Many, many, many layouts

Here are 42 of the 43 layouts that I did at my last retreat in January 2010. Hope you enjoy!

layout of the day Jan 19th

This layout is of my hubby Bruce packing up some dishes in our kitchen in Weston FL. Getting ready for the move to GA.

Jan 18th layout of the day

This layout is a couple of pics of my step son Michael. Bruce has no idea where or when he took this but I am going thru an old album that I have of pics and decided to do this layout anyway. Maybe Michael will remember where he was... who knows they are good pics though.

Jan 17th layout of the day

My dad always had boots around the house and my sister and I when we would fight would chase each other around the house with his boots acting like we were going to hit each other with them. Ya I know not real nice but we were kids. Oh ya we would not do it if dad was home. Big trouble that way! So, after my dad died for Christmas that year we pulled out his boots and put him on and remembered what we used to do to each other as kids. Boy do I wish we would have kept them but we donated them. Good memories!

Layout a day...

So remember my new years resolution, to do a page a day. Well, yesterday was the first day I felt up to doing a quick page. I will be posting that layout and the quick one I did today also. In just a little bit. Going to take a brake first and go get my days of our lives fix first. Be back soon with the photos.

ideas for wedding invite for my sis (from Archivers)

Here is a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 card that has a wedding photo size of photo is 2x3 wallet size. and on the inside I would put reception info and the response cards, registry info ect.

James lost his first tooth!

So for a few weeks James tooth has been loose and just before it came loose we niticed that his adult tooth was already coming in behind the baby tooth. So finaly tonight after messing with it for a while and then leaving it alone till after dinner I gave it one oush to the side and out it came. How cool! James was so excited and wanted to call his dad right away but he got his voicemail and now is sad that he didn't tell daddy. Here is the photo! James is no longer my baby he is in school and doing well and now he has lost his first baby tooth! I am so proud of him.

Where has the days gone so far....

I cannot believe it is the 15th already. So have I stuck to my resolution? NO! I have not but I do have a good reason! I had surgery on the 31st of December but thought I would be good to go and be able to scrap. Ya right. It is supper painful to sit in a reg chair yet without having my feet up. So for now I have been looking at blogs, watching youtube videos ect . But hope to soon be able to get back into scrappin. I am going on my first retreat at the end of the month and I am sure I more than make up for it. I thought that I would be 28 down and then another 40 or so from the retreat but no such luck. Oh well, we will see how many I do get done and cought up. To be continued......

Stampin Up new products review!

First, I would like to thank PaperCrafters Corner for picking me as a member of their new Product Review Team. I would also like to thank Stampin' Up for the opportunity to review some of their new products.Items I was provided to use and review: Vintage Vogue stamp set, clear blocks F, D, B & H, and the corner scallop punch.

When I first heard that Stampin' Up was introducing unmounted stamps, I was excited but confused. How would I be able to see the image I was going to stamp? I knew that the new stamps would be traditional SU rubber but for use with clear acrylic stamping blocks and I didn't "get" how that would work.
As it turns out, Stampin' Up had a great solution! The new stamps come with a clear sticker to put on the back of your stamp so you can see just what and where you are stamping. It is a bit tricky to get the labeling sticker on just right... In fact, I have yet to get any perfectly lined up, but close enough :)
Have I mentioned the cases for the stamps yet? They are great! They are the size of a DVD case and also have the pictures of the stamps right on them so you will always know what stamp goes with each set. I know I will love that feature. Sometimes if I am using more than one set at a time I have to go back to the catalog to make sure I am storing each stamp back with the correct set. (That's one great thing about stamps -- mixing and matching designs from several sets to create your own unique project!)

Now let's see how they stamp. Wow, do they stamp great! They stamp just as well as if they were mounted on the wood. I am on the fence about whether I prefer the wood or the clear mount. The wood mounts are "easier" in that you do not have to go find a block to put the stamps on. However, I LOVE how you can almost see through the stamp, which allows you to know where you are stamping.

Now onto the punch. This pattern on the punch is really cute! After testing, though, I have to say that I think the punch could be a little better designed. This is hard to describe, but I had a hard time lining the punch up just right with the edge of my paper. Even using the image guide on the bottom of the punch, it was tough to line up perfectly to avoid having extra paper hanging-off the edge of my paper after punching. (A quick snip from my precision scissors took care of the hanging paper, though, easily enough.)
On the plus side, this punch folds clamps shut for storage, allowing for some space-savings. The folding mechanism is very sturdy and easily opens & closes for use or storage.
But enough talk.

Here are a couple of projects I made using the products: This first card I made using versa mark and one stamp on the green paper, the F block, and the Friend stamp.

The second card I made using the corner punch on the brown and pattern paper. I also used the long stamp and the flower stamp.

Goal for 2010!

I wanted to do this for 2009, but it didn't go as planned. It started out well but like most new years resolutions it faded. This year I hope to do it.

So what is it you may ask?

1 layout per day. I will do one scrapbook page per day. So that means that I will have at least 365 layouts done this coming year.

Starting will be hard since I will have surgery on Dec 31st this year. But I hope to layout all I need for a few layouts till I am able to lift again. I am also going on a retreat at the end of January so that should get me ahead of the ball since I will be missing a week due to a 7 night cruise in February.

Wish me luck.

Anyone want to take this challenge with me? IF so let me know!

Large Store N Spin review

After seeing a couple of my fellow scrapbook friends with the Large Store N Spin and hearing how much they love the item I decided to break down and get it for myself.

Here is what I have found. The site is a bit hard to find. Currently many of the colors are out of stock. However, I did find a color I do like, the pink with green trim. When the package finally arrived I was so excited to open it and start filling. You need to put the fabric over the bucket yourself. This is not hard to do it has velcro. I started with my pens and then moved on to the items that I had in my old spin storage system. After doing this here are some of my thoughts. As of any item that you purchase it is not custom fit to you. For me it seems some of the pockets are a bit large and some a bit small. So far it about half full with all of the items that I had in my old storage system. So that is a huge plus for me. The biggest downside to the store n spin is it doesn't have a single hand handle. It has the holes for a handle bot not included (it is included on the smaller store n spin. However, you can pick it up with both hands at the handle locations. I am thinking of a way to make a handle so stay tuned to what I come up with and if it works! The best part about the store n spin is all the places to put things, no more keeping my glitter pends in a pouch and digging for a color they each have their own space now. Should make for quicker scrapbooking or should I say tool finding!