I might be MIA for a while

Because I am buried in this.

While the floor goes unvacuumed.

While the laundry goes unwashed.

While the bills go unpaid.

While the sleep is not gotten.

:)

gretchen

One more

One more My Little Shoebox project for the month!
We all got to work with some Clear Scraps products this month to help us complete our My Little Shoebox projects.
{that Disney album was a chipboard mini album from Clear Scraps}
In addition to the fun mini album, I also got to play with these clear shaped acrylic sheets.
They are way cool!
{but not so easy to photograph! ha!}
I messily painted the acrylic sheet then went crazy with a Martha Stewart butterfly punch.
This was an easy way to use a bunch of my My Little Shoebox paper scraps!

{FYI: this cute little butterfly idea is not my idea. i wish i could take credit for it. but i have seen it somewhere else. i just don't know where. maybe stephanie howell did it. maybe it was kerry lynn yeary. it might have been katie. maybe i saw it in the SIS gallery. maybe it was at Studio Calico. maybe in the 2peas garden. who knows? i ain't taking credit for it. but i do like how mine turned out!}

Here are a couple of close up views of the project.

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In other news, check out the KI blog for a Focus On about summer layouts!
And leave a comment about some of your favorite summertime activities for a chance to win a KI prize!
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Alrighty I am going to go enjoy the fabulous {not rainy} weather we are having today!

Have a great weekend yourself!
:)
gretchen

Scrappiness

Ahhh, TGI{almost}F!
Even though this was a short week, it seemed loooooong!

Anywoo, I've got some My Little Shoebox layouts to share.

I had the Flawless line to work with this month.
{and it might be my favorite line to date!}
This one is about my little brother being back where he belongs...in the South!

{I cut the stars out with my handy dandy Sizzix machine and then popped them up with a foam dot}

Here's a little card using some of my scraps. And a 2-pager.
{I *heart* this green piece of paper!}
That circle piece of paper is named "Gretchen".
It is part of the "Flawless" line.
I am pretty sure that was not a mistake.
{bwhahahaha}

And one last one.
I couldn't resist cutting all these fun flowers out!
Alrighty, that's all I've got for now.
Happy Friday!
:)
gretchen

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day from rainy Alabama!

We have a new grill at our house and Lee has been determined to use it all weekend despite the off & on weather!
{boys and their toys!}

However, rainy weather + 3 day weekend = plenty of good scrapping time for me!
{and I am not complaining!}
I worked alot yesterday on my class for the SIS Live event coming up at the end of June.

Here is a little sneak of one of the layouts we will be making.
I've got some fun sponsors so far including My Little Shoebox & Livingroomfloor and Jeanette is giving us some great MODsheets to work with!
{and I am still working to get a couple more...stay tuned!)
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I finished up one of my My Little Shoebox projects for the month.
It's a Disney album with no Disney-themed products!
{well, except for that cute Mickey ears punch that I love}

{I will share the pages of this later. I don't know if I am even supposed to be sharing this at all yet...oopsy!}
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I added a layout to the KI gallery.
This one is for Lisa Dickinson's great sketch challenge from earlier this month over on the KI blog.

{fyi: I have no idea who these people really are. If you know them, tell them they are my heroes!}
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And I am still having fun with Noel Mignon's Rise and Shine kit!
Man, this kit is packed full of goodness!

{rumor has it that there are only a couple of these babies left!}
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All that scrapping AND my house is clean!

I need a 3-day weekend every weekend!
{however, whatever you do, do not ask me how many showers I have taken or how many times I have actually left the house}

I hope you are having a great Memorial Day!
gretchen

Please allow me to brag

Well, please allow me to brag on my husband for a minute.
{I almost did a post about this a while back but couldn't do it without using a slew of cuss words so I just decided against the whole thing all together.}

Lee had worked at a YMCA for ~8 years up until this past February.
He started at the bottom and worked his way all the way up to the associate exec position.
He did not get the exec position when it opened up last fall.
{previously I would have inserted cuss words here because of course I thought he should have gotten that position}
Then he was let go in February when the new management decided "to go in a new direction".

{more cuss words inserted here at the injustice that was done}
OK now back up about 3 years.
Lee and his friend Trey sat downstairs in our living room brainstorming on starting a business.
They talked about crazy stuff like opening a store, selling stuff, and cleaning stuff.
I remember sitting upstairs scrapbooking, overhearing them, and rolling my eyes.
Now come back to present day and the result of that brainstorming session is this: Sentinel Cleaning.

