What are you doing for National Scrapbook Day?

I can't believe it is time again for National Scrapbook Day! I just love having a whole day dedicated to my favorite hobby, don't you? This year I will be spending the entire day at the "A Scrap Affair" NSD crop since I am on the design team. We have so much fun stuff planned it is really going to be an exciting day of cropping and pampering. I wish I could tell you about the make n takes but they are top secret --- let's just say that everyone will be ecstatic about the 4 Make N Takes. I am teaching one where everyone will learn a new technique they can begin to use on all their paper crafts.

And the best part of any NSD is the goodie bag - I just love it when they include a "special surprise gift" to make you feel pampered. I am already dreaming of the wonderful lunch and dinner and snacks we will be having that day. The new restaurant next door to the store is doing the meals and their food is so YUMMY!

I just can't wait for NSD!!! 50 crazy, happy, scrapping gals all in one place is my kind of day!

So what are you doing for National Scrapbook Day? Inquiring minds want to know!!!

Scrap-A-Ganza...Coming Soon !

Have you heard about Scrap-A-Ganza ? It is a new scrapbook expo being organized by some local Houston gals. They have put together two full days of classes, a bunch of vendors to host an expo and an all day crop. It is June 28 & June 29 at the Stafford Center.

A Scrap Affair decided to participate and we will not only have a booth at the expo but we are teaching two of the classes. I am teaching one on Saturday....it is an adorable SUMMER Fun Word Bloom Book ! I had so much fun putting it together. And Alicia Merrifield is teaching a really cute tabbed flip album on Sunday that is great for boys or girls pictures..

This event is sure to be loads of fun and I encourage everyone to try and attend. Wouldn't it be great to have our own Scrapbook Expo in Houston EVERY YEAR....help support this one so there will be another one next year. Here is a link to Scrap-A-Ganza website: http://www.scrap-a-ganza-expo.com/ Class registration has started and it is sure to sell out fast so be sure and sign up for classes soon.

Here is a peak at the SUMMER Fun Word Bloom Book class that I will be teaching...there are some really fun surprises inside the album too. Sure hope to see a few familiar faces in the class.....YOU !!!

Finally - A Great Day All Around !

As you can tell from previous posts, my life has been a little hectic lately to say the least. I am glad to report that today was a really nice change of pace and I wanted to share with you all. Today started off earlier than usual since I had to drop hubby off at 6:00 am this morning so he could ride in the MS150 to Austin. So that meant getting up at 4:30 am...ugh, yes to those of you wondering-there really is a 4:30 am, I thought it was a myth ! LOL So while my day started off a little groggy I slowly warmed up to the idea of being up that early. It was really great to see all those dedicated bikers ready to ride to raise money for charity. I am so proud of my DH for doing this! Maybe one of these days I will work up the courage to ride myself....who am I kidding? All the training for the ride would cut into way too much scrap time :)

After getting back home I had about two hours before I had to be at A Scrap Affair to teach my first class at the store. So I had a leisurely breakfast thanks to Mickie D's and then I was off to the store. I had 3 amazingly talented ladies take the Eggstra Special Easter Mini Album class today - we had so much fun working on the project and sharing stories with each other. A few others want to buy kits of the class so that was nice to hear as well.

I spent the afternoon desigining and shopping for my Acrylic and Chipboard Circle Album that I am teaching in May. That was loads of fun -- I can hardly wait to get all the stuff in my hands to create the sample project. I promise to post some sneak peaks soon.

When I got back home, my Scarlet Lime kit was on the door step -- so jazzed about this months kit. Awesome cheerful colors and very fun embellies....I hope to work on something fun to post later this week.

To end my great day - my bff and I went and had Ritas and Tex Mex - just the two of us! That has not happened in a Veeeeeerrrrrry long time. Usually we are surrounded with hubbies and kids and other friends. It was so nice to have a night all to ourselves. Don't you just love your BF -- seriously, I don't think I would have made it this far in life with her!

