we have got to know some of the neighbors that we would not have otherwise. I love that time in the morning of chatting with the other parents as the kids talk to their friends. It is also a great time to watch my girls interact with their friends. You learn so much about everyone's personalities.

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Speaking of school, I have a little school project to share with you this morning. I created this mini album for Emma's Paperie. You can find a list of all of the supplies on the Emma's blog.

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Have a fabulous day everyone!