Little Sampling of My Day.

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I rang in 2009 by banging pots and pans on the front porch with Owen and Jensyn. Awww, yeah! Fun little memory. :D

Afterwords I couldn't get to sleep. So I ended up channel-surfing and came across the show "Amazing Wedding Cakes" on the WE channel. Okay! Can you say "new favorite". LOVE that show! The most stressful part is seeing them deliver their masterpieces in the back of vans. YIKES! I'm just waiting for one to get ruined!

Here's a slideshow of the cakes I found on their website. Doesn't it make you want to scrap?! LOL!

Amazing Wedding Cakes Slideshow

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The morning of January 1st I hopped online and scored me one of these babies! (Image from Becky Higgins blog) It took me a little while, but I conquered! Hehehe! My hubby just rolled his eyes at me that I was willing to dedicate my morning to scoring this thing. Kevin said, "Men, would never put up with this!" LOL! I know. He's right. Us scrapper-gals are a silly bunch! ;)



Yep! I'm joining the flock. Baaaa! Baaaaa! LOL! But I'm confident I can keep up on it with the help of a few of my scrappy friends. (Michelle and Virginia! You better keep on me about this thing!)

Check out the Project 365 dedicated blog!



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Today was a little interesting. Here are a few pics to prove it. :D

This morning I asked the kids to each put away their stacks of laundry. Now Maryn really hasn't done anything beyond putting her jammies and underwear away in a drawer, but I thought I would let her have a shot at hanging things on the lower rod in her closet this time.

Guess what I found? LOL!

Here is Maryn, all proud of what she's been working on.



Here's the closet with the things she hung up so far. Pretty good, right? Look closer. Do you see the tights and underwear?



LOL! Love that kid!



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We were getting ready for dinner tonight and realized we hadn't seen Cam for awhile.

This is how we found her. She'd been playing in Jensyn's room with a hair-color-streaking kit Jensyn had received for Christmas. LOL!




Thank heavens it didn't get anywhere else! I soaked her in the bath and she still has a cloud of pink on her face! LOL! I'm just hoping it wears off in time for church on Sunday. :D

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And then Owen ends my day with some Elementary Humor.

"Mom, spell 'I cup.'"

Yeah. Owen. Soooooo clever. Where'd you learn that one?



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Okay, okay. I bet you're DYING for some scrappy stuff by now. @@ LOL! Thanks for hanging in there.

This time I have some projects for you using the January Work In Progress Kit. It's bittersweet for me to post these because it is my last kit with Work In Progress. :( I will deeply miss working with Trish and all the lovely ladies there, but I also realize that I need to cut back on some of my DT obligations so I can dedicate some of that time to home and family. It was a promise I made to my kids awhile back, WIP just happened to be the first of my DT terms to come up. :(

This is also one of the reasons I'm not reapplying at Sketch This . :( (Thanks for everything, Janelle! I LOVE your sketches and will continue to play along when I can.) Janelle is holding a DT call right now, so check it out! I'm hoping this will just be for a couple of months until I can steady myself. I will continue to design for the places I have obligations to. I would NEVER leave anybody hanging. I also will never stop designing all together. Scrapping is just too much in my blood.

Anyway, on with the show. Here are my January Work In Progress projects. :)





For this layout I used Sketch #6 by Inspired Blueprints.




I'll be back soon! Enjoy your weekend!
Jana

Saturday! Is a Special Day!

How's your Saturday going? I'm just hanging out getting some scrapping projects done and then later today I will be taking the girls to see Disney on Ice. Should be fun! I can't wait to see how Camryn reacts to it all! This will be her first event like this. I sure hope she does okay! :D

Thanks for all the compliments on my room! And you bet! I'd LOVE to have every one of ya over! :D :D :D I honestly still can't believe Kevin let me go for it! Hmmmm. I'm wondering if he likes the fact that I disappear in here and entertain myself for hours on end! LOL!

