Cancun Album

I have been busy working on another chipboard album (just about half way complete).  This album is all about a trip I won a few years ago through work.  

I was reorganizing/cleaning up my scrapbook room after finishing the American Girl album and found this album kit from the Button Farm.  I actually only purchased the album because it contained Graphic 45 paper.  

I absolutely love, love, love Graphic 45!!!!  

So while I sat and drooled over the lovely paper in the kit trying to decide if I was ready to do another album or if I wanted to play with my new Cameo, I remembered the pictures of our Cancun trip.

And the only reason I remembered the pics was because one of the images from the trip was mistakenly placed in the American Girl folder...  So I guess it is fate - I had to do the Cancun trip!  And once I started looking through the folder of all the pictures I took of the trip - YEP definitely - perfect pictures for this album!  

Front Cover of Album

Pages 1, 2 & 4

Pages 5, 6 & 8

I still have 6 more pages plus the back of the album to complete, but I am liking the results so far!

So I hope you enjoy!  I know Alan and I enjoyed a fantastic, relaxing week in Cancun. 

Christmas Tree

Our 2012 Christmas tree!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone!  

I hope you have a wonderful holiday and a bright and prosperous new year!!!  

American Girls

All my Christmas "stuff" is finished so I sat down today and worked on a chipboard album.  Completed seven pages featuring my granddaughters and their American Girl dolls.  I have taken five of my six granddaughters to the American Girl store here in Texas.  Each one has chosen either a doll or a horse (and some have both)!  

We have taken all the dolls to the salon, either at the time they were purchased or in a couple of cases, a year or two later to be cleaned up and/or get a new hairdo.  

As a birthday gift a couple of years ago, I took my granddaughter Bella, her doll and my daughter Jackie to the American Girl Bistro for lunch.  We had so much fun!  

The album includes all the visits to the store.  I was asked today, who will you give this album to?  I've decided this will be my keepsake, to be shared when my American Girls come to visit...

American Girl Chipboard Album

The American Girl Salon

Christmas Cookies and Candy

All my baking is done!  YAY!  I have all the candy and cookies packaged up, and most have been mailed or hand delivered.  Here are a couple bags of goodies that still need to be delivered to some very special neighbors.

2012 Christmas Cards

After an extended visit of 3 weeks to St. Louis, I finally completed all of my Christmas cards for this year.  They are all addressed and in the mail!  One big item off the checklist for Christmas 2012!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Alan Jackson Concert

I completed this two page layout over the weekend but didn't get around to taking pictures until tonight.  We had a fantastic time at the concert.  I won money at the casino after the show.  Our room was fantastic and the food/drinks were great!  We need to do more of those short little trips...

 

October Tag

Halloween is just around the corner and that inspired me to do a funky little Halloween tag for my October tag.  Now I have to go back and work on August and September.  Or maybe I will do a November tag.  So many decisions...

Tags

I am working on completing a tag for every month of the year.  

I know, I am really behind....

 June Tag

July Tag

Happy Mail

Happy Mail!      Happy Mail!       Happy Mail!      Happy Mail!

Look what I received today!!!  Can't wait to start playing....

October Michigan Visit

I loved the leaf designed paper from Embellished It.  I cut the decorative circle using the Lucky 8 punch. Love those punches!  I found the perfect pictures from October 2007 - I can't believe I went that far back when I was organizing and selecting pictures I wanted to scrapbook.  This was the first visit to meet our new grandson Miles in Michigan.  Alan and I had fun at the school swinging with Maddie his older sister.  

Lizzy's Visit

My oldest granddaughter flew to Texas for a visit.  This was the first time she had flown and she did it all by herself.  So proud of her and we had so much fun.  Lots of spoiling going on that week, but I think she did get just a little homesick...

Here's Dad getting his little girl all checked in at the airport and the family waiting for her to board.  She's off and grandma is waiting to pick her up in Texas!  

Some pampering for grandma's girl.

Swimming almost everyday and definitely played darts everyday!  This kid can hit more bull's eyes than a pro...  

I still haven't figured out how she can sleep in that position!

And to top the week off - we visited the salon for a cut and style!!!

Organize, Simplify and Catch Up!!!

OK - I signed up for this organizational class a few weeks ago.  

The first assignment was to organize your pictures, either the printed pics or your digital folders.   I spent several nights going through folders and organizing my pics like a good student.  

Next assignment was to organize your craft supplies.  Well, that would have been a major undertaking to reorganize my craft supplies to the suggested design.  I happen to like the way I have my room organized so I sorta skipped that step.  I did however sort my paper and label several items.  


The next assignment was to determine which pictures you would truly scrapbook.  The statement made by the teacher was - 'you should pick out 1 or 2 pictures of the grandchild eating an ice cream cone and file the other 998 pictures away'...  The assignments are getting harder and harder - this one almost put me over the edge...  But I finally narrowed my pictures down. 

As I sat in my craft room this week and looked at all the supplies I had piled on the shelves.  And knowing that I had a lot of pictures that I felt I just had to put in scrapbooks.  I came to the conclusion the only way to accomplish this task was use all the kits that I have accumulated over the past few years from Convention classes, Private Reserves or kits that I have picked up at the local scrapbook stores.  

So last night I started pulling all the kits off the shelves in my craft room.  OMG - I can't believe how much space I have now.  Time to go shopping!! LOL

I will be posting pics of the finished class kits soon.  I will be scrapbooking all day on Saturday since the weather is supposed to be cold and rainy....

