Divine Scrapbooking

Chat with Janelle Smith from 7 Gypsies!

2009-05-05T06:56:00.001-07:00

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I wanted to let you know the talented Janelle Smith, designer for 7 Gypsies, will be joining us at Bad Girls Kits for a special designer chat this afternoon at 2pm EST/11am PST.

Come by and see what awesome things she has to tell us! We look forward to seeing you there!

Project 52

2009-05-04T09:59:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday. We had a lot of fun over at Bad Girls Kits with challenges and classes. Some amazing projects were posted that day. I didn't get to scrapbook much this weekend because I was slammed with other things but that's okay, right?

I wanted to give you all a heads up to check out the Bad Girls Project 52 blog. I did the project this week and not to toot my own horn, I think it turned out pretty dang incredible. I don't want to spoil what I did, because I don't want to take away from where the excitement needs to be. The picture above is just a small glimpse of what I created. Hope you all have a great day!

Bad Girls May Reveal..

2009-05-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

Last night I was up way too late partying over at Bad Girls Kits. The last day of every month we have our big reveal party and it's so fun except for the fact it's scheduled for west coasters which means late nights for me on the east.

This month's kit is so beautiful. Lots of 7 Gypsies yummies, Prima, and Hambly. Can it get much better than that?

Here are the layouts I made using these products. Thanks for looking! -- Suzanne

A sweet layout of my two girls the day we came home from the hospital with Perry. Big sister meeting little sister. It was a great moment.

I laugh whenever I see these pictures. A few weeks ago I had Deb and Denise over for lunch and scrapbooking. Well, we were obviously having too much fun because I wasn't paying attention to Perry. We turned around to find her standing on a step stool with both hands submerged in the bowl of ganache on the kitchen counter! We all ran for our cameras to get pictures. Just.. too.. funny.

I used a Hambly overlay and put a piece of 7 Gypsies paper behind the center. Prima chipboard alphas, and I have a strange love for this gaffer tape (also 7 Gypsies). I wanted it to look almost banner like so I made it wavy.

I usually don't go so crazy on the layering, but I couldn't help myself with this one.

I think this is my favorite of the bunch. Every month, Wendy -- the owner of Bad Girls Kits, gives us a challenge and we have to create a layout based on her specifications. This month, we were asked to create a layout using at *least* 3 photos, no bigger than 2" in either height or width (whichever is greater). I love using small photos because you can get a lot of pictures in without overwhelming the page.

Here, I used pictures of little Perry playing and eating ice. We had a heatwave come through New York last weekend and earlier this week. It was all I could do to keep her cool because we don't have air conditioning in the house and it was hot hot HOT!

I love the way the colors pop on the black background. A pop of blue in the pom pom fringe that was in April's kit, and a lovely red velvet leaf from Prima. 7 Gypsies paper and ephemera.

It's REVEAL NIGHT!

2009-04-30T09:59:00.000-07:00

Have you heard? Only 1 1/2 days left until National Scrapbook Day! (pay no attention to the messed up countdown timer to the left.. something's wrong with it)

If you haven't made plans, but know you'd like to spend the day scrapbooking away, be sure to come by Bad Girls Kits for 12 amazing hours of classes and challenges hosted by us, the Design Team! There's absolutely no cost and no requirement to be a subscriber. So come by! The projects and classes will knock your socks off.

Also, tonight is REVEAL night of the May kit over at Bad Girls. We have a lot of fun hyping everyone up by showing special sneak peeks of what the design team girls have done with it. We'd love to have you stop by. We'll be meeting in the VIP Lounge on the message board so say hello!

Numbered Nomads... ... Bad Girls Teaser!

2009-04-28T08:39:00.001-07:00

We're experiencing a heat wave in New York right now and it really bites because we don't have air conditioning in this house... and there are no freaking screens on the windows! Don't you worry.. I've already put a call into the builder to get right on that!

I absolutely love my scrapbook room because it has this huge window that lets in so much natural light. The only downside is you can't open it. So my scrap area is about 1,000 degrees at the moment. So imagine me hauling all of my stuff downstairs to get my May assignment done for Bad Girls. It's done. I am totally loving the papers and embellies that came in the kit. I know you'll love them too!!!!!!

If you can't tell by the title of this entry... the May kit has the absolutely GORGEOUS papers from 7 Gypsies. They were so fun to work with and I still have quite a bit left for my P52 Project that I'm scheduled to have up on the blog the end of May. So be sure to check that out... it's going to blow your mind. (I'm hoping it will blow your mind. lol)

If you haven't been able to get your hands on this paper line, be sure to check out Bad Girls Kits and order some before they run out! It's going to go fast!

The countdown

2009-04-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

Did you notice the countdown clock to the left? Only 9 days until National Scrapbooking Day! Do you have plans?? If you don't, let me tell you about the day we have planned over at Bad Girls Kits! Beginning at 9:00 a.m. PST (that's noon for us east coasters) and running every hour until 9:00 p.m. PST, there will be challenges and classes given by us, the Design Team. Lots of giveaways and surprises so be sure to stop by and join in the fun! I'm in charge of the 2:00pm challenge so if you want to come by and say hello, I'd love to see you!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I was at a scrapbooking crop this weekend with my friend, Deb. Good times. I'm not normally a cropper because I feel like I have to take my ENTIRE scrapbooking room. I hate when I get somewhere and realize I don't have what I need. But this time, I actually did pretty good! I even took my sewing machine and set it up next to my work area. It took some people by surprise that you would actually sew on a layout. Is it sad that I stitch on a lot of my pages? lol

I wanted to share my most favorite page from that crop.

Last week, I took my oldest daughter, Paige down the road to get some pictures. There's an old farm church that I knew would make an awesome backdrop for a photo shoot but I had to wait until it was nice enough to get over there without freezing out patooties off. I still need to get Perry over there for some pictures. She was napping with daddy when we went and I was too impatient to wait for her. Anyway.. here are some of the pictures I got of Paige. Hard to believe she's only 7 years old!

*Here's the layout I made using these photos*

I love how this page turned out. The background paper is by Making Memories. I used a die cut from Lily Bee in the center, some SEI lacy die cut paper, ribbons by May Arts, buttons by KI, Heidi Swapp butterflies covered with brown polka dot paper from EK Success Overton House, and Basic Grey chipboard alphas and rub-ons. The viney type ribbon was so white I was afraid it would disappear against the light papers, so I lightly rubbed them with some brown colorbok chalk ink.

Thanks so much for stopping by this fine day! It's rainy here so I think I'll make this a "finish-the-laundry" and scrapbook day. Fun stuff! I'll see you later. :)

The mother of all updates...

2009-04-20T07:02:00.001-07:00

SPRING BREAK IS OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I say I'm a little relieved? I can finally get back to some kind of normal schedule!

