A Little Submitting...

It's a love-hate relationship I have with submitting for publication. Of course, I love the idea of having my work in people's hands all over the world. But, man... the work that goes into it. I am a slow scrapper to begin with, so by the time I'm done with a project, the last thing I'm thinking about is all the product I've used. I was really good for awhile and wrote everything down on the backs of layouts. Maybe because I've done such little creating for me in the last year or so, I simply have slacked on that part. So, with the new year upon us, I'm vowing to scrap for ME, which will hopefully mean I'll have the time (and motivation) to get some of the other details like supplies taken care of. I've also thought keeping some sort of a log of all my projects, along with my supply list. If anyone out there has an idea to share, PLEASE! I'd love to hear it!

In the meantime, here's a project I finished (and submitted) just today...

October PersonalScrapper kit featuring Jilllibean Soup

I submitted this for the stitching call:). I'm not sure how well you can see it, but I stitched across each of the rows of stars. This was also for the December sketch challenge at Jillibean Soup, and almost all of the layout was using my October PersonalScrapper.com kit. It felt SO GOOD to just scrap something I wanted to scrap! And my munchkins are adorable too! I also added a piece of flair from Bossy Joscie (love that lady!) 

Another great thing about this layout was the picture came directly from my camera! As luck would have it, I forgot to check my battery on my dSLR before we went up to the tree farm. There was some luck for me in that I was able to snap some Instagram shots that I could send directly to my home printer. Using my phone so much isn't gonna help my case for a newer, faster dSLR, that's for sure! 

Some Randomness for Wednesday

Not a ton going on around here... P has already headed back to work for the school year. And me... Well, I'm just in complete denial that we are now less than 1 little bitty month away from the first day of school. Wow. It always goes SO fast. Camping trips have been put on hold the last several weeks, and it appears as if it may stay that way until Labor Day. We've started a rather large yard project that's sucking up a good amount of time and a HUGE part of our cash flow. (Do you even know how much $$ it costs to take sod to the dump?? More than we thought!) In hopefully under a week, we'll be the proud owners of a beautiful brick patio, complete with firepit. We're having a big "40" birthday extravaganza next week for the old guy, er... my beautiful husband, and we hope to have it all done by then. We'll see how it all goes. Some of our family may have to be sucked coerced bribed into helping a bit to make it happen.

There's a ton of cleaning to be done today. I think we're going to have someone out soon to clean the carpets, so I figure I need to get a few rounds of vacuuming in before the appointment :) Once P gets home, it'll be back to the patio work. The temps are a little cooler today and tomorrow, (low 80s) so that will bring huge relief and make the work loads easier. Once the first round of vacuuming is done, I'm hoping to get a lil' scrappy again. I'm still waiting on my latest Punky Sprouts box to come, but in the meantime, I figure I'll play around a little with some Jillibean Soup and Bella Blvd.

Speaking of Jilllibean... Here are a couple of layouts I did recently.

This one is extra special, as it was one for my PageMaps assignment for July. I love Becky's maps, and it is such an honor to design for her. Once again, I was especially honored as one of her top picks for the newsletter! The background is Punky Playground (currogated cardboard) that I exposed and then painted. The rest of the papers are Jillibean Soup Watermelon Gazpacho from my PersonalScrapper kit for June.

I love this one too! Something about those papers just makes me swoon and think of everything summer. I'm going to have to buy some more of this paper soon, cuz I'm not sure how much more of my PS kit is left :(.  This was based on a Sketchy Thursdays sketch. Since we'd been on vacation, I missed the deadline to qualify for the week, but I'm planning on spending some more time over there soon!

Well, the vacuum is not magically turning itself on (anyone got one of those cool Roombas?) so I suppose I should go take care of that. I just need to remind myself that I can play, er-um. work, in my craft room when I'm done :)

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to say hello! (I'll go surfing some of your blogs tomorrow, I promise!)

<3  C

Final Sketchabilities Reveal...

It's quite sad for me to not be a part of the Sketchabilities team anymore... I would have LOVED to stay on for another term, but I just wasn't able to meet all the expectations while running Scraptivations at the same time. So, as they say, all good things must come to an end :( I'm also hoping though, that the saying, "when one door closes, another one opens" is also true... :)

Here's Karan's beautiful sketch (one of my favorites, and possible the fastest LO I've created in forever!

and here's my take...

Most materials are all from the March kit from personalscrapper.com featuring My Mind's Eye

I loved creating this one! I found an awesome flower tutorial on the Your Scrapbook Stash blog a couple of weeks ago, and finally got to put that to good use! (See the flowers on the ends!) I think they are some of my very favorite flowers to date!