Today is the last day to submit your layouts for the Harvest the Crop Challenges over at Noel Mignon . I have had a blast hanging out there this week chatting with all of you. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Here are a few more layouts I completed for the challenges!

This was for Noel's challenge. The only requirement was that we use the word "Remember" somewhere on the layout. I decided to use it as my title. This picture of Camryn running down a path at the Homestead in her swimsuit cracks me up. It reminds me that I need to cherish every little moment of being a mom to these little sillies!

I used a sketch by Beggahuna Sketches. Go and check out her blog. She is AMAZING!!! I sure hope she continues drawing up these little goodies for us to play with!

This one was for Michelle's challenge where we had to use atleast 2 pictures, brown cardstock, handwritten journaling and ribbon. I used the Home Sweet Home kit for this one.

I realized that I haven't shared with you my Sketch This layout for this week! This is #74. It's been awhile since I have done a layout with one giant photo. That was really fun! I used Noel's Home Sweet Home kit on this layout, too. :D


And finally I have a 2-pager to share using one of Allison Cope's amazing sketches from So Sketchy!



Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Making Memories, Collage Press; Hambly Overlay; Heidi Swapp Chipboard Letters; Prima Flowers, 3-D cream paint, Misc. buttons from my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a gorgeous weekend!

Jana

Once Upon a Time . . .

Have you seen this new line by Imaginisce! Oh, goodness! With three girls, and all the pink that comes with them, I couldn't help but fall in love with all the glitter and princess-y details of the Fairest of them All Collection! :D :D :D Here's a link to their website if you want to see more.











So here are a couple of layouts I've made so far with this line. The first one I used Sketch This #73. For whatever reason, I have a really hard time photographing and editing pastel colors and sparkles, so forgive me for that, kay? :D

I even pulled out some vellum for this one, can you believe it? LOL! I love how it adds a layer, but still let's the patterned paper show through from underneath.



And here's one of Maryn and Camryn just hanging out and being silly sisters together.




And she lived happily ever after! :D
Thanks for popping by!
Jana

Sketch This #70 with Sweet Pea Scraps Kit

Here is a final layout from me using the October Sweet Pea Scraps kit and Sketch This #70.

Goodbye House

Brads & buttons are from my stash.

Thanks for coming by!
Jana

Supplies: Noel Mignon Homeroom Kit, Janelle Richmond Sketch This #67, Foam Letter Stickers from Target Dollar Spot.

A couple of weekends ago my daughter had an impromptu sleepover with her cousin. For an activity that night we decided to have a little photo shoot of the two of them together. Later on, I printed off a bunch of pictures for them and let them go to town creating their own pages of their friendship together. They had a BLAST!!!

I LOVE the way these pictures turned out!!! They are a great reminder to me that I need to do "photo shoots" of my loved ones more often. Pictures from events are fun, but something unique happens when you take several shots of a person in a row. The viewer gains a glimpse of that person's personality as they view the subject up close and personal.

For this layout I combined nine of the photos together on one computer generated mat. I did this in Photoshop Elements 5 under the "Create>Photo Layout" option. I have never done this before and basically just followed the prompts as they came up on the screen. I'm pretty certain anyone can figure it out if I did! LOL!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Jana

Ideas for Adding Transparencies to Your Layouts

I have had this photo in my file for a long time (Click to see larger). I have no idea who created it since a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend passed it on to me. :D But I think it is a great sample board of ideas and I wanted to share it with you here!



Use one of the ideas on your Hambly transparency included in your kit! Or combine a few of them like I did in the sample below.

Here I have combined three of the ideas together. I hid the adhesive under my photo, used the brad from the black flower to keep the right side in place, and then I also added some stitching to two of the corners.



Supplies Used: Noel Mignon Homeroom Kit; thread and Bobunny brad from my stash, sketch by Janelle Richmond

Where? Oh, Where Has That Jana Gone?

Oh, Where? Oh, Where Can She Be?

