putting on the glitz

some projects made with
glitz design's
very cool digital/printable cd's.

Saying Goodbye

this was our weekend. we spent it saying goodbye. i'm sitting here trying to think of what to say about it. and all i can think to write is that it was hard. we enjoyed every last minute of the time we had together, and in six short (hopefully) months we'll be celebrating a homecoming.

so to quote something emma said on the way home last night, "it's just really hard. but we can do it. we can do our jobs with good teamwork and togetherness."

thank you for your kind words and prayers.

journaling: five deployments. two and a half years. i’m not sure how it came so quickly but it did none the less. this was by far the hardest goodbye we have to say. maybe it’s because the girls understand just how long six months is, or maybe it’s just because deployments are just plain hard and we really miss you

supplies: paper: (cream & overlay) wedding kit, karen foster design for pclayers.com; (turquoise & orange) heidi kit, melissa shupe for pclayers.com; flourish brush: jack brushes, celeste rockwood-jones for pclayers.com; fonts: bleeding cowboy (dafont.com) and bookman (microsoft)

happy thanksgiving
from the turkeys

Live Life Daily

it comes and goes so quickly, too quickly. as thanksgiving is sneaking up on me, and my husband's fifth deployment looms just beyond that... i can't help but remember that the best thing about life is that it comes one day at a time... and there is so, so, so much to be thankful for!

i have an amazing husband, who is faithfully serving his country. he is heading out before christmas so that service men & women will be able to be home with their families in time for christmas after their long deployment. he does his job with integrity. he is an amazing father, husband and provider. he loves me and our girls.

i have two healthy, happy, hilarious daughters. they constantly remind me of the beauty in life. they love purely. they laugh often. they play together. they are helpful. they are mine.

i live in the most beautiful place on the planet. i have a hobby i love, and the time and means to do it. i get to stay at home and raise my girls. i get to volunteer at their school. i live near my family. i have an amazing church and church family. i am part of something bigger than myself.

there is so much to be thankful for... those are just a few of mine. (and now i'll have something to look back to on a day i'm not feeling particularly thankful!)

Page Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill Basics; patterned paper: Stampin’ Up; Stamps: Autumn Leaves and Stampin Up; Ink: StazOn and Stampin’ Up; Tab: CK OK; Coaster: Imagination Project; Rub ons: Chatterbox (white) and Lasting Impressions (brown); Tag: Stampin Up; Pen: Sharpie

Hurray for Liz!

I am so excited to say congratulations to my friend, Elizabeth Kartchner, who won Creating Keepsakes Magazine's Scrapbooker of the Year!!! The winner was announced in Las Vegas in September... and she is debuting on the cover of CK in January. (The issue should be hitting the shelves in the next week or two, I'm guessing.) She is such an amazing person! Talented, kind hearted, hilarious, and so much more!

CK is changing up the look of the magazine in January... click here to see some of the changes. The colors on the cover are great! I'm totally in love with the combo! I can't wait to seen the new articles, especially the new Jessica Sprague article!

On a smaller note... my first published layout will be in January's issue... and I'm so excited!

Love & Affection

for my layout-a-day self challenge the inspiration came from the anthropologie home page... one of the links under my inspiration bookmarks in firefox. with my layouts i almost always start with picking out the picture, this was no exception. the grumpy expression totally cracks me up. and the silly quote from brian andreas seems to fit quite well.

supplies: tiny dancer kit and anticipation brushes by deena rutter for pcLayers.com; fonts: fling (linotype.com) and copperplate gothic light (microsoft)

flowers & dirt

here is another layout i did for my self-inflicted daily challenge. i love this set of pics of my youngest. scrolling through the picture file you see a rapid and drastic mood change, which totally showcases her at this age... and gives me flashbacks (probably for my mom too!) of myself at that age. :)

the journaling reads:
oh emma, your face says it all. you are not at all happy. but what the picture doesn’t show is the moment just before, and the moment just after this sad moment. what happened? you may be surprised to remember that you were as happy as a clam! oh i can get so frustrated, right up until i remember that you are a little carbon copy of me. this was exactly like me at this age... and for many years following! so don’t lose hope when you’re having a many colored day it will get better... mostly!