Time to head off to bed, gotta get up early tomorrow and drive to Austin to pick up DH. Weather should be gorgeous and a nice day for a drive. Have a great day ...no matter where life takes you tomorrow!

Crazy, cRazY, CRAZY !!!

C-R-A-Z-Y...that is what life has been like for me this past week. After my last blog post, I got a call from a company that offered me a dream job - well, maybe not a dream job but pretty darn close if you have to go back to work. The catch was I had to report to work on April 1..yes, for those math wizards out there, that was only about 5 days notice! It totally threw me into a whirlwind of activity...what to wear, get the nails done, get the hair done...try to remember what going to work was like. YIKES! The company is great and so are the people. The best part is that it is only 30 hours a week and I have EVERY Friday off! That still leaves me loads of time for my scrapbook business, teaching scrapbook classes and of course my design team work. I am so jazzed about the job!! So far so good.

But every time you think things are going great, something has to come along to make you re-think, right? We just found out my brother-in-law has the big "C". It is in a very difficult spot to operate and it is very fast growing. He already has limited mobility in both arms because of where it is located on his neck and he is in terrible pain. They are trying to keep the pain down with medication and he just started aggressive chemo and radiation treatments to try and stop the growth. He is my husband's only sibling and is a really great guy - it is hurting us so much to see him in this condition. Please help pray a miracle occurs and they can erradicate this evil disease.

However, life does go on and my BIL wants us to keep doing what we love. I am teaching the Easter Album class at A Scrap Affair this coming Saturday morning if anyone is interested in taking the class...there are a couple of spots left. Call the store to sign up (see the store link to the right).

Well, I need to get back to finalizing preparations for the class. Hope to see some of you there.

EGGstra-Special News!

As most of my scrap friends know, I love to make and teach mini albums. I am very EGGcited to be teaching an adorable EGG shaped mini album at "A Scrap Affair" LSS in a couple of weeks.
This album was so much fun to make and I used loads of ribbon, ink, stickles, bling and special custom embellishments to make this one EGGstra-Special album. {So sorry for the pun...I couldn't help myself :) }.

To my Houston area scrap friends, we just posted the class at the store so if you are interested, call today to sign up. Because this is such a custom album, we have a very limited amount of seats available for this class. It is on Saturday, April 12th from 10:00 am to NOON. As usual my classes will be packed full of info and FUN!!! Hope to see some familar and new faces in the class!
Here is a sneak peak of the album to tempt you......



Okay, I better get back to finalizing my May class - it is going to be an adorable acrylic and chipboard mixed album that is going to be knock your socks off when you see it. I promise to post a tease of it on my blog when I have it ready. Happy Scrappin' this week!

YUMMY YUMMY MM 5th Avenue

WOW! I just opened my March kit from Scarlet Lime and all this wonderful MM 5th Avenue stuff came pouring out! I can't wait to play with it later. Too bad I have a dr appt this afternoon or I would be scrapping away right now with it!

I just wanted to show all of you who haven't laid eyes on it yet how gorgeous this line is.....love the colors, love the textured, glittery, cutout papers! And the embellies are gorgeous too!

I promise to post picks of projects I do with all this...my creative wheels are already turning with fun ideas :)

Happy Hump Day !

More Spring Break Fun!

As you may have guessed by my last post, I kept my 5 year old dgd this past week during Spring Break and we had a blast. She is a scrapper too and wanted to spend 1 day just scrapping - don't you just love it! We even went to a kids scrapbook class at "A Scrap Affair" LSS on another day so she could make a mini album all her own. She loved all the folding and gluing and drawing and was excited to see so many kids there scrapping too...19 in all!

We also spent some time this week preparing for Easter and made some adorable bunny pins out of fun foam to give all the ladies at Easter Brunch. So adorable! And now dgd is hooked on Stickles too ! LOL

And Easter would not have been complete without my dad's Bunny Cake he makes each year. Bianca just had to have a piece with the red mouth jelly beans on it.

