A Promise 2 Keep...

Its funny how you can put so much thought into a topic for this space, feeling fairly uncertain your choice is appropriate and then something so special just falls in your lap. That is just what happened to me.

It has been way more than a "month of Sundays" since I heard from my dear sweet niece, Jennifer, in KY when suddenly out of the blue she calls. It is no small feat staying connected to this young woman since she has no phone and moves around alot but somehow I can always count on her finding me. You see, I am the closest living relative to her late father, my brother, who passed away tragically when she was under 2. She is now in her early 30s with 3 children of her own, a single mom who seems to have more than her share of life's turmoil.

Jennifer's dad, Buddy, and I at ages 1 and 2

Jennifer doesn't have a lot of money being a single mom and for some reason never has a phone of her own. She's usually at the mercy of friends who will share their's and so invariably every 2-3 years I will hear from her and this weekend was the chosen time for us to reconnect. I'm very thankful for the kind friend who cared enough to share a phone! I haven't seen my niece in about 17 years.

She said she was looking through her photos and was so sad because she has none of her father or our family. She told me she looks at the faces of her two sons and wonders if they looks like her father because she has always been told she looked so much like him and wondered if they do too. My heart aches for her and for the sadness she has lived with but this hobby we all share offered such a wonderful opportunity that we both were overjoyed!

Since she is so poor, and her very old religion shuns a lot of modern trappings, I knew emailing digital photos was pretty much out. So...what better way to share my huge box of inherited family photos than to scrap her a family tree?! I have put out requests to the rest of the family for current family photos so our KY family can "meet" the DE kin...hopefully, she'll find a way to share photos of her children someday too. It has been so many years since she has seen our family I am hopeful that we'll find a way to see each other soon and definitely through scrapping we'll be able to share a little of our past...and the future!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and don't forget to scrap those special memories! You never know when a typical photo will become hugely important in your life.

Lotsaluv,

Ronda

My most treasured page

I don't have a most memorable project, but I most definitely have a layout that is very dear to my heart. It is a layout that captures the true innocence of childhood and the love from a big sister that can only be explained in a picture. I am so grateful I was able to capture this moment on film.

These were photos taken the day after our son was born. Madilyn was so excited to meet her new baby brother and hold him for the first time. I think she thought Logan was HER new baby. She didn't want to put him down at all.



I truly believe THIS is what scrapbooking is all about. I look forward to the day I can share these precious memories with my children and am so grateful I will have pictures to go along with the stories.

Now, go out there and create your own memories. Remember, it's the everyday moments that we tend to forget about in our busy lives. Take the time out of your day to capture your life in the moment and record it for future generations!!

My most memorable project---and a freebie!

I asked the girls this week to chat about their most memorable or meaningful project they have made. I have loved so many things I have made that have been sent to live with other families, but I would say the most meaningful one was the album I made for my mother-in-laws 60th birthday. I was asked to design the invitation to be sent to approximately 50 people and then as my gift I made her an 8X8 scrapbook album. I used chipboard throughout for sturdiness and covered each piece with patterned paper. One each page I sewed a pocket and added three tags, one tag for prices of things, one tag for the different shows from that year and the third tag was for music of that time. Each pages title was the year beginning with her birth up to her 60th birthday. I also included on the tags if a friend or family member was born or married. Now, this project took me over 2 months to complete, but I was so honored when she chose to display it at the party for all her friends and family to see. The other guests just loved looking through it and remembering certain years with a fondness they had forgotten. My mother-in-law took that album with her every where for months and now has is lovingly displayed in her home for everyone to see. When we sit down to create something for someone, we can only hope it will be received with the love with which we made it. I know this album went to the right home and I am so happy I did that for her!

Since I always feel bad not having pictures to display, I am giving away another freebie. I have a mini goodie bag for anyone(not including the SALDC girls!!) that comments in about something they have made that was well-received by another person. I have 3 of these bags, so be sure to comment to get your freebies! And be sure to comment by Tuesday, 11/18 to qualify. Each bag is different, but I am cleaning out supplies and this seems like a good way to do that! After leaving a comment, email me your home address at scrapn3kids@aol.com and I will send you a treat.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Karen

My Cricut cartridges make me happy!!

I can be completely lost and uninspired, but a quick look through my Cricut cartridges and I have LOTS of ideas!! I think they need a 12 step program for buying these things though. I like to buy them and unfortunately not use each of them as much as I should.



