I am so excited about this project ...

I never quite know how a concept is going to work. Sometimes the idea is great but for whatever reason I need to alter it as I go along. That's what happened with my Disney album that was going to be done in crayon colors -- red, blue, yellow, etc. Turned out that what really worked for me was brights that weren't true crayon colors, but weren't pastels either. Once I decided that was what worked it went fine.

This album is truly very simple -- I am not a glitter girl, or one who uses a lot of buttons or metal embellishments, and people who see my albums almost always comment that what really shines in them is the photos. (That's what I want, folks.)

So far it is going along according to plan and I am really pleased with it. So pleased I couldn't resist sharing just one little picture.



I am wearing red today and I think my sweater reflected off the ivory and gave it a bit of a pink cast. Rest assured it is ivory and the book is so doggone cute I almost wish it was ME having a baby.

Almost.

Sneak peek

Our friends (little Miss Lydia's parents) are expecting a baby this month. (Did you hear me baby? I said THIS month! February! NOT March!) LOL (Lydia was due in May but showed up in June, thereby throwing me off on the scrapbook I made for her mom. I know, babies come on their own schedule. Whatever. Anybody who reads this blog knows that here it's all about ME.)

I went shopping at Archiver's this weekend and got a whole bunch of beautiful goodies and this morning I am beginning work on the book. I love the concept I came up with and I *think* that my friend (who is SO not a soft baby pastel-y kind of girl) will like it a lot too.

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In other news, it's the "Week of Luuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhvvvvv" at our house. LOL My birthday, our anniversary, and Valentine's Day. My hopes for giant diamonds are thus far unrealized, but we've only been married 13 years. There's lots of time (after the kids get out of college, maybe?) lol

No big plans for the week (although I would love a trip to IKEA one evening), but Teresa and her son are coming to visit on Friday and then there will be much celebrating.

Savvy Scrapbooking

(Non scrapbooking friends and family, this will be terminally boring and mostly unintelligible to you. You can leave now. Sorry.)

I have longed for a die cutting machine to use in my scrapbooking for a long time. When we lived in California, my friend Sandi had the Quickutz system, which consisted of a tool and multiple sets of metal dies. The problem with the system was that each die cut only one size of the shape or letter, and I wanted more flexibility in terms of size. I scrap in sizes from 4x4 inches to 12x12 inches, so one size does not fit all.

In addition, each alphabet set had to be purchased individually. Numbers and punctuation were purchased separately, too, and for some letter sets there were "shadows" that outline the main shapes and can be used with contrasting cardstock to define or highlight the letters.

The tool is about $90 and each alphabet is about $100, although they were closer to $150 when we were in Cali.

I was thoroughly unwilling to spend that much money. And it never seemed to bother Sandi, but the little binders that held the dies got heavy with all of that metal in them, and I already haul half my life around with me if I go out of my house to scrapbook. I didn't want more to carry.

Then we moved back to Minnesota and the Cricut came out. It's little, it's pretty portable, it cuts letters and shapes in multiple sizes, but it is limited to cutting letters and shapes from cartridges that you have to purchase.

It's $300. Alphabet and shape cartridges range in price from $50 to $100. Now there is a new machine they call a "Jukebox" which holds 6 cartridges along with the books and keypad overlays. The Jukebox ($90) hooks up to your Cricut, allowing you to access any of the cartridges in it. It appears you can hook up to 3 of these up to your Cricut, giving you access to 18 cartridges at a time. A lot of people sing the praises of Cricut's portability, but I am skeptical about hauling a machine and 3 fairly large accessory pieces.

For a couple of years I've been wanting the Wishblade. It hooks up to your computer and cuts any True Type Font that you have installed. But the $450 price tag put me off.

The Craft Robo is the exact same machine sold by a different company. Price point is similar to Wishblade.

And then Quickutz started selling the Wishblade/Craft Robo under another name -- the Silhouette. I believe it retailed for about $300 (still too rich for my blood) when I first saw it, but it has come down in price since then.

