Heritage Photo...

Woohoo! I got the rest of the papers from Snowsmoon on her blog today and looky what I did. This is an old old old picture.... not sure what year exactly... of my maternal grandparents. I really want to re-scrap some of the old pics that I have so I started here. Of course I just HAD to use Snowsmoon's fabulous Fading Summer Kit again... because I have more papers, haha! I didn't "fancy it up" much because I didn't want to take away from the picture. Anyway, here it is! Have a great day.

~ click image for larger view ~

Fading Summer Kit by Dawn Mills aka Snowsmoon's Design
Commercial Use Round Template by Pillowgirl Scraps ~blog~ ~store~
Fonts Tropicali Script BTN

Another LO even!

Here's another picture of Tayli and Emma enjoying the fall days! This time I used Snowsmoon's oh-so-gorgeous Fading Summer Kit. She hasn't sent out all the pieces yet but I couldn't wait to use it. Here's the parts she's GIVEN out so far... (she is soooo generous!) Check out her BLOG!

And here's my LO. Click the image to see it larger.

Fading Summer Kit by Dawn Mills aka Snowsmoon's Design
Fonts Tropicali Script BTN & Forte

Halloween Mice

Okay, can you tell I'm trying to get some scrapping done? I'm cheating again with a QP. This is another great quickpage that I found at Divine Digital. The kit was created by Royanna Fritschmann and put together into a QP by Rebecca Labbe. I only added the picture, the mouse and some writing.... voila! This is what Tayli & Emma will be fashioning for All Hallows Eve. I think they're adorable! They'll be sure to get tons of candy with these costumes!

~ click image for larger view ~
All Divas Eve QP by Rebecca Labbe of Divine Digital
(Kit created by Royanna Fritschmann of Divine Digital)
Mouse extracted from photo
Fonts are vtks_untitled & Annie BTN

This one I did with a FABULOUS kit by Kim Smith that she posted as a daily download at ScrappinDigiKreations this month. I added a couple things and recolored a couple pieces but thought it was too cute to pass up scrappin' with. Tayli doesn't look too happy to be a mouse, haha. Aren't you impressed? TWO layouts in one day!!!!

~ click image for larger view ~
Hallowhimsy Kit (daily download Oct'08 at SDK) by Kim Smith
(slight recolorations of staple and eyelet)
Destroyed Paper Template by Mira
Glitters from Lullaby Kit by Elodie
Font used is Journal

It's cold... and autumn! UGH!

It's a bragbook this time! I used SotoDesigns awesome Fools Hollow Fall kit. It's gorgeous! You really need to check out her stuff... she has an awesome Breast Cancer Awareness kit on sale right now for only $2. This is my oldest son and his kids (my darling grandbabies!) at the pumpkin farm a couple weeks ago. Not much going on. It's cold again... ughhhhhh... so I'm staying inside a bit more. Okay, a LOT more. I can't wait for summer again!

~ click image for full size view ~

Fools Hollow Fall kit by SotoDesigns -blog1- -blog2- -shop-
Font is AdLibBT

Autumn Sparkle...

Another LO, but this time I CHEATED! This was created with the GORGEOUS Autumn Sparkle Quickpage by Teri Mayo. I added a couple things (pictures for one, haha) but wanted to share. I made this as a gift to my oldest son and daughter-in-law but in 5X7 format for printing and hanging. Okay, bye again!

~ click image to see it larger ~

Autumn Sparkle QP by Teri Mayo
Silver Flower by Kristy08
Black Bead Alpha by Krakatuka
Date Box by Jillybean

I'm finally back... I think

Well, it's been a few months since I've posted. Summer is such a hard time to find time. In July, my son had another premie baby born at one pound (see a couple posts back) and it was just a hectic time. With the hospital being 1-1/2 hours away and visiting, and other summertime things, I didn't have any spare time for scrapping... or blog-hopping for that matter (my favorite pastime lately). It's getting cool out now so I'll be inside more. I missed everyone

Well, yesterday, I saw on Bunny Cates' blog that she had an AWESOME bracket template freebie up at the DSO blog for the Daily Download. I just had to try one of them. The kit used is the Daily Freebe at Digital Divas Design (gorgeous Modern Heritage kit!). I didn't have any old pictures scanned yet sooooo I used my cute niece and my new nephew! He finally came home after 10 weeks in the NICU. He's now up to almost five pounds (2.2 kg) and doing fantastic. Older sister Julie, who was also a premie, isn't quite sure what to do with him yet, haha.

