Life Outside the Fishbowl

Oh No!!!!

OK, so am I the last one here to see the Mr. Bill commercial for Subway??

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's a fun decoration I made with the help of Around The Block's Flocking and Glitter kit:

I used my new Slice to cut the shapes -- a leaf shape for the feathers and the turkey (which I altered).  I used a combination of  glitter and flocking to decorate the feathers. One of the best parts of this kit are the pages of rub on glue. I picked four different patterns  to use for this project - stripes, small stars, flowers & swirls, and used liquid glue to outline patterns on the paper for the other three.

Journal Your Christmas

I just signed up for Shimelle's annual class -- Journal Your Christmas, thanks to Ali Edward's post.  I'm excited about this class. I'm interested in recording Christmas traditions that I grew up with and the traditions we're establishing with our children. Plus, I have yet to find a piece of Christmas patterned paper or embellishment, or stamp (well, you get the idea) that I didn't like.

Thankful

A day early, but right now I'm thankful that I was able to fill my gas tank for $27 this morning!!! Not only am I thankful, I'm darned excited. 

And for Rachel's picture from school (which I'll scan in a bit). Her class was asked who they were thankful for - her reply was "my mom." Awwwww. And she drew a picture of me, too :)

Another Christmas Class

We've scheduled another Christmas Planner class at Scrapbooks Plus for next Saturday, November 29th from 1 - 3 p.m.  Come on and join us!  And maybe I'll bring some Thanksgiving leftovers ;)

Here's what we're making:
We'll be using a lof of the Teresa Collin's Christmas line and making  pockets, pages and lists.  There's plenty of room for you to keep track of everyone on your Christmas list and to add photos from the season.

To sign up for the class, please call Scrapbooks Plus at (703) 263-9503.

Poke ... Poke ... Poke ..

Our next challenge is up at Method Playground - poking your paper. Use your sewing machine or a needle. Do it freehand or use a pattern. Any way you want.

For my layout I used several snowflake stamps from Stampin' Up. I first stamped onto a scrap piece of vellum (because it's transparent and it made placement easier). Laying it on top of my layout, I used the stamped image as a pattern to poke my holes.

And here's a closeup of the bottom snowflake, so you can see the detail a little better.

Taking a Break

I just realized it's been a bit since I posted. Then I remembered why - I've been outside raking leaves. Tons of them. All by myself. Well, the kids will tell you they "helped" too -- but really, they just jumped in the piles. When we bought our house we figured we learned from our mistake in Rhode Island -- buying a house with a long driveway to plow. So, we got the short driveway but lots & lots of trees. I had 17 packed yard bags waiting yesterday morning for the trash guys to haul away -- right along with most every other house in the neighborhood.

But today it's raining & quite dreary. Which is a good day to spend with the November Scrapbooks Plus kit. It's full of fun American Crafts paper from their Everday line -- fun clouds, flowers, and stars. I'm finally getting around to making Rachel a minibook from her birthday this past summer. And it's nice and cheery here in my craft area.

Speaking of minibooks, I made this one for Scrapbooks Plus with the October kit. This was fun to make. I started with a Cosmo Cricket black chipboard book.  We had some fun epoxy stickers with the kit and I broke out some Halloween stickers from my stash to add.

I also broke out the Glimmer Mist and used two different masks on pages. For the first page I took a die cut sheet of spiderweb paper by Creative Imaginations and turned it upside down over my page, using it as a mask. I used a sandy-colored spray over a light-beige paper.

This page uses a Tim Holtz mask. As soon as I saw them in Scrapbooks Plus, I grabbed them. The spiderweb one is my current favorite.  Here I just used the mask and a pewter spray right over the chipboard.  I love how it turned out.

And here's the rest of the book ---

Catching Up on Challenges

Check out the latest Scrapfaith challenge on service, and the changes to the site.  Some of the cool things coming up are slideshows, a monthly RAK, a Scrapfaith Flickr group, and amazing guest artists!  And here's my layout for the challenge:

And our latest Method Playground challenge went up on Monday - paper pleating. I used scraps from our October Scrapbooks Plus kit to make this.  It took several 12" strips of paper to create the pleat on this page.

And speaking of Scrapbooks Plus, a big thanks to the ladies that attended my Christmas Planner class yesterday! There's a handful of leftover kits, so if you're interested, you can contact the store and they'd be happy to get one to you.

Election Day

And while I've already voted, the kids would like everyone else to consider another option....

A Few Weekend Pics

It was another jam-packed weekend at our house. First there was Halloween on Friday - racing to buy a few pumpkins, carve them, get the kids fed & costumed and out for trick-or-treating. Tom took them out around the neighborhood and everyone was dressed in costume -- Star Wars, of course. Since it was already dark outside before they were ready this was the best I could do for pictures this year. I'll just have to console myself with all that leftover candy...

We found out on Friday that there was a John McCain rally almost literally  just down our street on Saturday. So, after a Boy Scout food drive we went to the rally. It was a beautiful day and the kids had fun playing on the grassy hill where we were.  I was wishing for a stronger lens, but we got some good shots (although we were at a weird angle). And the kids got stuffed bears.