I'm In Scrapbook News & Review!!!!

I am so excited!  I have two layouts in the July issue of Scrapbook News & Review!!!!

Such a cool digital magazine full of TONS of inspiration!

My "I ~heart~ San Fran" layout can be found in the Current Calls section under the article "Vacations to American Cities".  My layout is even the little thumbnail picture next to the article link! 

My "Random Quotation "Marks" and Superfluous Apostrophe's" layout can be found in the Digital Delights section under the article "Text on Photos".  I receive a little shout out in the article intro about the fact that digi can be incorporated into traditional scrapbooking. 

Check out the magazine!!!!  It's only $4.95 for a monthly copy and there are HUNDREDS of layouts and tons of articles to inspire you!!!

- Heidi

p.s.  To see the details about the layouts, see the original posts:

San Fran
Superfluous Apostrophe's

Cannonball!!!!!!!!

The Girl has always seemed to me more of a daredevil than her brother.  He's usually very cautious, making quite sure he will succeed at something before trying it.  But The Girl usually just jumps right in.  However, for two years now The Girl has foregone learning how to swim, feigning contentedness at playing on the Baja step of our pool.  She's wistfully watched The Boy swim like a fish, jumping in, having a great time.  He really did take to swimming like a fish.  So this has always been one area where their personalities were somewhat reversed.   

But then last Wednesday, The Girl decided today is the day, took off her swimming jacket, and waded in without fear.  And within the first hour she was doing cannonballs!

~picture detail ~
Now, THAT's my girl!

This week I went a little bit of a different direction on my sketch for Sketchy Thursdays than usual:

It's very clean and simple.  (Where's the misting?!!  Where's the skew?!! LOL!)

Come play along with us!  Check out what the DT made for your inspiration.

Today The Boy's been in school for a week.  He's doing great.  Thanks to everyone who kept their fingers crossed!!!

Have a great day!

Heidi

"The Best Day Ever"

Well.

First day of first grade for The Boy.

"How'd it go?"  I ask.

The Boy replies...

"It was the best day ever!" 

To see the video for the song "The Best Day Ever" by Spongebob, click HERE.

Yea!!!!!!!!!

Whew!!!!!!

The Boy took my advice, went right up to another boy in his class, and made him a friend! 

Two days down now (today was a half day so he's already home) and they've played together at all recesses!!! 

Woohoo!

Just Climb!

This summer The Boy has been giving the climbing wall a run at the local gym.  Every time he tries it, despite his obvious anxiousness, he climbs just a little bit higher.  I'm so proud of him!

So, as he enters first grade today, I want to remind him to remember his climbing experiences whenever he's learning something new or in an unfamiliar situation. 

Some days may seem like just one big rock after another.  JUST CLIMB!

Don't you just love that embossed arrows paper I used?  It was on clearance!! 

Come play along with us over on Sketchy Thursdays.

This week's sponsor is Sweet Peach Crop Shop and they're offering up an amazing kit!!!

Cross your fingers The Boy has a good "befriending" day at school.  He only has one other kid from his Kindergarten class in his new first grade class.  He can be so shy and has a hard time going up to people and making friends.  He usually waits for them to come to him.  His experience today is going to color how he approaches the rest of the year.  I hope it's a good one.

- Heidi

The Ninjas Play Ball

Today's Pink Ninjas prompt is "Play Ball!". 

These pics were taken the day all the kids got their t-shirts from this summer's basketball camp.  The Boy had such a great time.  We will definitely be doing the camp again next year. 

As I was making this I kept thinking I should want to embellish it more but in the end I decided it is fine the way it is.  The circles reinforce a ball theme and really, kids' basketball really isn't exactly a "bling-y" subject.

I also gave a nod toward the basketball theme by including netting on the layout.  I think this is from either the Thanksgiving turkey or the Easter ham, lol.

Be sure to check out what the other Ninjas made for the topic.  I LOVE to see everyone's individual takes on the themes because we all think so differently and have different subjects to scrap about. 

Tomorrow is The Boy's first day of school (first grade).  I'm excited but nervous for him.  He said he recognized a few kids in his new class at the open house from the playground but didn't really know any of them.  Last year he had a hard time making friends at the beginning of the year because he's so shy.  I'm hoping he's worked through that and he'll have a great initial experience.  It's all about how he perceives his first day that will color how he proceeds.  He's very "black and white".  Once he makes up his mind it's hard to convince him to try another path.  Keep your fingers crossed he has a super POSITIVE first day!!!!  Thanks!!!!

