OH. MY. GOSH. {happy dance!!!}

It's official, I can share now. :)

But first, another happy dance -
Pretty much every scrapper I know uses Glue Dots. They are a great adhesive, especially for small items such as buttons, flowers and other embellishments. The Glue Dots page is on my fan list on Facebook, and I was even chosen as fan of the week some time back and received an awesome goody package! Earlier this month, I shared a card on their site. As most of you know, I have a hard time loving my cards (let's face it, I usually think they are lame! LOL) but they seemed to like the one I posted because they asked if they could use it in their advertising!!!! Um, yeah....one of MY cards! I'm so flattered. :) I've returned the release form and pics along with instructions and supply list for the card and can't wait to see where it turns up. Glue Dots will give me full credit, of course, and will also promote my blog and FB Fan Page. EXCITING!!!

Ok and now for the even bigger announcement..... I am super thrilled to share that I was invited to join the blog team for Scrapping Cottage!!! Yippee!! Out of the blue, I received an invitation to join their team and couldn't be happier. I love the Cottage Cutz dies and to be chosen without a DT Call is such an opportunity I had to accept.

Watch for my debut on the Scrapping Cottage blog in the near future. And don't forget to check out future ads for Glue Dots to see where my card shows up too!

Courtney

I don't know what it is about the scanner -- the light or something? -- but it washes out the color in whatever bling I use, and in the case of this page it also distorted the colors so badly I took a pic instead. This is much more true to the colors. (Bling is baby pink and pale green.)

Pattern papers are My Mind's Eye, Quite Contrary collection. Variety of different types of letters for the title, QK damask die, QK scallop edgers and that's about it......




....ohhh! and stickles. :)


ETA:
I got my new toy today.....the i-Rock by Imaginisce. Oh my gosh, I love this thing! and if you love bling, you'll love it too. I added these 'rocks' using the i-Rock and the three smallest size gems that come in the compact. To show you the size, I've compared it to a mini brad. Sorry for the extra glue on that tiny one -- it slipped when the glue started to melt and I had to slide it back in place. It's barely noticable in person.

I love this!! And I can't wait to see what Imaginisce brings to CHA Summer. I have the i-Top brad maker and punches too. Both these i-tools are really fun to play with...er, I mean WORK with. ;)

unBEARably cute exclusive bear cub

A quick card using the exclusive Scrapbuggy bear die. Is this little cub the cutest little chubby guy. I just want to smoosh him. :) Also used the rev large center flower, smallest scallop edger, and Chicken Noodle alpha.

THEY'RE FINALLY HERE!!!

The long awaited scrapbuggy exclusive dies have FINALLY arrived! Are these the cutest little creatures or what. Emma did a great job on these designs, as she always does. :) Can you believe we've been waiting for these since January!??? Wow. I sure hope things improve and SOON for the QuicKutz company. Any more delays like this one and they could lose what's left of their customers. Ouch. But let's be positive, they are here now so check it out.........

I think my favorite are the monsters....how can they not be with so many of my own little monsters to scrap. Like Mr. Mad here. Logan is a hoot. Nobody knows what he was grumpy about but he made sure we all knew that he was. Thankfully it lasted only long enough to get a picture and then he was fine and playing again. Silly boy. Besides the monster die for this page I've used the QK 2x2 speech bubble, the largest and smallest scallop edgers and the dots border. I cut the arrow by hand and the letters are Heidi Swapp chipboard. Journaling tag is stamped on kraft paper, and I added googly eyes to the monster just cuz he needs them!

This time I decided to dress up the monsters instead of making them mad. They're having fun after all, just being silly. I've used a necktie (from the QK 2x2 shirt and tie die) and a bow tie (but from what die completely escapes me at the moment, sorry!!), and I gave them googly eyes. I used the mini splat shape for the "o" in the title cuz it makes it seem more monsterish (I guess monsters spill things? LOL) and to make it look like a wet spill I added Dimensional Magic (like Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents). Small letters are Metro skinny mini and title is Relax; journaling tag is the cloud from the cookie cutter rainbow set; mini stars from the cookie cutter billboard signs set.

And here is the skunk. Adorable! Had to use him for this page of Logan, he is such a little stinker. For the stink-plumes I used the 4x4 tree shapes; nesting heart for the background and various small hearts from other shapes. Title is Teriyaki grand.

Projects from another scrappy weekend

First and foremost today, I would like to say I have such a great life. :) I'm so thankful for all I have been given and for time every day to do what I enjoy so much! I am truly blessed and try not to take that for granted. And thank God for our country and our service men and women who give us the freedom to be able to do what we enjoy on free soil. If you haven't yet done so, please fly your flag proudly today on Flag Day, 2010!!