We hope each of you had a wonderful Easter and enjoy your Spring Break wherever you are and fit in some time to scrap too !

Go Texan!!

We spent the day at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo today. It was so much fun! Cows and horses, chicks and pigs....what more could you want? It was great learning all about the animals. Here are a couple of really cute pictures from our day.

A Pirate can't be a Princess without a little BLING!

I finally had time this past week to complete a Pirate Princess Album I wanted to make to showcase my granddaugther's Halloween Pirate Princess Pictures. I combined a few pages of the new Rusty Pickle scalloped chipboard and acrylic albums plus their wonderful black and pink girl pirate paper.

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of how it turned out...too many pics to put here. I showed my granddaughter her album yesterday nd she was so excited and just loved it - her exclaims of "fantastic", "wonderful", "so cute", "awesome" really touched my heart!

I was inspired to create little 1/2 page mini acrylic scalloped pieces to use as an overlay and journaling for a few of the pages. It really added some interest. Of course, a "Girl Pirate" couldn't be a "Pirate Princess" without a little BLING! Loads of pink and white rhinestones on this little album. I used my cropadile to punch holes in the scallops and white souffle pen to add loads of little dots on the acrylic.

I hope this inspires you to create a little something fun for someone you love! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Our Beloved Rockets Win #22 !!!

Wowee WOW WOW....Our beloved Houston Rockets Basketball team won their 22nd straight game today! That is the second longest winning streak in NBA history. It is so exciting to see how much longer they can keep the streak going. Hubby and I did our part cheering them on this afternoon.

It was a great finish to a nice weekend for us. I went to my first crop at "A Scrap Affair" on Friday night -- it was really hopping and I met lots of new people. Had so much fun! I did get the base of a new album done and finished it up today. I can't wait to show it to you....I will post pics tomorrow - it is so darn cute, even if I do say so myself! Hubby and his buddies rode in the Houston Bike Tour on Saturday and had a wonderful time - we had perfect weather for it! We had dinner with some friends Saturday night and today we have just hung out at home except for the game. I sure hope all my blog friends had a wonderful weekend as well!

I can't leave you without posting a picture or two to inspire you to get out there and play with your cameras ! I had so much fun a couple of weekends ago just walking around and taking pictures of whatever caught my eye. Here are two of my favorites. I just loved the texture of the wall of bamboo and how the light seemed to dance across it! The other picture has a wonderful play of a dark shadowed branch framing amazing architecture of one of the oldest churches in town against a bright blue sky.

And remember...stop and take a moment to appreciate the beauty and inspiration all around you!

Join Me in a Happy Dance !

I am so EXCITED and DANCING around! I made the Design Team at the new scrapbook store in our area, "A Scrap Affair". Plus I am going to be teaching classes at the store starting in April! I have really missed teaching since the store by me closed last year. And I just LOVE the store name .... "A Scrap Affair"! Isn't that precious? I totally feel like I am having an affair with scrapping, don't you? See the store link to the right if you want to drop by and see all the great new stuff they have to offer. Plus Meredith the store owner is a total sweetie and has really made a very welcoming store for us scrappers, card makers and paper crafts fans! I know where you will find me the 2nd & 4th Friday nights - cropping at "A Scrap Affair"! It is really convenient for those people that live on the west side of town (Sugarland and Katy).

I have already made a few things for display at the store but wanted to share something special I just made with the new American Crafts Kids Collection. Instead of just using it to only make a layout, I thought this line would be great to make a birthday gift bag and card which can be used for kids or adults! I just love this line - it was super easy to work with. I used two different AC Kids Collection pp, some matching AC ribbon and a smattering of AC square buttons, AC Thickers and Studio G stamps to complete the look of these.

During the month of March, A Scrap Affair is having adorable Make N Takes every Saturday from 10 a - Noon. Plus if you mention my blog and that you are a new customer, you get 10% off your first purchase! Isn't that cool! Hope to see you there soon soaking up all the inspiration.