So here was my line of reasoning, which came down to flexibility and price:

Quickutz Squeeze and dies (with 5 fixed-size alphabets): $590 and up
Cricut (with 5 alphabets 1"-5 1/2"): $550 and up
Silhouette (using most True Type Fonts installed on PC, not Mac sizes 1/2" - 8"): $200 or less (and I have TONS of free fonts I've downloaded from the web)

There are 2 more machines that Cricut sells now that offer more flexibility, but they are more expensive, too. And there is free software available on the web to allow some Cricut machines to hook up to a computer and cut True Type Fonts, too.

I know people who use all of these machines, and they are all happy with what they've chosen. If you're looking for a die cutting machine, be sure you know what features you want and whether you want to use it at home or at crops, whether you're willing to pay (for example) the full $1500 for a Cricut, 18 cartridges, and 3 Jukeboxes (and that is a conservative estimate that doesn't include trademarked cartridges like Disney or Hello Kitty), and how large you really need your cut items to be (for me, 8 inches is plenty). Also be sure to look into things like cutting mats and blades that will need to be replaced periodically.

So .... for Christmas my wonderful husband got me the Silhouette. I don't know how much he paid for it, but he said it was less than $200. It set up quickly and I was cutting letters within about 15 minutes. It offers a multitude of sizes and will cut cardstock (but not chipboard). I anticipate that I will use it mostly for alphabets but there are image files (like flowers and snowflakes) that are included with it as well as options for purchase through the Quickutz website. There are also a ton of sites out there where people share tips and images with each other at no charge.

The Silhouette was clearly the best choice for me. I don't have a problem with anyone buying the products that work for them, but I know that the expense of the cartridges required for the Cricut made it a completely unrealistic option for me.

If you're looking for more comprehensive comparisons of the machines, you can do a search using the machine you're most interested in, view the excellent chart which includes many options I didn't mention here at Paperthreads, or visit the CUT!!! forum at Scrapjazz.

Exploding Box

I started this as a test project, anticipating that I would somehow goof it up and it would end up trashed. LOL Amazingly enough it worked pretty well and I decided to make it into a box of quotes for a friend who is having a tough time right now. I just picked some inspirational words that I thought would have meaning for her and some that really spoke to me and I put them all together so she would have a place to go when she needed encouragement.

I used the instructions from the Scor-Pal website here. (And yes, I have the Scor-Pal. I got it at Archiver's with a 40% off coupon a while ago but it's been sitting here untouched for weeks.) So far I like it but I need a tutorial on using it to make diagonal lines. It's hard to tell the size here but the box is about 3 inches square.

Products used were Bazzill cardstock, Die Cuts With a View patterned paper, Studio G stamps, Making Memories flower, large brad and rhinestones, and Cat's Eye chalks. I found the quotes at ThinkExist and printed them on cardstock on my inkjet printer. The rickrack is from Prima, I think.

Sorry the pictures are less than stellar but I was in a hurry this morning to get out the door so I could get the kids and myself to school and meet up with her to give her the box. I handed it off and she sent an email a bit later saying she loved it. Yay!

I have data entry to do and I am heading to the house to do some ceiling painting (my least favorite painting task). Have a great day!

It's official.

I am now a soccer mom. How funny. (I mean funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha.) This is definitely NOT how I envisioned my life at (dare I say it?) almost 40. Dear god.

We went to practice Monday night to get all the details. And to be the only family that thought 6:30 was a convenient practice time and agree to change the practice time because I didn't want to be THAT mom (okay, I AM that Mom, but I try not to let people in on my dirty little secret until I've known them a little while). So practice is now at 5:45. Honestly, this is not that convenient for me. Argh. I'll live.

Having frozen my proverbial ass off Monday night, I left Evan at practice tonight and ran to get the dog's nails clipped, buy her food, and get some potting soil for Evan's classroom project. It was over 70 degrees today (Ahhh! Bliss!!!) so I wouldn't have been as miserable sitting there, but I was grateful to have errands to run, anyway.

Rob is down to 5 short days of class left and is off at a meeting tonight. It has not been horrible having an MBA student in the house, but he and I will both be grateful for the break the summer will provide. Plus then he'll be able to help me get out of the house for those oh-my-god-it's-early soccer games. EIGHT o'clock? A. M.? Seriously? I know, I'm ridiculous. But I've paid my dues in the getting-up-at-Oh-dark-thirty game. What's the Oh for? See above.