Wedding Canvas

My daughter sent this picture to me with the comment "I look so much like you in this picture mom'.  She is absolutely beautiful in this picture - so I think that was a compliment.  So I had to do something special with this pic.  I absolutely love how it turned out!

Labor Day Retreat at Memory Lane Inn

What a wonderful Labor Day weekend.  I left Thursday night and didn't come home until late Sunday afternoon. What a great group of women at this retreat!  I met some wonderful ladies and learned a lot about raising children in this day and age...  I am so glad all my children are married!!!

My plan for this retreat - be real lazy and don't pack a lot of stuff!!!  So I packed all my Quick Quotes kits from all the convention classes and Private Reserves I have attended.  I was determined to complete every kit I took.  My thought was this will be a great way to clean off some of my shelves and make room for more product...  :)  So here are a few pics of the finished pages from my weekend at Memory Lane Inn.  

Hope you enjoy!

My daughter's engagement picture. 

Looking for the perfect dress... 

And we found the perfect dress!!!

Mother and daughter!

Mother, daughter and granddaughter (old and new)

The 'Geek' Wedding Pic!

My children and their families. 

What a great group of kids and grandkids I am blessed with...

Special moments with their mom!

Watching the dance!

And the new family portrait!

Summer Chipboard Album

Here are a few pictures of the mini album I completed.  This album was a little challenging because I knew it was going to be hung on a stand for viewing and a lot of people would be flipping the pages.  I had to keep it simple without too many embellies or layers that could be knocked off, and that made it really difficult for me... lol 

I'm Back!!!

Finally my house is put back together!!!  This experience will certainly be documented in a scrapbook to remind me of how thankful I am that it is finally over!  I still have a little organizing to do in my scrapbook room, but there are absolutely no construction workers on my property!!!

Last week I was able to finish a chipboard album for a customer.  Photos to be posted shortly.  

Cricut Craft Room Support @ ProvoCraft

I just want to do a big shout out to customer support at ProvoCraft.  I spoke to three (yes -3 ) individual customer support reps today.  Every one of them were able to help me!  They were all very friendly and assisted me quickly and professionally with linking stubborn cartridges to Cricut Craft Room!  Thank you Cricut Craft Room Support!!!

Mother Nature Strikes!

What a mess we came home to after our trip to St. Louis for the graduation!  Mother Nature must have been a little ticked off at somebody the end of May because she came through Frisco not once, but twice and left a trail of destruction.  Almost every house in our subdivision has either hail damage, fences blown down or roof damage.
Our house lost half of the shingles on one side of the roof all the way down to the plywood.  What a horrible sense of helplessness when we received the call from neighbor telling us she could see roof damage from the street.  Unfortunately the day after the first storm a second storm came through and all that rain came pouring through our roof and into my husband's office and the guest bedroom.  The insurance agent was finally able to send somebody to tarp our roof, but the majority of the water damage had already happened.
So now we are dealing with the insurance, contractors, estimates, repair, clean-up, etc, etc.  I do thank the lord that the leak was not in my office or crop room!!!!  I don't even want to think of how horrible the mess would have been with all my scrapbooking supplies.
I won't be able to scrapbook for a couple of months since the crop room is full of papers drying out, furniture from the other rooms and everything is such a mess.
Hopefully I will be back to scrapbooking and my house will be back to normal before the end of August!!!!
Until then - Happy Scrapping to all of you....

Drew's Graduation!!!

My grandson graduated with honors on May 30, 2012.  We are so very proud of him!!!  What a wonderful milestone for this young man.

So many photos for me to scrapbook.  :)

The graduating class of 2012

My son the proud dad!!!

And yes, my grandson is taller than his dad now.

The whole family together with the graduate!  Just moments before - the graduate was on his phone...

Grandpa and Grandma with the graduate.  Love this young man!!!

A special hug from the graduate for his cousin Bella!

The graduation album we made for Drew.  I think he liked his gift!

A couple of pics of the graduation cake - it really turned out great!

*Surprise Bridal Shower*

My daughter-in-law hosted a surprise bridal shower for my daughter on May 27th.  The shower theme was 'GEEK'.  Yes - my daughter and soon to be son-in-law are both computer geeks.  It is absolutely fantastic having a geeky daughter - she fixes all my computer problems...

We ordered some really 'cool' invitations!  Take a look!

***The Invite***

Keeping the shower a secret was a task unto itself - but we did it!!!  Look at the surprise on her face - priceless!!!

And an even BIGGER surprise when she saw her best friend from high school had come from Wisconsin!!!

Laurie and Jackie

Jackie received many wonderful gifts from all who attended!  Here she is looking through the 'Smash Album' I gave her.  Now that she has happy occasions to scrapbook - I am hoping we can scrapbook together again!

Angela did an absolutely fantastic job planning, decorating and hosting the party!  She created the banner (with a little help from me via email and phone conversations).  

The banner

Angela also created the tissue flowers and lanterns to hang above the table.

Table decorations!

 And the fantastic 'GEEK' cake!!!

Jackie's Facebook page printed on the cake!

We played a few games - here's one of them.  "How old are they?"  She was so cute when she was little...  But OMG - this was really HARD!  I couldn't play the game but I had to figure out the age for each pic for the game.  You would think it would have been easy for me, after all she is my daughter.  Thank goodness I had dates on the back of a majority of the pics...    :)

And here are a few of the guests trying to figure out all the geek acronyms during another game...  You see the acronyms used all the time, but do you really know them???

One fantastic Sunday afternoon had by all who attended!

Thank you Angela for making this a very special occasion for Jackie!!!