SPRING Inspiration !

WOW - I can't believe it is MARCH already, can you? The trees and flowers are already starting to bud and after a few very cold days for our area, it is gorgeous outside. Bright sunshine and about 70 degrees -- you can't beat that! Hubby and I went to the museum district and strolled around the sculpture garden. Across the way there is a contemporary art museum and they had the coolest piece of art hanging ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING! This is a massive building and as you can see the art work is HUGE!! It was so beautiful and inspiring and so reminded me of scrapbooking that I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. Can you guess what the art is made out of......

Well...did you take a guess of what the flowers are made from...you aren't going to believe this - they are plastic placemats and plastic flowers. So cool and yummy to look at and so very inspiring ! I can't wait to use this inspiration to create a cool LO soon. Here is an upclose look at the flowers so you can tell they are just round placemats. What do you think of this?

Oh...don't forget to set your clock forward tonight....I am so EXCITED it is SPRING!!! Hope whatever you are doing today, you are enjoying yourself and finding inspiration around you.

My Own MS150 Bike Hero !

My Hubby was talking tonight about his training again to ride his bike in the MS150 this coming Spring. I am so proud of him for doing this again and raising more money for MS. I can't even begin to imagine riding 100 miles a day for 2 days! I will however be there again to cheer him and his team on to the finish line though. I remembered I still had this photo of him at the finish line from last year and decided it was time to scrap it. Our oldest daughter Crystal drove down from Dallas to be there and see her dad ride across the finish line with me. I love this pic of the three of us together.

I used MM Noteworthy pp, Red & Black Epoxy and Clear flowers, Bazzill cs, Maya Road journaling sheer and chipboard crown, misc sticker letters and misc ribbon accents. I used the MM distresser tool to rough up the edge of the photo mount and highlighted it with Ranger Dauber Acrylic Paint.

They will Always be Buddies

Over the recent holiday season, I took a charming picture of my daughter, Crystal and my granddaughter, Bianca while we were all enjoying an outing at a local festival. Their smiling faces just warmed my heart and when I saw this quote "There are many things in life that will catch your eye, but only a few will catch your heart" I knew I had found the perfect wording to express how I feel about this photo.

As you may have guessed by some of projects I have posted on my blog that I am a huge Making Memories fan and their new Chelsea's Place collection inspired me to create a layout to showcase this photo that has become one of my all time favorites. Bianca is so devoted to her "Aunt Crystal" and I know they will "Always be Buddies".

This layout just fell together when I started pulling the postage stamp pp, delicious ribbons, chipboard words, paper flowers, buttons and plastic clear items and laying it on my creating table along with the photo. I loved using the clear photo mat more as a decorative element to highlight the girls smiling faces. I also had fun using the plastic clear colored elements underneath the chipboard words to add more diminsion.

Valentine Day Giveaway Winner Announcement

THANKS EVERYONE WHO ENTERED MY VALENTINES DAY GIVEAWAY! And also thanks for all your lovely comments about my blog. This is my first blogging experience and so far I am having fun figuring out and tweaking various options while I share some of my creative endeavors with you all. Check back often since I enjoy sharing my crafting treasures and will do more contests each month.

Now for the important stuff - The Valentines Day Giveaway Winner congratulations goes to: SHELLI who posted at 2/13 10:09 am

YOU KNOW WHAT? THIS IS SO MUCH FUN THAT I WANT TO DO ANOTHER WINNER... AMANDA MAC who posted at 2/13 9:32 am

Congrats Shelli AND Amanda, email me your contact info to eclecticdeb@gmail.com and I will get your prize packs out to you quickly. I hope you enjoy your selection of LOVE themed goodies!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day and enjoyed it with someone you love! I know I did !

Valentines Day Give Away !!

As you can see from my post below, I seem to have an overabundance of Valentines/LOVE Supplies! LOL -- I just can't seem to resist collecting those beautiful pink and red lOVE tokens.