Wowsers! Another week has come and gone in the crazy-August-Birthday-month household. Whew! Thanks for putting up with my absence and sporadic posting. This post will be a quick one, but I wanted to let you know what I have been up to . . .


Bowling for Owen's Birthday "Dinner" Out

Celebrating Maryn's Birthday - Here she is opening presents in the morning.

For her "Friend" party, she decided that she wanted to have a Swimming Party at the Rec. Center. Mmmmmm. Pizza! (I think this is the 20th time we've eaten pizza this week!)
Friday after school we drove to the southern part of Utah to St. George for a little getaway. Kevin had a speaking engagement, so we decided to make a family trip out of it and celebrate Jensyn's birthday.

Here she is on her birthday morning opening her presents in the hotel.

Kevin's parents are serving an LDS mission in St. George. This was the first chance we've had to visit them. Grandma & Grampa invited us over for Gramma's famous Sourdough pancakes. MMMmmmmmm!

Jensyn couldn't have asked for a better birthday breakfast! :D
Afterwards, we were off to the local Community Center for more swimming then lunch.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and then went out to dinner to our favorite restaurant in St. George (Jensyn's choice), The Pasta Factory. :D

That night, Gramma and Grampa had us back over to their house to celebrate the kids' birthdays with a cake. I love this picture of all three of them blowing out the candles together. :D


We packed up Sunday morning, made the drive home, rested for an hour and then went to my niece's birthday party.

It was a fun week, but an EXHAUSTING one! :D We still have Jensyn's "friend" party to do. But she has decided she wants to take her friends to a movie, so it shouldn't be too stressful. Whew!

I have soooo many scrap projects to post, but instead of doing them all at once I will do them in groups, starting tomorrow. I'll leave you tonight with my layout for Sketch This #64. See you then!

Jana

"The Joys of Creation"

The incredible teacher of our Sunday School class referred to this talk in her lesson. I really love this message and wanted to pass it along to all of my scrappy friends in cyber-space! ;)

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The Joys of Creation Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell

Nancy was eight years old when a teacher looked at her drawing and spoke six words Nancy would never forget: “You’re not very talented, are you?”

The words not only embarrassed her, they burrowed inside her, creating a firm resolve never to make a fool of herself by attempting to draw or paint again.

It took more than five decades for Nancy to outgrow this image of herself as a clumsy, artless, and uncreative person. Today Nancy knows something she wishes she could have understood when she was eight: the reason we create is not for the praise of others but because we love something so much we want to see it exist.

That’s what creative people do. They bring to life things that didn’t exist before.

Creativity is one of the great, mysterious hungers we all have as mortal souls, and there are as many ways to express this divine drive as there are people who feel it. Some of the most creative people in the world never pick up a paintbrush, sit down at a piano, or fill a page with words. Yet because of them, the world is filled with scented gardens, warm quilts, and loving relationships. Sometimes the most important thing we create is as simple as a smile.

Many of us have something we’ve always wanted to try to do but never quite got around to it—perhaps because we lacked the confidence, or maybe because we were afraid we would fail. The good news is this: when we set aside our fears and begin to create, we make not only our lives but our world more meaningful and more wonderful.

One wise man put it this way: “God left [the] world unfinished. . . . He left the problems unsolved and the pictures unpainted and the music unsung that man might know the joys and glories of creation.”1


1 Attributed to Alan Stockdale by Sterling W. Sill in Conference Report, Apr. 1960, 70.

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Also, here are a couple more layouts I completed recently. I had fun just playing on these. Mixing and plopping things down on a whim. It's been awhile since I just "played". And even though they aren't perfect in every way . . . I had fun creating them.

This one is for this week's sketch at Sketch This (#62). Be sure to check out what the other designers cooked up! YUM!


And I created this one for the current Becky Fleck Sketch Challenge at Noel Mignon.com Come over and play! Who doesn't love a sketch AND the winner will receive a $10 GC to the store!



Have a great weekend!
Jana