Cropping Weekend

Marianne and I had a fun weekend at the Scrapbook Creations Paper Craft Festival in Spartanburg.  There was cropping, make and takes, demos, classes and lots of socialization!  Sonny and I had lunch with Marianne in Lincolnton on Friday and then she and I took off for the festival.  We went with an open mind but we really weren't sure what was in store for us as I mentioned in my last post.  Upon our arrival, I got my goody bag and tee shirt.  The goody bag was supposed to be $130 worth of product - not so sure about that but it was ok.  I got a large pack of Graphic 45 paper, a 6x6 stack of patterned paper, some embellishments and 6 packets of double page scrapbook layouts.   Friday night we participated in a Make and Take event where we went to 8 different tables making various things.  I thought the make and takes were a bit too simple but it was fun anyway and midway through, they had a fabulous dessert bar!   a representative of Bazzil Paper was doing one of the make and takes and she showed us the samples she was doing for her classes on Saturday.  One of the classes was an 8x8 Mini Album that was super cute so Marianne and I decided to sign up for it.  We took the class on Saturday and as is usual in most classes, didn't get it all finished.  So that gave us something to do back at the crop table.  We were having such a good time working on our album that we decided to stay another night.  We stayed at our hotel Friday for free with Choice Reward points I had earned so paying for one night was no biggie.  Since we had already checked out of our hotel, we had to find another one.  We stayed at the crop until about 11 pm.  There were several hotels within a couple of blocks from the Expo Center so after striking out at the Howard Johnson's, we headed across the street to the Econo Lodge and got one of their last rooms.  We went to sleep around midnight but shortly after we fell asleep, the occupants of the room next to us woke us up with their noises which continue for 2 1/2 hours!  Banging on the walls and hollering "shut up" did nothing to stop them so Marianne finally called the front desk.  At first we were told there were no rooms available but a bit later, they called up to tell us they had a room.  The attendant brought us another key to a room down the hall and told us we could have both rooms - just leave our things and go down the hall to sleep.  So at 3 a.m., Marianne and I are traipsing down the hall with our stuff (didn't want to leave them unattended) in our nightgowns!  It took forever for us to get back to sleep and we were both zombies today!  We ended up sleeping through breakfast service and heading back to the convention center around 10 a.m.  We worked a bit more on our albums until I ran out of glue / tape.  Well, the way they had everything set up, it was easy to just go to their store and purchase what you need.  So, I bought a brand new bottle of Zip Dry Liquid Glue.  After I snipped the tip off of it, I was squeezing it onto one of my pages when the top came off and over half the bottle ended up in my lap!!  Only at a Scrapbook Crop would someone run over with a camera to take a picture of someone with glue in their lap!!  Now I have to figure out how to get all that glue washed out of my jeans!!  Anyway, long story short ... it was a fun weekend.  On the way home, we were starving and found a great restaurant just by chance.  We were looking for somewhere to eat when we drove by a restaurant called Wade's in Spartanburg.  There were a ton of cars in the parking lot so that's always a good sign plus the line of people to get in.  It was good ole' home cooked food that was delicious!  I had fried chicken, field peas, creamed corn and squash casserole plus some melt in your mouth rolls!  The restaurant has been in business since 1947 so you know it's good!

We were shocked to see how much STUFF people bring to these crops.  It was like packing up your whole craft room and taking it all!  Here are a few pictures to prove it:


Marianne and I had nothing compared with our neighbors!!

 


Easy Access Shopping Area



One person's STUFF plus she had a table full too with 3 machines - note her cushy chair cover!  She came prepared!

  

Lots of STUFF! 

Look What I've Made!

If you haven't downloaded the 3 FREE MDS downloads yet, what are you waiting for?  They are great! 

I had fun with them today.  

This first project is for an Advent Calendar I am going to make.  Sonny and I went to the Y and to lunch today and afterwards, he needed to go to Lowe's.  Well .... a new Hobby Lobby just opened right next door to Lowe's so he dropped me off there.  All their Christmas craft items were on sale for 50% off.  I found this cute Advent Calendar that I bought for about $5.  And that was before I saw the free download!  So I made little 2" squares with the "Day In December download and decorated each square.  The squares and the numbers are all from the free download.  Some of the elements used to decorate the squares are from it also; others are from various Christmas downloads that I have.  All I will have to do is just print these out onto card stock and cut out each square and adhere to the front of the little box!!  I'll share the finished product when I am done.

