Happy Tax Day!!! (only if you get a refund)

Happy National Procrastination Day!!!!!!!!!!Enjoy your tax refunds! I'll be thinking of you as you hold that check in your hot little hands. *grumble*

For about 15 years, I worked as a writer for an international educational publisher, The Education Center located in Greensboro, NC. Oh, the thrill of walking into a teacher store and seeing books that you had helped write (with your name on the title), seeing your activities and units published in their bimonthly publications (with your name on the masthead). I loved writing!

Well, on a lark, I submitted to Basic Grey. I received an e-mail yesterday that my LO was accepted! I was just so surprised! Thank you Basic Grey! I am thrilled!!!!!!!!!!!

How would you like some blog candy? Just leave a comment for today's post. I'll draw a name on April 25! Those of you who have received my RAKs know that I send good ones!!!

I have some layouts to share with you. I hope you like them.

The photo on this LO has much meaning to it. We love it so much. The original photo has huge tears in it as well as scrapes and creases. I had to do a lot of restorative work in order to rescue it! I printed it using sepia tones so that it would contrast nicely with the PP as well as reflect the time of the photo (1920). Gram and Granddad always dressed perfectly as shown in this photo. We miss them very much.



Cherish

The next photo is of DS wearing a Stegosaurus costume I made for him when he was in kindergarten. It is stuffed with cotton batting and has a long tale with the back plates getting smaller as they go toward the tail tip. I made it in an olive green with cream colored plates. LOL The PP is the new Archaic Line from Basic Grey. To make the frame around the photo, I took a piece of BG paper and soaked it so that I could easily scrunch it up. I let it dry and inserted the photo after applying it to the LO.



What is a Nicholasaurus rex?

I came across this photo the other night and just knew what PP I would use. Keeping with the thief theme, I used the new Sassafrass Lass Whale of a Tale PP. I love that line! There is a companion line for little girls. It is sooo cute and so workable!



Thief of Our Hearts

I hope you had a nice visit. Thank you so very much for stopping by!

TGIF!!!

The wind is blowing again today. We've got the house all closed up to keep out any pollens that always affect DH and myself. It is supposed to hit 80° over the weekend. The dreaded summer is all too quickly approaching. Yuk!

We had a lovely visit w/ DS & DDIL. DDIL passed her orals and now has a Masters in English! We're so proud of her! I wish they were closer. It is so darn hard when they leave. I know it'll be months before we see them again. I don't know how families with members in the military services tough it out! Blessings to them!

I haven't been up to much. I've been working on design team layouts all week. I did have time to squeeze in two just for fun! LOL It feels good to do one just because... This LO is of DS when he was 4, I think. DH and I haven't looked closely at it yet to determine DS's age. This was in June or July on the Oregon Coast. We always loved the Oregon Coast and spent every summer there until a couple of years ago. I got to playing with my star punches. It was nice to use them again. I've had them in my punch basket for quite some time. I think they were one of the very first punches I bought. I think a set of circles was first, and my set of stars came second. Here it is:



I Am Reminded

I forgot I had another LO completed. This one journals how our sweet son got his name. Being educators, it was really hard to pick a name! DH or I would pick a name and one of us would say, "No, I had a kid once named that and he talked all day," or something similar. So we named our son after a child on TV who later grew up to be on drugs. Go figure. Maybe we should have stuck with Gunnar!



How You Got Your Name

I hope to do more layouts over the weekend. I hope I get to work on them. I'll post when they are done. I want to try a couple of new techniques. If they turn out decently, I'll be sure to share.

Are you doing anything special for National Scrapbook Day on May 3rd? That day is just a couple of weeks away!

Thank you for stopping by!

Chris

The Treasure Called Family

It is just so wonderful having our son and daughter in law with us. I hate to see them go tomorrow. They were such sweeties by helping with a huge project that my sweet husband couldn't do alone. I love them so much! I wasn't raised in a very affectionate family nor was my husband. We knew we wanted to make sure that our child would know the love of a mom and dad the best we could do. I think we've achieved that goal. He is solid in his knowledge of how much we love him. It's funny how we take things from our childhood and modify them to better meet the needs of our little family.

I have a couple of LOs to share with you. I did these as part of my design team projects at Four Scrappy Sisters. This is the April Petite Kit. The pattern paper is just amazing! It sparkles! It's nice and heavy! It is simply gorgeous! I hope you like what I've created! Leave a comment if you wish! I love when comments are left!



