If It's Groovy!

So If It's Groovy is going to be having a BIRTHDAY! Yay! The best part is that IIG is going to have a FANTASTIC Birthday Celebration, and you're invited!
Who: You, of course, and ALL of your friends
What: A Birthday Bash
Where: If It's Groovy
When: January 4-10, 2010


Now, you can most definitely check out my blog on the 4th for a challenge and a special, surprise prize package. I am out of state currently, so there's been limited blog access for me.

But I will be travelling home on the 5th and will be showing you a project on the 4th that's birthday themed for sure. Please take a minute and visit If It's Groovy, it's a wonderful site and I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time! It's full of really talented people.

Happy Creating and Happy Holidays!

JYC: Manifesto, Intro page AND some cool pages

Once you take a class, it's hard to stop, right? I'm now addicted. I have tons of blogging for scrapbookers posts to still add, but I thought I would maybe break them up a bit, so I've decided to show you something else I came a little late to but still ended up being awesome:

I'm taking Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle. My second Shimelle class in a month, LOL. Oopsie! Seriously, though, I wasn't certain about taking it. First, I'm not really huge into Christmas, and to be honest, things for Christmas this year were looking very bleak...Insanely bleak. As you may or may not know, I go to California to visit my Grandmama for Christmas every year. Since we're being laid off at work from December 14-28, I decided to take off until the first week in January. I decided I needed it. While I'd love to get into a few things with that (rants, raves and all other manner of weirdness), I'm just going to say that I love going out to California and seeing my Grandmama, and my father. And it's good to see a few friends out there and have awesome experiences. I'm truly blessed.

Second, a whole lot of people that I follow (thank you, Google Reader) are doing it. And I figured, if they could do it, I could too. I mean, after all, my Christmas experience is my Christmas experience. So it's relevant.
Okay, and seriously, if you take this class, you pay one fee and can do it for-EVER! (the word 'forever' is in my head like in that movie 'The Sandlot' where the kids are talking about something ominous, but obviously in this class it's not ominous, but more like a hyperbole--you know, exaggeration for effect). There are digi-downloads for hybrid or digi scrappers, printables and prompts every day. Yes, EVERY day. It's seriously a really cool class and I started looking forward to it. I'm allowing myself to think it's awesome (cue Grinch music and see my heart grow a few sizes...).

So I'm a few days behind, but I have a few ideas and actually started to do a few things last night, despite there being a billion other things that needed done (house stuff and organization--and SLEEP!). I wanted to get an 8x8 AC Modern Album, so I could play with the front and be awesome. However, I'm working with a budget here and so I just went with what I had on hand, which is an 8-1/2 by 11 AC album covered in cloth. It's black and there's a small slot in the front for a card or index label or something. Right now it looks totally ghetto, but it can change later, and I'm not sweating that for the time being.

This is my Title page. Now, as I understand it, Shimelle doesn't do title pages until later. I'm cool with that, but I got inspired by this Making Memories paper (which reminds me that I have to go to target before I leave and pick up some more of these paper packs and other embellies)--it's the Tinsel line. I love that the diecut looks like an ornament. I used a scrap of paper next to it from the same patterned paper package and then layered a cutout from Jen Allyson's card set and made a little subhead type of thing. The cardstock base is from Couture Cardstock--love the shade and weight of it! The stickers that say 'Xmas' are from last year's Making Memories Christmas line, too. And the 'Nicole K' is thickers. I ::heart:: these thickers, and wonder if anyone knows that font (they're the black stickers), because I'd rather buy more Christmas embellishments other than thickers to complete this...

Next up is my manifesto page. Or rather, my 'manifest-O!' page. I wanted it to be simple, plan on adding something else eventually, but I just really liked the combination of my favorite thickers, the blue paper from MM (from that Tinsel line), and the K&Company trim which reminded me of a garland. It's on the back of my title page, so it's on the same piece of Couture Cardstock--which by the way is FANTASTIC. I cannot say enough about this wonderful company.

My manifest is handwritten with Pilot Choose (.7) purple ink. I got that pen from Jetpens.com. It's lovely. Have a white one too, that I haven't yet used, though. My manifest talks about the fact that Christmas seems to have lost its magic for me, but that I want to memorialize and perhaps reflect on older Christmases while still rocking the present one. And I also want to refine and even FIND my style. I plan on using a bunch of different pages, sizes, etc.
I thought I'd show you a pair of my element pages. These were acrylic clear pieces, part of an album from Pat Catans. I simply covered them with some of the MM Tinsel paper and went to town. They will have something on the pages, probably a picture or a fond memory (left the back blank so that I could do something with journalling and it wouldn't show through). The red paper has holly on it, and there are even glittery berries. Yay! The green paper reminds me of something from the MM Passport line. Oh, and there are some lovely bits from the Vintage line I got at Michaels from MM on there, spells out 'Fun'. I hope to get some envelopes, maybe some other little things there, too.

