Votes are In... ... I am Out!

I was #17 This poll will close on 02-24-2008 at 02:12 PM
Layout 4		15	6.28%
Layout 5		42	17.57%
Layout 6		3	1.26%
Layout 7		29	12.13%
Layout 11		13	5.44%
Layout 12		3	1.26%
Layout 13		15	6.28%
Layout 17		28	11.72%
Layout 22		11	4.60%
Layout 25		17	7.11%
Layout 26		10	4.18%
Layout 27		53	22.18%
Voters: 239. You have already voted on this poll

The End?

Well, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later... my layout wasn't picked by the judges this round and has gone on with 11 others for members vote, the two with the most votes get "saved" and are allowed on to the next round. I'm not holding my breath though.... there were several on the hit list going into the member vote that had more views and more comments than others that went on... I know I did a couple of things that the judges probably thought were questionable in this round.. but I went with it anyway... it's always a tough call when judging art...

here was this weeks criteria:

3 photos in a vertical row: photos of a seagull taken in Monterey curves adjusted so they would resemble doves. (in your mind draw a square around all three birds, divide it horizonally between the birds = three vertical birds... then I extracted the birds because I didn't like the extra sky and tweeked the angle of the birds a bit)
Color Blue: on overlay texture and bottom paper
2 fonts: Bethany’s Hand, GE Basalt Script
Hand: Royalty Free photo of Christ’s hand from Cross Daily.com
Frame - no photo: Journaling Spot from Sasha Jane’s Divine Details. Looks like and “eye” used to frame the word “care” for the title “EYE CARE”
Journaling min 50 words: 143

so this is what I came up with



my journaling could have used some fine tuning.. but this is what it says:
As children of our Heavenly Father we have a solemn responsibility to care for all of his creations. Yet to do this we must first care for ourselves both spiritually and temporally. If we are spiritually clean we will be able to discern the small still voice of the Holy Spirit as it guides us. We can care for the earth and her creatures as well as God’s children. These promptings may include hugging a friend, feeding someone less fortunate, recycling or donating to an animal shelter. Ours is not to question the magnitude of the service, but, simply to obey the promptings .
Charity is the “Pure Love of Christ”. That which is “Most Joyous” to the soul “The Greatest of all the gifts of God” “Perfect” and “Everlasting”. Let us give as Christ would give, not with boasting, but with humble anonymity.
(Last paragraph includes a quote by Gene R. Cook“Charity: Perfect and Everlasting Love” Ensign May 200282)

Well that's it! I have some errands to run so I can go to Napa tonight. I have a date with my mom and my daughter tomorrow! A make-over will surely help me forget the contest! LOL

Waiting

well gosh... I had hoped to let you see my entry into this weeks Last Scrapper Standing challenge.. alas, there seeems to have been some technical difficulties at the site and the results aren't in yet... As soon as I hear whether or not I move on, I will let you know and post my layout! Scooby Doo to you!
Oh BTW, did you notice I changed the song list YET AGAIN?

Kiss Me

You're an Passionate Kisser

For you, kissing is about all about following your urges If someone's hot, you'll go in for the kiss - end of story You can keep any relationship hot with your steamy kisses A total spark plug - your kisses are bound to get you in trouble

What Kind of Kisser Are You?

Woo Hoo!

Amazingly, I have passed to the next level of The Last Scrapper Standing competition... on to week three for me... you should see the criteria for this layout! Whew... it's going to be tough... to top it off.. my PC is just crawling...
every time I change paint color or choose the type tool, photoshop takes at least 5 minutes to make the change.. NO... I AM NOT exaggerating.. or and I need to buy batteries for my keyboard... I must have used all the extra somewhere else around the house.. hmmmm
Oh and I forgot to post the kissing quiz I took last week and saved for today.. Dang... well tomorrow!

Fingers Crossed

Well, I've had some technical difficulties this week... So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be a go for the contest... We'll know in a couple of days. This weeks theme "I Make a Difference" 5 things I can do to make a difference in the world. had to have journaling on strips of paper, answering the question, at least 3 photos in a filmstrip,glitter or paint splashes and 4 papers other than journaling strips. We COULD NOT use any ribbons, flowers, bows or staples.



Journaling reads:
I can serve as an example to others if I focus on keeping and building my faith, having and sharing hope, practicing charity and humility while maintaining a heart full of love for Christ and my fellow man. If I should but soften one heart unto the Lord, I will have made an everlasting change in this world .

credits:
Papers and elements from
Angels and Time of my Life
by Royanna Fritschmann at DD

Splatter Stroke
from Being Me by
Weeds & Wildflowers at Scrap Artist

Flourish
from Winter Drops
by Ida at Cat Scraps

Feathers
by Jofia Devoe
Ephemerals II at the Digi Chick

Fonts
Times new Roman, PC Diva, Passions Conflict

Small photos of the Sacramento Temple
St. George Temple
The Christus
all copyright 2008 Intellectual Reserve, Inc.