Oh.. hello there. I'm Suzanne.. and you are?

Oh that's right. You know me already. I've been gone though.

Have you missed me?

(just a little bit?)

So.. what have I been up to since I last updated? Well... first, I want to put the sad news past me. If you've been following my DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigation series, I'm going to stop doing it for now. It's not going bye-bye for forever, but I think at this time there are just too many blogs out there doing challenges. DSI didn't take off like I thought it would, but I'm okay with that! Hopefully before the year is up, we will return to the DSI series and it will be hot hot HOT. :)

Okay... so.. now that I've got that off my chest, let's get on to the good stuff.

Spring Break. It was crazy busy for me. In the past 2 weeks I have:

Had my gal pals, Deb and Denise, over for scrapbooking and lunch. I made lettuce wraps, crab rangoon, and for dessert..... strawberry wontons. They were amazing. The recipes can be found on my food blog.
I had a couple meetings.. blah blah boring stuff.
I've taken the girls to the park.
I took the girls to the Mid-Hudson Children's Museum (had a BLAST!)
Went to the movies to see Monsters vs. Aliens (I spent half the time in the hallway with Perry because all she wanted to do was fuss and cry).
Made a yummy lunch, packed it all up, and stole Jim away from work for a picnic. I made roasted veggie pasta salad, a warm potato salad w/ a bacon shallot vinaigrette, fresh strawberries, baguette, and peanut butter cup brownies with ganache.
Got the oil changed, vacuumed the car, and washed the car.
Went to Six Flags, had a hotel, spent lots of cash, ate greasy, fatty amusement park food, rode lots of rides, got sunburned, had FUN!!!!!!
Went to an all day crop (This was my fun. The girls stayed home with Jim).

I swear there was more that we did. Ah well.. I forget. So what did you do on your Spring Break? Anything exciting?

These pictures were taken at Six Flags. Paige was so shy about going up to the characters but she did it because she wanted to show off the cape she won.

She was thrilled to get these pictures...

This page is missing something but it's of our picnic with Jim last week. It was a gorgeous (but cool) day. We sat and looked out on the water while we enjoyed our food. It was so delicious!

I love this layout! So many fun snapshots of our day at the Children's Museum. The girls had a blast and didn't want to leave.

Poor Perry couldn't go on very many rides because she is still a little too small. I got this picture of her looking through the fence while Paige rode the Teacups. She can't wait to be big enough for the rides.

This was a layout I started when Deb and Denise were at my house to scrapbook. I didn't finish it until Saturday at the crop. Love the colors in this. Papers by EK Success Overton House (it's been in my stash for awhile), October Afternoon, and the gorgeous floral/birdie paper is by Autumn Leaves. Photo is of Perry almost a year ago wearing pig tails for the first time. Cracks me up!

Thanks so much for looking! I have a lot more layouts to share so be sure to stop back in this week for a peek! :)

--Suzanne

DSI: Caroline Ikeji

2009-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

Good Friday morning and welcome to Divine Scrapbooking's DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigation! If you're unfamiliar with this series, follow the links to the left. I explain more in the past DSI cases we've had, and if you click on the DSI blinkie, that takes you directly to my very first explanation. :) The more, the merrier!

This week's DSI suspect is the ever fabulous, Caroline Ikeji. Caroline is so popular wherever she goes! She is not only a Garden Girl over at Two Peas in a Bucket, but she also designs for KI Memories and Prima. Caroline was a runner up in Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest in 2007, and won Memory Makers Master that same year. She is very inspiring!

If you're not familiar with Caroline's work, she is both a paper scrapper and a digital/hybrid scrapper. So versatile!

For today's analysis, I chose one of Caroline's digital layouts. I love the bold contrast against the black and all the fun pictures! Let's analyze this further.....

ELEMENT #1:

Caroline us a black base on her layout. Black makes color pop like nothing else but the key is to use bolder papers against the black. Muted colors will blend in too much.

In this layout, Caroline used yummy aqua, red, and yellow. See what I mean about it jumping off the page?

ELEMENT #2:

Caroline cleverly put her journaling in strips that coordinate with the overall color theme on the layout. Here she put the strips of journaling above and below the photos.

ELEMENT #3&4:

The focal point of any layout is the pictures. Do you ever have so many from an event that you're afraid you'll have nothing but photos on your layout? This is a great solution to that problem!

Caroline trimmed down the photos into blocks and was able to put many on the page without overdoing it.

For element 4, Caroline cut patterned paper blocks, the same size as the photos, and placed them strategically on the page to break up the photos. This draws your focus directly to the pictures. Notice how she repeats the color theme on the page. Aqua, yellow, and red.

So my little investigators! These are the elements to work with this week:

Use a black base.
Use journaling strips.
Use multiple photos cut into small blocks.
Use patterned paper by cutting them into the same size as the photos and remember to use colors that POP and use the "everything in 3rds" rule.

Here is the page I created based on those elements:

Notice I used black as the backdrop. I put my journaling on strips. I used multiple photos all cut to the same size (2" blocks). I used bold colors and cut the paper to the same size as the photos.

Notice how I use the colors of a stop light. Red, yellow, and green to match the theme of the page. "Ready? Set! Play!"

So now that you have your inspiration, I can't wait to see what you do with it! Layouts need to be in my inbox by next Thursday (4/9) and the person who has best interpreted these elements on their own page will win a yummy little goodie bag!!!

Beautiful sunshiney morn...

2009-04-02T06:48:00.001-07:00

After our gloomy, drizzly day yesterday, the sun has decided to pop out and say hello. I think I might have to go out and enjoy it for awhile. Maybe take Perry on a walk?

Last night I was able to spend some time in my scrapbook room after the girls went to bed. This photo of Perry, that I took last week, has been sitting on my printer for a few days... I've been mulling over what to do with it.

Well, I took a cue from the shirt she's wearing in the picture -- to do a kind of billowy outline using the colors on it. Reds, pinks, turquoise... bright and fun!

I crumpled a cloud shaped vellum and adhered it to the page, then cut out a smaller cloud shape form out of Prima paper using my fancy fancy scalloped deco scissors. I love those things and use them on almost every layout.

Other products used on this page: Bazzill trims, Heidi Swapp rub-on (wings) and chipboard (blue alphas), American Craft Thickers (pink glittery letters) and rub-ons ("nobody's perfect"), Technique Tuesday (white chipboard shapes), Hambly butterfly overlay that I cut out and stitched down, and adorned it all with some Creative Inspirations jewels.

Tomorrow is the 4th installation of DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigation. Stop by and see who our next "suspect" is! :D :D

Happy April!

