Big News!

JoDe has her site and her blog back up... and for those of you who REALLY liked that scroll cut pumpkin in my "pumpkin boy" layout!... you can get it FREE as part of the halloween gift she has on her blog... shhh.. don't tell her I sent you, but make sure you leave her a thank you note! Here's a preview of the gift... SO COOL!

Disaster

... the only word I can think of to describe my weekend! Some of you know that I went to Lake Tahoe this weekend to take photos for the Volvo Club of America's 2006 West Coast meet AND I was suppose to represent JoDe of Altered Scrapping at the RAKScraps gallery mixer on Friday... Let me just say... if it could go wrong... it did! I borrowed a laptop from DD.... (really need to get my own) I couldn't keep the wifi connection for the crop ans was AWAL for most of it... Thank goodness I had already given the goodies to Rachel to give away at the crop... For 12 hours I couldn't locate the power cord for the laptop.... I brought the wrong software CD... the laptop couldn't handle the load of the sofware I did bring and kept crashing.... I was so late with my presentation that the "dinner" slide show wasn't shown.... Everybody was very GRACIOUS and told me I did a fabulous job... GAH! DOH!... nice of them to say so... anyway.. here's one of the photos I took... at least MOST of them seemed ok... well considering... (that's another story)

Where Oh Where...

Can Altereds be? It's been over 24 hours now and there is no sign of the altered scrapping website/store/blog... Oh, I bet JoDe is fuming! I was over there yesterday morning checking on the creative team. I should have paid closer attention because when I went back for more information... poof! everything gone! JoDe says the problem is in Texas where the server had a hard drive failure... I sure hope she didn't loose everything... hmmm maybe we should move the site to doodlescraps eh? hehe... at least there would be a complete site there then~ JoDe had posted a new "gift" on her blog yesterday along with the preview of her new layette, Fall Fashion... which as I mentioned has disappeared with all things Altereds. So on the off chance you may have come here, to find out what is going on there... I will give you a preview!

isn't it purdy?.. oh and how about a peek at the little gift she had up?
oh look it matches... hehe... sneaky devilish little woman... anything to snatch the greenbacks from our grubby little hands eh? Oh, would you like this little gift? well... sorry Altereds is down! hehe... oh... you say you're my best friend... well then... why didn't you say so in the first place... don't tell JoDe... I'll hide it here for you until Altereds is back up! Shh.. it will be our secret.... FRIEND!

Life Saver!

Oh my gosh Suddenly I have too many pots in the fire! I need to take a breather and thank Vickie Weers for creating the banners for Altered Scrapping that will be used at RAKScraps during the October sponsor period! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Vickie did a fabulous job and if the banners don't look perfect, it's because I stuck my fat fingers in an tinkered with them... I never can leave well enough alone!

Speaking of Altered Scrapping, check out JoDe's blog, she has a great gift up there for all to download!

It's a good thing...

JoDe doesn't have time to read blogs! It seems that since I have been coordinating her creative team, I have either been uninspired by her art or haven't had time to scrap anything for her.... I started this for her last night... changed it a gazillion times... ended up with what I have here... This morning I still wasn't happy with it and went to my scrap folders looking for inspiration... which kind of back fired on me,

because I ended up with this . I think I know why; but, Lisa Hinz, if you are reading this, I would love for you to throw out some ideas and thoughts. I took this photo while at an Easter Egg hunt with my grandson this year. It was a cold damp day and the children had been waiting for some time to get the green light to start. This little cutie was in her fathers arms and I just couldn't resist that adorable little pout!

Credits:
#1
Papers and Elements
Everyday Life by JoDe Lawrence avaliable at Altered Scrapping and Scrapbook-Bytes
Fonts:
Doodles by Taran Conyers available at Scrapbook Graphics
#2
Papers, Elements and Alpha
Sunlight from the Jen Wilson Illuminations Collection at Jen Wilson Designs
Brush:
Defining Drama by Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals
Fonts:
Doodles by Taran Conyers available at Scrapbook Graphics
Tahoma
Photo Shop Action:
Wild Tear by Atomic Cupcake

Oh and pssst... big doin's over at JWD! Go check out Jens new site!

Summer Metamorphosis

My niece spent almost a month of her summer vacation in California
between my mom, my dad, and myself. I had her for the last 4 days and what a change in those four days! I bought her some cosmetics at the Bare Escentuals store and showed her how to apply it.

Then a trip to the mall and I bought her some feminine clothes and shoes from Avenue. (with size 12 feet, the converse high tops and lime green zebra print deck shoes just didn't make it)

What a beautiful difference.

When she got off the plane in Missouri, (She said) my sister told her,
"Your a completely different person.
I don't like it" I'm sure it's because her daughter; 15, is now showing signs of growing up. My niece is an only child. My sister is 3 years older than me and her daughter is 10 years younger than mine. I know I had difficulty letting go... ... I think my sis will have a tougher time of it! ... wait 'till she finds out we taught her daughter to drive!

I used JoDe's Layette "Retreat" found at Altered Scrapping.

Fonts: Tom's Handwriting, Trebuchet, Turbulence

Huge Debt

OK, I admit it! I go through long periods of time without a single creative thought! It's during those times that I am so thankful for those people who are will to share their photos with me. For some reason when I feel creatively exhausted, scrapping other peoples pictures rejuvinates me!

Today I owe a huge debt to Cherrie Webb for allowing me to scrap her beautiful family! On this layout I used one of JoDe Lawrence's latest kits "Night Moves" from Altered Scrapping

I also used a passage from Khalil Girbran's "The Prophet". I paraphrased part of the chapter "On Children" I just adore this photo, the children are beautiful and the colors are fantastic! Thank you Cherrie, once again, you have bailed me out!

BIG NEWS

This is one crop you are NOT going to want to miss!
Go here http://tinyurl.com/j3wzp to set up a reminder
Don't forget THIS Saturday June the 17th from 5-6pm
U.S. Eastern Time in the SBB Chat room!
http://tinyurl.com/hsvh4

If you are not familiar with JoDe Lawrence AKA
Digitalbits go to http://www.alteredscrapping.com
and check out her beautiful designs.
While you are there browse through the
CT Gallery and see layouts by Julie Leist aka justjulz!
http://tinyurl.com/g4vthIf

If you are already familiar with JoDe and have layouts done
with her products; she would love to see them!
You can now upload them to the new public gallery!
http://tinyurl.com/zms5o

See you Saturday!