programming for this...

dude, my book has arrived.

as in MY book.  THE book with my name splashed across the front.  the one with ME listed as the AUTHOR.  you know THAT one???  

2 advanced copies arrived today - total surprise.

smells like a new book...especially yummy when it MY book.  

can you tell I am excited???  

shouting from the rooftops... C

***

i know, two posts in one day?  but it was just too exciting not to share. :) more about it tomorrow.  i am off to celebrate... :)

Do you remember the other week when I posted this entry?  I mentioned that I created a page that made me really happy.

I did do some more scrapping last night after the kidlets were in bed and I think cause I had taken a break during the day (and spent the day before being creative) I felt like I was on a creative high.  I ended up creating a page that really made me happy.  I mean every little bit of it was just right to me.  It has been awhile since I have been so creatively satisfied with a page. Since before that crazy creative overflow a few weeks back actually. 

And you know what is great -the page is for someone else.  I was creating a page for someone and it is a wonderful feeling that it turned out so right.  I am mailing it off to her today so once she gets it I hope she will let me share it here.  I definitely want her to see it first. :)

So she got the page and she loves it.  And Annamarie has been gracious enough to allow me to share it here.

Not the best photo of the page (looks slightly warped, lol) but this was it.  She gave me the photos (so easy to work with when they are this gorgeous!) and I made the page.  The lines on the left side are for her to add her own journaling to it. 

One of the things I liked about the page was the rounded corners on the photos together with the white borders.  I thought you might like to do this too (pushy aren't I?) so I am hoping to get a tutorial together in the next day or so to post.

Also, my new article is up at TakeGreatPictures.com.  This article is a two part-er.  It is about scrapbooking your childhood photos.  This article is some prompts and encouragement to get you started.  Next one will be about ways to scan the photos so you can use them.  There are 3 new pages with the article - here is one of the photos I used.

Now you know you have got to see what that photo is about!

So that is it for today.  It is kind of rainy here today and Magnus and I have lots of errands to do.  Harper is finally back at school (thanks for the well wishes) so we have lots to catch up on.  Have a great day everyone.  :)

That just about sums up my long weekend. 

Remember how I mentioned last week that Harper was sick?  I don't know if I mentioned that she had strep throat.  She went on antibiotics and they seemed to help.  Then Friday she broke out in a rash.  As soon as I saw it I knew - Scarlett Fever!  How did I know?  Well, she had it once as a tiny kidlet and it stuck in my head cause the name sounds so terrible - try saying, I've got Scarlett Fever.  Sounds as if you are on your death bed doesn't it?  LOL  Well, it is nothing that serious.  It is a form of strep that has a rash with it.  So back to the doctor we went and we had to cancel all our plans for the weekend.  She wasn't feeling too badly after we got more meds in her but we couldn't take the chance of passing it to anyone. 

So we were house bound and I have to admit it didn't feel much like the first long weekend of summer.  BUT I did get a lot done.  I figured I might as well get a lot done around the house so NEXT weekend we could have lots of fun! :)  On my list of things to do was a bit of class prep.

I cannot tell you how much I love seeing supplies all piled up and ready to go into class kits.  I absolutely love teaching and knowing that the GASC is right around the corner has got me itching to go.  Can wait to see old friends and meet some new ones. :)

I did get some scrapping done which I will share with you tomorrow.  It is for a new article so I will wait until it is posted to share.

And since in last entry I confessed to you my messy nature I though I would get another confession out of the way.  LOL  We're friends, right?  You can handle my nitty gritty, right?  So here it is...

I am secretly an old lady.  I have things covered in clear plastic. 

OK, so it is not my couch (sorry Grandma!) but it is my scrap table.

You see I use the dining room to scrap.  I use our big antique table as my work surface.  And even though I have a large cutting mat to work off of it was just too nerve racking that something could spill or something could scratch the table.  So the solution I came up with was clear vinyl.  It did make me cringe a bit over the sheer tackiness of it but it made things easy to clean up, protected my table and wasn't covered in distracting patterns (which most tablecloths have).  I went to the fabric store bought a couple of yards and I was all set.  It was super cheap and I thought I would have to replace it often but I have had it for well over a year and it still looks the same.  Three cheers for tacky clear vinyl!  This girl loves it. :)

I am not very good at organization.  I can admit it.  My mom likes to say an explosion follows me where ever I go.  And she is right.  Even now as a "grown-up" I still struggle with messes.

I am trying to improve this but as any messy person knows it is an ongoing battle!

So how can I possibly offer a simple storage solution? 

Well, I have found a scrappy storage solution that really works for me and I figure that there has got to be other messy people out there who might like it. :)  Plus, since this post, I have had a lot of emails asking how I store my rub-ons all together.

So here goes. (**warning** - photo overload ahead - I got a little crazy with the camera!!)

Open baskets are my friends.  They give me visual reference to my supplies and they contain my messes.  I use these shelves from Ikea (baskets too).  I have two baskets for flat packages and they are divided by - alphas - and - embellishments.  Yup, that is the only classification they receive.

They then get put into the basket with order only being determine by package size.  Small packages at the front - large ones at the back. (If you look at the first photo you will see I also stand a few items on the side that are too big for the baskets.)

Pretty easy.

Then I just flip through them and find what I need. (And I just know you are dying for an action shot so here it is!)

Now the only other thing you need to know is I place a cardboard sheet at the back of the basket to support the packages that are too big to be put in sideways.

This is so they don't flop around and get bent.

There are two things I like best about this system.

1) Easy access to my supplies.  A quick flip refreshes my memory and it is easy to pull out a few packages before deciding what to use on my page.

2)  Clean-up is easy.  Complicated clean-up is the downfall of a messy person.  I know I need clean-up to be easy otherwise after a few times I start to slack.  It just takes a few seconds to pop the packages back in the baskets after I am done a project.

I apply this system to most of my supplies and it really works for me. 

And the last photo from snap-happy photo taking...an aerial shot ('cause I know you need it to understand this super complicated storage method!  LOL)

So that's it folks - for today and until next week actually.  It is a long weekend this weekend in Canada (I think in the USA too) and we are making it an extra long weekend by taking Friday off too.  This means I will be back Tuesday with more ramblings...

Have a great one everyone! :)

(oh - if this posting has even more typos and spelling errors than usual blame the keyboard - a few letters are sticking and it is driving me nuts!!)

I am.

I can doodle on a pad of paper while on the phone but do I want these scratching on my scrapbook page?  I think not!

BUT, I like how stylized doodles look on scrapbook pages.  You know the ones I am talking about?  The flourishes and swirls that are so popular in scrapbooking right now.  I love them but I am too afraid of ruining a page.  And the more nervous I am about ruining a page the more like I am to ruin it!  These type of doodles feel more like mini drawings to me and not really like doodles from the subconcious.

So what's a girl to do?

Well, this is what I do.  I use these.  They come in a variety of different patterns and are made from a sturdy plastic-like material which means you can use them over and over and over.

I love that they come in a 12"x12" size and offer lots of variety within one page.  You can rotate them and flip them so the variety of "doodles" goes on and on.

I find that they add just the right touch to a page.  See the page below.  Really simple in design but with the doodled circles the page looks complete.

Or another example.  This page below uses two different templates.

A flourish type doodle in white pen and the wavy lines for my journaling. (I did actually doodle the scalloped frame around the photo - that I can handle!)

I love them as embellishment for my pages - not something to take over the whole thing.

And you can use them for other purposes too.  You could trace and cut out the designs or even use them as a paint stencil.

That's it,  my PSA for the day.  Let me know if you try it.  I would love to see. :)