Allison Davis

new books!

2012-01-10T19:50:00.000-06:00

A new year always means new books from SG Publishing! We are excited to bring you two new books in the Sketches for Scrapbooking series:

Sketches for Scrapbooking: One-page Sketches, volume two by Allison Davis

After the popularity of Sketches for Scrapbooking: One-page Sketches, volume one, I knew I wanted to do another quickly. The book is filled with 30 one-page sketches that have anywhere from one to eighteen photos!

Sketches for Scrapbooking: Travel Sketches by Allison Davis & Debbie Sanders

The new travel sketches focus on two-page sketches using large numbers of un-cropped photos (think lots of 4 x 6 photos!) and larger areas of journaling than our regular sketches. There are also sketches that include enlargements and most of the photos that are cropped are 4 x 4 (the easiest crop!). Don't worry if you aren't a traveler, these sketches can be used for any topic!

Both books will be available at the end of January.

We have already started taking pre-orders for both books. You can either call us at 417-886-0440 or you can visit our website.

Christmas

2011-12-30T20:13:00.000-06:00

This holiday season, it was filled with laughter, baking, lights, smiles, family, squeals of delight and floors covered in wrapping paper. It was, in one word and in the spirit of the holidays, jolly. Let's see if I can keep this somewhat short...

The boys enjoyed making their own ornaments. They both started with an plain glass ornament and turned them into an Angry Bird and Mickey ears. Our kitchen table, the floor, the chair and ourselves were completely covered in red glitter. Jackson had some sort of mangled mess of glitter and glue around his left eye that made him look like a glittery puppy named Spot.

Jackson spent most of December playing under the tree. When he was in trouble you could most likely find him hiding out under the tree in the far back corner with only his legs and half his waist visible. He knew that I wasn't going to crawl under the tree to get him.

It just wouldn't be the holiday season without baking lots of goodies like...

Reindeer cupcakes - I have Pintrest to thank for these. They were not only super easy to make but a lot of fun too! I made it super simple and used a chocolate cake mix (I like to use the milk chocolate cake mix and then I always mix in 1/2 cup of mini-chocolate chips to the batter. This time I also sprinkled the top of the batter in the cupcake liners with more mini-chocolate chips.) I'm not really a fan of pre-made frosting so I made my favorite chocolate buttercream.

My new holiday favorite, Peppermint Crunch Cookies. Candy cane sugar cookie dough + vanilla candy melts + crushed candy canes = awesome.

Usually we make sugar cookies for Santa but this year Drew insisted that we make gingerbread men (and women). He's had sort of a fascination with gingerbread things since he read "The Gingerbread Man" at school. I think he was secretly hoping that his gingerbread man was going to come to life and hop out the front door like he does in the book.

The trip to see Santa went great. The three Santa visitors in front of us screamed and cried and looked every bit terrified of Santa. I just knew that Jackson was going to see this and think that Santa was pinching them or telling them scary stories. He either completely missed the horrified screams or didn't care. Nothing was holding him back from telling Santa all about the Mickey spaceship he wanted.

Christmas morning: This reaction was absolutely priceless. This made the one hour of sleep that "Santa" got totally worth it!

Drew had a plan, open the biggest first. Jackson, on the other hand, just flat out asked, "Which one is my Mickey spaceship?"

Later that morning I was finishing up some work on my laptop while the boys played with all their new toys. Two hours later Mike is waking me up asking "Did you actually fall asleep ON your computer?" Yup. I actually did. Face down on the keyboard. The last time I did that was while writing a 10-page essay my senior year.

After my keyboard nap we headed to Mom's for Christmas. Jackson and Drew played "build a fort with all the presents" while Santa-Karin handed them out. Mom's house was a blizzard of wrapping paper and we ended up with a car packed so full with new toys that I wasn't sure we would be able to shut the back door.

This Christmas was crazy. It flew by super fast and even though it was great there was one thing that was missing. We always spend Christmas eve at my Grandpa's house with all my family on my dad's side. We've been following that tradition since I was a little girl and I always look forward to it. This year we spent Christmas eve with Grandpa in a hospital room. On one hand I'm so very thankful that we had another Christmas eve with my Grandpa but on the other it just didn't feel like Christmas without the warmth of his house, the silly stories, the singing Christmas creatures and all the family there. I'm so very much going to miss that.
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silver dollar city

2011-12-20T12:22:00.000-06:00

It has become a yearly tradition to go to Silver Dollar City during the holiday season. They have what looks like a bajillion lights covering every building and tree and every which way in between...

My favorite is the Godzilla-size tree that is covered in what has to be a bajillion lights.

Oh, and that's not even the best part! Those bajillion lights are timed to fun Christmas songs. I could sit in that area and watch it over and over! If it doesn't get you in the Christmas mood, you have to be a Scrooge or a Grinch or whatever Christmas sourpuss you can think of. It's magical. Especially for the little ones.

The lights were awesome but nothing was as fun or as funny as Jackson and his first roller coaster experience. He held his hands in the air and screamed like a pro, even when they were going up the big hill very slowly.

I laughed the entire time. He loved it and talked about it for the rest of the night.

Jackson really, really enjoyed the fact that he was finally tall enough to ride the rides and Drew was happy to have a partner! They rode not just the roller coaster but also flying elephants, and the favorite...

What could possibly be better than flying around in circles in a swing? Maybe flying around in circles in a swing in a theme park at night with everything covered in Christmas lights. Just a guess.

Grandpa update: He has good days and bad days. He was moved to a rehab facility that specializes in brain injuries and paralysis and yesterday he had his first day of rehab. I actually got to talk to him yesterday for awhile and he seemed happy to see me and recognized my name. The boys also got to talk to him but they were a little shy. It was a good day.

oh christmas tree

2011-12-16T07:00:00.001-06:00

Supplies - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: We R Memory Keepers; Alphabets: Doodlebug and Little Yellow Bicycle; Flourish: Little Yellow Bicycle; Stickers: Crate Paper, 7Gypsies, and Scenic Route

I love making Christmas layouts. I think it's because of a strange addiction to finding different ways I can make and accent paper trees.

For the trees on my "Kindergarten Christmas" layout I cut patterned papers into simple triangles in several different sizes. The fun part was adding the hand stitching to three of them. Instead of trying to come up with my own stitched designs and drawing them out I went the super easy route, using the pattern on the papers as my stitching guide.

On the smallest tree I stitched small swirls. This was probably the hardest one of all. The swirls were quite small and the lines were close together. I had to pierce the holes really small and only use two strands of the embroidery floss to keep the holes from ripping into each other.

The tallest tree was the easiest. I stitched along the garland strings on the patterned paper in red and green.

Hand stitching tip: When you want your stitching to go all the way to the edge make a little notch at the edge of the paper where you want your stitching to go. When you get to the notch while stitching wrap the embroidery floss around the paper making sure the floss is in that notch and adhere on the back. This is a great way to keep the stitched end straight on a slanted or curved edge.

On the last tree I stitched along the swirl pattern on the paper. Since so much of it is hiding behind the largest tree, I only stitched the part that is showing. It would have take a lot more time to stitch the whole thing only to have most of it covered up.

What to see the sketch this layout is based on? Head on over to Sketch Support to download or print the sketch and be sure to check out all the other layouts from our Creative Team!

Grandpa Arnall update: This was the first night I got to hear him talk. The hardest part right now is his mental state. He has some brain damage and is having a hard time remembering everything (people, events, the wreck, etc.). He also seems to get confused about where he is. While I was there he kept trying to get out of bed because he said he had somewhere to be. He is also having a delay in answering questions. Someone will ask him a question and he can't answer it right away but a day later he'll randomly answer the question. The good news is that the nurses have said that he might return to the normal mental state he was in before the wreck. It might take some time but it is possible. Tonight was a good visit and I felt much more confident in his recovery when I left the hospital.

grandpa

2011-12-13T23:02:00.000-06:00

A little over a week ago my Grandpa Arnall was involved in a head on collision. I got a text from my cousin that evening with the news that my Grandpa was being air lifted to a hospital in critical condition. He is 88-years-old and I would be lying if I didn't admit that I thought at that very moment that I was never going to see my Grandpa again.

The past week has been a roller coaster. Surviving a head on collision of that magnitude is not a common thing, especially for an 88-year-old man. I'm sure you can imagine the extent of his injuries without me having to go into details. It's been a very tough recovery for him, one that will take a long time and he is hanging in there. He is officially the toughest man I know.

It's scary to think just how quickly your life can change.

The boys are anxiously awaiting to give their Great-Grandpa high fives again and we are hoping that day is soon.

I greatly appreciate all the prayers, good thoughts, and comforting emails and messages from everyone.
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let the countdown begin

2011-12-05T06:00:00.001-06:00

Every year December begins and about two days in I remember, "Dang it! I wanted to make an advent calendar for the boys!" Finally this year I remembered well in advance after seeing a super cute hanging sock advent calendar on Pintrest from www.marthastewart.com.

The smart person would have clicked through to read the actual directions. The creative, I can wing it, no time for directions person, also known as me, didn't. That smart person would have found out that the socks are actually baby socks, not adult socks. Oops. :)

It turned out okay though. We've got this whole Dr. Seuss thing going on above our fireplace, the boys love it, and hey, we've finally got an advent calendar in our house!

But, man, baby socks! That makes so much more sense!

To add a surprise element to the countdown, I'm using a mix of candy, small toys, and fun Christmas activities (yesterday we made Christmas ornaments). They never know what's going to be waiting for them inside that sock.

Jackson took a few days to really get the hang of it. On December 2 I guess he didn't like the fun size Snickers and asked if he could put it back and pick the number eight sock. He also swears that there is a Lightning McQueen car in sock number 14. I have a feeling that day 14 might be a disappointing countdown day.

Who am I kidding? I'll totally cave and go get a little McQueen car.
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the nature center

2011-11-29T11:42:00.000-06:00

Supplies - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: Little Yellow Bicycle; Embellishments: Little Yellow Bicycle; Alphabets: American Crafts and KaiserCraft; Word stickers: American Crafts and October Afternoon; Corner Rounder: Fiskars; Ink: Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink and Staz On

You can see more details about this layout and print the sketch this layout is based on at Sketch Support.

One thing I'm already missing due to the colder weather is our weekly Nature Center walks.

It was a new tradition we started out of boredom on a sunny Sunday. The Nature Center has several walking trails throughout some very pretty wooded areas.

The boys love this place. They get to explore while Mike and I enjoy just simply getting out of the house and spending time together. We also have little games we play along the way like guessing how many squirrels we'll see (a lot!) and seeing who can skip a rock the furthest. Yes, it sounds a little Little House on the Prairie, but it's fun!

I think it's good for the boys to spend lots of time outdoors and not too much time in front of a TV. They love their video games but I think they also enjoy this just as much.

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thankful

2011-11-24T11:00:00.001-06:00

I am thankful for three things...

My boys.

Nobody in this world makes me as happy as Mike, Drew, and Jackson and I am so thankful they are mine!
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pumpkin cupcakes

2011-11-21T00:05:00.001-06:00

Last year I shared a four layer pumpkin cake that I make every year for Thanksgiving. (I believe I described it as pumpkintacular.) This year, because somewhere along the way I transformed me into a cupcake freak, I turned that pumpkin cake recipe into cute little pumpkin cupcakes. The cupcake is great but the icing is by far the best part. It's so light and fluffy and tastes like a whipped pumpkin pie. It's bliss on a cupcake.

Trust me you'll want to try these!

• 1 pkg. yellow cake mix
• 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, divided
• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tub (8 oz.) Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed
• 1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Heat oven to 350°F.

2. Beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended.

3. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full with batter.

4. Bake 15-20 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to cool completely.

5. For the icing, beat cream cheese in medium bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently stir in Cool Whip.

6. Pipe icing onto cupcakes.

7. Top with caramel and chopped pecans.

Enjoy!
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we love cupcakes

2011-11-18T00:46:00.001-06:00

Is there a better way to spend the day than baking cupcakes? I think not. That's why I was super excited when the annual reading carnival at Drew's school rolled around. I always jump at the chance to fill the cake walk with cupcakes. Plus, I wanted to make cupcakes for Mom's birthday.

Our kitchen may look like a bakery exploded in it (I'll spare you the pictures of that!) but our house smells divine.

The boys have so much enjoyed being my taste testers since I tried out a few new recipes. Enjoyed it so much that I actually have the cupcakes locked away. I have baked all day and I'm not taking any chances! I can just see the disaster if Jackson got a hold of them without me looking. It would be a cupcake graveyard littered with icing-less cupcakes. Further evidence would be the chocolate icing ring around his mouth.

Oh, and a valuable lesson learned today - don't trust your husband to carry a box of cupcakes. I wanted to cry when he walked back into the house and said, "Okay, please don't be mad at me..." I went against my better judgment and allowed him to carry one of the boxes. Bad idea. Dropped the box of the most time consuming cupcakes I made today.

I wanted to cry. He wanted me to hurry and open the box to see how bad they were damaged and then giggled when he saw the strange cupcake sculpture in the corner of the box.

He almost got a cupcake to the face.

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happy fall

2011-11-17T00:03:00.000-06:00

Supplies - Patterned paper: Little Yellow Bicycle; Memory Thread and embroidery floss: DMC; Fonts (used as templates for stitching): Century Gothic and CK Carolyn; Small leaf punch: Martha Stewart

I absolutely adore Fall. Every year I look forward to it for so many reasons - the beautiful trees, pumpkin flavored everything, the cooler weather, the pumpkin patch, Halloween, soup...I can go on and on.

This year, however, I feel like I have pretty much slept through Fall. I spent two weeks at the beginning of my quitting smoking journey locked in my bedroom watching way too many episodes of Desperate Housewives and Glee on Netflix. For some reason as long as I was watching those I could manage. Both of those weeks were failed attempts. Third time's the charm! 18 days smoke free!

Last week I really, really wanted to make something. I had really slowed down on my scrapbooking and was craving some much needed crafty time. With add-on week approaching at Sketch Support I figured that would be a good excuse to stretch my creative brain. Plus I might as well work in a Fall project since I had semi-hibernated through most of it.

Since we don't have any Fall decorations in our home I really wanted to make some sort of wall hanging/decoration to display. I'm really bummed that it will come down in about a week!

To make the "happy fall" canvas I used the add-on sketch of a leaf made from several strips of patterned paper for my starting point. I used the add-on leaves, a few solid leaves, and some smaller punched leaves together and then accented with small sprigs of Memory Thread and the quote cut from the Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper.

I really, really like hand stitching on canvases so I added the "happy fall" title by printing the words from my computer and then using them as a template for piercing the holes. Canvas is fun to stitch on and just as easy as stitching on paper.

This canvas definitely fulfilled my need to play and actually has me ready to jump back in! It feels good to be back after a month of not really feeling like myself.

Thank you so much to everyone for the wonderful, supporting, and encouraging comments from my last post! Support is such a key part in overcoming tough hurdles and I feel like I have an overflowing cup of support between my family, friends, and now blog readers. It gave me a whole new strength and I greatly appreciate that. Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)
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worth it

2011-11-14T22:26:00.000-06:00

I bet you didn't know that I was a smoker. I always hid it from people. It's a horrible, embarrassing habit that sadly I relied on for coping with stress and anxiety.

For as long as I knew him, my dad was a smoker. When I was little I hated it and asked him several times to quit. Even when I became a smoker, (and was naive enough to think I could quit anytime I wanted), I still begged him to quit. Especially after heart attacks, bypass surgery, and a close call with leg amputation.

He never did quit. Instead his body quit on him.

Still to this day I think about those times that I pleaded with him to quit smoking and he never did it. So many questions plague my mind. Why didn't he think about what the most likely outcome would be if he didn't stop? Why didn't he want to be as healthy as possible? Why wasn't his daughter asking him to stop enough?

That's why when Drew asked me to stop smoking I immediately told him I would. And I did. I don't want Drew wondering why him asking me wasn't enough. I wanted Drew and Jackson to know that they were worth the struggle. Plus, I'm enjoying my new smoke free life for myself too! (My new way of coping with stress and anxiety? Designing sketches. I've made over 100 in just a few weeks!)

Today, I told Drew, "I haven't smoked in 15 days!" He replied with a very sweet and heartfelt, "Thank you" and a big hug. He caught me off guard. His cute, little six-year-old brain had no idea what he had done for me.

It is me that owes him a "Thank you."

halloween

2011-11-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, as the sun was setting my two little boys transformed into two super mustache wearing brothers, Mario and Luigi. They were so cute!

Drew knew he wanted to be Mario long ago but Jackson was still very undecided on his costume. We were very surprised to see him go for Luigi at the costume store. Since Drew and Jackson often argue over who gets to be Mario when they play Mario Cart I thought the costumes they had picked could possibly turn ugly. We did have one minor upset that was quickly fixed with a "Well, I guess Drew can be Luigi..." Of course Jackson refused that so everything went back to normal.

My little Mario Brothers trick-or-treated their hearts out and by the time we were done neither of them could hardly walk. Partially because their legs were pooped but mostly because their bags were so full of loot. I'm sure a piece a day would last for at least two years. This morning I had to explain why we don't have candy for breakfast and I'm sure we'll go through the same ordeal at dinner time. It's a good thing they didn't see Mommy sneak a mini-Snickers in the laundry room...
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pumpkin patch

2011-10-26T14:32:00.000-05:00

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day at the pumpkin patch. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, the boys got along wonderfully, and the time spent together was priceless.

Last year Drew was on a quest to find the perfect pumpkin. This year he was on the lookout for not the best, but instead the biggest pumpkin in the patch.

The deciding factor was whether or not he could pick it up. If he could, it wasn't the biggest. He lifted and lifted until he found one that was too heavy. That, to him, was the biggest pumpkin in the patch. He even said, "Mom, it's bigger than your butt!" Considering that he was looking for the biggest pumpkin, that wasn't the best compliment.

As always we made our annual attempt to get a great family photo. We failed, again. I really need to learn how to crop out heads and replace them with better, smiling faces from other photos.

