Resolution Me Layouts

I participated in the Resolution Me Crop at A. C. Bailey this past weekend. This crop was to work on a Book of Me, aka BOM. This is an album for layouts about your's truly so that the kids can get to know me, my thoughts, what I was like as a child, etc. There were 6 challenges each day. Friday's challenges were about our Past, Saturday's challenges were about the Present and Sunday's challenges were General. I didn't get to do as many layouts as I wanted but did get the 3 pre-crop challenge Dividers for my album completed and 3 layouts done during the crop. I plan to complete the rest of the challenges and will post them when I do.

My Dividers





The journaling for the Present divider says: I try to make decisions based upon what I will wish I had done when I look back on this time 20 years from now. This helps me end up with a lot less regrets even though it isn't always easy to do. I want my life to please God and this helps.




The journaling for the General divider says: Someday, when I’ve gone ahead of them to Heaven and our children are looking at this scrapbook, I hope that the words of the following song will be true of my life. I want to live my life now so that it will be.

Find Us Faithful
by Steve Green

We're pilgrims on the journey
Of the narrow road
And those who've gone before us line the way
Cheering on the faithful, encouraging the weary
Their lives a stirring testament to God's sustaining grace
Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses
Let us run the race not only for the prize
But as those who've gone before us
Let us leave to those behind us
The heritage of faithfulness passed on through godly lives

Chorus:
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
May the fire of our devotion light their way
May the footprints that we leave
Lead them to believe
And the lives we live inspire them to obey
Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful
After all our hopes and dreams have come and gone
And our children sift though all we've left behind
May the clues that they discover and the memories they uncover
Become the light that leads them to the road we each must find.

Past



Journaling reads: My first house was in Jacksonville, FL. While I lived in a total of 3 different houses growing up, this one means the most to me. It’s the only house where my whole family, parents and siblings, lived together. This is the house where we all have common memories and family stories. Since I’m so much younger than the others, they started "leaving the nest" when I was 3 years old. By the time we left this house, four of them were already married, out on their own or in college. This house is across the street from our elementary school, Central Riverside Elementary. I loved going to school where my brothers and sisters had attended. I am the only one of the six of us that didn’t attend, at least for one year, the high school where Mom graduated. I always thought going to the same school Mom did would be pretty neat!

Mom kept geraniums (usually pink and/or red) growing in pots on the porch. There were azaleas growing in front of the porch. My love of houses with porches probably comes from loving the porch & balcony on this house. There was always plenty of room to play on the porch to keep out of the Florida sun or during rainy days. This house was HOME.



Journaling says: This picture was our Christmas card in 1965. I was just over a year old when it was taken. Because I am so much younger than my other brothers & sisters, all my life they’ve teased me about being "the baby." My sisters were 16, 14, & 12 and my brothers were 8 & 5 when I was born. I’ve loved being part of a big family. My older sisters used to argue over who got to take care of me, partially because whoever took care of me didn’t have to do the housework. My brothers definitely knew how to tease but they were also my protectors. If there was ever any trouble, I always knew they’d care for me. I treasure the special memories about each of my siblings from during those "growing up" years.

Present

Beauty & Wait

I am really enjoying the Scripture Memory Challenge. It's been fun studying the different words and how they're used in the Bible. I got a bit behind last week and didn't get my Scripture Card done. oops! So, this week I did both of them.

Week #3's word was Beauty

The journaling says: Praise for physical beauty is short-lived because that type of beauty fades but a woman that fears the Lord is worthy of praise for the rest of her life.

Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Proverbs 31:30

It never struck me before in this way, but the Bible says there’s beauty in holiness.

Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 29:2

This week's word is: Wait

The journaling says: Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14

The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:25-26

It’s so hard to wait quietly but it’s comforting to know that the Lord will provide strength to do so.

It's Confections time!

To celebrate reaching 2500 hits I am going to give away the following goodies:

Share Laughter Clear Design set from Hero Arts

Large Flower Sparkle Gems from Hero Arts

An assortment of ribbons, eyelets and cardstock in coordinating colors.

Oh yeah, not pictured.......confections of course!

To win, leave me a comment on this post and tell me why you love to stamp/scrap.

I will use the random number generator to draw a number before I go to work on Friday.

Good luck!

New Blog Banner & 2500 hits!

Well, what do you think? We may tweak it a bit, but for the most part this is it. I just love the colors and flowers.

All of the hard word was done by Sara Williams and I can't thank her enough. Sara worked hard to make sure that I had just the look I wanted.

Sara also designed the amazing banner/headers on Amy Westerman's blog, Heartfelt Greetings.

I am so happy that I have had 2500 hits. I will be posting a pic of the blog confections that you will have a chance to win in a couple of hours. Stay tuned!

{hugs to all}
Melissa

Cards from Scraps

A few months ago I participated in a Shoebox swap at my lss. You can see the card I made here. Mine is the snowflake card. I had some extra kits and decided to see what I could come up with. The first card is the same layout, but I used one of my new favorite flower stamps from My Favorite Things Boho Blossoms set. I cased (copy and share everything) this layout from a card I saw on SCS, but have been through my files and can't find the original creation. If you recognize this layout as yours, please let me know so that I can give you proper credit.

For the next card I used this adorable snowman stamp from Printworks. It is #G3611 and called Love in Your Heart. Isn't he the cutest? The stamp says "the love in your heart wasn't put there to stay, love isn't love til it's given away"

The base card is Bazzill cardstock and I embossed it with my snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder. {lovin' the bug}

I cut out the corners of the white panel with my 1/2" round punch (I just stick the very tip of the corner into the punch and snip it off). I smooshed a little bit of ink from some VersaColor cubes onto one of my acrylic blocks and used my Niji Waterbrush to paint in the hat and scarf. Of course, I used Stickles to bling up the scarf a bit.

If you have created something from scraps, leave me a comment with a link, I would love to see what you come up with.

Until next time.................goodnight

Confections are coming!

So I've been at this blog thing for a year now and it has taken forever to get over 2000 hits! I think I will put some yummy confections together and offer them up when I get to 2500 hits!

Tell all of your friends to stop by for a peek into my world. Help me get there quick! :)

Hugs to all..............

A little snow

Here are a few pictures of the pretty snow we got on Thursday. It is still all around and on the ground, but the driveway is clear now and so much easier to get up. Eventhough I have 4WD in my Yukon, I have only had 4WD 101 according to my son. He says "basically, Mom you know how to push the button to make it go into 4WD." Man talk about gettin' shut down by a 16 year old! Oh well, on with the show.

This pic was taken w/o the flash and I liked it much better than the "flash" pic. It was taken a little before sun up. The only light was from the flood light on the corner of the house. Thankfully, we never lost power!

This pic is of

some of the trees in the front of the house. Jon says that this tree reminds him of Mt. Crumpet from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"

The picture on the left was taken from the same point I took the pic of the limb in the power lines. The power lines are to the left and this is to the right, looking toward the backyard.

I hope you have enjoyed a little of my world. I have some card pics to upload a little later. My dear son Jon is helping me to learn the settings on my camera so I can't wait to play with it.

Finally, a few pics

from my new camera. I am still learning how to use it and need to read the book completely and figure out all of the things I can do with it. (I really need to learn this before I go to CHA). These are the cards for my upcoming class. One of my new favorite stamp sets is Boho Blossoms from My Favorite Things and you can get them here. On this first card I embossed the flower in detail gold powder directly onto the print paper. This paper has a shimmer to it and it is gorgeous. The base card is brown shimmer cardstock and the print papers are from SEI. I embellished with some pale pink dew drops. It is hard to tell, but the shear ribbon has a little gold edge. Here is a close up of the flower/dew drops. The next card uses the open heart image from the set and I used World Win cardstock for the base and K & Co. Smitten paper for the background. I used Pink VersaColor ink for the flower and embossed with clear EP. I flower is stamped on cream glossy cardstock as I thought it really went great with the print on the paper. Now, this last card is my oh so favorite! I stamped the solid flower image with Black Brilliance ink and embossed with black EP. The base card is Bazzill Black cardstock and the print papers are from K & Co.'s Mira collection. I used Adirondack Mountain Rose ink to stamp the little design directly onto the print paper. The solid cardstock is from World Win and the color is called Geranium. It goes perfectly with the print paper. I embellished with some brads and a little yellow rhinestone in the center of the flower for some extra bling. Well, I am off to work (we're doing inventory) for the evening. I hope to upload a few more cards tomorrow.

