Hi.

Hi. My name is Sue. I scrap. And apparently, I don't blog.

:D

This past weekend was the latest and greatest Scrapbooker Online retreat. I got very little sleep. I did scrap a lot. I also ate a lot of REALLY good food. And I was in Maine, so I ate lobster. Twice. Yum. Time to start counting the days until the next retreat. I miss all the sistas already.

JOIN OUR BLOG PARTY!

Everyday Digital Scrapbooking Blog is the leader in bringing you innovative tutorials and the hippest trends of the scrapbook industry.


Help us celebrate the first of many birthdays with a fabulous BLOG PARTY!

To participate in our October 1st-5th BLOG PARTY, create a digital or hybrid layout with a technique to share with us and have a chance to win a spot and reign as our Guest Team Member for 3 months!



How to participate and win: from October 1st to October 5th upload to your blog or gallery a digital or hybrid layout showcasing your favorite technique and include instructions.

Please make sure to include your instructions -instructions are very important here. Then leave a link to your layout with its' instructions on our blog during our birthday week. You can create and post as many technique tutorials as you like during our Birthday Week October 1st -5th.



The EDS team will choose one of our favorite layouts that includes instructions and pick a winner as our GUEST TEAM MEMBER!

The guest team member will reign for 3 months: November 2007 through January 2008. The Guest Team Member will receive all the benefits as our full-time Creative Team, and will be responsible for contributing at least two tutorials per month to the blog during their reign. They will also be featured in our newsletter which is sent out to almost 1000 persons world-wide.



Come visit and tell your friends to party with us at Everyday Digital Scrapbooking Blog!

(Pssst - don't forget our REALLY BIG! free kit that will be in our newsletter our birthday week!)

Be sure to join us October 1st - 5th every day for our Big Birthday Bash!




Credits: (all items from the EDS Birthday Kit)

Background and ribbon: Amy Duquette

Number & flowers: Sarah B. Meyer

Stickers: Julie Kelley

Coming soon to the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking Blog!

It's time to plan your escape!!!

It's not too late.....Scrapbooker Online is sponsoring a fabulous weekend retreat at the Meadowmere Resort in Ogunquit, Maine. The retreat will be Friday November 16 – Sunday November 18, 2007. Come meet some fellow scrapbookers, learn some new techniques from the SBO Design Team, and get lots of scrapping done with all those pictures you have piling up at home.

It's not too late to sign up. Check out this link for more information: SBO Retreat. We had an absolute blast at the retreat back in March, and we'd love to have more people join in on the fun. I will be teaching another fabulous layout class, and there will be other classes, prizes, contests, as well as the SBO inventory on hand! So why are you still reading this? Check out the link above.

Another year.....

Yesterday was my birthday. I had to stop and think how old I was. I'm now in my mid-30's, and honestly I don't feel that old. I tell people that except for my stretch marks, I feel like I did in college.

I'm working on a few projects for Scrapbooker Online using some photos from my first birthday, here's a cute one. Everything about my party was Raggedy Ann and Andy. I think everything about my 1-year-old life was about Raggedy Ann and Andy.

Monday again...

Apparently, Mondays are my blogging days. Hopefully I'll think about blogging on other days once in a while.

This is a hybrid purse that I made for a tutorial for the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking Blog. I totally LOVE how this came out. Check out the tutorial HERE. All of the digital elements are from the Raspberry Marmalade kit by Carrie Stephens for Scrapbook Dimensions magazine. (given to the first 500 subscribers).

A day to get things done.

I have really been neglecting my scrapbooking lately. I've been waiting until the last minute to get things done, and I'm behind on other projects. Well today, I managed to clear some of the backlog. I finished and packed two circle journals to send along to Canada, packed up four RAK's for some SBO sistas, cleaned out some of my old DT kit materials, and I even did a little organizing and floor sweeping! Of course, I now have a whole bunch of ideas I want to play around with, so it's all going to be topsy-turvy again very soon.

I did start using my art journal today, finally. It's got a sketch in it for a Memory Makers magazine call, a quote ("There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going." - Beverly Sills), and a list of the last 6 art card prompts from Emily Falconbridge's blog that I wrote about in my previous post. I really really want to do all of them, I so love art cards!