Probably my most used cartridge, at the moment, is the Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge. This cartridge is AMAZING!!! The dolls on it are just a taste of what this cartrdige really has to offer, although the dolls are adorable. Take a look at the two little pilgrims I created last night.



I currently have a personal challenge with myself to use EVERY cartridge I have in an item to list on eBay. I just started this last night, so I have a ways to go LOL. I was able to use 1 of my cartrdiges for the 1st time though. I pulled out the My Community cartridge and was thrilled to find this cute little train on there.



Now, my next big challenge will be trying to avoid Michaels on Thanksgiving Day for their 29.99 Cricut cartridge specials. Who am I kidding?? I still NEED more right :)

TOOLS TO LIVE BY TOO...

Good evening and thanks for stopping in!

Goodness, aren't we all in love with Cricut? Can you imagine scrapping without it? Besides my list yesterday of low-tech favorite tools, these have to be my highest of the hi-tech ones...

(my Cricut & Jukebox)

I recently treated myself to a couple eBay bargains and am doing hand stands over them - Cricut Jukebox and Design Studio! It is so nice to be away from home with my computer but to still be able to put together pages for cutting when I get home. It is amazing how much time can be saved welding words too. The gizmos aren't without their glitches (or perhaps operator know-how) and often it causes my laptop to freeze up but rebooting it and the Cricut always works...a good reason to save your work often!

Also, the Jukebox is wonderful and I can't imagine using DS without it. For those of you who are unfamilar, you can put 6 cartridges in the Jukebox AND connect up to 3 Jukeboxes together for up to 18 Cricut cartridges which means you don't need to hop up and down changing cartridges. A cable to the Jukebox just plugs into the Cricut and away you go.

As a scrapper who likes to make patterns, I'd love to be able to cut my own patterns on the Cricut and sure hope they come up with something to allow it...I've so far resisted getting the Sure-Cuts-A-Lot but see it in the future. I manage to combine items cut with the trio of Cricut items and supplement with my drawn parts to make original piecings. Here's today's new listing of one I created using several parts cut on my Cricut with some hand-drawn parts too...

Since I use the Cricut Expression I can plot out my pieces for cutting in four 6"x6" sections, which makes up one 12"x12", mat when using DS and it's perfect for cutting up to 4 colors/patterns on the same mat. It worked especially well for making a boy and girl version of the same layout since I was able to copy everything and place it on the blue 6"x6" section and so on. It's a real time saver too!

What I'd really like to learn next is how I can (or if I can) weld borders so I get a nice 12" piece with everything in a good scale. Does anyone know how to do that yet?? I'd be eternally grateful if any of our talented bloggers could help out!!

Please drop us a suggestion or comment when you can and have a great weekend!

TOOLS TO LIVE BY...

I had a little head start on this question when a fellow scrapper wrote asking me the very same so I knew when this thread began I had a tasty tidbit to share with you all. My most cherished and USED tools are a simple toolbox of Making Memories tools to which I've added scissors and my ancient Xacto.


I've used my hammer so much the head is coming loose! For me this box is indispensable and I couldn't scrap without it. I use the piercing tool to move fiddly little pieces for my piecings or to pierce a hole for a handle for a Halloween pumpkin like this...

The small pliers were used to coil the wire so it wouldn't separate from the pumpkin but it comes in handy to hold jump rings when I'm adding a charm to a layout, or to make curly wire web for a spooky little spider, etc. The needles fish wire & ribbon and often get a work out. My most favorite item in the box would be the punch. This handy gizmo has several sized heads that screw into the body of the tools and can be used to punch holes for eyelets, or to make perfect small circles for the eyes and pupils on my paper piecings. I am constantly finding new reasons to make holes in my projects! A word of caution...be sure to have a self-healing mat under your work so it doesn't harm furniture.

I don't think any of my scrapping would be possible without my trusty, tiny stainless steel decoupage scissors. They were found in the decoupage section of my local craft store and have been unbelievably useful for all my paper piecings. My specialty might be considered paper piecing since I started scrapping so I could make paper things to decorate other things! LOL!! Most of my piecings are my own originals and have lots of pieces that make these scissors a must have...remember those fiddly little parts I move around with the piercing tool? Well, these trusty scissors cut them out first! I'd buy these a 100 times if I had to but luckily, this is only my 3rd pair.