They have been in business for 3 years, clean restaurants all over Alabama and into Tennessee & Georgia, have several employees who work for them, and now there are restaurants we can no longer eat at because my husband knows how dirty they are!
{thankfully most Mexican restaurants aren't too bad-what a relief!}
What a blessing it was for Lee to be able to jump full time into this job when he lost his job at the Y.
I just got mad about it.
Lee saw it as God giving him that push that he needed to make the move to Sentinel full time rather than staying comfortably at the Y where the check was guaranteed every 2 weeks.

{this layout is in the July/August of Memory Makers}
Supplies: Patterned paper (KI Memories, Basic Grey), Acrylic overlay (KI Memories), Brads (KI Memories), Alphabets (American Crafts), Misc (twine, paint, cardboard)

So not only is he an excellent yard boy, but also he is quite the entrepreneur!
And I am proud of him.
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And I will leave you with another something I made with the Rise and Shine kit from Noel Mignon.
Supplies: Patterned paper (Jenni Bowlin, My Minds Eye, Creative Imaginations), Die cut border (Crate Paper), Alphabet (Jenni Bowlin)
All supplies from the new Noel Mignon Rise and Shine kit
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Happy Sunday!
gretchen

Just read the journaling

Journaling reads:

look at this
rows and rows of scrapbooks
full of years and years of pictures and memories
each page labeled with names and dates and locations
and many, many memories
but this is not my house
and these are not my albums
they are the work of my grandfather Daddy Bill
he was an insistent picture taker
pictures before school
pictures before they left
pictures in front of the house
pictures in front of the van
pictures in front of their motor home
pictures hanging off of the motor home
pictures with siblings
pictures with Grams
pictures, pictures, and more pictures
each one meticulously placed on the pages of these albums
preserving the Misner family memories
in his own way, he was a scrapbooker
looks like I got it honest

{sigh}

I made this with the new Rise and Shine kit over at Noel Mignon.
{I get to be a guest designer over there for the month of June. he! so you will be seeing more of this yummy kit from me soon}

Happy Friday!
gretchen

Sad day

May 21, 2009
It is a day that will go down in scrapbooking history.
It is the day that the best scrapbooking store ever closed its doors.
{for good}
Where now will I go to hide out with my uncontrollable scrapbooking addiction?

Where now will I get my fix of My Mind's Eye papers, Making Memories tiny alphas, and Heidi Swapp mailbox letters?
Where now will I go to find others who suffer this same disease?
Where now will I go to find people who convince me that this is all normal and that I do not, in fact, have enough patterned paper in my bag?
Where now will I go to find people who understand that it is best to store things like Basic Grey cutting mats, Making Memories trimmers, and Bind-it-alls in the trunk of your car in order to keep peace in the family?

Please excuse me while I take the rest of the day to mourn.

So who gets the camera strap??

Well the random number generator says:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:11
Timestamp: 2009-05-20 22:42:44 UTC

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That means the camera strap goes to:

susanv said...
Love the camera strap and desparately need one!! Pick me!!
May 18, 2009 10:12 AM

_________________________________

YAY!

Susan, email me (gretchenmcelveen@yahoo.com) with your address and I will send this little beauty out to you.

Now for all of you who unfortunately did not win the camera strap, be sure to check out Nancy's etsy shop for other awesome choices!

Happy hump day!
{I am soooo looking forward to a long weekend}
:)
gretchen

You are going to want one too!

So at the not-so-silent auction at the Scrap Etc event a couple weekends ago I was lucky enough to win a camera strap made by the fabulous Nancy Holley.
{check out her Etsy shop with more camera straps here}
She asked what my favorite colors are (to which I responded, "Well I have always loved red but lately I have been digging the greens.") and then proceeded to whip up this beautiful piece.

And then {just to torture me} she also made this fabulous one.

And then she said I had to choose!
{well really she said that I can keep them both if I would like. and I would like that, but I do only have one camera that needs a strap and that would be kind of greedy wouldn't it??}
{as I was typing the above sentence I was speaking it in a British accent because Forgetting Sarah Marshall is on in the background}
{do forgive me. it has been raining here all day & I think I might be going crazy}

Back to the task at hand!