1-12 from A Day In December free download.

13-24 from A Day in December download

This next picture is a page I created using the free Enjoying Everything download featuring sweet little Jack IV, my great nephew.  I did a little recoloring, added the polka dot overlay and voila, a darling scrapbook page!

Enjoying Everything free download

 Next we have 2 pages I created with the final free download, A Split Second.  I used the pictures I took on our recent trip to the mountains for this two page spread.

Page 1 using A Split Second free download



Page 2 of A Split Second free download - pictures from Lake Lure

But that's not all .... More great deals!!
What: FREE downloads. 50% off ALL digital kits. Mega blogging on MyDigitalStudio.net all week!

When: October 29-November 5, 2012
Where:

Get your FREE downloads here (US/CAN).
Get your digital kits-ALL 50% off-here (US/CAN).

See project ideas and tips all week on MyDigitalStudio.net.  Share the digital love, and get even more in return! Tell your friends (and even your enemies) because if we get all the free items downloaded 18,000 times, we'll give a fourth one to everybody for FREE.

Post this button on your blogs and online pages to spread the word!

SU Scrap Map Challenge

We are notorious in our family for keeping our house pretty cold in the winter.  But, it works for us and we don't tend to be sick very much.  When I am in a place that is too hot, my nose and throat get so dried out so in the winter, we keep our thermostat around 70 and just put an extra layer.  So far we have not turned on our heater even though the nights have been dipping down in the 40s and the days are hovering around 70ish.  Actually, our house is so well insulated that it is colder inside than outside!  Last night we had our first fire.  Sammie did not know what to make of the flames in the fireplace and kept her distance curled up on my lap.  Since it has been colder, she has been sleeping in our bed but makes sure she stays on my side!  Yesterday morning she even snuggled down under the covers with me and Sonny captured our picture.

So with the cooler weather, I can get more in the mood for making Christmas cards!  They have all the decorations out in the stores so I guess we better get ready!!  I am going to have a Stamp a Stack for Christmas cards in November and I am trying out different cards for it.   I really got on a roll yesterday and made 4-5 cards.

Stampin' Up also has been having a contest on the MDS site each week with different challenges.  I have entered it a couple of times with no luck but I will keep trying.  This week it is to design a card or scrapbook page using their scrap map featured below.

Here is the page I created using some of my pictures from our London trip.  I used a lot of overlays from Hip and Handsome to make the background paper look grungy.  I used the new Ripped Pages technique for the background papers.  On most of the elements on the page, I used the Color Picker technique where I matched papers and elements to my pictures.  You can just hover over a color in a picture and match to a color.  I tried to do that with the purple paper to the purple in the flowers.  The text around the page was matched to the cream color in the paper also.  I used the new Freeform tool to "square" my text.  The word "london" is an alphabet punch filled with bits of the photos!  Such fun to create this while watching tv last night.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

I made this 12x12 page on MDS2 today.  It is part of my "homework" from the MDS class I am taking.  Don't you love it???!!!  It's that time again.  Tomorrow is the first game and I remembered to bring my Steelers Jersey so I am ready for some football!!  Love this time of year.

This picture was taken in the grocery store the day of the Super Bowl.  It was an awesome sight.  The pictures of the food on the side are some of the good eating we do when we are in Pittsburgh.  The top two pictures of the fries and hot dog are from the "O" (Original Hot Dog) stand which is located right beside the Pitt campus.  It has been there for more than 50 years so you know it's good.  We always have to make a visit there for fries and a hot dog.  My first visit there is still a joke to us.  I had gone home with Sonny from NC to meet his parents.  We went to Pittsburgh for some sightseeing and stopped off at the "O".  Being a Carolina gal, I ate my hot dogs with chilli and mustard usually.  So, that's the way I ordered it at the "O".  Little did I know, they did not know what hot dog chilli was and served my hot dog with their type of chilli - with beans.  Sonny's dad looked at me pretty strangely as I was picking out the beans from my hot dog.  30+ years later and we are still laughing about it when we go to Pittsburgh.

