Mini album projects

Just finishing up one, and starting another! There is something satisfying about these projects- I think it must be that they have a measurable end to them ;)

So, here are my last two LOs for the Favorite Things album, my favorite time of day and my favorite TV show.

journaling: Night is my favorite time of the day- everyone is in bed, the house is quiet, and I finally have a few hours to be focused solely on what I want to do. It is often a time when I am at my most creative and productive.

credits: EcZentric by Jeanine Baechtold, Krista Mettler, Jen Reed, and Melissa Goerke at Scrapdish and DigiScrapZ; flowers from Rainbow spirit by Carrie Stephens; Black Glass alpha by Meredith Fenwick; star paper by Shelly Chua from Starry Night, October 2006 RAKscraps mega kit contribution; fonts: TXT Tough Love

journaling : My Favorite TV show is Star Trek. I learned to love Star Trek as a kid, and my fascination has continued. The combination of science fiction, commentary on societal issues, and following the characters' development over the years is a winning one in my book! I've watched every episode of all of the shows at least once, and many of them more than that. I have them all recorded on video or DVD too for viewing now that they are no longer coming out with new ones. I love to read the books based on the shows and characters too!
credits: star paper by Shelly Chua from Starry Night, October 2006 RAKscraps mega kit contribution, Star Trek logo, ships, and station scanned from The Star Trek Encyclopedia book cover; fonts: TXT Abrasive

I would really like to do some more pages for this album, and maybe I'll get around to it eventually, but more than anything I would just like to get a cover designed and what I do have done put together into an actual album. I'll stick it on my to-do list! LOL

Robin is heading up the next mini-album challenge at RAKscraps, and she got it started this past weekend. I jumped right in and got my covers and first two intro pages done a couple of days ago.

All elements are by Dani Mogstad: Kitschmas Cheer, felt shapes, stitching from Scraps of the Season- Peace, sequin hat from Scraps of the Season- Cheer, felt alpha from Birthday Bash kit (recolored), ornaments (blog freebie)
fonts: Bickley Script, TXT Longhand, TXT Romanesque

I've been busy around here doing lots of non-scrapping things too. Thanksgiving cooking, Black Friday shopping, waiting for delivery men which also necessitated quite a bit of cleaning, moving things around the house, Christmas decorating, and trying to get lots of projects wrapped up so that I can wrap presents, pack boxes, and get them shipped.

Having the kids out of school all of last week for the holiday has just messed up Sarah and Brenna's regular schedule. (Moving Sarah's crib out of our room and into Brenna's finally, hasn't helped that either). And then today was a snow day- we got somewhere around 3-6 inches of snow last night/today with strong winds and cold temperatures- so they were home again and didn't even go outside to bike and play with the other kids in the neighborhood. I am tired of trying to keep them entertained (didn't we just have 2 week and 1 week breaks??) and I know Sarah and Brenna would enjoy more quiet days too. We only have another 3 weeks until they are out for another 2 week break for Christmas and the end of the second quarter.

Too much to do, so little time.... is it January yet?

I'm cold and tired, so I'm going to head up to bed. That next LO I was going to try and get started is just going to have to wait until sometime tomorrow.

this week's CT LOs

For the second AAM page that was due for Scrapdish this month- my take on the topic of what you do when you aren't scrapping. With 7 people at home, if I'm not scrapping I'm usually trying to keep up with the cleaning tasks of everyday life (not my favorite pastime by any stretch of the imagination)!

journaling: Housework has never been a favorite pastime for me. There are so many more interesting things to do with my time than spend it cleaning up after myself and my family- like scrapping all of the memories and pictures that have been made. The cleaning will get done eventually; no one has gone naked or hungry yet!
credits: A Quiet Place by Jen Reed; ribbon knot by Jen Reed from Scrapdish Designers Collab kit Nov06; hand stamped alpha by me; stitching from Vintage Vashon by Amy Knepper; fonts: snowshoe

With TracyB's newest kit, Christmas Jubilee, at Digital Freebies and ScrappinDigiKreations.

credits: All papers and elements created by Tracy Blankensip: Christmas Jubilee; bow from A Little Country Chic; stitching from HoHo Holidays; fonts: TXT SantaFont

