Organize your Stuff: Week 22(round 4): Dies & BPC

Ok. Here is the deal. As per legal agreements reached long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away…. PA Me has first chair status and extra veto power during the summer (with of course the clause that relinquishes said power to OCD Me for purposes of vacation planning and packing and all forms of “mandatory fun”). As it is summer… for another week and a half until school starts on Sept 1st… we have somehow combined week 20 die cuts with week 22 dies.

However, realistically, we are not really sure why they are two different weeks as you need dies to make die cuts. As we have already shown you all our die cuts/ dies…for the Cuttlebug and Cricut, we figured that we would just share our latest Big Ideas layout for Big Picture Classes. Not only are the words kicking our bottoms, but the smaller sized layouts, as well.

This is out 8x8 layout for the Day 1 word: Share.

Here Grammy took us to pick strawberries to share with the family. These are literally almost all the photos as our camera died upon parking, and Grammy’s card was full (so we swapped)... then hers died too!

Words still unscrapped: less ?!?, give, enjoy, nest ?!?, and cherish. PA Me (and some of the other voices) thinks that some of these teachers were on crack when they chose their word of the day. Seriously... less and nest?!? *breathe* However, that is not PA Me’s problem. She is on sprinkler duty, as we have passed 85 degrees for the first time this summer… and baby duty as Awesome Auntie has an MRI for her foot today, and it is an all-day evolution requiring Our Lady of the Shoe hand waving, smiling, and possibly ribbon cutting. This is something with which Creative Me and the POW will just have to deal.

See you Wednesday!

Organize your Stuff: Week 20(round 4): Die Cuts part 2

Well, the POW promised you a look at our Cuttlebug, and here it is with our dies, still stored in its original box. We used to be a military family, and with 8 moves in 12 years, original boxes became important. We really do not have that many dies as we have the Cricut, but we are beginning to get more (the Inner Hoarder likes the low prices and portability that the Cricut does not always have)… and embossing folders too!

This layout was made for a DT to which we are applying (it had to have an orange theme)…and the die cuts (fish) are made from mat board! Too cool! (Creative me and OCD Me battled over the googly eyes, but Creative Me won...and they are on the fish). Infomercial Alert: The matboard pieces come as a part of the monthly kits from Heartstring Designs, which we discovered at a CKC convention.

This is our trip to the Trout Farm with Grammy and Grampy. We think fishing is neat, and with small children...if possible fast, as they have the attention span of gnats.  It also shows the importance of knowing where your food comes from. All was well until the fish gutting. For a minute and a half, we thought that Girl Friday would go vegetarian…or non-fishatarian… when the check out gal pulled out the still beating hearts for the boys. But, luckily she got over it, and decided that fresh fish is awesome! PS- a week later, Illusive Middle Child fought a massive rock, paper, scissors battle for the privilage of eating trout eyeballs at Cub Scout day camp, and deemed them yummy. Eeewwww! (Sushi anyone?)

As for the home front, same old, same old. Fabulous Spouse drilled this weekend, and we had Cub Scout splash and jam. Now it is back to football practice and cheerleading. Fabulous Spouse does say that the Oldest Child is beginning to get a decent spiral on his long snap. Woo hoo.

Tomorrow brings us to pens and pencils in our organization prompts…Copics too I assume !-)

Have a great Tuesday!

Organize your Stuff: Week 22 (round 3): Dies Part 2

Alright! We have a confession to make… my name is Indigo Montoya, you kill-ed my father! Prepare to die! Woops, channeling The Princess Bride. Again. However, I must admit, that using my cuttlebug was not nearly as painful as we thought that it would be. In fact, the results were actually kind of neat! The POW is also kind of proud that we were actually able to scrap an event that actually happened just this Tuesday- Girl Friday’s Daisy Investiture Ceremony! (It is official…she is a Girl Scout!)

