Creating Keepsakes has just come out with a new book and if you leave me a comment on this post by Sunday night at 11:59 pm, I will be randomly selecting one person to give a book away to. I'll announce the winner Monday morning. So now for the book details:
The incredibly talented 2007 Scrapbooker of the year, Elizabeth Kartchner, has written a book called 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges. It is a sequel to the original book called 52 Scrapbooking Challenges. Here is a picture of the cover:
You can order a copy of the book here, where you'll also find a link to more layouts from the book. Or, if you want an early Christmas gift, you can win one on my blog or any of the other Dream Team members blogs (see links on left). CK is also giving away THREE AUTOGRAPHED copies of the book on their blog.
This book is truly amazing and inspirational. Not only do I love Elizabeth's whimsical, colorful scrapbooking style, but the book is full of great ideas on how to get over the challenges we all face in scrapbooking. I loved one of her chapters about how to scrap imperfect photos. Not that any photo of Elizabeth's cute family could be anything but perfect, but she gives great examples on how to highlight imperfect shots. Another favorite chapter of mine is the one about techniques. The artists show you all kinds of innnovative ways to make the most of your supplies by creating your own embellishments. Some of my favorite scrappers are contributors to the book including Cindy Tobey, Mou Saha, Kelly Purkey and Maggie Holmes.
Have a great day!!!!! Suzy
When I met my husband 13 years ago, I was an intermediate skier who was pretty competent on the slopes. Tom had only skied once at age seven. Apparently his lesson didn't go well because he was so traumatized that he never wanted to try it again.
While we were dating, we went to Big Bear and Tom took skiing lessons so we could ski together. We took our first trip to Whistler right after we got married and that was the second and last time I skied with Tom. Until last Saturday...
For Thanksgiving, we often go to Whistler with the kids. For years I was always pregnant or taking care of the girls, so Tom and Thane (and sometimes Jordan) would go skiing together. This became a really special day for the girls and I because we would do all the things the boys didn't like to do (sushi, toy store, candy store, ice skate, etc...).
This year, Tom wanted the whole family to ski. He remembered those romantic days of us skiing on the slopes together and really wanted me with him. He felt it was about time for the girls to learn too. I tried to tell him I thought it was too expensive and the hassle factor would not make it worth it, but he didn't want to take any more excuses.
So we booked lessons for the girls and purchased all of us lift tickets the night before to save time. Cost of one lift ticket = $99. We even picked up our skis that night - again, to make the day a little less stressful to assure we would have fun and get our "money's worth". I was horrified at the cost for one day of skiing for five. Horrified!!! But I knew this was important to Tom, so I kept all my horrific thoughts inside of me and was determined to have a great day.
We woke up Saturday morning to SNOW!!! This was the only day on our week vacation that it actually snowed, so we were quite excited! We all got ready early and headed out to have the best day ever! This is getting long, so I will describe the rest of our exciting day in an abbreviated manner (with pictures of course):
Chloe's pants too small. Snowing and no goggles for girls. Two pairs of goggles = $62. Mama runs all over village - no kids pants. Ski school starting. Chloe upset. Mama running to more stores in heavy snow. Mama starting to hate snow. Mama sweating in five layers of clothes. Mama finds a discount store. Cost of children's pants = $55 (normally $129!!!). Tom mad at Mama for not buying pants at home for $25. Mama runs to ski school and drops off pants just in time. Thane yelling at mama for taking so long!??!! Pants too big. Chloe not happy.
Stand in LONG line. Get on gondola. Too crowded - 10 people packed in. Suzy thinks gondola will fall. Tom says gondola fell in Whistler last year. Same mountain. Same gondolas. Suzy tries not to have anxiety attack. Tom looks funny in his mask. Thane looks like a ninja in his. Suzy's OLD goggles too fogged over to see much of anything.
Time to perform. Green runs never looked this steep before. Tom has gotten good in past 10 years. Tom at bottom of hill watching Suzy lose control on way down. This is NOT like riding a bike. Suzy no longer knows how to french fry and pizza. Suzy scared. Suzy's legs are burning. Suzy takes an hour to get down. Thane and Tom wait patiently...
Stop for lunch. Suzy tells boys to go without her so she can rest. Boys call and are having fun without Suzy. Boys go down again. Suzy patiently waiting. Suzy bored. Nothing to do. So cold! Goes to bathroom. Takes pictures of herself in bathroom. Suzy REALLY bored.
Boys call. Went down wrong way. At a different lift. Must go down AGAIN without me! Lucky boys. Poor me. Boys call. Too late to go down again. Suzy only went down TWO times all day for $100! Suzy rides gondola down by herself and picks up girls. Chloe so happy to see mama. Sophie annoyed with entire day. Girls don't want to ever ski again. At this point, neither does mama.
