Christmas... last year

One of my all time favorite scrapbook designers is Vicki Parker of "A Work in Progress". This month she is hosting a great challenge at The Scrap Pad using the awesome kit called "Mistletoe Magic". This was a collab of Vicki and Chere Nordstrand and I love it! You can ONLY get the kit if you're signed up for Scrap 'n Art's newsletter this/last month and it's FREE!

Well, I didn't have any "snowy" picutes yet, so I used last year's pictures of Christmastime. This is Christmas 2007, Madilyn, Austin, Tayli, Julie, Emma, and my sons and wives. This is what I came up with! Check it out... I have white space!

~Click image for larger view~

Merry Mistletoe kit created by Vicki Parker & Chere Nordstrand for Scrap n' Art
Font is Freehand591 BT

I forgot to post this!!!

Oh my goodness!!! A couple weeks ago I did a Half-n-Half challenge at 3Scrapateers and TOTALLY forgot to post it!!! This is done with a FABULOUS kit by Linda Walton (aka Bon Scrapatit Designs aka bobbysgirlforever) called "Jeanealogy of a Man". Awesome denim and leather textures... I love this kit! I bought Part 1 and created the LO below. THEN we got Part 2, just for participating, and a gorgeous alpha for joining in a chat. I have to say, this is now my new FAVORITE kit (20 papers, 124 elements, plus alpha!). She has such talent! This kit hasn't been released to the store yet but you can find her designs at 3S HERE or visit her blog HERE to find out when it will hit the store (and don't forget to snag her "scrapatits" while you still can). Okay, so this is my "part one" creation... my oldest son, Art, and his daughter (and my oh-so-cute granddaughter), Emma.

Kit: Jeanealogy of a Man and Scrapatizer by Bon Scrapatit Designs/Linda Walton
her BLOG - her STORE at 3 Scrapateers - her STORE at Treasures to Scrap

This past weekend was fun! Friday night we stayed home to watch TV... a relaxing way to start out. I think I was fast asleep by 9pm! Television does that to me though. The phone didn't even ring! How odd... I usually get a call from at least one of my kids!

Saturday morning, DH woke up and decided to have a garage sale (ughhh) and actually tried to sell all the stuff I had, at one time or another, thrown into the garbage. He is such a packrat!!! He'll save just about anything if he thinks he can make a nickel, haha. After 5 hours and with a profit of about $15, he packed it up for another time. He managed to get the pool cleaned out while waiting for people to come though! I will NOT do garage sales... at least not on the selling end. AND I won't go in the pool with people walking in and out of our backyard. I'm too old to be showing myself to others, LOL.

Then, Saturday night we went to a balloon festival in Elgin. There was tons of food, bands until dusk, train rides and a water park for the kids, and lots of happy faces. It was a beautiful day! About 20 balloonists set up their balloons for the Sunday launch in the park by the Fox River, and at dusk they ALL lit up! It was gorgeous!! But, dummy-me forgot to check the camera bag to see if the camera was actually in there. DUHHHH... I left it on my desk from last time I downloaded the pictures to my computer. I hope they do it again this summer so I can actually get some pics!

Sunday, I got a surprise visit from my oldest son and DIL. Can you watch the kids for an hour? HAHAHA... they NEVER are only gone an hour! But I took them, of course, and we had fun. Tayli kept begging to go in the pool but it was only 69 degrees out (F)... next time. So we ended up playing hide-n-seek. Emma had to get in on the fun too, even if she didn't know the rules! After an hour of running around the house, acting like a little kid, I was exhausted! I guess that's why adults (without kids anymore) don't play later in life... we don't have the stamina for it anymore, haha. They finally got picked up another hour later... and I took a much-needed nap.

Then we went to dinner at Olive Garden with hubby's mom, and hubby's brother and wife. It's one of my favorite places to eat.... the breadsticks are to die for! I had the Manicotti Formaggio, YUM, but my stomach felt it afterward!!! I'm "lactose intollerant" so everytime I have anything with cheese or milk, I DIE! Needless to say, I groaned and moaned almost the whole time at the fireworks we went to later in Cary for CaryDays. Silently though, so hubby didn't have a clue I was feeling like crap. I'd hate to ruin fireworks for anyway, haha. Anyway, that was my weekend... it ended with a bang (pun intended).

