Use your stash Tuesday to scrap some OLDIES but goodies!

It's use your stash Tuesday here at My Creative Endeavors, and this week I am using not only my old stash but some old photos as well! These photos of my brother range from 1978 to 1985. This layout was created for the family challenge at Personalscrapper for the Slice contest and uses sketch #12 from the 52 sketches/52 weeks site. The papers used are from Cosmo Crickets Dutch Girl line which is weird for a boy page, but the colors blended well,and the aged appearance fits well with photos from the 70's and 80's. I used a tag behind each photo to journal funny stories of my brother from when we were kids, like: getting stuck in the mud in the cowlot, locking my sister in her bedroom so she had to crawl out her window to get out, how he loves hunting, and how he would NEVER help with the chores! LOL! Fun times but times I might forget before too much longer, although I doubt I will ever forget him locking my sister in the bedroom! So I decided to document them, plus these photos are scanned and retouched off the originals, and they are better but still not good. They were very faded, scratched etc from being stored in an old box for years and then a magnetic album. This page was made with almost exclusively from the Personalscrapper May 2007 kit, so I used up some more of my older stash, but nonetheless, still LOVE anything Cosmo Cricket, don't you? This actually my first Cosmo Cricket paper to own, now I would say Mr. Campy is my fav line of theirs, but I haven't seen Snorkel in person yet, it looks great online. Hoping to see it at CKC, I'll let you know if I buy any of it (or all of it for that matter!)In fact, I will be leaving in just a few days, lots to do to get ready, hoping for nice weather there as well as energy to complete lots of pages!

Git 'R Done Wednesday with a another challenge!

Its me again with another Git R Done Wednesday post. This double pager is another layout completed towards the 10 total I need to do to be entered into the drawing at Personalscrapper to win that Slice! 2 down, 8 to go! LOL! This challenge was to be a page or pages about one of your greatest achievements. I decided to feature my college graduation from physical therapy school. I used the May 2008 Personalscrapper kit featuring papers by Chatterbox. I like the simplicity of it. I was able to capture a few funny stories from my 2yrs in physical therapy school in my journaling. I am glad I was able to put them to paper now, as I'm not getting any younger and it seems like when I first started my journaling I couldn't think of one thing to say, then I remembered a funny story about how I was practicing a specific technique on my Aunt (who had graciously volunteered to be my "patient") that was to help reduce pain in the shoulder and guess what? Instead of making her shoulder (which wasn't really injured to begin with) feel better I made it actually hurt for days..so instead of helping her I made her worse YIKES! We still get a good laugh out of that so many years later and once I put that story to paper I started remembering so many many more that I had to create TWO journaling spots on my layout to fit them all in. Needless to say, all the schooling did actually pay off, I am not making my patients worse any more but I do tend to help them not hurt them now! LOL! I think it is a good thing to take a little time and complete some pages about yourself for a change, your kids will appreciate it. I think they are more interested in their parents and their younger years then they are about themselves, after all they lived through their experiences but weren't around for many of your experiences prior to their birth. Even if I don't win that Slice I am so glad I have started doing these challenges about myself. Its actually more fun then I thought it would be! And another tidbit of info, these photos which I had in a shoebox were actually starting to fade, and they are only from 1992, so I am glad I was able to get them stored safely now before they got too much older.