Here are some of the things I did this weekend while puttering around in my scraproom with all the fun toys and goodies I am so lucky to have! This firs page is Miss Grace in her pink cowgirl boots and matching hat at the fall festival at her school last October. She takes her role very seriously as you can see. I'm surprised she didn't want to have a horse with her in the gymnasium. LOL!!! Isn't she cute though. These papers are by My Mind's Eye from the Quite Contrary collection. Shading is all done with ink.

I used the QK banner border die for the title background, English Rose alphabet (capitals) popped with foam tape, and Blossom mini alpha, cowboy hat and boot, and rhinestones and stickles for extra pizzaz, as no self respecting rodeo queen would skimp on rhinestones and sparkle, after all!

Subtitle is done in QK Chandelier alphabet, and the date box is the 4x4 pumpkin popped with foam tape for even more dimension. To mimic her chaps, I snipped the edge of a strip of white eyelet paper and added brads to each side of the strip.

I love this picture of Sally and Emmy at a family gathering last summer. And these papers are to die for aren't they!? October Afternoon, my new crush!, Cherry Hill collection. So cute!!! Months border, scalloped edge and title letters, Cotton Candy, by Quickutz. Eyelet scallop border by Cottage Cutz and Ribbons by American Crafts.

Super cute stickers and cherries die cuts from the Cherry Hill collection.

Cut another portion the border with the month I wanted to highlight in the next darker shade and added it in layers with foam tape. I love this look.

Girlies having fun

I think there's a reason I was given mostly girls in my batch of grands. :) Maybe because I love all things girlish or something. Certainly I love my boys as much, but in boy ways. Regardless, I so love my grandgirls! They are so much fun and we always enjoy them whenever they come to visit. Here are two of them playing silly at grama's house last weekend. Aren't they sweet cousins? :) Grace and Courtney. For this page I used the adorable Lucy Bird paper collection by Imaginisce. Dies are various QK flower shapes, QK scallops edgers, and Katie skinny mini and Classic, Oatmeal and Aquarius fonts.

I love the look of clustering embellishments and these flowers turned out so cute. Layer them, add buttons, or leave them as they are--doesn't take much to make a super cute page embellishment!

And here I used my newest favorite die, the Tim Holtz ticket border by Sizzix. It's even perforated!! Isn't it adorable!

Courtney turned 6 on Monday. When they were here for Memorial Weekend we decided it was perfect timing to have a little party. She was surprised and LOVED all her artsy-craftsy-scrappy gifts!

The tiny cookie cutter crown shape adds just what I wanted to show off Courtney's sweet face. The cupcake is by Cottage Cutz and the cake stand is from the QK funky cake die.

And this larger crown is from the QK Flirt gift set. I love sprucing it up with bling and sparkles.

Here's a comparison for you to see the difference/similarities between a 'real' ticket (photo 1) and the Tim Holtz ticket border (photo 2). They are identical in size (which I love!) and they also are the perfect size to use with the ticket stamp from Stampology's ticketed clear stamps set (photo 3).

Photo 1 - 'real' blue ticket stamped on the back

Photo 2 - Tim Holtz ticket border stamped and used for subtitle

Photo 3 - Stampology, ticketed clear stamps. These are awesome and the variety of phrases included makes this extremely versatile. A must have set, IMO.

Lots of scrapping this weekend

8.5x11 size pages for Christopher's hunting and fishing album.

Details:
QK used for this page are trees border, tent, trees and label.

No dies used here. Title is KI Memories rub-on, sticker by K&Co, hunting paper by Karen Foster, and background paper is Basic Grey, Mellow.



Papers are Basic Grey, Granola; dies used are QK nesting circles, nesting stars and Sonja alpha.



QK Disco alphabet, clear stamps, Karen Foster and Basic Grey papers



QK cloud border, Teriyaki and Relax alphabets, waves border, and Cottage Cutz fish



QK Oatmeal and Honeybee alphabets, Cottage Cutz fish, Tim Holtz ticket border

Memorial Weekend, 2010

All American Soap Box Derby
May 29, 2010

We only found out about the derby in mid-April when the owner of John's Foods in Soap Lake approached Randy about building a car for them to sponsor in the race. This is the first time the derby has been done in this area so everything was brand new to most everyone involved in the planning. Randy agreed, so Grace and Grampa set to work thinking about their car design and what they wanted to do for their derby entry. Grace decided almost right away that her car would be called the XL-37. Who knows where that came from, but we all loved it, of course.

As the day of the race crept closer, the XL-37 sat in the shop, an empty shell. We still hadn't received the kit for the steering and brakes and race day was closing in. Finally, 2 days before the race Randy gets the parts. Keep in mind, the kit is made for a kit car that has everything predrilled and ready to just fit part A to hole A and part B to hole B. The XL-37 was built from scratch so there was no such thing as predrilled this or line up that. And it all had to be done in such a way that Grace would be able to reach the brake and maneuver the steering (which, by the way, is not a round wheel as one might expect—well, me anyway).