A LO with pics from last year tree decorating event

journaling: Having grown up with an artificial Christmas tree, taking the tree out of the box and putting it together is as much a tradition to me as bringing home a real tree is to some families. The kids like to help put together the tree now- sorting the branches by size and color, ‘fluffing’ them, and bringing the correct branch to the parent putting the tree together. Then, they take turns helping put the lights and garlands on the tree. Each child has their own ornament collection and gets to hang them on the tree, and finally the family ornaments are brought out and put on. Everyone enjoys the effort during the christmas season with the twinkling lights giving the room that special christmas glow that nothing else can emulate. I think it must be a bit magical.
credits: All papers and elements created by Tracy Blankensip: Christmas Jubilee at ScrappinDigiKreations ; yellow paper from Mouse-a-riffic, brown paper from Little Gentlemen, candycane alpha from HoHo Holidays at ScrappinDigiKreations and Digital Freebies; Sketch Template 6 from Square Sketch Templates 1 at ScrappinDigiKreations and Digital Freebies; Journaling Fun templates at ScrappinDigiKreations; fonts: Sweetheart Script

Robin's latest kit at SBB was perfect for these photos of us taking a little hike in one of the local parks in town.

journaling: We decided to get out of the house for a bit Saturday, November 4, 2006. We ventured out to Palmer Park and found an entry point to the trails. It is amazing how peaceful and quiet it can be in the heart of the city when you drive up the hill into the park. It is like you are out in the wilderness even though there is a major city street not a mile away.We enjoyed walking on the Grandview trail for about an hour before the sun started to set.
credits: Twist of Fate by Robin Cabana at SBB; LO template by Misty Cato for TheScrapHabit November sketch challenge; Silk Leaves from Rich Autumn by Kim Jensen at Scrapdish; Chipboard Alpha from Colorfully You Collection by Robin Cabana at SBB; Ringtie from Little Boy Blue by Amy Knepper at Scrapdish; fonts: TXT Delicate Script and TXT Longhand

And finally, the project I've been working on the last few days- the Digicraft for December at RAKscraps. My family isn't going to be surprised at all this christmas since I post everything here LOL! Oh well, at least they can't see what is on the CDs tucked inside ;)

credits: Merry and Bright papers and elements by Jeanine Baechtold at Scrapdish; CD/DVD gift card template by me; fonts: TXT SantaFont

Whew! I think that takes care of everything scrap-related I've done recently. Tomorrow I will be busy in the kitchen making a few things for dinner on Thursday and prepping other things that won't be cooked until Thursday morning. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!

catching up on favorite things album pages

I posted the last thread for the Favorite Things album challenge at RAKs on Sunday. It's hard to believe it is almost over, probably because I have been thinking about this album for about 4 months total. I'm a bit behind in posting my pages for this, so I thought I would catch up tonight before I head to bed.

journaling: Home is where I feel most comfortable and relaxed. I love the days where I can putter around in my pajamas all day and not have to worry about going out. Online, my home is RAKscraps. It is the place I have found to be the friendliest, and the place where I belong and can contribute to the wonderful community that it is.
credits: Feels Like Home by Robin Carlton, SweetShoppeDesigns; cardboard leftovers by me; matchbook minialbum by me; fonts: TXT Abrasive

A pretty typical week- lots of CT scrapping related things on the list, as well as the usual housework and a few other odds and ends
credits: Young and Carefree by Amy Knepper; library card, stitching, and staples from Leaps and Bounds by Amy Knepper at Scrapdish; flowers by Dani Brath at SBB; fonts: snowshoe and TXT Abrasive

A few of my favorite book series from childhood to today. They all grace our bookshelves waiting for the kids to get big enough to enjoy them as well! They are Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery, Zion Chronicles and Zion Covenant by Bodie Thoene, The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey, Love Comes Softly by Janet Oke, and The Bobbsey Twins mysteries by Laura Lee Hope
credits: Scrapdish Designers November 2006 Collaborative kit at Scrapdish: paper by Jeanine Baechtold, Ribbons by Kim Jensen; Alpha by Jen Reed, flowers by Amy Knepper; Mixed Greens brushes by Nancie Rowe Janitz at Scrapartist; fonts: TXT Longhand

