What the heck was I thinking

doing a kit swap. Was I temporarily insane? Suffering from amnesia? Have I spent too much time sniffing the staz-on? Something must not have been right in my head to think this was a good idea..I mean more than the usual not right that it usually is. It's actually not the swapping of the kits that is the issue...it's the scrapping with the kits that I swapped that is the issue. I just cannot work backwards...by backwards I mean I cannot start with the pretty stuff and then match pictures...I always pull my pics first and THEN get all the pretty stuff to match. The sad thing is I knew this little factoid but apparently I forgot...but at one time I did know this...when I was on the design team a couple years ago I had this same issue. This whole thing of doing things the other way is really making my head spin. UGG! Right now I have 8 kits scattered all over my desk ...5 I made and 3 I got in the swap (which are totally awesome)...and I cannot come up with pictures for any of them...it's driving me nuts. I have photo albums open with post it notes marking photos that might possibly work if I get desperate enough...but I just can't find the right pictures. I thought it would help if I just put all my focus on one kit...but it didn't ...so I figured I would just start working with the kit to get inspired ...that didn't work either... I have now basically mutilated that kit and I still have no idea what pics to put with it. Ugg..and to think I have 2 more kits coming. Nuts right. It's a good thing I have 2 weeks to scrap with these because I am seeing a photo session in my very near future.

Truly, madly, deeply

in love. That's right...like a teenager with her first crush...I am in love...with my new lightbulbs. Yes I said lightbulbs...18 W compact daylight energy efficient lightbulbs to be exact. This is no joke...this is serious, head over heels, never to be parted again love. What is so special about a lightbulb that I would profess such undying devotion you may ask...well thanks to these fabulous light bulbs...I can actually SEE now. As I've mentioned before...I'm just ever so slightly above the 40 year old mark..I don't feel a day over 30 and I act like I'm 12...but my eyes ...well my eyes are 40 going on 60....and even though I have a total of 6 light fixtures in my scraproom...including an ottlight and an overhead fixture with 6 lightbulbs...I am still squinting constantly. It's pathetic. Truly pathetic. Mr. Magoo has better eyesight than me. But thanks to my new found love...my lighting issues will be no more! I found this glorious little slice of heaven last week thanks to an electrician who came to our offices to replace some fixtures...when he was done he put in some new light bulbs. I was literally stunned with how bright they were...just 2 little bulbs and the whole room was 5 times brighter. So of course I had to ask about them and of course once I knew what they were I couldn't wait to get to the store to find one of my own. Finally got to the store and after some searching was able to find one...there it was ...like a stud amongst a sea of duds...my new found love. Of course not wanting to rush into things...I bought just the one...turns out they are a little pricy. As soon as I got it home I immediately removed one of my lackluster soft white 40 watt bulbs ...didn't even wait for the darn thing to cool down ..and I replaced it with my new funny looking twisty bulb and flicked the switch and just like that...bliss. Even with just one new bulb my room was so much brighter. I was officially hooked...so like a junkie...I wanted more. Imagine how giddy I was when I went in search of another score and found out that they are now on sale for half off and I had a coupon...it was like it was meant to be. So now I have replaced a total of 4 bulbs in my overhead fixture and my room is a bright new glorious squint-free workspace...which apparently...according to my kids...can be seen from the end of the street. 

12 hours of yapping and scrapping

that is what I did Saturday. What an awesome time we had at our crop. Spent the better portion of the first couple hours yapping and trying to scrap and getting ridiculed by my "friends" for still working on the same LO for 4 hours...stop laughing...you can't rush art. Hmmph! Finally got past the marathon LO and wisked through the next 3 in record time. Yep only took me 9 hours to do 3 more...pretty impressive huh! In my defense part of those 9 hours was spent stuffing my face...don't worry diet monitors...I behaved...even though my evil "friends" Lori and Jingle brought yummy looking chocolate desserts. I brought salad in an oreo ice cream container and stuffed myself with that...tasted nothing like oreos. :( Besides the non-oreo tasting salad, I enjoyed some super yummy turkey chili that my bud Melissa made for lunch and some turkey meatballs for dinner...it was so not a good day to be a turkey. Besides the yapping and scrapping and face stuffing, I got some shopping in...I was finally able to beat my friend Cheryl to all the good stuff. Whenever we shop together she always shows me stuff and then says isn't this cute...then I say yes... and she says...it's the last one...it's quite the evil game...and it's only really fun for her.

