Obsessed with Scrapbooking: July 2009

Above is my latest page. At the Scrapbook Expo I bought the supplies to do mosaic pages. The idea and supplies come from Tammi Potter. Check out her website and blog at http://www.tamipotter.com/ I really love her ideas. This is the first page I have done with the mosaic idea but I really love it and am sure I will be doing many more. The pictures I used were taken when I went to Savannah on the scrapbooking train trip. Let me know what you think of the page.
Below you can see why I said I was obsessed with scrapbooking. Brooke, my favorite daughter-in-law, says I really have a problem and that she may be sending the men with the white coats soon.

All of these things are for baby boy pages when Brooke and Frances both have their little boys. I mean, what is a grandma to do but scrap pictures of her two favorite little men! I will certainly need all of these supplies and who knows-maybe more-that is if I can find any I don't already have.

Behold all the stickers, rub-ons, papers, embellishments, brads, ribbons, etc.

I do wish that nice lady, Sharalynn, at Brassworks Embossing, http://www.brassworksembossing.com/ would quit sending me those lovely e-mails about her sales. I guess she knows I can't resist brass stencils. Of course, I didn't have any baby stencils so...... I just had to place an order.

When Lynn & I were at the Expo in Georgia we did a class by Rusty Pickle http://www.rustypickle.com/ We made this cute little accordion album. On the back I put Jack's name so I can fill it with his pictures.

I am babysitting Chelsea, my beautiful chocolate lab grand-dog again this week. We are having fun playing outside and swimming in the pool. Only 3 more weeks and it is back to school. How sad, but I guess I need to work in order to support my scrapbooking habit.

Well, I have finally come into the technology age a little further and created a blog. We will see how it goes and how often I keep it up. My plan is to update it frequently during the rest of the summer, and then at least weekly once school starts back. I also joined Flickr as part of the HeroArts Stamps new website, http://www.heroarts.com/ in order to keep up with new designs in scrapbooking and card making. It is really a neat site and I can get lots of help and ideas from fellow crafters from all over the world. I decided that I needed to branch out and embrace more technology since this year I am slated to become the technology person at our school. We lost our computer/technology teacher so now I have that hat to wear along with being the media specialist and inventory person. It will be quite a challenge but I am sure I can learn to call the right person to get the right answers to the teacher's problems. My friend, Lynn, made me the card and notebook below so I can have a place to record all the problems, solutions, etc.. I will encounter this year as the technology "expert." :)

I guess I will start this blog by describing my crafting life for the last few months. During Spring Break in April, my crafting buddy, Lynn and I went on a train trip to Savannah, Ga. with 34 other crafters. The trip was organized by Whim So Doodle, a crafting store in St. Pete, Fl. http://www.whimsodoodle.com/index.php

We left on a Wednesday by train and returned on Sunday. We really had a great time. Savannah is a wonderful, historical town. If you have never been there, you should really go. This is my second time there, and I love the town.

One really fun activity some of us did was to go to Club One, a drag club. It was a real HOOT!

Lynn and I participated in a scavenger hunt, (which we won) while we were there. One of the things we had to do was form a Congo line in a city square. The more people we got to join us, the more points we got. We got 15 people to join in.
School finally got out June 4 and I went off to Alpharetta, Ga. to rescue my friend Lynn. After we returned to Tampa from Savannah in April she had to take a leave of absence from school and go to take care of her 37 year old daughter, Kim, who is dying of cancer. Lynn has become her daughter's main caretaker. I really admire her and don't know how she does what she has to do. Kim is married with 2 small children. She is confined to a bed and is paralyzed from the chest down due to the tumor on her spine. I went up for the weekend to take Lynn off to a hotel for some rest and relaxation. We went to Marietta, Ga. and visited 4 craft stores, saw two movies, and experienced many good restaurants.
If you don't know already, you will soon know that I am obsessed with scrapbooking. I have been scrapping for over 15 years. I have 22 12x12 Creative Memories albums, each with 30-40 pages. They cover 38 years of marriage and family.
In June my friend, Jody and I went to Orlando for the day to the Scrapbook Expo. It was fun and we really enjoyed it. I had already gone to one in Tampa in December, but this one was larger.
I was inspired to start this blog because my favorite daughter-in-law, Brooke has one. She does such a wonderful job and I love reading all about the adventures of Adam, Brooke and Chelsea, my grand dog. My life is not near as interesting, but I thought maybe some other crafters might be interested in seeing my cards and scrapbook pages. Hopefully we can share ideas.

