Sunday night update!

Hubby and I had a very productive weekend!!  (and it feels great)
A year (or more) ago we purchased a printers tray, it was fairly beat up but usable.  We started going thru the "hidey holes" that someone would likely put "stuff", i.e. "sock drawer", jewelry box, old shoe box...etc.

We were happy with our personal finds, as well as, when out and about around town we would pick up a goody here and there. (mostly W's in various shapes and sizes).  Last Labor Day we spent the weekend with my Dad and his wife at their lake house, we did a little "junking" and found a much nicer printers tray.  Poetic, (?) my dad was a printer at the local newspaper when I was born.  After a year of "placing" stuff we finally got it glued down and hung up, this was truly a group (Hubby & I) project that we enjoyed.  There is nothing in this display that means ANYTHING to anyone except us, and I like it that way!

We also completed another project, my son had made this cedar frame (for another idea), I snagged it and asked him and my hubby to add chicken wire behind it.  We finally got it hung in my loft this weekend.  The idea is to display some of my layouts and tags, instead of "hiding" them in my books.

It was a relaxing and restful weekend, Grammy's tonight, then Monday all over again.

Thank you for stopping in to check up on my life adventure.
~Jill

Scrappy Bowl submission #4

This is my submission for challenge #4 for the Scrappy Bowl hosted by Kathryn at the Scrap Beach.

The guideline was "flags on the play",  I originally wanted to string a banner using the title pieces "balancing act!", as you can see the original plan and the final layout were close but did not finished as planned.  I appreciate the starting point.  I had fun "digging out" my original die cut  machine, the Sizzix Sidekick, and played with the Classic Sizzlits.  Hadn't done that in a few years, I need to use them more often.  This was layout #1 of a total of 4 scheduled stories regarding my Granddaughters 4th Birthday, I will definitely use them on the other 3 layouts.

Scrappy Bowl #2 was fun, Thank you to Kathryn (hostess), Scrapadabadoo (on-line store), and all of the beautiful beach babes from Life on the {scrap} beach ning site and Ustream show followers who donated all of the beautiful prizes.

Today was also a fun day for me, a friend (Gretchen) who I met at the crafty retreat that I attended in November came over today to get crafty.  Thank you Gretchen, I enjoyed your visit and I loved the girls lunch out!  Til next time.
Thank you for stopping in to check on my life adventure.

~Jill

Scrappy Bowl submission #2

This challenge was to use the colors from the teams that participated in the Super Bowl, (i.e., red, white, & blue).  I went to my "pile" of photos that need to be "done" and came across this photo.  This is my Mom with my Granddaughter and my Grandson a few weeks after he was born, in 2009.  She was visiting from Scottsdale, Az, the photo was taken by my daughters friend.
The papers are from my stack of old single sheets that I love and want to eventually use.  (I actually have 2 "stacks" one is single sided designer paper and the other is double sided) These are ever changing piles, I'm constantly adding to it as collections get down to a few sheets, they get added to this pile, and it is always the first place I go to when looking for single sheet layouts or cards.   The  red & blue cardstock are from Tim Holtz Core'dinations Distress collection.

Thank you for stopping in to check out my life adventure.
~Jill

Scrappy Bowl submissions #1 & #3

This is my submission for Challenge #1 & #3  for The {scrap} beach Scrappy Bowl, hosted yesterday on Kathryns Ustream channel.

Challenge #1 Gridiron Grudge Match

#3 Layers of Protection

I'm still working on 2 & 4 however I wanted to get these entered and linked up.

Thanks for stopping in to check on Jill's Life Adventure.

~Jill

I LOVE Stampers Anonymous & Tim Holtz

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!

A few weeks back I received notice that I had "won" a prize on the Stamper Anonymous facebook page, it was labeled "twitter winner", it explained that I was one of 12 winners and would be receiving Tim Holtz stamps to be mailed out at the opening (release) of CHA.  Extremely excited and forever grateful I jumped up and down and yelled a little yell.

I have been attached (literally) to the laptop since yesterday morning, watching every video, reading every tweet, retweeting anything that might get anyone else as excited as I am.  