2009-04-01T10:02:00.001-07:00

Happy April Fools! I can't believe how fast this year is going by. Soon we'll be celebrating summer and then school will be starting and then it will be Christmas! ACK!

Last night we had an amazingly fun time over at Bad Girls Kits for the VIP Reveal party. I love these! We as design team members tease the girls with one of our creations using the new kit, and there are contests AND giveaways! Gotta love that!

I am seriously in love with the papers in this month's kit. It's called Butterfly Kisses and is a compilation of Sassafras Lass, some Hambly, American Crafts, and of course, Prima!

Here are the layouts I created. :)

I love this picture of Perry and thought it would be the perfect photo to go along with her birth story -- something I haven't journaled until now.

Wendy gave us a vintage ad challenge. We were to take the ad and interpret it onto our own page. I used this photo of my grandmother to give the page a vintage feel. The journaling talks about how my grandfather kept this in his pocket while serving overseas during WWII and how when he looked on it, it gave him the strength to return home to her alive... and she waited for him because she loved him.

This layout is my favorite of the bunch. We had a gorgeous Spring day last week and Perry and I spent about 2 hours playing on our back deck. The journaling talks about how she loved the wind in her hair. The top photo inspired me to tear apart a Prima rose and lay them in a scattered fashion to make it look like Perry had thrown them into the air and let them fly on the breeze.

If you'd like to play around with these papers, maybe you should check out the Butterfly Kisses kit over at Bad Girls? Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Spring is in the air!

2009-03-31T09:05:00.001-07:00

It's finally beginning to feel like Spring here in the Hudson Valley. Sadly, the girls and I have all been sick with this crud that's been going around. I think I've been sick more times in the past 4 months, than I have been in the past 4 years!!! I can't stand it!

Saturday, I took the girls to check out a local park and play on the playground. We had such a great time just being out in the sun (soaking in all that Vitamin D!!), walking around, and getting some fresh air into our sick little lungs. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from the day.

Perry has never been on a swing before. She almost face planted once, but I caught her. Scared me to death! I'm sure one day she'll be an old pro at it like her big sister. Love that shot of Paige... the motion of it makes you want to get on a swing and go for it!

I think we'll be spending a lot of time at that park next week because it's SPRING BREAK! Wahoo!!! I actually do have a lot of activities planned for the girls and I during that time. We were originally supposed to fly to Seattle to visit my family, but Paige's break time was cut by almost HALF because we used up so many snow days. So we're just going to have a "stay-cation". Trips to the park, zoo, movie, children's museum, and maybe a lunch date with Deb. (Deb, you want to do lunch? LOL)

This is a little Spring Break journal/scrapbook I started on for Paige. I've only got the cover done because we can't do the pages until we have pictures. And we can't get pictures until break has actually started. I love how this turned out. I had some really really thick, stiff cardstock I bought at The Paper Source when I was in Boston teaching CKU a couple years ago. It's been in my stash this whole time. It's perfect for the front and back cover because it won't bend. I stitched on some Basic Grey, KI, Paper Salon, and Pink Paislee papers. Dressed up a chipboard tree from Maya Road. Made vellum clouds and used a loopy stitch on my new sewing machine to tack them to the page. I even used a fancy leaf stitch for the flowers at the bottom. Pink puff balls finish off those cute little things.

I can't wait for Spring Break and to finish up this book. What are your plans?

Thanks for stopping by! Remember this FRIDAY is our FOURTH installment for DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigation. I've got something really fun planned so don't miss it!!!!

Bad Girls Kits {April Sneak Peek}!!!!

2009-03-28T11:33:00.000-07:00

This has been a busy weekend so far. I got straight up and got ready... took the girls to the park to play for a little bit, went to lunch, and then hit the grocery store to make carrot cake balls (recipe will be posted here in a day or two).

Anyway.... I wanted to post some sneak peeks of the April kit over at Bad Girls. Reveal night is this coming Tuesday at 9pm Pacific Time (that's midnight for us girls on the east coast). Lots of fun things happen at our reveal parties so be sure to come and be part of the action!

To get you excited, here's a peek at what I created with the kit. Mmmm... loved this kit so much!!!

DSI #3 WINNER!!!!

2009-03-27T11:03:00.001-07:00

This past DSI case was a fun one! It's so interesting to see how people interpret the various elements and put them to use on their pages.

This week, I chose Natalie's layout "From There to Here". I love how she made her title and photo placement. Congratulations Natalie!!!!

Here are the other entries for this week's challenge: Thank you ladies for great pages!

GLEE:

MICA:

NIKKI:

Reflection...

2009-03-26T07:21:00.001-07:00

I have been sick as a dog for days now. Not the flu or anything, but this bronchial infection that makes my lungs hurt and my throat is sore from the incessant cough.

Perry has been sick too but with a head cold vs. my chest cold. Poor little baby and now that they've (the STUPID FDA) virtually made it impossible to give them anything, she's trudging long. I know this is gross, but her hair is so long with no bangs, it would get stuck in the snot. YUCK. Well, yesterday I decided enough is enough and took some scissors to her hair and gave her bangs. My baby has bangs!!!!!!!!

But doesn't she look so cute? The shirt she's wearing reads: "99% Angel. Nobody can be perfect all the time." So appropriate.

Seeing her so big reminded me of when she was just a little tiny baby. So fresh and new. I had a small stack of photos printed out for my Bad Girls assignments but wound up using this large print for my own layout.

I'm really into these little paper wads. I wanted to use them to reflect dream clouds. Perfect. I also wanted to keep this layout as light and airy as possible so I used basic light pink Bazzill, some vellum, SEI petticoat, Anna Griffin and of course Pink Paislee for the blueish-green paper wads. Threw on some Kaiser Craft pearls, and even stamped flourishes and adorned them with glitter. Heidi Swapp journal spot and jewel crown in the top left corner, and American Crafts and Making Memories made the title.

She doesn't even look like the same little girl to me. *sigh* Thanks for looking!

Remember your layouts for DSI #3 are due by midnight tonight if you want a chance at winning a goodie bag. Check back tomorrow to see all of the layouts submitted this week.

Suzanne

Oh dear...

2009-03-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

This is the state of my scrapbook area right now. This is just the TABLE! There's a bed on the other side of the room that has felt and ribbon and other scrap/craft projects waiting to be organized/made/put away. Crazy.

It's not entirely all my fault though. My oldest, Paige, comes in and scraps and gets into all of my stuff. I finally told her NO MORE the other day when I woke up to find her scrapbooking on top of one of my assignments and got ink all over it. I was so mad!!!!! She's old enough to know better.

Perry (16 months) comes in and pulls things down too if they're left close to the edge. She managed to dump a bunch of my clips and Paige's crayons so the floor is littered with those right now. I think today might be "let's clean the scrapbook room".

