Wordless Wednesday

Another simple collage layout

Try as I may to limit the number of photos I take, I always end up with a LOT at marching band performances. And it's hard to eliminate them, because each one tells a part of the story.

So for these events, I often use photo collages created in Picasa. With collages, I can fit a lot of photos one a single page in an orderly fashion. :-) (And we all know that I like order!)

On this easy layout, I used a collage on the left page, and four 4x6 photos on the right (positioned to look like a second collage). A couple of strips of good old striped paper unified the two pages. And nothing beats Thickers for an easy title. The journaling is brief this time but includes more detailed photo identification on the back of the layout.

Houston, we have (some) shutters!

The house painting project continues, but the end is in sight now!

Yesterday, the painter started hanging some of the new black shutters. We bought them already black so they will never have to be re-painted.

He installed the shutters on the first floor windows...

...and on the garage windows.

He also installed the newly painted wrought iron piece above the front door. In the old color scheme, it was painted pink (or ROSE, as Spouse calls it). I thought it should be black, but Spouse wasn't convinced. Now that it's installed, I think he agrees that it looks nice!

The rest of the shutters should be up by early next week, then this project will be done!

Feline Friday: Hai guise, Im a krapbuker!

So mi mommeh wuz werkin on a krapbuk paig and i desided ta halp.

As u can see she rilly needed mi halp becuz she waz gunna doo sumfing vary uglee!

She wanted to put sum stoopid sircles on da krapbuk paig fur dekurashun. I telled her it was vary uglee. She wud not beeleeve me so i taked dem off. All bi miself!

I telled mi mommeh dat she shud uze flours insted. Den i finded deez brown wuns. She sed dey did not mach but dat she wud uze mi ideeah...

...an she did! She putted purtee flours on hur krapbuk paig! Wich wuz totulee mi ideeah! Im a krapbuker!

Note from Mom: This page is based on a sketch from the Got Sketch Doubles class. Thanks to Lily for helping with the embellishments! She has very good ideas!

House painting project nearing completion!

I'm extremely excited to report that there is NO MORE PINK (or rose, as Spouse refers to it) on our house!

As you can see, the base color is completely done, and the painter is coming along nicely with the trim. I am BEYOND EXCITED about the new color!

Tomorrow he will start to hang the black shutters. The whole project will be wrapped up next week.

Someone told me today that the new color has good karma. That made me smile. I think so, too!

Christmas Gift Caddy

Here's a fun project I recently made for Memory Bound: a Christmas gift caddy.

This cardboard caddy started out white but was easily transformed into festive with a few sheets of 3 Bugs in a Rug paper and a couple of rolls of Tacky Tape.

The small slots will be filled with jars of baking ingredients or candy, wooden spoons, and dishtowels.

And what's a kitchen caddy without a recipe book?

I made a super simple recipe book with chipboard covers and recipe cards, cut apart and joined by rings. I punched circles from the 3 Bugs paper so that everything coordinated.

This kind of project would make an inexpensive holiday gift and would be fun to customize for the recipient!

Wordless Wednesday

Now on our dryer

After the recent incident in which Lily Was Trapped in The Dryer for Four Hours, we've been extra diligent to make sure it never happens again.

Lily, however, continues to lurk in the laundry room, apparently considering another nap on warm clothes.

So we now have a cat magnet attached to the front of the dryer. It's just a simple reminder to make sure that only CLOTHES are inside. :-)

House painting continues

The house painting project is continuing. This week, the painter finished the entire base of the house and is starting on trim. It's finally starting to come together!

Although a small amount of pink remains, nearly all of it has been covered, which makes me very happy! In this photo, you can see the base color well. I would describe it as a dark caramel color. You can also see one of the trim colors (two shades lighter than the base) on the scallops around the bay window.

Here's a closer view of that same area. The trim directly around the windows will be white. It's a nice contrast against the caramel color. We purchased new black pre-painted shutters which haven't been hung yet. I love the sharpness of the black against the caramel color!