Theoretically, next week at this time, the Memory Makers Masters will know who they are. Eeep.

just another Manic Monday

It is humid today. Blech. But it's not warm enough yet for the AC to kick on. And I'm too cheap to turn the temp down so it turns on. So, just hoping it warms up a bit so I can cool down. Yeah, that makes sense. :P

I am totally inspired by Emily Falconbridge's Art Card Challenge that she's been presenting on her blog. I'm bummed that I only just discovered this. I am going to find me a deck of playing cards and start working on these! I love little pieces of art. I took her canvas class at CKU last summer, and she is so fun, so casual and so creative. And she has a gorgeous new little baby with those cheeks I just want to squeeze!

We finally posted some pics from our trip last week, here's one of me and Perrin at Lost River.

I......am on vacation.

We'll actually be home tomorrow, but we have been blessed with wireless internet access at our hotel. And, of course, I brought my laptop ( you know, to offload digi pics from the camera if we need more space, and of course to get my internet fix. :D ) Seriously, how did our parents travel with us as kids without portable DVD players and air conditioning? I honestly don't know how they survived without throttling us.

We are in fact having a fabulous time. :) Tomorrow we'll be sleeping late, eating a big breakfast out (one of my favorite things about being on vacation), picking up some souvenirs and heading home. I will need this weekend to recover and do laundry.

Oh, and I did manage to get my MMM entry done and mailed the day before the postmark due date. I forgot to bring my USPS receipt with me so I can't look up the delivery confirmation. That will have to wait until I get home.

planning, packing, stressing.

This week, I am going on vacation. Now generally, to most people, that's not a very profound statement. But this is the first time we are going on vacation all together as a family. Not Eric and I dropping off the kids for a weekend away, not me and Perrin and my mom jet setting to a conference, but all of us packing up the car and heading to New Hampshire. I am stressed about it because Eric has me planning everything, and he can be so OCD about things sometimes. At least we have someone to come feed the cat while we're gone.

MMM update: I have 3 of the 5 layouts completely done and documented. #4 is in process, and I have a few already done that I may choose one as #5. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized after reading the rules that the entry has to be postmarked by July 31st, not arrive there by July 31st. So, I do not have to overnight my entry on Monday as I rush to get everything done at the last minute. I can leisurely mail it on Tuesday after I rush to get everything done at the last minute. I am totally in love with my theme layout, it's too bad that is the one that I have to send the actual layout.

Book update: I finished Harry Potter Book 1. Nice easy read. I loved reading all the little details that were not in the movie. I've now started on Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. It's a book designed for service consultants to develop a brand and build a client base that you love, and that is the spot I'm in right now with my business. I've read through the first chapter, and I like that it has exercises and assignments for you to do, rather than just a pure read.

Now, I will return to my regularly scheduled stressing.

TGIF!

It's Friday, and I have a ton of things to do today and through the weekend. I've got a list of scrap-related things a mile long, then add work-related and home-related, and I can't see the end of it. So in the interest of at least keeping my blog semi active, I'm taking a quick break to write, even though I really should be doing about 300 other things.

I started Harry Potter Book 1 yesterday. I spent about an hour in the afternoon and an hour last night, and I'm about 2/3 of the way through. I have seen the movie, so I knew the general premise, but it is fun to read all of the details that weren't included in the movie. It's a very easy read, compared to some other fantasy series I've read, but fun because I know the characters. I picked up Book 2 at BJ's the other day, and I'll be adding that onto my book queue.

I've decided, at the very last minute, that I want to enter the Memory Makers Masters contest. The entries need to be received by Tuesday. So, I have until Monday morning to get my entry done then overnighted. It's not as bad as it sounds, I have my theme layout done, 2 more definitely completed layouts, and a few others that I'm on the fence on. So I need to create a maximum of two layouts. Not sure when the heck I'm going to work on it, I'm going to my niece and nephew's birthday party tomorrow, so I need to make 2 cards and a present that I've had an idea for.

My dear friend Maryfrances, owner of Scrapbooker Online, had her 40th birthday party this week. The sistas created pages for this fabulous album that she received yesterday. You are a wicked awesome gal MF!

Oh dear......

My poor poor neglected blog......I'm sorry to have ignored you for so long. I promise to show you more love! Really!

I've decided to create a book queue. I have so many books that I want to read, and I pick up new books here and there, flip through them occasionally, then forget about them. So, here's the current line up:

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - yes, I am the only person on the face of the planet that has not read this series. I've had the book for months, and kept putting it off, so it's on the top of the pile. I saw the Order of the Phoenix in the theater last week, and I think that was the kick I needed to get reading.

2. Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port - technically, I don't have this book yet, it's in route from Amazon.com. However, it's next on the list as I work on my business.

3. The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer - I've already read this book, but it's one of those books that you keep reading and keep learning from. And I have lots to learn about sales and marketing.

