Are you a practical scrapper??

Well if you are then check out the new blog Practical Scrappers a blog dedicated to making use of those neglected supplies that have been sitting there unused for so long!! My friend Ashlee, is on their design team and I can't wait to see what the first challenge was! But to celebrate their kick-off, they are giving away some blog candy!! Here's how you can get a chance to win those goodies!!

1. Become a follower of the Practical Scrappers blog.

2. If you post on YOUR blog, about their giveaway, they will throw your name in the bag twice. Leave them a comment and tell them!!

Become a follower and stay tuned for the results of the first challenge, to be revealed Monday, August 3rd!!!


So go visit, leave a comment and good luck!! And my blog candy package is getting bigger and bigger!! Won't be long now!! Happy Crafting!!

Swim-Bike-Run

You know that few months where I didn't really post much? Well, there was a good reason, I was training for my very first triathlon. I signed up back in March of this year and then the race was on Memorial Day. It was alot tougher than I thought it would be but I am looking forward to next year so I can do it again!! It was a quarter mile swim, 10 mile bike ride, and a 2.5 mile run. Whew!! I am tired just thinking about it again!! But I did want to remember the event and my thoughts about it. And this is the first two page layout that I have done in forever!! This paper is from BoBunny's new Calipso line. Thanks for looking! Happy crafting!

P.S.-Keep checking back! I feel some blog candy coming on!!

I have had a productful week!!

Since DH has been out of town with work, I have had plenty of time to get some scrapping done!! These two layouts are cut from Street Sign, which has come to be one of my favorite fonts. I didn't use Jubilee on any of these, but don't worry, I will get to it soon!! Here is some of what I did this week.

This page was scraplifted off of a layout that was featured on Scrapbooks, Etc baseball section. You can see it here. It is pretty much the exact same layout.














I liked the Orioles layout so much that I used it again with my San Francisco layout. This was a trip me and DH took for our tenth anniversary. I used most of the photos in a mini album, but wanted to make a layout for our scrapbook too. I picked three photos and cropped them a little different, only on the top and bottom. I added few embellishments because the pictures seem to be enough. I have found that I am moving towards layouts that have more white space and very little embellishments. Mabye it's because I mostly scrap about my three boys, but either way, I like the overall effect. I have two more layouts that I finished, but will save them for another day! Happy crafting!!

My new cart is here!!

After waiting not so patienly for my new Jubilee cart to arrive, it's here!! I know what you're thinking. Why didn't you get it a Michaels while on sale and begin using it right away? There was even a chance to win the Golden Ticket. But my poor pocketbook couldn't give up an extra 20 bucks to use it right away. Buy it now on Ebay with free shipping and no state sales tax?? Who could pass that up? And when I returned the Jubilee cart that I did buy at Michaels, and got my money back, I was able to buy two sets of Inkadinkadoo stamps on clearance!! My reward for having to wait!! I also have two new sets of CTMH stamp sets coming!! And hubby is out of town on business, so I can get to scrappin all week!! Maybe I can catch up on my New Years resolution to do 52 layouts this year!! We'll see! I just sent all my photos to be printed and picked up later today, so I have plenty to start with!! And by the way, if anyone is looking for the new cartridges cheap, check out Ebay. There are alot on there with buy it now's for less than $35. Not too bad for a just released cart. Well, my scrap desk is calling me! Happy crafting!!

Gifts, Fun, Cake!!

This layout is of my oldest son's birthday party, and I love, love, love, the paper that I used! I almost didn't want to use it because I liked it so much!! I hope I'm not the only one that does that!! I like the fun feel of the layout. I didn't get too many good pictures of him because it was dark in the bowling alley, and I was too busy bowling too! We had so much fun! I also got to use my new CTMH inkpads, and they are worth the extra money!! They cover well and the colors are beautiful! Happy crafting!

Pattern paper: BoBunny, Cosmo Cricket, Deja View, Teresa Collins
Clips and bookplate: Spare Parts
Ribbon: Michaels
Ink:CTMH
Pen: Uniball, Sanford
Title: Cricut, Doodletype, Cuttin Up, Alphalicious

My new blog banner! And instructions so you can make one too!

If you are reading this, you may have noticed that I have a new blog banner. It's not the greatest, but I made it myself. I still need to add to my digi papers and elements, so until then, it is kind of minimum. But incase anyone would like to add their own to their blog, I thought I would post instructions on how to do that. After all, it is just a mini scrapbook page!

I have Photoshop Elements and obviously blogspot, so these instructions will be most accurate for these programs. If you have other photo editing software, you may be able to follow along, but I have not used any other program.

First, open Photoshop and choose create on the main menu. Then I opened a new document.

Set the pixel size to 650 x 250. You may need to play with the size here, but I didn't have any problem uploading to blogspot.

Create your banner with digi papers or a cropped photo. I had to stich together three pieces of digi paper to go all the way across. You can find free digi papers and elements on the internet.

Save your banner as a psd file incase you need to make any changes to it later. Then save as a jpeg file so it can be uploaded to blogspot.

Then head on over to blogspot and open up your dashboard. Click on layout, then header. It will give you the option to upload a picture from your computer. If you added your blog name to your banner, click on the option to use your banner instead of the title. Upload you banner to your blog!! It's that easy!

I hope that these instructions are helpful. If you make a new banner for your blog or wesite, please post a comment so I can see what you came up with. Let me know if there was anything I missed, as I was going from memory! Happy crafting!

All About Me Album

This album was from the Teresa Collins class at CKU-Nashville. She had a wonderful story to tell and she wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to document their life for their family too. Even though there aren't any pictures in this album yet, this was hard for me to do. I don't usually scrap about myself, and can count how many layouts are of me on one hand. Some pages were easier to do than others. She had made pages that had journaling prompts, but it was still hard for me to write about myself. I do love the colors of this album and I did do somethings different here. Some elements are hanging off the album page and other stuff like some bling are on top of the page protectors. She encouraged us to try something like that and I like the result. I can't wait to dig through old childhood photos to add to this album. I think that my family will like it someday! Happy crafting!


First page. The bling here is on the page protector.

Fourth page. The white rub-on is from CTMH.

One of the two smaller pages in the album. The fleur-de-li is hanging off the edge of the page protector.

Last page

Highlights of CKU!

Me and friends at CKU crop night!


Me with one of the best instructors at CKU, Tim Holtz! His classes were so much fun!


Elizabeth Kartchner


Margie Romney-Aslett who was SO much fun!! I wish I had taken her album class!


Teresa Collins taught me alot of great tricks to use the Bind it All!


Me and Charlie at commencement! It was so much fun!


These are the albums from all my classes! It's going to take me forever to finish them!




Look at all these goodies that I came home with!! There was even more stuff that I either used, or didn't get in the photo! I still havent' gotten it all put away!