Drew wasn't in a picture taking mood and Jackson, well, you either get looking away from the camera or total "cheese" face with a big, toothy smile and squinted eyes. Either way, it might be a somewhat failed family photo but I'll always cherish one of all of us together.

picture day

2011-10-11T09:43:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking Drew is starting to pick up on the fact that it might be a little silly that I insist on taking his picture on picture day at school. He kind of rolled his eyes a little when I mentioned that I wanted to take a few pictures before we left for school that day. When did he start rolling his eyes? I thought we had years ahead of us before that ever happened!

Of course, he tried to fight it but he's a natural in front of the camera and couldn't resist doing some classic Drew poses.

Some that are sweet..

and then in usual Drew style, some that are a little silly.

Mickey

2011-09-30T01:21:00.000-05:00

Tonight, in a horrific event, Jackson learned why we don't leave toys/stuffed animals in the backyard to fend for themselves against the well-named Chewy, our chocolate lab.

Poor Mickey's injuries were mostly contained to the nose and an internal building of fluid in his head, most likely due to excess amounts of dog slobber. Jackson was distraught that his Mickey would never be the same. I was thankful that he was still recognizable and not a strewn out mess in the backyard.

When Jackson was old enough to venture into Drew's room he found his first love. Mickey.

At that time Mickey was shiny and new and not near the dirty, worn, green eyed Mickey he is today. Drew never really liked Mickey that much so he was fine with Jackson taking him. I don't think it would have mattered anyway. Mickey wasn't going to be ripped from Jackson's grip without a fight.

From that day to the present, Jackson has taken Mickey everywhere with him.

Everywhere.

When we went to Disney in June Jackson's Mickey even got to meet the real deal. Mickey goes to preschool with Jackson everyday and you don't even want to know the meltdown that happens if we forget him.

We do not forget him.

The biggest one though is bedtime. Bedtime does not go smoothly if we can't find Mickey.

A couple of months ago we lost Mickey. We looked all over the house and Mickey couldn't be found. Jackson was so sad. When we asked him if he wanted a new Mickey he said "No! No new Mickey!" We thought about pulling the classic sitcom prank (pet dies, buy a new one to replace it and no one will know) but Mickey would have required a lot of work to look even remotely close to Jackson's Mickey.

Then one day, I looked under my bed to see none other than Jackson's Mickey. His reaction was so sweet and cute and made me almost cry. I walked into his room carrying Mickey and the moment Jackson realized what was in my hand he gasped very loudly. He grabbed him from my hands and squeezed Mickey with a hug full of so much love I was almost jealous. "Oh Mickey!", he said with a little bit of a happy sob. It really was a sweet moment.

Tonight, when Jackson realized the injuries that Mickey had he was so sad. He cried a little (and not a throwing a fit kind of cry.) A real, genuinely sad cry. It was awful. I, Dr. Mom, examined him and assured Jackson that Mickey would be just fine.

A little different, but just fine.

My treatment for Mickey required a spin in the washing machine to reduce and clean the slobber and the nose was repaired with a band-aid.

And, thankfully, just in time for bed.

Character

2011-09-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

On Monday Drew was given an award at school for displaying excellence in character. I'm not surprised. I may be his mom and have a certain obligation to say things like that but really, I'm not surprised.

This is the little boy who last year would give his lunch to a little girl that her parents didn't pay for lunch or attempt to get on the free or reduced lunch program. At school she was given a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every single day that she refused to eat. Drew couldn't stand it and even though it was against the rules he would give her his lunch. It took me awhile to figure out why he was so hungry when he got home from school!

We are so proud of him and the boy he is becoming.
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Sketch Support, a new session is open for enrollment

2011-09-20T18:08:00.001-05:00

Another session of Sketch Support, my online class, is open for enrollment.

Course Start Date: November 15th
Course Fee: $30
Course Length: 5 Weeks

You can find more information about the class and can enroll by clicking here. This class does fill up fast and there is a limited number of spaces so I would recommend not waiting to enroll.

Speaking of the limited number of spaces, I really wanted to share my reasons for that since I've seen that topic mentioned a few times. I understand why that might seem kind of silly since it's online and space isn't an issue like it would be in an actual classroom.

I absolutely love teaching and I want to make sure that I am 100% available to each and every student in the class at all times. That is such an important part of the class to me. I answer every question, start discussion topics in the forums, and comment on every layout in the gallery. Even with a 100 person limit it can be very hard to keep up with. I can't even imagine how hard it would be with more than that.

I promise that in my classes if you have a question no matter how big or small I am going to take the time to give my opinion and share what works for me, research for any references, and supply that answer in a way that is easy to read and easy to understand. I want to make sure that not one question is left open with the student not finding what they are looking for. I am present in this class as much as I possibly can be.

I don't put a limit on the class for any reason other than I want to be as involved within the class as much as I can. I want to be there for the students when a question is asked or they are having trouble with something. I want that one on one feel to the class and I want the students to feel comfortable enough to ask whatever question they might have and know that they will get an answer. Plus, I like getting to know the students through the forums and the gallery on a more personal level too.

Sure, I could take unlimited students in my classes but I'm afraid it would lack some of the most important parts if I did. :)

I hope that helps to answer some of the questions and comments I've seen regarding the limit! It is done with the best intentions for everyone involved in the class. :)

My Memories Suite giveaway winner

2011-09-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

The winner of the My Memories Suite giveaway is...

Timeless Creations said...

Wonderful pictures!!! My favorites are "ready for school" and "boyish". Hard to pick favorites :)

You can email me at allison@scrapbookgeneration.com to claim your My Memories Suite software and trust me, you are going to love it! :)

My Memories Suite and a giveaway

2011-08-29T00:05:00.000-05:00

When we first started creating sketches for our store and then for our Sketches for Scrapbooking books I didn't have any part in the actual creating of the computer generated sketch. My job was to make the layouts and then my mom was the one who constructed them on the computer. After Sketch Week started on my blog I thought it would be easier, for both Mom and I, for me to learn how to make them myself. Boy did that open a whole new door of fun! I found that I love to design things digitally.

Then I was introduced to My Memories Suite, a software for digital scrapbooking, and my interest in digital design was taken to a new level.

• One, because the software was so easy to use. My Memories Suite was perfect for me because it's all presented in such an easy to use format.

• Two, because there are some really cool features. You can make whatever your creative mind comes up with and you can even add music, audio, and video to your creations. I spent almost two days just playing around with the features and exploring what all you can do.

• Three, because they have so many awesome digital kits. Their store www.mymemories.com has tons of great digital kits and elements.

I used the software to create a collage of pictures from our recent trip to the beach. I have a ton of from that day. The boys were having so much fun and I wanted to capture as many of those moments as I could. I could not stop taking pictures! Like over 800 pictures. And in those 800 pictures I have so many great ones that I've been dying to display in our house somewhere.

My Memories Studio software, Water Fun digital kit by Lindsay Jane, and Water Fun Scatterz digital kit by Lindsay Jane

This is were My Memories Suite came to save the day. I used a digital kit and the software to add fun touches to my favorites pictures from that day and displayed them in a collage on a wall in our living room.

I used the Water Fun digital kits (which was perfect for beach pictures) to add the digital elements to my pictures. The pictures were full of mostly the same neutral colors and this was an easy way for me to add some colors to them.

For quite some time I've really wanted to try an idea I had as an alternative to framing pictures. I wanted to completely cover a wall in our house with pictures but didn't want to get into the cost of framing each of them. Instead, I adhered the photos to a sheet of foam board and cut around them with a craft knife. To adhere them to the wall, I used Command Poster Strips. I love the way they almost look like they are floating on the wall.

I've got many more favorite pictures I want to add to this collage and we'll eventually end up with a wall covered in memories of such a fun day! The boys still say that the beach was their favorite part of our vacation (even over Disney!) and they were so happy to see these pictures displayed in our house.

Now for the giveaway part...

Today, I'm going to share the fun of this digital software with you! I'll be giving away the My Memories Suite software to one of my readers! To be eligible, visit www.mymemories.com and then leave me a comment telling me which digital kit is your favorite. I'll randomly select a comment and announce the winner on Friday.

I've also got a coupon code to share with my readers who would like to purchase the My Memories Suite software. All you have to do is copy and paste the code STMMMS32166 when you check out for $10 off!
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lunch with Drew

2011-08-24T22:35:00.003-05:00

One of the things I enjoyed most about Drew's first year of school was surprise lunches. We are lucky that Drew's school encourages parents to join their children for lunches. Most of the time I would surprise him and not tell him I was coming. It was always so fun to see his eyes light up when he rounded the corner into the lunch room and saw me sitting there with his favorite lunch - a corndog, tator tots, and an orange slush from Sonic.

I think it made both mine and his day when we had lunches together.

But, let me tell you, lunching with the Kindergarten class takes some serious patience. (Seriously, teachers do not get paid enough!) The skills required for lunching with Kindergarteners are tough. Since we are officially in first grade and practically seasoned pros, here are my pointers for you first time "lunching with Kindergarteners" parents.

• Expect hugs and lots of them. I would guess at least one per child. Well, actually two per child. Once when they see you and once when you leave.

• Don't wear flowers in your hair. The little girls will try to take them out. Same goes for jewelry.

• Don't bring chocolate cake or any other special sweets for your child. If you do be prepared to have at least ten little sets of puppy dog eyes staring you down.

• Be prepared to answer blunt and completely random questions.

• Study up on the latest toys McDonald's are offering in Happy Meals. There will be discussion over who has what. Silly Bandz, DS games, and flavors of Fruit Roll Ups could possibly come into conversation too.

• Drink at least one energy drink before. You will need it to keep up with the million stories a minute from several kids at once.

• Knock, knock jokes will be told. Laugh like it was the funniest thing you've ever heard. It also helps to break out some of your best too.

• When you are shown the contents of one's lunchbox, you must respond with enthusiasm and surprise.

• Even if you feel like a big meany, do not, I repeat, do not let another child sneak a bite from your child's lunch. The lunch room monitors will get onto parents too. Even the parents who had no idea it happened.

• Expect to have a great time with an imaginative, silly, and fun group of kids. If you don't leave with a smile and a slight urge to skip down the sidewalk, something might be wrong. :)
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friends

2011-08-23T17:14:00.002-05:00

You can't plan it.
You can't force it.
You can't imagine how happy it makes me to see these two becoming such good friends.

It's funny to think back to those days after we brought Jackson home from the hospital and how Drew wanted absolutely nothing to do with Jackson. I was already fearing that they wouldn't like each other. I so badly want the boys to have a relationship like I have with my sister.

Then, slowly, Drew started taking a little interest in Jackson as he grew.

Jackson started talking and Drew's interest grew a little more.
Jackson started walking and Drew was quick to follow him.
Jackson got hurt for the first time and Drew was concerned.
Jackson started playing with toys and Drew wanted to play with him.
Jackson started following Drew everywhere he went and Drew loved every second of it.
Jackson would get in trouble and Drew would say, "Be nice to Jackson!" and Jackson would do the same.

Now they spend almost every second they can together. Building tents in the bedroom, digging holes in the backyard, getting into mischief, jumping on the bed, curled up watching movies, building big Lego castles, and the best part...

laughing more and fighting less.

I hope that this means they are on the road to have a very special brotherly bond. I know from experience that having that with your sibling is just about the best relationship in the world. It's nice to have someone that you trust with anything and everything. Someone that you can always have interesting and fun conversations with and it never gets old (even if some of the conversations are ones we've been having for years.) And most importantly, someone that you can always count on, no matter what, no matter the reason, there they are to help and support you. It's an amazing friendship that I hope my boys get to experience too.

And, I think they will. :)

the first of first

2011-08-19T09:03:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, August 17th
6:00 a.m.
My alarm goes off. Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep.
Jackson is standing at the edge of my bed about two inches from my face.
Jackson: Mom give me a five!
Smack!
Me: Jackson, you should let me hold my hand up first. You got my nose!
Jackson: I sorry. It's time to get up! Drew has to go to school today!
Me: Okay, okay. I'm getting up.
I walk into the dinning room and as I round the corner to see the pantry, there is Drew, perched on the top self.
Drew: Hi Mom! I thought you were sleeping too long so I was getting some breakfast by myself.
Me thinking to myself: How long has he been up if he thinks 6:00 a.m. is sleeping in?

And this was how we began Drew's first day of first grade. With a smack in the face and a red-headed monkey in the pantry.

Jackson is an early morning explorer so I wasn't too shocked that he was up. I was just thankful that it was a high five to the face instead of hearing a big crash in the living room. Obviously if Drew was up before I was he must have been pretty excited. He's not much of an early riser if it doesn't involve the bearded guy in the big red suit and presents.

I'm sure there were many reasons for his excitement. New shoes, new clothes, new Mario backpack,

new Angry Birds notebooks, seeing his friends after a long summer break, his new "super pretty" teacher (because according to Drew, the prettier, the better the teacher. He really, really thinks this one is a good teacher.)

We ate our breakfast, I filled out what felt like a million forms for Drew's school, we got dressed, and headed out the door for a quick photo, or two, (or twenty).

Jackson was just as excited for Drew's first day back at school and because he wants to do everything Drew does, he had to have his backpack too. While Drew's was filled with school supplies, Jackson's was filled cars and his beloved Mickey Mouse. It made a nice little jingle as we walked Drew to school.

At the end of the school day while Drew was sipping on a Capri Sun and we were driving home I asked him, "How was your first day of first grade?"

His reply was a random rush of sentences gleaming with his excitement.

"Good! We still get two recesses in first grade! And you can still make my lunch for me to take because first graders do that too! I got to play with Lauren and Eelexa at recess! We don't do centers in first grade but that's okay. Centers is for the little kids. Oh, and my teacher put popcorn in my backpack! Can we have popcorn when we get home?"

I think he had great first day of first grade.
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birthday fun for everyone

2011-08-17T00:05:00.002-05:00

At Sketch Support this week we are featuring a birthday hat add-on sketch with lots of possibilities. Birthday embellishments have always been one of my favorites to make. Hats, presents, cakes, balloons - there is so much you can do with simple shapes and basic supplies! Plus the beauty of making your own from time to time is you can custom fit them to your project.

My first use of the birthday hat sketch was for a "Happy Birthday" card.

The second use of it was for a birthday layout. This time I made a scaled down version of the birthday hat for an embellishment.

I posted about Mike's birthday party here on my blog and I'm so glad I did! That post ended up being the journaling for my layout. All I had to do was copy, paste, and print. Can't beat the ease of that!

I have one more project to share created from the birthday hat add-on sketch that isn't posting on Sketch Support...

made by my little scrapbooker in training, Drew.

The birthday hat sketch caught his eye and he asked if he could make one too. I cut the main triangle for the base and the strips and also pierced the holes for the brads and the stitching, he did everything else on his own. I'm going to let Drew tell you about his hat in his own words.

Me: Drew, what would you like to tell everyone about your birthday hat?

Drew: I put ribbon on it. I put a flower on the top. I threaded (stitched) it. And I had fun doing it.

Me: Do you want to tell everyone anything else about your hat?

Drew: No, not really. Oh wait! Do you like my flower on top of my hat? Do you like what I used? Do you like everything that I made? I do too. The end.

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Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker

2011-08-16T17:05:00.001-05:00

I'm guest designing for Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker this month and my projects just posted today. Here's a little peek at what I made...

Seems like I enjoy making paper cupcakes as much as I like making the real thing. You can see the rest of the layout and my other projects at the Nikki Sivils blog. (and I believe there is a giveaway going on for her new "School is Cool" collection and a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking!)

blowing kisses

2011-08-15T02:11:00.001-05:00

I know that not everyone is a fan of their kids growing up and really I have nothing new to add to the parent "when is time going to slow down" mix. It's the same old song and dance.

Time goes by way too fast.

I'm starting to notice some of my favorite things about Jackson slipping away as he gets older.

His cheeks.
His chubby little legs.
His cute pronunciation of words.

I'm not ready for him to stop saying "Smursh" instead of Smurfs. What will I do when he no longer needs me to rub his cheeks when he's sleepy? How will a day ever be as complete without a little squeeze of those chubby little creases and rolls in his legs?

The one thing he does that I refuse to say good-bye to is blowing kisses. Jackson, just like everything else he does, puts his own spin on the art of a good blown kiss. He doesn't do the usual smack lip with hand, big pucker "mwah", and blow while hand shoots away from the face routine. He does a quick kiss on his hand and like there is a hinge attached to his thumb and cheek, turns his hand outward to blow. Like this...

It has become the norm of how we blow kisses in this house.

I'm sure as time goes by he'll stop doing this and when I drop him off at his first school dance and blow him a kiss "a la Jackson", he'll be soooo embarassed. And as fast as time seems to be going, it will basically be tomorrow when that happens.

I don't care.

Just like I still call Cheetos, "paCheetos" and a ghost, a "ghoost" from Drew, this is one baby-ism of Jackson's that I am setting my foot down. Time can move as fast as it wants but Jackson's way of blowing kisses, it is here to stay.

Sketch Support, the online class

2011-08-09T08:17:00.000-05:00

It's that time again! Sketch Support, the online class, is open for enrollment for the fall session. You can find more information here at My Creative Classroom. The class begins on September 20, is five weeks, and cost $30.

We just wrapped up the summer session of this class and last week a student in the class started a thread on Two Peas about what she learned from the class. My favorite was...

"Sketches are not a cop-out, they are a great springboard."

I was giddy with happiness when I saw that. I don't know how many times I've heard someone imply that sketches are cheating or using sketches means you're not creative. That is so far from the truth! And I get a little frustrated because I like to think I'm creative and I use sketches all the time.

As far as I'm concerned there are no rules in scrapbooking and that applies to sketches too. No one says you have to follow the sketch exactly or even that your end result has to look like the sketch. There is such a big range in the things you can do with a sketch that the possibilities are endless, just like a layout started from scratch. The beauty of sketches is that they provide that starting point and cut out the "I'm going to push my pictures and papers around the page for the next hour trying to figure out what to do" headache.

With this class, I tried to present many, many ways you can take a sketch and create a layout that is completely original and adjusted to fit your style and what you want to use. I really feel that this class proves the sketches are not a cop-out but instead a great springboard.
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flag fun

2011-07-27T00:05:00.000-05:00

I can always, always count on Stacey and Drew for goofy pictures. Always. That is one of many ways that they are very much alike. They are both incredibly goofy and can't stand to take a picture without posing in some silly way. Of course I love it because I have oodles of fun pictures to scrapbook with (like I need an excuse to do more pages!)