The next picture is of my favorite food!!  It is an Italian Hoagie from Danny's.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.  Danny's is another institution in Pittsburgh - been there at least 50 years probably.  There used to be a drive in theatre behind the restaurant and Sonny said they would come over from the drive in and get sandwiches and go back & watch the movie.  Our kids grew up eating there whenever we would visit.  Although there were a few times when Sonny & I would sneak out, leaving the kids at home with grandma and head over to Danny's for a quick hoagie.  (Although it is probably 30 minutes from Sonny's home!)  When Marianne went with us to Pittsburgh, we got her hooked on the hoagie too.  We usually get a "to go" box to take back with us.  They layer the meat, onions, tomatoes, etc. in a pizza box and give us the bread and signature Italian dressing so we can make them when we get home.  I've just never found a sandwich as good as Danny's anywhere else and we are constantly looking.

The final picture is funnel cake!  So yummy!  But truthfully, it's the same funnel cake you can get other places.  I don't even know where that picture was taken.  Once when Marianne and Harrison went with us to Pittsburgh to a game, we ate at an Italian restaurant close to our hotel and ordered funnel cake for dessert.  We still talk about that dessert.  It was like funnel cake on steroids!  It was huge and fed all of us.

Well, time for this gal to "hit the hay."  Hope you enjoyed my culinary page about Pittsburgh AND you will be cheering on the Steelers tomorrow like I will be!

Scrapbook Challenge #1

Well, I am in Texas and it's hot!  We left Charlotte at 12:45 with an hour's layover in Atlanta.  No hitches - until were on the plane in Atlanta to go to San Antonio.  After we were all boarded, they announced that there was a mechanical problem and the technicians were working on it.  If it couldn't be fixed, we would have to get off the plane until they could get another plane for us.  Thankfully, it was able to be fixed but we were about an hour late in leaving Atlanta.  We ended up arriving in San Antonio about 5:30 instead of 4:30.  But it was still hot - 100 degrees at the time we landed!  It was still 91 at 11:00 pm while watching the news!!  We had our first (of many I'm sure) Mexican dinner tonight.  Yum - guacamole, enchiladas, tamales, sangria, chips, salsa and sopapillas!!   It's good to be back!

The Paper Craft Crew is having it's first scrapbook challenge.  I made mine on the plane coming here yesterday..  I used pictures from our recent trip to the Outer Banks.  Here is my take on the sketch we were to use:

Here is the project list that was used:

Background

Color = POOL PARTY

Embellishments

_Designer Kits\Sunny Day - elements\Sunny Day - cloud 1
_Designer Kits\Sunny Day - elements\Sunny Day - cloud 1

Stamps

Epic Overlays\Epic Overlays - ink splatter 1, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131
Epic Overlays\Epic Overlays - ink splatter 1, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131
Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 6, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131
Epic Overlays\Epic Overlays - ink splatter 1, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131
Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 6, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131
Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 6, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131
Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 6, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131
Designer Kits\Day in the Life\Day in the Life - 3 frame, Color = SUMMER SUN
Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 6, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131A
Splatters\Ink Splatters\Ink Splatter 6, Color = CRUMB CAKE 179,161,131

MDS - Scrapbook Pages

I'm slowly putting together my scrapbook of my last trip to Texas with My Digital Studio.  I do a few pages a week and use new downloads as I'm working. 

These pages are of the beautiful peacocks that were strutting around for us at the Army base!  On Ft. Sam Houston, there is an area called the Quadrangle that is really old - dating back to the 1800s.  It has walls all around and animals roam free in the area - deer, peacocks, ducks, etc.  It is really cool.  You can read more of the details on the pages below.  You can click on the picture to view it larger.

National Scrapbook Month

In honor of National Scrapbook Month, I did a few pages today.  I used My Digital Studio to make these pages using pictures from our recent trip.  I am going to make it a goal to do several pages each week.

 

Summer Mini Ready plus Other Great Deals!

It's that time .... time for a new mini and do we have a doozy this time!!  I LOVE the Summer Mini and I think you will too.

DOWNLOAD HERE









And if you want to do know what SU used on the various projects in the catalog, you can download the list of supplies  used HERE.


Stampin' Up also carried over some items from the previous mini catalogs.  You can find that list HERE.

Stampin' Up is also celebrating National Scrapbooking Month by passing along some deals to YOU!! You can get 30 percent off a wide selection of scrapbooking products including:

• Select stamp sets
• Select professional print products for My Digital Studio
• Special digital download bundles for My Digital Studio 

Click Here for the list of products that are on sale until  May 31. 