4. Organizing From the Inside Out by Julia Morgenstern - My whole life needs organizing, and I need help.

5. Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan - Book 6 in the Wheel of Time series.

The SBO Fiesta NSD Cyber-Crop!

Are you stocked up on adhesive? Got someone to watch the kids? It's time for the Scrapbooker Online NSD Fiesta crop! Jump on into the fun HERE. We'll have a chat Friday night, then games and challenges and sketches and PRIZES all weekend! Check out this mini class by the fabulous Nikki Workman:

I'll be posting my own mini class on using Ranger Distress Inks. Come on down!

Are you ready to CROP?

Save the date, Scrapbooker Online will be holding it's next cyber-crop to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day, May 5th! And since May 5th is Cinco de Mayo, we'll be throwing a fiesta! The cyber-crop will take place over the whole weekend, so if you'll be away for part of the weekend, there will be plenty of games and goodies going on, so stop in and have fun! More details coming soon!

Digi Digi Bo Bigi Banana Fanna Fo Figi

Yes I am feeling silly today.

I played around with some fabulous kits from Rikki Donovan, who is a sponsor for April at the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking blog. I've already made a few layouts with her kits, and I have a bunch more ideas.

Happy Easter!

It's time to clean.....

Yep, I've been putting it off long enough. It's time to clean, purge and organize my creative space. My friends Jeanette and Andie at Scrapbooker Online have challenged all of us to share before pics of our scrap space, then be inspired to get organized!

Now I totally love my space, but it is so not organized, and so not optimized. I have a lot of work to do!

Hybrid.....I took the plunge.

Julie Ann inspired me to go hybrid.....I've done paper, I've done digital, but let me tell you, I am liking this hybrid stuff. I think I need to make more!

Only problem is, I'm out of cyan ink! EEEEEK! No printing for me until I scrounge up the change to buy ink....maybe next week.
This is a hybrid project using the Raspberry Marmalade kit provided as a bonus to my Scrapbook Dimensions subscription. I've used three digital elements in different ways.

The simplest was the photo mat: I took the background_green paper and resized it to 4.5x6.5 and printed it.

The second item was the flower in the upper right corner. This flower was cut from the backgroundTangerine-twist2 paper, and the color changed to a more pinkish hue. I then printed and cut out two of the flowers. I curled the petals and stacked them on top of each other to give a 3D effect.

The third item is the flower in the lower left corner. The petals are cut from the scallop border. I had originally printed and cut the scallop border to use as a border, but I did not cut it very well, and it was uneven. So I used a circle punch to punch out individual pieces from the scalloped border and used them to construct the flower.

Materials:
Cardstock: Bazzill Basics Paper
Patterned Paper: Junkitz
Chipboard Scrolls: Fancy Pants
Ribbon: unknown
Letter Stickers: Provo Craft
Green Acrylic Paint: Adirondack for Ranger
Brad: Hot off the Press
Digital Elements: Raspberry Marmalade Kit by Carrie Stephens (www.fishscraps.com )

It's a scrappy week......

At Scrapbooker Online we are welcoming two new wonderful ladies as Guest Design Team members for the spring: Patty Bartlett and Patti West! I am so psyched to be working with these ladies. And the DT sponsor for April is SEI....let me tell you, the kit is fabulous! And Maryfrances tells me that all of the kit contents will be available for purchase soon.

And only 3 days until the Scrapbooker Online annual retreat in Ogunquit Maine! Not only to meet up with some old scrapping friends and meet some new scrapping friends, but I will be teaching my very first class! The class is "Scrap-Free Scrapbooking", we'll be creating 5 projects from a kit of products, and there won't be a scrap of anything left at the end! I had a fabulous time planning this class, and if it all goes well, I'll offer the class on the Scrapbooker Online University later this year.

I'll also be doing a make and take at the retreat of Ranger Distress Ink techniques. I {heart} Distress Inks, and I've had so many people tell me that they just don't know what to do with them. I really feel these inks are magical, and I'm so excited to share some techniqes with people!

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to bring to the retreat for my own scrapping! I have a few projects set aside that need to be finished, so completing some items that have been sitting around for a while would be a great accomplishment.

Hybrid Scrapbooking

I've done traditional scrapping, and I've done digital, but outside of text and titles, I rarely use digital elements in paper scrapping. Julie Ann Shahin has some fabulous questions and answers about hybrid scrapbooking on her blog this week. I created a hybrid layout for her article, you can see it on her Monday post! It was a lot of fun making some paper elements using digital prints. And you have the benefit of modifying colors to match papers! Check it out!