This was my one-page layout based on One-page Sketch #11 at Sketch Support which is also a sketch from our newest series, Sketches for Scrapbooking: One-page Sketches, Volume 1. There are so many layouts to share from our creative team for One-page Week. I'm always amazed at how so many can create from the same sketch and not one layout looks like the other.

I wanna go underwater

2011-07-24T23:45:00.003-05:00

I know I've mentioned on my blog how fearless Jackson is in the water. Well, we decided because of his fearlessness that swimming lessons might be a good idea. I went to the Aquatic Center and signed him up in the class for his age group, a Mommy and me class. I thought he would love it.

Unfortunately, he did not.

He just wasn't up to playing the "hokey pokey" in the water or pouring cups of water on our bodies. Yup, he had no interest it in at all. While the other kids where screaming and crying over water on their shoulders my little boy was doing this...

and it absolutely scares me to death! This is in water way over his head and it doesn't phase him at all. He can swim underwater better than most kids twice his age. So much so that he actually draws spectators to see how long he can hold his breath and how well he can kick his feet and swim underwater. He's quite the attraction my little half boy, half fish.

Don't worry, there is always an adult in the water with him since he still hasn't mastered swimming above water. He's close but just not quite there yet.

The most comical part is the moment he pops up out of the water. With barely any time to take a breath he says, "I wanna go underwater again!" and down he goes. Occasionally he'll throw out a "I wanna be a shark!" or "I wanna be a fish!" and dive under.

I would be surprised but he obviously got his love for water from me, the little girl who was nicknamed "fish" by her elementary principal and spent every waking minute of the summer in the water. I wonder if I scared my mom as much as Jackson scares me!

thirty one

2011-07-18T08:14:00.000-05:00

Today is the day that I am officially "in" my thirties. I don't know how I feel about this. That's a whole new ballgame and much rougher than turning thirty. 31. IN my thirties. You know what Drew told me? "I'll still love you even though you're old."

The Good.

• My Grandma told me I was young.

• Even though I'm not feeling so young, I'm still the youngest in my family, on both sides. That is if you don't include all the little kids. Work with me here, I'm reaching.

• I'm younger than Kate Hudson, Jessica Simpson, Reese Witherspoon, and Katie Holmes. Of course they all look like they are 20 and will probably continue to look like they are 20 at age 50.

• I still sit at the "kids table" on Thanksgiving at my Grandpa's.

The Bad.

• I don't like that there are certain stores that have clothes I love but I feel like I'm too old to shop there.

• It's weird to think that I've actually almost been driving as long as I haven't.

• I considered entering a radio contest to win $1,000 of Botox.

The Ugly.

• When a 24-year-old girl said that she wasn't looking forward to 25 I really wanted to throw a heavy object at her head.

• I didn't even want a family birthday party this year. I was thinking along the lines of if we don't celebrate it, I don't actually have a birthday and I won't really turn 31.

• I think I'm turning into my mother.

In all seriousness, I'm not enjoying the thought of being 31 but really how bad could it be? I have two adorable boys that I love more than anything in the world. I have a husband that totally gets me and loves me anyway. I have a job that I actually enjoy. I have family that I have a blast spending time with.

Thirty-one might not be so bad after all. :)

freedom ride

2011-07-14T23:30:00.000-05:00

Jackson has never been one to go with the flow. He's wants to do his own thing and have his own fun. Others are always welcome to join in but, it isn't needed. I love that about him. It can be exhausting when bed time rolls around but, in general, I think it's a great quality to have.

Every year on the fourth we have a tradition called "the flag run." No, it's not a patriotic 5K. It's Drew, with flags, running. Oh, and we take about a thousand pictures. Sounds excited, right? It started on his second 4th of July with him enjoying his newest hobby, running, while carrying flags. We got oodles of cute pictures as he giggled and we've done it every year since. A new tradition was born.

Jackson refused to partake in this event this year. Instead he put his own spin on it with a tricycle. It was Jackson, with flags, biking. A little 4th of July freedom ride. We took tons of pictures, well, because that's what we do. He even went so far as to decorate the tricycle with a flag sticking out of the front. It was festive, it was cute, and it was the start of a new tradition.

Lately I've been scrapbooking older photos but I couldn't resist these. They were a perfect fit with the new two-page sketch at Sketch Support. You'll definitely want to go check out the sketch and what the creative team has done with it.

Vacation: the pool

2011-07-10T20:11:00.002-05:00

One thing the boys really enjoyed during our vacation was the unlimited supply of pools at the resort we stayed at. I swear, you couldn't walk 30 feet without seeing another pool, or water slide, or even a lazy river that you could float down on an tube.

When we arrived we thought that the day would best be spent relaxing and swimming. Especially after the 18 hour drive.

The photo below is Jackson's "cheese" face. Trying to get him to smile for pictures ends up with either a "no" with a quick turn away or a scrunched up, closed eyes, cheese grin. I love it!

We got to see Drew go from a kid that hated having water on his face to a full blown fish. He was jumping in the water, going underwater, and attempting to swim. It was so great to see him really dive in and enjoy it!

Jackson? Wow. You had to have all eyes on him at all times. He was not afraid of the water at all and would bail off into the pool without a drop of fear. He would even hold his breath and go underwater. There were a few times he ended up with a mouth and nose full of water and he would giggle. He is so fearless and obviously a natural born fish like his mama was at his age.

After seeing how much they enjoyed swimming (and how fearless Jackson is around water) we signed them up for swimming lessons. They both start tomorrow and I can't wait! Hopefully it will keep me from being so nervous when they are around water!

The Fourth

2011-07-08T00:26:00.000-05:00

This year we celebrated the fourth not one, not two, not three, but four times. It was hot, it was chaotic, it was loud, and it was fun.

Block parties, inflatable water slides, Stacey's awesome twice baked potatoes, tons of games of "bags", watermelon, fireworks, 400 mini-cupcakes, family BBQs, two town firework shows, sparklers, good company, one nasty storm, lots of giggles, an up until 5 a.m. conversation with my sister, the annual flag run, our neighborhood sky lit up with fireworks, and a great time.

It reminded me of why the fourth will always be my favorite holiday. Independence is a great thing and I am so thankful to have it. And what better way to spend it then with the ones I love!

Needing a little cute

2011-06-30T15:06:00.001-05:00

When we bought our house over six years ago, it was perfect for us. The perfect amount of space, the perfect number of rooms, the perfect backyard, the perfect location. Perfect. Of course then it was Mike, me, and a little bundle of joy in my belly.

Three dogs and two kids later and I began to see our once perfect house become a shoebox that I couldn't wait to get out of. I refused to decorate the way I wanted to in this house because I was saving it for the next house. But the next house never came. A year, two years, and now three years have gone by that I've been waiting to upgrade to a bigger house to find our "perfect" again.

A couple of months ago I began to realize that we were constantly talking about how much we hated our house. We are always saying, "in the next house" and with each passing day are frustrated that this is the house we are stuck in.

I say enough of that crap!

It's time to get some cute in this house so that we enjoy it more. It's our home and we need to finally settle in and get comfortable. I'm on a mission to make this home cozy and exactly the way I want it. Well, minus a few thousand square feet.

I'm starting at one end of the house and working my way around and first up is the kitchen. I think I'm going for an old soda shoppe, cupcake bakery, vintagy look. That probably sounds a little ridiculous but I've got this image in my head that kind of combines those things. I just want everything to be bright, happy, and fun.

I've walked for hours around antique stores finding as many bottles as I can find like these.

picture found here

I'm am completely covering the top of our kitchen cabinets with old soda bottles and jars with these super cute straws (found here) in red, yellow, pink, gray, and aqua.

For the walls in our dining room I was so happy to find some really cute and fun prints from this etsy shop. I ended up getting a ton of them!

Since we never really settled in I've never really done the decorating thing. I'm anxious and nervous to see how it all turns out. I've got this vision in my head but who knows how it will come out. I've learned from scrapbooking that things don't always go the way you plan them.

Either way, this is fun!
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A rewind to father's day

2011-06-28T01:05:00.000-05:00

It always takes me a day or two to figure it out. I'm moody, cry at the drop of a hat, and just a little off. Then I will realize, Father's Day is nearing and since November 2005, honestly, I haven't really liked that day. It's a big fat reminder that I won't be spending the day with my dad. I do this every time Father's Day rolls around.

It sucks.

I'm fine once I figure out what it is that changes my mood so much and the day that is creeping closer and closer. I can't sit there and dwell on the fact that my dad isn't here. I may not want to accept it and move on but really you don't get a choice like that. It's accept it or live a miserable life being upset about something you can't change. When I realize that it's Father's Day and my lack of a father is making me upset I do my best to go in a positive direction with my thoughts. Instead of being upset about the fact that he isn't here, I try to remember that I should be happy of the 24 Father's Days that I did get to spend with him. And I am.

I also have to remind myself that I need to make sure that Mike has a fantastic Father's Day. I have to admit the best part of Father's Day is helping the boys with a gift for their dad. Every year we make something for him and this year we kicked it up a notch and made two.

The first is a layout that I made and the boys came up with the ten things they love the most about their dad for the journaling.

Drew did most of the speaking and Jackson just repeated what he said.

The second gift we made was a recordable book called Daddy & Me that Drew found at a store. This was hilarious. The book is full of questions that kids answer about their dad. Drew did an excellent job of answering the questions. Jackson was a little too focused on the buttons that you push for recording. Basically it would go like this...

Me: Where do you like to go with Dad on a Saturday?
Drew: We go to the park and it is so much fun and I like it. We go down the slide and I like scream because it's a lot of fun?
Jackson: Push the button.

Me: Would you and Dad have more fun on a boat, a dogsled, or a spaceship?
Drew: Spaceship! We would go to the moon, Saturn, Mars, and um...Jupiter.
Jackson: Let me push the button!
Me: Do you want to go with Dad in a spaceship?
Jackson: No. I wanna push the button.

Me: If you and Dad were superheros, what powers would you have?
Drew: Fire power!
Jackson: Push it. Push it to talking. Push the button.

Me: If you and your Dad were inventors, what would your first invention be?
Drew: A banana flying thing!
Me: What about you Jackson? What would you make with Daddy?
Jackson: Push the BUTTON!!
Me: Drew, what would you do with your invention?
Drew: I would make a control and control it.
Me: Like a remote controlled banana?
Drew: Yup. That flies.
Jackson: Button.

At one point, when I asked Jackson, "If Dad won a gold medal for doing something incredible, what would it be?", he threw me for a loop. He didn't say "push the button!" Nope. He instead said, "Pooping!" It was all down hill from there. The boys were obsessed with putting the word poop in their answers and Mike ended up with a book half full of bathroom humor followed by hysterical giggling.

It was hilarious and Mike laughed just as hard as the boys did.

Vacation: the drive

2011-06-12T19:27:00.000-05:00

We were told that we were crazy for attempting to drive 18 hours with two small kids. We actually thought it was crazy ourselves but the thought of taking the boys on a plane had me nervous. Yes, I'm one of those incredibly fearful of flying people. I can do it and have often and even overseas, I just wasn't ready to try it with the boys. I know the statistics are far better for flying but there is just something about soaring miles above the ground that freaks me out. Maybe next time...

The boys were such troopers for the drive there. I thought it was going to be much worse. Especially when 15 minutes outside of Springfield Drew said, "How much longer do we have to go?" Mike and I glanced at each other with a look that said "What in the world were we thinking!?!" Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. There was very little whining, only a few fights, and many, many hours spent watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Marmaduke. We departed Springfield at about 3:00 p.m on Friday after Mike got home from work and arrived in Kissimmee, Florida at about 8:00 a.m. on Saturday. I never thought we would make it straight through and figured we would stop midway and then attack the second half of the drive the next day. But Mike was determined.

He has spent the last few years of his job driving for long periods of time so it was a piece of cake for him. The boys both dozed off around 11:00 p.m. and slept until sunrise in Florida.

We had many laughs along the way that added to the vacation fun. The bumpy bridge, Drew saying he was going to "hold it" until Florida, Jackson constantly asking if we were going to Mickey's house, reading funny signs, the scary bathroom, the no air conditioning McDonald's...

It was quite the drive!

Happy Birthday Drew!

2011-06-11T00:05:00.000-05:00

Six. Six-years-old. I'm not sure how it flew by so fast. Drew was our learning experience for everything. How to hold a newborn. How to change a diaper. How to giggle at the little things. How to deal with the terrible twos (and threes). How to get markers off the walls. How saying "fart" or "poop" in public is sometimes funny. How to give proper hugs. How to officially say "I love you" so that the person knows you love them more than anything in the world, ("I love you, oodles and bunches.") How to get through the first year of school.

I'm looking forward to learning through the six-year-old you and the many adventures we will have. Thank you Drew for being our learning experience as parents and showing us how much it is possible to love one little human being.

Vacation Time

2011-06-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

We haven't been on a vacation in a long, long time. Way too long. Actually, come to think of it, the boys have never been on a vacation. Other than that one time we thought it would be fun to take them to Kansas City when I was teaching and a small weekend trip to Silver Dollar City.

We are packed (that took forever!), we are ready, and we are set to do some hard core vacationing. An 18 hour car drive (what in the world were we thinking!), Mickey, the beach, Shamu, swimming, and most of all, having a great time!

Grandma's Boy

2011-06-03T01:29:00.000-05:00

Every time card week rolls around at Sketch Support I love finding a way to convert the card sketch into a two-page layout. Sometimes it's hard and sometimes is super easy. Like this layout based on the card sketch we have this week.

I followed the overall design of the sketch almost exactly and I have to say I think I like the look of the design on a layout more than the card. Maybe it's because I'm more of a layout maker than a card maker.

Jackson especially liked this layout. That shouldn't be much of a surprise considering the title. It included pictures of Grandma so he loved it. Everything is Grandma, Grandma, Grandma with him. The pictures on this layout are from his birthday party where he pretty much snubbed everyone except his Grandma. It was "Grandma, come jump!", "Grandma, hold me!", "Grandma, sit here!", "Grandma......". You get the idea. If Grandma is in the room everyone else might as well be invisible.

I'm not sure if it's that he's super smart and has figured out that she will do the most spoiling or what. But I am sure that there is something about his Grandma that he just can't live without. It's cute, funny, and a joy to see not only Jackson's face light up when he sees her but to see her light up too.

He rocked it

2011-05-23T21:44:00.001-05:00

Drew's Kindergarten Spring concert was in one word, adorable. The kids were so cute, the performances were awesome, and my little rocker...well, rocked it.

I had so much fun putting together his rock star look and Drew even picked out the tie and hat on his own. I wish I could dress him like this everyday! He looked so cute!

He did get a little shy when we got to his school but as soon as he saw his friends reactions he was totally cool with the look.

When it came time for his big moment in the spotlight and he marched out with his guitar I couldn't figure out why he kept shaking his head at me as if he was saying "no." I know I was snapping pictures left and right but he's so used to that anymore that it usually doesn't phase him. I learned afterward that he was embarrassed because he got stuck with a hot pink guitar and didn't want me to take pictures of it. He then requested we grab a red guitar and re-take the picture (the first above).

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The Mickey Mouse birthday bash

2011-05-13T14:27:00.000-05:00

To say Jackson had a great time at his 3rd birthday party would truly be an understatement. We had his party at Wacky World, a local indoor inflatable park. Since it was Mother's Day we had the whole bouncy place to ourselves, which meant the adults got to partake in some jumping fun!

Age clearly does not apply to us SG girls. We had a blast jumping, sliding, playing catch with bouncy balls, and laughing uncontrollably.

The cake was... well, a challenge. I had shown Jackson some pictures of Mickey Mouse cakes that I had found online and let him pick out his favorite. Of course he goes with the most difficult one. Two tiers of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse madness.

I wasn't too proud of the finished result until I saw Jackson's reaction. It was by far the best reaction I've gotten yet out of my years of making birthday cakes for the boys. His excitement over it made it so worth the up until 4 a.m. cake construction challenge.

Now that this party is over it's already time to start planning Drew's Mario birthday party at the Aquatic Center. Just like his brother, he picked out a very difficult cake. I'm desperately trying to convince him to go with cupcakes but he's not budging!

Happy Birthday Jackson!

2011-05-09T11:39:00.002-05:00

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This picture kills me! Look at how itty bitty he is!

Three years ago today we had no idea what was in store for us when Jackson made his quick and easygoing entrance into our lives. And he has continued the quick and easygoing approach to almost everything he does.

My baby.
"I not a baby!", he says.
No, you are no longer a baby but you'll always be my baby whether you're three or thirty.

I love you Jackson Rayce Davis! Thank you for three of the best years of my life.

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Thank you so much for all the wonderful commments!

The winner of the Sketch Support blog hop giveaway is...

Mathew said...
I scrap to get the pictures out of boxes and out of the computer. Happy NSD!

You can email me at allison@scrapbookgeneration.com with your shipping information and I'll get that giveaway on it's way to you!
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Sketch Support NSD blog hop

2011-05-07T05:00:00.002-05:00

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

If you are following the blog hop from Sketch Support and have traveled from the blog of the fabulously talented Tammy Tutterow, I'm the last stop of the day. If you are starting here you might want to go back to Sketch Support and start at the beginning so you don't miss the other blogs.

Two-page Sketch #12

If you would like to print this sketch visit Sketch Support for the full version with the measurements and placements.

Supplies - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket, KI Memories, and Pink Paislee; Jewel flourish: Prima; Alphabets: Cosmo Cricket (surprise) and American Crafts (visit); Border strip: Doodlebug; Word sticker: October Afternoon; Paint: Ranger

Variation #1 - I used smaller photos in place of the 5 x 3 1/2 photos. Almost all of my photos where vertical so I couldn't get the 5" width out of them. I still went with the same rectangle group of photos on the right page, I just used smaller sizes.

