Creating Keepsakes Convention report

I went to a great Scrapbook Convention yesterday hosted by Creating Keepsakes. There were not as many people there yesterday compared to last year Friday. The economy in our area is poor, we have a huge unemployment number, and retailers are feeling it. I believe it was reflected yesterday in attendance and dollars being spent.

I took two fabulous classes given by SEI Paper Company. I loooooove their papers http://www.shopsei.com and the classes I took were for two great ideas: ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ in layouts and ‘Expand It’…a great way to put more pics on a layout page. When I finish my projects I will share them. I work slowly and did not complete each one in class; but came home with fabulous instructions (in color even) and will have no problem completing them – alone. SEI gives fabulous classes.



This is a picture of one of the classrooms. Everyone is concentrating so hard.




I took this picture because it shows two of my favorite Scrapbook Product Companies. On the Left is Mosaic Moments. I’ve done many mosaic layouts using their easy to use products. On the right is the ScrapRack booth. I have and love their storage system. It’s the best one invented for storing embellishments. http://thescraprack.easystorecreator.com. ( I love the ceiling treatment in this large room).



This picture is of Paulette Jarvey. I got bumped just as took it so sorry for the blurrr (sorry Paulette). Paulette and Sara Naumann host weekly webisodes sharing interesting ideas for scrapbooking/cardmaking. I’ve ordered some productive and fun to use items from Paper Wishes, http://www.paperwishes.com/webisodes

I have more to share and will do so tomorrow. Tonight Daughter and I are attending a large Crop hosted by Creating Keepsakes. I'm going to work on Christmas Cards and she is going to work on invitations to a Baby Shower we are co-hosting.

Bye for now. Make the day count – be kind.

Garage Sale Friday

Hubby and I go garage sale shopping on Fridays when weather and life permits. Hubby enjoys it more than I do. I am a ‘drive by’ garage sale shopper sometimes, if Hubby is not with me. If the first thing I see is baby stuff I sloooooowly approach the house and almost stop in front of it looking to see what they have. This does seem to cause anger in some of the cars behind me so I get honked at occasionaly - not in a flirting way either.

Hubby loves the hunt and taking time to sort thru the ‘stuff’ in garage sales – tools, the man loves tools. But for me it is ‘in and out’ quickly and I want to know I’m going to find a treasure or good buy before I leave my warm comfortable home. Well that’s impossible so it’s stressful and very disappointing to me most of the time. When I do find a good buy or neat treasure I get giddy. Finding Scrapbooking supplies I ‘need’ is truly exciting. I keep reading material in the van to busy myself while hubby hunts. I hear from people “it’s the hunt that’s exciting”. Well for me it’s “the find”!

I enjoy looking at listings on web sites where people advertise their garage sales (I plan our 'attack' by mapping out our route using these ads). Some are very funny to me, and I’ll share those when I find them (in bold). This week’s ‘untouched’ offerings are:

* * * My garbage is your treasure * * * - I’m passing on this one.

This is the garage sale just for you! – Oh yeah…then why are you posting it publicly and not emailing me privately?

Tools Tools Tools - This one is for you Hubby! (gotta make sure I have my new book in vehicle).

Help me clean out this space. Thanks for the invite but I have my own space to clean.


Today I am not going Garage Sale shopping with Hubby. I'm off to a Scrapbooking convention (Creating Keepsakes) yiippee! I packed my camera, money, checks, debit card and my line of credit has been preapproved. (does the government give stimulus money to Scrapbookers?)

Bye for now. Make the day count – be kind.

Christmas Shopping

Hi: I recently saw an article on the 10 most expensive stores in the world to shop at. If your ‘emergency bank funds’ have not been depleted due to rising food costs, foreclosure, unemployment, or uninsured health problems you might have the money to splurge and GO SHOPPPING for Christmas. I suppose if you have a private jet it would be easier to commute to all these countries. I think I could be happy in NY alone. Being I’ve taken this list off the internet you do not have to gift me anything over $1,000 for this information….but I don’t think they sell Scrapbooking supplies! Better yet, take me with you. I can pack quickly.

10 Most Expensive Stores in the World: (there was a ‘tie’ in some cities as they just listed a ‘district’ or ‘street’; or in Chicago's case a 'Mile'.

Hermes in NY
Avenue Montaigne, Paris France
La Rinascente in Milan, Italy
Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich, Switzerland
Bond Street in London England
Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills CA
The Ginza District in Tokyo Japan
Avinguda Diagonai in Barcelona Spain
The Magnificent Mile in Chicago IL
Laugavegur in Reykjavik, Iceland

Have fun.

