Wednesday, October 14, 2009

EEEK! I'm Addicted!



What? Why YES I DID participate in Ally's latest ATC "Halloween" swap....and I want MORE!! Actually "completing" something "scrappy" makes me VERY VERY happy! Thus, my addiction for ATC swaps! Notice the little metal "Addicted" tag on my latest lil creations?


I used the Best Creations orange glitter paper as my base and just built the card from there. I used those FUNK-TA-FIED Halloween creatures for the main image and just cut out different words here and there......all related to spookiness of course! Oh ohhhh.....and I used "Glimmer Mist" too!! Ally thought I was silly for mentioning it, but HEY .....I rarely get to play with my good stuff these days, with all the darn kids classes I have been teaching!! I will post a pic of all the other Halloween ATC's after tonight's lil meeting at Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks. Ta Ta for now crafty girlie's!

Giggle eh? A man and a donkey walk into a bar......hahha...JUST KIDDING....not feelin' too funny today, lil under the weather. :(


Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Psychedelic ATC Dude!


So all of you know about Ally's new found love of ATC's and her crazy "assignments" she gives us girls who sooooo want to follow along. Well, the latest theme for Ally's ATC madness is "Alice in Wonderland." No, I am not one of those believers that Alice in Wonderland was written about drugs, political satire, Freudian influences, mathematics, sex or pedophilia.....I believe Alice to be a creative children's story that allows even a closed-minded adult to delve into "fantasy land" even if for just a moment. I do however believe in making light of most things in life, make people "giggle" a tad, and put my own twisted sense of humor on things I do and say. Which brings me to the ATC I created for this latest swap. I certainly put a little "psychedelic" spin on the small bit-o-art I created. I chose the Caterpillar as my focal point because ....well....he is smoking a damn Hookah people!! I sat him atop a mushroom that I had stamped and punched holes through. Coming from his smoke stack, I placed little purple "page pebbles." The word "grow" is stamped on a sticker and placed across a blue measuring tape. This signifies "growing big, or getting small" when Alice takes a bite. Thank you Ally for picking such a cool topic!! Until next time peep's!




Giggle for the Day: I ran out of gas while driving home from Bible Study this morning. As we are sitting on the side of the road, my daughter (who is in her car seat in the back replies)...."Great....now we have to sit here ALL DAY!"

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Circle Journal ....LOVE!



I just LOVE circle journals, and I am SOOO thrilled to be a participant in the Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks Design Team Circle Journal group. I am currently working on my second journal, which just so happens to be lil Mz. Gloria's journal. Her theme is *50 Things I Love* inspired by Elsie Flannigan. I am SO not done with this journal, but I thought I'd share a little peek.ie. (since the REST of the projects I am working on are all for KID'S classes!!) Not that I don't LOVE teaching mommy & me and the girl scout groups, and camps....but sometimes I need to just be *me* and scrap MY WAY! Scrapping "simple" so a 3-8 year old can complete the projects in an hour is quite hard, let me just tell ya!! ANY...WHOOOO;




Here's a Lil sumthin' sumthin' from my entry into Gloria's sweet journal:
Remember- this is a work in progress!!




Saturday, August 8, 2009

Lottery Winner!!

What would you do if you won $50 million dollars playing the lottery?
That was the question posed to me, and fellow "Circle Journal.ers,"
in Mz. Jennifer Priest's Circle Journal assignmnet that she submitted for
the Pink Pineapple Design Team "CJ group".
Jennifer wanted her album to be pink, lime and black....I have to admit that was a challenge for me, so I hope it turned out ok and she likes it...as it will be in HER book!
We were to write a list of things we would do with the $50 million (well...the $25 million after Mr. Sam's cut) and then add pictures of places, things, etc. of what we would do with our winnings. I didn't think it would be very fun to just have a picture of my church and bank in the Circle Journal....hahha....so I went with the vacation spots and a waterfront property.
Ahhh....I must say, I had to rack my brain for quite a while to try to come up with stuff to spend all that money on.
So, my list was pretty boring....tithe to my church (OF COURSE), trust funds for the kids, cash in the bank, pay off the house and bills.....but here's the good fun stuff.......BEACH FRONT house in Carlsbad, MANY vacations, my hubby wants a boat and a "sports" car....you know, the mid-life crisis type....never did think of anything I wanted personally. Oh wait!!!! NEW BOOBS....darn it....that's not on the list and I already turned it in! Oh well, now the world knows....it's just not in Jen's book...hehe.
I have Mz. Gloria Kings Circle Journal to do next.....can't wait to get started!!