He Rawks!

This layout was fun because of the triangular area I decided to use. I wanted to keep it boyish. I painted the backs of the ghost shaped stars, added some matching photo corners and a bit of bling! Love this!



My Two Boys

For this LO, I decided to use staggered blocks for the alphas which make the title. Can you see the shine n the black and green strips? It looks so rich. There is even a hint of a sparkle showing in the turquoise strip next to the black. These PPs are on a white CS background. You have to look at the mouths on my two boys. They both look like a turtle! LOL The square buttons in the kit prompted me to make the title in squares. It was a nice repetition.

The last creation is a card I thought would be fun to make. It's simple, but looks so rich with that PP!



Cheers Card

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. They always seem to fly by!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you will come back again! I so enjoy having sweet visitors such as yourself!

Have a good one,

Chris

Happiness is....

Having your son and daughter-in-law fly in for an extended weekend! Oh, how I have missed them! We haven't seen our son since November. It is a mother's joy! It is so hard seeing your child grow up and move away! He will always be my baby regardless of how old he is. I really love the children's book, "I'll Love You Forever" by Robert Munsch. Whenever I would read it to my students, I always had to fight back the tears! I think it is one of the sweetest books ever. If you haven't read it, please do!

I'd like to invite you to Happy Scrappin' Scrapbooking's card of the month and layout of the month contests! The prizes are gift certificates to the store! I think the amounts are pretty good, too! Stop by the forum and read about the card and layout of the month contests! I know some of you are expert card makers as well as gorgeous LO creators! Think of the new goodies you could buy w/ the gift certificate! Come on over and play!

Spring is in full bloom as are our allergies! Yuk! The good side is that it is truly a beautiful time of the year. I dread the heat that is looming just around the corner!

Do you ever wonder if things that happen do so by coincidence or if your paths were meant to cross? I've recently had several experiences that just amaze me. These were situations where a perfect stranger was giving, caring, and willing to help! Those of you who did this, know who you are. I am so grateful for your kindness. Thank you so much for your sweet help! It's been like that for the past couple of weeks! I am so humbled!

I've been scrapping lately - having fun! I have part of my DT work done for one site and am waiting for materials from my other DT site. Of course, I can't post their LOs as much as I would like to! LOL However, I have some to share with you. The photos aren't that hot, but you'll get the idea! Here is the first:



Talks With Dad

In this layout, I felt that the trees were pretty bare. I used Hambly rub ons to add some birds to the branches. I also added a large brown bird transparency, some copper colored rub ons on the ribbon to make the title. The LO was quite a change from my usual heavily embellished LOs.

The next LO is hard to see. White just doesn't photograph well for me. The background CS is textured like a dotted swiss fabric. All of the little dots are raised. I used blue dotted PP inside the large circle to carry the dot theme another step. I like the colors. Just before the plastic letters are four little tags. Each has a word to complete the full title.



What is it Like to Be You?

The last LO I have to share is another one that is very simple. The brown cardstock is a very pale taupe. It looks so brown in the photo. It is a true pinky tan, LOL. I had forgotten just how much I love taupe and black or navy together. I used to have a couple of outfits in those colors when I was teaching. We fell in love with this steam clock. I thought the photo could have been better, but still like the composition. Because it was night, it was hard to capture all of the textures.



Vancouver Steam clock

Thanks for stopping by! I am just delighted to share my work with you. I hope I have inspired you in one way or another. Please feel free to leave a comment! I just might send a RAK your way!

Have a good one,

Chris

Easter Aftermath

I hope your Easter was wonderful - with delightfully happy children, a lovely dinner rich with the bounty of Spring, and the love of family! We were alone this Easter. It sure is difficult getting used to celebrating holidays without our DS.

I sat this weekend remembering Easters of years gone by. I remember while growing up, going to church all decked out in our new Easter clothes. That was always so much fun after the long, cold, gray winters of Pennsylvania. One year, as a teen, I was dressed in off white from head to toe. The Jackie Kennedy white pill box hat, the off white heels, and the empire waist off white coat was my Easter outfit. Somehow, I just didn't look like Jackie Kennedy in spite of my new outfit! LOL I think my favorite outfit was the one that was bright orange! I had a gorgeous tangerine colored light wool coat with a very open weave. Oh, how I loved that coat. I added a color matched orange picture hat with a massive brim, orange cobra skin shoes and matching purse. Inconspicuous? Not on your life! Would I do that now? Not on your life! But, I was young and everyone looks good when they are 16 or 17! LOL

So, after reflection of my early Easters, I decided to go through our photos and create a LO in honor of our wayward son. He really isn't wayward. He's happily living and working in the Pacific Northwest. I was given this wonderful brown paper and knew I had to use it for this layout.