Kit - Modern Heritage - daily freebie at DDD
Bracket Template 1 by Bunny Cates
Fonts - CurlzMT, Vivaldi, Bradley Hand ITC

Thanks all for looking!

NERD!

OMG, am I really a nerd?!?!?! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

MIA

First off, I want to say I'm sorry for not answering anyone... or visiting your blogs for that matter. I've been VERY busy. Read on...

Yep, I've been a BAD blogger. Sooo much has happened in the past month that I haven't found many minutes to do anything. It started out with FIREWORKS galore. Every weekend from the middle of June through the first week August there is/was a fireworks festival somewhere in the Chicago 'burbs... and we visit them ALL! Our weekends have been full. The 4th of July weekend we managed to squeeze in THREE shows! And, because it's finally summer and NICE out, there are festivals everywhere too. So far we've been to Greek Fest (awesome food, fabulous heritage dancers), Kane County Fair (tons of critters, MONSTER trucks, haha), we saw Blondie at Summerfest in Milwaukee, then Joan Jett at Ribfest in Naperville (she's awesome!), and probably a few I can't remember right now. We went black-raspberry picking in the deep woods... can you say TICKS?!?! I had to burn a few off hubby but lucked out myself and got NONE. OMG, parades!!!! There is an endless supply of them recently, the longest being two-and-a-half hours! Of course, the grandkids are loving their summer with all the carnivals. This coming weekend, hubby is going Scuba Diving at a dive sight in Lake Michigan while I hang out on the sailboat (I hate water, but love boats... go figure). Of course there were a few birthdays thrown in there too. Julie turned three... our little special-needs princess. We bought her a tricycle that can also be pushed in case she doesn't learn to peddle. She LOVES it! I sure hope she learns to ride it! And Julie's mom, Amy, also had a birthday!

As if that wasn't enough, right? Well, on July 6th, my youngest son and his SO had ANOTHER premie. Jeremy was born at 1 pound 3 ounces and is soooooo tiny. No photos were allowed in the intensive care, and none of the pictures turned out well when he moved into the NICU because of the incubator reflections. FINALLY, on day eleven, he was removed from oxygen and the nurse took him out for a "sneak" picture. My son, Bob, is extremely excited to have a baby boy and is already making plans for fishing trips and baseball games, haha. I can see that Jeremy will grow up wearing a Chicago Cubs cap for sure! I'll be scouring the internet for sports clothes, haha. Anyway, here he is... scrapped QUICKLY because I need to leave soon to babysit the grandkids so my oldest son can visit the hospital.

Credits
Kit - About A Boy by Vicki Parker - blog "A work in progress"
Journaling Font - Peas Cassie by Rachael Scutt - blog Fonts for Peas
Name Font - Gills Sans Ultra Bold by Monotype Imaging

I'll probably be very scarce for at least another month until things settle down a bit. THEN I'll be able to check my email, if they haven't kicked me off for having full mailboxes, hahaha!

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

More challenge LOs...

The first week of template challenges is over at STChallenge finally. I got them all done, LOL. I'm not too happy them... why do I have to over-clutter?! Anyway, here they are.

June 6th

Template: No26 by Moriginals
Flower doodle: cc-OSB-Glitter01 by Kymm (creative.chaos)
Buttons: FunkyButtons by Tara Dunstan Designs
Brads & Denim papers: Jeanealogy kit by Linda Walton (Bon Scrapatit Designs) - Store link
Word tags: Commericial use DSM_CDD_Bursts by DigiskrapNMomma - recolored
Fonts: Britannic Bold, Bernard MT Condensed, Annie BTN

June 5th

Template: THD_t99 by Templates N More
Kit: Saturday In The Park by Bonscrapatit Designs (Linda Walton)
Fonts: Impact, Julietrose, Lemon Chicken

Coupla LOs

Just a couple of layouts I did for challenges at the STChallenges googlegroup. You can see the challenges at Twisted Scrapper. Not much to say... or I'm too tired to chat. Either way, here they are.