supplies: all page supplies: heidi kit from pclayers.com; fonts: caligraphica (dafont.com) and garamond (microsoft)

it's coming fast...

no, not christmas, deployment! my dh is getting ready to take off in a few weeks. i finally started an (and finished one) album. this album is for his flight suit. it's mad with custom luggage tags by c-line products they are so cool. they're sticky type luggage tags that laminate themselves. very cool! i made this album to go in the pocket of stan's flight suit. it's small and flat and water resistant. it is bound using the zutter's bind it all! oh my gosh!!! i LOVE my new bind it all! :)











for "always" i used the new foil glitter flock rub ons by we r memory keepers

supplies: patterned paper: stampin' up; card stock: bazzill; luggage tags: c-line products; flocked rub ons: we r memory keepers; glitter alpha: making memories; flourish rub ons: american crafts; phrase rub ons: creative imaginations, creative cafe; other: bind it all

ckc seattle

i went to my fifth ckc this past weekend... my fourth in seattle (well, bellevue, really). on thursday night ali edwards came to my local scrapbook store, lasting memories in lynnwood. it was awesome to get to see her again... she's so fun & spunky. ali did a lecture style class at the store, where she talked about some of her life art philosophy. totally inspiring & fun!

i spent friday down a ckc seattle. i took a couple of classes, one with basic grey and one with brittaney beattie from ck. (it was great to finally get a chance to meet her!) the highlight of the day was definitely the ck message board lunch... we'd planned to take over some tables, but that wasn't meant to be... so we grabbed a section of carpet and had a great time! it was so great to see everyone in real life! the shopping was fun! i came home with a bunch of stuff... i'm really excited about all of the acrylic mini albums i was able to pick up!

my super cute scrapworks bag complete with my ali book signing number. i forgot my book at home so i just waited to visit and get a pic. :)

the very fun ali...
this time i had heels and she had flats...
so i'm only like six inches shorter!

a bunch of the lasting memories girls with ali
i just love going down there! they are all so sweet & fun...
not to mention the amazing store selection!!!

i also got a chance to see my very cool norwegian s.o.y. (scrapbooker of the year finalist) buddy ingunn again! she is the cover girl (layout designer) for the december issue of ck! so here she is autographing it for me!

i also got to take a class with two of my ckmb buddies joscie and erica. we had a blast! those girls are SO funny!!! i wish we had classes together all day! (although the people forced to sit around us may not have agreed!)

here we are at the ckmb lunch we planned.
everyone was great... we laughed a lot... and scared a poor high school kid for life as he tried (with much assistance) to take pics for us!
and a quick shout out to the ckc guy who made the announcement for us! if you ever by some strange chance stop by this blog... know you are very appreciated!!!

is it a new day yet?

so if it's 1:17am pacific standard time... it's technically a new day, right? lol! here is another layout that i did tonight with some pcLayers stuff. so i'm thinking i've got tomorrow (well, technically today) taken care of for my self-inflicted one-a-day layout challenge.

these pictures are from the day or two before halloween. and it sent me into a total flash back of my childhood. my mom would do my sister's and my hair up in curlers and take before & after pics. maybe i'll try to dig up some "vintage" pics of my sisiter and me...

supplies from blossom kit by celeste rockwood-jones for pcLayers.com
fonts: times new roman (microsoft) and selfish (dafont.com)

finding time...

these are a couple of pages i've made for a contest on pcLayers. i'd like to challenge myself to make one page each day... although with all that's going on right now, i'm not sure how long i'll be able to make it! but i'm feeling pretty good today... two days, two layouts! so far, that's a 100% success rate!!!

i really should be working on christmas projects and a few albums for my hubby to take overseas with him when he goes... but there is always tomorrow, right? or late tonight...

anyway, i just wanted to share a couple of the pages i've worked on here in the last couple of days. :)

all page supplies are from pcLayers. fonts: (top layout) fling downloaded from linotype.com and bookman old style. (bottom layout) dearest downloaded from dafont.com and garamond.