Variation #2 - I ended up removing the background rectangle. A lot of times I like to keep the papers to a minimum to help the photos stand out. (I get in trouble for this at work sometimes!) With Jackson's plaid outfit I was having a hard time finding a paper that didn't look too busy. I finally decided that removing that piece would be the easiest solution for me.

Variation #3 - I went with only a small scallop strip in a smaller area on the layout instead of stretching all the way across the layout.

We each are answering the simple, yet fitting question for National Scrapbook Day: Why do you scrapbook?

Because I have always loved creating things. Speaking for myself, a life without creating would be boring. Writing, scrapbooking, designing, making home decor, taking pictures, making cupcakes, even making a list of the things I want to make is a delight. I can already see that Drew is going to follow in my footsteps. I recognize that same look I had when I was thinking, "What can I make next?" He always has to be making something. For teacher appreciation week he wanted to get his teacher a Nintendo DS. When I explained to him that I don't think that's the direction we are going to go, he said "I know what to do! I'll make her one!" And he did.

Because it's a great excuse for "Mommy Time". Let's face it. Kids can be exhausting and every Mom in the world needs some time to herself. After a long day I love that I can escape to my Mom cave/scrapbook room and get an instant relaxed feeling when I open (and shut) the door.

Because I love that I'm documenting our life. Mike used to think that my scrapbooking and picture taking was ridiculous. Now that he sees just how quickly the boys are growing up, how much they change, and how much we forget, he understands and fully supports it. At first, Mike was convinced that the boys wouldn't care about the pages I made or the stories I told but he soon realized that he was so wrong. Just the other day all four of us cuddled up in bed and looked through scrapbooks and we all had a great time.

It just wouldn't be a blog hop with a giveaway! At Sketch Support we've got "The Ultimate Scrapbook Generation Kit Club Sampler" and here I've got a similar giveaway. The winner will get a collection of some past kits from my two kit clubs, Boy Crazy and Hall of Fame (details below) and a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking!

• March Hall of Fame Page kit - includes the materials to create a two-page layout with My Mind's Eye products, a color photo of the layout, and directions.

• April Hall of Fame Page kit - includes the materials to create a two-page layout with Echo Park products, a color photo of the layout, and directions.

• February Boy Crazy kit - includes the materials to create a two-page boy themed layout with BasicGrey products and a sketch.

• March Boy Crazy kit - includes the materials to create a two-page boy themed layout with My Mind's Eye and a sketch.

• April Boy Crazy kit - includes the materials to create a two-page boy themed layout with My Mind's Eye and a sketch.

That's three sketches and the materials to make five two-page layouts!

To be eligible for the giveaway leave a comment and I'll announce the winner on Monday. And if you've hit every blog on the hop and left a comment or you've completed the scavenger hunt make sure you head over to Sketch Support to let us know!
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Sketch Support Creative Team Call

2011-05-02T00:56:00.000-05:00

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Yesterday we announced that we are adding to our Sketch Support Creative Team! If you are interested here are the details:

What we are looking for:
• Scrapbookers, card makers, and crafters of all kinds who are comfortable working with sketches and have the ability to fit them to their style.
• All styles are welcome, including digital and those who work with different sizes like 8 1/2 x 11", 8 x 8", 6 x 6", etc.
• The ability to take good pictures of the finished project.

The Sketch Support Creative Team duties will be creating a minimum of two projects per month and a written description to go with your projects. Sharing your projects from the sketches on your blog or in your online gallery are expected as well, however, a blog and online gallery are not requirements, just a big plus.

You can see the four sketches for the Creative Team Call by clicking here.

To enter you'll need to make three layouts, cards, or projects based on three of the four sketches and email them to us at creativeteam@scrapbookgeneration.com.

We also welcome the use of a card sketch for a layout, a layout for a home decor project, a one-page layout from a two-page sketch, etc.

In your submission entry you'll need to include:

• the three projects based on three of the sketches
• your name
• address
• link to blog and online galleries

and answer these two questions.

• Do you mainly make two-page layouts, one-page layouts, cards, etc.?
• Why do you want to be on the SG Publishing Creative Team?

The deadline for submissions is Friday, May 20. We'll send out emails to the selected Creative Team on Friday, May 27. When you send in your submission you will receive a confirmation email. You can email any questions about the call to allison@scrapbookgenereation.com.

I always love seeing the entries but I have to tell you, narrowing down the selection is so hard! It always breaks my heart to have to only pick a few!

Easter cupcakes

2011-04-28T00:05:00.002-05:00

They boys had many, many cupcake requests for Easter so of course I made some. It seems at this point I'm willing to find any excuse to make cupcakes. Plus, you can really have some fun with the Easter theme!

I bought a new cupcake book from Better Homes and Gardens that had some really cute ideas and delicious recipes.

Like these Orange Cream-sicle cupcakes.

And yes, they taste exactly like the popular frozen treat.

Jackson really, really wanted bunny cupcakes so I made these:

Coconut cupcakes with white icing rolled in coconut and topped with two little candy bunny ears.

And the last ones are cute little bird's nest cupcakes with Robin Eggs:

The boys especially loved those!

A rainy Easter

2011-04-26T11:14:00.000-05:00

I am beginning to wonder if we are ever going to have another beautiful, sunny, perfect temperature Easter Sunday again. The last one we had was on Drew's first Easter, five years ago. We spent the whole day spread out on a blanket in the shade. We were entertained by Stacey's unsuccessful attempts at flying a kite, Drew's sweet little smiles and giggles, and the shocker of all shockers, Grandma Mary Lou letting her hair blow in the wind. It was the perfect day.

This year we had rain. Lots and lots of rain.

So this year we did indoor Easter egg hunts with our traditional egg hider Karin, learned that Grandma Debbie has a house-wide ban on artificial grass, and found that chocolate bunnies taste just as good in dreary weather as they do in sunny.

The boys had fun exploring and got a kick out of looking at all the pictures Grandma Debbie has around her house. Jackson gets confused a lot when he sees pictures of me as a baby and thinks it's himself. Drew saw my wedding pictures and is convinced that I'm a princess and insisted that we immediately go home and get my tiara. I was happy to discover that Mom's red "reading nook" room is fun for taking pictures of the boys.

Despite the gloomy, wet weather it was a great Easter!

Rock star

2011-04-19T00:05:00.002-05:00

How fitting that the day I posted this layout over at Sketch Support for two-page week was also the day that I found out Drew would be playing the part of a rock star at the Kindergarten Spring concert.

I was so proud of him and the courage it took to audition but I was worried about how he would feel if he didn't get a special part in the concert. He was so excited to bring home the letter stating that he would be a guitarist in the rock band.

He's been practicing non-stop and I have to say, he's got the rock star moves down. Leg kicks, thrashing around with his guitar, and the squinty, hard core rocker face, all done with perfection. He even practiced his "cool" walk in the mall after we got him some aviator sunglasses to go with his rock star gear.

He's so ready to "rock out", as he calls it.

This is going to be hilarious!

Very cherry cupcakes

2011-04-17T23:00:00.001-05:00

Another entry into the Allison's cupcake adventures.

This mini-cupcake thing is getting a little out of hand. If I keep posting so much about cupcakes eventually I'm going to have to add "cupcake creator" to the title of my blog. Out of pure boredom, and a recent viewing of Cupcake Wars, I decided to make these little cherry topped cuties.

Cherry chip cupcake + cherry almond icing + a cherry on top = awesome!

I cheat when I make cupcakes. I go for quick and easy with box mixes and pre-made icing. It's kind of like using a sketch for scrapbooking. I have a starting point and then add some different flavors and details.

The sign that they tasted good? Finding ten empty cupcake liners hiding in Drew and Jackson's book shelf. (and Jackson's pink lined lips)

Next up in my cupcake adventures: Mickey Mouse cupcakes for Jackson's 3rd birthday party. I've researched. I've planned. I will conquer.

O' dare

2011-04-06T12:38:00.001-05:00

I think I am raising a hillbilly. I guess you could say redneck too. Neither one of those terms are really my favorite words in the world. Living in an area where your accent automatically causes others to deduct points from your IQ, not always fun.

I, myself, have to be cautious of particular words or else they come out all rednecky. Mike gets a big kick out of it when I'm excited and get to talking too fast and out comes "sail" (with a heavy accent) instead of sell. He thinks that because he lived in Los Angles for six years he got the redneck out but I hate to tell him, over the years I hear that accent of his getting worse and worse. He often stops mid sentence to ask, "That sounded really redneck, didn't it?"

Now that Jackson is starting to talk more and more, I'm seeing him take on the hillbilly way of pronouncing words too.

He says: fire in da ho. He means: fire in the hole.
He says: hersey. He means: horsey.
He says: MawMaw. He means: Mama.
and my all time favorite, He says: o' dare. He means: over there.

So when he says something like, "MawMaw, I see a hersey o'dare by the fire in da ho!" I can't help but to laugh and imagine him dressed in cut off overalls, a flannel shirt, a straw hat, and bare feet just like the hillbillies in the shows in Branson. I wish I sounded and looked at cute as he does when he talks like that!

He's my little hillbilly baby.

Drew is taking over my blog for the day!

2011-03-31T00:05:00.000-05:00

Since this week our kids have taken over Sketch Support as mini-guest designers, I thought I would let Drew take over my blog for a day. One thing I love about having a blog is that I have so many stories documented in one place for me and my family to enjoy. The boys love it when I read them stories from here and I thought it was the perfect opportunity for Drew to share a story of his own. We sat down and he told me exactly what to type. So, without further ado, I introduce you to the uncensored blog post by my five-year-old, Drew.

I am Drew and I am five. My room is cool. My baby brother is moving in. He's sometimes mean but that's okay. You get used to it.

I'm going to show you the scrapbook page I made about my dog Abbey.

I have a question for you. Who knows who the two dogs I left out on my scrapbook page? It's Chewy and Oscar! Chewy is kind of a stinker and Oscar, if you corner him tries to bite but daddy is the problem solver and tells Oscar, "bad dog!" I don't play with Oscar.

You know that I made a scrapbook page. Well, here's the deal on what I made. Pictures of Abbey and me. One picture is of me putting a flower on Abbey's nose to make her sniff it. But, guess what else? I put doggie stickers on my page. One's a fire hydrant, one small doggie bone, a dog bowl and a dog house with a ball next to it. You might know that Abbey is a sweet heart.

Thank you for looking at my scrapbook page!

The end.

I'm so glad it wasn't a spider.

2011-03-29T14:03:00.000-05:00

I have learned to be a little cautious when Jackson says, "Mommy I find this for you." Well, you would too if you had a fear of spiders.

A few months ago Jackson came running into the living room with his super happy, skip in his step, gallop that he does so cutely.

"Mommy! Mommy! I find something for you!"

I can see he's got something pinched in his fingers and from what I could tell it looked like a piece of lent or maybe a ball of dust. I reach my hand out so he can give me whatever this exciting thing is. Just as it hits my palm he says, "Mommy, I find a spider."

I may have screamed.
I may have swatted it out of my hand.
I may have accidentally swatted Jackson in the process.
It may have resulted in him crying.

So when we were enjoying a beautiful day outside and I heard Jackson say, "Mommy, I find something for you.", I was a little worried. I scrunched up my face and shoulders and slowly turned around to see what gross or icky thing he was about to hand me. And then I saw this...

He had found a heart shaped rock.

"Here Mommy." He may have handed it to me and stepped back quickly for fear of it resulting in the same manner the spider incident did.

I'll take heart shaped rocks any day!
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I might have cupcake fever.

2011-03-23T10:22:00.002-05:00

It's all my mom's fault. We had an emergency "have to make a bajillion mini-cupcakes in one night" for an event at the store. I had a blast coming up with different flavors and studied up on how to make the cute little swirl of icing on the top.

I have cupcake fever. And it's spread into my scrapbooking and sketches too. Last week at Sketch Support we worked with a cupcake add-on sketch. Now I have "making cupcakes with scrapbooking supplies" fever. See below.

I figure if I love how my kitchen looks, I'll love cooking in it. I love baking. Cooking dinner? Not so much. This cupcake frame is the first addition to my super plain kitchen. The boys don't like this in our kitchen. They want to know why I'm wasting time on paper cupcakes when I could be making edible ones like on my layout below.

On this layout you'll see some of my favorite cupcakes I've made.

Chocolate lovers. Chocolate, topped with chocolate, topped with chocolate. What better to top chocolate with, than more chocolate?

Lemon supreme. My favorite lemon cake recipe from my Grandma transformed into a cupcake and topped with a little bit of lemon glaze and lemon icing. (These are my favorite!)

Red velvet Valentines. Red velvet cupcake with butter cream icing and heart sprinkles.

My Mind's Eye cupcake. Stitched cupcake liner and punched patterned paper circles topped with paper sprinkles. Easy to make and calorie free! Which makes it my favorite one on the layout.
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I remember

2011-03-15T23:40:00.001-05:00

Jackson was just one month old in these pictures. Gosh. One month old. He's going to be three in a month!

I remember this exact moment that picture was taken.
I remember the exact thoughts that were going through my head.
I remember how much I loved cuddling him when he was sleeping.
I remember how it felt so weird to be able to hold a whole person in a little teeny, tiny ball in my arms.
I remember how in that moment I was feeling pure happiness.
I remember thinking that life doesn't get any better.
I remember feeling complete.
I remember wondering how it was possible to love someone so much.
I remember thinking that I could hold him, right there, in that moment forever.

I love that one look at a single picture can bring back those feelings in an instant. Like I'm right back there, in that exact moment, feeling those exact feelings all over again. If anyone ever scoffs at the amount of pictures I take or the overflowing amount of scrapbook pages I make, well, they just don't know what they are missing. It's like a time machine, minus the Back to the Future DeLorean. With one look I get to experience all of these wonderful moments all over again.
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Attention getter

2011-03-09T09:37:00.001-06:00

After two sold out sessions last fall I'll be teaching Sketch Support, the online class, again this Spring. And right now if you hop over to Sketch Support, the site, we have a giveaway for two seats to the class. You'll find more information about the class and the giveaway details there.

So it's two-page week at Sketch Support. I don't like to play favorites but I will always love two-page week just a little more than the others. I'm a two-page girl at heart! This month the sketch has a fun little grid of stars on the left page similar to the one on my page below.

I'm so all over the place when it comes to scrapbooking. I jump from pictures I took two days ago to pictures from when Drew was a baby. Last week I got out one of my many photo storage containers from back in the old age when I used film. These things are huge and fit like thousands of photos and I always find a surprise photo or two as I go through them.

This time I found these pictures of Drew digging in the backyard. I had completely forgotten about them and can't believe that I did. The one of him yelling is one of my all time favorites of him. It's just so him. He randomly makes noises, a lot of time screams, when he wants attention. He's an attention lovin' little guy and I would be lying if I didn't admit that sometimes it can be a little, um, I hate to say it...

aggravating.

He craves attention all. the. time. And, believe me, he gets attention, but you would think from the way he acts that we sit on the couch and ignore him all day. A lot of it stems from Jackson joining the Davis crew. That's when it really flared up. He can't stand for Jackson to get any attention. Drew can be in the other room and if I say something to Jackson, Drew will yell some random statement like, "Mom, um I like my um, um, my Spider-man pjs."

I've also tried to explain to him that making random "ahhhhs" and "peeeeeeeeps" and "raaaaaawwwrs" don't always work in his favor. Especially when Mom is on the phone. Or how saying, "I guess I'll go jump on the bed..." while I'm trying to make dinner doesn't exactly do the trick. He's just addicted to being the center of attention and will go to extreme measures to get it. Kind of makes me nervous for the teen years.

But, I would also be lying if I didn't admit that I kind get a kick out of it too. It's part of his personality and you never know what he'll do. Like the times he'll burst out in dance moves that you can't help but to laugh at. Or when he sings a song he made up on the spot. Sometimes it turns into super sweet moments. Like those times that he gives me random hugs and tells me "Mom, you are the sweetest girl in the world." I ignore the fact that he most likely wants something and soak up the moment.
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What is that!?!

2011-03-04T14:55:00.005-06:00

If there was ever a phrase to sum up motherhood it would be "what is that!?!"

What is that!?! A fruit loop in my hair.
What is that!?! A stuffed animal that had a bad run-in with a marker.
What is that!?! A Lego crammed into the DVD player.
What is that!?! A booger on the couch. Yuck!
What is that!?! A melted crayon in the dryer.
What is that!?! Well, we used to call it a bedroom until a tornado, otherwise known as Drew, blew through.

Jackson has been the main cause for me to frequently ask the question, "What is that!?!"

He has discovered that he can open the refrigerator which has opened a whole new door into his constant toddler explorations. Most of time he does this in the morning when he gets up super early and seeks out adventure in our quiet, sleeping house. Over the course of this week I have found a jar of jelly in the bathroom, Mickey Mouse shaped cheese on the couch, a bowl of yogurt in the bed, and juice in the hamper. This morning I had the pleasure of finding, via foot, a melted chocolate popsicle on the living room floor.

After I scrubbed the chocolate out of the carpet, I noticed that he had a sticky ring of blue around his mouth.

"What is that!?!"

I attempted to ask him what he had eaten but only got replies of what he wanted to eat.

"What is that!?!"

Did he drink Windex? Did he eat a crayon? Did he find a packet of Blue Raspberry Kool-aid? It made me a little nervous as I tried to find some evidence that could lead me to what he had gotten into and had obviously eaten. We don't really have a lot of blue foods in our house so I was terrified he had eaten some sort of non-food item. I even smelled his face trying to figure out what this mysterious blue gunk was.

He was acting his normal self so I relaxed and decided I would tell his daycare to call me instantly if he seemed sick. I thought about it the whole drive to take the boys to school trying to figure out what the blue stuff was. Should I take him to the doctor? What if it really was Windex? Clearly I was wearing my "Mom panic" blinders. The Windex theory isn't even possible.

It was like Jackson could read my thoughts because, out of the blue, he giggled and said, "I eat candy cane." Ah ha! The blue striped candy canes on my desk!

So that's what that was!
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Happy Birthday

2011-03-02T00:28:00.003-06:00

Last week we celebrated Mike's 34th birthday with a small little party at home thrown by me and my two little party planning assistants. After dinner we locked Mike in the bedroom and got to work on the party details.

