Keepin' it Real!

A confession from this mommy blogger! Today I will be keepin' it real. I had the fullest intentions of posting a product review that will now have to wait since I was just visiting a couple of my favorite blogs and ran into Tasra's!!!!

As you may or may not know I was a dancer throughout most of my Jr. High and High School years and can easily swoon (as Joshie says) over dance videos!...

... WELL!! Tasra had a YouTube video up for So You Think You Can Dance (which I've never seen because I don't watch tv) but I ended up sitting here watching video after video on YouTube laughing out loud and reminiscing over a wonderful past-time! Here is one of my favorites...

YES ladies! Even I lack planning, focus, balance, and boundaries... I exaggerate all too often and I make MISTAKES ALL THE TIME!

WAIT! Don't these sound like things we could have problems with in our Scrapbooking as well!!! Yep... and they are also the very things my friend Tasra shares about in her book Real Woman Scrap. It's amazing how she shows us different things we can lack in life, then she shows us the parallel in Scrapbooking! She has a fantastic gift for encouragement and shares practical ways to get us out of our real life crappy (excuse my language) and Scrappy predicaments.

Doesn't her book sound GREAT ladies... it is! Leave a comment here to win one and have a GREAT day!

A Random Giveaway Today...

... from the 25 names on the Mr. Linky so far I am going to draw a random winner today!!!

Take a look at what you've won!!!  A 4x6 memory book kit from S.E.I.!  Enjoy!

My First Digi-Scraped Layout!!!

Okay ladies... if you were waiting around for today's post you can be sure it was all the fault of me working on this page (and this post) WAY too long! LOL! I hope you like it.

I got inspiration from so many different places...

• I got the template and ideas for it from THIS site
• I got the idea of the brown background form THIS template
• I used my new Cindy Loo Who font from Allie Hoopes
• A fun flower brush from Brusheezy (I heart them)
• A new stitching brush from Scrapbook Bytes (yes I said new, I went and bought it!)

I also re-colored Jess' bright blooms paper in Photoshop by...

1. Copying my photo as a layer onto the original
2. Choosing Enhance from the top menu
3. Then Adjust Color
4. Then Replace Color
5. Then using the Eyedropper Tool I picked the blue color out of the photo
   
   • This is why the photo has to be pasted in.
6. I moved the hue, saturation, and lightness sliders around until I got what I wanted
7. ... then I had a new color of paper to use!!! :o)
   
   • You can't do that it in handmade scrapping!

I also made the pink paper in my circles a bit lighter by...

1. Selecting each circle of the color I wanted to lighten
2. Going to the Style and Effects box to the right
3. Choosing Layer Styles & Visibility
4. Then I "ghosted" all of my pink paper.... mah ha haa :o)
   • Added to say: I like that I have the choice to just change it right back!

And (yes - there's more) I textured my brown background paper by...

1. Selecting the layer that was my background paper
2. Choosing Filter from the top menu
3. Then Filter gallery...
4. Then I chose Texture
5. Craquelure
6. I moved the sliders around accordingly
7. Clicked OK and vah-lah!! - Texturized Paper!!! (Can you see it?)
   • Still can't feel it like you can Bazzill though :o)

A Layout Challenge!

After seeing 27 dresses last night with my Joshie and getting my wedding dress out to take pictures of it I realized how precious clothing can be to someone. In the movie the younger sister was given her mother's wedding dress because she was getting married first, but she didn't like it, so she cut it up (or got it altered) to make it into something different!

The older sister totally hated her for cutting their mommy's dress apart, but I see the point the the younger sister had! She was still savoring the memory of her mommy's dress, it was just in an altered state! It still brought all the warm fuzzy memories, but in a different form.

So my challenge for you today is to take a special piece of clothing or fabric to you, and alter it by making it into a memory on your scrapbook page! Sound like fun? :o)

(Oh and please don't think that I am suggesting you cut up your wedding dress, or someone elses!! :o)

Here is a layout I made WOW probably 2 years ago or so where I used JJ's cute little jean shorts right in the layout to match my favorite jean jacket on her in the pictures... (I wasn't willing to cut the jacket up, so I cut her shorts instead to make the jacket stand out.)