So after several days of careful deliberation, I decided on the red one.

But you are in luck!
I am going to give the green one away to one of you!

Let's say you have until Tuesday night to post a comment and then I will draw a winner on Wednesday.
Thanks for being so generous Nancy!

:)
gretchen

Just popping in to say...

Supplies: Cardstock (Prism), Patterned paper (Sassafras), Alphas (American Crafts), Misc (twill, staples)
All supplies from May Scripts kit.

Happy Saturday!

Thank you for all your sushi knowledge.
Apparently I may not know how to spell the shortened version of "favorite" but I know my Japanese cuisine!
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Good luck to all those who tried out for the My Little Shoebox design team!
I have fingers crossed on both hands for many of you.
Be on the look out for that 510 area code tomorrow!
:)
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No, my scraproom is not completely cleaned up yet.
I am working on it more this weekend.
{obviously I am not very productive during the week}
It might be taking me a while, but this go around I am cleaning, organizing, and purging all the way to the deep, dark corners of my space.
Uh, that might mean there will be more free stuff giveaways soon.
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Any of you going to Scrap in Style TV's event in June?

{Scrap in Style LIVE}

I am teaching a class and hope to see some of you there!
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That's all I've got.
But I will leave you with another card I made with those Scrapdiary papers.

Supplies: Patterned paper (Scrapdiary), Alphas (American Crafts), Jewels (Heidi Swapp)

Smile!
gretchen

Opinions needed

Help me settle an, uh, disagreement.
So I am on this sushi kick, right?!

{mmmmmmm!}
Really, though, I just like California rolls.

I can't do the raw thing.
And I got some spicy tuna rolls the other day just to be cool and I though they were just OK.
Which was probably a dumb move on my part since I am not a big tuna fan anyway.
{seriously, I was just trying to be cool and order a variety of sushi}

I will stick to my California rolls.
But Lee says that California rolls are not real sushi but only "wannabe sushi" since it is not raw or wiggling.
But I say that I order it off the sushi menu from the cute little man dressed in full Japanese garb behind the sushi counter so it is sushi.
{and I use chopsticks}
So what do you think?
Are California rolls sushi or not??

<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

See that little poll over there on the left sidebar?
Tell me what you think.
And if you think California rolls are not sushi then I am going to need some sort of explanation thank you very much.

:)

gretchen

Thanks

Thank you all so much for your concern for my precious scraproom.

Thankfully, however, the only storm that caused any damage was me.

{and oh what a powerful storm that can be!}

I was very productive Sunday afternoon and got a bunch of stuff cleaned out, sorted through, organized, and purged.

However, I am not done yet.

I am going to continue to work on it this week and I will post pictures when the room is presentable again.
And I will post them quickly because it does not take long for another storm to hit!

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The 2 people getting stuff from me this go around are:

{drumroll please...}

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:11 28
Timestamp: 2009-05-12 21:35:41 UTC

SavannaLea said...
glad to know somebody else's scraproom looks like a tornado went thru it :)
May 10, 2009 8:21 PM

TheDavisBunch said...
Ha, ha! Please, send me some stuff! And, yes, my Mother told me that on a daily basis, so I now I say it to my children It's a wonderful cycle. And, yes, I am officially tired of James Spann. Ready for the forecast to be "Hot, hot and hot." At least it's predictable.
May 12, 2009 7:31 AM

YAY!
So will Savanna and Janna (ha! that rhymes) please email me at: gretchenmcelveen@yahoo.com and tell me how you want me to get this loot to you.

And again, thank you for your concern for me!

:)
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And I will leave you with a card I made with some Scrapdiary papers.
Scrapdiary is a company out of Brazil that makes beautiful new scrapbooking papers on a monthly basis.
I got to hang out with Olympia & Fabi {my new Brazillian friends!} at the Scrap Etc. event last weekend.
Fun times!
Olympia was nice enough to hook me up with these fabulous papers from Scrapdiary.
These papers are to die for!
I hated to cut them {but I managed to cut them enough to make a few cards...but I have lots of leftovers for later!}!

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:)
gretchen

Storm damage

It is tornado season around here.

I swear that for the last 4 weeks there as been at least 1 day each week where we have been threatened by bad weather.

And I mean the kind of weather that keeps kids out of school and makes you miss your favorite TV shows because James Spann or Jerry Tracey have taken over the airwaves.