Friday, August 7, 2009

ATC Peek.....


My dear friend Ally is hosting ATC swap's these days and I just HAD to take part!! Our challenge was to create an ATC (Artist Trading Card) using transparencies. ATC's are 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 fun little cards to trade with your friends (or in this case, random people that have decided to join Ally in her quest for ATC goodness). The goodies I decided to use in my card were a Hambly transparency (the bright orange with the owl perched on a branch in the bottom corner...which is NOT displayed on the cards due to size constraints), a piece of Creative Imaginations pink die-cut dot paper, turquoise glitter ribbon, an acrylic stamp (actually two) that says..."Be... You" stamped inside another acrylic stamp which is a conversation bubble outlined in dots, a Maya Road frosted flower that I painted using Lil Davis sheer green paint, an iridescent flower crumpled up and layered inside the other flower and fastened together with a rhinestone brad. Had to use some pop-dots here and there to add dimension, oh yes and a splash of orange stickles here and there. Pretty simple, but fun and cute. Our next ATC challenge is to use glitter.....ok....SO excited about that one.

Oh yeah...and my digital camera is on the blink from being dropped on my kitchen floor by my daughter (accidentally), so the photo here of my ATC is not that great...they are actually MUCH cuter in person....if I do say so myself....and I DO!! HEHEH

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Kid's Crafts Galore

With summertime comes a TON of kid activities, crafts, games, places to visit, go, hang, and be a unit! My husband and I are so blessed to have such flexible schedules that allow us to "up and go" with the kids whenever we choose....well...as long as business is running smoothly and in the right hands!!

Along the line of kids activities and crafts comes my commitment to Pink Pineapple and our summer routine with Kids Camps, and Kids Classes. Now let me tell you, I LOVE and I mean I LOVE to teach kid's how to play with paper, pens, paint, glitter, stamps...ANYTHING artsy....but it is sooooo hard to actually put "samples" together for classes. I find it rather difficult designing a layout, or album in some cases, that a 3 year old can easily do with instruction and a dab of help from mom. It's truly tough to display these layouts in the store with my name plastered all over them knowing full well that customers are looking at them and thinking...hmmm....the "owner" made this...hhahah. Oh well...sigh. Grin and bear it I say. So, in all it's glory.....here are the samples for the Mommy & Me 3 year old Album class we are doing together this summer. Pictured here are the cover of the album (class no. 1) and the first 2-page 8 1x2 x 11 layout they will create (class no. 2) of their July 4Th festivities. Mind you.....you must be THREE to appreciate the goodness.


Tuesday, June 9, 2009

I'm Not Sure I'd Call Myself An "Angel"...


Elena, Lorene and I had a blast posing as "Glue Glider Angels" at the Scrapbook Club meet up last week! Getting together with 35 women is truly just an amazing experience. Everyone brings such a different joyous take on Scrapbooking. This month Elena hosted a "Coin Envelope" Swap for those of us that chose to participate. We each decorated a coin envelope and filled it with goodies. We were to make 17 of the same exact envelope. I filled mine with metal corner protectors, flowers, beads, pipe cleaners, Maya Road chipboard key, and a few other things that have slipped my failing mind. I used a Heidi Swapp mask to make the crown and topped it off with some pretty little Page Pebbles. I also stamped, glittered and cut out (well, Teri did my cutting, wink wink), wings to adhere to the outside of the envelope. I wrapped yummy polka dot ribbon that Cierra found for Pink, and tied it with tulle and affixed a Heidi Swapp ghost flower that I painted. Oh yes...and my favorite part....I sewed the sides and bottoms together!! (Thanks Jess!!) I had to re-thread the dang sewing machine a hundred times, but hey...I'm a newbie....hope I can figure out what the heck I am doing wrong!! The picture of my envelope swap doesn't do it justice (tootin my horn here) Anyhooo....enjoy the finished project!



