ATC's

So one of my new obsessions is ATC's: Artist Trading Cards. I've been wanting to get into doing them for a while. I've liked what I have done so far but hope to get more advanced techniques going someday. Gotta start somewhere right? So here are a few I've done lately.

Harry Potter Swap. I picked Dumbledore. One of my fav things in the HP books is the Pensieve. I want one of my own. Something I can dump all my memories in and retrieve them when needed. I know that is called a memory and we are all born with one, some better than others, but this way I could take all the useless or bad memories and put them in a safe place until needed.



Important Date Swap. My important date is definitely my sobriety date, which just happens to be my stop smoking date also. It's also my cousin's birthday.


Favorite Movie Swap. My favorite movie is definitely White Christmas. My sister and I always watched this movie on Christmas Eve and we always loved to sing the 'Sisters' song. Such a glamorous time!!!



Summer Travel ATC swap. I took this picture in Florence in 1998. It was my second summer to spend in Italy studying art and art history.



This was for the "Going Postal" ATC swap. I made my cards look like vintage stamps.



Sex & the City: This was one of my favorite episodes. Carrie gets asked to model for Dolce & Gabbana and they give her UNDERWEAR to wear! Then of all things, she falls on the runway and Stanford says 'Oh My God! She's fashion roadkill'. LOL


My pet peeve (well one of them) is being able to hear people eat or smack their gum. Drives me crazy.

Lotsa Layouts

So this weekend I went to my first Creating Keepsakes Convention. I didn't take any classes. I'm all about the SHOPPING! I was a tad disappointed though. Not many manufacturer booths. But, I got some things I had been drooling over since CHA and left a happy girl. I rode down with 2 of the girls from my scrappy group and we meet up with 2 other carload of girls. So Friday night 8 ladies and a baby had a fun, delicious dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I'm in love love love with their Luau Salad. YUM-MY! And of course we all had some cheesecake. I'm boring. My fav cheesecake is the plain with strawberries on top. Although, Lori had Coconut Cream cheesecake and it was divine, but I don't even think I could eat a whole piece of THAT! After that big dinner we needed to move around a bit so what better exercise than shopping! We drove out to Collinsville to a new scrap store called Croppinsville! How cute is that! They had some great items and a nice crop room if you are ever in the area.

Tonight I watched the closing ceremonies of the Olympics and I was again amazed. They really out did themselves and set the bar high for those that follow. The next summer Olympics will be in London in 4 years and Michael Phelps said he was going to continue to swim so it should be a good time once again. I loved what the brits did in the closing ceremony and look forward to seeing what they do in 4 years. I think it was one of the best Olympics I had seen in a while. I'm always moved by all those athlete's coming together to compete in peace. As one of the commentators said tonight if we can come together like that for 2 weeks then why can't we do it for a month or a year and longer? I wonder if we all had peace what we would strive for?

Enough ramblings. Lets get to the layouts!

Week 6 Project Runway entry. I LOVED the drag queen episode! RuPaul was the guest judge and I had just watched her on Tori & Dean also! I wasn't digging her wig on PR though, but JMHO. The challenge was to simplify things but have high impact. I had to do my BOM challenge for AllyScraps also which was to scrap about something you were proud of so I combined the two. I like it, but it is so not my usual style that sometimes I think it is just horrid. Can't decide. I AM proud about not smoking. More so than not drinking.



Now this was originally my PR week 6 entry but decided I could simplify even more. This photo probably has much more 'high impact' though. I really like the simplicity of it and it took no time to make. That's my cousins oldest daughter Emerson. Isn't she beautiful! She is always chewing on her hair. Auntie Susan is TRYING to get her to twirl her hair instead. Not so hard on the ends as chewing. lol




This was my entry for week 3 of Project Runway at SIS TV. We were suppose to do a page about our scrapping style and who we were as a scrapper. Used some of my fav manufacturers and stuff: Glitz, Elsie, lace cs, HS, Junkitz and Core'dinations combined with my fav colors of Cerulean blue, Red, Hot Pink, Black and White and some silly pics of me from NSD 2008. I've always had a love for animal prints too along with skullies and cheeries.




Remember all that doodling you used to do in class down the side of your notebooks when you were suppose to be paying attention in class? Well, that was my inspiration for this doodle challenge. I thought 'why not doodle the whole thing' and that is what I did. It was so much FUN!!! Now all my friends want one! lol I've actually already done another but I'll show it to you later. I just finished it tonight and haven't scanned it yet. This was a challenge over at Tallyscrappers.



My Crack: I love me some Coca~Cola or Dr. Pepper. I quit once and then started back again. Wish I hadn't. It's hard to stop again. I try not to buy it for home now which helps. This was for a Gutter Girlz challenge that I didn't get in on time. I had fun playing with that magic mesh and it is self-adhesive.



So that's it. I've got some ATC's to post later and my Tally Olympics layouts so check back!

8-16-08

So what a day yesterday was!
Madonna turned 50!
It was the anniversary of Elvis's death.
Michael Phelps became the first person to ever win 8 medals in one Olympic games.
All 8 of those medals were Gold.
7 of his wins were World Records!!!
What a day! I never really thought much about the 'where were you when history was happening' until September 11th happened. Now there are other historical events in life that I remember as well. Last night, watching that final race will be one of those times for me, and many others I am sure.

So here is my latest Project Runway inspired scrappy projects:
Week 5 entry for Project Catwalk. Since Brook Shields was on the show, and we all know that NOTHING comes between her and her Calvin's, we were challenged to make a wall hanging at least 4"x6" with denim as our main ingredient. At first I was thinking "NO WAY"! I didn't have a clue as to what to do. I'm not a huge altered person. But then I was leaving some gallery love on one of my boards and saw a wall hanging and it just came to me what to do. For once I was happy with my big butt because my pocket on the jeans was 6"x6"! I rather liked how it turned out in the end and it went together fairly easy also.