PA Me kept us away from that box all week, which was actually pretty easy with the three kids and their extracurricular activities. (At least that is what she kept telling me when the POW and Creative Me headed towards the box). Luckily, OCD Me finally got fed up yesterday morning…yes, it took until Thursday morning to open the box. OCD Me took out this contraption and read the directions (yes, we do read directions), only to find out that somehow during the one time that the cuttlebug (doesn’t it kind of sound like cuttlefish? Ewww slimy and tentacle-y….Stop it PA Me! Anyway…) was out of the box it did not get put back with all of its parts. Creative Me had two embossing folders, but only one of two “B” plastic plates.

So, off to lunch with Fabulous Spouse, who happens to work near a big box store that takes 40% off coupons, and then back home to… little guys out of school, homework, picking up Oldest Child from sports, taking Oldest Child across town for another school activity, almost making it home then getting called by Oldest Child to bring dinner (as the POW asked Oldest Child to get originally, but Oldest Child was convinced that there would be food), getting food and returning across town, and then repeating the process thirty minutes later! Finally, though, the layout is done! And Creative Me is proud of the result of using white core paper in the embossing folder!

Illusive Middle Child mini album update: Cover Complete! (and photos in place). Spoiler Alert: yes, they are all Halo Legos in battle with each other.  Yes, as a Mom, most of these pictures look exactly the same.  No, to Illusive Middle Child, they are unique and highly critical to the story telling process. End Spoiler. Now all that he and Creative Me need to do is use the Cricut for some titles and add some journaling, and not cause OCD Me to send him to his room! Then we will be ready to share the whole thing.

As for storage, we are afraid that is going to have to wait for Round 4.  OCD Me will just have to be happy with a neat space in its box.  This is because the scrap room was overrun today by the last vestiges from the old scrap room… which by the way, we are happy to report, is empty and ready for paint!  Thanks Fabulous Spouse and Girl Friday for the final hauling! (PA Me was able to stall, what, a year to get all of Creative Me and the Inner Hoarder’s stuff out of there! Not bad…for PA Me that is!)  Tuesday is Week 23: Templates...does anyone have these anymore?

Oh, I almost forgot! *Disclaimer: Infomercial time* We are almost half way done with our 2 Week International Blog Hop with Blog Candy for Tuesday Trio! Remember… these Blogs slice, dice, and even julienne…paper (you thought that we’d say fries, didn’t you!). Now, for a limited time, you can win some paper crafting goodness...picture last post!... for the low, low price of FREE! One lucky lady (or man…) who 1) is a follower (their rules not mine) and 2) leaves a comment answering the following question: do you have a die cut system (the POW says a Cricut counts) and do you use it (or are you like my Inner Hoarder who has one in the box but never uses it)? If you left a comment last post, here is your chance to be entered again! Remember, if you have an address and win, we will ship! If you have a guard animal…that is between you and your mailman!

Here are the other Blog Hoppers:

Dailly http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/userblog.asp?foldername=daillyg
Chen http://cheniros.blogspot.com/
Orli http://orlishamir.blogspot.com/
Shir http://shir-benovich.blogspot.com/
Zehavit http://zehavitshaked.blogspot.com/
Maya http://mayadahan.blogspot.com/

Organize your Stuff: Week 22 (round 3): Dies Part 1

International Blog Candy!

First, the Infomercial: This week at Tuesday Trio, we are proud to announce a new Design Team Member: Zehavit Shaked! And in honor of her joining, we are having an international Blog Hop! …with Blog Candy! That’s right ladies! You too could win a small package of paper crafting goodness from this site and each of the other Design Team blogs as well!

Sound too good to be true! No! This is no Sham-Wow! This is an honest to goodness freebie!  No shipping and handling required! All you need to do, is 1) become a follower. These are their rules not ours, sorry... and 2) post the answer to the following question: What area do you most need help organizing (scrapbook related…I do not do hall closets, pantries, or under the kids beds…the sock monster lives there and he scares me)? At the end of the Blog Hop, we will random number generator a winner. It does not matter where you live. If you can receive mail, you can enter! Now back to your regular programming…

Here is my Design Team Card for Sketch 52 this week at Tuesday Trio. The bonus challenge it to use glitter.  It has glimmer mist from Tattered Angels that the photograph just does not pick up.  Bummer! Creative Me has forgotten how messy glitter can be…It is like sand from the beach...it just gets everywhere...and you can still find remnants six months later.  Another hiccup, Creative Mee failed to account for how slow the glue can dry when it is raining nonstop and just damp out. The POW thinks that rain is OK. We could be like the rest of the United States and be under FEET of snow!