As for the homefront, things will hopefully be a tad bit more relaxing this week... WE'RE ON SPRING BREAK! Yep, I'm 125% excited about it! No getting up at the crack of dawn... No hustle and bustle of making sure we get to the seemingly 25 different places we need to be, on time no less! Just hanging out, doing what we wanna do! Well... I guess there are those 17 different home improvement projects that just keep getting put off... *sigh* At least they'll be done at home, right? :)

In other scrappy news, I am not a new member of the latest Jillibean Soup Design Team... Those that I know who made it are truly UBER talented, as well as knowing a few that didn't make the team who are also just fabulous... There's always a next time, and with this company, I completely intend to make sure I get myself ready for it. It's always weird though, you know? Trying to figure out what the "right" things to say on a DT app are... For me, it's hard to put myself out there and just be me. So with that, this little blog here is one of the things I intend to work on. I need to practice being me. Sounds silly to some of you, I'm sure, but I'm hoping some of you know exactly what I mean...

I'm also working hard on my very first Punky Sprouts album! So excited to get it all put together and posted! Lynn is getting all the DT bios posted up too :) Head over there and see what the other girls have been up to. I love how each of our styles are so unique, yet they all have their own way of showcasing Shelly's fun albums! Pretty cool (typed in my best Miley Cyrus impersonation lol )

Thanks for hanging out with me!
~Til next time <3

Scraptivations Challenge 1

I finally have the very first design team challenge posted over at Scraptivations! All the little details in getting everything set up is just craziness! I knew it would take quite a bit of work, but seeing it all is kind of insane!

The first challenge is a sketch from Lisa.

and here is my take...

I've been holding onto that picture for awhile now. Lynn and I got to take a "Fabulous Flowers" class sponsored by CK, but little did we know that CK royalty would be teaching it! Megan Hoeppner and Lori Anderson were the teachers, and Kelly Purkey stopped by at the end. We made sure to get a quick pic with the three of them! So exciting! *I'm such a scrap dork*

Be sure to head over to Scraptivations to get the rest of the details to qualify for the prize and see what the rest of the DT did with the sketch!

~Til next time <3

Tme Flies Fast...

and I guess I'm having fun! Today was a pretty fantabulous day at work, I have to say! Just some stuff that has been going on has sort of been dealt with. It's crazy, but this has totally felt like a ton of bricks has been lifted off of me... *major sigh*  Now I just hope and pray the rest of the pieces fall together well, and that we don't end up with a bigger problem than we started with.

I've been working on tons of scrappy fun lately, but I've only been able to take pics of a few things. So I'm just gonna share my Sketchabilities layout with you tonight. We've had a dreary last several days (including a major dumping on of snow - blech!) and it's just been so dark to take pics.

Karan's sketch #42

and my take

Funny, because this seems quite a bit busier than I normally do, and I struggled with it (the perfectionist in me just can't let go sometimes!). But I think it's fun! We were able to spend an entire day at the San Diego Zoo this past summer and had such an amazing time. It's really hard to believe that there were things we weren't able to see :( Hopefully we can make it back in a few years. We all loved it, and the entire trip was well worth it! 

Needing to head out and to bed!

~Til next time <3

SKetchabilities #41

Thanks everyone for the love you've left here and on FB for my exciting announcement! I think I'm a bit in denial right now (yeah, still!) Such an amazing opportunity! I can't wait to get started on my first Punky Album! Since I'm off work today, I keep meaning to get in my craft room, and when I think of stuff I want to work with, all I keep thinking is, "That would be so cool in a mini-album!" So I guess some layouts and cards will have to do for now... :) Erica is having another crop at PersonalScrapper-extended for slow scrappers like me even- so I need to get some stuff done for that too. I think I will plunk tomorrow away near completely for ME. What a concept, huh?

It was sunny out today, and I tried to get a few shots of the kids. They will work, but  I was really hoping we'd make it outside, but it just never happened. Maybe when Miss A wakes up from her nap I can grab a few shots. Totally needing some great pics to get my mojo jump started I think. Speaking of pics, I'm on the lookout for a great photog/Photoshop class to take-either or both really. If the sun and moon align just right, I can get some really great shots, but I'm wanting needing to learn to do some stuff on my own. Leave me a little line here if you've got some ideas for me, k?

I haven't had a chance to post my take on Karan's latest sketch, so here it is...

I loved this one (always do!) I wasn't able to get a bigger pic, so I opted for smaller one to fill it in.

This gorgeous Bo Bunny paper is courtesy of my Personal Scrapper Secret Sister Erica! We actually ended up having each other- too funny! She completely spoiled me seeing as how she's got access to all my favorite scrappy things! I did, however, have to hide a few of my peanut M&Ms since that was the first thing my little darlings noticed! Can't wait to play with some more! I was MORE than happy to find her some goodies as sort of a thank you for all she does for us each month. She really is an amazing business owner and person! Love ya Erica!
Need to go get the little one up from her nap so she doesn't stay up all night. We're headed out with some friends to go bowling with a bunch of our kiddos, so we're pretty stoked for that :)

~Til next time <3