Balloon Classic 2008

Yep, it's Labor Day weekend again so that means it's Balloon Classic time again! We got up early Saturday morning and headed down to Memorial Park to view the day's balloon lift-off. We met my mom at the park and headed towards the lake first to see a few of the first balloons to lift off dip their baskets in the water. This is my favorite picture of the day, and one of the first ones I took:
and I really like this one too:

We moved back towards the main launch area to enjoy getting up close to the inflating balloons, which is one of the best parts of this festival. My mom was telling us how some of the other ones she and my dad had gone to the spectators weren't allowed down on the field with the crews because there wasn't enough space.
One of the fun shaped balloons this year was named "She's a Lady"- I bet you can guess why!
everyone was excited to see her lift off finally
see Brenna pointing at her moving over us in this picture?
I love the colors and framing on this one:
The large shaped balloon at the festival this year was "Arky", which is owned by Focus on the Family. This was it's first appearance at the festival in 10 years, so it was the first time we had seen it.

Most of the pictures on the field I took while stopped next to a balloon called "Heaven's Quilt" which is owned by Bill & Susan Glen of Roswell, NM. I enjoyed taking lots of pictures of their balloon during the inflation process and as it took off finally. They were very accommodating to all of us photographers and didn't mind us asking questions. I think I will do a LO with a whole series of pictures just of their balloon.

Here's "Heaven's Quilt" in the air:and look!! I'm in the family photo this year since my mom was with us :) We're standing in front of Heaven's Quilt. Goodness, I see that my son is most certainly taller than I am now!
And we trooped back down to the park in the evening to see the balloon glow too. It was a bit windy at our house, so we weren't sure what the conditions were going to be like at the park. If there is too much wind they won't put the balloons up, but it was perfectly still down there and just the right conditions for the balloon glow.

And if you want to see a few more photos from the Balloon Classic, you can check out these and a few more that I have put up at my Flickr account:
I'm pretty happy with how they came out this year- these are all unedited photos ;) Of course this is only about 1/4 of the photos I took.

Mark plans to go hiking tomorrow up Pikes Peak, and I hope to get something scrapped while the kids and I hang out at home. I hope everyone has a fantastic Labor Day!

Fall Leaves Fun LO

credits: Hootenanny by Chere Kaye and Libby Weifenbach at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns and SweetShoppeDesigns; and Hootenpoppy Papers by Chere Kaye at FPD; Collection 26 templates by Jen Caputo at scrapbookgraphics.com; fonts: Bickley Script

Free Fall LO

One of my favorite pictures from last year's fall leaf pile photo session, and my new favorite color combo in this kit coming next week to SBG too ;)

credits: Impressions of Serendipty by the Studio Girls at scrapbookgraphics.com- coming to Scrapbookgraphics on September 1st!; fonts: LB LisaB

Ominplex - the first pages

whew! last layout with pictures from the Omniplex ;) I was working on these backwards for whatever reason, so this is actually the set of pages that will be first in the vacation album.

journaling: I have lots of memories of the Omniplex- MommyPat would bring us to visit it and the zoo next door during our summer to trips to see her in OKCity. Lots of things have changed, but there are still some exhibits that I remember from 25 years ago- the gravitram 2 is one of those. It was one of my favorites and I would sit and watch the balls moving in their never-ending circles inside the glass case at the beginning and end of every visit.
There’s something for everyone to enjoy at the Omniplex. They have exhibits on health sciences- a big mouth where you can learn all about your teeth, an electron microscope display, and an area about choosing a healthy diet, an area on the oil industry as it is an important part of the Oklahoma economy, a kids’ play and exploration area with a huge water table to splash and play in, dinosaurs, a large model train display and a real set of coach railway cars where you can see what it is like to travel in style on the rails, a large space exhibit with real rocket engines and space capsules and simulators, tree houses to climb and play on, and a rockin’ live demonstration of the science of fire and explosions. It’s hands-on learning at it’s best!
We stood and watched this display for almost 10 minutes. The ball is controlled under the table by a computerized arm with a magnet, and it rolls around the table top forming concentric geometric patterns in the sand overwriting the last one as it forms the new picture.
credits: by Flergs at scrapbookgraphics.com: from July 08 Grabbag: papers 2, Metals, Overlays; Garage Daze Green alpha (recolored); from Evilicious: alpha and stamped frame; fonts: TXT Monique

I've got several new CT kits to work with, so expect more pages soon!

more Omniplex layouts

one more 2 page layout and I'll actually be done with this set of photos from our vacation.

