We are Mouse-bound!!

Heading out in the weeeeee early morning hours tomorrow. We need to be up at 5:15am to catch our flight to Orlando...Yipppeeee!!

So what am I NOT doing? ....packing

So what am I doing instead? ....making these super-cute autograph books for my girls, of course!!


Now, as much as I LOVE Disney, I just CANNOT tolerate all of their licensed character papers that are on the market--Good God, they make me want to hurl! I find them quite gaudy and gauche, and try as I might, I just couldn't bring myself to make that purchase--even for my kids.
What I did find as a perfect substitute was these Cherry Arte Cosmic Energy papers. They had all the right colors, and I was even able to accentuate some of the miscellaneous circles with some Heidi Swapp bling to represent a Mickey Mouse head...Not bad, eh? I didn't go overboard with lots of embellies, as these books will put through some rigorous handling, hence the need to mod podge the cover too. I'm not too crazy about the look of the mod podge on the cover, but wanted to give it a bit of protection...It's ok, I can live with it...It is far better than one of the cookie cutter books found in the parks, and I didn't have to subject myself to the purchase of f-ugly papers you find in the stores.

Now that I can check these books off my to-do list, it is on to packing!

YaY!!

See you in a week!

:)

Here's what's happening in my neck of the woods...

This past week I have been super busy doing store displays for my lss, Lasting Memories. I also actually worked a day in the store, and rang customers--all by myself--YIKES!...LOL, there were a few people who got some REALLY good deals on items as a result of my ineptitude with the register. But it was a good day. I'd definitely do it again, and I'll give y'all a heads-up so you know when to come in while i'm working ***wink, wink***


This first layout for store display is using K&Co's Hopscotch papers...When I first saw the papers, I was like, "ick!!", but now I kinda like the way this page turned out. :)


This 2-pager is done using Rusty Pickle's Pirate Princess papers. I did gobs of machine stitching on this, along with my very first experience with the uber-cool Stickles. Oh yeah, I've gotta get me some o'dat!








Check out the close-up picks of the scrolls and winged heart--the Stickles make them jump off the page!




















Here's another store display I did using the BG Periphery papers. I have been really big into transparencies lately--especially making my own. I used the HS "cherish" stamp on my tranparency. Then I used my Crafter's Workshop doodling templet to trace and cut the scalloped/pierced edge. I dry brushed the scallops to give the detail some definition. I also grabbed some mesh (I know!! a blast from the past) to go along with this page. I thought it worked really well with the distressy look of this paper. Then I did a couple of my trademark embellishing (you can almost always see this somewhere on my lo's), the machine stitching and cut out flowers... You really have to click on these photos to enlarge--you just don't get the detail from the regular sized pics on the blog.

I also worked on one other lo for store display, but did it while I was working at the store...I don't have a pic, but will try to snap one tomorrow when I go to teach my class...

P.S. Did i mention we're going to Disney in 4 days?! I gotta get going and get organized for that!! I've got costumes to pack (MNSSHP), travel documents to retrieve from our safe deposit box, get some cash, pack our everyday clothes, confirm our grocery delivery, confirm our flights, etc....and the list goes on and on!

As promised...

...here are my pictures from Cape Cod



The beach bums (my girls, and my friend's girls) hammin' for the camera on the beach at low tide in Eastham (which, by the way was voted one of the U.S.'s top 10 places to view a sunset!)







my oh so pretty girl #2...














my oh so pretty girl #1...












....best friends!













yep, the water's a little cold!!












Marina in Provincetown














Rock Harbor at sunset















my friend's house in Eastham












...my friend's son Matt skimboarding on the beach in Eastham











a live starfish found in the surf at Nauset Beach...we always catch and release!













This is one of the views from Marconi Station in Wellfleet










A horseshoe crab










Matt surfcasting at dusk at Nauset Beach














This is Cap'n Cass. A cute little restaurant in Rock Harbor Marina
















a whale's tail...



...the end!


hope you liked them! :)

I love a quickie!!

Here is a quickie lo I made at the beginning of the month...This one I created for the monthly Scraplift Challenge I host at 2SS. For this month's challenge, I asked participants to scraplift a card, layout or altered art project from any print publication (ie: Simple Scrapbooks, Creating Keepsakes, Paper Crafts, etc...)

