Today, I scrapped. Yes, for most of the day and here is the fruit of my labor. One one of, but THE fruit of my labor. This is a picture of my 9yo newphew getting ready to fly his pirate kite at the beach. Here's what I used:

All of the pp is Autumn Leaves from the Red, Black and Cream kit at Target. (I also usd an awsome rub on from thast kit, but I mispelled a word on it and ruined trying to fix it.) Bazzill cardstock. Rub-ons: KaiserCrafts, American Crafts Mini Marks; Thickers. Imaginisce Slider, Deja Views Framed Jewels, Grungeboard



Here is the grungboard skull that I painted, glittered, sepia glazed, daubed pearl mixatives, painted, glitterd and glossy accented. (That doesn't include the eyes)

And here's the slider, because I think it's cute!

BTW, do you know why my kids couldn't get in to see the pirate movie?

Beucase it was rated Arrrrr!

The boys talked me into going to the Dollar Tree tonight, while there, I noticed these little trading card albums. Do you know what else is the size of a trading card? Yep, ATCs!



Of course, the funky little design on the front wasn't quite cutting it, so I covered it in MM Noteworthy. And what doesn't look better covered in Noteworthy? And I've been dying actually use my new Zutter Round-it-All corner rounder.




Then, I inked the edges and in lieu of my AWOL slot punch, I punched three large crop-a-dile holes and cleaned them up with t BG file set. I covered the new slots with a Noteworthy die cut and tied a twill not in front. (I stole the twill from my oldest, it part of the packaging from his new blanket.)




the ATC letter are actually bright green Thickers that I inked. The felt flowers also came in the Noteworthy kit, and the center is a blue skittle, au natural.




And voila! A lovely ATC Album. It'll hold 16 ATC, perfect for the Four Seasons swap!




Thank you melonscraps for giving me this lovely ATC. (Also, once you glue the paper on the album, it's harder to tell which side is up which is why this lovely album is bottom loading :)

Here is the Wordle of the 921 words I blogged in July. I must talk about getting things a lot! Hmm...921 words in the entire month? That's only 29 words a day; I'll have to work on that





Did you enjoy my color scheme? I "borrowed" it from kwernerdesign blog's Color Inspiration #16 . I haven't actually participated in one of her weekly challenges yet, but the challenges sure inspire me anyway!

Oh yeah, I just ran my blog though the Blog Readability Test and this is what I got:
Hmmm...common practice is to write at a 6th grade level, so should I aim more for Middles School? And, if I not writing to a 6th grade level and my blog reads at a high school level, does that mean those five years in college were a waste?

HayaTiggs at the AMR message board asked how people store their stickers. Here's how I store mine. I actually have mostly letter stickers, and I keep them in a 3" binder from Staples. (It's the same binder I use for my clear stamps.)

I keep mine by color, but for other stickers, you could sort by theme or manufacturer. Each color gets it's own Poly String Files w/ Side Opening , also from Staples (I love Staples!) I used a sheet protector as a template and punched holes in the files' gussets. I originally used my large crop-a-dile hole punch, but I had to make three holes fro the binder ring to fit, I went back over those holes with the 1/4" Fiskars hole punch I have since acquired. It even makes turning the files easier.

Using a 3" Binder allows the gussets to still expand, so a lot of stickers fit in each file. It's tempting to get one of those GIANT 5 inch-ers, but at 3", it's heavy enough.

Stickers slip in and out without having to engage the binder rings.

And fasten securely. (I've dropped mine more times then I can count.)

Would you like to see more organization on here? Let me know, and I share some of my other storage.

OMGoodness, I was playing with my blog, adding my Wordle below (well maybe above) So anyway, I noticed in add a page elemt, there was a new "Subscribe" feature, so I added it, because I don't mind begging for subscribers! Anyway, when I was testing it, it gave me a choice to subscribe to my blog or to all the comments. ALL THE COMMENTS!! ALL THE COMMENTS!!! I can read my comments in reader now! OMG OMG OMG!!

title="Wordle: tigardlilly072508"> src="http://wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/89776/tigardlilly072508"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"
>

Oh my goodness, has it really been two weeks since I posted?
Here are some highlights: I took six kids ranging in age from almost four to seventeen across the state, a lovely 7 1/2 hour drive. Well about half of it was lovely, the rest was mostly desert highlighted by a coyote peeing on the shoulder. And it wasn't a manly, hike your leg like a stud peeing either. That was an oddly cool thing to see at 80 MPH. We were pretty geared up though, we had two Nintendo DS, two DVD players, a couple of cameras and four cell phones to pass the time, yet somehow, there was still time for complaining! That's why I only brought four kids back! lol (I was actually bring two home after a visit w/ grandma and grandpa) As a scrapper, I'd have to say the high light of the trip a a detour to Boise to go to Archivers!


Oh my goodness, it was fantastic; it was amazing, it was worth the extra 100 mile round trip! I really debated going with gas prices but, I was so really close, I mean I had already driven 7 1/2 hours of the 8 hour trip; with six kids in the car, just me and six kids and a van load of electronics, all competing for for three outlet, and the next closes one in in Utah, and I never get out of the Portland metro area, let alone Idaho or Utah, so I went. It was worth it. I could have spent a thousand dollars, I could have spent $200 without trying, but I only spent $27 because I was being good. I got a couple of things I've been looking for locally to no avail, I got a Doodlebug assortment of crushed velvet flocking, a Ranger Archival Ink pad and 7 Gypsies stamps.

And yes, I rationalized that it wasn't really financially responsible to spend only $27 dollars on a hundred mile round trip, that the gas alone made the little I bought cost so much more, and that it would me sounder the distribute the cost of that gas over say $200 of product. As soon as I got back to my brother's house I emailed and demanded they put one in immediately here in the Portland area, preferably by time I got home the next day. I want all of you to email them too ans tell them to come to Portland, preferably on the westside. Here's how you can email them too and ask for an Achiever's near me: http://www.archiversonline.com/email Yes, you read that right, I want you to email them and ask for a store near me. I serious, even if you live in Timbuktu, ask for one in Portland, OR

After the trip I got a very nasty cold that took me out for about a week, then my oldest got it , then the dog got it!

I did get to crop with melonscraps and LB Oregon on Saturday which was great, but I didn't actually finish anything. I did get a good start on some ATC for a swap.

Tonight, by 13 year old son surprised me by saying he's like to scrap. Yes the same one I have to bribe with candy to go to Mike's, Jo's or the LSS. I'm in the middle of switching scrap tables, so I said, there no room. He replied, he could work on the dinning table, and while I was putting around, he made two layouts, completely on own. When I was looking at them he said, "Now, don't put these on your thing" (my thing = my blog) The he said, "Okay, go ahead" So without further ado: