Time for another favorite?

This:

is my all-time favorite card. Yeah, it looks really simple, but when you flip it open, there is a nice lipstick kiss dingbat and the sentiment reads:

The Cook

Kissing optional, but payment ($25) not.

Join us for a dinner party...

This is the card that took third place at the WA state Creating Keepsakes Convention this past october in the Paper Crafts card contest. Goes to show that sometimes going simple is a lot less stressful and a lot more successful. Definitely a different style for me, but it was fun to make, conceptualize and win with.

Recap.

Was just going back through my posts and emails and remembered that I never did come back with the stories from my first post. So here they are.

I was the bomb to the third power.

Well, if you know me, you know I strongly believe in the power of 3. You know, when something good happens, there are 3 something goods that happen. Same with when something bad happens.

Okay, so the weekend that I won the Best in Show for the Scrapworks Life In contest series, I also won two other contests. Well, I consider placing out of lots of enteries a "win" so don't get all technical with me (smile). In any event, my layout "Moments" won first place in the Simple Scrapbooks Best Use of Ready Made products category at the CK WA convention. My card "Kiss...the cook" won third place in the Papercrafts card competition at the convention. I was FLOORED. It was kinda unnerving to be "that girl" as I walked around and shopped after the Scrapworks announcement and was definitely a tad bit scary to be "that girl" after the layout contests. My word...one day one of my layouts will hit Creating Keepsakes gold and that will be the day...I tell ya.

What else...oh yeah...I had made a gift that someone truly appreciated. That gift refered to the "Us" book I made for my boyfriend. It was the simplest album I have ever made--easily altered a group of photos (to black & white, added a dry brush stroke border and inserted a text comment in red) and then printed a few quotes on neutral colored cardstock. Slipped it all into the sleeves of the 4x6 album and was freaking that he would think it was a bit too simple and hokey.

Quite the contrary. He was pleasantly surprised and pleased that I took the time to actually make him something instead of just go out and buy something. Just this past weekend he went home to his family for Thanksgiving and took the book with him to show his mother. How cool is that?

There was one other something I was supposed to update but I cannot remember. Oh yeah..my fave blog spots/websites. Check out the links in the right colum. Under beautiful are two of my fave blogs right now. Under bold and brainy are some great inspirational spots that will get you scrapping or keep you from it.

Enjoy!

Waiting.

I'm in a holding pattern as of late. I'm spending a lot of time online looking at what I want to do and might one day do, but this whole waiting for the Scrapworks announcement is killing me. I love the way my heart does that little flutter deal everytime I think about what I might actually feel if I were to actually WIN that contest.

Certainly, I'm already a winner and have the $500 to prove that (smile). But being the loner chic that I am, I have taken to stressing just who in the world I would invite to the crop you win with this contest.

On first thought, I would invite the folks who contributed journaling for my layout. Alas, most of those folks are scattered to the winds and I doubt they would be able to make it out here to WA for a party of any sort much less a crop. Most of them are not scrappers so a crop would be a new experience for them. Actually, a crop would be a new experience for me too because I have never been to one before. I know...such the novice.

Anyhow, the second thought was that I could do a mix--you know, a couple of folks from my current job who have told me of their interest in scrapping (there are 3 folks that come to mind), a couple of the owners from some of my fave LSSs (there are 4 folks there) and then I could find three other friends between the folks I knew in school and the people I know now. That would be easiest probably.

But then I had a dream and really got to thinking. Should I have any chance at all at winning this, how cool would it be to really reach out to those who are stressing with me right now and those who I've gotten to know through this process? For instance, there is this amazing scrapper from WA who entered the OR Convention and the WA convention and was a Merit winner both times. I think it would be really cool to invite her to come.

And then, I think it would be really cool to post a Scrapworks LO challenge on 2peas (my home away from...who am I kidding...2 peas IS my home nowadays!!) in The Pub for folks willing to travel to WA (some folks from OR or Idaho or BC, Canada might be down for this). I could pick a winner kind of based off of the same criteria I was a finalist for and invite 1-2 winners from there to the crop.

Then, I could ask each of my LSS that I frequent--depending on the time to the party--to host a short essay contest (can you tell I'm a nerd??) or a photography contest and select a winner from each of the stores to come to the crop. That would be another 3 folks.

Then I could have a shameless "post your comments" contest here on my blog to invite 2 more people.

Then I would only have to come up with 2 more people to come to the crop and there would be so many more winners to the contest this way. How cool would THAT be?

Very (smile). Here's crossing my fingers. Here's hoping your fingers are crossed too!

For Moi?!?!

As promised, the story of the wonderful gift!

Now, I have known Liisa for less than 6 months. In that time, I can honestly say that she has become quite the friend/confidant/mentor. We both work with a similar population of students and we both are passionately committed to making sure that those students needs are met so that they can get a college education. For the past couple of months, there has not been a day that has gone by when we didn't find the time to go out for a smoke (neither of us smokes...right...) or have a closer door session in my office.