Large Photo Sacramento Temple taken
by Julie Leist.

The Last Scrapper Standing

Those of you who know me know I'm not a competitive person when it comes to my scrapping.. it's art..for heaven's sake.. not sports.. anyway.. It seem I have entered about one challenge per year... never making it very far I might add... sometimes I have been booted and sometimes I just stopped...or as some of you may prefer to say..QUIT! LOL Anyway.. I did start the Last Scrapper Standing Contest at Divine Digital. Royanna always comes up with the best contests!
The Challenge for week one was to create a layout with 5 close up photos of the same object, none of the photos could show the entire object... it had to have doodling, graph paper, a quote, at least 10 embellishments, 50 words of journaling and be made of at least 50% product currently available at Divine Digital...
Whew! That was tuff.. but I made it through to the next round (there will be 5 in all) Here's the layout I submitted



Journaling:
Some how, in the process of growing up, we seem to loose sight of the simple joys around us. I am so grateful for the opportunity to regain this vision as I watch you grow up. I love to see the excitement on your face when you discover new things in the world and when you discover new capabilities you didn’t know you had. I just love you to pieces!

credits:
5 close up pieces of Rylie with a frog
Doodle Hearts
Graph Paper Overlay
Quote: I Love You To Pieces
Journaling: 80 Words

Border Mask:
Power Border
by Julie Mead available at
E-scapes and Scraps and Cottage Arts

Heart Doodle Brush:
Janita at Seishido

Sequins:
by Tandika Starr from the
2004 BCA from P4D

Graph Paper Overlay:
Scrapdrawers Scrapover Overlays
By Doris Castle (currently retired from catalog)

Frames:
Edgy Frame Clusters (re-arranged)
by Lucie Goikoetvea at DD

Heart:
self created

Papers and Elements:
2 papers
2 butterflies (4 total)
1 bow
1 ribbon
1 cardboard

Where I Live and Breathe
by Royanna Fritschmann at DD

fonts:

jailbIrd JenNa
Times New Roman
Tracey

I'll be back in a couple of days with links for those credits! Off to SFo for a couple!

Wild Abandon

That "OLD" friend of mine doing his thing at the Winter X-Games last week in Aspen... brrr it looks cold!

credit
Lori Wiley "Sparling Black Paper Pak" available at SBB
Vicki Stegall "Do It With" Word Art from "random goodies 2" available at OS
font - Tracy

Life is a Fairytale

I have known this guy since we were 12... he
dated this gal 20 years ago.. they went their separate
ways, married others and came back together.
They were married this summer on a cruise
ship and the photos are just awesome!

I did this layout for Lei Fhung's SBB Birthday
bash chat using the template she provided....
well... some of it!

I also used:
Amorelle - by Lei Fhung
Sparkling Black Elements - by Lori Wiley
Bloomin' Beauties 1 - by Kari Hentzelt
and
Bent Frames - by Nicole Pols

All available at SBB

Fonts: Kenteken and Tracy

End of an Era

Beloved Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley, Dies at 97

SALT LAKE CITY 27 January 2008 President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.
The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from causes incident to age. Members of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days

I have updated the play list in honor of President Hinckley. "Danny Boy" was one of his favorite songs.

RAK

My Friend with those wonderfully active sons that I love to scrap... this is one of those sons and his GF...
Aren't they adorable!



credits:

"Sweet on You", a collab kit by Ashalee Wall and Sweet Made
Available at Ashalee and Sweet
"Note This" from "Sweet Double Treat 5" by Sweet Made
Available at Ashalee and Sweet

Font: JD

The Other Side

When I posted the photo for the Bee Atch entry an old friend told me to smile... So this one is for the OLD friend...




Credits:

The Prima Hybrid Collab kit First Blush http://tinyurl.com/2lvzzp
string fastener from Doris Castle's Heritage Legacy
lace from Sylvie Wagner's Elements All Stars Altered Twill and Lace
Word Art from Vicki Stegall's 52 Weeks of inspiration Week 22 (2007) at Oscraps

My brain is BLUE?

Hmmm.. Ok... well ... maybe! LOL

Your Brain is Blue

Of all the brain types, yours is the most mellow. You tend to be in a meditative state most of the time. You don't try to think away your troubles. Your thoughts are realistic, fresh, and honest. You truly see things as how they are. You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about your friends, your surroundings, and your life.

What Color Is Your Brain?