In the meantime, I’m working on the decals for the car. Using the sponsor's ad from the newspaper, I copied the fonts and logo and, using my mad scrapbooking skills and QuicKutz Silhouette, designed the decals and car numbers and cut them out in navy and white vinyl. They turned out awesome if I do say so myself.

The day before the race, Grace and the fam finally make the 2 1/2 hour drive--in about 6 hours, thanks to holiday traffic and road construction. Then we find out {yes, the night before the race we find this out} that we need to be at the staging area at 7 a.m. for weigh-in and car inspection, which Randy and Pat finally finished putting together about 1 a.m. the day of the race, which in turn meant that Grace hadn't had a single practice run to get the feel of the car, so obviously Mary, our driver for the Junior Division, also had no chance for a practice run. By the time we went to bed at 10 p.m. leaving the guys to finish the XL-37, Cyndi and I figured if Grace got to race at all, that would be enough and then we could go home and call it good.

So 6 a.m. on race day we're all up and guzzling coffee. The guys load the XL-37 into Randy's truck and head out for Soap Lake; we girls follow shortly thereafter.

When we get there they are still working on the ramps and have just finished inspecting the car. No one was more surprised than Randy that it passed inspection. LOL The car weighs exactly 100 lbs. without a driver.

As it got closer to race time, Grace started to get a little nervous about the ramps and climbed a tree to gather her thoughts. At 9 years old, she was the youngest driver out there and the first one to go down the ramp, which Mary, 17, described as terrifying!!!

Gracie's Pit Crew: Pat (dad), Randy (grampa) and the coolest guy ever, Ty. He was so good with Grace when she freaked about going down the ramp the first time and talked her down after the crash. We had never met him before race day and it wasn't like he was "assigned" to our team or anything. He and Grace just seemed to click and made an awesome team. Just a really neat guy!

Mary (right in the photo below) was so apprehensive about the ramps...ok, let's face it, she was scared to death of them!! Grace made her feel better about it though after she went before Mary did and managed to come back unscathed and ready to do it again. :)

READY....SET...GO!!!

Go Speed Racer!

And Gracie wins another heat!

Back up the hill to do it again.

As nervous as she was, Mary did great. Go, Mary, go! She came in third place in her division. :)

Heh. This is a piece of cake!

Taking a 'pig in a blanket' break between races.

Awards Ceremony

By the time Grace finished her last race, we had been there about 10 hours and were pretty beat, so Cyndi, Grace and I went home to wait for the boys to finish up. Little did we know that there would be at least another two hours of racing yet to go. Needless to say, we were more than a little surprised when Pat called to tell us the awards ceremony was beginning and that Grace had to be there. We grabbed our cameras and flew out the door and back to Soap Lake. Cyndi didn't tell Grace why we had to leave so suddenly. Jim stalled the festivities to give us time to get there. :)

Gracie's trophy is not only the biggest, but also the most prestigious award given by the AASBD (All American Soap Box Derby). The Sportsmanship Trophy. This award is voted on by the judges, directors and staff. She was presented her trophy by the Soap Lake Chief of Police, Jim Dorris. She was completely stunned!

All racers received a medallion for their participation.

Award Winners

Grace and Hannah, Ty's daughter. Is this the cutest thing? :) They had never met before race day.Grace and Pat, proud dad

Grace and her builder, Grampa Randy

Each trophy winner posed with their car for newspaper photos. I can't wait to see the article and put it in Grace's scrapbook!

Cool (G)race Stats

* this was Gracie's first race ever
* she had no time for even one practice run before race day
* she was the youngest driver there
* she was the first to run the course and use the ramp
* she was the first to qualify
* she was the first to crash (very minor and not the fault of the car or driver – when the crew put weights in, they placed them in the way of the cables so she wasn't able to steer)
* she traveled the farthest of all the racers to participate in the derby
* she beat every other car out there--experienced cars and drivers who've done this many times before, mind you! (and boy, was grampa pleased about that!!!)
* she loved that she, a girl scout, beat every other car in a boy scout sponsored event
* at one point during the day, due to an error in the line up, she raced an experienced driver from an older division and beat them too! When she found out the girl she beat was 15, she was super stoked!

More sights from race day

The Marks Fam, minus Jeffery

Cyndi, Grace, Pat

Chillin'

A few of our fine firefighters at the finish line.

Ran out of funds before they could put in a staircase?? Most perplexing image of the day.

Unknown cowboy kickin' it to CW McCall's Convoy coming through the sound system. Get a load of the socks and sandals. Yeehaw.