We took down our garage lights this week and spray painted them black. Over time, they had faded to a gray color. The spray paint makes them look like new! In this photo, you can see the base color of the house against the freshly painted garage doors. The trim around the doors will be white.

I'm pleased with how the painting project is progressing. I hope it will be wrapped up in the next week or two. I'm anxious to see the entire color scheme come together!

Feline Friday: I Can Has Cheeto?

I've had cats all of my life, but I've never had one who would eat the foods that Lily eats.



One treat she absolutely loves (which NOT on her diet even one tiny bit!) is Cheetos.
She can hear a bag open from anywhere in the house.

My intent here was to let her LICK the Cheeto, since she is on a diet (and has lost 2/10ths of a pound, thank you very much).

Instead, she grabbed it from my hand and before I could snatch it away, it was gone! Crunch, crunch, crunch!

Yum! That was great, Mom!

ROYGBIV strikes again!

While I was at Memory Bound today working on some projects, a large shipment of Distress Crackle Paint arrived. My wonderful friend, Katie, was in charge of unpacking the shipment and setting it up on a lovely new display rack.

Well, it's a GOOD THING I was there! Who knows how Katie might have arranged the colors? As soon as I saw all of those little paint containers, I suggested that they be placed on the rack in rainbow color order. And of course, Katie agreed! :-)

She started with red-orange-yellow...

Then I had to go, leaving Katie COMPLETELY ON HER OWN to finish this project!

Before I left, she grouped the green-blue-violet together,
and I could see that Katie (a former elementary school teacher) really knows her colors!

Then she sorted out the neutrals to put on the bottom of the rack.

And here is Katie, showing me how much she appreciated my advice! :-)

Super easy card

In our last monthly Book Club meeting at Memory Bound (the name of the group is now Girls' Night Out, but I still call it Book Club!), we exchanged baggies of miscellaneous embellishments. Our challenge was to make things with the contents of the bag. I made a few cards with mine, including this one. My challenge embellishment was the flower, which is actually kind of quilted and puffy in the center.



Of course, I had to pick out a scrap of striped paper for this card. :-) I added a few buttons and a rub-on, and the card was complete. A person can never have too many thank you cards on hand!

Tabby Tuesday: Baby Lily

This is one of my favorite pictures of Lily as a kitten.
September, 2006

School layout project

Each month, I design a seasonal layout kit for Memory Bound.



This month, in addition to the regular September (fall themed) layout, I made an extra project for our school section using the Ki Memories School Days line. The chipboard is adorable and the paper is double sided, making it a great value!

The space for the focal point photo opens like a book to provide additional places for photos or journaling.

This layout was very fun to make. Of course, you can't go wrong with Ki! :-)

Not Saturday Night Fever --

-- just Saturday Afternoon Meatloaf.

Feline Friday: All in a Day's Work

As many of you know, we're having our house painted. Unfortunately, Lily and Tinsel have had to spend their days confined in our basement or upstairs bedroom because our painter frequently goes in and out of the house.

Since the painting project has been underway, Lily apparently has been inspired by the notion of home renovation. So, with ample time on her paws, she has launched her own home-based business: Lily's Carpet Removal Service.

In a few short hours, Lily can remove any carpet (unwanted or even wanted!) from your home.

And clean-up's a breeze, because she eats most of the fibers.

Although Lily is obviously very skilled at her work, we don't know if this new business will catch on outside of our house.

In the meantime, we're all hoping the painting project wraps up fairly quickly. If not, a flooring project will soon be underway. :-)

Layout: Rock Around the Clock

I've been making my way (at the speed of molasses) through 2008 photos. Seems like I've been mired in fall, 2008 for quite some time!

This is one set of fall photos that I've really looked forward to scrapbooking. During Homecoming week, our school hosts "Rock Around the Clock," a team competition involving a lot of chocolate pudding. I SOMEHOW managed to designate myself (ha!) pseudo team photographer last year, so I was allowed on the field for some action shots. I just had to stay out of the way of the flying pudding and eggs!