Giggle of the day...I get to Pink today and lo and behold my Mom is there scrapbooking! She was finishing up an Ally kit for a vacation we took to Palm Springs last summer. I said, oh wow, I just printed my pic's from Palm Springs last year to put in that SAME KIT!! We both smiled. Then, I looked at her workspace, and there she had a kit from Candice McLean "Family Vacation" to put our pic's for our upcoming trip......I had JUST BOUGHT that kit too to put the SAME trip in!! We both giggled!! Silly girls.



Thursday, May 28, 2009

A WOT!


After talking to my friend G.Money today I realized I need to blog even when I am not "creating." I haven't had much time to scrap, or do anything for that matter, in a while because we have been up to our eyes in baseball. I'm not complaining, but uh hem....I need a lil *me* time. So anywhoooo....I thought I'd share a few pic's of our fun times this past week of swimming, playing, and well.....you guessed it....baseball*ing. The first pic is of Coleby playing in a baseball tournament on his *Club* team. They are called the "Carlsbad Stingers." (Like 7 yr old kids need to be on *club* teams...but those of you who know my husband know it's just a family thang). I know I know, nice chain-link fence in the photo. On the last day of the 3-day tournament a parent approached me and said, "Hey the best spot for picture taking is up there on that utility box..." Oh well, I didn't get pic's of our team without the fence but I got some pic's for my friends of their kids!! :(

My brother got engaged recently. Here is a pic of him and his new fiancee Laura at their engagement party this past weekend. I am so proud of my brother. He is 12 years younger than me.....the SAME span of years between my oldest and middle child...weird huh? He is currently in Seminary school after graduating from Westmont in Santa Barbara. He is the tool God used to bring our family to Christ.....when he was just 2 years old. That testimony will be told someday on here I am sure.

We did a TON of swimming this weekend! I LOVE Carlsbad I tell ya. Warm weather, and it's my kinda place....where EVERYONE knows your name. Seriously, everywhere we go we run into someone we know. I just LOVE it!!


Oh, and there's NOTHIN' like having smores made while roasting marshmellows over a sandpit BBQ! Talk about living in Carlsbad!!

Giggle for the day:
Aspen pours a huge bowl of Cocoa Puffs and Daddy asks,"How many bowls of that cereal are you going to eat today."
She grins and answers, " A WOT!" We almost peed!!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Coin Envelope Swap - Sneak Peek!




Elena is hosting a "coin envelope swap" through our Pink Pineapple Scrapbook Club. I think there are about 21 people participating in the swap. The challenge is to decorate a coin envelope and fill the inside with little treasures, one for each person. When we come together we will exchange envelopes and leave with 21 unique coin envelopes. So excited! I have NEVER done a swap of this type before. Here is a little sneak at some of the products I will be using to decorate the outside.
Giggle of the day: I am talking to my husband in the car using my bluetooth (which is transmitted through the car stereo). When I hang up my little 3 year old girl asks "Who was that?" I say, "Daddy." She says, "Our Daddy?" It was sooo cute, and made me giggle!!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

And They Call Him Cookie....