As for dies… the Inner Hoarder has never really taken to die cutting machines. That is why we have our Cricut (see Week 20: Dies Part 1 & Part 2).  The love was done on the Cricut machine. This leaves me with this little guy. Believe it or not, Creative Me won this as the Grand Prize at a crop. We got a ticket for each layout completed. With our Irish luck (yes, we are part Irish…and therefore Murphy’s Law applies in almost any given situation), we won the one prize that we would not use. It has been out of the box once since…

My challenge to myself this week… break out this sucker and use it for my layout… and find it a home in the scrap room! Well, that, finally get Illusive Middle Child's mini album done, and homemade Valentines Day cards for Girl Friday (who is not happy that the Illusive Middle Child has entered her scrapping kingdom).  Also, February's One Little Word homework should be up! Speaking of OLW,  they are blog hopping too today (and I am the last link!) Here is my Word Inspiratioin mini...why we chose Embrace, and here is our completed January homework!  Creative Me will be busy this week, so wish us luck!

(resuming infomercial voice) Here are the other bloggers in the Tuesday Trio Blog Hop:
 
Dailly http://www.tapuz.co.il/blog/userblog.asp?foldername=daillyg
Chen http://cheniros.blogspot.com/
Orli http://orlishamir.blogspot.com/
Shir http://shir-benovich.blogspot.com/
Zehavit http://zehavitshaked.blogspot.com/
Maya http://mayadahan.blogspot.com/

Organize you Stuff Week 22 & 23 (round 2): Dies and templates

Wow it has been a busy week out here in the non scrapbooking part of my Universe! I braved a weekend at the 8th largest Fair in the World-the Puyallup Fair…or so they say (I don’t think that you would make it up for 8th place…for third place maybe) with the three kids and just myself and managed to return with all three kids and nobody grounded, cub scouts, boy scouts, missed girl scouts-oops, the first football game for Oldest Child ever in which he played (to be scrapbooked soon), Fabulous Spouse returned from his trip to Japan, and we have Middle School Open house.

To make it less stressful, I joined a six week layout “Glee Club" at Dixie Pieces. You too can join-tell them Scrappnbee sent you and I get 2 points *smile*! It is a lot of fun. This week is The Beatles. There are several Beatles song titles from which to choose. I chose “Ticket to Ride”. You will have to imagine that my layout is here, as Costco lost my file last night, and the photo machine is down this morning and a tech won’t be at the store to fix it until tomorrow. It is that darned Murphy’s Law thing again. Darned you Murphy!!!

Use the force, and imagine that this is Fair Pictures with a whimsical yellow submarine 1970s-ish flare (that’s how it looks in my mind anyways). I promise to post it before midnight Friday, as that is when this week’s challenge closes.

Oh, also good news to share! My apple tree greeting card won the Layout #33 Challenge at Tuesday Trio (Yeahhh!) The POW is so excited she is virtually doing cartwheels and I think that OCD Me is ready to hit her.

As for the dies and templates… My cricut is the only thing that I have. Fortunately…or un-, I never got into the diecut machines prior to the cricut release. I think that was mostly due to some greater realization by the POW that, at the time, I had a laundry basket and a Rubbermaid bin for all of my scrapbooking storage, and dies and templates would just eat up too much space. Besides, most of my local scrapbook stores had dies if I truly needed it, and I am more a stamper than a die cutter. (Sorry die cut fans). Here is my Cricut Expressions at home in the scrapbook room. The cartridges are tucked away nearby for ease of access as I have not made the leap to a Gypsy yet…someday maybe.