VSBN is This Weekend!

The BIG Virtual Scrapbooking Night is this weekend. We'll have 12 scrapping challenges over the course of two days at splitcoaststampers.com. If you are a scrapper, please come join us. I've made samples for each of the challenges, and I've filled an entire album.

Saturday, August 4th starting at 10:00 am EST with the last challenge posted at 8:00 pm EST

Sunday, August 5th starting at noon EST with the last challenge posted at 10:00 pm EST

Now, these two pages are from our 4th of July celebration with out friends the Grochowskys. All the boys; Tim, Steve, Jake and Ben, had fun lighting the fireworks. Tim went down to SC and bought a few large fireworks. We had a ton of fun without spending lots of money. Karen manned the grill, as always. She made burgers and hotdogs and corn on the cob. Thankfully the weather was great and we spent all evening outside.

The challenge at the VSBN preview was to use chipboard, so all the letter "F's" are made from chipboard and covered with paper. Fourth, Fun, Food, Fireworks, Freedom.

A Book, A Frame, It's Both

One of the challenges in last weekend's VSBN was to take a hardcover book and alter it to a picture frame. This is the perfect project for me! I chose the book The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman because Tim and I enjoy listening to these books on audio. Come to think of it, it's about time for her to publish a new one. I used Basic Grey papers and ribbon and flower embellishments to match the decor of our living room. I can easily change photos to keep it interesting. The picture in there now is of Tim and I in front of the Harry Potter movie poster when we went to see the movie a couple of weeks ago. It is so perfect on the fireplace mantle.

Wet and Wild

Another challenge during this weekend's VSBN preview was to make a layout with hidden elements. I finally scrapped the pictures of Tarzan's bath. The title pulls out to show the journaling hidden away.

And just an update on Tim's big race on Sunday. Sixty-six miles long and 11,000 feet of climbing. he finished 355th of 450 racers. He did have a better time this year than the last time he raced it - and no black eye this time.

It's a Dora Fiesta

Over at splitcoaststampers.com we had our Virtual Scrapbooking Night preview party this past Sunday. Now I can start showing you some of the pages I've been creating for this event. On Sunday we had four different challenges. Each challenge hostess makes a sample page, and I as the event coordinator make samples of ALL of the challenges. The theme for the event is books, so all of the challenges have something to do with books. Needless to say, I've been scrapping my little heart out, and I can't wait to start showing these pages off.

Our first challenge (AUGVSBNA) was to make a page using purple in honor of the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich. So I made a layout for my niece Sarah's third birthday. She had a Dora party.

Off Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell

Tim is leaving today for the mountains. Tomorrow he is racing the Off Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell. He loves doing these extreme races. The last time he did this race was 3 years ago, and he fell halfway through the race. He finished the race and drove home with this lovely black eye.

While Tim is gone, I'll be reading our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I'm still waiting for Mr. Brown to deliver. I wish he would hurry. I'll get it read before Tim gets home. Once Tim gets it read, we'll send it off to Dylan.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be busy coordinating the preview event for SCS Virtual Scrapbooking Night. We'll have 4 great scrapbooking challenges. If you want to join us, the first challenge will be posted at 2:00 pm Eastern time, and you will have two hours to make you page to fit the challenge. It's lots of fun, and a good way to get lots of scrapbook pages completed.

If only Mr. Brown would get here...

Recipe for Today

I'm anxious to get home tonight so I can finish up the layout I have in progress. I was snipping pieces of pattern paper before I left for work this morning. Since I don't have any new stamping to show you until after VSBN, I thought I would share a recipe. Mom wanted me to e-mail this to her, so here it is Mom. My boss brought it as a salad to a work potluck. Tim took it to a bike social and they used it as a dip.

Penny's Salad
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained
4 oz. Monterrey Jack cheese, cubed
1/2 cup salsa (add more if needed)
1/2 cup green onion
1/2 cup celery
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
garlic
cumin

Mix everything together. Serve chilled.

Harry Potter Mania

We went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix last night. Good movie. They got a few things wrong, but over all did a good job trying to condense such a large book into a mavie. Tim and I have a copy of the new book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, on order with amazon.com. It should come on Saturday while Tim is at work. We buy the book for Dylan, but he graciously lets us read it before we send in on to him.

Here's a silly little quiz for you to take if you are into the Harry Potter mania.

Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

Sunday Update

I don't have any new stamping work to show you. I'm busy working on sample pages for the upcoming Virtual Scrapbooking Night (Weekend) on Splitcoaststampers.com. After the big event is over, I'll have lots of pages to show.

This is a card I made awhile back. The base is certainly celery. The swirl is stamped in rose red on Sahara sand, and matted with rose read, all on a certainly celery base. Friend is also stamped in rose read on Sahara sand and matted on rose red and attached to some celery ribbon. I love the colors of this card.

Tomorrow night I am going to go to Inky Fingers, which is a local stampers group that meets down the block at the senior center. I think I want to work on the design for our Christmas cards this year.

Sweet Sixteen

We don't normally celebrate the cat's birthdays. But today is special, Fitzie is 16! And I needed an excuse to make a cake. Fitzie has always been my kitty. She and Tim just tolerate each other. I got Fitzie from our friends, the Fitzgeralds, before I moved from South Dakota to Kentucky. She was a great traveler on her first trip. She has since moved to NC, and then to TN, and then back to NC. She's lost lots of teeth, and doesn't jump as well as she used to, otherwise, she's healthy and will probably live a few more years. The birthday girl did lick up a few crumbs of the yummy chocolate cake I made, and I have some tuna for her later.

Preparing for the Virtual Scrapbooking Night

The last few weeks I have been making lots of cards. I'm trying to have a stack on hand. For the next month or more I won't have much card making time as I will be concentrating on scrapbooking. SplitcoastStampers (www.splitcoaststampers.com) is where I hang out online. Every 3 months or so, they have a huge scrapbooking night - which ends up being over 2 weekends. This quarter, I am the coordinator - or publisher. The theme is Curl up With a Good Book. We will be scrapping on July 22 and August 4th and 5th - so please come and join us. Since I am the coordinator I need to make sample pages for all the challenges. Which means I need to get scrapping.

So here is one of the cards I made for my stash. Several weeks ago the color challenge on SCS was to use cool Caribbean, marigold morning and pretty in pink. I cased my card from Emily, the color challenge hostess. The card base is cool Caribbean. The image is Petal Prints - stamped in apricot appeal and pretty in pink - stamped on whisper white and mounted on marigold morning. I used my Coluzzle to cut the circles. The pattern paper is from My Minds Eye. And the ribbon is pretty in pink. It's a simple card, but I love all the soft colors.

Weekend Catch Up

I mostly spent the weekend reading. I read Simply Magic a romance by Mary Balough. It's third in the series, and the other two also start with "Simply". The other book was also number three in a series. It was The Right Attitude to Rain by Alexander McCall Smith. He writes the No. 1 Ladies Detective series, which I don't like, but I am loving this Isabel Dalhousie series of books he has. They are totally different from No. 1 Ladies.



I want to show you what I made last week for my friend Judi's birthday. Her gift was wrapped in a kraft take out box that I stamped in red, pink and black. I also added buttons and ribbon. I also made her a mini album about friends. I used some SU designer paper to cover some chipboard coasters and lots of different embellishments and stamp sets.