Instead of packing them all away until next year, I thought I would make a nice big fat PRIZE PACKAGE OF LOVE ITEMS to give one lucky winner who post a comment on this thread about "Why they love Valentines Day". You have until 4 pm CST Thursday, February 14th to post your comment. I will randomly pick a winner and announce on my blog on Friday morning.

Even though Valentines Day will be over, everyone can use a little "LOVE" on their other projects too! Good Luck and Happy Valentines Day everyone !!

Whew..I almost panicked!

I sat down today to work on my Valentines Cards and just for a second panicked and thought I didn't have enough supplies to make some really cute cards. Then I remembered I had bought a bunch of embellishments AFTER VDay last year and pulled them out. Then I pulled every "love and heart" themed out of my stash and put on my scrap table. Boy was I surprised when I turned around and the entire table was covered in red, pink and white !! It looked so pretty I had to take a picture. And didn't I already mentioned that I am slightly obsessed with all things Valentines Day related...here is the proof!

LOVE is in the AIR !!!

It's February and "LOVE" is in the AIR !! I just love all the red and pink and white decor this time of year. I was excited to put out my Valentines decor around the house this weekend and it got me in the mood to create some Valentine cards to send to family and friends.

Today while the rest of the scrap world was glued to QVC, I was inspired to dig through my stash of Valentine items and found a cute set of Making Memories Wall Decor Hearts I bought last year and never used. I had such fun using those as a base and creating a V-Day Wall Hanging to decorate the door to my scrapbook oasis. I played with my crop-a-dile to create punched holes around two of the hearts, some doodling, some glitter sticker letters and a few cute valentine embellishments and wallah.....it was ready to hang. Hope my wall art inpsires you to create a little something special to display for Valentines Day this year!

And the Winner is........

I am finally getting around to posting more pictures from the CKC event and now have a grand announcement to make. I entered the Paper Crafts Magazine Card Contest on a lark and...
I ACTUALLY WON 2nd PLACE !

A friend dared me to enter one of the sponsor's contest and so the day before CKC I decided I had time to make a card to enter. I was so surprised and thrilled to have won. My prize was a large stack of CK and Paper Crafts Magazine Books on card making, all of which I didn't already own so I was happy to have them. Pretty good for someone who never really makes cards. And, CK said that there was a very good chance my card would be published in the Papercrafts Magazine later this year, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

To make the card, I used mostly the new Making Memories Noteworthy line (pp, ribbons, velvet letters), Bazzill cardstock, a Jenni Bowlin chipboard frame, a Studio G Marah Johnson stamp, Cats Eye and Stazon Inks, Making Memories shimmer glitter, plus some adorable pearl embellishments. It is hard to tell in the picture put the frame is pop dotted to stand out around the stamped image in the middle.

So without further ado, here are the pictures of the winning card and me with the prize package!

Always & Forever...Isn't that SWEET !

Well, I have been layed low the past few days by a nasty headcold I have been nursing for a week or more. I just can't seem to shake this thing. I have resorted to even taking the ColdEze tablets to see if I can kick this thing once and for all. Wish me luck in feeling better soon! I can't take much more of this sniffling and feeling lousy - I have scrapping to do ! LOL

Speaking of scrapping, I wanted to post a few pics from the Always & Forever album class that I took at CKC that was taught by Scrapbooks N Stickers very own Kim Hodges. This was a great class done using acrylic and chipboard circles and loads of primas products. We did a lot of fun techiniques with the paper to create this amazing layered album. There are big and medium sized acrylic and chipboard circles and little mini tags all mixed in to make this a really interesting and charming project.

Here is a peak of what the album looks like when I finished it. You are really gonna love this!












Isn't this just gorgeous! I can't wait to add my pictures and journaling. I am working on another really fun project kit that I bought from SNS that is a Texas Acrylic Album and will be posting pics of that project later this week. Until the next posting...

Happy Scrapping!