Heidi

Oh, p.s. - "Diego" commented on one of my early preschool album posts asking how I've been practicing handwriting with The Boy.  I was unable to reply directly to her because her blogger profile wasn't available so if she's reading this now...I just bought some of the lined handwriting paper (you know, with the dashed line between the two solid lines?) and also just recently got an erasable white board with the same handwriting lines and I have him practice periodically (although not as often as I'd like).  I also try to encourage him to write down as much as possible.  As I said, I haven't done this as often as I'd wanted this summer so he still has a long way to go.  I'm hoping his new teacher will have them write a lot. 

Early Preschool Album Wrap-Up

Howdy Weekend!

Hope yours is going well.  We are having "extreme heat warnings" here.  Woohoo.

OK, here's my quick wrap up of my son's 1st year of preschool album I've been sharing.  In case you haven't been keeping up with this (WHAT?  You mean you don't read every*single*little thing I write?!!  LOL.) I've been sharing the album I created for my son's 1st year of preschool 2 years ago.  The album is by far no scrapbooking masterpiece but it's cohesive, it has a general theme, and it's appropriate for the subject matter.  Now I just have to make his 2nd year of preschool album.  And his Kindergarten album.  And The Girl's 1st year of preschool album.  LOL. 

February

March

I like my little Cricut die cut of bugs in a jar.  It's hard to tell but the bugs are made out of iridescent-looking alcohol inked paper.

April

May

They had the Phoenix Zoo come out this month and bring some interesting animals with them for the kids to see.  This was my favorite one...a hedgehog.  I will SOMEDAY have a hedgehog of my very own!!!

I also included a few specialty pages at the back of the scrapbook focusing on specific things.  This particular one shows my son's handwriting progress from the beginning to the end of the year. 

That alphabet border was THE REASON I purchased the Cricut Graphically Speaking cartridge!  Isn't it awesome?  This IS a 12x12 page.  (A bitch to extract from the paper but awesome nonetheless!) 

Tomorrow we go to meet The Boy's 1st grade teacher.  I'm so excited.  He starts back to school this coming Thursday.  He's so looking forward to it. 

Keep cool!

Heidi

Let Your Dreams Fly

Once again this month we have Scrap That Poetry's poem debut coinciding with Sketchy Thursdays so of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to blend them, especially since they were really rather complementary.

These pictures are from the last time I had my daughter professionally photographed.  She's 4 months in these pics...she's almost 5-years-old now.  Maybe it's time to get some more pics done, eh?

STP's challenge #20 poem is "Dreams" by Langston Hughes.  I chose to interpret the poem for my title "Let Your Dreams Fly". 

~flower trim detail pic~

Oh, that Webster's Pages flower trim is so dreamy!  And check out that frame.  It's from Pink Paislee and I have absolutely no idea what material it is made out of but it's gorgeous.  It's like super soft taffy that doesn't lose its shape.  It comes "naked", kind of a manilla color.  I sprayed it with some lime Maya Mist and rubbed a bit of it off so that the surface is just subtley green while much of the color pooled in the crevices. 

~pebble detail pic~

And how stinkin cute is that Prima pebble with the little bonneted girl? I layered it on top of a digi stamp flower from Digi Doodle Shop, this week's Sketchy Thursdays sponsor. There's another one in the picture below. On both I printed them out, colored them in with colored pencils, and sprayed them with some pearl Glimmer Mist.

~flowers detail pic~

Into my second week in the Claudine Hellmuth online techniques class and had to incorporate some newly acquired acrylic paint techniques.  Here I used watermark resist with an acrylic paint wash and acrylic paint stamping on some French text paper I got from Diana's etsy shop. 

~book page detail~

With the exception of the French paper, digi stamps, and the Webster's trim, everything on this layout is from the Ninja Addicts kit "Thrift Shoppe Junkie".  Such a gorgeous kit!!!

I would love to see you play along with us on both Sketchy Thursdays and Scrap That Poetry!!!