Boys call. Lost. Took wrong gondola back to village. Don't know where they are. Very annoyed. Catch a city bus back to village. Takes another 30 mins. Girls wait patiently.
Total cost for day = $$$too high to mention. Total stress for day = too high to mention. Tom's plans for next year? No girls allowed. Dang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I plan on going to Big Bear by myself this winter to RELEARN to ski. I refuse to succumb to old age. I know I can be the snow bunny that my husband fell in love with again. If I can afford it...
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all! More vacation updates this week. Lots of pictures to share! Suzy
I've fallen in love with a new line. Bella Blvd was one of the sponsors for the CK Dream Team, so I was sent some lovely papers to work with. Then last week, another box arrived with their two newest lines. I was so excited about their generosity, but also about the incredible products they have! These two lines are just adorable. Of course I had to start working with them immediately! Even the packaging is irresistible and must be used on your pages!
This layout is made with December Details, a colorful Christmas line that is both bold and whimsical. It includes five papers, letter stickers, a full 12x12 sticker sheet, a sheet of die cuts, flowers and stamps. Everything you need to make layouts, cards and gift tags. All I needed to add to this layout was cardstock and ribbon! I know it is a bit busy, but I couldn't stop adding stuff!
This layout is made using the Honey I'm Home line which has my favorite things in it - little cottages and owls. Again, this line has all the elements to put together pages fast! This one only took about 30 minutes. I just added some ribbon and it was complete!
The girls and I are going to use all my leftovers to make some gift tags for Christmas. Thank you Bella Blvd for the amazing products - I had so much fun working with them! If you go to the link, you can see all of their adorable products!
Check out the Creating Keepsakes Blog today. They showed my layout (below) that is in the December issue. I made these trees with flocking and sequins/rhinestones. Super easy to make (directions in the magazine). Megan also shows a really cute idea making tags using pop dots.
Have a great day! It is time to get myself in the Christmas spirit - Santa is already at the mall! Suzy
Here is a picture of the scrapbook products I will send one of my blog readers:
There are lots of MAMBI and Maya Road products as well as some others thrown in. Lots of good stuff! Just leave a comment on the last blog post by MONDAY AT 11:59 p.m.! I will randomly "draw" one winner on Tuesday morning and mail the product out that day!
Thanks every one for your wonderful feedback about Creating Keepsakes magazine. I have so enjoyed reading all the comments and I know the CK Editors will appreciate them as well! And thank you for all the congrats!!! Suzy
The girls just cracked me up this year! The good news was, I didn't have to spend a penny on their costumes. Sophie and her best friend dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2. We got the adorable costumes from our neighbor - thank you Laura!
Chloe wanted to be a boy. A boy? My girlie girl wanted to be a boy? So we pulled out all of Thane's old clothes from the attic and this is what she decided to wear. Don't mess with Texas! People were laughing so hard when they saw her. She only wears pink and she has such long hair, so it was a bit of a shock!
Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeen for the last time! I guess I have to move on to other things now... Thing 1: Thanksgiving. Thing 2: Christmas. So scary that they are both just around the corner! Where does time go? Happy Tuesday! Suzy
All carved by my very talented husband! He does these every year and every year they get better. The neighbors all come over to see what he has created. And (drum roll please), here they are:
Of course he had to do a pumpkin in memory of Michael Jackson this year:
And what would Halloween 2009 be without a reminder of the swine flu?
This one is MAYZIE (thank you for the idea Pam!):
And last, Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas:
Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen Everyone!!! :) Suzy AND Tom!
Happy Halloween to all my blog reading friends! The girls and I had a really fun time (while we were home sick) making this Halloween Banner to hang on our fireplace. We used my NEW Slice to cut the letters - love that thing! And lots of Halloween stickers and products by MAMBI, Little Yellow Bicycle and Making Memories.
Here are two layouts showing the girls costumes last year. It might have been our last Halloween to buy costumes at Party City. Chloe was a Halloween Starlet, complete with her foofoo dog Coco. Transparencies by Hambly and stickers are by Making Memories and Doodlebug Designs. This was in the October issue of Creating Keepsakes.
I made this page last night. I LOVE LOVE LOVE candy corn. And all season I have been trying to find it and no one has any! Finally found some last night and I've eaten way too much in the past 12 hours. Here is my cute little Sophie as a candy corn last year. Papers are by My Minds Eye and Heidi Grace, chipboard letter stickers are by Little Yellow Bicycle, and chipboard embellishments are by Making Memories, My Minds Eye and MAMBI.
HOPE EVERY ONE HAS A HAPPY HALLOWEEN and only gets treats this year! Suzy