I arrived home last Thursday night from a fun-filled evening with the Pink Pineapple Scrapbook Club, to be greeted by my beautiful children. They are sooo excited (and up at 10pm which is TOTALLY unacceptable on a school night). They are jumping up and down shouting something about a new dog. A new dog! WHAT! No way, no how....not without asking ME first (even though I don't take care of our current dog....that's a man's job!). So, I'm a little huffy, but cracking a wee bit of a smile and looking over at my husband with darting eyes. He says, "no no, we found this dog just loitering around our front yard with no tags....we looked for the owner to no avail so we brought him inside" (now.... those of you that know my husband, know he DOES NOT talk that way....but it makes for an interesting story.) So the kids say, "Yeah, his name is Cookie!" GREAT!! They already NAMED the dog. sigh. The kids say, "he lives right across the street." My husband explains, "no the dog does not live across the street." In fact, he asked a few neighbors, none of which have EVER seen this dog before. sigh. ok. ok. So we will deal with it in the morning. That night, I'm working late and hear some scuffling in the garage. I go out and peek, and there is "Cookie" and my dog "Tinker" just running around free in the garage! humpf. What is going on? There are TWO kennels in the garage, both of which are made for BIG dogs, and these two little Pomeranians can certainly fit in the kennels. hmmm.... So I start to wonder what is really going on. The next morning my husband is off and running before I get up. I go about my day, "dealing" with "Cookie" the untrained, and I mean "UN-house trained" dog. sigh. Turns out "Cookie" is a BOY! My little pom is a girl, not spade because we had still been throwing around the idea of breeding her. Anyhoooo....that night Coleby has a baseball game so we don't really search for "Cookie's" parents. Saturday (day 3) I start to get a little miffed AGAIN. I am starting to think my husband has dooped me, and found someone with a dog to breed with our little Tink. I immediately call him, accusatory of course. He says, "no no no, truly we FOUND him. Tinker's not "due" or "on" or whatever term he used. So, still a little unsure, I go about making posters...FOUND DOG POSTERS! The kids went out and taped them up. Later that day we have yet ANOTHER baseball game to go to. We get home a little late, like around 9pm, and there is this cute little message from a Mexican lady...."i tink you u found my dog" and leaves her number. EXCITEMENT runs through my veins!! I immediately call her back....even though I would NEVER call anyone this late.... normally. No answer. sigh. Spanish message. double sigh, cuz I have NO IDEA what the message said. Well, I left a message anyway. About an hour later, this cute little Mexican voice was speaking quickly on the other end of the phone. "i tink you found my dog." My husband is paranoid, waving his hands....mouthing "DO NOT GIVE THEM INFORMATION....make them tell YOU about the dog." Turns out they live in Oceanside! hellloooo... we live in Carlsbad, ok ok....so Oceanside is a stones throw....but heck, they live on the OTHER side of the barricade.....not in our neighborhood. hmmm....suspicious.....maybe they just found the sign and want a dog? So...I start asking her a bunch of questions, "why doesn't the dog have a collar?" "When did you notice him missing?" etc.....because I put a PICTURE of him on the flyer, which my husband said is a "no-no".....how would I know???? I've never found a dog before!! Then all of a sudden.......the little Mexican lady says........"His name is COOKIE!" WHAT??? "Cookie, you say???" How the HECK did my kids know this dog's name? .....this dog FROM OCEANSIDE! Apparently, their son walks the dog in our neighborhood......so much for not talking to strangers!
Side note: No animals were hurt in the making of this post and "Cookie" is safely at home with his family.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Up To My Elbows In Scrapbooking.....


Ahhh. I'd like to say that Scrapbooking brings me great joy, and ooohhh yes it does.
However, my little friend "A.D.D." does not allow me to Scrapbook when things are a mess....which unfortunately for MY Scraproom.....happens to be ALWAYS!
So.... I sorta, kinda, maybe.... tried to, well um....CLEAN my scrap room. I'll give you a little, tiny, intsy bintsy looksie loo into my scrap room......but just a PEEK!

In the upper right is one of the cool Making Memories organizers that I swiped from Ally! The organizer right below it is also from the famous Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks garage sale! 25 bucks, what a deal!!

The two pink totes house a BUNCH of Michelle Hill, Candice McLean, and Ally Serrato kits.....gotta have me some kits man!! I love to just grab one of these puppies when I run off to a crop, or when I go on vacation....that way I don't have to lug around a bunch-0-stuff.
My paper is completely unorganized, its just all piled everywhere in the paper rack, and in the paper holders with no rhyme or reason. I used to have them by color, then by Vendor....and then...I gave up. Any suggestions? The binders are the Tim Holtz acrylic stamps holders and believe me when I say they are PACKED! I also have a Tim Holtz case full of acrylics too! Oh wait, not to mention the Technique Tuesday case FILLED as well.....ahhhh....for the love of stamps!!



i LOVE my Clip-It-Up but I need MORE clips....and well...to be honest, I could probably use a few more Clip-It-UPS as well.

In the basket are a couple of my minis that I have done. LOVE IT ALL!! Now I just need a work space. Michelle Hill laughed at me the other day when she came in and saw my pitiful little white craft table. I know I know!!! I can't wait to move this dang daybed upstairs to Aspen's room so I can have my craft room ALL TO MYSELF!! Yeah!!!

Giggle of the Day: A good read on Stephanie Ackerman's blog http://www.homegrownhospitality.typepad.com. She shows a woman juggling many things in life while balancing on a skate board, but then talks about how we can be so imbalanced as a mom (or dad). We have chaos surrounding us in this world, yet we obsess over having a "bad hair day." So Elena and I read this post while driving to LA to buy goodies for National Scrapbooking Day, and I look in the mirror.....to see a glob of grey hair smiling right back at me. ahhh....Bad Hair Days.....just like the book "The Screw tape Letters" anything to keep our focus off what is important in this life.....you know....the BIG MAN UPSTAIRS!!!