If you can think of a use for any of the tools...BE SURE to drop me a note!

I'm off to make a cuppa joe...

Ronda

tools i love a~latte....

hello and greetings from southern california,

okay so i love the countless array of scrapbooking tools that are available today both...old and new. but if i had to narrow it down to the two tools that i use the most, i'd have to say........


number one would be my exacto knife...

i know this may seem so primative when you think of the many cutting systems that are out, but with my exacto knife i can cut and create anything i design. don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that i don't love me some "cricut" because i do! i especially love the new storytime cartridge! but for original work i love the old exacto knife!

secondly i love my prismacolor markers.

I LOVE COLORS! i'm so totally impressed with Cindy's thread assortment! you rawk girlfriend! love all the different shades. anyways i like to use my prismacolor markers primarily to shade and on occassions, when i do make cards, i use them to color. here is a LO that i will be posting tomorrow 11/11 using the tools that i love a~latte! lol

Happy monday to all. hope everyone is enjoying a couple of days off.

blessings~

I LOVE my glitter stacks!!

I have soooo much scrapbook paper that I need to use, but yet I buy more. One of my downfalls is the new glitter stacks from DCWV. I tend to buy the new one they come out with for each season and holiday. It really is a sickness!!

The thing I love most about these gorgeous papers is the heavy cardstock quality and the GORGEOUS embossed, glitter images that all the papers carry. My new favorite that I just picked up last night was the Christmas glitter stack. The papers are so yummy!! Just wait until you see the layout I plan to make with the glitter birds on it. I must confess I almost bought the remaining 2 stacks they had left JUST so I could have more sheets of this particluar design.

I hope you love the paper as much as I do. AND, keep checking the SALDC listings so you can see what I create with thsi beautiful paper!!

Love the BUG :D

I love my Cricut! It is the best purchase I have made in scrapbooking. I started by owning the smaller Cricut and was hooked on buying the cartridges that go with it. There were fonts and images that just had endless possibilities. Unfortunately the lid broke due to my daughter and son standing on it to be closer to me and I upgraded to the Expression. It is so fabulous. I can cut borders and more due to the size. Cricut is constantly coming out with new cartridges that I have to have! Just last night I bought Blackletter and Home Accent. My favorite cartridges are George for the shapes, Accent Essentials for the swirls and flourishes and Doodlecharms for all the images. Here are some examples of how I have used my Cricut most recently.

In this border piece I did, I used the Cricut for the bears eyes and nose!

This cute clown is also cut from the Paper Dolls cartridge! I didn't care for the nose, so I just used a circle cut from George.

This car is from Paper Dolls as well. Paper Dolls has cute people, but I use it for all the extras. There are trees, animals, summer themes to name my most used. They also have quite a few images that are great for boys, and if you scrapbook for a boy, you know how much harder it is to find accessories for their pages :D

This basket was a sizzix die, but I used the apple from Doodlecharms to fill the basket.

And finally for the pumpkins, I used the ovals from George. I cut three ovals and layered and inked them and viola! a perfect pumpkin. I could show hundreds of layouts using my Cricut, which in my eyes means I made a good purchase! I can't imaging scrapbooking without my bug and if you have tried, I am sure you feel the same!

Karen

Itsa Happy Scrappin' Life 4 Me!

Despite having boxes of stamps I seem to prefer scrapping over stamping. I'm not sure if it's the fear of stamping something in the wrong spot and not being able to undo the ink or what prevents me from using them very often in my papercrafts. In looking back at the things I've used them on in the past, it seems I generally use them on journaling cards or on small pieces like mats where I can't do a lot of damage if I make a mistake. This is a snapshot from a current listing.

Like Sarah, I have used stamps in a few home decorating projects with great results. The inexpensive foam stamps worked wonderful to stamp a shell motif under our bar/divider and was a pretty safe bet since I used acrylic paint to stamp my designs. I also used the same stamps to decorate the border of a lamp shade to match the comforter. That may have been where the phobia began because I goofed on it!

So today, I mostly stick to scrapping for the fun of drawing, painting, and paperpiecing. Paper is so much fun and inexpensive if you make a mistake...not quite like ruining a new lampshade! This simple little mouse layout is one of my favorite paper piecings. The second page had a bowl of stawberries cut from the paper I used on the mats.