I wish I could show you what I've been creating though. Lots of awesome stuff in the April kit at Bad Girls Kits. Come join us for reveal night in the VIP Lounge on March 31st @ 9pm PST (that's midnight for us east coast gals). On reveal night we just chat it up and the design team shares one of their layouts to build anticipation and tease. :) (Yes.. I would tease.)

Despite the messy room, look what came yesterday! *scream!*

It's awesome!!!! I had to pull it from the box and test it out immediately.

And look what DH bought me last week. I've been using my crappity crap crap Dell printer for so long I had no idea ink jets could print pictures so nice. I'm seriously in love with this baby.

It's the HP Photosmart D7560. It is amazing. It's a very bad picture because it's so bright outside and dark inside but I was too excited to get a shot for you.

Anyway... that's all I've got right now. I really do think I'm going to go organize my space a little. I always feel more creative when things are clean. Have a great Tuesday!

Suzanne

DSI: Kimber McGray

2009-03-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

Good morning and welcome to DSI: Kimber McGray! Grab your lab coats and settle in as we uncover what makes Kimber's style so fantastic. In 2007 Kimber was named one of Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame winners and she has gone on to big, big things! In fact, Kimber has a new book that is due out very soon called Scrapbook Secrets: Shortcuts and Solutions Every Scrapbooker Needs to Know. You can pre-order it today!

The layout I chose to analyze today is Kimber's page called Disney Diva. I love the clean lines so much and her little daughter is the perfect photo subject. But before I gush too much, let's take a closer look at this layout and analyze the elements that make it so gush-worthy.

In this one picture, we will talk about three different things Kimber did.

ELEMENT #1:

She used paper with a decorative edging to it. She could have used straight lines but really, would it have been so interesting if she had? I don't think so!

ELEMENT #2:

Stitching. There's something about adding a real or fake stitch that gives a layout a finished look. It's almost like wearing something tailored that has a wonderful top-stitching to it. Very polished.

ELEMENT #3:

Repeat tones. On this page, Kimber has used pink, a teal-ish blue, black, and white to keep a cohesive color theme across the page. The colors repeat in the photo, title, paper, and accents.

ELEMENT #4:

Here Kimber has used her own handwriting to journal. Preserving our penmanship is just as important as photos. Do you not have nice handwriting? Don't be ashamed of it. Your children, and their children, and then their children will cherish those handwritten words.

ELEMENT #5:

Kimber's title uses different fonts and types to make it pop. Here she used a glittery blue (remember repetative theme?) and black which make it visually appealing.

She also put her title on a decorative tag to anchor it to the page.

So. The five items that we learn from this case? Decorative edging, stitching, repeat colors, handwritten journaling, and a variety of fonts for the title pull this page into a show-stopper.

I used these elements to create my own page.

I used a Bazzill trim (yellow) to give a decorative edge.
I stitched the vellum onto the paper. I would have loved to use more stitching, but remember my sewing maching mishap? (where is that new machine I ordered!?!?!)
The colors I use repeat: Green background, the green in Paige's shirt, the green tab to the right, and the green glittery shamrock. Yellow border, yellow font, and there's a little yellow in the Basic Grey paper I used. Orange paper, and orange in the tag that sits under the title. And of course Black -- used in the cardstock under the photo, the black rub-on that accentuates the tab to the right, and black font.
I used my own handwriting to journal around the perimeter of the page.
And finally, I used two different fonts for the title.

Now that you've uncovered the clues, it's time for you to put it to work. You have until next Friday (3/27) to get your pages to me. Please email them to divinescrapbooking@gmail.com. I've got a special goodie bag waiting for the person who can best use the elements on her own page.

Good luck and remember: The clues to amazing scrapbook pages are all around us. We just need to open our eyes and recognize them!

It's Sketchy!

2009-03-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

Every 2 weeks one of the design team ladies at Bad Girls creates a sketch and others can play along. This week, Kara Haupt (who designs for Hambly, as well) put together a fun, simple, full of white space sketch. I couldn't help but play along.

Here is Kara's sketch:

Here's my take on the sketch:

I backed the photo with vellum that I used my little deco scissors on. A sweet little Heidi Swapp photo corner. And then I used strips of paper from my stash -- some Making Memories, Basic Grey, and Overton House. Hambly rub-ons, some Martha Stewart confetti that I folded in half and anchored down, Thickers by American Crafts, a Heidi Swap chip heart, and some little metal ball type things that I found in the $1 spot at Michael's. So simple. So sweet.

Thanks for looking and be sure to check out Bad Girls in the future for more sketchy goodness!

Stair climbing

2009-03-18T07:02:00.001-07:00

I haven't scrapped since my sewing machine tragedy.

Why? Because everytime I sit down to scrap, I want to stitch. It's leaving me uninspired and at a stand still.

But I want to scrap. So last night I created a layout that required no machine stitching at all and you know what? It still came out pretty darn cute.

I have noticed that I have tons of layouts about Paige, but not many of Perry. Sure she's still just a baby, but I want to make sure I don't neglect her because I know I won't hear the end of it when, as grown women, they cry to me about how Paige has 20,000 albums devoted to her life, and Perry has only 100. Doesn't seem fair, right?

I also noticed that I don't have near as many pictures of Perry as I do of Paige, so I have been taking snapshots left and right so I have plenty of pictures to work with.

These photos mark a milestone, in my opinion. For weeks (maybe even months) I've been trying to teach Perry how to climb the stairs but all she would do is lock up her little body and cry and cry. I even got down on my own hands and knees and would show her how it's done. Then I would try moving her little legs and hands so she would know what they're supposed to do. Again... she would just cry and cry. So I gave up. Figured she'd learn how to do it when she got older. Well, one day Jim and Paige were upstairs and next thing I know, Paige is screaming at me because Perry's halfway up the stairs! BIG GIRL!!!!!!! Now I can't keep her off of them. :|

After I was done scrapbooking.... I bought this.

Hey, I told Jim I'd keep it under $200 and I did! I found it at Walmart.com. I should have it by next week! WOOT!!!!! I'm suddenly feeling inspired!!!! :D :D :D :D

So for now my friends, I leave you with a few other images of the layout above. Have a great Hump Day! Remember! Friday is DSI #3!!!!!!!!! So be sure to stop by and check out the next challenge!

Suzanne

Yep... I'm lucky

2009-03-17T06:32:00.001-07:00

My daughters were both awake before 7:00. :|

Not how I wanted to start my St. Patrick's Day. LOL.. but the hubs had just come home from work and was able to keep an eye on them so I could sleep a few more minutes.