Here are a few of the images that are on sale:

WORD PLAY

Printed Petals

Grunge Rock

Party Hearty

Animal Stories

Simple Friendship

Sweet Shoppe Alphabet

 Contact me to place an order or place your order on-line HERE!!

The Royal Wedding

In honor of the Royal Wedding, I decided to scrapbook a couple of the pictures I have of Westminster Abbey.  Then I got carried away with watching the wedding.  It was soooo beautiful.  No, I am not one of those people who arose at 4 a.m. to watch it.  I recorded it on my DVR.  Luckily, I couldn't decide which station to record so I recorded two different ones because one of them didn't record.  I ended up watching the Meredith Viera and Matt Lauer version of the wedding.  I'm one of those people who just couldn't get enough of the royal couple.  They are just so cute.  And the hat that everyone wore!  Wow - I loved most of them .... not so much Princess Beatrice's pretzel shaped hat though!

It is going to be hard to break the habit of referring to William and Kate as Prince and Princess.  William received a dukedom from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. The prince will now be known as the Duke of Cambridge, and has also received the titles Earl of Strathearn and Baron Carrickfergus.  A duke is the highest rank below that of monarch in the British nobility.   Kate will be known as the Duchess of Cambridge. Kate will officially become Princess William of Wales, although this title will not be used.

So back to my pictures.  I left the pages pretty plain - Westminster Abbey speaks for itself.  After I did my pictures, I found a few images from the wedding and put them together with the help of My Digital Studio.  Enjoy! 

Life's Lyrics

Last year when I went to CK in Charlotte,  I took a class to make a scrapbook entitled "Life's Lyrics."  The premise is that you scrapbook using song lyrics for your journaling.  That is so much easier for me to do!  I was not sure what lyrics I wanted to use for my scrapbook so the project has been on hold for a while.  Well, I decided I wanted to do the book for Ashley and take it to her when we met her in Ireland.  It would be something she could look at during the rest of her deployment to remind her of home.  Now the hard part .... narrowing down my song choices!  Ashley is a music person - I think she knows the words to every song!  She used to drive her brother crazy when we would go on trips always singing the lyrics of the songs on the radio.  I decided not to use just one song, but to use different songs on each page.  Here's my finished product:  (REMEMBER - you can click on the pictures to make them larger - you just have to click on the back arrow to come back to the blog)

COVER

 This is the inside page of the book.  This song is by Zac Brown Band and I loved the second verse "I thank God for my life and for the Stars and Stripes"

Page One - a quote from Victor Hugo

 This picture was taken last summer when we took the tour of Charlotte on those motorized scooters.  The song is by Miley Cyrus - Time of Our Life.

 This is a picture of Ashley when she went to Kenya and was taken at the equator.  The song by Green Day says "Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go - Take the photographs and still frames in your mind"  So true!!

 Another picture taken in Kenya.  The song is Unwritten by Natasha Bedinfield, "Live your life with arms wide open - Today is where your book begins - The rest is still unwritten"

 A picture of Ashley and I at a winery!  I couldn't decide so I picked two songs for this page - You're My Best Friend by Queen and Popular from Wicked.   The Queen song is self explanatory - she is my best friend and I liked the Wicked song too ' "It's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed ...."

 This song was taken on a beautiful fall day in Gettysburg.  The son is "From a Distance" by Bette Midler.  My favorite line - "from a distance we all have enought and no one is in need.  And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease, no hungry mouths to feed."

 This is a great picture of Marianne and Ashley taken last summer.  Another song by Miley Cyrus - Life's What You Make It.  And that sums up Ashley's philosophy on life I think - she is able to make life rock with a good attitude.

 This picture was taken last summer at my nephew's wedding with my niece's two boys.  I love this song by Rascal Flats, My Wish.  My wish for my daughter is "that this life becomes all that you want it to - Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small - Yo never need to carry more than you can hold"

I still had more songs I wanted to use so I put these lyrics on the back cover.  The song by Garth Brooks, The River" is a great one.  Don't you agree that "never knowing what's in store makes each day a constant battle just to stay between the shores?"  I sure do!!

So, I hope this has inspired you to think of your Life's Lyrics and make a scrapbook of them.  My Digital Studio would be a great help in doing it.