I hope you all have a great day and stop by again soon!

Ronda

ebay id. - button*box

Stamping for home decor

I have never really been one for stamping. I love scrapbooking. Papers, buttons, chipboard, ink, and other dimensional embellishments are really more my style and taste than stamps. Once in a great while, i may add a stamped image to a page, but I am rarely happy with the result. I only have a few stamps - I have picked out ones with fancy flourishes and other similar designs that really appeal to me. And while I don't incorporate them into my scrapbook pages, I do like to use them for other little projects. For example, I love to find a nice frame and fill it with a heavy white cardstock that has been stamped, like this :
It is so simple to do, and creates a very nice piece of art to hang on the wall. I have done something similar with canvas. I have a partial wall that really needed some sort of art grouping, so I painted the edges of canvas with black acrylic paint, and then added a name, monogram, jewels, and a stamp to each one.

I arranged the finished canvases and added a couple of pictures and another framed stamped cardstock to create a nice little family themed wall. Here is a closer look at the stamped canvas:
Remember, even if you don't want to stamp on your scrapbook pages, there are lots of other things you can do with a pretty stamp! So go ahead and buy that huge one you have been eyeing, and don't feel guilty because you can get a lot of use out of it!

I'm a SCRAPPER and stamper!!

It is getting so close to Halloween and we can hardly wait around here. Tonight we carved our pumpkins and our daughter is so excited. She woke my husband up this morning, complete with pumpkin pail in hand, and asked if it was time to go Trick or Treating yet. She is 3 and a half and this is the first year she "gets it." Our son is not quite 10 months yet and he will be going along for the ride dressed as a lobster...how mean are we?? LOL

So onto the weekly question. Do I scrap or stamp? Well, I am mainly a scrapper but have done more stamping this year. On occasion I will include some stamping on my layouts, but I usually reserve the stamping for cards. I, like all the other gals on here, am VERY behind in my scrapping. I was doing so well in staying caught up on my daughter's stuff, but when number 2 came along that all went out the window. I hope to find more time to scrap for myself soon.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, I included a couple of my past Halloween layouts. As you can tell from the dates they are a couple years old.

I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!!!

This is my daughters first Halloween costume. Notice I put the poor thing on her belly so I could get a picture of the cute bumblebee wings....only a scrapper LOL



And her second Halloween as a chicken :)

Do you scrap or stamp?

So to answer this weeks question I would have to say I scrap. While I do dabble in stamping every now and then. I think my cards are mostly scrapping...I know scrapping usually applies to scrap booking though. I do very little of my own scrap booking...not because I don't want to, but because I don't know where to start.

A few years ago I became the official 'keeper of all family photos'. My mother brought over six or seven huge crates full of family photos just piled high in old worn albums. It took me almost the entire 9 months of my pregnancy to sort through them and try to separate duplicates and put them in any sort of order. It was great to have all these photos of my great-grandmother, my grandmother, all the cousin...even pets from the 50's....

So when I say I don't know where to start I guess I mean that to start scrapping all those photos (and I am the kind of person who, once started would have to use ALL of them) seems like an unending job...maybe when Sampson starts school...

I do plan on doing some pre-made scrapbook pages for others though! I am working on one right now to unveil...soon I hope.

I forget who it was the other day who said they always started out with a clean workspace...and end up with a mess...well me too!

Here is what I start with:

and here is how it ends:

...no matter how tidy I try to be!!!

It is still blazing hot here in San Diego. I am melting away. I have to go to Joanns to get craft supplies, but the very idea of climbing into the hot car makes me sweat. We may not have air conditioning, but it's still cooler inside!

-Jess

Scrap or Stamp....

good morning everyone!

okay so i had a very unsuccessful and frustrating night trying to login and post my very first entry . so here i am the next morning trying desparately to redeem my name. this is my very first time posting and i'm kind of at awe about all the talent these girls possess! so i'm going to make like a cameleon and try and fit in.

so the question of the week is, " are you a scrapper or stamper"? i guess that i'd have to say that i'm a, "scramper." i like to incorporate stamps in my personal layouts and not so much on my layouts for ebay. these days i've been primary doing just pages for ebay and have put my personal scrapping pages on the back burner. so with that said here are a few photos of some layouts i did last year( because i'm on top of things that way...lol)

this lo just has touches of stamping on the word, "splendor."

this one is really old, just used the swirly stamps for the rockets blast...

this is a lo that i did of my three kids last year. i did a lot of exacto kniving ( i'm talking carpol tunnel exacto kniving...lol). that use to be my big thing along with using liquid glass.

i just love basic grey! and lastly, here is a lo of my daughter "kalani". i didn't stamp on this one, but i wanted to share it. lol

so that's my take on scrapping and stamping. i hope everyone is having an awesome tuesday! many blessings~

I love to scrap!