Here is my inspiration piece: the original artwork is entitled "ernesto" by Yolanda Williams from Charlotte NC, and was featured on pg.127 of the July/August 2007 issue of Simple Scrapbooks

I just loved the clean lines of this layout and the awesome use of "white space". I am so attracted to these types of layouts... The simplicity of the design draws focus to the photos--perfection!! So why do I have such trouble with this concept? I don't know...you be the judge!

And here is my interpretation entitled, "Center of my Universe"


***just a note: my original photograph of my girls was a little out of focus, but I just loved the picture, and wanted to use it anyway...So I edited it in Photoshop using a blur tool.

Here's how i did it:

Open your photo in Photoshop
Select "Filter" from the toolbar
Select "Blur" from the drop down menu
Select "Radial Blur"
Select "Zoom" as your blur method
Adjust amount of blur to your liking
Adjust focal point in the grid box on the left hand portion of the drop down menu
Click ok

Getting warmed up...

After being gone on our vacation for two weeks, I am still attempting to get back into the swing of things here in my "real life". I was without internet access, and believe it or not, I enjoyed the reprieve from being connected. So upon my return, i was welcomed back with gobs of email. Just wading through that took the majority of one day!

This was the first year in many where I did not bring any scrap-related projects to work on...Two whole weeks without any paper, glue or scissors--oh, the horror!!

I took the morning yesterday to get re-acquainted with my neglected tools and supplies. You would think I would be brimming with creative ideas, but that was not the case. My lss asked me to make a store display with these cute Rusty Pickle Cap'n Jack papers....my first thought was of my talented friend Rachael's AHOY! layout...Hers is so much cuter than mine, but here's what I came up with based on Rachael's layout:

This picture was taken last summer on Cape Cod when we were at the Pirate Adventures in Orleans. They gave the kids pirate names, One-Eyed Olivia, and Half-Mast Hayden, then took them out on a treasure-seeking boating excursion aboard the Sea Gypsy in the bay. They fought Pirate Pete with the ship's water cannons, found the treasure chest, and celebrated their take of the booty with a nice drink of grog!! LOL It is so darn cute!

The title is made with Thickers, and the little name plaques are made with a 7Gypsies stamp.

Hopefully after this little warm-up exercise, I will have gotten my mojo back and flowing...check back for more goodies in the coming week!

I've been tagged!!

I've been tagged by the lovely Karen (Scrapbooking Princess), an sb buddy from IL2C...


So here are the rules:
1. Post these rules
2. Each person must post 8 random facts about themselves
3. 8 more people need to be tagged and you have to leave a comment on their blog saying so :)

Here are my random (and rather uninteresting) facts:

1. I had fresh strawberries and blueberries over my breakfast cereal this morning. They were sooo delicious!! The days are numbered are for those little beauties, as their peak season is slowly diminishing...

2. My favorite season is Fall. I can't wait for sweater weather! I love the cool crisp days, apple picking, and the spectacular fall foliage.

3. I think I got a good deal on this year's heating oil prices...I am paying a lock-in rate of $2.30/gallon--that is a dramatic decrease from what a paid last year, a whopping $2.68/gallon!! So I am happy to save that 38 cents per gallon--Yipppeeee Skipppeee!!

4. I have been slacking when it comes to keeping on top of the kids' reading and math skills this summer. So I have implemented a "summer school" program at our house for the last two weeks before the start of school...We have an hour and a half of lessons and reading each morning, and surprisingly the kids are really liking it...What's wrong with these children?! LOL

6. I am not a happy camper if I have to function without my morning coffee!

7. I am such a slacker, that I have yet to fully understand and use my camera (Nikon D50) to it's full potential. I have owned it for well over a year now--how pathetic.

8. I LOVE rollercoasters! I love the huge drops, and twists and turns, the loops and corkscrews, being turned upside down and thrown from side to side, it is all so thrilling!

1. Amy B
2. Amy (saltzworks)
3. Rachael
4. Penny B
5. Diane
6. Deborrah
7. Tracy P.
8. Shannon

Happy Birthday, Matt

Happy Birthday to my dh!! I made this birthday card for him using the Cosmo Cricket Dutch Girl papers, and following my fellow DT member over at 2SS, Cindy's July Card Challenge.

We promised each other we would keep our birthdays low-key this year, as we are planning another trip to WDW for Sept.

I made him a cake for tonight, and have to go and wrap his presents...Any ideas on what to make for dinner tonight in 94 degree weather?! I'm thinkin' reservations!! LOL