June 2nd template challenge... I overdid it, as usual.

Template: Template 8 by MOriginals

Kit: Desert Wind - May collaboration kit at Digital-Scrapbooking.org (link to kit)
Fonts: vtks untitled, Saloonkeeper

June 3rd template and color challenge... I like this one. Isn't Emma a clown? She was so tired Sunday night but wanted to PLAY! As usual, click on pics to view larger images.

Template: Racketty Scrappety Template 11 Square by Racketty Scrappety
Papers, elements, words: created by me using "Gettin' Dirty 02 Paper Templates" - Commercial Product by Royanna Fritschmann - STUDIO RA Designs at Divine Digital

Fonts: Bauhaus 93, Cheddar Salad BTN Quill, Bimini, Gills Sans Ultra Bold, Liorah BT, AdLib BT

Well, g'nite!

Gas prices?? Jeesh...

Just a photo of the gas prices... and this was AFTER the price went down about 15 cents per gallon yesterday. And look at the price of diesel! YES, I live in the Chicago area. I can see $5 (USD) coming this summer. I've been busy busy busy, but this week I'm GOING to scrap! I have so many lovely kits I want to play with.

Have a great day

Memorial Day weekend... and 10 random facts

I've been really busy with the long holiday weekend here in the USA so no scrapbooking. It's Memorial Day, to honor those who died in military service, AND somewhat warmer than it was last week. Saturday was finally gardening day and I got so much cleaned up! Sunday was a parade in Dundee, the next town over from me (where part of "Road To Perdition" with Tom Hanks was filmed). After that we went nature hunting! I have some pictures I'm going to scrap soon of the critter we got to see.... I just have to figure out which kit to use, haha! Today is RibFest in Elgin so we'll be coming home tonight with red mouths and sticky fingers. AND tomorrow I finally get to go to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago! I've wanted to go forever and I finally talked hubby into going (he isn't very adventurous). Anyway, that's my long weekend.

I have some random facts I found about Memorial Day that I never knew before... some that I did:

1. Memorial Day began in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania on May 5, 1866.
2. The official birthplace, declared by President Johnson, is Waterloo, New York.
3. Later in 1868, The date was changed to May 30th so it wouldn't coincide with a major battle date.
4. Memorial Day originally was called "Decoration Day" because the cemeteries, grave markers and memorials were decorated with wreaths, flags, crosses and flowers.
5. It wasn't called "Memorial Day" until 1882 as an alternate name. It's official name wasn't changed until 1967.
6. In 1971, the official date became the last Monday in May... one week later than Canada's Victory Day. This was so it would create a long weekend holiday.
7. In 1911, Moina Michael decided to wear and sell red poppies to honor military veterans who had died. This began the official "Poppy Day" in the United States.
She wrote this poem entitled "In Flanders Fields":
We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
8. The Indianapolis 500 (car racing) is on Memorial Day, every year since 1911.
9. Memorial Day is considered the unofficial beginning of summer

The photos above are from the parade on Sunday in Dundee. I hope everyone had a great weekend too!

Happy Birthday Atasi!

Last weekend, my friend Atasi had a birthday party. We celebrated at North Beach and had a blast (if you have one nearby, you gotta go)! Free food, balloons, cosmic bowling, sand volleyball, dance floor in one room and awesome band in another, a mega-huge mega-alcoholic drink for the birthday girl AND open bar for the rest of us for three hours! At the end of the night, everyone danced to work off the alcohol for almost TWO hours before I'd let anyone actually drive, haha. Anyway, I made a LO using MOSTLY a new kit Kristine (WenchdGrafix) made... AND I won it for picking the name, King's Carnival (wheeeeeeeeee... it was free!). Here it is! Happy Birthday Atasi! And thank you Kristine! Click image for larger view.