Yesterday, Paige kept hounding me about making cookies for her class today. She wanted sugar cookies until she remembered she doesn't like my sugar cookies (what?!?). I was out of eggs too so we had to run to the store. I thought about taking the easy way out and buy something at the bakery, but it was slim pickin's so I had to go back to plan A. Chocolate chip cookies w/ green, orange, and white M&Ms. Yummy.

The tags were made by cutting out shamrocks, strips of white paper, and the lettering punched using a 2" circle punch. The ones for her classmates say LUCKY to have you as a friend. Paige wanted to give her teacher and bus driver cookies as well so I changed the wording for them. She's such a thoughtful girl. I am very lucky.

We have no real plans today because Jim will be at work. I'm making Irish Stew and bread so I'm looking forward to that. I hope you all have a great day!! I'm off to scrapbook a little. Speaking of scrapbooking... lookie what I got in the mail yesterday!!!

Oops.. not Perry. My little Irish princess eating her breakfast. I love her wild hair. LOL

This is what I meant!

It's my April kit for Bad Girls Kits!!!! Some AWESOME stuff in that box ladies. I hope you will join us for reveal night. I'll get you the date and time as soon as I know it!

DSI #2 WINNER!

2009-03-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

I would like to thank the ladies who have created some great layouts for this DSI challenge. It's very cool to see how they pushed themselves into a scrapbooking area they aren't horribly comfortable with.

If you would like to be part of DSI, come aboard! We are welcome to have you. You can read more about it HERE and if you'd like to catch up on the two cases we've already solved, the links are in the menu to the left. DSI Case #3 will be posted NEXT FRIDAY (3/20) so make sure you stop by and see who our next "suspect" is!

The winner for this week's DSI case is LEE!!! I was really impressed with how she worked the elements on her layout. Take a look! Congratulations Lee!!!

I was equally impressed with the other layouts. Here they are!

GLEE (image 1):

GLEE (image 2):

NATALIE:

PENNY:

WENDY:

smoke and sparks

2009-03-12T06:18:00.000-07:00

As I type this, the baby (who is slowly turning into a not-so-baby) is climbing into her sister's old rocking chair, wearing a purple boa. She loves those things. It's going to be a good day despite the fact she was up before 7:30am.

The hubs is snoozing away upstairs, but it's his day off so we'll actually be able to spend some time together! How exciting. lol I wish I would have gotten a baby sitter so we could go out.. but I want him to spend time with the girls too.

Last night while he was at work, I was able to get a little scrapping done. I have so many pictures that I took all last year when I was still in "scrapbook haitus". The ones I worked with last night were taken 1 month after Perry was born (Dec 07)-- ones I used for our Christmas cards. Both Paige and Perry have grown so much in that short time. Anyway.. on one of the layouts, I used my sewing machine to stitch. To tell you a bit about my piece of garbage machine.. it's an old Singer I bought when we were living in Hawaii (about 12 yrs ago). The thing cost maybe $100 so it's not one of these fancy buggers. The past year or so, the pedal would go out on me. Jim, being Mr. electrical fix-it-all man took it apart and got it working again for me.

Well... as I was sewing last night, it cut out and I look down to see SPARKS AND SMOKE coming from it!!!!!!!!! I quickly unplugged the pedal and threw it to the corner of the room. Wow. I could have lost a foot! (overly dramatic?)

I had to finish the rest of the layout by turning the foot by hand. Not a fun task. I love how the page turned out.

My first creation was this one -- NEW.

I even cranked out a second page! I love how the two totally unrelated papers work so well together. Cosmo Cricket and Jenni Bowlin. Go figure! And of course, it wouldn't be complete without some vellum thrown on there.

Have a great day everyone! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Suzanne

PS: IF you are following DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigation, your layouts are needed!!!! If you aren't following, maybe you should? Check out what DSI is. I'll be posting the winner of this week's giveaway in the morning. So get on it! :D

Email to divinescrapbooking@gmail.com

DSI #2 Reminder

2009-03-11T05:47:00.001-07:00

Just a reminder to get your layouts to me if you want to be entered in the giveaway! I need them by midnight TOMORROW!

Thanks guys! Have a great day. :)

Two ships...

2009-03-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

My husband is working nights for the next 5 weeks. 7pm to 7am, 6 days a week. I'm trying to make the most of it though because really.. it could be a lot worse. I told him the other day I'll just pretend he's out to sea again. Just like the good ol Navy days! Two ships passing in the night...

I'm taking advantage of this by doing things I rarely get to do... like scrapbooking at night. I usually putz around my scrapbook room in the afternoon while I wait for my oldest daughter to get home from school because I have this huge window that looks out onto the street and I can see the bus pull up, and the bus driver can see me. (They won't let her off the bus unless they know someone is home.)

Anyway.... this page is one I worked on into the wee hours of the morning. I just couldn't get my mojo on and kept pushing paper and pictures around until I felt good with the composition. Have you ever done that? So frustrating.

This layout is all about Miss Perry and her destructible/busy body tendencies at 15 months old. The journaling on the right reads: Busy body destroyer of order, always trying to climb the stairs knowing not how to get back down. Shoe strewing feign attempting to play in the toilet. All this before lunchtime.... But she still has time to stop by for bites of yogurt, snuggles, and kisses for mommy.

I am such a big fan of vellum and hope it never goes away. I put a sheet of it in the center that was trimmed at the top and bottom using scalloped deco scissors, then it was stitched onto the page. Lots of rub-ons: Basic Grey, 7 Gypsies (the big B), American Crafts, the awesome Hambly. I used half of a frame by the journaling, and cut another frame down at the bottom. I put half above the yellow bow, and the other half below the journaling spot to make it elongated. I'm loving these Bazzill chips. I just got the paisleys on Friday. Covered them with some Carolee's Creation paper. Stitched down SEI petticoat (the white lacy stuff) and tore apart a Prima rose and used a few of the petals. I got that idea from the ever fabulous Kara Haupt when she did this on one of her Bad Girls layouts this month.

So this is it.... my Busy Body. Have a great day everyone!

Suzanne

DSI: Celine Navarro

2009-03-06T04:43:00.000-08:00

BONJOUR and welcome to DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigation, case 2! I am so thrilled to announce our 2nd "suspect", Celine Navarro. Celine lives in France and is such a rockstar when it comes to scrapbooking. Her style, her flare..... is just breathtaking.

If you're not familiar with Celine, she is one BUSY lady. She travels all over the globe teaching and when she's not jetting around, she designs for Hambly, American Crafts, Pink Paislee, and Kesi' Art. She was also a Fashionista at Scrap in Style, but has recently resigned her position there. Who can blame her? She's busy!

The layout I chose for this case was Celine's "Mes 2 Petits Anges" -- My 2 Little Angels. I have picked five different elements that she used on this page to make it so amazing.