In any event, when I went into work on Wednesday, I did what I never do. I walked over to her cubicle and asked to borrow one of these fantastic pens that I convinced her to buy late last week.

See, she and I are both uberfine sharpie fans. That is until the bleedthrough keeps us semi-enviro-conscious folks from using them because you can only write on one side of the page. So I found these fantastic Staedtler pens in the bookstore. You can buy them individually, in a 10 pack (I convinced her to buy the 10 pack) or in a 20 pack. Well, when I came in, I had a need for her navy and red ones so that I could address some letters to be sent out. She hopped up and was like "Girl...you don't never come over here. How you gonna just roll on back here"

Come to find out, she was busy creating the wrapping for my 20 pack of pens. The wrapping was so scraptastic that I have yet to open the gift! She had to tell me what it was because I just couldn't bear to mess up all of her work.

Isn't it fantastic?!

Of course she was all about how it's not up to par with the scrapping I do and she's not a pro and it was so hard to create because really she's more a lifter and I finally just had to tell her to be quiet because she was going to make me cry with all of the thought that she put into it.

I tell ya, she's something else. And it is absolutely amazing to feel that rush of "whoa, how amazing" that other folks must (of course!!) also feel when I give them something that I obviously made the effort to personalize just for them. Wow!

blahblah{thanks}blahblah



It's Thanksgiving. I'm chillin'. Not cooking, not traveling, just here at my pad on my own doing my thing. Today I will finish some projects. Probably get everything done today for my Art Warehouse travel design team spot application (fingers, eyes, toes crossed) and maybe I'll get a bit more organized for my Hall of Fame entry.

Okay...who am I kidding? You know I'm just going to be on 2peas all day, blogging, shopping, organizing. I need to get to actually scrapping. At least I DID clear off the table so there is hope yet...

Anyhow, I truly AM thankful for having the opportunity to scrap. I am thankful that I have such a great friend in Liisa--she made me the coolest scrappy going away gift. Well, the gift was a set of my most favorite pens (she got me the 20 set--girl after my old cheap arse heart!!) but she wrapped it all scrappily and let me tell you there are stories for days around that. There always are stories with Liisa though (smile).

In any event, I finally felt that overwhelming "oh my goodness" emotional rush of knowing someone cares enough to take the time to make you something. That's what I love about Kwanzaa...make it to give it.

Favorite things?

Trust, the Gift

I would say this layout (sorry for the CRAPPY photo) is by far one of my favorite things this moment. My nephew is absolutely adorable and he better be glad he lives hundreds of miles from me or he'd be one of those little boys mortified at seeing his picture splashed across magazine racks all over the country.

Thanks for nothing.

Well...that's probably not a proper sentiment for a thank you card. But I am kinda dissapointed right now. See...I planned my whole resignation from my current job around the "fact" that we were having a holiday bazaar Thursday of next week. Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

It really isn't a HUGE deal, but I would have had my last day tomorrow and taken a week off before I started my next job if I wasn't planning on following through on my promise to help with the fair. Sigh.

The plus is that now I don't have to stress. The minus is that now I have all of this {s}crappy stuff laying around blocking my progress to the fridge. Doesn't help that I could stand to wash a dish from breakfast and hang up a basket of clothes or two. Sigh.

Tomorrow (or some other time long from now), I'll post samples that would have knocked their socks off at the bazaar. I sell my soul cheap so don't lift, just buy a card/card set already and pass it off as your own (smile).

Fantasticallyscrappillygoodness.

Just got an email from the fabulous folks (aka Rachel) at

They'll announce the winner of the Life In Contest series on December 5. How absolutely spectacularly AMAZING would it be to get a call on your birthday saying "Happy birthday and congrats, here's $1000 and a fantastic birthday party for you." I'll let you know if that happens December 4!

Yeah, then I woke up, looked longingly at the amazingly talented women I'm competing against and glanced over at my table to make sure my Scrapworks/CKU prize pack (still wrapped and bowed up all pretty) was still in my apartment. You'd be surprised the kind of stuff I lose in this itty bitty place.

Check out the Contest and all of the other layouts here.

Here is my layout Life in Transition:

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removed for publication!!

00000

Cross your fingers, eyes and toes, pray to your deities (God being my fave, but hey, whatever floats your boat) and chant your chants.

Competitive scrapbookers with Type A personalities...there is hope. It CAN be fun to just scrap for the [s]crap of it!

Lost in cyberland. That's where my first post went. I don't have the patience to recreate it.

In a nutshell, I'm the bomb to the 3rd power. I have a lot of fave blog spots. I made a gift that someone actually enjoyed.

Time to research better homes because I can't recreate every post nine times to tell the world what's going on in my world.

Check out Colored White to know my current thoughts and hopefully I'll have time soon to upload some great pictures.