Drew's main job was to make birthday pictures and signs to hang up.

I think he thought it was kind of lame to make his dad the signs and didn't quite understand the sweet touch it would add to the theme of the party. He was confused as to why we were the only ones invited, why we didn't buy a banner and balloons, and why we got daddy stuff for his new office and not a Nintendo DS.

I tried to get Jackson to make some signs too but he was more interested in directing me on what to draw instead of drawing pictures himself. He did, however, jump right into the candle placement task.

Both the boys completely covered the cake with candles. My mistake was that I didn't take the time to explain to them how candles worked. Most of them were inserted wick end down in the cake.

We put on our Spongebob party hats (picked out by Drew) and called the birthday boy out of his room. The boys giggled when their dad put on a Spongebob hat too and eagerly showed him all the things they had made for him.

He admired Drew's signs, opened his presents, and blew out the candles.

When Drew asked his dad, "Did you have a good birthday?" Mike said it was the best birthday he's ever had. To me it was one of the best family moments we've had together. Until recently due to our jobs and conflicting schedules we really haven't had many chances to spend a lot of time together doing things like this. We giggled, gave lots of hugs, and had a blast together. Hearing Mike say that it was his best birthday, well...

that was the icing on the cake.
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thank you

2011-02-28T09:00:00.000-06:00

This was my first time participating in a blog hop and I have to say it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed hopping along to see all the wonderful layouts the girls but together and I'm just so amazed and thankful for the time and effort they put into Sketch Support. It was really an awesome weekend!

A big thank you to everyone who traveled along to each blog. We were all floored at the thoughtful comments and appreciated the time you all took in leaving us with encouraging and uplifting words. It was a pleasure to have you all visit and we can't wait to do another one. I'll say it a million times, Sketch Support readers are the best!

I wish I could give a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking to everyone but I'm afraid if I gave 181 books away I would arrive at work this morning to find I didn't have a job. The giveaway for a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking goes to...

hkstarflower said...
Great LO, love your sketches. I've also recently scrapped a photo of my friend's behind on a similar theme holding hands with her kids and mine (haven't shown her yet!)

Congrats! You can email me at allison@scrapbookgeneration.com with your shipping information and to let me know which volume of Sketches for Scrapbooking or Cardmaking you would like.
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The end of the line

2011-02-26T08:00:00.002-06:00

If you are following the blog hop from Sketch Support, I'm the end of the line. Which also means that you traveled from Holland (Mireille's blog) to Missouri with the click of a mouse.

I know I probably say this about almost every sketch but, I think this is one of my favorites.

I love creating layouts that have a group of elements that sweep across the page. It adds such an eye-catching detail that, in my opinion, is fun to create.

Supplies - Alphabets: Doodlebug (black); Jewels: KaiserCraft; Everything else: BasicGrey

I followed the sketch exactly with the exception of trading the stars on the sketch for butterflies on my layout.

I have a feeling that I'm going to get "the look" from my mom about this page. I'm positive she won't be too fond of the focal photo of her butt. I knew it when I was putting the page together but couldn't resist the cute photo of her and Jackson holding hands while taking a walk. It was a sweet moment that I was glad I captured with a picture, butt and all.

As far as the questions:

1. When it comes to paper crafting I am...
Addicted. I mean, seriously, I can't stop.

2. Where do you craft?
It usually a toss up between on my bed (I know! Weird, right?) or Jackson's Lightning McQueen 24 x 24" table. Why, you might ask. Because this house is incredible too small for us. My closet is half clothes, half scrapbooking supplies. Thank goodness out of all the small spaces in this house, we were fortunate enough to have big walk-in closets.

3. When I am creating, these are the things I have to have around me...
Sugar free Red Bull,
my tool caddy thing,
music,
and a mess, because that usually means I'm in the zone and getting stuff done

4. When I'm not creating you can find me...
Chillin' with my boys - watching movies, coloring, washing mud out of clothes, breaking up fights, letting Jackson drive cars on my head, reading books, cleaning the rocks out of the dryer, building tents, trying to figure out it it's a pop tart mashed into the carpet or a strawberry fruit bar, jumping on the trampoline, playing with Legos, explaining to Drew why we don't yell "poop" in public. You know, the normal mom of boys stuff.

5. When it comes to sketches I...
Well, of course, I'm going to say I love them.

I love using them and the time and headache they save me.
I love making them, I could sit in front of the computer all day designing sketches.
I love seeing others using them. It's always cool to see how different each person's interpretation is.

I hope you enjoyed the Sketch Support "Get to Know the Creative Team" blog hop! Are you tired of giveaways yet? Surely not. How about one more?

I've got a giveaway today for a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking, volume choice is all yours. Leave a comment and I'll announce the winner on Monday. And if you've hit every blog on the hop and left a comment, make sure you head over to Sketch Support to let us know!
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The Only One

2011-02-18T09:21:00.001-06:00

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I'm so glad to finally have this photo in a frame and displayed in our house. It is my absolute and only favorite of our "fake" wedding pictures.

The story starts with a Saturday night in August. Mike and I had teased about eloping a lot. One night, after only six months of dating, I don't know what came over us, but we drove to the nearest wedding chapel. I know it sounds cheesy but, when you know, you know. You know?

I was terrified to tell my mom and yeah, for awhile my family wasn't too happy with me. Eventually my mom came around and expressed that she was just sad that she didn't get to plan a wedding for me. I'll admit, even though I wouldn't change a thing, I kind of missed the fact that I didn't get to wear a pretty dress, or have a beautiful cake, or a fabulous reception. It probably took two seconds for me to eagerly tell Mom we could still plan a wedding.

We planned the wedding in record time. I had a pretty dress, a stunning cake, and a fabulous reception at University Plaza, the place I always imagined my reception would be. The day was fantastic. Kind of. Let me rephrase that. The day was fantasic, with the exception of our photographer.

We had went to the same photographer that my sister used for her wedding only to find out that she had retired and sold her business. I was so bummed because my sister's pictures were awesome! Because of the crunch in time, we hired the new owner. Big mistake. I still regret it to this day.

I knew while she was taking the pictures that the poses were cheesy and so not what I had in mind. She was no where near the level that I think a professional wedding photographer should be. She also brought along her assistant that was suppose to take candids throughout the day. I say suppose to because she thought her time was better spent flirting with the married groomsmen. (We probably ended up with five candid photos and not even good ones.) Mike and I were both about to tell the photographer and assistant to shove it.

The biggest let down was when she came to us during the reception and told us that she had screwed up the picture of us walking down the aisle after the ceremony. Okay, I get that that happens to even the best photographers but after dealing with her all day, that was it. She wanted to re-shoot it but we were so fed up with her that we made a joke out of it. We took our "fake" walk down the aisle (fitting since technically it was a "fake" wedding) making faces at each other. Basically, just being us. Goofy, sarcastic, impatient Mike and Allison.

It ended up being my favorite and the only picture I liked out of all the ones she took.

In a "love" kind of mood...

2011-02-16T00:05:00.000-06:00

thanks to the add-on sketch at Sketch Support. I don't mind, really. Being in a lovey mood when I'm scrapbooking is a good way for me to share that love through my creations.

A card for my husband on Valentine's Day.

A photo tray that shows my adoration for my little red headed sweetie. (I can't wait to make a matching one with pictures of Jackson so they can hang on the wall side by side.)

And, a layout that tells a story about one of the (many) things I love about Mike.

This month, if you like the add-on sketch as it is and want an easy way to add it to your projects all you have to do is download and print the bonus color version (what I used on the three projects above). You can also read more about these projects and see what the creative team has done with this sketch over at Sketch Support.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T06:30:00.000-06:00

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Finally taking down the Christmas tree. Check.
Informing Mike of what he got me for Valentine's Day (photo above). Check.
Cupcakes with heart sprinkles. Check.
Spider-Man and Fun Dip Valentines for Drew. Check.

Balloons ordered and ready for delivery to two little handsome boys. Check.
Lightning McQueen Valentines with Jackson's scribbles/signature. Check.

Heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich packed in a Buzz Lightyear lunch box. Check.
Strawberry heart shaped muffins for breakfast. Check.

Three adorable boys that I love more than anything in the world. Check.
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2011-02-08T00:05:00.000-06:00

It's two-page week over at Sketch Support. Here's a look at my layout that is based on the two-page sketch for February.

This little quirk of Jackson's should have probably been best left to the video camera. I love the pictures but really they just don't quite illustrate his happy little gallop. It instantly makes me smile to see him so happy that he has a little skip in his step. I've noticed that it makes me walk with a little joy in my stride. I don't go full force like he does for fear of weird looks from others but it sure does make me happy to see him bounce with such merriment. It is impossible not to be in good spirits after seeing that.

Be sure to head over to Sketch Support to print out the sketch and see the other layouts from our creative team.

The Blizzard

2011-02-04T01:58:00.001-06:00

On Monday we took full advantage of the larger space in our new classroom. We were in a mad dash to get most of our kits packaged and shipped before the Snowpacalypse hit us. Kits stretched across table after table, boxes being folded as fast as possible, packaging, labeling, and then stuffed into the back of Karin's vehicle just in time. What a day!

On my drive home from the store I heard on the radio that a blizzard warning had been issued. Seriously? I had no idea there was such a thing. The warning, not the blizzard. After the terrible ice storm we had a few years ago I was not looking forward to what was ahead. A trip to the grocery store proved I wasn't the only one. The aisles where empty. Eerie empty. Bagels for sandwiches and Mini Buzz Lightyear flash lights were going to have to do.

We woke up Tuesday morning to the snow coming down. All day we would peek out the back door and to see how high the snow was on Drew's soccer ball that he had left out there over the weekend. We watched it quickly disappear under the snow. Jackson had a minor panic when he notice his dump truck was buried.

His panic over the truck lasted about two seconds when he realized just how much it was snowing. We then went from panic over his truck to panic over wanting to go outside in the snow. He would have stood in the doorway, with it freezing cold and watched the snow all day if we would have let him.

Proud

2011-02-02T22:55:00.000-06:00

The same day we got the phone call about Drew needing stitches, the call you never want to receive, we got another call that evening, the one every parent loves to get. Drew was chosen to be Student of the Month for his Kindergarten class.

On Monday, Mike, Mom, and I went to the morning assembly to see Drew get his award. Drew was ecstatic to see that we were at his school and had no clue why we were there. I loved that we had a chance to be there and watch him enthusiastically jump up and run to accept his certificate. He was so happy!

We are so proud of our little Student of the Month!

"He might need stitches."

2011-01-27T09:55:00.000-06:00

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That is not a phrase I want to hear.

"Drew had an accident and he might need stitches." is what the school nurse called to tell us on Tuesday at 1:55 p.m. Apparently untied shoelaces and tether ball poles don't work well together.

I am so not ready for "big boy" accidents that require stitches and hospital visits.

I was so nervous as we got closer to his school and didn't know what to expect as we walked into the nurse's office. My wild imagination was producing a graphic slide show in my head of what he would look like.

A big, gash.
Exposed skull.
Blood everywhere.

I have got to stop that.

We rounded the corner to find Drew, sad and scared, with a small band-aid on his eyebrow.

Relief.

Mike, being the never worried man, said he's fine. I wanted to take him to the hospital to let a doctor decide that, just in case. Mike, again, says he's fine and Drew pipes in to give his vote. "No doctors!"

The score is 2 to 1. Mike grins, thinking he's won the battle.

Then my mom calls.
2 to 2.
Stacey calls.
3 to 2.
To the hospital we go.

Poor Drew was terrified and I admit I was too. I didn't want to have to see him go through what I thought was in store for him. However, the doctor, having 10 kids of her own, could sympathize with putting your kid through the act of getting stitches, especially in an area so close to the eye. Much to Drew's relief (and mine) she glued his small little wound.

He went from scared to this is so cool in about two seconds.

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Awesome Aunt Stacey

2011-01-25T22:07:00.000-06:00

I would say I have almost recovered from the blur called January - moving Scrapbook Generation, the launch of Sketch Support, the typical kid craziness, Scrap-a-Palooza, helping Mike start his business, and then all my normal full-time work stuff. I'm not complaining, it's all been exciting and for the most part fun but I'm looking forward to things slowing down a little in February. Of course, I realize, that I never slow down and am sure that something will come up to keep me on my toes and awake until the wee hours.

This week is one-page week at Sketch Support. I am having a blast designing one-page sketches. I'll forever be a two-page girl but I'm not going to count out one-page layouts. Most of you probably know that I'm big on having lots of photos on my pages and I think you'll see this in a lot of my one-page designs too, like the layout below.

The sketch has four photos but my adaptation of it has five. I had just one more picture I wanted to squeeze in there somewhere.

I love every picture of Stacey with the boys. They are all so photogenic and goofy that it is incredibly easy to capture great pictures of them together, just being themselves. Stacey certainly earned the title "Awesome Aunt Stacey". If she goes a few days without seeing the boys she makes a point to stop by and visit them. She'll get them surprises on a random day for absolutely no reason at all. She can make them giggle harder than anyone else. She'll sit and gab for as long as they want on the phone. I know that she would drop everything and do anything for them. The boys are so lucky to have someone like her in their lives, and believe me, they know it. They adore her.

Make sure you stop by Sketch Support to take a peek at the one-page sketch, the other layouts from our creative team, and enter the big American Crafts giveaway.

It's that time.

2011-01-18T09:49:00.000-06:00

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Scrap-a-Palooza time, that is.

Just as the last little bit of pain left over from our move at Scrapbook Generation is gone we're doing it all over again. Pretty much, anyway. At 'Palooza we have a fully stocked store including the bajillions of products that mom ordered to debut at the event. (What you're seeing below is a very small portion of the on site store.)

It really is like moving all over again. Except this time we get to move it one day, and then move it back the next. This week, the week before 'Palooza, is what I like to call crazy week. Anyone who ever thought that putting together an event like this is easy, well, to put in nicely, is insane.

Yesterday, Karin, Mom, and Stacey were in 'Palooza mode and entering our shopping addict's loot into our computer system.

I've opted to stay away from this part largly because it's all new product and I'm easily distract by shiny things and pretty paper. I'm kidding, kind of. I spend my time this week getting my classes together, preparing the demos, and working on the free class for all 280 people.

For the demos and the free class I teach them in front of a video camera while everyone watches on the huge screen.

I still remember when Mom volunteered me to do this for the first 'Palooza. "Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you. You're going to teach demos on a big screen in front of all 250 people." I was terrified. Now I feel like I've got the hang of it and don't even get nervous for it. Crazy, considering I can be incredibly shy. A couple of 'Paloozas ago an old high school friend was there and told me, "I never in a million years would imagine that you would get up in front of that many people." Me too. If you have never tried public speaking I encourage you to do it. What a rush! I'm not an adrenaline junkie by any means and we're not talking sky diving but it sure does make the heart pump.

'Palooza really is a fun event for us at SG. It's been exciting to watch it grow each time and see it turn into the awesome event that it is. Even if I'm so tired right now I'm not sure what day of the week it is, I'm looking forward to it.
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I not do it.

2011-01-14T00:00:00.002-06:00

There are many Mom moments in my life where I am in a situation that I should discipline but instead I end up laughing. I probably confuse the kids when I laugh at whatever it is that they say or do and with eyes still wet with laughing tears I try to tell them I have to take something away or put them in time out. What can I say? I'm human, and kids are funny.

Last weekend when I was making the 300 mini-cupcakes, I saw Jackson come out of Drew's room. Drew had fallen asleep on the couch and Jackson had taken this opportunity to sneak into his room. As he got closer I noticed that he had red markings all over his arm and hand.

Great. Jackson had gotten into Drew's markers again. Most often this means that we have some sort of "artwork" on a wall somewhere in the house, but it looked like he used himself as the canvas this time. Mike went to get some wipes to clean his hand off when I heard him say, "It's not just on his arm!" Oh no! What is it now? The wall, Drew's table, the TV? Nope.

Drew's bed. I took Jackson into Drew's room and asked him, "Did you do this?" As he leaned against his creation, he replied with a pouty look on his face, "I not do it. Drew do it." Mike and I both couldn't contain our laughter as we looked at Jackson, literally caught red handed, yet here he is, not quite old enough to put two and two together. It was one of those moments that I wished I was on a reality TV show or I walked around with my flip camera permanently attached to my hand just so a camera would have captured it.

Just One More

2011-01-12T09:02:00.002-06:00

When mom asked me to help make mini-cupcakes for Nikki Sivils Day at our store, I think I went a little overboard. I tend to be really ambitious. I think I made around 300! So many that I ran out of containers to transport them to the store and we ended up with way too many left here at home.

Really, mini-cupcakes are the worst. They are small enough that you don't feel bad for eating one, yet eating one turns into to two, then three...I think you can see the pattern here. These tempting little treats have got to go!

After I eat one more, of course.

In all the madness...

2011-01-10T20:32:00.000-06:00

With SG's big move and the new Sketch Support site, I almost forgot to show you the newest volumes in the Sketches for... series from Scrapbook Generation Publishing.

Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7

Sketches for Cardmaking, Volume 2

I am in love with both of these covers! The layout on Sketches for Scrapbooking is one of my personal favorites and the colors on Sketches for Cardmaking are so bright and cheery. Plus Stacey's cards are so cute!

Both of these are available to order online by clicking here or you can call Scrapbook Generation at 417-886-0440. You might want to check your local scrapbook store too. There are now 42 locations that carry our books. Click here to see if there is one near you.

More than a card sketch.

2011-01-07T08:46:00.000-06:00

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Today over at Sketch Support we've got three non-card projects all based on a card sketch. Here's a peek at what I made...

You can read the description, variations and see the inside pages of my mini-album at Sketch Support Also check out the one-page layout by Noey Hunt that is also based on the card sketch. It is so cute!

Sketch Support

2011-01-05T12:28:00.001-06:00

It's not often that I make cards but I have to admit it was kind of fun. It gave me the opportunity to play in a short amount of time. I can see myself making lots more of these.

This card is based on the sketch this week at Sketch Support. If you haven't already, you should definitely go check out the other creations from our Creative Team. And today is a great time to do that since we've got a giveaway from one of our January sponsors, BasicGrey.