And I neglected to mention the crop I attended last weekend. Friday night and Saturday. I ran out of adhesive, people. this is a good sign. I worked on my kids' school albums and made significant progress. Plus she had a ton of great food there. Fresh fruit, a veggie tray, a baked potato bar ... some of my favorites. AND a Tastefully Simple consultant. You MUST try the Pomegranate Chipotle sauce. It is heaven with some cream cheese on a Wheat Thin.

This week I'm the sexton at church (In case you're wondering, there is no sex in sexton, Rob already asked. LOL) and I'm the Caring Coordinator for the next couple of weeks as well. I am hoping it stays quiet, as I have drawn that job the last 2 Decembers in a row and it has been busy. Like December isn't already busy enough.

So again, life is busy (whose isn't?) and the weeks fly by faster and faster. I guess right now I am most looking forward to Rob being done with school. Four weeks. Three weekends. Five days. We're getting there. (I mean "we" like he meant it when I was in labor. The kind where you act like the pain is yours, too, but really, the entire miserable freaking burden has been on the other person all along. Yeah, we're almost done. LOL)

Will wonders never cease?

My house is clean.

My laundry room is neat and tidy.

The laundry is done.

I cleaned the dog's kennel and the bedding in it.

I spent a little time in World HQ yesterday and came up with this:



I made the album a while ago. Chipboard covered with patterned paper and Bazzill, then punched with the handy machine at school and put together with pages made out of Bazzill and a comb binding.

I posted at Scrapjazz and asked if anyone had Quickutz and the Tangerine alphabet. Thanks to Lin, who did and was willing to cut my custom title. She even sent me some camping stickers when she mailed the letters and numbers to me.

I inked them with a Cat's Eye Charcoal ink pad and ran them through the Xyron and lined them up using the Creative Memories Titletopia (which apparently they don't sell anymore ... too bad, because it is a great tool). The lines are drawn with a Zig writer and the fire and logs I cut freehand from cardstock scraps.

I am so looking forward to our adventures this summer!

Food & stuff

Susan's comment made me realize that I do, indeed, have odd taste in food. I am a total food snob in some cases but I love down home cookin' with simple ingredients, too. And I am not sure but I think it might have been the instant pudding that threw her off. See, my mom always made cooked pudding. She would pour it into bowls and let it cool while we ate supper (never dinner, by the way) and then we would eat it for dessert, sprinkled with sugar and drowned in heavy cream.

I always had hot lunch at school and they would often have pudding in little round paper cups that now remind me of ramekins. At the time they reminded me of nothing because I had never heard of a ramekin. There would be chocolate, butterscotch, or lemon pudding, and while I loved chocolate then as I do now, I ALWAYS turned down the pudding. The stuff was made so far ahead of time that the skin on top was half an inch thick, and I couldn't even bring myself to put a spoon near that rubbery, icky thing.

I know some people who say that skin is the best part of pudding, but the texture of it just turns me totally off. Honestly, I still just don't get how people can eat that. Ewwwww.

It was only when I went to college and had an apartment with a kitchen that I learned the true joys of instant pudding. Ready in 5 minutes, creamy and smooth, and no icky skin to peel off the top.

So there ya go. I am a study in culinary contradictions: I love tapas, stinky cheese, and caprese salad. I also love this layered hamburger hotdish (not casserole) that my mom always made with a can of tomato soup on the top. I love creme brulee and instant Jello pudding. Go figure.

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In other news -- I just uploaded 8 layouts from Spencer's book to Scrapjazz. You can get to my gallery by clicking on the link to my Scrapjazz gallery down there on the right. (Edited to add that I can't seem to get the code working that showed a sample layout from the gallery. The link will get you there but Spence's album is in the sidebar on a slide show, too. I'll keep it there as I continue to upload the pages.) I'll try to get to the rest soon but that's all I have scanned right now and my scanner is acting up (no surprise, since it turns 9 in May). I'll keep working at it.

Forgot to share this ...

I did this 12x12 - inch page for my mother-in-law and put it in a shadowbox frame for Christmas.

I had the photo taken of all 7 grandkids in June when they were all here in Rochester. Miraculously everyone (especially me) kept the picture a secret so JoAnn had no idea that I'd had it taken. I bought a package and have copies of it to mail to all the aunts and uncles but I didn't want to send them out until after Christmas.

