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. :(

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!"

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!!

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!!

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

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.

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.