Somewhere in all that I actually had time to scrap! Okay, so I started this LO on Monday morning, but it was ALMOST still the weekend! Ahhh Scrap had their Grand Opening yesterday with a ton of freebies and games and sales. One of the freebies was for a challenge, Scrap Happens by Designs by Crazy Diamond and I just had to give it a try... scrapping "everyday life". So I used a template from a different challenge from STChallenges, scrapping with the quote "You can never..." and came up with this. What a mixture, huh? These are some of the many cats that visit us every day. Does anyone know of a farm in che Chicago 'burbs that need some "mice-catchers"?

-- Credits --
Kit: Scrap Happens by Designs by Crazy Diamond
Template: THD_t100 by Trish Heffner (Trish H. Designs)
Fonts: Ravie, Ryan BT, Princess BTN

Fireworks are here!

Busy busy busy. I love this time of year. Every weekend, sometimes twice, there's fireworks in almost every town. Last weekend I talked my oldest son and his family into coming with to the Elk Grove Village fireworks and carnival. I soooo love the sparklies and the BOOMERS are my favorite, though my grandchildren thought the world was exploding and CLUNG to mom and dad, haha. Anyway, this is another challenge LO that I'm finally getting posted. We were to use the template PLUS 3 triangles. I had no clue what to do with the triangles, LOL. I used digiMom's Designs awesome Americana kit (I'll be using that kit a LOT this month I hope if the pics turn out okay). Well, I probably won't be back until after mid-July... it's a busy time of year. Gotta have some WARM FUN! Happy 4th to those in the USA... and for those in the northern hemisphere HAPPY SUMMER!

Credits
Template: EricasTemplate12 by Templates by Erica
Kit: Americana by digiMom Designs
Doodles: doodles-alu-froisse by Lilou
Fonts: Forte, Bernard MT Condensed, Poplar Std

A new LO....

Wow, it's been awhile since I blogged... I'm sooo bad. But I'm here with a new LO.

There was another challenge this month at Boo's Blossoms and I had to play. We had a sampler kit to work with from Booland Designs and it's amazing all the different looks we achieved!! Go check out all the great LOs HERE! Our goal was to scrap what our spring meant to us. Well, I finally got a picture without winter coats... as close to spring as I could get. In the Chicago suburbs, flowers haven't budded, trees are bare and the rivers are all very high from the melted snow and tons of rain we've gotten lately. Here's what I came up with.... my granddaughters again (go figure, haha). It's hard to tell but they are both holding GREEN leaves!

Kit used is Spring Passion Sampler by Boo Silva at Booland Designs
LO based on DSG April Template by Carena (Digital Scrap Girl)
Alpha is from BoolandDesigns Spring Passion Kit by Boo Silva - buy the complete kit here
Leaves are Wyvern's Gold Wrappers by WyvernWench, Sue Irish, SAS Member,

cropped and recolored by me.
Journaling font is Tekton Pro - it can be found here

On another note, I found out I'm going to be a grandma AGAIN!!! My younger son has informed that they have a baby boy due in late August! These are the parents of our princess, Julie, so we are very much hoping there won't be complications this time. I can't wait!!! A GRANDSON!!!! Woohoo!

That's it... cya!

Another challenge DONE

This took me FOREVER and a day to finish! I really need to get to learning Photoshop CS3 because PSP is sooooo much of a memory hog! I did a scraplift challenge over at Boo's Blossoms. The kit is really cute and they supplied FREE for doing this challenge! ANYway.... this is the LO I used to scraplift by Lois:



... and this is what I came up with... these are all my grandkids:

click image for larger view

Credits:
Blossoms Kit by Booland Designs
Lois's awesome LO for scraplifting

*****

Which reminds me! You really need to visit Booland Designs. She's having a 100 freebies giveaway!!!! It's day 4 now but there are plenty more to go!

Not much else going on here. I'm still trying to recover from all the COLD and the SNOW we've been getting here in Chicagoland! It seems like every other day we get a few more inches... grrrrr. YES, I've been hibernating! I think I'll go hide under my comforter now and try to stay WARM... ciao!