Monday, April 20, 2009

My Little Beach Boy



I LOVE San Diego weather, especially Carlsbad weather!! I know, I know...it IS a little TOO hot, but man, it feels just like summer. Courtney got home today about 3:30 and took the kids to the beach. I wanted to go sooooo bad but I have deadlines to meet. I am currently putting together two albums for a customer whose daughter is graduating High School this year. She will be presenting her with two albums. One for her early childhood; birth through junior high, and another one of her High School years. There are A LOT of photos. Needless to say, it's very hard to work when your crop space is a disaster area. So, instead of frolicking at the beach with the fam, I did my darnedest to clean up my messy Scrapbook room. I think I am 3/4 of the way there. Whew.


Here is a layout I recently did with the new Lime Rickey Basic Grey paper (no it's not in stores yet....I got it at the show...sorry lovely ladies). I LOVE felt, I LOVE the beach, I LOVE pictures of my kids, and I LOVE bright papers.....voila: Scrapbook inspiration!
  • Daily Giggle: The family was sitting on the couch: Coleby, Daddy, Aspen. Daddy is tickling them and saying," Whose the monkey in the middle, then he tickled Aspen and said YOUR the monkey in the middle". She looked up at him and said, "I'm NOT the monkey in the middle, YOU ARE, I'm sitting by your side." (she's 3). I fell over laughing!!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Super Fly...

The challenge this month on the Glorious Pink Challenge Blog {link on sidebar...} is to create a layout about which super power you would have, using a picture of yourself from this year, and a tad of American Crafts paper. I chose to have *Super Fly* powers, no not ...fly...as in insect...FLY, like as in fly*ing. Ahhh the freedom to go to any destination you choose. To be at your child's side at the drop of a dime. To have the ability to swoop in to help a fellow friend in need. I would LOVE to have the Super power of flying.....in fact, I wouldn't even mind growin' some wings. Here is my layout for the challenge:
I almost didn't post today because I didn't have a *giggle moment* to share. I had a really rough day. One where nothing seemed to go right. They sky was falling chicken little, and THEN I came across Donna Salazar's blog post from a while back and it read:
I don't care if you lick windows, take the special bus or occasionally pee on yourself..
You hang in there sunshine, you're friggin' special
And I just busted out laughing. Thanks Donna!! I can sleep well tonight!! Seeeee it pays to go blog stalking at 11pm at night!! xoxo

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A Little Giggle Please....


I knew that I had to create a new fresh blog, one without controversy. How did I know it was time you ask? Well, when the buzzing got so loud in my ears that it kept me up at night. So here I am, new blog and all....a little quiet place where I will share the projects I'm working on, tell you about my giggling adventures, and maybe even spill the beans on stuff up and coming in the Scrapbooking world. You can bet your bottom dollar that this will be a VERY censored blog, no gruff stuff here....just clean and simple things, I promise to keep my venting on Five Peas. So RELAX, you can follow this one ladies...I promise to make your mama's proud! So for my very first blog I am going to show you a little snippet of my MESS of a scraproom. Next time I post, I hope it's in order!! BTW, it looks like this all because of ALLY SERRATO! hahah....just kidding. I just HAD to buy these two awesome white wall organizers at our last garage sale at Pink Pineapple Scrapbooks. Ally already had her hot little hands on one and I stole it right out from under her. (sorry Ally, glad you still love me long time!!). I am also posting a picture of the layout I have up in our crop room that shows a cute little pic of all my peeps....you may learn a little about them...but then again, that may just remain on Five Peas unless they are in my daily giggle story. Which brings me to the other daily topic for my new; each blog post will contain one little thing I giggled about each day. So sorry Teri....but today's giggles came from your tales of the over-flowing toilet. As for the name of my blog, "Giggling Recommended," I have Gloria King to thank for that. On her Glorious Pink Challenge Blog under a picture of her and me she wrote...."We highly recommend giggling..." ahhh the pure beauty of those words. Giggling Recommended. Did you giggle today? If not, check out the pic's below...that should give you a good chuckle. Anyone wanna come over and organize?