Playing......

This past weekend was the Life on the {Scrap} Beach (ning site) one year Beach anniversary, it was celebrated by Kathryn hosting an on-line crop on Saturday. I participated in 4 of the 6 challenges. My favorite was a challenge named "Fearless". What is fearless? My take on that challenge was "Free from Fear". I love color, I love ALL color, after all, I am a Gemini... however, I have a real fear of bright (pumpkin) orange, if you know me is kind of funny since one of my favorite colors to play with is "burnt" orange, (a.k.a. - Longhorn Orange). I worked and worked this page, I knew what I wanted to do, but that dang bright pumpkin orange kept flashing it's neon color at me...grrrr! In the end the only way I was going to call it done (before titling) was to take pad to paper of Rangers Rusty Hinge Distress Ink. I was able to quickly finish the last couple of steps and enter the challenge.

What I found interesting while I was playing with the camera (trying to get a shot to enter the challenge), the story of this journal page is the same regardless of the obnoxious pumpkin orange, my beloved rusty hinge, or no color at all . Now, I am aware that not everyone gets the art journal concept, for me it's always been a place of peace...a way to practice a new technique, doodle, shading practice, or...work on my stamping (I do get lazy with from time to time). I am starting to embrace the "shared" product with the world....even tho I'm usually working thru a "private" story.

I completed the story of our May cruise with 12x12 layouts I worked on them during the crop (even tho they weren't part of the challenges...I needed to work on them). I will share with a post later.

Thanks for stopping in to check on my life adventure,
Have a healthy, happy day!
~Jill

I will leave you with a photo from JT's 1st birthday (I can't believe he's already 1)

isn't he adorable????

JT turns ONE!!

Can you believe that my grandson turned one yesterday? The year has flown by.
I fired up the cricut and went to work making the banner decoration.
This is the second party decoration banner that I have made this month. When you look at what stores like Party America are charging for banners it was a no brainier for us. Plus when you make them yourself you can adjust the size to fit for where you want to display them, plus personalize.

Thanks for stopping in to check on my recent adventure...
Have a happy scrappy week!
~Jill

Dear Friends....

You must go check out this amazing new product... I have been a follower of Michelle & Rainee for forever, now they have come up with the solution that I have been searching for!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M81kiXGE5vI&playnext=1&videos=4E74-BvUYb0

and:
http://www.everydayscrapbook.blogspot.com/

Also, they are having some amazing give aways...go visit join their blog and support this amazing family.

GIVEAWAY #1: One person will receive one of our unique signature EverydayFrames. These are set apart from the ‘run-of-the-mill’ scrapbook frames, it allows you to change your creative display in a snap without all the regular hassles of traditional scrapbook frames. Once your creative image is put in a page protector you can slide it in and out easily. Our frames are perfect for traditional, hybrid and digital scrapbook pages. EverydayFrames can be displayed on a wall, an easel or rest easily on any flat surface. One or multiples frames add a new element of décor to any room in your home, studio or office. Go check out our website at www.EverydayScrapbook.com for more details on our unique EverydayFrames

Plus much, much more.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonder week.
~Jill

Must be doing something right!

I am one seriously lucky woman!!
Last week was the Craft and Hobby Association Convention in Chicago, and although I didn't attend, I did have a very fun week. I wasn't feeling very well so I spent a lot of time in bed on my laptop, blog hopping. I entered into a bunch of different giveaways and was lucky enough to win 2 of them.
From the Making Memories blog I won the Slice & Slice Hands Free System, it arrived safe and sound, I am very excited and can't wait to try it out.

From T!m Holtz blog I won a "surprise" summer 2010 CHA released item, It came yesterday and I was extremely pleased that it is the 100th Collection of his cling mount stamp set!!



Happy crafting is in my immediate future.
Thanks MM & TH for the wonderful goodies, and thank you for stopping in to check out "what's up".
Have a happy, scrappy week.
~Jill

What I've Been Up To

Last weekend (July 10th) Life on the Scrap Beach hosted a virtual crop from 9pm to 3am on Ustream. A friend of mine from that on-line community along with her husband and another friend came out to our place to "play" during the crop. Although I didn't enter my layouts (life got hectic) I did want to share what I had created.

This photo is of Papa & Emma on Easter...she was scared that the Easter Bunny was still in the yard and was going to "get her"...lol, she ran to Papa for protection. I cherish this photo and was glad to use it in my crafty world and to simply describe it as "love".

One of the challenges was "summer fun", and although these photos are from a few years ago it was fun to finally put them to paper. I believe it was Emma's first encounter with "bubbles".

The next two layouts use photos from our cruise that we took in May of this year, using Graphic 45 paper made them fun to complete.


Thanks for stopping by to see what's up in my crafty world.
Have a healthy, happy, scrappy weekend.
~Jill

Still having fun...

I wanted to share this "journal" page that I did yesterday. I'm sure it's not done because for some reason they never seem to be complete until I move on to the next journal and I no longer "see" these pages.... go figure!
When Tim Holtz announced his new distress ink colors this January at the winter 2010 CHA I was thrilled with Rusty Hinge. Being that we are a family of die hard fans of the Texas Longhorns it really was a no brainer... well, little did I know that the Wild Honey would be a wonderful "background/accent/shadow" color to my beloved Rusty Hinge. While playing with this page (which was inspired by the velum strip from years past) it automatically lead itself to the loudest moments in our home, Longhorn football. As I turned out the lights to go to bed last night I had to giggle with the story this page tells (to me)...
Thanks for taking the time in your busy day to stop by...
Have a healthy, happy, scrappy week!!
~Jill ♥

Emma's dance class...

I put this up on my you tube account so I had to post it to my blog as well...
Have a healthy, happy, scrappy week!!
Thanks for stopping by.
~Jill