Altered haunted house

I know it's a bit early for Halloween, but I'm digging in the vaults for stuff to show you until I can get my lazy butt to start photographing the current stuff.

This is a house by Doodlebug which comes in the package totally flat and stark white. You have to "build" it. I used all papers and cutie fuzzy spiders by K & Company, gems and buttons by Doodlebug, and the fence was cut from a patterned paper also by K & Company.

Psst... wanna hear a funny secret about the smoke coming out of the chimney?? Bonnie and I couldn't find any cotton or gauze in the store to make smoke, so we took apart a tampon! So funny!!! Shhhhh, don't tell - we love it when people look at the house and comment on the clever smoke coming from the chimney! LOL!!!

J

What to do with giant artwork?? Case solved!

Here's a fun altered project I did a couple years back. This is an altered pizza box that I did a class on. It is meant to store artwork and photos/memorabilia from your child's school year. I put elastic along the bottom to hold the bigger artwork, and across the top I cut a big brown grocery bag to hold report cards, certificates and photos. Cool huh?

J

Layouts coming soon!

I'm here, I'm here! I know, as always, I left you guys hanging for awhile. Summer is like that. I can have hours of free time one day, and then the next week is pure chaos. I just finished a layout today that I will be posting tomorrow - I'm really excited about it.

I've been working loads of hours at the store this week and will have next week off so I plan to get in here and clean house. I'm trying to figure out how to make myself a custom banner for this blog. I'm getting closer... a few more google searches and I will have mastered it!

Today's thought to ponder: what are you doing to make a difference in the life of your child? Are you nurturing their inner spirit? I have only one daughter and it's important to me that her and I share a special bond that will last forever. I want to be THAT MOM - the one who calls her all the time when she's older just to hang out. The Mom that still takes her shopping even if she's old enough to do her own shopping.

Tomorrow I will be spending some much needed alone time with Kalea. Sometimes, I get so carried away with daily events that I forget she's still waiting for me on the sidelines. It breaks my heart. Tomorrow I will nurture her spirit and together we will grow just a little bit closer. Can't wait!
J

Life is Good!

Supplies: Cards (Joanns), Cardstock(Bazzill), Patterned Paper and ribbon (American Crafts), Flower (Kaiser), Dream Big stamp (Doodlebug)

Sorry I left you guys hanging this weekend - we bought a jet ski so we were out on the water all weekend. Yesterday I spent the whole day preparing for my Bella class. The card above is one of the 4 we will make in class.

Back to the weekend - we went out to Harsens Island where friends of ours (Shanna & Al) were to get engaged. They have been dating for 3 years and Shanna had no idea it was coming. So, we get to the beach where she is all excited to see a ton of friends and relatives spread along the beach (she thinks they are there for a big party without reason) and Al decides to do a toast. Long story short, to watch Shanna's face through the toast (still excited and clueless) to the part where he turns to her and starts to get mushy (straight faced but still clueless) and the finale when he reaches in his pocket and she understands now what is happening and her face goes from a huge smile to a rush of tears to another huge smile... my God, is was so amazing. I was looking at them thinking, Wow... they are at the very beginning of their journey. How exciting for them. They have their whole lives ahead - their fabulous wedding, tropical honeymoon, pregnancy, the birth of their first child, turning their bachelor pad into a family home... I am so envious. I'm very happy to be where I am in my life, but of course, pieces of me yearn for the past when Tony & I were still fresh and new. When we were stupid in love throwing all caution to the wind. When we used to fly by the seat of our pants. What's cool, is we traded that love for something more mature. Something grown from a tiny seed. We just keep watering and pruning, and weeding (we're done fertilizing- LOL!) and this love just gets bigger and more beautiful. So Congrats to Shanna and Al for beginning their journey with their own little seed!

Your thought to ponder today: think about YOUR relationship. Are you watering and pruning and weeding as much as you should be? There is a wonderful piece of advice I once heard: If you go into a marriage giving 50% expecting to get the other 50% back, you're wrong. It is when you give 100% without fail, without question, it comes back to you threefold. Too often, we waste our time complaining about our spouse - just stop for a day and spoil them rotten - watch what happens.

J

Happy "Everything's Broken" Tuesday!

Well, that's what I'm calling today. I will be spending the day running from repair shop to repair shop - yesterday I heard a hissing sound coming from the laundry room and when I walked in, I was sprayed head to toe with water coming out of the washing machine. I was smart enough to fix that but then my dryer stopped drying. I have to go find a part today for it. Shortly after that, I pulled out my Oreck hand held vaccum (you know the ones that will pick up a bowling ball? :p) and it shorted out - stopped working. So I'm wondering what went down yesterday where all of my major purchases decided to go on strike!!?? I refused to go in my scrapbook room and play for fear that I had a cursed hand!!

On a brighter note, I did finally accomplish a personal goal of mine and that was to read a classic novel one day. Yesterday I read Swiss Family Robinson to the kids. We got 1/4 of the way through and they went off to play so I finished it myself. Hard to believe that was written in the early 1800's!

Here's today's layout - not one of my favorite designs, but the photos and plaid paper are some of my favorites!

Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill), Patterned paper (Chatterbox), Lace and Brown ribbon (Making Memories), Flowers (Prima and Bazzill), Rhinestones and Magenta strips (Doodlebug), Chipboard letters (All My Memories), Letter stickers (EK Success)

Thanks for stopping by! Time to run damage control! Wish me luck!
J

Introducing Debbie...

Here she is! This is Debbie (the owner of Little Scrapbox where I work) Her hair is actually blonde with red chunky highlites but the meez are limited on hair.


And just for fun, I made this new one of myself and how I feel about the constant maintenance of my children this summer:



Have a great day!
J

Middle of July already???!!!

Where is this summer going?? It's already the middle of July! I have enjoyed this summer so much so far - the weather has been perfect. I've been loving the cooler summer days - as a matter of fact, we're expecting another one of those gorgeous days from my top 10 list today. Windows are open and I'm ready to inhale the breezes. Ahhhhhh...

As I sit here listening to my cockatiels sing me another redundant "Adams Family" tune, I ponder the day today. Today would be a great day to begin my major life overhaul. I think step one will be to eliminate all the negatives in my daily life. Anything that makes me feel or think negatively must go. Then once I am cleared of negative energy, I can move forward into the positive. Yep, sounds like a plan.

Here's a layout I did Friday with photos I took this past Father's Day. Why is it that ice cream always tastes better from the ice cream man?


Supplies: Cardstock (Bazzill), Patterned Paper (Basic Grey), Ribbon (American Crafts, Title (Thickers by American Crafts), Ice cream truck (Meri Meri), Epoxy ice cream cones (Jolee's), Rhinestones (Doodlebug)

The last thing I want to show you guys are these avatars called "Meez" that you can make at photobucket.com (which by the way is where I host all of my photos for FREE and then use them here so they are bigger and brighter) Anyways - you can custom make these little people by picking different eyes, hair, noses, clothing etc... So, I made this one of myself which you have all seen here on my blog:


And I LOVE animated me cuz I'm flawless and thin and having a great hair day!
Now for those of you that know my friend Bonnie you will see that this one I made for her is pretty darn close - I especially love that she's wearing Crocs cuz Bonnie wears them all the time!! Take a look!


Today, I'm going to make one for my friend Deb to use on her blog. Go make one and have fun!!


J