Because I ended up with so many fun photos, I made 4 pages for this event. Of course, I kept things pretty simple to focus on the photos and the story, written by Daughter (click on the picture to read it). I made my own little clock embellishment using a piece of clip art and a couple of nested circles.

Oh, and I threw in a little bit of hoarded Ki striped paper, just because. :-)

Can you feel the love???

House painting is underway. It's a slow process. Our painter lost his helper last week, so it's taking a bit longer than we anticipated. Plus, as you can see from all the patching, there was a lot of pre-painting prep to be done.

I picked the house color based on my favorite (discontinued now!) Bazzill cardstock color, Tanner. But when I brought home the sample quart and we put it up on the house, it took on a gold hue that I knew Spouse would not like. (And he didn't. He thought it would make our house look like a jar of mustard.)

So I moved over a couple of steps on the color chart and landed on this slightly browner version of Tanner. The lighting wasn't great when I took these photos, so it's hard to see the exact color.

In real life, it looks like a dark caramel color, or coffee with not quite enough cream in it. I think it's going to be great with our new black shutters and door.

This photo shows the color most accurately. It's such a rich color that it makes me feel warm all over! I keep running outside to look at it. Plus it gives me an excuse to go out and in the new front door. :-)

The painter says I'm "color sensitive." I'd have to agree. Who'd have thought a person could be this excited about color???

New Bo Bunny Christmas Line

Even though it's not even officially fall, I've been making some samples for Memory Bound using the new Bo Bunny Christmas line, 'Tis the Season (see it here). It's not too early to start thinking about holiday scrapbooking projects!

The colors in this new line are fresh and a little bit different than those we've seen in the past. I especially love the shaped paper on the right! I paired it with the ornament paper on the left, then added dotted paper to bring the two pages together. I added rub-ons, brads, die-cuts, and ribbon to complete this layout. (I do believe that Bo Bunny rub-ons are among the best on the market...very smooth and easy to apply!)

I was also inspired to create a 6x6 mini-album using the new line.

This little book has pages of different shapes and sizes, plus space for pictures of holiday traditions, such as baking cookies.

I used my trusty Bind-it-All to attach the pages. (Since I got over my fear of actually BINDING with the Bind-It-All :-), it has become one of my favorite tools! Even I can operate it!)

I had a great time putting these samples together. I'm sure everyone will love this new Bo Bunny line!

Layout: Trick or Treat

Okay, here's another Halloween layout. Yes, this one happens to include a little bit of striped paper, but the important thing to notice is that I used a hoarded embellishment. I've been saving that laser-cut haunted house, waiting for just the right set of photos!

I really like these particular pictures, not only because of the cute shots of the kids, but also because I actually remembered to take a photo of our neighbors' house. They go all out decorating for Halloween, and it really sets the mood on our street. It was a perfect evening for Trick or Treat, so I also grabbed a couple of photos of goblins stopping by to gather treats.

The "After" Door

Today was a very good day.

Two nice installers came and removed our rose-colored front door, side lights, and storm door.

I would have been content with a cardboard door but instead, they replaced the pink door with this normal-looking one! In addition to being black (NOT PINK!), it has plain (not etched or decorated) glass. And best of all, it opens and closes!

The nice folks at our local Habitat for Humanity Re-Store will be coming out next week to pick up both doors and all of our pink shutters. I'm sure somebody out there somewhere can use them.

Meanwhile, house painting is underway. I could NOT be more excited! Pictures next week.

Marching Season Begins

Tonight marked the first official performance of our marching band. The band is off to a great start. This season's show has a James Bond theme and, based on how it has come together so far, it has the potential for being even better than last year's Lion King show.

I'm looking forward to watching the show progress over the next few weeks. I will NOT think about this being my daughter's senior year. I will NOT dwell on the fact that this is her final high school marching band season. I will NOT think about it. Nope, not even one little bit.

Well, maybe just a tiny bit. *sniff*