Hugs to all!

Kindness

Our word for this week's Scripture Challenge was Kindness. When the kids were little, I used to quote Ephesians 4:32 to them all the time. I even made it into a goofy song that I would sing to them. They've groaned many times over that song and actually would say, OK, Mom, I'll be nice just quit singing that song! LOL So, when I found out the word was kindness, what other choice did I have?? Here's my card:

Our new Addition

My husband loves Persian cats. We had to put his favorite cat, a silver-tipped Persian we called Prissy, to sleep this past April. Only in the last couple weeks has he even considered getting another one. It's surprised him how much he misses her.

Over the weekend we were offered a pure-bred, Persian kitten. He's 6 months old, weighs 5 lbs., and has tabby markings. We got him on Sunday and he already thinks he owns the house. He's smaller than he looks.


The "big boys" Sam & Tigger pretty much just ignore him. We've been surprised that Tigger wasn't more angry about his arrival. Sasha is terrified of him. She's found a new perch high up on my scrapbook shelves and that's where she spends most of her time now. She's gradually getting better but it's slow going.


Since he thinks he's "king of the castle" and since he's a Persian, we decided to name him Darius after the biblical Persian king. So here's our new addition:

Camera Update

I ordered my camera from Website A and should have known the price was too good to be true. A rep from Website A called and asked if I wanted to upgrade the battery, I said no. Then he asked me if I wanted to upgrade to the US version of the camera! It appears the price I saw on the U.S. website is for a Canon camera to be sold to the Asian market. So for an additional $99.00 I could have an instruction manuel in English! A warranty was going to be another fee. I proceeded to cancel the order and go to the trusty Costco website and order the camera. So, I won't be getting the table top tripod, but I will be getting a bonus 2gb memory card. The memory card is worth much more to me anyway and Costco has a 90 day return policy on cameras.

The good news is, according to UPS tracking, my camera will be here tomorrow!

I did work on a few cards on Sunday. I used left-over kits from the last Shoebox swap and created some different cards with them. That was kinda fun and challenging at the same time.

Hugs to all!

I need a Blogspert

Translation: Blog Expert

I have received some nice comments and a few questions and when I try to reply to people the e-mails are returned as undeliverable. This is maddening. What is more maddening is how little I really know about this blogging stuff!

Can someone please tell me how to fix this?

Pretty please?

Ordered a new camera!

Yeah!, Yippy, Yee Haw!

I tried to get a few shots of some cards the other day and my old camera is just worn out! I just ordered my new camera and hope it doesn't take too long to get here. I want time to play with it before I head to CHA in February.

After looking and looking I finally decided on the Canon S5 IS. I am hoping that the additional zoom and the optical stabilization will help me get some better pictures of my cards and the beautiful nature around where I live.

Isn't it purtiful? (as Jon would say) Not as compact as the camera DH got me for Christmas but packed with a whole lot more for not much more money. It even comes with a table top tripod (say that fast three times).

Hang in there with me, I promise to have new stuff to show you soon.

Faith

This year, I am taking part in the 2008 Scripture Challenge over on Triple the Scraps. Each week Patter will give us a word and we create a card focusing on that word. The back of the card is to have 2-3 verses of our choice focus on the "Word of the Week." It's been interesting to see how each lady chooses a different direction or aspect and yet all are so applicable to faith.

I have decided to make 3 sets. One for each of the children when they leave home and one set for me to keep. Here's this week's card:

Post already, will ya?

I hope everyone's new year has not been as busy as mine. I wish the best for all of you and your families too!

Okay, so I got a message from a "friend" from long ago telling me that I need to post something already! I have been so busy at work (both jobs) and haven't had a full day off in a week and not sure when the next full day off will be. I finished my samples for my Lotsa Layers class a few days ago using the BoHo Blossoms set from My Favorite Things. I work 12:30-4:30 today, so I will take some pictures and post them this evening. I just love this stamp set and the "new" papers I used to create the cards.