Off to check out what's in store for week 3 in the Claudine Hellmuth class, put some finishing touches on some other things I've made for it so far, and to enjoy the official last week of my son's summer vacation.  I think I may break out the huge roll of butcher paper today and see what they create. 

Heidi

More Early Preschool Pages

Hey there!

More preschool pages sharing.  This is going to be a quick one but I wanted to put some more "out there".   I promise I'll have some more recent layouts and things to share later this week.

October

No, I did not cut off the bottom of the picture...the pictures and calendar run off the pages at an angle like that on purpose.  Just trying to mix it up, kwim?

This is one of my favorite Cricut die cuts...a wooden basket complete with hardware full of autumn leaves. 

November

I love this die cut.  I used it here and on December (because both months' themes were about the world).  This is a Silhouette machine die cut.  I absolutely love the images my Silhouette offers but despise using the machine itself so I don't use it that often. 

December

That Buzz Lightyear picture is the cover of his first ever writing journal! 

This is a real chalkboard!  I wrote on it with white gel pen, of course.  If memory serves, I made the little piece of chalk out of a Dum Dums lollipop stick.  Soooo loved that embossed star paper.

That's it for today.  I think I'm going to go play with some paint and gesso and xerox copies.  :oD

Heidi

Early Preschool Scrapbook

Sorry I've been hiding under a rock lately.  I've just not been feeling very "scrappy".  I don't know if it's the oppressive weather or the wear of school summer vacation getting to me or what but I'm just feeling blah.  

My son's 1st grade teacher assignment letter (finally) arrived on Thursday and as I troll around trying to figure out who from his Kindergarten class will be in his new one (so far I've only found one, sigh) my thoughts are turning to getting the school scrapbooks started.  I've been sifting through the year's-worth of papers (I didn't purge as we went so I have practically every single scrap of paper from the last year) and gathering together pictures. 

So why am I telling you this?  Because the only almost completed school scrapbook I have so far was made almost 2 years ago now for my son's first (of two) year of preschool and although it's not very impressive or artistic, I thought I'd share some of it over the next few days. 

As I said, it's pretty basic, but as I looked it over for the first time in about a year a few days ago I was struck by how much I liked it.  It's fun.  It's bright.  It's "kid-worthy".  It's cohesive with an obvious theme.  And it's very in-depth.

Every month spans two pages, has a calendar noting what they did and other highlights from my son's life, includes an embellishment to introduce the theme of the month, and has lots of pictures. 

I will apologize right now...my overall apathy prevented me from even taking the pages out of the scrapbook for photographing so the pictures may be a bit warped-looking with glare from the page protectors. 

The theme for August was "All About Me", apt for the first month of school ever, don't you think.  :o)

The tag retells a story my son shared with me about an encounter he had with a beetle on the playground.  And the picture shows all the little treasures he brought home to me during those first few weeks of settling in.  (I photographed the rocks, stick, and fake flower so I could dispose of them but the gem is really sitting there on top of the picture.)  He can be painfully shy and doesn't generally make friends - he waits to be made a friend instead - so he spent his first few weeks on recess digging for things in the sand.  

September's theme was "Our Community" and McGruff the Crime Dog and a fireman visited their school.  The fireman even brought the firetruck which they toured and they got to spray the hose! 

I thought my little school bus was pretty cute. 

Many of my embellies in this book are Cricut die cuts. 

OK, well that's it for today.  I'll share a few more pages this week. 

Off to continue sorting the Kindergarten papers.

Hope you're keeping cool!

Heidi

Ninja Swap

This week on a very special episode of The Pink Ninjas (can't you just hear the "Blossom" music in the background?) the DT all swapped pictures and scrapped for each other.  What an awesome and fun challenge.  It's so cool to see other people's perspectives on subjects you scrap all the time. 

My swap buddy is Lynnette.  How lucky was I? 

Here's the photo she gave me.  It's a magazine ad that her baby brother "Bubba" appears in.  (As she puts it, he's the one with the huge afro poof, LOL.) 

He's been modeling for a surf brand clothing company, B-ware.   So I did a little research about the company and came across this video of one of their shoots and it's so cool to be able to see Bubba in a few of the shots doing backflips.  (And, damn, Lynnette...I just gotta say...your little bro is a cutie-patootie!!!  There I go all dirty-ol'-lady again!!!)  