journaling: Whenever I give the kids Goldfish Crackers to eat, I remember the times we went to visit Great-Granmother Locke at her house in Norman, OK. She always had a bag of Goldfish for us to eat, and we would often make chocolate chip cookies in her little kichen together. I didn’t know until recently that she was diabetic, so now I realize that those were special treats she had just for us as she couldn’t eat them herself. I remember walking down the shade-lined sidewalks with the sun shining through the leaves to the public library branch a few blocks away, and playing in her backyard. I loved turning on the lava lamp and anticipating being able to watch the wild bubbling of the colorful goo inside. I loved winding up and turning on the ceramic bird music box that played Fur Elise. She had a fiber optic box with a skiier picture on it that we could turn on and watch the rotating colors. She had a drawer in one of the living room side tables that held crayons and sheets of drawing paper that were kept there just for us. In the linen closet next to the bathroom door, more drawing supplies, coloring books, and several dolls were stored there for our visits. I remember lots of happiness and joy associated with my visits to Grandmother Locke’s house. They were quiet times of relaxation with a beloved relative, and I will always cherish the memories I have of our time spent together.
credits: Fishscraps kit by Carrie Stephens; Fonts: TXT Personality, Typewriter

journaling: My favorite meal is beef stroganoff. On our birthday, we were allowed to pick what the family would have for dinner. I would usually choose beef stroganoff. I;m not sure what it is that I like so much about it- the tender beef, the mushrooms, the sour cream sauce with the slight tang, or the noodles.... they make a perfect combination in my estimation.
credits: Autumn Blooms and Autumn Blooms add-on by Tracy Blankenship at ScrappinDigiKreations ; doodle swirl from To Dream by Tracy Blankenship at Digital Freebies; fonts: Cezanne and 2Peas Hot Chocolate

journaling: I’ve had many different types of collections over the years. The only one I am currently adding to is my snowman collection. It started with a cute figurine or two I found at a craft store and couldn’t resist. Before too long I had a few more and friends were giving them to me as gifts. I have snowmen made from different materials- wood, metal, plastic, and even an old sock! There are ornaments, candle holders, salt & pepper shakers, but most of them are just cute figurines. I love them all! They make me smile when I see them sitting on my fireplace mantel. This pregnant snowgirl ornament was given to me by Becky the Christmas I was pregnant with Brenna.
credits: Sparkling Ice Storm Sampler by Eva Kipler at Digital Freebies; fonts: 2Peas Hot Chocolate

journaling: Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love the time spent with family and friends, christmas music, the reminders of why we truly celebrate, the decorations, and especially the glow of Christmas lights. I love to curl up in a chair in the quiet of the night with a mug of warm spiced cider in my hand and the lights on the tree and mantle envelope me in the peace, wonder, and magic of Christmas. The song "Traditions of Christmas” on the album, “Fresh Aire Christmas” by Mannheim Steamroller always makes me feel warm and cozy when I hear it in the glow of Christmas lights. It captures everything I love about Christmas in song.
credits: Home for the Holidays by Amy Knepper at Scrapdish; fonts: TXT Delicate Script

RAKabrating! part 2

Well, the big celebration is over now, and boy, am I pooped! They are always lots of fun, but it sure was a lot of extra work. I'm sure that having my 'regularly scheduled' challenges going on at the same time didn't help any, but that is the way things go!
I got my newsletter tutorial for this month whipped out this morning and sent off. That was longer than usual, but there was so much information I wanted to include thanks to some help from fellow CT member Chrissy that I just had to put it all in there. Hopefully people will learn a new technique or two from it!

So, here are my last offerings to the gallery for RAKabration.
Daily Challenge 7: Use a megakit
credits can be seen here
Daily Challenge 8: an element challenge. We had a choice of 2 combinations, I chose the stitching/staple combo.
credits can be seen here
and since I haven't posted the individual LOs (I don't think so anyway...) I did a little while back of Beth, Carissa and Sarah in theirs. I probably should have done a LO with Brenna by herself, but I just couldn't resist doing one with the little cow to go with the cowgirl :)

costumes, here they are to go with the others above
credits can be seen here
credits can be seen here
credits can be seen here

and one last one for Jane's chat challenge- scraplift an admin. I used my other Scrapdish CT kit this month for this one of the fabulous tin of cookies I received as a gift last year. I lifted a LO by Rachel for this, you can sort of see the resemblance in the final product LOL
credits can be seen here

Oh, and one other miscellaneous LO I made with Audra's newest kit, Family Traditions- available at the Digiscrapshak!
credits can be seen here

I've got more favorite things album pages to show off too, but that will have to wait for another posting time as I've got to go figure out what to have for dinner.