The page itself presented a host of problems for me. I generally encourage coordinating wardrobes but since this was a last minute shoot and the kids were all on vacation (with limited wardrobe choices) I just let them choose what they wanted to wear. Little did I know that it would be one of my kids' choices that would give me all the trouble. Garrett looks great in that green color, but it was wonky with the rest of the clothes. I bought several pieces of patterned paper but nothing worked (of course I bought all of them without having the picture along, which would likely have been helpful).

Once I seemed to have gotten it all together I punched out a tag and ran it through my printer ... and it caught in the printer and got ruined. After printing again and creating a tag I think I got it.

The picture is actually mounted in clear photo corners and nothing is touching the photo itself -- so at some point it could be removed from the shadowbox and put in a separate frame if desired.

Anyway, it is done and she seemed very happy with it, so all is well.

And every time I see the photo I will think of the Sears photographer who was horrified that she was shooting ALL 7 kids. At once. LOL

Holiday recap

Right now I am at the computer, listening to Dan Fogelberg on the stereo (how sad I was when I heard he had died just before Christmas), drinking a Diet Coke from McDonald's (oh! the joy!), and looking at the pictures taken on my new camera (disclaimer: I do NOT know how to run the thing yet, so please forgive the blurry images). An update on the scrapbook later, but first, the holiday highlights:



This is Pippa meeting Scout, Evan's new pug Webkin. The kids each got one of these Webkinz and are now fighting regularly over who gets computer time first. A huge success. *Sigh*



Evan with his gift from Santa -- a digital camera. 5 megapixels! Garrett got one, too. Hence the need for Mommy's upgrade to 8 megapixels (from 3.2). Can't have the kids with more MP than Mom! I know this is blurry but you can see how excited he was.



My nieces got Rock Band for the PS3. This is Rachel playing guitar. Doesn't she remind you of the chicks in the Robert Palmer "Addicted to Love" video? ROFL



Garrett was the vocalist in the band. Imagine how proud I was when I heard him singing "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" by The Clash. hee hee



Garrett has enjoyed several needlework type projects in art the last couple of years so I suggested perhaps Grandma could teach him to knit. I just love this shot.



Here is the sweatshirt I made for JoAnn. It is a little off-kilter in the photo. I think it's because I tried to tack down the fabric panel on her right. She may have to rip out a few stitches and tack it again so it doesn't look wonky. Sorry, JoAnn.

And, the news you've been waiting for: yes, I finished it. Well, 49 of 50 pages. (Side note: how in the world can one LOSE photos of their child's first birthday? Seriously. Doesn't that automatically get you into hell or something? Anyway, I left a page blank in the fervent hope that I eventually find the photos. Argh.)

The following are pictures of my scrap room when I got done. It wasn't too bad and only took about half an hour to clean up. I do still have to add titles to some of the pages and journaling to most of the pages but they are in page protectors in an album and at school (though I did have to drop it off this afternoon because I was still putting page protectors on as Spencer's bus arrived).

Sunday night

With the late night Friday night I had little to no motivation yesterday. I couldn't get it together, couldn't put paper and photos together, couldn't organize my thoughts at all. I did a few pages, but it was a struggle. I finally left it alone, went downstairs and watched some HGTV, then fell asleep for a while. I felt better when I woke up, but my mojo was still missing.

Today I got up, refreshed and enthusiastic about getting things going. I have over 30 pages done now. I could have had more but my computer has been having issues for about a week now and despite the fact that Rob has spent the majority of the weekend troubleshooting, uninstalling and reinstalling programs, putting in a new wireless card, and countless other little tasks that have him annoyed, I am not fully confident that it is fixed (neither is he).

On the other hand, I have the layout themes determined for all of the remaining pages in the book, I have the photos, and I am pretty confident that I will be able to finish in time for Spence to get on the bus tomorrow afternoon.

Once it goes to school it won't be back here until Friday afternoon so with luck I will be able to scan and upload next weekend sometime.