journaling: The “ExploraZone” room was filled with displays on the science of optical illusions, with explanations of both the physical and biological processes that contribute to them. It is always fun to watch things move when they really don’t, and trick your brain in many other ways to see neat effects. Though most of the exhibits are geared towards the older kids who can read instructions and understand the explanations, even Sarah and Brenna found some things they could have fun with with a little bit of help.
credits: Wild Thing by Jill D-Zines at scrapdish.com; Template 10 by Yin Designs; fonts: Whats Happened, TXT Romanesque

journaling: Science really is one of those things that is best observed and not just read about in a book. We saw quite a few explosion demonstrations during our trip this year, but this one at the Omniplex was the best! The scientist had a fun, witty humor, cool music, and of course lots of cool experiments and loud noises during the demonstrations of the three requirements for fire- oxygen, heat, and fuel. All three of the older kids were picked to go up on stage to help out with some of the demonstrations. Beth got to dance with him on stage twice while shaking some ethanol to volatilize it for a loud explosion and dramatic swinging of the jug. Bryce and Carissa helped with the demonstration of what happens to hydrogen gas when exposed to flame. He created the gas by placing a piece of aluminum foil in a bottle of hydrochloric acid and putting a balloon on top to catch the gas. It’s explosive nature was part of the proof that it was indeed hydrogen gas contained in the balloon.
credits: Wild Thing by Jill D-Zines at scrapdish.com; Teeny Tags Alpha by Jessica Bolton at scrapbookgraphics.com; Date It! and Spell It! Plastic Beads by Kim Jensen at scrapdish.com; Template 46 by Yin Designs; fonts: Tall Paul

thanks to Jill who sent me her fun new kit, Wild Thing, to scrap with!

Omniplex Gadget Trees

This was the kids favorite exhibit at the Omniplex in OKCity.

journaling: This was a new exhibit at the Omniplex, built as part of the Oklahoma Centennial Project that teaches kids about how science enriches their every day lives through the use of simple machines such as levers and pulleys and the use of natural products in building materials. Of course the kids think it is all fun and games as they climb, totter, slide, swing, and hoist and throw balls at each other- ours certainly did!

credits: LO Template #13 by Yin Designs; Toolbox 5 Element Templates by TracyBlankenship at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns.com; Thrifty Solids Collection by Jessica Bolton at scrapbookgraphics.com; apple from Under the Apple Tree by Jofia Devoe; I Can See Clearly layer styles by Misty Cato; grass from Rain Rain by Kristen Aagard; cracked paint action by Atomic Cupcake; Staple Stash by Maya at scrapbookgraphics.com; fonts: TXT Abrasive

Family Gathering LO

I was sad to see the Olympics ending last night, but at the same time a little relieved too. I've been staying up late to watch them with hubby since they started and boy am I dragging today. I almost didn't get up in time to get us out the door for school on time- and I even went to bed an hour earlier than I usually do. Despite really wanting to take a nap this afternoon, I got this layout finished up that I started last night with photos from our dinner at my cousin's house on our vacation. A fun time was had by everyone, and the Wii was a big hit. I'm surprised the kids haven't started bugging us for one yet LOL

credits: Family Roots by Dani Mogstad; fonts: CK Script, Duality

New designs at Scrapdish

A couple of new things are available at Scrapdish today!
I got my Watermelon kit finished up and put in the store this morning:


and the September Scrapdish Designer Collab is available this morning too.
Here's a closer look at my contribution to this month's collab:
and the layout that my included QP is based on:

Sweet and Juicy Watermelon layout

Another vacation layout- we were enjoying some particularly juicy and sweet watermelon slices the first day of our camping trip after getting the tent set up. I've scrapped some of the photos I took of Sarah already, but here are the rest of us enjoying it too. We just didn't get quite as messy as the little miss did ;) I was in a mood to create a bit and had some pretty specific ideas of what I wanted for this LO, so I made all of the scrapping goodies myself this time.

credits: Watermelon by Melinda Staley; LO template 56 by Yin Designs
fonts: Mattfont Squished and TXT Abrasive

A couple more school layouts

It's that time of year again- school is starting and the digistores are filling up with new school kits. So, I've been trying to catch up on last year's school photos before I start getting a lot from the current year. The pages I'm showing today are Carissa's pages, Beth's are in my galleries and I'll link you to them so you can see them if you want. They are almost identical, I just swapped out the pictures and names.

credits: Old School Collection, and Notables Les Joiles Lettres by Dianne Rigdon at scrapbookgraphics.com; Templates with Attitude 13 by Tracy Blankenship at funkyplaygrounddesigns.com and scrapdish.com; Not So Basic Stitches by Dani Mogstad
fonts: CK Journaling condensed

"Beth's 4th Grade Memories" can be seen HERE.

credits: Old School Collection, Notables Simplicite, and Notables Les Joiles Lettres by Dianne Rigdon at scrapbookgraphics.com; Templates with Attitude 13 by Tracy Blankenship at funkyplaygrounddesigns.com and scrapdish.com; Photo Cluster action and glitter layer style by Flergs; fonts: CK Becky and CK Journaling condensed

"Beth and Mrs. Todd" can be seen HERE.