RAKabrating!

credits can be seen here

I've been busy RAKabrating this week- The forums and gallery are hopping and the new chat room is getting a major workout! so far I've made over 300 posts (most of them on LOs in the gallery for the challenges I'm hosting), I have 3 different challenges going on at the same time!, wrote a small tutorial for my last challenge on design principles of two page LOs, have read and or sent over 60 PMs answering questions, attended I don't know how many chats, and done all of these LOs/projects. There were over 50 people at my digicraft chat Tuesday night, the biggest crowd I've had in the 9 months I've been doing them. The fun isn't over yet either. We still have 2 more days to go plus all of the wrap up stuff. I'm tired just thinking about it all.

Sarah has been a pill lately, getting into everything she knows she is not supposed to to try and get attention. She thinks it is funny to climb up into the chair at the computer when I get up to do something and push all of the computer keys. She just turns around and puts the biggest grin on her face when she sees me. What a pill! She was goofing off this morning while I was trying to change a dirty diaper and started a cascade off the end of the dresser that found me moving furniture to try and rescue my earrings from the heating vent that fell in there when the jewelry box crashed to the floor. I think I got them all, thank goodness the vent had two pieces that didn't connect smoothly and there was a small lip that caught them. If I am missing anything else, the whole pair is gone and I probably won't ever know it LOL I rarely change my earrings these days since Sarah like to play with them and the last thing I need her doing is ripping a hole in my ear trying to see the new sparkly thing hanging there. She was a sleepy-head yesterday and didn't get up until 10:30, then took a two nap in the afternoon. Which probably means she will hardly sleep at all today.

Here's the LO lineup for the week so far (I'm going to be lazy and just send you to my gallery at RAKs for credits to keep this humongous post from getting even longer).
For my nightowls challenge on Sunday night:
credits seen here

RAKabration Daily challenge1: a template challenge by Jeannie
credits seen here

RAKabration Daily Challenge2- scrap something with a 'second' theme
This LO uses Jen Reed's gorgeous Quiet Place kit at Scrapdish, which is one of my CT kits this month.
credits can be seen here

RAKabration Daily Challenge3- redo a past LO you weren't happy with
I redid this sledding LO. This is better, but I'm still not quite 100% satisfied. Maybe in a few more months down the road I'll have an epiphany about what else to do to it.
credits can be seen here

RAKabration Daily Challenge 4- 2 Kit Tuesday, scrap a LO using at least 2 different kits. I actually combined this one with the Journalling challenge too, which was to scrap a LO and an ATC about what you love about RAKscraps.
credits can be seen here
my ATC:
credits can be seen here
and Mish gave us an ATC envelope digicraft template at her Trippy Tuesday chat, so I made an envelope to put RAKabration ATCs in when we get them swapped out at the end of the celebration.
credits seen here

RAKabration Daily Challenge 5- a Celebration LO
credits can be seen here

RAKabration Daily Challenge 6- 2 page LOs, hosted my me!
credits can be seen here

and one last LO I did before the RAKabrating began since I've been in a first birthday LO mode the last few days:
credits can be seen here

Today's daily challenge is to use past megakits. I think I know what I want to do. I need to start writing up the tutorial for the newsletter too. The deadline for that is creeping up on me, and I have a LO coming due for SD CT stuff. Now I just have to get Sarah and company to leave me alone long enough to get it done.

Halloween and a few other pictures

Bryce's 5th grade play was Monday night. gosh, I hate having to get everyone out the door on time for things like this. I'm a grump by the time we actually get there, and then I have to try and keep the little ones quiet. It was a pretty good show though, the kids did very well. The sound system left a lot to be desired. Half of the words spoken were either too soft or mumbled, or at least it sounded like that to us sitting way back at the back of the gym. Bryce was part of the 'junk band', which did a drumming piece at the beginning of scene 5. It makes me wonder if he will want to play drums next year when he starts 6th grade; he beats out rhythms on the backs of the chairs in front of us while singing songs at church too.