More Store Pictures

2011-01-05T02:32:00.001-06:00

The pictures just don't do the place justice. It is near impossible to get the whole store in one picture. Here you can see about 90% of the shopping space. Also, you don't see in these pictures the lobby, the huge classroom, and our office area. Some of my favorite additions include:

• Our check out area that now has four registers instead of two. Most of the time two is all we need but often we have events that require more than that. At our last birthday celebration we had three registers going with lines going all the way to the walls on the other end of the store. It was madness!

• The aisles in the back area of the shopping space are so long.

• Of course I have to show you the American Crafts Thickers wall.

If I remember right Mom said we have around 125 different Thickers. At one point during set up I heard her say something about maybe ordering too many. I was quick to let her know that you can never have too many Thickers.

• The space for our Seasonal and Latest and Greatest sections are so much bigger.

In the old store it was sometimes an impossible puzzle trying to figure out where everything was going to go. I don't think we'll have that problem here since we now have three walls dedicated to those sections.

It was so much fun to be there today and here everyone that walked in say, "Wow!" including our UPS guy.

Like I said yesterday, there is still a lot of work to finish our vision. We have so many plans that we are anxious to get started on and I can't wait to see the finished result.

A Big Weekend

2011-01-04T00:23:00.000-06:00

Stacey and I were talking last night about how easy we thought it was going to be working for our family business. When Scrapbook Generation was born we thought it would be a cake job with the added bonus of getting away with whatever we wanted. I don't think I need to go into too much detail for you to know how wrong we were. This is by far the hardest job I've ever had. Although, I really don't have much comparison beyond my four year stint as a waitress during my high school years.

Stacey and I laughed at how naive we were. We also talked about how we wouldn't trade this job for any other in the world. It's hard, but fun. Exhausting, but rewarding. Challenging, but exciting. For six years, for us to say we have all worked our butts off is truly an understatement.

This weekend was one of those times that I was extremely proud of us, of Scrapbook Generation.

Over the course of five days, we moved Scrapbook Generation to a new, bigger location. What can I say? Part of it was hard, fun, exhausting, rewarding, challenging, and all of it was exciting.

Let me tell you, I thought moving into a new home was hard work. This didn't even compare. Could you imagine trying to pack and unpack all of this...

and this isn't even all of it. Thank goodness we were just moving next door!

We had a lot of help from the men in our lives, especially Stacey's husband Jeremy who I will now refer to as Construction Cowboy.

He just couldn't resist the left over props from one of our retreats. I couldn't help but to giggle every time I would look over to see Jeremy handing slat wall with that hat on. Jeremy was the one who made it possible for us to open so quickly after such a big move.

The only thing Jackson was interested in was riding on the dolly.

Mike would bring a paper shelf over from the old store and Jackson had to ride back on the dolly every single time. He loved it! When we were done with the dolly he moved on to the carts and enjoyed rides around the new store with Grandma. Why am I not surprised that he loved anything that had wheels on it.

I figured Drew would get tired of being at the new store so much but he never wanted to leave. The new building is huge and had so much room for exploring so he was always finding new things to play with.

Today he was entertaining himself with bingo balls and this bucket. We got a good laugh when we looked over to see that he had decided to get in the bucket himself. Always a little goof ball.

I wish I could show more picture of the new, completed store but really we've got a long way to go. Five days just didn't allow for us to do all the things we had planned. I can't wait to share more pictures after tomorrow.

Sketch Support

2011-01-01T00:10:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year! What better way to start a new year than with a fun new adventure. Sketch Support is now open to the public.

"I made you this."

2010-12-30T00:15:00.001-06:00

dsfgafdgvd

I am positive that Drew could rival anyone as the sweetest boy in the world.

Today I was having a really rough day with missing my dad. These kind of days pop in from time to time and I get in a funk. I didn't say anything about it to Drew but he must have noticed that I was off today. I was standing in the kitchen cooking dinner with Mike when Drew yelled at me to close my eyes.

"Mom, I know that you really want a new house..."

I could tell this was going to be good and was already smiling at this point.

"...so I made you this."

I opened my eyes to see Drew holding a very colorful Lego house that he had built just for me. I was already at the point of tears when he pointed to one corner of the house where I saw a chair and a little Lego person and he said,

"and this is your very own, special scrapbook room."

I don't think I could have hugged him any tighter. I am one lucky mom.

Sketch Support

2010-12-27T22:42:00.003-06:00

It's almost time! With each day that gets closer my excitement builds even more. I just might burst before we get to January 1.

Today I've got a few things to share with you about the new site. First up, our blog badge.

Go ahead and grab it to add to your blog or whatever you want!

I thought since we are down to days until the big launch that I would share some more information with you.

Sketch Support will work much like Sketch Week did. Each month will feature four sketches:

• a card sketch
• a one-page sketch
• a two-page sketch
• and an add-on sketch

Each week of the month will focus on one of the sketches with projects posted throughout the week. The fun part is that you never know what you might see each week. There are zero limits on what the sketches are used for so you might see a card sketch used for a home decor project or a one-page sketch used for a two-page layout.

All of the sketches will be available to download and print plus we've added the printable sketches from my blog to the new site so they are all in one place. Each type of sketch (one-page, card, two-page, and add-on) have their own page so you don't have to search through all of them to find what you are looking for. One of my favorite new features is the "quick guide". If you are looking for a specific sketch, like one with five photos, you can click on the link and it will pull up all the posts that have sketches with five photos.

The giveaways will continue and January is going to be extra special in that department. Since we are celebrating the launch of Sketch Support we've got multiple sponsors and multiple giveaways. Believe me, you won't want to miss out on those!

It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I started pondering the thought of Sketch Month after several suggestions of it from you, my blog readers. I remember the minute the idea of how that could become a possibility hit me. I filled a notebook with ideas and plans in just a few hours. My mind was racing! I don't ever remember being that excited about something (aside from the birth of my boys). Thank you so much for lighting that spark in me! With the help of our fantastic Creative Team, I think Sketch Support is going to be an excellent way to start the New Year!

Don't forget, you can find us on facebook by clicking here!

Joy

2010-12-23T23:55:00.001-06:00

Finally, everyone in the Davis household is healthy, energetic, and so ready for Christmas.

The Christmas shopping is done, we're making cookies for Santa tomorrow, and Drew is scheming on how he is going to catch Santa while he makes his visit to our house.

Plan #1 was pretty straight forward. He told me, "If I hear reindeer on the roof, I'm going outside to look."

Plan #2 is genius and gave me a good laugh. I had just received a box with tons of bubble wrap inside it. And I'm talkin' about the big bubble wrap. The super loud kind. Drew was having a blast popping the bubbles in all kinds of creative ways when he suddenly stopped and said, "I don't think I should pop anymore." When I asked why not he told me, "Because we can lay this bubble paper around the Christmas tree. Santa would have to step on it when he puts presents under there..." Smart kid. We even explained to Jackson why we weren't popping the bubble wrap and he was on board with the plan. Mike tried to pop a few and Jackson said, "No Daddy! That Santa's!"

I love that Drew's still young enough to believe yet old enough to have a little more fun with it. Although it gets harder when they get older. You definitely have to stay on your toes and pay attention to some details.

At school Drew's class had a day where they did Santa's Workshop and made several cute Christmas themed crafts. One of them was reindeer food, aka oats and glitter. Well, magic glitter, of course. They mixed it in a little baggie and then added a little note to the outside of it that said to sprinkle it on your front lawn to help lead Santa's reindeer to your house. Last night I told Drew that we had to remember to do that on Christmas Eve before we went to bed. To my surprise, Drew said, "But we can't sprinkle it on our front yard! Santa's sleigh lands on the roof! How will the reindeer eat the food if it's in the yard. We have to sprinkle it on the roof! Do we have a ladder?" It's a good thing I still have a pretty wild imagination because I put it to very good use during this conversation.

Mike and I had a conversation the other night about how much more fun Christmas is as an adult with kids. I have loved all the talks Drew and I have had about Santa and the "serious" questions he has asked. (Like how will Santa get in our house since we don't have a chimney?) I instantly smile when I think of Jackson, Mr. shy guy, running to hug Santa when we took them to get their picture taken with him. I am ten times more excited to see the boys faces when they wake up on Christmas morning than I ever remember being as a kid. It is going to be a jolly good time!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Snuggled Up in Bed

2010-12-21T11:15:00.000-06:00

Just to let you know...

For the third time in three weeks my family is sick. Like yucky, stomach virus sick. Poor Drew had to miss Polar Express Day at school today and I feel just awful for him. He was so looking forward to it and even had new Iron Man pajamas to wear for the event. It broke my heart this morning when he said, "It's just not fair that I can't go!" I guess the silver lining is that it's better that we are sick now than on Christmas morning.

I know I've fallen behind on emails so if you are expecting one from me, hold tight, I'll get to it as soon as I can hold my head up for more than five minutes. :) Thank you so much for your patience!

Sketch Week, Wrap Up and Winners

2010-12-20T09:08:00.000-06:00

Can you believe that we just wrapped up the last Sketch Week? There's no need to be sad or disappointed because Sketch Support is going to be even better. It's going to be like Sketch Week everyday.

We've also added a facebook page for Sketch Support that you can find by clicking here. We'll be posting updates as we get closer to the launch date and you just might see a giveaway. Who am I kidding! Forget that might, go to the facebook page, click like, and answer the question. I'll pick one person to win a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking, volume choice is all yours.

Now back to Sketch Week. Here's a look at all the layouts together. I always love seeing how different yet similar they look.

The sketch from, Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7.

The Christmas Card Mess by Allison Davis

Choo-Choo Trouble by Allison Davis

My Sweet Little Monster by Allison Davis

Surf Punk by Andrea Friebus

Jolly Good Times by Liz Qualman

The winner of the Jillibean Soup giveaway is:

Cynthia B. said...
Wonderful layout and sketch! Jillibean creates some of my favorite scrapbooking products. Thanks for the chance to win!

and the winner of Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7 giveaway is:

Kim said...
You did a fabulous job with the sketch, such cute pictures too.

If both of you can email me at allison@scrapbookgeneration.com with your shipping information that would be great!

Q and A from Sketch Week...
For layouts where the journaling's not easy to read, could you share it?
No problem. I'll add those later today to the posts.

Fun layout with cute boys. Did the "mess" work itself out?
Sadly, no it didn't work out. Not only where the pictures a mess, well, the pictures of Jackson but we also didn't get our Christmas card order until the day before Christmas Eve. It really was a mess! I didn't even end up mailing them. This year was the complete opposite though. Both boys did fantastic and we got our cards early.

I bought the Bo Bunney flexible ruler but it seemed a little stiff when I attempted to use it this week. Possibly I don't know what I am doing????
It does take a little getting used to when shaping it. With a little practice you'll be a pro at it! :)

And I always like how your stitching jazzes up your embellishments and would love to know if you've played with the Sew Easy that's out there now? If so, is it a must buy??
Judging by how quick we sold out of them at our store I'm going to say that yes, it is a must buy. I, myself, haven't tried it yet. Mostly because I do my own designs and enjoy that kind of freedom. However, that doesn't mean I haven't eyed them a few times. I'm going to guess that I'll probably break down a buy it. It seems to be quite the time saver.

Happy Monday!

Sketch Week, Part 5

2010-12-16T23:53:00.000-06:00

Day five welcomes our second Guest Designer, Liz Qualman. Liz is a fellow sketch artist and has a ton, and I mean a ton, of amazing one-page sketches that you can find on her blog. Not only that, but she also creates beautiful pages.

How long have you been scrapbooking?
I've been a paper crafter for a long time. Some say it even dates back to when I was in Kindergarten, but I officially strarted to scrapbook in 2006. So I guess that makes it about 4 years now.

Why did you start scrapbooking?
I had so many photos of my daughter at that point, that I knew I needed to something. I joined an online site to get the hang of things and let's just say that way has lead on to way. I can't get enough of the creativity that goes along with scrapbooking.

What is your favorite "go-to" scrapbooking supply?
Don't laugh, because of all the scrapbook supplies that exist, I am always drawn to stickers. I know it must be the teacher in me, but I also have a fear of glitter and things that take a long time to dry, so if it looks good and can adhere to the page immediately - I am a big fan! Stickers can also be so versatile and add an element to a page that is just right.

How often do you use sketches?
Like Allison, I also sketch, but I usually create my sketches around a layout I have already designed (now the secret is out - LOL). But I have to say that when a friend or someone like Allison sends me a sketch to create with, it is really a treat. I love how sketches take a lot of stress out of the creation process and allows you to focus on what we all love to do - choosing photos, colors and products.

What do you love most about Scrapbook Generation sketches?
I love how many two-page sketches there are. I don't often create two-pagers, but when I do, I love the way it looks and having a really good sketch to use is such a big help for really wonderful projects.

What else can you tell us about yourself?
I love to craft, to share my sketches and work, but I honestly don't take myself too seriously. I have a humorous outlook on life in general - sometimes it shows up in my pages. So...when it stops being fun, I probably won't be into it anymore (not that I see that as a possibility right now). I will say that one of the most wonderful things I have discovered about this craft is how many amazing people are not only involved in the same hobby, but who are always willing to share their work and ideas or even become a really good friend.

The sketch, from Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7, that has been used for all the layouts this week.

Layout #5 - Jolly Good Times by Liz Qualman

I had so much fun working with the sketch. It's perfect, I like it the way it is. But, I changed just a few things:

• I split one of the 6 x 3 photos into two and deleted one of the 2 x 2.5.

• I added a large embellishment where the journal tag is and then opted for journal strips instead.

• I also used less patterned paper and added some fun border strips.

Thank you Liz for sharing your version of the sketch with us!

Today is the last day for the Jillibean Soup and Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway. Be sure to check back on Monday for the wrap up and to see if you won one of the giveaways. I'll also be sharing few more things about sketchsupport.com!

Have a great weekend!

Sketch Week, Part 4

2010-12-16T00:49:00.000-06:00

Part four of Sketch Week brings our first Guest Designer of the week. Say hello to Andrea Friebus! There's a good chance you've seen Andrea's pages before, she's been published is several magazines, and you can definitely see why.

How long have you been scrapbooking?
I started scrapbooking about 8 years ago when my sister dragged me kicking and screaming to a Creative Memories party. She knew that if I gave it a try I would love it and she was right!!

Why did you start scrapbooking?
All of the fun products! That first Creative Memories party took place about a month before I was getting married in Las Vegas. Once I saw all the Vegas themed patterned papers and stickers, I knew I wanted to make a wedding album.

What is your favorite "go-to" scrapbooking supply?
Patterned paper and mini brads always end up on my layouts. Oh and I love Thickers!! You can never have too many Thickers!

How often do you use sketches?
Almost every layout I make starts with a sketch. For me, sketches take the guesswork out of where to place everything and lets me get straight to the fun part of choosing paper and embellishments.

What do you love most about Scrapbook Generation sketches?
I love that they use a lot of photos and a lot of embellishments. The photos are important to me and as a product junkie, the patterned papers and accents are also important. By using these sketches, I don't have to sacrifice anything, I can get it ALL on the layout and it will still look balanced.

What else can you tell us about yourself?

* I hate to cook but love to clean.
* I'm addicted to Project Runway and Diet Pepsi.
* I'm a Harry Potter and Star Wars fanatic.

The sketch, from Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7, that has been the starting point for all the layouts this week.

Layout #4 - Surf Punk by Andrea Friebus

I know it’s cold weather for a lot of us, but this sketch was perfect for the photos I had of my son playing at the beach! I stayed pretty close to the sketch but I did make a few changes.

Patterned paper: I kept all the measurements the same, but switched the location of the second and fourth strips. I wanted the larger strip on the bottom to house my title. I also tore along the bottom of that strip for some texture.

Photos: On the left page I changed the sizes of the three photos across the top. The first one measures 2.75 x 2.5 and is trimmed down to crop out some distractions in the background. The center photo measures 2 x 2.5 and I cropped it to that size to eliminate a lot of the white space and put the focus on my son. The third photo measures 4 x 2.5 simply because all my photos were horizontal so I had to use the 4 inch height. The remaining photos are all the same measurements as the sketch, the only difference being I left margins between the photos on the right page and also eliminated the smallest photo and replaced it with an embellishment.

Title and journaling: I kept these in the same locations as the sketch but I did journaling strips instead of a journaling block and made my title much bigger than the sketch title.

Embellishments: I liked the three circle accents on the sketch and placed my cork buttons in similar locations. The other little finishing touches I added were border stickers and brads. (A note about the cork buttons: I thought the cork looked good with the beach photos and I had these cork embellishments from Pink Paislee but they had pink and black designs on them. So I flipped them over, punched two holes in them with my Crop-A-Dile, tied some thread through and made them into buttons.)

I hope you enjoyed my take on Allison’s amazing sketch!!

Thank you Andrea for sharing your layout with us today!

Today is the fourth chance for the Jillibean Soup and Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway! *I wanted to let you guys know that I'm going to answer all questions from the comments in the wrap up post on Monday. :)

Sketch Week, Part 3

2010-12-15T06:21:00.001-06:00

From mess to trouble and now to monster. I think today's layout is the perfect way to end the Jackson and his toddler behavior layouts.

The sketch, from Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7, that is the starting point for all the layouts this week.

Layout #3 - My Sweet Little Monster

This layout has been removed for publication. It will be back soon.

Supply list - Cardstock: Bazzill, everything else is Jillibean Soup

Variation #1 - While going through my pictures I couldn't help but to smile at one particular picture of Jackson. He looked so sweet yet had a little mischievous look in his eyes. I immediately knew that I wanted that picture to stand out and what better way to achieve that than enlarging it.

I could have added the 5 x 7 in place of the 6 x 4 on the left page of the sketch but that would have left me with a smaller space for my title. Most of the time that wouldn't be a problem but with the alphabets I was planning on using and the title idea I had, it just wasn't enough room. I decided to use it in place of the 6 x 4 on the right page of the sketch. It cut my journaling width down but I could make up for that with height if I needed to.