Sarah is trying to drag me away from the computer and get me out the door to go get Brenna from school. I think she has figured out that once Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is over on Disney channel that it is about time to go. She tried to get me to put on my shoes an hour ago LOL

The twins' birthday party is only a few days away

Nothing much new happening here- the girls were all out of school Monday and Tuesday because of testing days at school. They had all been tested during the previous week though, so they didn't have to go to school. We celebrated the twins' birthday with my mom on Thursday, and that was when they received their gifts from family. Grandmomma gave them MP3 players along with a little spending money, they got drawing and coloring Klutz books from their cousins, I gave them each a Hannah Montana watch and some new albums- Miley Cyrus' new album, Camp Rock, and the Jonas Brothers first album- and Daddy gave them new bicycles. He hadn't actually had time to get the bicycles yet, so I made some little cards to present to them instead. They didn't get it at first LOL They spent the afternoon out with him on Saturday picking them out. We went shopping after our visit to the library yesterday afternoon and they used their money from Grandmomma to buy the new Jonas Brothers album and the Hannah Montana 3D concert DVD. We've been listening to lots of Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus around here ;) Their official birthday party is Friday night and they are very much looking forward to that.

Here are my latest scrapbook pages:

journaling: The end of the year science project for the 4th grade is the annual egg drop. All of the kids devise some sort of protective wrapping for a raw egg, and then the custodian drops them off of the roof of the school. Success is measured by the egg surviving the drop uncracked. The first time Beth’s egg was dropped, a classmate caught it before it hit the ground, so they had to do it again. Beth’s egg was intact after it’s second fall off the roof, so she had a success too!
credits: by Chere Kaye at Funky PlaygroundDesigns: Book Cover alpha, Grammar Time, Everyday Basics- Neutrals, Layering Templates 1, Everyday Basics- Cardstock, Office Finishers, Everyday Basics- Classic Frames, tape from Joey in the Coffeehouse Friends Collection, yellow string from Summer Breeze, felt and button stack from Trick or Treat mini (recolored), Triple Dipped Stitches the basics #2
by Rina Kroes at Scrapbook-elements: stringed flowers from Mellow on My Mind; fonts: CK Chocolate Sundae

I did a similar page for Carissa with her pictures. You can see that one HERE if you want to.

And a few more pics from my days at CHA. It was a very happy circumstance when I saw Flergs' newest kit release over the weekend and realized that it perfectly matched the outfits that Jen, Jeanine, Oriana, Robin and I were wearing the second day of the show. I remember looking at the picture on the back of the camera and commenting on what a pretty color combo we all made together. I was right thinking it would make a nice scrapbooking kit!

journaling: There's nothing quite like getting to meet on-line friends in person. I've known Jen, Jeanine, Robin, Connie and Oriana for years, and now I can say that I really have met them.
credits: Dusk to Dawn, String Em In Alpha Gold, and Sugar & Spice alpha (recolored) by Flergs at Scrapbookgraphics.com; fonts: CK Becky

journaling: I had so much fun hanging out with Robin at CHA in Chicago for two days. We stayed up late to watch movies (love Patrick Dempsey!), scrap and chat. I wish we lived closer so that we could do this more often!
credits: Dusk to Dawn and Sugar & Spice alpha (recolored) by Flergs at Scrapbookgraphics.com; fonts: CK Becky

Monster Workshop LO

At the end of the Monsters exhibit at the St. Louis Science Center was a creativity area where the kids could draw, sculpt, and craft their own monster creations. Beth took a class on how to draw a dinosaur and did a really great job with her picture of a stegosaurus. Carissa spent most of her time at the modeling table where they supplied some Crayola Model magic and craft supplies to make your own monster. Bryce joined some other boys at a video game station they had set up, and Brenna and Sarah found a table with papers and markers, and things they could glue on the paper. Everyone was quite content pursuing their own version of creativity.
credits: Wild Things by Emily Powers at WeAreStorytellers.com; colored alpha and fingerpaint from Preschool Palooza by Emily Powers and Kate Hadfield at WeAreStorytellers.com; Chipboard alpha by Kate Hadfield at TheLily-Pad.com; popsicle sticks from Melty Pops by Libby Weifenbach at SweetShoppeDesigns.com; PomPoms from Wintry by Jessica Bolton at scrapbookgraphics.com; Date It! Plastic Beads by Kim Jensen at scrapdish.com; LO template 51 by Yin Designs; fonts: Arial