Kit Wenchd Grafix' King's Carnival
Swirlies are from Carjazi-Wenchd Collab Kit
Bows, flowers and stitching from WenchdGrafix' Plum Pudding Kit
All of the above credited to
Kristine Pocock of Wenchd Grafix
and Diane of Carjaziscraps
Letters and frame swirlies glittered using Tara Donovan-Kostyrski for Moo Two Designs – CU Glitter Metalics and recolored by me
Font is Forte

It's Monday... and I just figured that out!

Where did the weekend go? I woke up this morning looking for hubby but couldn't find him. It didn't even dawn on me that he'd be at work... I thought it was SUNDAY! Well, I finally figured it out when I turned on the TV at noon and the daily soaps (ugh) were on half the channels.

Okay, so now it's late... almost 4:30 p.m. and I NEVER blog this late. But, since I've been trying to come here at least twice a week, I thought I'd better come and at least post the next "challenge" LO that I did. These... again... are two of my grandchildren, Tayli and Emma. The picture is a couple months old but hadn't scrapped it yet... I dunno why! Anyway, I was visiting Digital Arts Cafe and found that they had opened a forum that I didn't know about... AND that they had a fabulous new welcome kit called No Milk No Sugar! Needless to say, I had to sign up! And of course there's a couple challenges... one to do a LO and the other for a Quickpage Exchange. I first did the quickpage and decided I actually liked it, haha. So I did the LO using the QP! I actually won a $5 gift card for the boutique too!!! This is SECOND thing I won today... second thing I've won EVER in scrapping!!!! The other is from Kristine but I don't have that yet, LOL... that's for another day when I can brag, wheee. (Here we go... going off subject AGAIN). Anyways, here's my LO and if you want the QP you'll have to join the DAC Forum and create a QP for the exchange, hehe. (Or wait until after June 19th when the exchange is done... maybe I'll post it here) Click image for larger view.

Credits
Kit - Digital Arts Cafe Team - No Milk No Sugar
Fonts - Calligraph421 BT, Bickham Script Pro Regular, Bradley Hand ITC

That's it for now... almost time to start dinner... CIAO!

Dandelions.... and a LO

Yes, it's that time of the year! I have them in my yard even though I used the supposedly effective Scotts Turf Builder Plus with Weed Kill, haha. Maybe the dandelions are growing heartier than in previous years, because it's always worked before. Ah well, in a month I can spray again.

Speaking of dandelions... Vicki, made a gorgeous scrap kit called Dandelion Dreams and I was playing with it last night... and came up with the LO below. Go check it out on her blog, "A work in progress", along with all the other fabulous kits she's created. Click image for larger view.

Dandelion Dreams kit by Vicki at A work in Progress
Font is Johann Sparkling ITC

Lookie... COWS QP freebies!

The first thing I thought when I saw Kopperhead's Kit called Cowlicks was that I HAD to do something with it. I live NOWHERE near a farm but I love the country look and decided to play. I just got permission from her to share these QPs I made BUT you have to go check out her totally FREE kit on her blog too at 100 Things (Maybe More) and leave her some lovin'... those are MY terms, haha. While you're there, check out all the other great kits she has! She's been releasing a kit a week, a bit at a time. This week she's sharing a beautiful kit called Beachside Bride.

Okay, here's the LOs I created... the cows pics were soooo stolen from Google's image search (I have no cows in my area). Click HERE grab the free QPs (without the cow pictures of course)!!! Click on the pics to see them larger.

If you snag, please leave some lovin'! I'd love to hear from you if you stop by. Have a great day!

Blogthing... Flipflops!

I found this interesting! My DREAM is to live in San Diego!

What Your Flip Flops Say About You

You are a warm, friendly person who simply enjoys life. You don't complicate things for yourself. Life is too short! You have a super optimistic attitude, and you have figured out how to be happy. Everyone wants to know your secret... and it's a lot more simple than they might think. Your ideal warm weather place: San Diego

The Flip Flop Test