ELEMENT #1:

In contrast to the bold colors on this layout, Celine used a single, black and white photo. Removing the color from the photo keeps it from competing with the other colors in the paper. Truly stunning.

ELEMENT #2:

Group of 5. Celine has orange in five places. Can you find them all?

The strip of paper at the top, the number "2" in the title, the orange leaves on the bottom right, the patterned orange paper behind the photo, and the strip of orange fringed paper.

It's very cool that despite using so much orange, it doesn't really seem overpowering, does it?

ELEMENT #3:

This one is actually a two-fer. The first... just because it's a scrapbook page, doesn't mean it has to be flat flat flat on the page. Here Celine uses butterflies, and folds them in half to give added dimension to her layout.

The second... the butterflies come in threes. Butterfly on the bottom right, on the flower to the side of the photo, and a butterfly on the top right.

ELEMENT #4:

I love how Celine put the title on the side. It gives this page interest because it leads the eye up and down vs. side to side. She broke up the title by using a number and different font and color.

ELEMENT #5:

And finally, Celine used a bold, dark patterned paper as the base of her layout instead of using plain cardstock. The pattern is large compared to the small pattern of the orange paper at the bottom of the page.

To tie the blue with the orange focus, she put a little blue in the leaves of the flower.

So tell me... how does this page inspire you? Remember. The purpose of this is to not use the sample layout as a scraplift, but to use the focus elements in your own way. Don't be afraid to push yourself out of your comfort zone and be bold and artsy!

Like the first DSI case, I will be giving away another goodie bag to the person who best uses these elements on their own layout. Please make sure you email them to me by next Thursday (3/12) and I will announce the winner on Friday the 13th! ooooooo.. :D

Have a great weekend everyone and remember: The clues ot amazing scrapbook pages are all around us. We just need to open our eyes and recognize them!

DSI Reminder

2009-03-04T08:24:00.001-08:00

Just a little reminder that our 2nd DSI case will be posted THIS FRIDAY! You won't want to miss it! I'll give you one clue as to who our next "suspect" is. She's from France. :)

Think Green

2009-03-03T05:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I didn't have internet most of the day so I wasn't able to post then, but I am now. Over at the Bad Girls Project 52 blog, I have my very first project showcased. I share a bit about recycling and thinking green when it comes to scrapbooking. The photo above is just a little teaser of what I made so make sure you pop on over and check it out.

Suzanne

DSI Winner!

2009-02-27T05:47:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to WENDY, the first winner of DSI: Scrapbooking! Above is her layout inspired by Jessica Sprague's PROOF layout. Awesome job, Wendy!

I didn't receive a lot of entries, but that's okay. I expect it will take awhile before this really catches on. Thank you to the ladies who did participate.

Make sure you stop in next Friday for our 2nd DSI case. I've got a total rockstar coming on to give us great ideas and helps for awesome layouts! You won't want to miss it.

Here are the layouts I did receive. Great job ladies!

NATALIE:

KRISTIN:

LEE:

Emergency Enabler Alert

2009-02-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

I know I've already posted today, but I had to come back and let you all know Heidi Swapp is having a killer sale on her site. You might want to check it out!

Blue Book

2009-02-26T06:57:00.000-08:00

I am a planner. I am a list person. I have to have special tools to help keep me organized. My cell phone, is more of a smart phone, but for as smart as it is, I don't use it for everything it could possibly do because it takes me longer to plug everything in there. I guess I'm an old fashioned gal.

I've been working on my blue book for awhile now. I didn't want to call it my little black book because it sounds so naughty. And since blue is my fav color right now, I thought that's what I'd call it. Little bluey. Blu? Hm.. I'm sure I'll get it all worked out. Anyway...here's the blue book. :)

I used a 7 Gypsies album I've had floating around for the shell. Most of the products used are from Making Memories because I had massive amounts in my stash. The glittery flower is We R Memory Keepers and I used a little vellum. I love vellum!

I love bling too. Here I stuck a rhinestone on a 7 gypsies tab, that's attached to that strip of vellum.

The front inside cover. All MM except for the Basic Grey rubons and Heidi Swapp Journaling Spot. I cut a page in half using a scallop pattern and attached little calendar months. 6 months are on the front, 6 are on the back.

I thought the ghost clocks by Heidi Swapp were perfect for this cover page for appointments. I tacked them down using a stapler and on the bottom right used part of a journaling spot then stamped on it using a K&CO stamp. Lots of sanding on the chipboard pieces. Rub-ons are from Heidi Swapp.

This is my favorite page of the whole book. It's a pouch pocket to slip business cards in. Those felt alpha stickers from Making Memories are pretty hard to put down but I love the font and look. Business would have taken up too many letters and would have never fit on the page, so I just put "biz". If you notice on the side, I used the small tab letters by Making Memories to write it all out.

A Heidi Swapp journaling spot arrow points north to tell me where to put the business cards. It's held down with a 7 Gypsies photo turn. October Afternoon paper covers this page.

The cover page for phone numbers has some Pink Paislee paper and I don't know who makes that bottom black and white. Making Memories passport stickers run up the side and a thin strip of vellum goes up the center of the MM chipboard shape.

Did you know, you can use the packaging for added interest? The MM alpha stickers come with these awesome cardboard backings that I trimmed and punched to fit through the album rings. I thought they were awesome and clerical for this book.

The green polka dot that's in this picture, I just traced a floral shape paper (some old MOD I had in my stash), and cut out. I'm going to tack pictures of my girls on there. The blue and white check (October Afternoon paper) was the top of a MM Noteworthy chipboard alpha cardboard backing that got trimmed off of the clerical. I just covered it with paper and punched. Again.. another place for me to put photos should I want.

Basic Grey and Heidi Swapp rub-ons were used here on this last page for receipts. Another pouch pocket and I used the BG rub-on arrows/pointer to show me where to put them.

Hey it's Wednesday!

2009-02-25T06:18:00.001-08:00

If this entry is incoherent, it's because I've been up since 4:21 a.m.. Perry started crying and there's mounds of crap on top of the guest bed so I had to bring her downstairs. I put a little warmed milk in her sippy and snuggled down with her on the couch. Jim has to be up and out by 5:20 so once he left, I put Perry back in her crib and crawled into my bed. But did I sleep? Oh no. I finished off another one of my Shopaholic books. The 3rd I've read in about a week and half. They are so good!

I guess today will be a consist of fully loaded caffiene drinks and a nap when the baby goes down at noon. If I don't, I'll be a mess.

Anyway.. down to scrap business. For those of you following the DSI series, if you've made a layout inspired by our first case, please make sure you email it to me at divinescrapbooking@gmail.com! Don't forget they need to be in by Midnight tomorrow because I'll announce the winner of the RAK on Friday.