Chelsea, our grand dog, came to stay with us for a week in July. We had a fabulous time. We went on a field trip to Petsmart one day (see above), played outside every day and

went swimming every day too. Chelsea loooooooooooooooooooves the pool so much that it is very hard to get her to come inside the house.

We went to the 4th of July parade in Temple Terrace and took Chelsea with us. She was a very good girl and even got her own beads. I am planning to do a double-page spread of Chelsea's adventures during the week she was visiting her grandparents. I will post the pages when I complete them.

I took Chelsea back to her parents in Tallahassee and spend several days there helping Brooke make curtains for their kitchen and dining room

Adam made a bench a few months ago for their living room, and I made cushions for it while I was there. By the way, my son, Adam, and Brooke, his wife, are expecting their first child in December. His name will be Jack.

I left Tallahassee on Thursday and headed back to Alpharetta, Ga. to get Lynn and take her off again for a few days. We went to the Scrapbook Expo in Deluth, Ga. on Friday.(I know, that is my 3rd Expo in 6 months-I told you I was obsessed). We are going to plan a field trip to this one next summer with several other friends. It was really the best. We went to Marietta on Saturday and went to a stamping workshop by Amuse Stamps at Rubber Stamp Fantasy http://www.rubberstampfantasy.com/
We made 5 cards and a make and take too. We went to the Marietta Diner again. What a cool restaurant. Just check out their home-made cakes. A huge slice is $7.00 and big enough to feed 3-4 people.

At the Scrapbook Expo I bought this adorable onseie. It came with a miniature one so when Jack wears this, and Brooke sends me a picture of him in it, (hint, hint) then I can scrap a page and use the miniature one on the page.

Speaking of babies, Frances (our French daughter) and Christophe are also expecting a baby boy in November. We are so excited that our lovely granddaughter, Sasha, (below) will have a baby brother. They are thinking of naming him Francois, which is French for Francis, after his great-grandfather. Hopefully they will come back to visit soon so Francois and Jack can play together.

Of course, I had to by Francois some FSU onesies.

It seems that every summer something happens and I don't get to rest and do what I want to do-scrap. So, I decided that this summer is my summer to do exactly what I want to do. I have been taking trips, as you can see, and my favorite other things to do are lay out in the sun in my floating chair in the pool and to work on cards and scrapbook layouts in my craft room.
So, this is more or less my schedule for the day. I stay up late and watch Letterman and Craig Ferguson and then sleep late. I may, or may not, walk on the treadmill (depending on my mood), and then I go out to the pool. After a late lunch I play on the computer reading e-mails and exploring the Internet, and then I go to my craft room and work. Sadly, I only get to live like this for 4 more weeks and then it is back to reality, but I am enjoying it while I can. I haven't even cleaned house or done any laundry all this week-oh well! I did repaint the kitchen when I got back from Georgia in June, so that should count as some work.! Oh, and I did go to a 3 hr. workshop for school.

These are two, two-page spreads that I did this week for Jack and/or Francois. I got the ideas and the papers at the Expo in Georgia. I really did buy a lot of baby blue paper, baby embellishments, etc. at the Expo. As I create more pages and cards, I will post them along with some pictures of my craft room.

Below are some examples of birth announcements I will be making for my grandson-to-be, Francois. Frances will have to decide which one she wants. The bib stamp is by Northwoods Rubber Stamps, http://www.northwoodsrubberstamps.com/default.aspx, and I saw a sample of this announcement at The Rubber Stamp Fantasy in Marietta, Ga. I really do love it.