Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A good mail day

Today was a good mail day.
I received a thank you RAK from Kelly (born2scrap on AMR) and her DD Madisen.
A little while ago, I found a little girl karate stamp. Madisen has a black belt in Tae Kwan Do. So I bought the stamp (scratched out Karate and wrote TKD) and sent it to them.
Today, I found this in my mail box! Thank you Kelly and Madisen!


The other package today was a birthday package. (Yeah, I know, it's confusing - the short version being - when I signed up for a birthday swap, March was already taken, so I was given May). Today's package was sent by Roxanne. (This swap is being done through the Cricut board).



Inside I found the most beautiful altered lunch box. The pictures truly do not do it justice. I think the top is done with alcohol inks. The flowers and frogs are so pretty! I wish I knew what kind of paper she used.. I would love to get some more! The box held 2 glass jars of Prima flowers and some small (mini) silver flower brads, which will look great in the center of the primas!



Roxanne also sent a gorgeous 8x8 Christmas album kit from Daisy D's and a card. The album is so beautiful, and so high quality! The card is very pretty, I love the white stamping and the ribbon. Thanks Roxanne, I love it!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Indy, Caspian, and Beautiful blog candy

It has been a little while since I posted - have been busy working on acrylic goodness in my little bits of spare time off work. Took a break yesterday and went to see both Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian. Unfortunately, I went caffeine-less all day yesterday, and had a raging headache by the time the second movie was over (why must the theaters be so darned loud??) but they were both very good movies, and we had a lot of fun (and popcorn! Love those free refills!)



















Was pointed in the direction of a new blog this morning, thanks to one of the girls at AMR.

Melody's Sofa is the blog for Melody Ross, and she has a FABULOUS new line of supplies out called artsy.licious. Gorgeous papers that are flocked, tinseled, engraved, and laquered. Embellishments include felt, sparklies, crocheted flowers, buttons and brads. She will also soon have alphabets that match each of the color lines.. and you know how I feel about alphas!

Beautiful stuff, check it out! (Photos from Melody's blog)

{Also keep going on the page - she has an awesome family photo towards the end of the blog.}

Sunday, May 11, 2008

loves of my life acrylic heart album

This album was made with the Clear Scraps Funky Heart album. I used (my favorite) Basic Grey Papers (Infuse) and Diecuts With A View cardstock. I also used StazOn Ink, Prima flowers, Magic Mesh, Ma Vinci stamps, Glitz bling, and miscellaneous ribbons. Rubons from Scrapworks, Making Memories, Basic Grey and American Crafts. Love stamp from Heidi Swapp.

This is one of my favorite albums, and includes my favorite picture of myself.



































Red Friday

For those of you that don't know me well, my husband was in the Army for 10 years... and spent two of them in Iraq. That was hard for all of us, but makes me even more grateful for all the men and women still serving our country. Most of my family members were in the military at one point or another, and covering all branches except the Coast Guard (which my son plans to correct when he gets older).

So when I came across this post on one of the scrapbook boards I frequent, it brought a tear to my eye, and I decided to post it here as well. And believe me, I will be wearing red every Friday.

Posted 5/11/08
Scrapbook Heaven Message Board
by Jennifer (shihtzu452)

I just got this in an email and thought I'd share--I think it's pretty worthwhile and simple to do. It's kinda long but worthwhile--you may have already seen this, too.

Will you give this to my Daddy?

As a Company, Southwest Airlines is going to support 'Red Fridays.'

Last week I was in Atlanta , Georgia attending a conference. While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer. I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving thru the terminal was a group of soldiers in their camos. As they began heading to their gate, everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30 - 40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red-blooded American who still loves this country and supports our troops and their families.

Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we can go to school, work and home without fear or reprisal.

Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women, a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers. He kneeled down and said 'hi. '

The little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier, who didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her Daddy. Then suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughter's name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Marine and had been in Iraq for 11 months now. As the mom was explaining how much her daughter Courtney missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mom was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second. Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military- looking walkie-talkie. They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.' He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He finished by saying 'your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'

The mom at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet, he saluted Courtney and her mom. I was standing no more than 6 feet away from this entire event.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause. As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own. That young soldier in one last act of se lflessness, turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices. At the end of the day, it's good to be an American.

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers.

We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday - and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that.. Every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear some thing red.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers.

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family. It will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is...We need your support and your prayers.

Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday

Friday, May 9, 2008

Scary

Thought I would post this as it is something rather scary to think about.. Thanks Tim for the heads up.

Check out this blog post, which talks about the a couple of Orphan Works Acts... these acts make it OK for ANYONE to steal your photos off you websites, blog posts, and even flickr account and use them for commercial purposes. The blog post is HERE and the link to send letters to your local representatives and senators is HERE.

I have already sent letters to my reps and senator to voice my opinion.

Monday, May 5, 2008

NSD, Crops, and Star for the Day

WOW I can't believe how busy things have been!


Work has been just NUTS. Boy, I wish I'd win the lottery, so I could take a vacation! LOL.


Saturday was National Scrapbook Day. I spent time on a couple of boards, looking at challenges and playing some games.

AMR's NSD crop was Saturday. I was not able to attend most of it, as I was working until late on Saturday. I was also bummed that I didn't have my kit before the crop, but I knew that would be a possibility because the crop was so early in the month. (Kits go out by the 10th). I am just DROOLING over this kit and CANNOT wait to see it in person. Heather's kits are so popular, they generally sell out a month ahead! I am so glad I have a subscription! For more information, or to order a kit, click here.

(May main kit)



(May add-on kit)


The other board I visited this weekend was ScrapAttack Scrapbooking. Their crop ran all weekend, and included lots of games and challenges. I didn't do very many challenges, as I was busy with other things, but did manage to get a few of them done, and one a game of Bingo.

One challenge was to use 10 stickers on a LO - you'd think that wouldn't be so hard, but I didn't want to use just flowers, so this is what I came up with. I am still loving these photos of Rhi, and they worked well with the Kelly Panacci stickers I found. It is still a rather simple LO for me (not nearly as much distressing as I usually do LOL), but i really like it. Papers are Basic Grey (Infuse) and DCWV (CS). Ink is Nick Bantock Rose Madder, one of my personal favorites.. I thought it worked very well with these papers.




The other challenge I finished was a card challenge - We were given 4 card sketches, and had to make cards from them.

Sketches:







My cards:

One of the gals on the board like them so well, she posted that I was The Star of the Day! (Each day they choose someone that has uploaded something they really like, and make them the star of the day.) That made me pretty happy. I really like these cards - the papers are all from We R Memory Keepers. They have matching chipboard stickers, rubons, ribbon, and large eyelets (which you need the CropADile to set!) Really fun to put together. And the papers are double sided! Which are great for the acrylics. As soon as I finish the album I am working on, I am going to do another one with these papers.

I still have challenges from AMR that I am working on, including an acrylic album (which may be the only one I get done on time! LOL)