Should I or Shouldn't I

Found a cool scrapbooking competition called "So you think you can Scrap!" on the website Your Memories By Design. It is a six week competition with each week being a different challenge. There is a part of me that yearns to tackle this and there is the part of me that says "Are you flippin nuts girl?". I have also decided that I would like to start sharing tips and techniques with you. Again the one side saying WO HOOO Yeah Go for it! the other side saying Hello............. where are you going to find the time to do this.

So after talking to those that know me best, and listening to them tell me that I should find a better timing for this..................... I am going to do it. Now the first thing that I have to do is go and up load my favourite layout for the opening challenge........... not sure how I am supposed to pick just one.

I am also going to invite each of you to come to check out all the enteries for "So You Think You Can Scrap" Contest! Come and vote for your favorite submission in this week's round!

What a Simply Wonderful Weekend

So here I am sitting and reflecting on what a marvelously simple weekend I have had.

I had no kids, no parents just me and a special friend and of course the furry canine combo. We didn't go anywhere do anything special just hung out and took it easy. That was a nice break in and of its self.

I took a handful of items from the new BASIC GREY LINE and said make layouts with these and only these things to use. So what happens when you do that? I get this crazy dino layout. I apologize for the less then stellar photo but I am busy trying out new techniques and tips to see how they pan out. I am thinking more practice will be in order for me lol.


I also took some classes from Caroline the co-owner of Maya Road this weekend and the simple projects were awesome. However, I will live those for my next posting. For today I just want to keep it simple.

Here is the one for the next wedding

Thought you might like to see the one for the wedding I have coming up. I got the glimmer mists out to alter the leaves into beautiful fall colors and to add the copper into the flowers.

Well off and running to finish a few things up so I can share with you my new experiences.

Have a great weekend!

Gotta Love those last minute challenges!

So this has been a week filled with lots of interesting last minute challenges for me. Non-bad but all seeming to reguire late nights and early mornings and last minute Dawn could you please do .......

The latest of which was a call at 7:30pm from a gentleman friend whom I am attending a wedding with today. He says I have had another trucking type issue so I am still in North Dakota and I don't know when I will actually make it back to the city. I think I can be there by noon (note the wedding is at one). Any how seeing as we won't have time for me to shop for a wedding gift........... could you please make up something ?

Now I have had 4 hours of sleep in the last 36, just arrived back in the city 30 minutes previously after traveling to and from the Onion lake Reserve for a work related evernt. This was a cool and fun trip but tiring non the less.

So I smile sweetly and say sure Honey, I will have something ready for the wedding. So I race off to Just Scrap It for these cool boxes of 4 photo albums. I am thinking one nice altered box coming up. Good thing that my scrapping friends could see that I was not functioning on full throttle and with their help materials were picked. Then I went home to create.

So here it is one wedding gift to go! Not To bad for minimal sleep - smile.

Shadow of Me

Shadow of Me is really a photo of my shadow as I stood above the prehistoric pond in Drumheller's Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. I had spent a couple of hours with a great photographer Melina Perron and she was really patient in teaching me about the depth of field and shutter speed. I was really struggling with these concepts and the effects that they would have on my photos. I took hundreds of photos that day and this being one.

Some times in the course of life you stand back and wonder who or what you are. No matter what your feeling there is always a shadow of yourself waiting to be discovered. I felt this way with scrapping for magazines and clients. I was trying to be what they wanted. So as I started this page I knew I had to cut loose. With simple yet significant things. Such as allowing the adhesive to show through the maya road letters - creating a shadow like effect. With the glimmer misting of Prima flowers (yes you all read it correctly - flowers) to give me the rich warmth and depth I needed to match the paper.The creating of descriptive words with shrink art. The words on the 7 Gypseys tape describing me in the background. and the Flower Soft that I coated the Maya road chipboard with. They aren't hard or difficult things to do but together....they are the shadow of my scrapping style.

Reflecting on Days Gone By

This is just the beginning of a whole lot of scrapping that I am going to be doing over the coming months. I am now at a place in my life where I am truly happy with most of it. Face it I don't think anyone is ever a 100% happy and if they are then they have no dreams or goals to achieve.

I have hundreds and hundreds of photos that I have developed and for various reasons I never scrapped them. I have chosen to spend the next few months scrapping them in the style and methods that appeal to me. I think I lost myself in an effort to scrap in a style that would make publishers happy, and to share with my students. I love to share my passion for scrapping and would and will happily continue to share with those that ask for my help. Only now I am going to follow my heart and scrap with my textures and interactive features. I am ready to deal with photos that had bitter sweet memories, that I longed to scrap so I could remember the good but the more recent negative actions stopped me from enjoying those memories.

The layout above is just such a layout - the photo was one that I had taken of the flowers that were sent to me by a gentleman that treated me like a princess when things were good. The parting of ways was less than kind. Now I am happy and I can truly appreciate the many wonderful things he did and it is time to finish recording the wonderful times we shared. Not to mention the few dozen photos that were printed off to do that - smile.

I love scrapping - it is what keeps me sane in a crazy world. Is it cheaper than a psychiatrist - probably not - grin. However, my family and friends will have a better understanding of who I am, what I felt, and why I did what I did.

So forget what your supposed to scrap, forget what you think you SHOULD scrap, and just scrap from your heart. You will be amazed at how good it feels.