When the door bell rang, eternal hope ensued that it just might be "my" stamps, (insert a little woohoo)!!!

I never imagined in my wildest hopes of excitement that it would actually be all 12, yes, I did say all 12, of the new release collections from the master himself!!!

Did you know that it is possible to roll around in piles of stamps, while screaming at the top of your lungs, with happiness? 

Well, yes it is!

Also, did you know that it is almost impossible to "capture" all 12 of these lovely, beauties in a single photograph??

Well, yes it is!

And, here they all are, waiting to march themselves into my crafty loft to be played with, loved on, and inked up to the last possible inch of their existence.

I am grateful beyond measure to Stampers Anonymous for their wonderful generosity, it is truly the greatest gift!

Thank you, for checking in on my life adventure, the journey is grand... yes... grand indeed!!

~Jill

I'm trying!!

Okay, I know, I'm not giving my blog the attention that it deserves, "my bad" as my kids used to say.
I have been working like a crazy woman in the loft getting rid of stuff, finding cool stuff I forgot about and just generally having a wonderful time.  My darling hubby purchased a 8 hole black expedit from Ikea after noticing that my 12 x 12 album were getting ruined in the old bookcases.  (the shelves were short and the heavier, completed books the covers were bending)  It turned out to also be a wonderful height to place the television, so we are both happy.

I was one of the lucky winners of the Stampers Anonymous twitter contest that took place about 10 days ago, I received notification that winnings are on the way, I promise I will take a picture when it arrives.

I have so many projects that I want to do and/or complete from 2011 I could probably lock myself in the loft for the next 2 months and other than leaving for adhesive and maybe a potty break I would be good.  Here are a few of the layouts that I did this week.

This layout was made using various old papers plus 1 piece from Echo Park "Little Girl" (the orange sheet with the cute little hearts, so sad that you only get one each of a paper in the Echo Park Collection Packs).  Also, I finally broke down and purchased the Tim Holtz rosette die.  This was my first try at printing out my own journal card on card stock, I think this could be addicting (especially, if I ever really figure out how to do it).  I'm having fun on Pinterest, learning new things, discovering, having a wonderful time.  The Happy Birthday title is cut from the Plantin School cartridge, an oldie but a goodie.

This layout uses the Happy Day Collection from Echo Park.  It's a bit busy is a cluttered sort of way, but I learn something with each layout I complete.  My daughters kitchen walls are painted a fun color of green and her eat in kitchen table is red, most of the layouts I do with photos taken in her kitchen often end up looking like Christmas.  I tried to avoid that by pulling in the blue, it didn't work like I had hoped.  I will keep working on it.

 I couldn't even begin to tell you who/what/where these papers are from.  I had these 4 photos of my daughter and her family, the coloring of the photos don't go together, however, I felt they told a story of her family.  While digging in a box of really old papers (I keep them because I like them, and one day they will all eventually find a home, I hope.) I came across 3 or 4 sheets that were part of a collection.  With some fussy cutting and home printed titles on purple card stock that was the wrong color, easily corrected with Distress Ink, I ended up with this layout.  Added purple Stickles and called it a day.  Anyone, if not all 4 of these photos, would have been beautiful as a single photo layout, my books are so full that I have a hard time justifying taking up that much real estate in my 12 x 12 albums.  One of these days...

I haven't worked on my Project Life book in awhile, as in, October 2011.  (a little behind??)  Hopefully, I will make some head way with that this week.  As most, if not all, of you know it is CHA week so I am spending tons of time on the laptop stalking everyone I can think of, and having a blast doing it!
I have a friend coming over on Tuesday to crop, I'm looking forward to then, we got together a few weeks ago to crop and I loved having someone over to "play with".

Wishing all of your crafty dreams come true, thanks for stopping by to check my life adventure.

~Jill

Welcome 2012!

Okay, so I haven't been the most prompt of blog posters... actually I've been down-right neglectful.

It's not that I haven't been working slave labor in the loft (a.k.a. studio), it's just that I haven't been taking photos of projects before sending them out.  (my bad)

I'll try to get better, goodness knows I can't get much worse.

Hope you and your family have wonderfully crafty days to come.

thanks for stopping by,
~Jill