Wow! I can't believe I wrote all of this about the album that I wasn't necessarily all happy about. Weirdness, eh? I think it just goes to show you that stranger things can happen. The girl who hasn't been all Christmas-y can suddenly take a minute and say 'wait a second, I want Christmas back!'...

What about you? Are you Christmas-y? Why or Why not?

So that's all I have right now. Thanks for checking this out, and thanks for sharing your JYC projects--they're fantastic! Happy Creating!

Ildi Co Wednesday

It's Wednesday again, which means a reveal featuring some really cool images from Ildi Co.
Yay!

Did you know that when I was in school I thought Wednesday was the most perfect day ever? Because it was halfway from the weekend and halfway to the weekend. It was perfect. And Ildi Co. day is just as cool as that!

So, without further ado, let me show you my card.

Cardstock: Couture Cardstock part of )))) line. The color is:

Paper: Making Memories Tinsel (found at Target!)
Stickers: Making Memories holiday line (Last year, at Target!)

Adhesive: Tombow Mono Permanent Runner
Punch: EK Success Corner Rounder (also at Target!)

Stickles by Ranger

Copics: R29 Lipstick Red, YG17 Grass Green, YG03 Yellow Green, R00 Pinkish White, B05 Process Blue, r39 Garnet, Y15 Cadmium Yellow, E55 Light Caramel, E09 Burnt Sienna

I used a digital file from TwoPeasinaBucket (Jen Allyson) called Cut Out Card. This was featured on katrina werner's blog a while back, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it. The card can be cut out on nearly any digital cutter, or it can be cut out by hand. The red cardstock was cut out, and so was the piece of white cardstock that had the digital stamp on it.

All and all, it was a lot of fun, and I've already gotten a few people interested in it at work. Thank you very much for stopping by, happy creating!

Ch-ch-ch... CHANGES!!!

So if you check out my blog on the actual blogger site, and not a reader, you can see that I changed it up a little bit. I got a new layout template thanks to Template-Mama. The Template-Mama site has tons of layouts for all sorts of blogging needs. I like a lot of this color scheme, it's bright and happy, but I'm thinking that I might switch it up in the near future, but will have to check the details on that, and whether it fits within the site's terms of use (Template-Mama, that is).

It seems like people are clicking the little boxes at the end of posts to let me know what they think of that post. Thank you very much! It's greatly appreciated.

I still have a lot of work to do. I want to make the page load quicker, want to get some pages on my linkbar for things ON the blog (found a workaround on a site, more later), better maintain and streamline my links...the list goes on and I'm sure I'm not just done with the list either.

Is this easier to read on the white background versus the black?

More later--and the announcement of ANOTHER class and then we'll be going through those posts and then back to your regularly scheduled awesomeness. Happy Creating!

Ildi Co Reveal Tomorrow

Hey there, blogging world!
I have a card I'm really happy about to reveal to you, featuring a brand spankin' new Ildi Co. Digi Stamp image.
And I shall be revealing it to you, my blogging friends, tomorrow evening. I won't say too much about it, but I will say that this features 2 of my favorite Ildi Co. types of characters.

Now, if you've read my blog, you should be able to guess what types of characters I like best, although ALL of Ildi's images are great. I challenge you to guess what characters my card features. You can check out the Ildi Co store to guess--whoever guesses correctly will be entered to get a postcard from me during my upcoming vacation!!!

You have until I post the image of my card tomorrow night--let's say 10 PM eastern time. Good luck!

Hint: The image is not yet up on the store, but if you check my past Ildi Co. posts and cross reference it with the subject names (ex: Emotibots, Cuddles, etc.), you might be able to guess. One of them, I've posted quite a bit of.

Also, I will go ahead and set this up so that it stays on top for a day--good luck! I have a few other posts scheduled.

So

I seem to be able to write a 50k word novel in a month, just can't make it on here to post every day. eeek!

I had the best of intentions, but a glass casserole dish exploded in my hands (and on dinner last night, darn it). Still fighting the cold, but it almost feels like it's nearly gone (shh! Don't say it too loudly). Fighting with Direct TV, who offered me three months of free service, but apparently didn't take care of that and now I'm being billed.