Use your stash Tuesday

It's use your stash Tuesday again today. The title of today's layout is "Climb til your dreams come true". This is a title of a poem I just love and it goes as follows: Often your tasks will be many and more then you think you can do. Often the road will be rugged and the hills insurmountable to. But always remember that the hills ahead are never as steep as they seem and with faith in your heart start upwords and climb until you reach your dream. For nothing in life that's worthy is to hard to achieve, if you have the courage to try it and you have the faith to believe. For faith is a force that's greater then knowledge, power, and skill. Many defeats turn to truimph if you trust in God's wisdom and will. For faith is a mover of mountains. There is nothing that God cannot do. So start out today with faith in your hear and climb til your dreams come true." Poem by Bjorn Brands. This is one of my all time favorite pictures of my son. He was on his first grade field trip to the Fort Worth Nature Center and I was walking behind the kids on our hike when I snapped this picture. Love the greenery and this old rock staircase! The paper for this layout is by My Minds Eye and was found in my May 2007 Personalscrapper kit. I made this layout for the Slice contest challenge at Personalscrapper "an oldie but a goodie", the challenge being to use up some older stash. The alphabet letters for the subtitle are by Basic Grey and came from an old QVC kit I got when I first started scrapping. But the thing I am most proud of using from my stash are those old Making Memories washers in the middle of my flowers. Do you remember the metal craze about 5 yrs ago? Well, I just had to have all these metal things, and then I never used any of them. So I decided to do so tonight. I must say that the only things that aren't really old on my layout are the Pink Paislee punch out (the tree in the lower right corner) and the letters by Making Memories for the word climb, although I did buy these things last summer, so they are almost a whole year old. The best thing about this page is that NO NEW supplies were purchased to make this page!!!! YEAH! So go dig into your stash right now and find something to old to use on the next layout you make!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring everyone! I am back from a week of Spring break. We didn't go anywhere but since my son was out of school we did do some extra fun things each day enjoying the spring weather, which has been beautiful here. We are finishing up the week of fun with a sleepover, my son had his 2 best friends over the spend the night last night and so I was able to get a wee bit of scrapping done...that is when I wasn't watching some great basketball games on TV. Did anyone see that Sienna/Ohio State game? Awesome basketball...and the OSU/Tennessee game was just as good...really we love the Big 12 teams and all six made it to the second round of the Big Dance, so we are really happy here at our house. However, we just enjoy college basketball and its fun to just watch all the great games that have been on the last few days. This layout represents my first challenge completed for the Personalscrapper Slice of Life contest. There is a HUGE contest going on over at Personalscrapper and the Grand Prize is a SLICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a great prize huh? Now, I am not sure that I will win of course as it is a random drawing, but the challenges (there are 50) ROCK! I am so excited to work on them and actually get some really neat pages done. This challenge was number 40 (I'm not a chronological person I guess) and is for the all cardstock challenge, you could not use cardstock on your page at all...WOW..now that was a challenge for me, and I really like my results, although I was so so tempted to use some patterned paper on my little house, but instead I used my cuttlebug embossing folder to emboss my roof and it gives the illusion of a pattern, thus giving it the visual appeal we all love with patterned paper. And for those of you who know me, yes I used a circle, previous circle challenges have gotten me liking circles again, see what a good challenge does to you?! LOL! So if you would like to play along to win a Slice or some other great prizes, then come join us over at http://www.personalscrapper.com You have until April 15th to join the site to be eligible to play and the contest runs until April 28th. I cannot recommend this group enough, the kits are great, the message board is very active and the prizes and challenges are awesome and bountiful! Hope to see you there!

Blog Candy Alert!

Sorry folks, its not me giving away the blog candy this time, but one of my fellow bloggers Lisa is on her most awesome blog called Aw Scrap. I have mentioned this blog before on a Fridays Feature Blogger post but I didn't want you peeps to miss out on her YUMMY blog candy giveaway, it is packed with loads of Spring embellishments. The music on her blog will make you smile as will the beautiful eye candy, it is definitely more than worth the price of admission folks! One more little announcement, I have decided to take the next week off for Spring Break to spend more time with my son while he is out of school this week. I will be back this upcoming weekend to post/share something scrappy. So run don't walk to check out Lisa's blog candy giveaway and enjoy my fellow bloggers wonderful blogs posted on the sidebar this week while I take my mini vacation! http://awscraps.blogspot.com Happy Spring!

Git 'R Done Wednesday Lucky Edition

It's the LUCKY edition of Git'R Dun Wednesday! This layout was my answer to TWO challenges I wanted to do, and since time is short (kinda like my money these days) I decided to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. I did this challenge for the Inspired Blueprints sketch challenge using sketch #11 and for a Personalscrapper challenge given by Debbie on the PS board. Her challenge was for us to do a layout using the color green and themed around the word LUCKY. Once I heard the word lucky I remembered this die cut I had left in an old old kit that I never had used and decided it was about time to use it. The colors, however where mainly blue not green, so I set about trying to find paper to match this die cut and lo and behold the scraps still on my desk from my last layout matched! Don't you just love it when that happens?! So I used up so more of my Personalscrapper Nov 2008 kit to complete this layout. The letter stickers are once again American Crafts thickers from the March 2009 PS kit, the paper is by We R Memory Keepers the Nonsense line, felt flower by Stampin Up and die cut from Breezy Designs. I really like the green on this layout, it is bright and cheery. I really like these papers from We R Memory Keepers and am now off to make some birthday cards with the left over scraps and I just might be able to EEK out one more layout (or two) but what sketch to use, what pictures to use? That is the million dollar question right now...any input from all you creative genius' out there? If so, leave me a comment to help me along please!

Family layout for Use your stash Tuesday

Here is my one measly layout I created last weekend. I really like it, but you would think I could do more than one in a weekend...but it was a little tedious cutting out the branch and bird as well as covering, cutting and sanding my chipboard circles. This layout was my entry for the weekly challenge over at 52 sketches last week. It was based on sketch #9. I used the November 2008 Personalscrapper kit featuring We R Memory Keepers Nonsense line. The chipboard and rub ons are from Scenic Route and the letter stickers are from American Crafts. I really like these bright colors, at first I was worried about what pictures to use them with, but really they blend nicely with most pictures. I have almost used up this kit, something I am trying to do with some of my older kits, to make room for all the new ones that keep arriving! HA! It's harder than you think to keep up. I like to bounce from one thing to the next (if you haven't noticed) so I rarely stay with one kit for more than one layout, thus many of my older kits are still taking up space even though I really like them, it seems like I get sidetracked onto another kit quickly. I am off to work on the Inspired Blueprints latest sketch challenge then will begin work on sketch #10 for the 52 sketches weekly challenge for this week, just don't have pics in mind for that one yet. See you tomorrow!