2 new layouts today

journaling: I wonder how much school supplies have changed over the years? I suspect for kindergarteners, probably not much. The supplies are still pretty basic- crayons, pencils, paint, paper and glue. They use glue sticks now instead of liquid glue, and baby wipes and liquid hand sanitizer instead of soap.
credits: Preschool Palooza by Emily Powers and Kate Hadfield at WeAreStorytellers.com; notepaper from Outnumbered Girl by Jessica Bolton at scrapbookgraphics.com; paper strip from Teacher's Pet by Bren Boone at ShabbyPickleDesigns.com;
fonts: 2Peas Dear Diary, CK Curly Cursive

journaling: Brooklyn and Brenna had so much fun playing together during our evening at the Guthrie’s house, as they usually don’t have someone their age to play with. The first thing they did was get out all of the My Little Ponies, but during the evening I think they played with nearly every toy Brooklyn owned. Brenna didn’t want to leave and wanted to know when she would be able to play with Brooklyn again.
credits: Monica from Coffeehouse Friends Collection by Chere Kaye at FunkyPlaygroundDesigns.com; Spell It! Plastic Beads by Kim Jensen at Scrapdish.com; Transformers by Lauren Reid at LittleDreamerDesigns.com; Date It by Amber Clegg at scrapartist.com
fonts: CK June Bug Louise

I don't have an accent

From the SSD FOBTY challenge today:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

and since the table thing isn't showing up correctly, here's what it is supposed to look like.

It makes sense- I grew up in WA and visited family in TX and OK. Since getting married I've lived in Germany, WA, PA and NJ and CO and mostly in college or military communities where there is a large mix of people from all over the world.

Prima Projects

So, now that summer CHA is over I can finally show you some of the things I made months ago with Dianne Rigdon's and Doris Castle's new paper collections.
These first projects are done with Dianne Rigdon's "Fancy Christmas" line.



Doris Castle's "Little Boo" line. I made some frames to house a couple of Halloween photos. That's Megan and Aaron all dressed up one Halloween in the black one ;) The picture didn't have a date on it that I could find when I scanned it, but I figure it is from the early 90s somewhere.
This LO of Sarah in her little ducky costume last Halloween was in the Prima catalog.

and if you look really closely at this picture from the Prima booth at CHA, you can find my frames and box sitting on the display table.


and I finally got to play with some of the new 'Retail Friendly Hybrid' CD products that are available and coordinate with each of the new paper lines that came out too. They almost make it too easy (at least for me anyway, I think I like to try and make things more complicated than they actually are sometimes LOL)- add your pictures to the predesigned quick page, and maybe some wordart from the CD, then add some text to the predesigned chipboard shapes and anywhere on your page that you want. Print it all out, stick the chipboard together and put it on the page to embellish. There are spots on a lot of the QPs that tell you what products to add and where. My one wish for lines like this in the future is a set of chipboard shapes that are a bit smaller so that they work more easily with the 8x8 size that I print at. The shapes at their current size are too large for that format, in my opinion at least.

This first one uses the Space Boy collection, and I scrapped some of the pictures from our stop at the Omniplex Science Center in OKCity on vacation. They have a new exhibit called "Destination Space"

journaling: The Destination Space exhibit had examples of actual space craft, equipment and space suits from different world space missions. The most fun exhibit was the one showing how things of different sizes fall in both air and vacuum.
credits: Space Boy Quick Page and chipboard tags by Prima Marketing; Say It in Crystals swirls (#517335); fonts: LB Plainstamp, CK Mou Saha

details:

and this is from the Youth collection by Meredith Fenwick. Bryce standing next to his locker at HMS the day we picked up his 7th grade schedule.

credits: Youth QP and wordart by Meredith Fenwick for Prima Marketing; Say It in Crystals Swirls (#517311); Star brads by Creative Impressions; fonts: Dirty Ego, Rage Italic

details:

and with that, I'm off to make some muffins for dinner. It is Beth and Carissa's birthday today and we are dragging out the festivites for a while. Last night I made 58 frosted cupcakes for them to take to school today to share with their classes. Carissa chose what we will have for dinner tonight. Beth chose what we will have for dinner tomorrow when Grandmama comes over for the 'family celebration'- that's when they will get their gifts from us, the cousins and Grandmama. We are putting off the party with friends until the 22nd as they want to have a sleepover and that is the night that the new Cheetah Girls movie is being shown on the Disney Channel.