Oh, 'Heathers' with Winona Ryder and Christian Slater is on tonight, so I'm going to watch that, finish unpacking boxes and then prepare for a lot of sleep this weekend.

Ordered a few things this week, including Tim Holtz's Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy (yes, his 12 days of Christmas is very addictive!)--I keep trying to get up enough energy to sit down and try some of the techniques he uses. Thanks Simon Says Stamp--hopefully I will get it soon.

Oh, and I placed an order with a certain veggie site--as the stuff that I want is nowhere to be found locally. This is what I got:
Jack (Night Light Collection, October Afternoon)...I love the back of this paper--the paper-y looking part. Really wanted to try this out and do SOMETHING with it, maybe an altered book.
Will keep you updated. I know I've had problems tracking this particular paper down, and I've never tried October Afternoon before, so this will be interesting.

Katie (Night Light Collection, October Afternoon) If you can't already guess, I'm a reader. So this paper (the back) looked pretty literary. Part of me wants to grab this paper when it gets here and start reading it, see what it is. The other part of me wants to figure out it's place on a layout. Who will win??? Only time will tell.

Louie (Night Light Collection, October Afternoon). This is the one paper out of this whole collection I've REALLY been wanting, even checked it out on ebay. Aren't these monsters cute? I got 2 sheets of this one, because I just really love the paper. Don't know if part will be an accent to a card or what. I actually used the 'contact me when in stock' feature a few times for this, before finally snagging today.

Falling Flakes (Colorful Christmas, My Mind's Eye) I've never bought a single My Mind's Eye paper, so I have no idea if it's awesome or not. I'm heavily relying on the notebook tutorial I saw on Mish Mash (Michelle W's blog). I thought the whole line looked really fun and the notebooks looked really easy to do, but I 'm not sure if I'm doing a notebook thing, I just really love the colors of these papers--they make winter look fun versus the way it normally is (icey and NOT fun!)

Frosty Pines (Colorful Christmas, My Mind's Eye). Again, a cute little paper with those holiday colors I like. I almost want to decorate a tree, well...okay, we HAVE a tree up, but I'm not the one who did it. In fact, I think I only had to deal with one or two of the ornaments with this particular tree.
This paper kinda reminds me of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when they go to pick out a tree. In a good way, with less digging, I guess.

Merry Dots (Colorful Christmas, My Mind's Eye) Why can't Christmas papers be more like this line. Of course, I'm saying this with the paper sight unseen and it really could end up terribly. I could hate the texture or the weight of the paper or something, or then again I could fall in love. If you look closely, there are little doodles on some of the dots, which are totally cute. I almost think I'll find something in the paper if I stare at it long enough--anyone remember those Magic Seeing Eye Puzzle/prints from a few years ago? I could NEVER see any of those--my eyes just wouldn't work with them.

Glittered Chipboard Elements (Colorful Christmas, My Mind's Eye). I splurged on these, I rarely buy chipboard, but I saw these on Mish Mash for her notebook tutorial and I just fell in love. I mean, those little kids are so CUTE. And there's a Polar Bear. AND A PENGUIN! Who needs an excuse to pick up something with pretty colors AND A PENGUIN? I mean, seriously. They're glittery and a lot of fun and they make that cold weather look cool--and if they can do that for me, living in North Eastern Ohio, I think they can do anything--including look awesome on my page!

Tube Socks (The Boyfriend, Cosmo Cricket) This is the line that I've been asking all over for locally. This is the line I've called Archiver's about (which, okay, I don't understand why they carry Earth Love but not this one, because Earth Love is ALWAYS in stock over there and it doesn't seem like too many people are buying it locally. I might, but only if it's on sale and I can justify it--which I probably won't do because I picked up the Boyfriend. Still on the wishlist, though? The mini stack. On this paper, aren't the colors lovely? And the back has a SCAN TRON sheet. Remember those?

Homework (The Boyfriend, Cosmo Cricket). I really think this collection reminds me of the 80s. Sorta like 'Freaks and Geeks.' Have you heard of the show? Have you seen the show? It's positively one of my favorite shows of all time--and unlike Murder, She Wrote and CSI:Crime Scene Investigation (which I love, don't get me wrong. They hold special places in my heart), I DON'T MAKE FUN of 'Freaks and Geeks.' Try and watch it, if you can. It's just a really well-written and heartfelt show and the acting in it is fantastic. Just really, a diamond in the rough.