In other non-Halloween 'news' Sarah is now sitting in a forward-facing seat in the van as she has passed her first birthday and the 20 pound mark. She likes to grin at me when I look back, and she is fascinated with the big red button on the belt latch and is constantly trying to push it (notice her finger in the picture LOL)

We carved our pumpkin Monday night after the school play. Well, more correctly I should say that I got Mark and the kids to carve our pumpkin LOL He told the kids that I wanted him to do it just so I could take pictures, which is mostly correct. He needs to join in the holiday fun on occasion too, I think, and this is one of the things he is willing to do so why would I want to encroach? ;)
Scooping the Goop, as we started calling it and then seperating the pumpkin seeds from the goop for Mama to roast.

Mark carves the pumpkin

Sarah keeping an eye on what I'm doing when I take the jack-o-lantern out to light it for trick-or-treaters, and the final glowing product.

I had three different costumes Sarah could wear this year. I went with the cow one first since Brenna was a cowgirl. They wore their costumes to bible study Tuesday morning.

By the time dinner came around, the white parts were getting a bit messy. I briefly switched her to the Minnie Mouse outfit. I think this one was her favorite of the three even though it had to be the least comforable. She kept tugging the poofy skirt up to see it better and pointing to the sparkles and Minnie Mouse picture on the front. I never did locate the ears and bow headband. Don't you hate it when you remember putting something in a place you know you won't forget.... and then you can't find it? The headband wasn't with the costume in the clothing box and I never could figure out where that perfect place I stashed it was. I'm sure it will show up next week when and where I least expect it.

and finally I switched her to the little fleece leapord outfit. I figured it would be warmer when she answered the door with me to hand out candy, and well it's just too cute to have her match what I was wearing :D A set of teenage girls at the door one time cried out "it's the Cheetah Girls!" when we opened the door LOL and I heard "She's so cute" too many times to count.
Sarah liked to watch out the side window for trick-or-treaters.
and it didn't take her long to figure out that that stuff in the big bowl must be good because everyone who came to the door seemed to want some.


Brenna and the big kids went out trick-or-treating and had a good time despite the cold. Brenna is more than pleased to have her candy bucket filled to the top again. She had been lamenting for about a week that it was empty and needed candy. We had 67 trick-or-treaters stop by this year (well, that is if you count the three teenagers I'm sure came by a second time at the end of the night; I guess they thought we were giving out the good stuff this year LOL).

RAKabration is Coming!! and November Digicrafting

RAKscraps second birthday bash is coming!! whoo hoo!! The festivities kick off this Friday night with the November gallery mixer in the chat room at 9:30 EST. You can get a sampler of the awesome, humongous RAKabration mega kit the CT put together. Here's a peek at what I put into the pot:
and since I always end up making 2 or 3 pieces for every one that actually goes into a kit, I have a second kit that will be the nightowls freebie on November 5!
the amount of sponsor support we have received is staggering! we have over 150 prizes to give out in one week. I'm not even sure how we are going to do it, but if you hang out and participate at all, I'm thinking you have a pretty good chance at one of them!

and I've been working on the November Digicraft stuff too last week.
**WARNING to family members** don't look a the rest of this post if you don't want to see previews of an upcoming Christmas gift! (viewing doesn't mean that you will get it any earlier though LOL)
Irene gave me a few sets of CDcase calendar templates to use for digicrafting this month. Great stuff! but man, they sure are a lot of work to put together, or at least it seems like it. At least with digital scrapping I can make as many copies of these as I want/need. No need to recreate the whole thing every time. The thought of having to look through my whole stash of digikits and pick ones to use for each month just made me shudder, and then I had the brilliant idea to just go down the folder of RAKs megakits from the last year and use one for each month. I still had lots of pieces to choose from within the kits, but at least the decision of what kit to use for each month was taken care of. For chat attendees I have some templates based on the pages I made to hand out and make your scrapping even easier! You can't beat it, so come join me in the chat room at RAKs Tuesday, Nov 7 at 9P EST. Yes, the time is one hour earlier than usual, as Mish is hosting her Trippy Tuesday chat right after at 10P EST!

I'm really pleased with how these came out. There are two different versions of the calendar I'm giving out templates and instructions for- a single page version which uses an empty CD case as a stand and sits on a desk, and a small book form. If any family members take a peek at this and have a particular preference for which one they want, then please let me know either by leaving a comment (yes you all can leave comments!!) or dropping me a line via email or phone :)


credits for the cover can be seen here

credits for these pages can be seen here

credits for these pages can be seen here