I received my first design team package from Bad Girls last Thursday and have been busy creating goodies. I've gotten the okay to share a little teaser with you. Some really delicious stuff in this kit, ladies. If you haven't checked out Bad Girls, I really suggest you do! Well I'm off to go grab an energy drink. Happy scrapping everyone! I'm making gumbo tonight for a post Mardi Gras dinner. Be sure to check out my cooking blog if you want the recipe. Ciao!

DSI: Jessica Sprague

2009-02-19T18:22:00.001-08:00

Welcome everyone to the very first installation of DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigation!!! The purpose of this series is to teach you how to become a better scrapbooker. How will we do this? By analyzing what "in-the-know" scrapbookers do and put them on our own pages.

I encourage you to use the sample layout as inspiration. It's easy to take a pre-designed sketch or layout and copy it verbatim, but this time I want you to think and experiment and be inspired by the elements. Use them in your own way.

Hopefully by the end of this series, you will recognize a change in your own scrapbooking style. A change for the better! So grab your magnifying glasses and lab coats, my friends and let's start our first case.

I'd like to introduce our first suspect: the ever amazing, Jessica Sprague. Jessica was inducted into Creating Keepsakes' Hall of Fame in 2006 and won Memory Makers Masters the same year! What an accomplishment. Since then, she has moved on to become a contributing editor for CK, and is known throughout the digital scrapbooking world as one of it's pioneers.

I chose Jessica's "PROOF" layout for our case because it has such strong lines and colors. It's very eye-catching and pleasing to look at. It's also pretty rocking on the diagonal, don't you think?

So what about this design makes it so great? I've chosen four design elements to tell us.

ELEMENT #1:

Jessica set the photographs at a diagonal and continued that theme with the title. It extends off the top so your eyes begins first with the pictures and then straight on up. Very dramatic!

ELEMENT #2:

As you can see, Jessica's pictures are three hues. Pink, a golden color, and a bronze. She repeats these colors in the title and journaling.

It doesn't always have to be exact.

ELEMENT #3:

Now Jessica changes it all up and has text going in a counter direction. She uses the cross-diagonal text for part of her journaling.

ELEMENT #4:

In the final element, Jessica adds one element that keeps it true to the vertical/horizontal lines of the 12x12 and 8 1/2x11 papers. Here she uses just a simple strip of paper to balance it all together.

I am always so inspired by Jessica's work. Here is a layout I created using these four elements.

Using the exact same principles as Jessica's layout, notice how my layout's different, yet the same.

I set the title to extend off the top.
I used color in groups of threes like she did. There's the pink, black, and green. The pink from Perry's flower headband is repeated in the glittery flowers. The black background in the photos is repeated in the chipboard flourishes and rub-on lettering. And I threw in the green ribbon to create a balance and repeated it with green jewels placed randomly.
I set my journaling in a cross direction.
The Basic Grey paper and ribbon are placed horizontally to keep the page anchored.

Now for the fun part.

I challenge each of you to create a layout following these four steps. Email your pages to me by next Thursday (2/26) and I will pick one winner who will receive a bag of scrap goodies! The winner will be announced here at Divine Scrapbooking on Friday (2/27) and I will post not only the winning layout, but all of the entered pages! I can't wait to see what you create!

So for now, I bid you much scrapbooking happiness my DSI-ers! And remember: The clues to amazing scrapbook pages are all around us. We just need to open our eyes and recognize them!

Ciao!

Suzanne

don't forget!

2009-02-19T11:30:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow we begin our first DSI "case" and I am so excited about the first installation and the first scrapbooker we're investigating!! I will give a little teaser to get you excited, too!

This peek is my interpretation of the page we'll be examining so be sure to check back in tomorrow to view the full case file. :) (are you excited!?!?!?... )

I've been in my scrap room today working. It looks like a tornado hit.. ribbon, thread... buttons.. paper EVERYWHERE! I will need to get back in there later and clean up but I wanted to update my blog as soon as I could.

In addition to the page above, I also created this little number. These pictures of Perry crack me up! She was about 5 months old and Paige let her try on her sunglasses. Needless to say, I had to get some snapshots. Ignore the glare on the left... I can't seem to find a very good place to get pictures of my layouts.

MODsheets, American Crafts, Heidi Swapp, some metallic vinyl stuff, Art Warehouse, and Basic Grey.

Something to think about...

2009-02-17T06:54:00.001-08:00

I had such a great weekend.

Saturday was Valentine's Day and of course, that's the day Bad Girls made their design team announcement. I've been reeling over that for days.

Sunday was church, then after church I met up with my friend, Deb for dinner at Red Robin in Poughkeepsie. Who did we run into there? None other than HOWIE MANDEL! Ladies, I must tell you that he is just as good looking in person as he is on tv.

Yesterday, the family and I went shopping for a new bed. When we moved to New York, we stayed in a hotel for a month waiting for the house to be finished. This place had such a nice bed that when we finally got back to sleeping in our own, it was the worst experience ever! We also decided to move up to a king sized bed too. After spending way too much money on one, it will be delivered Saturday. WOO HOO!

Anyway.. I have been thinking about starting a weekly series here at Diving Scrapbooking titled "DSI: Divine Scrapbooking Investigations", where I pick a layout from an "in the know" scrapbooker and we analyze the different techniques they use in their pages and practice it on a layout of our own. We won't be scraplifting... just using the designer layout for inspiration! Sounds fun, doesn't it?

So here's how it will work: Every 1st and 3rd FRIDAY of the month, I will highlight a scrapbooker and one of their pages. I will also post my interpretation of that page. You will have a week to email me your interpretation! The following Friday, I will post all of the layouts submitted and choose one winner! That winner will receive a RAK from moi for being an investigator at DSI!

For anyone who would like, I have a little blinkie made up too that you are free to use on your own blog or signature at your various scrapbook haunts. Let's spread the word and learn at the feet of the masters.

Stay tuned to my blog this Friday for the first installation of DSI!

Here's the blinkie! Please make sure you save the image to your hard drive, then upload to your image account (ie. photobucket) and make sure you link it to this blog! Thanks so much for spreading the word!

BBCode for 2Peas: [url=http://divinescrapbooking.blogspot.com][image]http://url of the image.gif[/image][/url]

BBCode for Bad Girls: [url=http://divinescrapbooking.blogspot.com][img]http://url of the image.gif[/img][/url]

I can FINALLY spill!!!!

2009-02-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

I am one of the new Design Team members at Bad Girls kit club! I am so excited to be part of this amazing group of ladies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T08:33:00.001-08:00

I hope you are all being spoiled by your special Valentine. My husband let me sleep in this morning, which is always a nice treat. Then I got up and found little red cut out hearts all over the place. My 7 yr old, Paige did that. So cute.