Wild Weekend!

We had a busy busy weekend here at our house. Jakob and my nephew Ryan had a sleepover at our house Friday night. The boys played and played, mostly video games but also some board games and had a great time. Then bright and early Saturday morning we went to Home Depot for the free kids workshop and the boys made a racetrack. It was a neat project and we had fun doing it. Then the boys spent time with their Pappa fishing and shooting BB guns. (I really think this was the highlight for them!). While the boys were off doing that I did my taxes YUCK...but at least they are done for another year! YEA! Sunday I did get a bit of scrapbooking done but I just don't do well in the spring with the time change so I spent a lot of time catching up on that one hour of sleep I lost! I will try and get a nice shot of my scrapbook page I did this weekend so I can upload it here and show you my take on the latest 52 sketches/52 weeks sketch. But until I get around to it, here are some photos of the weekend fun. Catch you back here soon!

Friday's Featured Blogger

I wanted to share a neat blog I happened upon today. Besides the beautiful scrapbook pages, I found this little tidbit of wisdom I thought I would share with you:

I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME. Phillippians 4:13

The Road to Success is not straight. There is a curve called Failure, a loop called Confusion, speed bumps called Friends, red lights called enemies, and caution lights called Family. You will have flats called Jobs. But if you have a spare called Determination, an engine called Perserverance, insurance called Faith, and a driver called Jesus you WILL make it to a place called Success.

So go check it out. The blog is: http://awscrap.blogspot.com/ With the state of the world as it is today I don't think I have heard a more truer description in a while! Maybe if more people followed this mantra instead of waiting around for the government to take care of them we could actually turn some things around huh?

Git 'R Done Wednesday with a sketch

This layout is based on sketch #8 from the 52 sketches/52 weeks website. I took a long time to complete this sketch and had thoughts of skipping it, because truth be known I really don't care for circles. Yes, I am a closet circle hater...no hate mail on this pleez :o) I don't know why I don't care for circles, I just don't. So the thought of a large circle on my page didn't appeal to me, but I had decided a while back I would complete all 52 sketches offered by this amazing site so I forged ahead and guess what? I like it!! It really is surprising if you are forced to work outside your comfort zone what happens. I do like the colors, plus the fact that I got 6 pictures on one page is nice. I used a really old piece of Making Memories paper for the circle and Scenic Route paper from the Metropolis line for the other papers and sticker. Letter stickers are by American Crafts and Making Memories. So now I am off to work on sketch #9 which is due by Sunday for their weekly prize give away, so better get to work on that...and guess what? It features circles too! So who knows before the week is done I may be a big fan of circles after all! I'll make sure and share as soon as I git r done!

March Madness

Yes, it is Use Your stash Tuesday here at My Creative Endeavors but with a March Madness twist today. Do you love college basketball? I sure do, it is really something I look forward to all year long. I am a HUGE fan of the Kansas Jayhawks, but love following all the Big 12 teams. So since basketball is on my mind a lot lately I decided to get out all those basketball pics I have yet to scrap and get them done. On this page I used up a piece of paper that I bought when my son first started playing basketball 4 years ago. I used my long neglected stamp set from Stampin' Up called Sporting Goods for my embellishments. This page is based on sketch #3over at 52 sketches/52 weeks. I discovered this site like 4 weeks ago, but am playing catch up as I didn't get in on the first 4 sketches, so I am backtracking a bit as I plan on using all 52 sketches they put out this year...love that site! I have completed sketch #8, just have to add my journaling and I will show that to you tomorrow. My favorite thing about this page is that I didn't use a lot of embellishments as this year I have totally cut back on buying so many embellishments as I hardly ever use them especially the "themey" ones like basketball or birthday etc, I find that more generic embellishments like brads, flowers etc are more versatile and will get used up faster. Thanks for looking!

Mojo Monday

Isn't this the sweetest picture? My sister took it on Valentine's Day of my niece and my son. I loved it so much I wanted to scrap it right away, and guess what it helped me get my mojo back and get the creative juices flowing, cuz right now I have like 3 layouts on my desk waiting to be finished and more ideas brewing in my brain! In fact, so many ideas, I had a hard time sleeping last night! I like how this turned out, I used paper from Scenic Route Loveland line, chipboard from the same and the journaling tag is from Making Memories. The letter stickers are from American Crafts. I got the inspiration for the title from my PS (personalscrapper) pal Amy who did a layout of the same title. But my favorite touch on this layout has to be the little chipboard bird, given to me by my good friend Angie while we were cropping on Saturday night, she got it in a set from JoAnn's and it is filled with cute little critters and that bird matched my colors perfectly and I really like him. I had a great time cropping with my friends on Saturday night and I was semi-productive, I got more done on Sunday and hope to do more tonight..I'm on a roll and don't want to stop! So keep checking back I will have a lot to share soon!