We have been lucky enough to weather each storm without a bit of damage.

Until today.

The storm today was a short one but oh was it powerful.

The lightning was crazy, the thunder so loud, and the rain coming down by the bucketfuls (sp??)!

Interestingly enough, I did not hear anything happen to our house.

But as soon as I opened the door to my scraproom, I knew that our luck had run out.

So please, please help me sift through the damage.
I am going to attempt to clean up this mess for the rest of the afternoon.
If you would like some of this stuff (you know, only the stuff that has not been water damaged or blown away by the high velocity winds of course), please leave a comment here.
If I ever manage to crawl out from under the ruins, I will draw a few random winners to get a box of stuff.
:)
gretchen

**Edited: My scraproom didn't really get damaged by any storm. Didn't your mom ever tell you, "Hey! Clean up this room. It looks like a tornado came through here!"??
Thank you all so much for your concern, however!**

A little bit of this; a little bit of that

Pure randomness this post is.
{maybe I should talk in my Yoda voice the entire post...neh.}

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I made this card...

Supplies: Patterned paper & cardstock (Die Cuts with a View), Alpha stickers (Doodlebug), Ribbon (KI Memories), Scalloped punch (The Paper Studio)

...based on this Becky Fleck layout sketch from the May/June issue of Memory Makers.

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I made this little journal for a Sheer Delights feature today over on the KI Blog.
I used a Bind-it-all to make this out of cardstock & used a Sheer Delight to create a cool cover for it.
Then I embellished the Sheer Delight cover with Bloom paper & chipboard to make the flower.
I love that the Sheer Delight {obviously} makes the cover clear but still has some weight to it to protect the paper inside.

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The My Little Shoebox blog is full of new projects made by the design team including the newest girls {Jana, Michelle, and Molly!}.
Please check it out!
Also, don't forget that the design team call ends on May 15th so get your entries in!
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The challenge for this week over on the American Crafts blog is to create a layout inspired by an ad.
I had pulled this Target {of course} ad out of a People magazine a week or so ago so this was the perfect opportunity to use it.

And this is my layout.
Copied from the ad almost exactly!

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Remember this layout about my Daddy Bill and my brother David?
Daddy Bill died yesterday at the ripe ole age of 95.
His wife {my Grams} and 2 sons {my dad & Uncle Jim} were with him.
He had lived a very full life.
And I, in my simple mind, am joyful that I got to honor a little bit of his life in this layout in the same month that he died.

_____________________________________________________________

Keep smiling!
gretchen

Well that was fun

I am exhausted!

Seriously.

It has taken me about 24 hours to complete this blog post.

{and sadly it isn't even an especially interesting post}

The event went off without a hitch and by the looks of all the craziness that went on {you know who you are} I think a good time was had by all.

We scrapped.
We survived a few paper piercer injuries and a blackout caused by the infamous Elizabeth Kartchner.

{it's her birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZZY!}

We shopped.

We heard alot of talk about boobs but Brittney raised $4000 for her 60-mile walk team for breast cancer so it was a good thing.
{however there was a lot of rubbing which may have scarred me a little bit}

Someone paid $400 for Margie's apron.

And someone else paid $250 for another one of Margie's aprons.

Someone actually paid good money for a layout & a mini-album by me. Ones they have never seen before.

{brave soul}

I bought a {much needed} camera strap.

Thank you Nancy Holley.
Fabulous.

We hardly slept.
I met alot of new, fun people & saw some old friends.

There were people not there who were greatly missed.
{coughcoughKatieVirginiaMomCarolynChristinaMandyDeannacoughcough}
We heard very few complaints.
I taught a man for the very first time.
{see below}

He was actually very creative.

Watch out Tim Holtz!

We finished 6 layouts and 6 cards in my class with time to spare.

Shout out to American Crafts, Prism, KI Memories, and My Little Shoebox for helping out with my class!
I actually sat in & completed Jenni Bowlin's class for the first time ever.

I copied her projects exactly.

She is Jenni Bowlin for goodness sake.

I am going to put them up in my house and tell everyone that I made them all by myself.

{chuckle, chuckle}

I have no other pictures than these.

{shame on me}

If you have some good ones, please email them to me!
gretchenmcelveen@yahoo.com

I know there are other interesting quips from the weekend but I am too tired to think of anymore right now.

It is to bed early for me again tonight.

:)

gretchen