Bye for now. Make the day count – be kind.

p.s. You can buy the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog for $15 (no that is not what I want for Christmas). I always find it interesting what they pick for their cover photo. Here's this years:

Meet the Granddogs!

This is Granddog 1, 2 and 3 (numbered for the order in which they joined our family). Paige is 1: she is ‘Miss Leave Me Alone and I’ll let you know when I want something’. She joined our family when Son started dating his wife. Paige took some time to warm up to us and now in her older years she will actually sit by us IF her ‘mommy’ (Daughter in-law) is not around. Paige is 15. Baci is 2 and is Daughter’s dog: she is ‘Miss It’s All About Me folks; so pay attention’. No lack of doggie self-esteem in her….loves attention and demands it. Baci is about 5 now. Pig is 3 and Son’s second dog: a good word for Pig is “Dogged: persistent in effort, stubbornly tenacious”. Her mission in life is to seek and find food to eat. We keep our cupboard door to the garbage locked when she’s here. She loves to be petted. She is 7 years old.

I did this layout last month (9/09) for a Challenge I found on one of the forums on Scrapbook.com. I’m very fond of this Challenge because it makes me ‘think outside the box’. Scrapbookers get used to buying embellishments and not creating them. This Challenge forces me to ‘create’ differently. It is so fun to see how the contents are used by each participant. The way this Challenge works is you send money to the organizer and each paid person gets a small Package with the same items in it. There are rules as to what you can and cannot use, do and not do. Participants then load their completed layouts to the Scrappack gallery. Voting takes place and winners are announced for various categories. (I’ve not won yet…been in the final voting though and that’s fun). The items received for this month’s Challenge were: 6x6” square of brown felt, 5x5” square of burlap, 12” piece of green ribbon, mini paper bag, 12 blue tickets, 12” piece of twine, three wooden beads, and three buttons.

The way I used the items is: 6x6 square of brown felt: Title letters, door and roof on doghouse. 5x5 square of burlap: Doghouse. 12in piece of green ribbon: Roof line of doghouse. Mini paper bag: used to hold Meal tickets. Tickets (blue): used 10 of them. Inked four of them and cut into bones. Three are Meal Tickets and three are attached to the Name tag bones (pull out with hidden journaling). 12in piece of twine: embellished three of the brown bones with it. Mini and large wooden beads: cut up and used as dog food in the dog bowl. Large button: It is the dog bowl. 2 other buttons: embellished doghouse roof peak with them.

I’m a simple scrapbooker by nature and like this one. Was fun to do.

Bye for now. Make the day count – be kind.

"Where's Granddog2"

Those are the leaves from our neighbor’s maple tree. Oh for joy!!(in a negative tone this time) – they always blow into our yard. Being I scrapbook I decided to stage a photo. Granddog2 was outside running around and I couldn’t see her. She moved and I caught sight of her..... I was surprised how well she blended in with the leaves. So I put her in the middle and told her “stay”...she obeyed me long enough for me to snap a few cute pictures – then it was off to chase a squirrel. See her?

Yesterday was a nice ‘stay home and chill’ day. I’m going to a Crop next Saturday night so I started preparing projects to work on. Now if you don’t Scrapbook you might not know what a crop is. A Crop is a gathering of Scrapbookers/Card Makers at a preplanned venue. Everyone brings their own supplies and works on their own projects. Of course conversation, laughter, and food are present also ;-) It’s a great way to gain inspiration and share one’s work. Next weekend’s crop is hosted by Creating Keepsakes and there are usually 250 Paper artists present. The convention they host takes place Friday and Saturday. Fun, fun, fun! I’ll post pics after the event is over.

Bye for now. Make the day count – be kind.

November 1st

I hope you all set your clocks back last night. I always wonder what people do with that extra hour they get: play, craft, sleep, work (booooo). I crafted one hour longer last night. I worked on Christmas cards.

But; I slept in longer this morning; so the question is: did I really gain an hour of 'time'?

I hung some cute pumpkin lights in the front window yesterday. Cute hubby found some decorations an half price off at Goodwill and had fun decorating up the front porch. He made my two decorations look pathetic. (that's ok).

My decorations:



Hubby's decorations:







I don't like 'fright' and was worried those scarry looking 'things' would scare the little treaters away; but I was wrong. They approached the house with that crazed "give me candy" look and didn't even notice the decorations, except cute Granddog2:





She was a Ladybug and loved greeting the treaters. Of course she got lots of attention and "oohs and ahhs". What a good sport that dog is.

...signing off and Make the Day count!