Fitting In (The Boyfriend, Cosmo Cricket) Just a fun and random paper in the collection. I think, though, if we get a really great deal on a washer and dryer I'm going to be using this paper to make a layout. Yes, we've been washer less for about 5 months--dryer less for about 1 month. What does that mean? We go over to his family's house to do laundry. Even I won't go into the local laundromat (there are some strange characters that walk in there, and the police seem to even avoid the place, which I hate. Other communities seem to have good places, not so much around here. Yuck! But I don't have to save quarters, so I guess that's cool!

Stickers (The Boyfriend, Cosmo Cricket). Another thing I really loved in the 80s (other than the Atari/Commodore and other geekish things) was STICKERS! I had tons of stickers, all sorts of kinds. And so, like many other papercrafters, I love stickers even in adulthood. Maybe that's why we do this thing, huh? We all just want a justification for a sticker album. LOL. There are a lot of things I could do with these though, not just retro. See the sunglasses sticker? There's a guy I remember from high school who was a friend, but I'm not sure if he was more or wanted to be more or what. We were both awkward and geeky and he used to make up song lyrics--he also used to sing this song. My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. Weird.

Icon Rubons (The Boyfriend, Cosmo Cricket) LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! I have a sunglasses habit (always wear them, almost even in the dark). Found our old Atari during the move, too. I want to curl up under a blanket and watch Sixteen Candles with Jake Ryan now--and actually curl up WITH Jake Ryan. Jake Ryan is, in my opinion, the most perfect boyfriend/man you could ever ask for. He was attainable, honest, funny and probably the best kisser on the planet. The 80s make me happy thinking of them, they were full of promise. Retro/nostalgia must do this to EVERYONE. For a while, I was all about rubons, but I haven't been lately. Maybe this will rekindle that love.

Ildi Co Sketchy Thursday

So it’s Ildi Co Wednesday… Yay!
I’m still sick, a little, in the house by myself and have a bunch of stuff to clean, so that’s a little bit why this was late.

I decided that I was going to devote a little more time to sketch-related pursuits and challenges, thanks to the lovely ‘Blogging for Scrapbookers’ and so I decided what better way to showcase an adorable Ildi Co stamp than with a sketch. So here it is!

This is using a K and Company trim, Copic markers (Dandy Boy and Lolita Girl) and an Stampendous sentiment. Here is the original sketch from Sketchy Thursdays:

I switched it up a little bit, but wanted to bring out the colors and the ‘happy’ of things. I’m intending to hide this card around the house—I will be leaving for california on the 15th and will be gone until the 5th or so of January.

Blogging for Scrapbookers: Prompt Three

Prompt Three is involving a post of favorites, so I decided to post about my 5 favorite books. I'm working on a layout to go with this, but can't wait any longer... So I'm just posting the list...

No particular order...

The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy and other stories by Tim Burton is a cute, odd and fun book--similar to the style of Edward Gorey. It can be bleak at times, but really, it's just something that sticks in your mind. It's obviously not for everyone, but I looked forever for this edition and finally snagged it and was so happy when I got it. It's a popular, but hard-to-find edition. If you're a fan of Burton's work, you'll like this one.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is something I read every year, and have since I was about ten. I remember watching the movie with my Mom and then on my own, and it's just a book that seems to keep me on an even keel. It taught me humility, and that it was okay to have my own thing going on. It taught me that there are people that have things worse than I ever did and still managed to keep up their spirits. It's just lovely, and I had a lot in common with Francie (even reading ALL library books).

Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld is almost autobiographical, and I've spoken with other people who feel the same way about this author. She's managed to get me involved with sympathizing with Laura Bush (American Wife) as well as transport me back into my high school/college days with Prep. I am in love with this novel, it's the debut that made me want to read each and every thing this writer ever writes. I love when you get inside of a character.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is the book everyone calls Irving's best and I think that, in itself, made me not want to read it. However, I loved Garp and I loved Hotel New Hampshire and even Widow for One Year, but this one felt a little different and almost like a fine chocolate. It's the first book in a long time I couldn't just start and finish. I kept savoring it, and really, it was fantastic. People read it a lot younger than I did (this year).but I think I appreciated it more because I was older.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is another book that is considered a 'classic' that I just read over the summer. Now, I've always been a reader and usually in the faster/higher reading classes in school, but this was not given as a requirement to our class. How terrible that I missed this treasure, but I think, when I was younger, I wouldn't have appreciated this. I saw the film and loved it (Robert Redford was perfect for Gatsby!), and devoured this short novel, then picked up 'The Love of the Last Tycoon' which is also fantastic.

Now you've read my favorite list, what about yours? What are your 5 favorite books?