Old Friend

This is Albert... When I bought my home Dec 1994, he was hanging around in the yard. He didn't quite look like this though, he had had a tough life. I already had two cats and didn't really want another, but he didn't go away. I decided to try and make friends with him, he was very skittish. I finally got to a point where I could open the back slider just enough to stick my hand out and he would come and rum his head on it. At the time I was engaged and my fiancee and other family members of his had just done a cat clean up at his grandmothers house who was beginning to show signs of senility and had turned her home over to some 20 plus cats. Needless to say he wasn't too keen on me bringing in another cat. One morning, a few months after we were married, my husband came downstairs, looked out the back slider and found this cat curled up on the patio with frost on his fur. That was it... the cat came in. He was beat up, had ear mites and smelled bad. We took him to the vet, had him bathed, fixed and wounds tended... he came home groggy with a Mohawk from where the vet had to shave his head to attend to his wounds.

Albert took quickly to being a house cat and took on the responsibility of watching over the two female cats and keeping other cats out of the yard. He grew to be a fat 15 pounds. But with all the doctoring we had done on him, his eyes seemed to always be weepy. The vet said he had a condition that is rare for cats but common in dogs where his bottom lashes grow backwards and scratched the eye.




He did a laser surgery with no success, so Albert had an old fashioned eye nip... poor kitty, he looked so pathetic....



Last fall we noticed Albert had a lump on his side. I took him to the vet who took xrays and told me Albert had suffered some serious trauma some time in his life and every rib in his body had been fractured. He suspected the lump was somehow related and that it didn't seem to bother Albert so we shouldn't be concerned. In the next few weeks Albert's lump continued to grow and he began to loose weight. I took him back to the vet who took more xrays and this time said the lump appeared to be a tumor but because of it;s size and location he was referring us to a specialist in another town... I wont go into that nightmare... lets just say 6 hours and $$$$$$ later we're told even with chemo and radical surgery... he MIGHT have another 2 years...



So we started our new year trying to keep Albert comfortable. Sadly on Friday we felt it was in his best interest to send him off to his eternal slumber. That was such a difficult decision. One I have never had to make before and hope I never have to again. The house just isn't the same without Albert... Even "his girls" are pacing the house looking for him...




Albert - we'll miss him

Photo

For yesterdays post! Don't I just look like a Bee Atch?!

Bee Atch

Yes.. even "sweet" Julie can have her moments! Today as I pulled into Win Co to buy some bulk items, I was sitting in my car messing with my blackberry when the lady who was parked in front of me came out of the store, unloaded her cart and proceeded to push it into the planter. Then she started to get in her car... I began frantically tapping my blackberry on my windshield and when she looked up, I pointed to the cart corral which was TWO spaces from her car!! She mouthed that she was sorry and that she didn't see the cart corral... she retrieved her cart and put it in the corral... Oh, did I mention she walked past it on the way to her car.... I don't know if it's all the years I worked in retail that makes me do things like that or if its the frequency with which I can't find a parking spot because they are all full of carts... I think probably the later...
When I return my cart to the corral I always collect at least one stray and return it on the way (if I pass one) and when I pass strays on my way in I collect them too... now THAT probably comes from those years in retail... none the less I think it's plain and simple courtesy! Yes I can be a Bee Atch! LOL

Bella!!

Well it's almost time for Bella to make it's debut! Have you been to the site yet? What Site? OMG... it's just the newest ONLINE digital/hybrid scrap magazine! Guess that makes it a Zine huh?! Bella is brought to us be Holley VanDenBerg and her great team! (I was wondering what Holley had been up to) Here's a little blurb from the forum by Holley:

BSMTM is a neutral, non-site-related online magazine bringing you the best and latest in digital scrapbooking and hybrid designers, scrappers, kits, techniques, projects, and more! Each month we will feature an outstanding designer--who has made a kit especially for subscribers--and scrapper and find out more about what inspires them in their designs. See the current month's kit HERE. We'll discuss the latest products, techniques, ideas, and what to do with them!

We have 3 different subscription types--find out more here: http://www.bellascraps.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5

Feel free to browse the forums for subscription information, current page calls, advertising opportunities, and more. Please feel free to contact me us at holley@bellascraps.com if you have any comments, questions, suggestions.


Guess that about sums it up! Except that January's Guest Designer is Christine Haskell and February's is none other than Doris Castle! You're not going to want to miss out on one month of this so go over and subscribe NOW!

Music - A Powerful Drug

NEW PLAY LIST! Music has as much power to evoke emotions and trigger memories as does scent. For me the smell of sausage cooking makes me nausious because it's a scent I associate with my morning sickness days. And the first song on my playlist can bring tears within three bars... This song brings back memories of talking on the phone all night to a boy who I was madly in love with but who would always play it cool and aloof. It seemed this song would be playing everytime we hung up.... and everytime we hung up... I would start to cry... Ah music... a powerful drug!