Weekend

My mother-in-law left last night on the train. It was running 2 hours late. Poor Spencer fell asleep in the train station while we were waiting. Pippa came along and was sitting in her tote bag whining. Finally somebody asked, Do you have a dog in there?" LOL She went over and said hi to the folks and I put her back in the bag.

We got home fine and put everyone to bed. I bet it wasn't 5 minutes and we were all asleep.

This morning Rob and Garrett are already gone. G is taking a standardized test and R is studying in preparation for next week's return to school.

Today I am scrapping. For each of my older boys I did a 7x7 inch scrapbook beginning with the first professional photo in the hospital and ending with the first day of kindergarten. They are each 25 two-sided pages and they include family members, birthdays, holidays, friends, interests, activities, trips ... pretty much anything that we did or saw in those 5 years. Spencer is the "Extra Special Person" in his classroom next week. Guess which mom has not completed his scrapbook yet?

I had 2 pages done yesterday morning. Now I am up to 7. Joy. So think of me, all weekend, toiling away on 43 scrapbook pages.

I do love these books, though -- such a cool record of the stuff they loved when they were little. And Mr. Spencer is so excited to finally have his own book.

I will probably not be back to regular posting until after next week. I am at school for various and sundry tasks and events Tuesday through Friday.

I wish all of you a healthy and joyful 2008.

Crafty Christmas gifts

I have grand & glorious plans to get a bunch of homemade gifts done this year. I want to do a clipboard or two, some small albums, an altered notebook, some calendars, and a shadowbox. Of course I really need to do another stained glass sweatshirt (for my grandma) and the fleece robes for the boys that my parents bought the fabric for last year. Yikes. It's still sitting in my closet.

I also have these little 7x7-inch albums that I have done for Garrett and Evan. They are each 25 2-sided pages, beginning with the first official portrait from the hospital and ending with a shot of them with their kindergarten teacher. In the middle are the birthdays, the important people, the Halloween and Christmas photos, the families, and lots of everyday photos. Spencer will be the "Extra Special Person" in his classroom the week of his birthday (January 12) and I have not started his book yet. He wants to display it in the classroom that week, so I need to get moving. So that is percolating in my brain and I'd really like to get started on it but clearly the other items have priority.

Maybe when my mother-in-law is here after Christmas I will have a day to hide in my scrap room and get it done quickly.

I did a couple albums a week or two ago -- used plain chipboard, cut it to size with an X-acto knife, and covered it with patterned paper. Cut pages to size out of cardstock, and took it to school to use their comb binder machine. I LOVE that thing! The comb bindings are available at office supply stores (I could only find black) but on ebay they have every color under the sun.

As an aside, on the pastel-ish one, should the flip flops be coral/lime or periwinkle/lime? I can't decide -- what looks better?

More organization

Rob just put up this lovely ladder shelf for me. It is behind the door, literally the only place in the room that had space. LOL I don't have a lot of rubber stamps but I wanted to get them and some of the foam ones out of the drawer they were in to make room for my clear acrylic stamps.

The shelf is made of wood Rob had lying around in the basement work room -- 2x2's, 2x4's (ripped in half) and some little trim pieces. I sanded it, primed and painted using the black that I had for the kitchen redo in 1997 (remember the holstein cow spots on the soffit?).

It is looking great, has some room to add stuff to, and all I have to do is putty the screw holes and paint over them. Nice.

I think I will do a 360 degree photo montage of this room sometime. It is completely fab and I am so lucky it is mine!

Pay It Forward

Most of us know the concept of Paying it Forward. This has been going around a lot of scrappers' and card makers' blogs. I jumped in and commented on Lori's blog ('cause I love getting fun stuff in the mail) and now it's my turn.

Here's how to keep the challenge going:

The first three people to comment on this post {who would like to be involved in the Pay It Forward Challenge} will receive a handmade gift from me. All you have to do is keep the fun challenge going by agreeing to create three handmade gifts for three more people, hence the term "Pay it Forward".

Once you comment I will send you a little questionnaire about your favorite colors, crafty and scrapbooky stuff that you like but might never make for yourself or buy, and then you'll get a fun handmade gift from me.

And if I get MORE than 3 comments, well, that might be a record around here. You guys read, but you are not big on the comments! LOL So who knows? I may be more generous and make more than 3 gifts ... leave a comment to see what happens!