From the internet that is.  You see, it has been incredibly stormy around here the past few days and with thunder, lightening and wind - things happen!   And that thing was my internet connection!

Talk about withdrawal.  I mean, I live in the middle of no where - aka the country-side and I depend in the internet.  OK. I will admit to having a major city a short jaunt away but in reality I live with dirt roads and sometimes spotty connection to the wide world via the internet.

I have sort of been lulled lately with really good internet connections (minus the email drama of last week!) and was shocked when I clicked and nothing happened!

I resorted to the tiny screen of my husband's blueberry (affectionate name given to his blackberry - but that is another story) but seriously I hated it!  The screen and the none normal keypad are enough to make this full laptop lovin' woman crazy!!! 

So basically I was down to the essentials - just checking in to make sure I wasn't being fired from any major projects and no patience to post anything to my beloved blog via tiny screen and weird keyboard.  Sorry for that but I am sure you understand. ;)

But I do have some new stuff to share with you.  I got scrappy last weekend.

I love this page.  It looks so much better in real life.  I cut out patterned paper from American Crafts and mounted it on foam squares. Love how this looks.

And here is another page.

Love the tone on tone color of this page.  I repeated the photo on this page since it is a recent fave.

So.  That is it for now.  I leave in approx 8 hours for Grand Rapids with family in tow.  It is the middle of the night as I post this (total insomnia, possibly due to caffenine or maybe excitement, who knows?  LOL) and I really should be in bed but I couldn't resist a post here.  Plus I am waiting on the laundry....gee where is the magic laundry fairy when I need him?

I hopefully will be posting from the show.  Beth Williams will be there (whom I love) + Staci Etheridge (so funny and full of life) and hopefully I will get post some funnies of us at the show.  But you know how it is...best laid plans and all.

:)

Next week I will be back to more budget scrapping tips (after I sleep off the GASC of course!)

Today is a busy day for me.  I am prepping to leave for Grand Rapids, MI later this week to teach at the Great American Scrapbook Convention.  I haven't been to Grand Rapids since I was a kid so I am looking forward to it.  I grew up on the border of the USA and Canada and Grand Rapids is just over an hour away from my home town.  I could have flown but since it is driveable I have decided that a road trip was in order. 

And do you know what the best part about deciding to make the journey to the GASC via a road trip?  My kidlets are coming with me! :)  They never get to travel with me when I teach (and they really want to) but this seemed like a perfect opportunity for them to come along (and my wonderful hubby to have some quiet time).  My mom and sister are going to come along to complete our little road trip party and I have a feeling that the car trip is going to be half the adventure!

Since I know that the trip will be filled with many adventures and laughs I decided to create a mini book to record it all.  I used one of the Melissa Frances albums I picked up at the last GASC along with the perfect road trip scrap supplies - the Passport collection by Making Memories.

Here is the cover.

And here is the back.

I prepped the inside but of course it isn't anything much right now since we haven't actually been on the trip, lol. 

The album came with cream colored pages so I am using those plus I cut out some from the patterned paper - it is great that they are double sided.  The album binding is large so there is tons of room for extra pages plus the memorabilia I plan to add.

It is really great to have it all ready to go BEFORE the trip.  Maybe this way it won't take me 3 months to finish it, lol.

Everyone around here is pretty excited and we are counting down "sleeps".  Harper is going to be my helper which she has always wanted to be.  My mom and sister both plan to take a class from me. They are not scrapper but they are getting into the whole adventure of it!  I am really excited to meet all the scrappers there and have fun creating and laughing.  Magnus is just excited. :)

It was from this article.  But that is not what I want to talk about.

What I want to show you is this.

Hee hee.  I was frugal on this page because I love the really bright color on the back of this paper. I cut the paper out from behind the photos like I did here.  It then gave the perfect "scrap" to make a faux ribbon on the page plus some left over for something else.  I hadn't done this for awhile but this paper just called for it!

And want to see what was left over from the Make Scraps - Use Scraps challenge?

Lots of letters still left for many more pages and not much paper left!  Pretty nice to use almost all of if up!

I felt pretty thrifty after scrapping with just scraps yesterday.  It felt great actually and made me think that maybe next week I might do a bunch of posts about scrapping on a budget - 'cause who doesn't need ways to extend their supplies?

So that will be next week  - budget scrapping :)

Have a great weekend everyone.

So first thing first.  Happy Canada Day!  :)  Today is Canada's birthday - she's 141 years old.  She looks pretty good for her age - no wrinkles, no grey hair.

This means a day with family and friends, cheezy parades and BBQs.  Looks like it is going to be a great day. :)

Second - did you know that Memory Makers was giving away a copy of my book, Cut Loose, this week????  Oh ya!  There is chance to win a copy here - all you need to do is leave an answer to their question in the comments.  Pretty easy!  Go.  Enter.  Win.  Good luck everyone :)

So last night I wanted to scrap.  I actually felt like I was counting down the minutes until the kidlets went to bed.  You know the feeling.  I mean, I love them but sometimes I want a little me time.  Then they went to bed and I walked into my dining room/scrap space and....it was a mess.  I mean a I don't want to take a photo and show you cause I am too embarassed kinda mess.  It just sort of happened over the last week.  I would try to squeeze in some scrapping and I started stacking things to the side and whamo - total disaster!

But I was tired and to be honest I didn't want to tidy it up. (*insert foot stomp here, lol) So I decided to abandon my plan and cozy up on the couch while my hubby played video games.  Well, that got boring fast.  So I grabbed the laptop and decided to digi scrap.  That is the beauty of digital - when you already have one giant scrappy mess you can digi scrap cause it makes no mess!

So here is what I made. 

(a lot of the embellishments for this page are from this free kit - paper is from here)

One of the things I like about digi scrapbooking (beside the lack of mess) is I can use digital papers in ways that I wouldn't with physical paper.  For example, see the above paper background?  I would never cut and layer it that way 'cause I would need probably 2-3 sheets to create that look.  I am much too thrifty to do that.  BUT with digital I can "cut" my papers and not "waste" a thing.  Not sure what I mean - see the paper below.  That is what it looked like originally.  I cut sections from it, overlapping my cuts and then overlapped the pieces on my page.

And then I thought I was going to bed so that was going to be it but my hubby decided that he needed to finish just one more level so I made a really quick page in response to this challenge. 

I am an adventurer. Not always in real life but definitely in my heart. :)

(paper from here - I so love this paper - and embellishments from here)

Now I am off to have a fun Canada Day and maybe tackle the mess in my scrappy room. :)  Have a great one everyone out there.