I bought Jim a frame for his desk at work but didn't have a photo, so I quickly got the girls in their matchy matchy Valentine shirts and got some snaps in. Perry wasn't very cooperative, but give that girl a sucker and she'll sit for a minute. I remember this age being tough for photos when my oldest was that young. Ugh.

This is one of the poses I got out of the shoot. Love my little sweeties. They are such good girls.

It's a frigid 32 degrees outside right now so we had to make it quick. I really wanted the girls standing side by side holding hands, but Perry was shivering and cried everytime Paige put her down. So I did what I could with the situtation. Notice the slight pouty face on the baby? lol

I've also been busy working on cards. Letter writing has become a thing of the past I believe because texting and email have become so mainstream. It's sad really. Do you still write letters to your friends and loved ones? I absolutely love it. I even try to handwrite all of my Christmas cards in addition to tucking in a holiday newsletter. It makes those cards even more precious. When my sister, Wendy, passed away last year (she was only 28), I brought home one of her notebooks that had all of her doodles and writing in it. She wasn't a journal keeper and I know how much she hated her penmanship. She thought she wrote like a little kid. But those writings are so wonderful to look at.

Anyway... I am working on my stash of cards. That way I have them for whenever I might need them. Here's a closer look at a few of them. Thanks so much for looking and you know, if you're looking for something fancy to make for your loved one tonight. You should pop on over to my cooking blog Creating Post it Notes. We are doing a little cook-along tonight!

wow!

2009-02-13T17:02:00.001-08:00

WOW! I come to check 2Peas tonight and find my layout was picked as the Featured Layout! What a thrill to be picked out of all the layouts posted today. Thank you to 2Peas!!

I thought I'd take a minute to share a little bit about what I did on this page. The photo is of Perry when she was just a few days old. I love that sweet little picture. One night while lying in bed I got the idea of using loopy strips and wads of paper on a layout. I didn't intend on using it for such a "soft" subject, but I figured what the hay. I really really love how it turned out.

I used Jenni Bowlin stickers to write the journaling -- which in this case were just Perry's birth stats. I then took Basic Grey rub-ons (two circle patterns) and applied them around each JB sticker.

The word "special" are Making Memories Noteworthy chipboard letters and "delivery" was printed out backwards on some cardstock and then I had the fun task of using an exacto knife to cut it out.

Here's a close-up of the loops. Like I said, I just made very thin slices of paper, cut them in various lengths, then glued the ends together. Then I tacked them under the photo. To make the wads, a pretty simple technique. Just tear off little pieces of paper and crumple them in your fist. Trust me... after making about 10 of these, your hand will start cramping. lol I glued them down with strong scrappy glue. Scattered jewels add a sparkly touch. The "Handle with Care" rub-on is from Basic Grey.

I'm going to have a lot of fun with this paper wad idea. I've already got something cooking up in my brain that just needs to be put on paper. Come back and see what I've done! Thanks for stopping by. :)

no school today

2009-02-13T06:04:00.000-08:00

And my kids are already driving me crazy. Perry is crying and I can't find a binkie anywhere (which she really doesn't need) and Paige is asking if she can watch Jumanji. Remember that movie? I bought it about a month ago when my sister was here with her kids. They were so scared watching it! LOL Now it's one of her favorites.

I wanted to share with you my creative space. It isn't much but I'm not fussy. So long as I have access to my products, that's really all I need.

My paper stash. The file folders are organized by color, except for the big sheets of Basic Grey alphas. Those go in the front and any other 12x12 things (tag sheets, overlays, vellum, etc)

My junky shelf. I keep items over here that I don't use a lot. Pencils, deco scissors, buttons, eyelet setter. That picture on the wall? I was at a Heidi Swapp class and crop down in Tampa a few years ago and one of the raffles they were giving away was to have Heidi scrap a layout using one of your own photos. I won it! I love this layout.

This is how I organize all of my scraps. Each bin is a color. The bottom bin holds my smaller punches.

Those four white tubs are by Martha Stewart that, again, I bought at KMart. They are the perfect solution to hold all of my rub-ons, stickers, and things like that.

I have these three tier shelves with baskets that I bought at KMart years ago. I stuff all of my miscellaneous items in there. One is devoted to only Heidi Swapp stuff. The other houses all my stamps.

On those shelves, I put a piece of 1x4, and mounted under cabinet lighting to it. It's perfect to light up my space when I'm working.

I don't have a picture of the area to the left of my computer. I have my printer over there. Nothing crazy.

So there's my space! What is your area like? Do you love it? Do you hate it? What would you change if you could?

Have a great Friday everyone!

and so it begins...

2009-02-11T21:38:00.000-08:00

Hello scrapbooking world. It's me. Suzanne. Do you remember me?

Anyone?

its squillen...........*fade out*

2 years ago I opened a bakery and stopped scrapbooking.

Then I got pregnant.

Then I moved to New York.

But good news! I'm bacccckkkkk!!!!

My sister, Marcia was here a few weeks ago and she and I had a chance to sit and scrap for a little bit one night. I must say it was so enjoyable and exhilirating!! I can't believe I haven't played around more with my paper and glue.

I feel like someone who has traveled through a desert and come to an oasis. I am thirsty to get back to work. So thirsty, I have been cranking out layouts like a mad woman. Have you ever hit a creative dry spell? What did you do to get through it? Or maybe you're stuck in that desert right now. Take my hand and let me lead you to the oasis so you can partake with me, my friend.

Here are a few creations I have made over the past six months. (I did actually do a *little* before I had to pack it all up)

So now that I'm back in the saddle, I hope you stop by often and say hello from time to time. Or else..... I might.... well.. you don't want to know what I'd do. :) Have a great weekend!

-Suzanne

Divine Scrapbooking

Chat with Janelle Smith from 7 Gypsies!

Project 52

Bad Girls May Reveal..

It's REVEAL NIGHT!

Numbered Nomads... ... Bad Girls Teaser!

The countdown

The mother of all updates...

DSI: Caroline Ikeji

Beautiful sunshiney morn...

Happy April!

Spring is in the air!

Bad Girls Kits {April Sneak Peek}!!!!

DSI #3 WINNER!!!!

Reflection...

Oh dear...

DSI: Kimber McGray

It's Sketchy!

Stair climbing

Yep... I'm lucky

DSI #2 WINNER!

smoke and sparks

DSI #2 Reminder

Two ships...

DSI: Celine Navarro

DSI Reminder

Think Green

DSI Winner!

**Emergency Enabler Alert**

Blue Book

Hey it's Wednesday!

DSI: Jessica Sprague

don't forget!

Something to think about...

I can FINALLY spill!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

wow!

no school today

and so it begins...

Emergency Enabler Alert