It's hard to see in the photo, but DS's cheeks are stuffed to the hilt with candy! He looks like a starving hamster that just found a stash of sunflower seeds! This is primarily why, as a child, DS's baskets always had books, tapes, puppets, and other little items. Candy was there, but only a little bit.

The LO features Scenic Route PP, a walnut stained tag, Thickers alphas, a cute Easter basket charm on the tag, a cellophane wrapped tiny Easter basket in the lower left, and lots of layering. I hope you like it. Here's the LO:



Chocolate for Breakfast

Thanks for stopping by! I love to have visitors! Please leave a comment. I'd love to know your thoughts. Thank you for previously leaving comments, too! I love them and love you, too!

Chris

Things are Blooming!

Well, the signs of Spring are all around. The trees in our front yard show hints of green with the little leaf buds coming out from their winter sleep. The Forsythia in our back yard is blooming its yellow flowers. Oh, how I love Forsythia and Bridlewreath! Our little fruitless plum is blooming pretty white flowers. The birds are chirping and chasing one another *ahem!* I've been on the lookout for hummingbirds so I can fill our feeders for them.

The cybercrop at FOUR SCRAPPY SISTERS is at its half way point. You should drop by! There are some fun challenges and even if you missed the time deadline, the challenges are worth doing. They are sure motivating! I was very pleased with the gals who did my adhesiveless layout challenge. Their work was wonderful. The best part was that they didn't know they could do it and felt good about the final product.

For my color challenge, I asked the girls to create a layout using black, lime green, and turquoise. They could had a touch of white here and there. This was the example I provided:


Our Nudie Cutie

Wasn't he just the cutest? By posting a photo of his naked tushie on the internet, I'll find out if he really checks my blog! I'm sure he'll say something...if he sees what I've done! *tee hee*

If you would like to give this color scheme a try, please do and leave a comment for me - with the web address of you layout. I'd love to see what you come up with!

Well, I've got to get back to my next layout. Thanks for stopping by!

Chris

It's March Already!

Can you believe it is March? Time is just flying by!

Spring is in the air here. The trees are beginning to bud. The temps are in a mid 50 - low 70 range. The birds are back and so is the owl I hear in the early morning before dawn.

I've been so busy preparing for my monthly card making class. I had it last night and the gals made some really cute cards. I'm going to do it every other month now because it really takes a lot of time to prepare packets for each gal.

Are you in the mood for a cybercrop? If so, stop by FOUR SCRAPPY SISTERS and join in. Here's the link: http://4scrappysisters.com/messageboard/ It starts tomorrow, Saturday, March 8 and runs for a week! Maybe there are a couple of challenges you'd like to do. I know that cybercrops sure get me scrapping.

I've done a couple of LOs that were fun. These were done as part of my design team projects for HAPPY SCRAPPIN' SCRAPBOOKING. The PPs can be found in the storefront at HAPPY SCRAPPIN' . Here they are:

For this LO, I used the skull and crossbones from a gift bag that I had for two or three years! I had some pirate paper scraps left from another layout and the only photo of our son that was pirate related. Thank goodness, Long John Silver's! LOL



You Are Our Treasure

I just had so much fun with this LO. I used alphas from Scrap in the Box. Here is their link: http://www.scrapinthebox.com.au/home.php The owner of the site, Kerry, is amazing and sends everything out right away. It took only five days to get these alphas! The PPs are from Happy Scrappin' Scrapbooking's cyberstore. Love the reds!



Prince of Our Heart

For this LO, I chose the colors black, lime green, and turquoise. The photo was blurry after being blown up, so I printed it in black and white. This is a wonderful trick to use when photos are blurry. Just print in black and white! It diffuses the blur a bit. I love his smile! DS was such a beautiful baby! This was done as part of my DT projects at Happy Scrappin' Scrapbooking.



I Can See the Light Around You

I hope you will stop by Four Scrappy Sisters and join in the cybercrop!

Thanks for stopping by!