Actually Cropping... Another Layout

Okay, so I'm not cranking them out, but at least I'm piddeling around and getting some done.

Another Layout

Valentine's Layout

FINALLY... I'm getting back to work on some layouts. Here is my adorable little guy writing out his own Valentines for the first time.

I Actually Remembered

How many times have you forgotten to capture some of the memories around the holidays. I'm sure plenty of families bake for the Christmas season and fail to take pictures. I ACTUALLY remembered this year. While I'm not in any of the photos (since I'm the photographer and scrapbooker in the family... you all know what I'm talking about) I did capture the chaos in my kitchen baking the cookies my husband asked for as part of his Christmas present. I did threaten to individually wrap all the cookies for him, but that would be just as torturous for me as for him.

When I went shopping for my missing ingredients I did have enough foresight to buy extra mixing bowls and baking sheets. Sean's cooking set had several sets of measuring cups, so those came in extra handy.

And here are one of the batches of cookies I made. If you go to Sean's blog (the family blog) the recipe is posted there (http://seansm0m.blogspot.com/). I did discover if you want photo worth cookies, use a small ice cream scoop or if you're an avid baker and have one of the mini pastry scoops (looks just like a miniature ice cream scoop complete with the mechanism to dislodge the batter). Once you've scooped it on the baking sheet, flatten it out a little and press a few chocolate chips into the top... and there you have it, photogenic cookies!!! Who knew?

Getting Up To Speed

2009 is almost gone and probably like many scrappers I didn't get nearly enough scrapbooking done. I still have TONS of photos to upload to Shutterfly for printing. I've decided to pull out all my negatives to be sent off to be scanned to digital format.

So what have I been doing if I haven't been scrapping? I've been busy with Tae Kwon Do with my family, arranging my son's Kindergarten holiday party, managing Christmas at our house of course, play dates, coffee & shopping dates with friends, and baking for my husband... all this on top of my full time job - wheeeew!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and pray everyone is safe for the New Year. I'm getting ready to plan my convention trips for 2010 and dusting the cobwebs off my scrapping supplies.

I got a new SLR Canon EOS Rebel XS from my sweet hubby for Christmas... actually, he didn't know what kind of to get me (or he didn't want to make the drive to the store I wanted it from - because you get a free class if you buy your camera there) so I got the money to buy it. We went to Arlington Camera to buy it today. The battery is charging and I can't wait to play with it. It is probably the BEST present ever (except for the year my dad bought me my manual 35mm, which I still LOVE, but is nowhere near practical when you're trying to capture everything your 5 year old does).

Christmas Projects

Here are a couple of Christmas projects I did over the weekend. I had purchased an ornament chipboard book, but instead of using it as an album I used them as my base element. I covered both of them with an off white vintage Christmas paper I found in my stash while reorganizing. Then I distressed both of them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The stamp images are from a couple of Tim Holtz stamp line. The Christmas accents were cut from the new Graphic 45 Christmas line.

Sean's 1st Tag Art

Here is the end result of Sean's handy work yesterday. For his first whack at using Tim Holtz products and Glimmer Mist he did pretty well.

My Young Artist

Sean likes to come in my scrap studio and play with all the cool toys. Can you really blame him? He also likes to watch the demos on Tim Holtz website. I made Sean his own ink blending tools and let him play. You can't see the beautiful end result very good in the video, so I'll post pics after it's dry (he got carried away with the Glimmer Mist... so it's taking longer than usual).

Glimmer Mist... Glimmer Mist Everywhere!!!

In Houston again... and thought I'd visit the LSS. Turns out that several of them carry Glimmer Mist. Right now only one in the Dallas area carries it. I lucked out at Scrapbook Barn over the weekend and got a few bottles for 40% off. The Houston stores are doing a sale this week as part of the Round Up for next year... I found another (9) bottles, some from old seasonal releases... I think I have a problem :(

Gotta Scrap - Tim Holtz Halloween Tag

Even though Halloween has come and gone... this is still a REALLY cool project/technique.