I LOVE TO SCRAP!

I could do this all day every day. There was a time that I did that too! Now life is getting a little busy and I find less and less time to scrap, but when I get the time, I love to sit and create. I started scrapping when my first son was born over 6 years ago and have become a complete addict. If there is a new tool I have to have it. If a new paper line is released, I have to go get it, especially Scenic Route. New stickers by Bo Bunny, they are mine! I used to go out and get the newest Nikes, now I go and get the newest Doodlebug! And what does all this spending and creating get me......some fantastic looking memories!

Here are some pages of my children that I have scrapped.

This is my baby girl Tyler who will be two in December.

And here my Joshie who will be 5 in a couple of weeks.

And this is my Jake who is now at the ripe old age of 6.

Karen

Hello from San Diego

Its my first blog here at Scrap-a-latte. I spent all day yesterday working on a Hanukkah  card and finally finished it a few hours after Sampson went to bed. I have never done one before and I hope I got everything correct. I usually do Christmas cards but I thought it might be nice to have some other holiday cards! The idea for the little boy playing with a dreidel came from Sumi, one of my bidders. I took pictures last night and will be posting it later today.

Here in San Diego it has been BLAZING hot this whole week. We don't have an air conditioner so its just miserable here. Sampson doesn't seem to mind the heat though. Here is a peek into my life...

Took Sampson in for his very first baby portraits at 5 months. I would have done sooner ones but I have been so busy! He is so big for his age, already wearing 18-24 months....hes in the 99%. Its crazy to think about how fast he is growing. He loves to watch me make cards. He is so observant of everything I do. He follows my hands and watches every little thing I do. Someday I will help him make his own little cards.

-Jess

It's snowing!

Ugh - it is actually snowing here in Central New York. So what that it's mixed in with the rain, and it's not sticking, and it will be 50 degrees here tomorrow. Right now, I see snow flakes, and and I am not ready for them. Hello, my name is Sarah, and I hate winter !

Thanks for stopping by the blog today ! Since your here, why don't you get yourself a nice hot cup of coffee (or whatever you like) and allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sarah, and my ebay user id is Sarahsdesigns78. I am a stay at home mom to an amazing little boy who is truly the kindest and most well behaved child I have ever met. He is the light of my life, and the center of my universe. I am also the wife of a union Ironworker. Yup, my husband is the guy who walks around on a steel beam that is 6 inches wide and hundreds of feet in the air. Scares the crap out of me but he is a natural at it. We live in Upstate New York where the whether sucks for a good 6 months out of the year but, I must admit, this fall the trees are more beautiful than I have seen in a long time.
I have been scrapping for almost ten years now. I began shortly after my son was born, and over the years my style has changed, my talent has improved, and my supplies have multiplied. A lot. I really love scrapbooking, because I have found that I can incorporate it into so many other things. I love to alter things, and being able to make decor items to suit my taste and style is a blast. I also love to draw, and I often do on my scrapbook pages. My work area is so diversified - I can sit down and find supplies for pretty much anything that I am in the mood to work on. Here is a look at my space. It's nothing fancy, and it is pretty small, but it is so me. Artistic and scattered - lol!



I spend a lot of time here, mostly working, but sometimes just to read or listen to music. I am slowly finding containers for my supplies that speak to me far more than boxes. Like this basket


and the tin containers you can see here


They may look unorganized, and they are, but I just love digging through and finding things I had forgotten about. Some of my favorite things, however, just stay out in the open on my desk. Like my pencils and markers.
I paid too much for these babies to stow them away, and besides, if they are right in front of me I am more likely to be inspired.

So that's my space, and it is where I create all of the items I sell on ebay. I really hope you enjoyed getting a peek into my life, and I hope you come back for more! Until next time, take care and stay warm!