Nature Boy!

Oh yes... ... He IS doing what you think he's doing! The boy is relieving himself on the beach. And if he feels the urge, he'll ask to do it in the parking lot, in the driveway... or where ever he may be... (outside of course) Where, oh where, did he learn this nasty habit?

Pick Me! Pick Me! - She Did!

LaWanna Desjardin ran a little ad for a scraplift challenge, the twist... she does the scraplifting and we win the gift certificate! So hey, I said, "what the heck" and I sent her a link to my website.. and SHE PICKED ME!!! WooHoo! Below is an excerpt from her newsletter including the photos... I did't realize she was going to pick two each month... the other winner was Zinzilah... OMG... I am so in awe of her work and I am flattered to be thought of in the same breath as her...! Oh and LaWanna.. thanks for the kudos re: my website!

Scraplift Love - Win Free Stuff Wouldn't you like to win a $5.25 coupon code to my store at Scrapbook-Bytes? Come on, who wouldn't! All you have to do is e-mail me a link to your online gallery or blog. That's it. I'll pop in to leave you a little praise on occassion and I might pick a layout of yours to scraplift. If I do Scraplift you, you will win a coupon code for $5.25 to my Scrapbook-Bytes store. Don't believe me? Well check out the winners for this month, Julie Leist and Zinzilah from Scrapbook-Bytes. Thank you ladies for the awesome inspiration and congratulations! These layouts inspired me to try some new things, like that corner treatment on Christmas Surprises and the cool stitching design on Exuberance.
Zinzilah's Layout from Scrapbook-Bytes	My Layout, Christmas Surprises
Julie's Layout, Living the Dream Check out Julies Website - It rocks!	My Layout, Exuberance

Show Me Your War Face

OMG.. I actually finished a layout and it ONLY took FIVE hours! LOL THAT'S why I don't do this for a living... I would have to charge $150.00 per page to make it worth my while... and I hardly think anybody is going to pay that LOL... So DH forwards this email to me from one of his clients... the photo was too cute... you have to understand the passion of people in this industry to REALLY get the photo and not think it's some sort of child abuse... I have had shop owners pull similar layouts I have done from their galleries because they felt the layouts "were inappropriate" and therefore in violation of site TOU!~ Commie Pinko... err uh... sorry too much time around DH.... LOL


credits:
Big Girl Panties by Trish Jones and Sylvie Wagner previously at Scrapbook Graphics I have no idea where to find this kit now
fonts - Turtle Club, Sidewalk, Satisfaction and Times new Roman

Too Stinkin' Cute!

Ok, so maybe... just maybe, I'm a bit biased... being his Grandmother and all... but come on, you can't tell me that THIS is not just the cutest Angel you have ever seen!



credit:
Angel of Nostalgia by Royanna Fritschmann at Divine Digital
font - Jacoba

And The Angels Sang

Well if that wasn't the cutest thing! On Wednesday I got to pick up my adorable grandson from day care in Hidden Valley Lake, meet up with my daughter at her office at St Helena Hospital, join her husband and go to the Discovery Land Preschool Christmas Pageant in Angwin. Rylie was an Angel... really... he WAS an angel! And he played his part well! I took 123 photos.. something with the lighting in the chapel though.. every single one of them had major red eye... I have never had a problem with red eye and this camera before... but then.. I generally do shoot outdoors... hmmm... I also seem to have a problem with digital noise in this batch... dang it! Oh well... he's a dozen photos.. OK it's really only 8 and I have gone edit wild with one... LOL.. that's me!

Looking

As promised here are some of the photos I took while out looking for my muse the other day.... nothing spectacular.. just photos around the area... a burning rice field, the Sacramento River, some uncooperative sheep, and a persimmon orchard...
Now I'm out of here for a couple of days, maybe I'll come back with some great photos... and then maybe not...

Yea! Yea!

It's been over a month.... I've been struggling! Trying so hard to push on... went out today to find my muse... took lots of photos, I'll share later... then came home and found something in one of my folders to play with... it's the simplest of layouts... but I just can't decide.... that's to be expected these days... I got lost coming home from the grocery store the other night and took a little drive on a dirt road... don't ask!

BTW.. there are 3 songs on the play list!

Lost & Found

while finishing up the Dulle layouts yesterday, I found this in my layouts folder... simply titled "Brushes" (created August 17, 2007)... I evidently was playing with brushes.... I probably wrote down what I used.... but at this point I have probably also thrown it away, not knowing what it was... because I totally forgot about this layout.... hmmm... I fear old age is REALLY starting to settle in....

that's SCARY!



Oh yes.. and a new play list! Enjoy!