Variation #2 - Creating your layout as a mirror image of the sketch is a great way to change the look and you can achieve a big change without having to change a lot on the layout. My reason for flipping the sketch had to do with the 5 x 7 that I added. Jackson would have been looking off the page if the 5 x 7 had been on the right page. On a photo that stands out that much I try to have them looking towards the middle of the page. When they are looking off the page it can be a little distracting. I don't worry as much about stuff like that on smaller photos.

Variation #3 - Instead of using the two 6 x 3 photo as suggested on the sketch, I used six smaller pictures. This was not only a way to include more pictures on the layout but also to accommodate the 5 x 7.

Variation #4 - On the right side of the page I switched the horizontal 4 x 6 to a vertical 4 x 6. The biggest adjustment I had to make was to the photo above it and that was a minor change. I used a 2 1/2" square photo in place of the 2 1/2 x 4 1/5 photo suggested. I also used a 2 1/2" square photo for the other two on that page.

One of the good things about using a vertical 4 x 6 is that it gave me a larger space for my title. That worked out great for me since I was planning on a longer title.

I used the same corrugated alphabet set as I did on the last two layouts. This time I wanted to add a little color to them. I could have painted them like I did on the last layout but I really just wanted to add a touch of color. To do that I hand stitched an outline around the edges of each letter. Two of the letters had spaces that were a little too small for two lines of stitching for the outline so I just did a single stitched line in the middle.

Variation #5 - A fun idea for adding a different look to strips of paper is to turn them into wavy strips. I used my BoBunny flex ruler to make the wavy strips. I tried to keep them somewhat proportional to the strips on the sketch. If you don't have a flexible ruler you can always cut them free hand or lightly sketch the wavy lines with a pencil.

Variation #6 - I ended up moving one of the embellishments to a completely different area than it is suggested on the sketch. The top embellishment on the left page of the sketch just wasn't working with my pictures. On the sketch it fits nicely in that little corner between a horizontal and vertical photo but since I used three pictures at the same height the embellishment in that area looked a little out of place to me. I ended up moving it to the bottom of the left page.

Day 3 = third chance for the Jillibean Soup and Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway!

Sketch Week, Part 2

2010-12-14T06:52:00.000-06:00

We're going from a mess yesterday to trouble today. Apparently this week is all about documenting Jackson's stubborn toddler ways.

The sketch, from Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7, that is the starting point for all the layouts this week.

Layout #2 - Choo Choo Trouble

Supply list - Cardstock: Bazzill, yellow patterned paper: KI Memories, everything else is Jillibean Soup

Variation #1 - Sometimes I don't have a super technical, design influenced reason of why I changed something on the sketch. Sometimes I change something just for that, a change.

On the right page I used three 4 x 6 photos instead of one 4 x 6 and two 3 x 6 photos. I could have easily cropped the top and bottom photo to the size recommended on the sketch but I was wanting to change it up a bit. I wanted to see how it would look to stretch that column of photos to the edges of the page.

This is an easy solution for those pictures that you don't want to or can't crop and there is no need to worry about the large background rectangle the photos are on. You can easily remove it without altering the whole layout because it's a background piece. Or you can even do like I did and add 1/4" strips on the left and right of the photos in place of that background piece.

Variation #2 - On the left page I used a wallet size photo in place of the 2 x 2 1/2 photo. Both boys were on the edges of the photo and I needed the whole picture to support my story so there was no cropping that one.

An added bonus is that the wider picture covered the seam between the two papers for my large arrow.

Variation #3 - I really had a lot of fun creating the arrows on this page. Not only are do they add a different look to the layout but they also support the story. Jackson couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to ride the train or not and was so back and forth. The arrows going in different directions was a way for me to incorporate the theme of the layout into the design.

The arrows are all made from the same size of strips on the sketch. To make them I cut my strips and then a square from each paper as well. Then I cut the square at a diagonal for the arrow point. When you put them together you might see a little bit of a seam but with most papers it doesn't stand out too much. One thing to watch out for, if you like to ink the edges of your papers, is to not ink the edges that will go together (the seam between the arrow point and the strip). That way it looks more like the arrow is one piece instead of two.

Variation #4 - I did use the circles like suggested on the sketch except mine are a little smaller. I also added in some corrugated arrows from Jillibean Soup.

One thing I really like about the corrugated pieces from Jillibean Soup is that they take color so well. I added chalk ink to the arrows and used paint on the title pieces.

I moved the embellishments that are to the left of the title on the sketch to below the title. If I would have kept them to the left of the title I would have been covering up more of the patterned paper arrows than I wanted.

I always say, when it comes to moving things or using different sizes, as long as it's in the same general area it will work. I don't know if I would call the arrows by my title as being in the same general area as on the sketch but because it's still near the title, there aren't any large gaps between elements, and it still completes the visual triangle on the page, it totally works.

Day two means it's your second chance at the Jillibean Soup and Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway.

Sketch Week, Part 1

2010-12-13T08:13:00.003-06:00

A new Sketch Week is upon us! Five new layouts, two fantastic Guest Designers, and a new sponsor:

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to jump right in and get started.

Do you know what the most exciting thing about January is? Well, other than the big ball dropping excitement of 2011? The newest edition of Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7, will be available! The sketch this week is a sneak peek into our newest sketch book and one of my favorites. I think I end up calling every sketch my favorite.

The sketch, from Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7, that is the starting point for all the layouts this week.

This sketch is available to download and print by clicking on the printable sketches link.

Layout #1 - The Christmas Card Mess

Supply list - Cardstock: Bazzill, everything else is from the Jillibean Soup Christmas Chestnut Soup collection.

One thing I use often in the design of my patterned papers is strips. I can't exactly pinpoint what it is I like so much about using them. It could be that it's an easy way to include lots of different patterns, or maybe it's because it is an easy design solution, or it could be that maybe, just maybe, I have a sub-conscience fear of running out of paper. Either way, I love them. With the sketch this week I've tried to show different ways to enhance those strips and incorporate some different ideas in their place.

Variation #1 - When it came to picking out my pictures for this layout I realized I didn't have a lot of horizontal photos to choose from. Even though the right page is all horizontal photos this wasn't a problem at all. I decided to have one of my favorite vertical photos printed in an 8 x 10, crop it to 3 x 10, and use it for half that block of photos. You could always use an 8 x 10 cropped to a 6 x 10 for that whole block but on my layout I wanted to get some pictures of Jackson in that area too. To complete the block of photos I used two 3 x 5 photos.

When there is a block of photos, like the ones on the right page, there are so many combinations of picture sizes you can use. It's just like a puzzle and figuring out what size goes where to complete your photo block. I always start with the biggest photo first and then figure out what else I need to fill in the rest.

Variation #2 - On the left page I used three 2 x 2 1/2 photos instead of one 2 x 2 1/2 and one 4 1/2 x 2 1/2. Again, my lack of horizontal photos made it difficult to crop a 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 photo plus I wanted to squeeze in an extra in that spot.

Variation #3 - Speaking of extras, I added another photo over the empty space on the horizontal photo on the left page.

Variation #4 - One of my favorite kinds of patterned papers are the ones that have designs that are easy to cut out and use individually. It's such an easy embellishment. The Christmas collection from Jillibean Soup that I used had several like that including one with different shapes and sizes of wrapped presents. I cut out a variety of the presents and used them in place of the bottom strip on the sketch.

I didn't worry about them all being placed perfectly even and layered some of them with foam adhesive.

This was a really easy way to add a fun, eye-catching touch on the layout instead of the simple strip on the sketch.

Variation #5 - Because there was so much going on with the presents on the bottom I kept my embellishments super simple. I didn't even add the circle behind the title since it was right on top of the presents.

Variation #6 - I added an extra strip of green cardstock above the striped strip. After I add the presents along the bottom and the title there was a lot of green along the bottom but not so much near the top. I wanted to kind of balance out the colors so I thought a small, simple strip of green would do just that.

Variation #7 - I used journaling strips instead of the journaling block suggested on the sketch. I tend to use journaling strips more than any other format for journaling mostly because I like it that way.

The journaling format is always an easy one to change up. It's probably the one area on the sketch that I pay the least amount of attention to.

That was a lot of variations!

The December sponsor, Jillibean Soup, has put together a great giveaway for this week.

This is definitely one of my favorite Christmas collections this year! How can you not love the presents, the snowmen, and the gloves! You should take a peek at the Jillibean Soup blog today. I spied some pretty awesome holiday ideas with this collection.

Plus I'll be giveaway a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking, Volume 7. Whoever wins will be one of the first to get it!

Here's how the giveaways work during Sketch Week: I'll be posting everyday, Monday - Friday. All week you'll have a chance to leave a comment and next Monday I'll post the winners. You can leave more than one comment through the week to be eligible (five days = five chances to win!) but not on the same day.

Happy Monday!

Yo, yo, yo! Merry Christmas!

2010-12-08T22:08:00.001-06:00

Sometimes it's not exactly the picture you are looking for that makes you laugh the hardest.

The boys were hanging around the Christmas tree talking about what ornaments were their favorites. Talking mostly consisted of Drew telling me his favorite and Jackson yelling, "Nooooo! That mine!"

I grabbed my camera in hopes to catch a sweet picture of the boys looking at the tree. I swear the boys are equipped with some sort of sixth sense. A Mom's-got-the-camera type of sixth sense. Clearly, my camera was not welcome...

Instead of that sweet moment I got something that ended up looking more like a picture from a hip hop album. I couldn't help but to giggle when I was downloading my pictures and saw this one. I was so tempted to use this as our Christmas card picture with some cheesy line like "Yo, Yo, Yo. Merry Christmas!" but figured our grandparents probably wouldn't understand what in the world it meant. (I spent at least an hour trying to explain what our sketch books where to my Grandpa and I'm almost certain that he still thinks they are coloring books for scrapbookers.)

This picture might not make it on our cards but it is definitely going to be one of my favorites this year.

Cool Article About My Blog

2010-12-06T08:31:00.000-06:00

ScrapStreet Magazine did a really cool online article about my blog that you can find by clicking here. It is an interview with me that shares how Sketch Week became a part of my blog and how I got into creating sketches. Plus, there is a new sketch and several examples from some super talented scrapbookers.

Here's the sketch...

and here's the page I made from it.

I love the simplicity of the sketch and the fun things you can do with it. The grid background is a great way to add a lot of patterns and colors and by adding a simple mat around the three photos in the middle it keeps those photos from getting lost in all the color.

Here's another layout I made based off the same sketch that isn't in the article.

I wanted to add a few more photos so I cropped the width a little smaller. I didn't worry about exact measurements on the photos and just cropped them so that I wasn't cutting off any of Drew.

Be sure to go check out the article to see what everyone else did with the sketch! :)

The Team

2010-12-01T13:44:00.001-06:00

Say hello to the SG Publishing Creative Team!

Tammy Tutterow
Amy Roller
Christina Hoffman
Mireille Divjak
Carolyn Wolff
Christy Arthur
Melissa Elsner
Katrina Hunt
Noey Hunt
Shari Thurman
Jill Sarginson
Jennifer Larson
Suzanna Lee

Click on the name to check out their blogs and galleries. You are sure to see some fantastic craftiness when you do! They are going to make the new sketch site a wonderful resource for inspiration and sketchy fun. I am so very happy to have each of them on the team!

Speaking of the new site, here's the first little bit of information. When I was coming up with a name for my online class at My Creative Classroom, my sister came up with the name, Sketch Support, a play off of "tech support". Of course I thought this would be a perfect name to call the new site. A place of constant support and ideas with sketches = www.sketchsupport.com.
• The site isn't yet public since it's still under construction. The site will be open to view on January 1. :)

SG Publishing Creative Team News

2010-11-29T23:01:00.000-06:00

The emails to the selected Creative Team have been sent and we can't wait to introduce them to you! There is such a wide range of styles that it's going to be fun to see what each does with the sketches. You'll see sketches used in so many different ways that the inspiration is bound to be overflowing. I know I've said it a million times but, I'm so excited to get started!

I also want to send out a big thank you to everyone that entered. It was so hard to narrow it down from over 60 entries to 13 for the team. We had no idea what to expect as far as the number of entries go and we were thrilled that so many applied. Mom, Stacey, and I sat down after stuffing ourselves with Thanksgiving dinner and looked over each and every entry. Believe me, it was a long sit down and was very, very tough. I wish we could find a way to pick everyone!

We also came to the decision that since it was so hard to narrow down that we are going to select 12 guest designers from the entries. We'll be sending out those emails sometime this week. The guest designers will differ a little from how I've been doing them here. At the new site the guest designers will be included for a month and have the opportunity to make several projects instead of just one.

In December we will start spilling some of the features we have planned for the new site. And January will be not only be the beginning of the new site but it will also be the one-year anniversary for Sketch Week. Even though it won't be called Sketch Week on the new site we are still going to celebrate the occasion. It's going to be a fun month of giveaways and lots of layouts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-24T21:13:00.001-06:00

I'm getting ready to fill our house with the smell of this...

tasty,
messy,
pumpkintacular, ( I tend to make up words when I get excited.)

Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake

I never thought anything could top a good, traditional pumpkin pie until I stumbled across the recipe for this in an issue of Kraft Food and Family magazine. It is just pure pumpkin deliciousness! And, it's incredibly easy to make.

If you want to try it out yourself, you can find the recipe here.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! :)

• Since we will all (the SG Publishing gals) be together for Thanksgiving, we'll be looking over the Creative Team entries. I've been looking through them and all I can say is WOW! It's going to be so hard to narrow down. We will be sending out the Creative Team emails on Monday. Did I mention this is going to be so hard to narrow down!?!

December Guest Designer

2010-11-22T19:31:00.000-06:00

I tried. I really, really tried. However, it was impossible to pick just one. December Sketch Week will feature a layout from not one, but two fantastic scrapbookers...

Andrea Friebus and Liz Qualman

Thank you so much to all of you who entered. There were over 60 guest designer entries and I spent days looking over each and every one. It was such a delight for me to see all the different variations of the sketches, so many unique styles, and the sweet messages you wrote. It breaks my heart that I can't ask every single one of you to be a guest designer next month. But, we will continue the guest designers on the new site so I'm holding on to all the entries!

Thank you for the all the comments on the last post. I truly appreciate the kind words. It really stinks that so many of us can relate to losing a parent or a loved one but it is a comfort to know that I'm not alone. :)

Love/Hate

2010-11-19T09:12:00.001-06:00

I swear, I blinked and Thanksgiving is almost here. Why is it that it feels like each year goes faster than the one before it?

I tend to have a love/hate relationship with Thanksgiving. The love side comes from seeing family (especially ones we don't see that often) and a big Thanksgiving meal x 3.

Each year we travel to and stuff our bellies at three different places. Each one has different family, different food, and different traditions. Thanksgiving wouldn't be the same without each one.

The hate side comes from the fact that Thanksgiving is always a big reminder that my dad isn't here. He died the day before Thanksgiving five years ago and I miss him more every single day.

I miss his jokes and how he would tell them to you over and over. It didn't matter if you told him you had heard it because he was going to tell you again anyway. I miss seeing what goofy t-shirt he has on. I miss the laughter that filled the room because of some story was telling. I miss seeing the sparkle in his eyes when he would make people laugh. I miss hearing him say "battree" instead of battery. Even though we weren't big on showing affection, I miss hugging him and would give anything to be able to do it again. I just miss him.

This year, even though I'm feeling a little sad, I am thankful for the 25 years I had with my dad and the wonderful memories that filled them.

Around the World

2010-11-17T10:25:00.000-06:00

It's time to share another great group of layouts based off of our sketches from scrapbookers around the world.

I Love Fall by Amy Wheeler

Kentucky

Too Cute To Scare by Michele Edwards

Waterloo, Ontario

What Would I Change? by Jackie Morris

Wiltshire, England

Glacier Exploration by Sue Matthews

Elberton, Georgia

Friends by Jennifer Raymond

Kent, Washington

Red Squirrels at Kilnsey Park by Judith Armstrong

Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Australia

The One and Only You by Julie

Missouri

Blowing Bubbles by Staci McDonough

Jackson, NJ

Thank you to all of you for sharing your layouts with us!

December will be the last time I'll be doing the Around the World post on this blog. If you would like your layout included in that post you can email it to me with "Around the World" in the subject line to alidavis1919@hotmail.com. You'll also need to include any links to blogs or galleries and where you are from. I look forward too seeing them!

Just because I won't be posting Around the World doesn't mean that I won't be sharing layouts from others. At the new site we'll be doing something similar. :)

Sketch Week, Wrap Up and Winners

2010-11-15T07:31:00.000-06:00

Another Sketch Week comes to a close and so does the deadline for the Guest Designer for December. Today is the last day to get those entries in. I'll be announcing the GD next Monday. It's going to be tough to just pick one again.

Here's a closer look at all the layouts from Sketch Week together.

The sketch.

Layout #1 - S.D.C. Ball Park

Layout #2 - Everything About You Brightens My Life

Layout #3 - Go Cardinals!

Layout #4 - The Day Before

Layout #5 - This is so Cool Dude by Carolyn Wolff

Thank you so much to American Crafts for the awesome giveaway and to Carolyn Wolff for contributing a fantastic layout as the Guest Designer! Mark your calendars, December Sketch Week will start on Monday, December 13.

The winner of the American Crafts giveaway is...
Laura said...
I love the way you used the circles to create the background for the layout! This would be an awesome way to use up all the little scraps of papers that we all can't bear to throw out.

The winner of the Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway is...
janetk said...
What a wonderful layout, just fantastic work. I continue to be inspired! Thanks so much for sharing and all the wonderful instructions!

You can both email me at alidavis1919@hotmail.com with your shipping information and, janetk, which volume of Sketches for Scrapbooking you would like.

Happy Monday!

Sketch Week, Part 5

2010-11-12T06:52:00.000-06:00

I am so very excited to introduce to you all today, Guest Designer Carolyn Wolff!

I don't think Carolyn even knows this but, she is one of the reasons why I started doing the Around the World post on my blog. I was looking through the gallery at Two Peas in a Bucket and saw a page of hers that used one of our sketches. It was so eye catching, detailed, and just all around great. How could I not share it with others? I know that you will instantly fall in love with her style, just like I did.

How long have you been scrapbooking?
I have been scrapbooking for about 9 years. I knew the minute I finished my first page that this was going to be a life long hobby for me.