Stay tuned!

ScrapJazz New Year's Eve Cyber Crop

I participated in a Cyber Crop over on ScrapJazz yesterday. I was able to complete all 6 challenges. The first one was issued at 10 AM, the final one at 8PM and all had to be submitted by 3AM (midnight in PST). I was able to get them all done though I'm a little bleary eyed today. Here are my LOs.


10 AM Challenge -- We were given a LO (layout) to scraplift (aka copy and make our own slight changes -- for instance, the original used a portait 5 x 7, I turned the LO and used a landscape 5 x 7). The colors are a little washed out -- they're pretty cream, green & pinks. This is my favorite LO of the day.




There's a hidden journaling tag on the left of the pic (where the "K" is) that says, Oh the difference 15 years makes. Small pic 4-20-92 Focal Pic 8-07 Our adorable toddler is now a lovely young lady.

Noon Challenge -- we were given a choice of two LO as examples and were told our focus was to be: Journaling Strips, Circles, and a 2-PAGE LAYOUT that has something that "flows from one page to the other. I did my own design rather than scraplift one of the examples.



The journaling strips on this one say: Kendra has been sick for much of 2007. Her birthday was no exception. Since she was feeling so lousy, we celebrated her birthday quietly with just the three of us. While she did "fix up" a little, she felt like she looked horrible, so that's why there are no pictures of her looking at the camera. She had gallbladder surgery about 2 weeks later. At her request, we had the family favorite, Oreo Ice Cream Dessert, in stead of a cake. Dad says, "It's not my birthday, why are you taking my picture?"

2PM Challenge -- We were to scraplift one of two given LOs. The one I chose required the use of an adjective as the title. Since I know I'll eventually do at least one more LO with other pics from this wedding, I didn't do any journaling on it. VERY unusual for me. :) In real life, the background paper is a deep rose-red.



4 PM Challenge -- We were to make our own embellishment "sticker" that had a word and definition. I actually did two and used a word & definition on each page of the following LO. It's also for a circle journal about music. I was to tell what part music plays in my life and what my favorite Praise & Worship music (if any) is.



The journaling says: Music has always been a big part of my life. I began taking piano lessons when I was four years old. My piano teacher moved a year later so I had a two year hiatus until I began taking lessons again when I was seven. Except for one year, I took piano lessons until I was seventeen. When I was in the 8th grade, I began taking voice lessons as well. I continued with them thru high school and my two years at college. I had the soprano leads in two high school musicals, sang for several area social clubs, in audition choirs at school, in the church choir and for special music at church. Since Tim & I have been married, I’ve continued my singing in the church music program. Three years ago I was diagnosed with asthma and could no longer sing in the choir. For almost a year, I could hardly sing at all. I still don’t sing in the choir but am able to sing solos, duets with Tim and in our trio with another lady in the church.

I prefer more traditional music and am not overly fond of music with a contemporary sound. However, there are several songs that I really like the words and would enjoy them a lot more without all the drums and such in the background! :) These songs are “In Christ Alone,” I Can Only Imagine,” and “I’ll Praise You in the Storm.” I enjoy songs that call my attention to worshiping Christ. My current favorite is one we sing each Sunday morning at the beginning of the church service. The words are: Jesus, be Jesus in me No longer me, but Thee Resurrection power Fill me this hour Jesus, be Jesus in me. Praise - the offering of grateful homage in words or song, as an act of worship Worship - reverent honor and homage paid to God.

6 PM Challenge -- We were given a digital LO to scraplift. I chose to do one of Tim's cat Prissy. We had to have Prissy put to sleep this past April. This is one of our favorite pictures of her.

8PM Challenge -- For the final challenge of the day, we were given a LO with a lot of handstitching on it to scraplift. I did all my stitching with a pen instead of needle & thread. I've been wanting to scrap these pics for awhile. They're from 1994 and are when Ian, Kendra, Jeremy, Trevor, Dad & I went to the beach at Ocean City, NJ.