So anyway, for such a dynamic picture I felt like I needed to make a really dynamic layout.  So I whipped out my Picnik first and went to town on the filters and effects.  My kids thought these two were the coolest.

Also, I've just started taking an online Claudine Hellmuth techniques class and thought it'd be fun to incorporate the first technique we learned into this layout - gesso transfer. 

Basically it's transferring a picture into the gesso (paint base).  So I pilfered a couple of the B-ware logos from pics online and used those.  It's hard to tell in the pictures but it looks really cool IRL.  The logos look like they are painted on the layout, not just laying on top like rub-ons or stamps would look. 

And here's the final result...

It's made on a piece of cardboard.  Lots of paint and mist.  Went a little industrial with some staples, screw-head eyelets, and punched some holes in the cardboard itself. 

I've got a few more pictures of the kids queued up to make canvases using this technique.  I will definitely share them when they're finished. 

And, as I said, this was a swap so I am the lucky recipient of an authentic Lynnette Davis original layout of my kids!!!! 

I can't wait to see this puppy IRL!!!!  Isn't it just dreamy and beautiful?  I love that we both went the picture editing route. 

Be sure to stop by the Ninjas blog to check out all the other swaps.  Seriously, they're fabulous.  Amazing.  As I said, it's so cool to see someone else's perspective.   And we'd love to have you play along with us.  Swap pics with a friend and let us see what you make for each other!!!

The forecast for today is 108, 110 tomorrow, with humidity steadily creeping up by Saturday.  I'm thinking a nice, cool movie theatre or the new aquarium sound like good options today.  I hope everyone is finding ways to stay cool and having a great summer so far!!!

Heidi

happy 4th!!

To all my bloggy friends in the states, Happy Independence Day!!!

Disneyland 2007

Hope you have lots of fun activities (maybe a little scrapping?) in the pipeline for today!!!

Heidi

They Meet & High School Crush

The new poem on Scrap That Poetry is "First Love" by John Clare.  Click HERE to see the poem. 

I chose to use the line, "...with love so sudden and so sweet" to complement these pics of the first meeting between my son and daughter.  She was 1-day-old here.  Awwwww. 

Almost everything on the layout, except for the felt flowers and the letter stickers, are Stampin' Up!, mostly from a really old scrapbooking kit they offered like 4 years ago. 

Just gotta make myself use up all those old supplies I've been collecting for years!  I think I'd never really used this kit before because it's so simple (not in a bad way) but it totally worked for not only the innocence and simplicity of this moment but also for this week's Sketchy Thursdays 2-page sketch:

Being that today is the 1st of the month I also have the next Category Stories challenge for you.  The prompt is "high school crush".  Gotta say this one stumped me.  I finally arrived here:

It says, "I learned in high school NOT to allow popular expectation to CRUSH individual creative expression." 

I never really let myself fit into any expected mold in high school.  I was an honor student but I changed my style from year to year to MY whim, not necessarily always looking like what the honor students were supposed to look like.  My junior year I went what was called "punk"at the time...I think it would be called "EMO" today.  I was friends with the honor students, the popular kids, the sporty kids, and the kids on the fringe.  I remember my French teacher took one look at me and decided I was obviously a trouble-making idiot the first day.  Boy did he get proven wrong!  Ha ha ha ha ha!  

I just like to do my own thing.  And sometimes that means SUPER messy stitching, painting, misting, border punching,  masking tape journaling on a declaration of individuality!  LOL.

So, has everyone seen Eclipse yet?  Yes, I was one of the crazy ones Tuesday evening at the "Twilogy".  8+ hours in a movie theatre commencing in the first showing of Eclipse at 12:01am!  But it was so much fun!!!!!!  It was so funny when we got out to see the parking lot PACKED and bustling at 2:30am...busier than a hot Friday night.  I think every girl in a 10 mile radius was there. 

I liked Eclipse.  Not loved, just liked.  It was better than New Moon, for sure.  I liked that there were a few funny moments.  But seriously...did Jacob lose some buffness in this one?  WTH???  And I think I just may be joining a new team...Team Jasper!  He had a larger roll in this one and didn't just look like the weirdo lurking in the background grimacing about the apparent stick up his butt.  Love his Southern accent!!!!  So, what did you think?

OK, go have a great day!!!