Why did you start scrapbooking?
I have 3 children and I wanted to make memory albums for them. I thought when I first started that I would just do things like Christmas, birthdays, school photos, etc. I realized that each of my children did so many things that I wanted to capture. Let's just say that they have very thick albums.

What is your favorite "go-to" scrapbooking supply?
Wow, that is a tough one. I would have to say that my Vintage Photo Distress Ink is probably something I grab for each and every page. I also really like to add stitching so my needle and embroidery floss is a close second.

How often do you use sketches?
Since I discovered them I would say that I don't do a layout without them. They are the perfect starting point!

What do you love most about Scrapbook Generation's sketches?
I would have to say that my favourite part of these sketches is how they draw everything to the center of the page. I also love how they incorporate lots of photos but never make the pages feel cluttered.

What else can you tell us about yourself?
I have a soft spot in my heart for each one of my kids. They are the center of my life and they make me laugh every day. I have a super supportive husband that loves me, no matter what crazy things I get myself into. I LOVE hockey! My son Jason is a goalie and I never miss a game. We also have seasons tickets for our local OHL team and my hubby and I have a standing 'date' every Friday to attend the games.

The sketch that has been used as the starting point for all five layouts this week.

Layout #5 - This is so Cool Dude by Carolyn Wolff

Products used: Pattern papers, stickers, die-cuts - Bella Blvd; Cardstock - Bazzill; Alpha stickers - Basic Grey; Chipboard - Scrap FX & Technique Tuesday; Mist - Tattered Angels; Brads - Making Memories; Buttons - unknown; Brown ink - Ranger; Sanding tools - Basic Grey

Layout details:

• To create the patterned paper background sheet, I hand cut the border from the paper.

• I used my sewing machine to add blue stitching to the pattern paper. It helps to define the space and pop it off the white background

• I arranged the photos very similar to the sketch. I added 2 smaller prints to the 4x6 spot on page 2. I also sanded the edges of each photo to help them stand out on the dark blue background. I always mat my photos.

• For the title, I used a variety of products......chipboard, stickers, pattern papers, etc. This creates a focal point on the page that helps to describe how Jason was feeling when we were on this trip. The arrow points to the photo of the artist doing his work. Jason was so fascinated by this.

• For the other embellishment areas, I added some buttons, die-cuts, stickers etc to tie in the theme of the page. I used foam adhesive on the stickers in the lower right corner of page 2 to create some dimension on my page and help balance out the title.

• I wanted my journaling to be present, but not stand out. I chose to used white for the journaling strips, but I added the square brads to help pull some of the yellow from the photos on page 1 over to page 2.

• I applied Vintage Photo Distress Ink to all of my pattern papers, cardstock (not the dark blue), stickers, die-cuts etc. I love how it softens the entire layout and pulls everything together.

Thank you, Carolyn, for sharing your layout with us today!

Today is the fifth chance for the American Crafts and Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway.

And...don't forget, the deadline for the December Guest Designer is Monday, November 15 and the deadline for the Scrapbook Generation Publishing Creative Team is Monday, November 22. You can read all about the Creative Team requirements here.

Have a great weekend!

Sketch Week, Part 4

2010-11-11T07:08:00.000-06:00

There are a lot of changes on my day four layout. It really shows that you can take what you want to use or what you have on hand and make it work.

The sketch that is the starting point for all five layouts this week.

Layout #2 - The Day Before

Supply list - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: Bella Blvd.; Word stickers: Creative Imaginations; Alphabets: BasicGrey (the), Imaginisce (Day), and American Crafts (before); Jewels: KaiserCraft; Chipboard stars: American Crafts and Scenic Route; Paint: Making Memories

Variation #1
Die cut papers are one of my favorite pieces to use for a large background. They add a fun, decorative touch to the page and can completely change the look of a sketch.

On my layout I didn't have a die cut patterned paper that matched the other patterned papers that I used so I made one myself. My go-to tools for doing that are stencils from Crafters Workshop. Not only is the stencil that I used a big shape but it also has a ton of other stencils and designs in the center.

One thing you might want to watch for when making your own die cut patterned papers is that they can look a little bland and flat. Most die cut patterned papers that you can buy have a frame of some sort around them. Usually it's a pattern in the middle with a solid frame or two around it. To get a similar look and to help the paper from looking flat I like to add a stitched border around the edge. You could also try brads, buttons, Memory Thread, word stickers, or ribbon as a border too.

Variation #2
I had these pictures left over from a frame that I made for Drew's room. When I order wallet prints they come with two so I'm always left with extras. The frame had mostly wallet prints so that was pretty much all I had to work with. I love wallet prints and use them often. They are great for shrinking a layout, similar what I've done with my layout today.

Shrinking a layout is also a great way to take a two-page sketch and turn it into a one-page layout. Wallets can also be a great help with that.

Variation #3
The wallet size worked well with the group of photos on the left page, but I didn't have enough to go all the way to the top and bottom edge of the layout. The problem that causes is a hole above and below the pictures between the two 1/2" strips of patterned paper on the left and right. On the sketch those two strips are arranged so that it appears that the paper goes behind that group of photos, so that was all I had to do fill the holes. Instead of using two small strips, I made a whole piece that goes behind the photos and fills in that hole above and below the pictures.

Variation #4
I had another wallet size photo that I really wanted to include on the layout. I couldn't add it to the large group of wallet photos because it was the only vertical one I had left and I would have needed two to complete that column of pictures.

My solution was to add it to the left by the title. Because I used smaller pictures I had plenty of room without cutting my title area too short.

Variation #5
On the right page I wanted to include more journaling so I used part of the space for one of the 4 x 6 photos. The only adjustment I had to make was moving the embellishment on the top over to the right of the journaling.

Variation #6
Out of all my photos I had one horizontal wallet. I thought it would work well underneath the journaling and overlapped onto the 4 x 6. There weren't any adjustments that I had to make to add that to the page. That's another thing I love about wallets, they are so easy to add to a layout and they are small enough that you can pretty much add them anywhere.

Variation #7
Instead of circles I went with chipboard stars on this layout. I also added stitching around the biggest star on the right page.

Stitching on chipboard is completely doable and really, isn't any more difficult than stitching on paper. I would recommend that when you pierce the holes that you make sure your foam board is on a hard surface. This will keep the chipboard from wrinkling when you push the piercer through.

Day four = the fourth chance to win the American Crafts and Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway.

Sketch Week, Part 3

2010-11-10T07:03:00.000-06:00

You've probably noticed from the last two layouts that the background piece is one of the main things I altered on the sketch this week. Today's layout is yet another way to change up the look with, (or I guess I should say without) that background.

The sketch that is the starting point for all five layouts this week.

Layout #2 - Go Cardinals!

Supply list - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned paper: Fancy Pants (red), My Mind's Eye (dotted); Word stickers: Making Memories; Alphabets: American Crafts

Variation #1
So far this week I've shown you how much you can do with that background piece and all because it's just that, the background. There isn't anything on the layout design-wise that relies on that background. Today I've gone in the opposite direction of enhancing that piece like I have on the last two layouts and completely removed the background.

My reason for removing the background had to do with the pictures I wanted to use on my page. They were full of bright, bold colors and looked even brighter against the white cardstock, which I loved.

Because the background requires two pieces of paper, this is a great option for those times when you are kicking yourself for not picking up two pieces of that patterned paper. There are plenty of pictures, embellishments and additional pieces of patterned paper that your layout shouldn't look too bare without the background.

Variation #2
If you remove that background piece and do feel that it looks bare you can always add more pieces of patterned paper. On my layout I added another strip across the bottom of the page. You could add a lot more than I did too, like maybe three 1" strips.

Variation #3
Stacey and I ended up getting a chance to go down on the field before the game and I got one particular photo that I just instantly fell in love with. It captured a piece of the incredible beauty of Busch Stadium and you can see a glimpse of The Arch in the background. I knew that I wanted this photo to stand out on my page and one of the easiest ways to do that was to enlarge it.

The adjustments to include a 5 x 7 on the left page were very minor. I lost a little bit of space for my title but it happened to work out perfectly with the photo I was using. I just extended my title across the bottom of the 5 x 7.

Variation #4
Around the 5 x 7 I created a collage of smaller photos and included pieces of one of our tickets from the game. I always like to include memorabilia on my pages when I can and I was so happy when I found these tickets tucked into the pocket of my suitcase. They helped to complete the collage of photos on the left page.

Variation #5
I stuck with the circles on the sketch for my embellishments, mostly because of well, what else better to embellishment a page about a Cardinals game without baseballs. On the right page I used larger baseballs than the one of the left page. This was to help fill all that white space on the right page.

How to make the baseballs:

• You need three different sized circles for the baseball and then one extra of the largest circle you are using for a template. I like mine to be about 1/8" to 1/4" different in size.

• I always recommend inking the edges when layering pieces like this. It helps each individual layer to stand out.

• Lay the three circles on top of each other with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on the top. You might want to use removable adhesive if you have it.

• Use the extra circle as a guide for your stitched lines by laying it over the three circles and tracing around the edge of it.

• On the top circle, the smallest, pierce holes along the pencil line. Also add in holes for the "v" part of the stitching.

• Using three strands of embroidery floss, stitch along the lines using a back stitch. When you get to the edge, make a small indention on the edge and wrap your floss around to the back and adhere.

• For the other two circles you only need to stitch those four little lines that you made with a pencil. There's no need to stitch anymore than that since it will be covered by the circle above it.

• After all the stitching is done, adhere them all together with foam adhesive.

Variation #6
I still had one more ticket from the game that I was determined to use on the layout. I didn't really want to cut this one up so I used it as a decorative piece behind the title.

Day three = third chance to win the American Crafts and Sketches for Scrapbooking giveaway.

Sketch Week, Part 2

2010-11-09T07:00:00.001-06:00

Thank you so much for the get well wishes. I am feeling so much better this morning. And just in time for a sunny layout. Today's version of the sketch shows you how to add a fun, decorative addition to that background piece without taking the focus away from the photos.

The sketch that is the starting point for all five layouts this week.

Layout #2 - Everything About You Brightens My Life

Supply list - Brown alphabets: Doodlebug Designs, everything else is from the American Crafts City Park collection

Variation #1
If you've been reading my blog for awhile you've probably noticed that suns seem to be one of my favorite design elements to use. It's like I challenge myself to find a new way to make them.

On today's layout I made a large sun that stretches across the background block of paper. Adding a large design across a background piece can be done on most pages but there is something you might want to watch out for.

If your pictures are full of lots of bold colors you might want to stay away from such a detailed and busy design on the background. There is a possibility that your pictures will get lost in that design. Of course there are always ways to fix that by framing the photos by either adding a mat or edging the pictures with paint or ink. And, of course, there are always exceptions with certain designs or elements that will work.

On my layout the pictures contain a few colors and the pictures are very similar. The lack of color and similar pictures allowed me to easily add a bold design on the background without the need to frame my pictures or worry about them getting lost in the design.

Tips for making the sun:

• I begin by finding my starting point, which is the circle/body of the sun. Since the sun rays go underneath the circle I traced around it and then set it aside.

• I don't get too technical and worry about perfect measurements for the rays. I use a ruler and trace a slant on the patterned paper and then cut it out.

• I recommend starting with a few bigger rays and attaching them first. Then you can go back and fill in the holes with smaller strips of paper and hand stitching.

• When you are going across two pages you'll need to make two different rays so that the whole design stretches across. I make the largest one first and then lay a ruler next to it extending past the side that I will be extending on the page. You'll do this on both the top and bottom of that side. Then you trace line and cut the ray out.

Variation #2
I had a lot more photos that I wanted to include on this layout than what the sketch called for. An easy fix for that problem is to use multiple smaller photos in place of a large photo. I ended up using two 3 x 4 photos in place of each 6 x 4 photo on the left page. This is the easiest way to use smaller prints for a larger photo, by cutting the large size in half and cropping two smaller photos. The two smaller photos still make up the same 6 x 4 size as the larger photo did.

Variation #3
While I'm on the subject of photos, on the right page I used another smaller photo in place of one of the 4 x 6 photos. Today's reason, however, is different from yesterday's. I only had one vertical 4 x 6 with this group of pictures. If I wanted to include another photo, like on the sketch, then I was going to have to use a horizontal. Using the full horizontal 4 x 6 would have covered more of the paper than I wanted and this photo was a perfect one for cropping down. It had a lot of empty space that I could easily crop out of the photo.

Variation #4
One of the good things about using a smaller photo on the right page is that it left me with more space for my journaling. I used journaling strips instead of journaling directly onto the background as it is on the sketch. With the design (and yesterday's) the journaling would have been lost in all the papers and colors. Journaling strips where an easy solution to make sure my story stood out.

Variation #5
While I did keep one of my embellishments as a circle, the other two are different.

The circle embellishment on the left page acts as the center of my sun. I used an American Crafts felt embellishment for the center and then added circles of patterned paper underneath it.

For the remaining two embellishments on the right page I used more American Crafts felt embellishments and added patterned paper behind them. The hardest part about such a bold design on a page is making sure that everything else on the page stands out against it. The added patterned paper to the felt embellishments helped them to stand out more since I would add ink to the edges of the paper.

Day two means is your second chance for the American Crafts and Sketches for Scrapbooking Giveaway.

Sketch Week, Part 1

2010-11-08T08:01:00.003-06:00

After spending last night sick I'm hoping that Sketch Week will make me feel better! Thank goodness for laptops and warm, comfy blankets.

Can you believe that in January it will go from Sketch Week to Sketch Month? That alone is enough to already have me feeling a little better.

For the last two Sketch Weeks the sketches have been a little heavy on the design side. I tried on a few of my layouts to show you ways to simplify it. This week I'm doing the opposite. The sketch is on more of the simple side and I'm going to show you some ways to amp it up. And on Friday, I'll introduce you to this week's Guest Designer, Carolyn. Trust me, you'll love her layout!

We've also got a new sponsor for November, American Crafts. They've put together a fabulous giveaway for this week!

The sketch that is used as the starting point for each layout this week.

• The sketch is available to download and print by clicking here. The printable version has the full sketch with all the measurements and placements.

Layout #1 - S.D.C. Ball Park

Supply list - Everything is from the American Crafts City Park Collection.

Variation #1
One thing I love about sketches with a large background is the many, many possibilities you have to play around with it. Because it is behind everything on the layout you can do almost anything without having to adjust anything else on the layout. On today's layout I used 1" circles in place of the background block of paper. Together all of the circles are the same size as the block of paper, it's just divided into several different pieces.

I had decided circles would be a fun addition to the page and would be a good support for the theme of the layout and the pictures. Any shape would work for this. Just think of any small shape punches you might have like stars, hearts, squares, butterflies, etc.

Variation #2
Because I had so many circles on the background I tried to stay away from using circles for my embellishments as well. With the busy background I went with simple tags in the three embellishment areas.

Variation #3
Even if you aren't completely comfortable with changing up the elements on the sketch, (like adding more paper, using larger embellishments, removing elements, etc.), you can always get a different look by simply flipping the sketch. Flipping the sketch, like I have done with mine, is incredibly easy to do and gives the layout a different look.

Variation #4
There are always ways to add enlargements to a sketch and usually it only takes a few minor adjustments. I substituted a 5 x 7 for one of the 4 x 6 photos. If you think about it, it's only a 1" difference which isn't really a lot.

Variation #5
Number five is actually two variations in one because they both worked together. Because I added the 5 x 7 I ended up leaving myself very little room for my journaling. Instead of trying to squeeze a few lines of journaling in above the picture and limiting my story I decided to use a smaller photo for the other 4 x 6 photo. This gave me plenty of room for the journaling beside the 5 x 7 and above the smaller photo.

Now, take a look at this awesome giveaway from American Crafts...

That is a ton of product - cardstock, patterned paper, lots of embellishments, tags, brads, ribbon, journaling stickers, Thickers...it is a lot of stuff! And you can never, ever have enough Thickers!

In addition to the American Crafts giveaway I'll also be doing a giveaway for a copy of Sketches for Scrapbooking, volume choice is all yours.

I'll be posting everyday, Monday - Friday. All week you'll have a chance to leave a comment and next Monday I'll post the winners. You can leave more than one comment through the week to be eligible (five days = five chances to win!) but not on the same day.

SG Publishing Creative Team Call

2010-11-03T11:16:00.001-05:00

On Monday we announced the news of Scrapbook Generation's expansion and today it is time for some Scrapbook Generation Publishing news.

We are thrilled to announced our SG Publishing/Allison Davis Creative Team call. On January 1, 2011 we will be launching a new site with all sketches, all the time. You asked for Sketch Month and that is what you are getting.

The new site will feature not just two-page sketches but one-page sketches, card sketches, and something a little different, add-on sketches. I'll share some more details as we get closer to the launch date. To help make this possible, we are looking for a creative team.

The SG Publishing Creative Team duties will be creating a minimum of two projects per month. Sharing your projects from the sketches on your blog or in your online gallery are expected as well, however, a blog and online gallery are not requirements, just a big plus.

Below you will find three sketches (a two-page, a one-page, and a card) that you'll use for your entry.

You can download and print them by clicking here. The two-page sketch is from August Sketch Week and it will be on the bottom of the printable sketches page. The card and the one-page sketch will be at the top of the page.

To enter you'll need to make three layouts, cards, or projects and email them to us at creativeteam@scrapbookgeneration.com. You can make three from the same sketch, or one of each, or two of one and one of another, whatever combination you want.

In your submission entry you'll also need to include:

• your name
• address
• link to blog and online galleries

and answer these two questions.
• Do you mainly make two-page layouts, one-page layouts, cards, etc.?
• Why do you want to be on the SG Publishing Creative Team?

The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 22. We'll send out emails to the selected Creative Team on Monday, November 29. When you send in your submission you will receive a confirmation email within 24 hours.

What we are looking for:

• Scrapbookers and card makers who are comfortable using sketches and have the ability to fit them to their style.
• All styles of scrapbookers and card makers. This includes those that use 8 1/2" x 11", 8" x 8", 6" x 6", etc.
• The ability to take good pictures of the finished product.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. We look forward to seeing your entries.