This was for Week 4 of Project Catwalk at SIS TV. We had to make a mini using Red, White & Blue as the predominant colors, incorporate 4 words from a list of 9-10, and the bonus product was the black and cream labels from Scenic Route. I had these pics printed already from last 4th of July and had wanted to make a mini out of the Scenic Route Liberty papers so this came together in about 4 hours which was shocking to me because I have NEVER done a mini that fast. Luckily, I also had this Maya Road album laying around from a past kit.

Front & Back Cover


1-2


3-4


5-6


7-8


9-10


11-12


13-14


15-16

A little late...

So yesterday was 8-8-08. Supposedly a very auspicious date in China hence the start of the Olympic games. I think it was one of the best opening ceremonies I have ever seen. I couldn't believe how detail oriented it was and so uniform in their movements. The sychronicity was just amazing. And the technology used! INCREDIBLE! And then there were the costumes!!! GORGEOUS & STUNNING. They said that no participant did more than one thing. The announcer said that the director joked that they had the people. And that they do. 1.2 Billion people! Wonder if Heidi Swapp is attending the Olympics? LOL Anyway, I copied this tidbit of Olympic information from a weekly email I get from this lady: The Olympic motto is Citicus, Altius, Fortius –a Latin phrase meaning Swifter, Higher, Stronger. The Olympic Creed is “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well.”

Yesterday was another important date for me and I didn't even realize it until late in the day. It was 3 years ago yesterday that I decided I was tired of being tired and should try a new way of life in AA. Although I went back out for one weekend which is about 3 months away, it was certainly the day that changed the last 3 years of my life forever. I can't imagine going back to the life and although alcoholism and addiction is certainly never conquered, I know now that I have fought well!

So this weeks Book of Me prompt at Allyscraps was to scrap about your faith. That was NOT a hard one for me because now it is the central part of who I am. I had a couple of ideas in mind and could have done a couple more, but I'll get to those later. Here are my layouts. The first layout was also for a lift challenge at Allyscraps. My challenge was to lift the ever-so-talented Morag Cutts. Check out her blog in my list to the right. You'll find her original layout HERE. I don't usually like to lift someone almost exactly but I loved what she did with this paper so much that I couldn't resist.



Journaling reads: Words cannot begin to describe the feelings in my heart as I sometimes ponder how much my life has changed, how far I've come, & how much there is yet to discover. And though I'm not sure where my journey may take me next, I'll know I'll owe it to the Grace of God.




The journaling is from the Martina McBride song "Anyway". I'm not a country fan AT ALL but I love the lyrics to this song and the minute I heard them I knew I would be using them to scrap. I chose just to use the chorus:

God is great
But sometimes life ain't good.
And when I pray
It doesn't always turn out like I think it should
I do it anyway!

So I think that is it for tonight. It's storming out. Nana and I are feeling better although she is still coughing a LOT! I have an AA thingy in the morning with some speakers from Tulsa that I am super excited to hear. I saw Michael Phelps win his first Olympic Gold Medal tonight and I teared up. I'm in awe of these athletes and the dedication it takes to get there, let alone win a medal. And their BODIES! Dang! And when they play the National Anthem, I remember that I'm proud to be an American. Go team USA!!!

Sicky

So Nana and I are sick. Nana has had a hacky cough for a WEEK! I've got sinus issues again. I ALWAYS have sinus issues. Since the day I popped out of the womb I think. Anyway, I've still been scrapping a bit. I have some layouts to scan that I'll post later tonight or tomorrow. I made this ATC for extra points for the Project Catwalk challenge. You had to watch webisode #78 HERE and then make an ATC. I like the way my turned out. Tonight I have to make a mini for the contest. Don't think THAT is going to happen by 10 tonight. We will see.

Exhausted

So I spent the entire weekend reading pretty much and sleeping little. I literally could NOT put the book down. There was something going on ALL the time and I had to know how it turned out. I know some people read the book by Saturday. I'm not that fast of a reader. I've never read a book a second time but I think I will go back and read these again so I can remember more of them. I've always wanted to do that with the Harry Potter books also. So now that I am done with the book I'm a little sad today. She definately wrapped up all the lose ends for me and I feel closure, but I would be happy if she just continued writing about them. lol Guess I will just have to wait for "Midnight Sun" to come out!!! Oh how I love losing myself in a book, but I really hate it when I enter the mourning phase.

Anyway, I'll quit babbling on about the ending of my fantasy romance and show you last weeks entry for Project Catwalk at SIS. The challenge was to do a layout about our scrap style, who we were as a scrapbooker. I had the perfect picture (after a little cropping and editing ;) ) and picked my fav. bright colors and of course some wild pattern thrown in for good measure. This layout came together really fast amazingly. Used some fun embellies from a few companies I love and below is the final project.



So I have ATC's that I MUST finish up and get in the mail so that is what I will be working on tonight. Have a great Monday!

Wasting time...

until Midnight that is! Then I'm off to Wal-Mart to buy Breaking Dawn. I just spent the last hour (literally) searching thru these blog templates hoping to give mine a new look. Only really liked a couple of them and so when I finally gave up and picked one and tried it it was AWFUL!!! I liked the design but my layouts looked absolutely HORRID! LOL! I AM going to make a header for this ol' blog here but who knows when I will get around to that.

So, I think that is it tonight. I thought I had a layout of two to show you but I can't remember which one now so I guess I will just have to go MAKE one! Catch ya' later.