Wow it's May!!

Hi everyone or anyone!!  I haven't posted since January!! I can't believe it!  My goal was to post every week, and it seems that every week has been hectic and crazy,  then add in some health issues and here we are, it's may.  Well, I got a new laptop, so I have been busy transferring everything over to the new one!!  I spent many many nights and weekends working hard on the 8x8 scrapbooks for the "grandmas" of Khloe and of course the one for my step-daughter who had a baby boy back in september!   The scrapbooks were of Khloe's first year, and all the grandma's loved their albums!!Well those are now all completed and the last one went out in the mail yesterday!!  Success!!  The thing is though, I've worked on those albums for over 1 year...  4 albums, and of course one for me (that will never have an end!)  It was hard letting them go!!  I know it sounds goofy, but, do you know what I mean??  You put your heart and soul into the books and then give then away, hoping that they bring as much joy to the person they are meant for, as the joy I had making them!!

So, now that those books are done, I am now going to return to working on some pages for my album!!  Here is the neat thing about my pages, they are shared pages!!  One of my best friends can design a page that should be in a magazine!!  She will often send me pictures of her pages, and then I use them for inspiration.  Because, when I am finished with my page, it looks nothing like hers, yet the inspiration or colors came from her.  AND what is even neater is the encouragement I received from my scrapping girl friends as I worked on them!!  So, I guess my message to everyone is, share your creations with others!!  Encourage each other in their creativeness!!  It can all be inspirational!!

On that note, let me share with you the first page of my book about Khloe's first year!!  (for those of you that don't know me well, Khloe is my beautiful grandaughter, who just turned one!)  I hope that it gives you inspiration to create a page of your own!!

Enjoy!!  And happy scrapping!!

Leslie

It's been a productive week

Good evening everyone!!  Well I must say it has been a productive week for me!!  I completed a 2 page layout that was 12x12 and then did 4 more identical ones that were 8x8!!  All I have left to do is to cut the mats for the photos and I can't really do that until I get the photos printed!!  The design was simple, but it really takes me a long time to put my thoughts into the design!!  Often times I will get a copy of a layout a friend did (called scraplifting) and use that as inspiration!!  99% of the time, my pages turn out looking nothing like the ones I used for my inspiration!!  This time, it was completely my own design!!  Tomorrow I think I will try to post the layout here!!  I've never done that before so please bear with me!!  Hope y'all had a good week!!  I will enjoy an extra day off for the holiday!!


So, my question for you this week is where do you draw your inspiration from??  Do you have a favorite blog whose layouts match your style?  Do you have a favorite designer you like to draw inspiration from?  I really really like the layouts from Webster's Pages!!  I also LOVE to browse the gallery at A Cherry On Top or also at Scrapbook.com!!  I save layouts I like to a seperate file on my computer to use at a later date when I am in a funk and can't get my crop on!!

Have a great week!!  Leave me a message!!  I can't wait to hear about your inspirations!!

Always,

Leslie

It's A Brand New Year!!

Well, 2011 has come and gone, but brought a lot of changes to our lives!!  Donnie is doing well in his sophmore year of college!!  Kevin and Katrina have moved back home and blessed us with a beautiful grandaughter Khloe!!!  Jim is still working crazy hours and I am still working with special needs students.  Looking back it seems like 2011 was all about getting thing done for everyone else!  Not that I mind that, but I think 2012 is going to be about accomplishing MY goals!! haha!!  One of those goals is this blog!!  It has been neglected for far too long!!  So, my goal is to post about my scrapbooking, crafting adventures at least once a week!!  AND to throw out some challenges for everyone, as well as ask you all for ideas on how YOU do things!!  One of my favorite things about crafting is how crafters share ideas!!  It's so neat to learn from each other!  So here we go!

I own a cricut expression and with that, I own many cartridges!!  I really struggle with keeping my carts and books organized!!  I do own a gypsy and she is wonderful!!  BUT, when I go to a crop, I still feel the need to bring the carts and books with me, just in case someone needs to borrow them!!  So my question to y'all is this....  how do you keep your carts and books organized??  How to you transport them to crops??  Let the sharing and learning begin!!!