I also used my client's ceremonial handkerchief on her layout months ago as a flower (on the left) and a sewn border (on the right), I had a whole half of it left that I tucked in between the layout and the page-protector. You can see a close-up HERE.

And here is the next special piece of clothing I have been saving ever since B.Boy grew out of it! It was TOTALLY my favorite on him!... and here are the pictures for that layout as well :o)

Stay tuned for the unveiling of this layout towards the end of the party :o) I can't wait :o)

Tackle it Tuesday

Here's your Hint... to see what I tackled this week go HERE.

(I've been married 7 years now and I still haven't taken it to the cleaners because of the terrifying horror stories I have heard... like the one where to woman went to pick up her dress and it was nothing but beads in a bucket!!!!)

My Walk Monday

Hey hey, I'm posting late today... we are having some technical difficulties here (meaning I got a new mattress for Mother's Day yesterday and my hubby let me nap the day away! :o) Thank you for being so understanding.

My walk last week was a difficult one. I'm still getting attacked over here as far as temptation to be angry, impatient and mean to my kiddos (but I won't have it!) JJ and B.Boy have been so disobedient lately, JJ is so mean to her brother, kicking him off of things that she wants to play with and bossing him around! It drives me nuts... but they are doing well so far today (PRAISE GOD!).
They also did well for Joshie when he had them all by himself on Friday night while I stayed with our High school girls from church for an over-niter at my friend's house. (Our first event with the Youth Group at our new church :o)
It went well, we had pizza, a small scattered message, we went bowling, played Mario Kart and Guitar Hero on the Wii, we watch Enchanted then went to bed.
I love the fact that my Bible Study each week ALWAYS has something to help me with just what I am going through, this week some things that touched me were...

• Selfishness - is my gain more important than someone else's loss?
• God can use ANYTHING for good - Romans 8:28
• Yes I received Salvation, but I must seek Satisfaction with a daily filling of the Holy Spirit.
• We struggle not against flesh and blood (my family and children), but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. - Ephesians 6:12

Now for this week's Question: If you went to youth group when you were younger what was your favorite memory as far as events go?
My Answer: I used to love the random trips to Krispy Kreme Doughnuts after Wednesday night service, in the church bus with our Youth Pastor also being one of the church bus drivers! :o) Even though I didn't really care for their Doughnuts much I LOVED the fellowship!

Free for All

Thanks to Jess over at Scrapbook Ideas we have a giveaway for EVERYONE today... it's some bloomin' paper for you digi-scrappers out there, or for the ones like me that just collect this stuff but don't actually digi-scrap LOL :o)

From one gift to another

I guess this is my scrappy way of "going green" for Mother's Day :o) It's a gift for my mommy with pictures of my little ones in it.

Happy Mother's Day!

Rusty Pickle's 'Fair Verona' Make-n-Take

This is a make-n-take is specificly planned with the Rusty Pickle Fair Verona papers and folders, but you can always use your own paper choices and even make your own hand-cut file folders.
Now get your supplies ready:

To Bind the book:
1. Line up your file folders so you spred out the tabs in different spots instead of having them overlap.

2. Punch two holes in the score of your folders.

3. Insert your ribbon through the holes... do this inside each page.

4. Tie your ribbons together on the ouside... My photo only shows one, but you will end up with more depending on how many pages you have.

5. Be sure to distress any of your pages before you do your binding... otherwise it will be much more dificult.

Start your main layout design:

1. Cut your quote paper and/or word papers out and distress them and mat them.

2. Staple small sheets of paper down to make pocket(s).

3. Staple extra ribbon to the top of your word papers making tag(s).

4. Place your tag(s) in your pocket(s).

5. Adhere your other matted quotes to whatever pages you wish.

6. Choose one for your cover page and tie some ribbon to a paper clip for an easy embellishment! :o)

Now the REAL fun starts! More embellishing!!! Here's what I did...

I added some flowers, buttons, jewels, words, doodling...

...some rub-ons, liquid glass / glossy accents , more ink over my rub-ons, photos... I did some free-stylin'...

... I resized some of my quote papers and added more metal to match the staples...

... I even put photos on the backs of my quote tags and rub-ons on my photos :o)