Vaaaaaaaacaaaaaaaaation!!!

Tomorrow I leave (after work) for a few days of rest and relaxation at my dad's house in Indiana. My sister lives with my dad and has about a dozen chihuahuas there (she's a breeder) so this should be fun. I'm excited to see my dad, but I'm also planning a day of running around trying to see some of my friends who live there. One just bought a dog kennel in Muncie, so I'm going to see that. And another has just moved back to Indiana after living in Alaska and Arkansas for over 6 years with the Air Force. I haven't seen her since my wedding almost 4 years ago. How time flies.

So here's a few digital pages from some of my trips home last year to set the mood.

A day off.

Ah, a day off. How I've longed for one of these lately. I didn't get to sleep in, though. I had to take my dog to the groomer's and then get the oil changed in the truck in preparation for our trip to Indiana next week. Boy will it be great to go on a mini-vacation.

I didn't achieve anything scrap related today, though. I would have liked to, but decided a nap was more intriguing. I did finally print labels to put on the back of my Memory Works catalogs, though. That's an achievement to be proud of.

I hope everyone is having a lovely day.

Thoughts for the day...

Wow. Fall has hit hard and fast here, and it's lovely! Last weekend at this time it was 90 degrees and humid...today, 60, sunny, breezy and beautiful. I really should be outside...but here I sit, clacking away at the keyboard. I had a lovely photo shoot with 2 of my dogs until all of my batteries for my digital camera decided to die at once...sigh. Guess it's time to get new ones, they really don't seem to hold their charge very long any more. Here are the shots I loved most, anyhow:


These are the lovely ladies who live in my household. There's Layla on the left. She is a CKC registered Chihuahua. Chloe is on the right. She is half rat terrier and half...spaz? They're both quite playful and friendly, but can get a bit rambunctious. I was just lucky enough to catch them being somewhat sleepy and enjoying the sun, or else I probably would have had nose prints on my lens.

I hope everyone has a lovely day!

Back woes...therapy scrapping...

I made this page awhile ago...but just got back from the doctor cracking my back, so thought I might put it up on the web and talk a bit about it.
I was in an accident in February. I was on my way to work one morning, when I hit black ice. I fish-tailed a bit and then hit a bank which flipped me onto the roof. Amazingly, I got out of the vehicle on my own and didn't suffer any major injuries. I did injure my back, though. I am still having monthly manipulations on my lower back, and some days it hurts so bad I just want to cry. I try to remind myself that at least I am alive to feel the pain and that helps...just some days are harder than others...

Exploding boxes!

Well, I made this explosion box a few weeks ago and I LOVE it! I'm addicted, and have gotten my friends super excited about making their own.

I also decided to try making a smaller version, and I love the way it turned out, too, though I don't know what I'll do with it. It's on loan to a friend while she works on making her own box to use as a reference.

Some of my favorite digital layouts...

This is one of my very first digital layouts. I don't think I was too creative, but I love these pictures and the colors work really well together. This was our first group vacation to the beach. It was such an experience! We went again this past summer, and hope to go many more times in the future.


This one is from our last vacation. We went to Outerbanks, NC. It's amazing how different the beach was here. Our group got a bit smaller, our house was much nicer and the weather was perfect. We don't think we'll go back to the Outerbanks any time soon, though, as it's quite a drive from central Pennsylvania. It was definitely another great experience, though.



This last one is my absolute favorite digi-layout at the moment. It's a picture of our outside cat, Shrek. He has since disappeared, but I still think of him often. I just love this picture and all of the colors in the kit I used.

Ok, that's all of the digital I'll share right now.

If you have a good art program on your computer, I highly recommend trying this great new art form. There's tons of free products out there for the taking, just follow the copyright laws and enjoy!

Gotta start somewhere...

Well, this will be my first blog here. What would I like for the world to know? I guess I will share a little of my scrap-philosophy. I'm not a perfect scrapper, far from it actually. I enjoy my imperfections, though. They set me apart. I rarely measure my cuts, and I often end up with some wonky looking mats. I eyeball all of my placements, and don't sweat the small stuff like the picture is just a fraction of a centimeter not level. These things make us human, and should be embraced. Scrapbooking allows everyone to do things their own way, and no one person can say that theirs is the right way. I love that. It truly is an art-form, but yet, you don't have to be extremely creative to enjoy it. There are products that anyone can use, and there are products that most people don't even know where to begin with. I'm enjoying learning new things and being able to let my creativity shine.

I have done traditional paper scrapping for about 10 years off and on and have within the past year started digital scrapping. I like how quickly the digital scrap pages are to make, but have yet to print any of them out to put in books. So, traditional is my main focus, and that's OK. I'll share some of both here, honestly, it's hard to tell the difference sometimes!

My scrapping interests right now are mostly pictures of myself as a child. I was fortunate enough to have a mother who loved taking pictures as much as I do, so I have tons of lovely pictures to work with. This particular photo was for a challenge on the Memory Works forum where we were to use a sketch that was actually made for a card, and transform it into a layout. I'm really happy with the way this came out. I used the Vintage Brass collection from We R Memory Keepers for all of my patterned card stock and Heidi Swapp's "cherish" acrylic stamp. The ribbon is just some random ribbon I had laying around. I was about 3 years old in these photos and mugging with my doll I had gotten for Christmas. I hope to continue scrapping my childhood over the next few weeks and hopefully finish my "baby" album before Christmas so that I can work on a few other crafty projects to give as Christmas gifts.