Had some interesting tablemates...my old pal Kerry...or should I say my "young" pal...byatch..the little evil child had fun taunting me about how many years it would be until she was my age...again ...I repeat...byatch. Lucky me I got to sit next to her all day. I had to remind her that I may be ever so slightly over the age of 40 but I could still kick her under 30 ass. Oooh Rah! Sitting next to her did have some plusses...the little techy brought her laptop so I got to see SCAL in action...too cool. May have to add that to the "someday I will buy it" list. I also got to sit with the uber creative Jennifer...no not me...the one the only Jingle...that Jennifer...BTW there were 4 Jennifers in a room of 13 people..totally confusing ...anyways...back to Mrs. Jingle...this girl has some serious creative skills...she made some super beautiful cards...too bad her mad skills don't carry over to packing...the girl seriously lacks in that department...although it made for some great entertainment watching her trying to find anything in her bag o' stuff. Our other tablemate was my friend Stacy...who apparently came to a crop with 12 other people for a "little alone time"...she built a wall of scrap stuff around her and proceeded to crank out layout after layout...if that weren't odd enough...she didn't even SHOP! Gasp. All that pretty stuff and she didn't buy a thing! Can you believe it ...a scrapper who scraps more than she talks or shops...it was like sitting with Big Foot...just hard to believe they exist. All in all we had a great time and a lot of chuckles...mostly totally juvenile and mostly thanks to Kerry's love of the phrase "that's what she said". Good times.

Too bad the time flew by so fast. Already looking forward to the next crop.

As for the 4 layouts I did...I still had to add the journaling when I got home and tweek them a bit hence the reason I'm posting them 2 days later...so without further ado...

And the winner is

Thanks for everyone for leaving me all the great comments about my blog...glad to know everyone is enjoying it so far. I picked a number at random from all the comments I received and the winner is...Christine! Congrats girl! I'll be dropping you an email to get your addy and find out which prize you prefer. 

Hittin the road jack

Super excited to be heading out the door in about 1/2 hour to go crop for 12 glorious hours with my scrappy buds! There are 12 of us getting together at my favorite LSS and we have the whole place to ourselves...the crop room and store...for the whole day! Cool right! Oh yeah! Of course the only downfall is the lugging o' the scrap crap but hey you gotta do what you gotta do...just hoping I didn't forget anything important. I did pack about 30 page kits...slight overkill since I usually only get about 3 LO's done but hey I like to have options. Hopefully I will have a few to post tonight when I get back. Have a great day y'all ... I know I will.

Guess I should start packing

you know since I had all day to it and it's already 8 and I haven't packed a thing for my 12 hour crop that I'm hosting tomorrow. Been too busy getting scrappy and finishing a LO. I had to finish it right since it was on my desk and all...didn't want to put it away undone...besides I was on a roll...can't just stop scrapping when your on a roll. Guess I should stop typing and show you all what I did and get to that packing nonsense now. Not that it really matters what I pack..doubt I'll get much scrapping done...got a great group of friends getting together and it's going to be a blast...if your jealous...you should be. I have fab friends!


Here's the layout I did... really theme-y for me...but it was fun to do...



I did it based on a Page Maps Sketch I found on A Cherry On Top... had to convert mine to 12 x 12 to make room for easter egg...

Will work for scrap supplies

So yesterday my life took an unexpected turn. I have recently joined the ranks of the unemployed. It was my choice. Not the most brilliant decision I've ever made seeing at the moment I don't have another job lined up...but it was something that was a long time coming and something I needed to do. I gave my 2 weeks notice and promptly declared I was taking vacation time and would be back to tie up loose ends on Monday. Pretty ballsy right (read: stupid)...but like I said it was something that needed to be done. Not sure what Monday will bring...I'm sure my boss will be looking to see if the waters can be smoothed over but not sure that we will be able to come to a meeting of the minds. Problem is I'm not looking for more money (although if he offers, who am I to say no) ...what I'm looking for is an attitude adjustment...something I don't think he's capable of. See my boss is burnt out from his business but is too controlling to just retire ...so he passes his misery around the office like a dish of candy. Add to the misery, his micro managing and his misery has now become my misery...and I'm not big on misery (unless it's of my own doing and then I get to wallow all I want). Most people can't understand why I've stayed as long as I have but I tell them it's a mutually abusive relationship which up until yesterday was working in some dysfunctional, Jerry Springer episode, sort of way. Only thing is this didn't end in a knock down drag out cat fight or a paternity test ...although I must say decking him crossed my mind.
So for now I am enjoying my time off as much as possible and planning for what I can. Which today includes surfing the web and looking for free scrappy stuff I can enjoy. If I'm not going to be working, I will definitely be scrapping up a storm and I'll need more goodies...OK I won't NEED but I'll WANT more...after all I can either console myself with paper or chocolate. I think paper is the better choice for me...after all chocolate was my original bad relationship...but hey that's a whole different Jerry Springer episode.

So link me up ladies if you know anyone giving away some scrappy goodness...because I will so be in line for my share. 

It's my blogiversary!!

woohoo! today is a big day for me...my blog has been up for a staggering 7 days! Amazing right? OK so maybe not amazing... how about slightly impressive...would you give me that.

I've learned a lot of blogginess in the last 7 days and I now have mad blog skillz...as evident by the fact that I have yet to accidentally delete my entire blog content. Chalk one up for me. I've even figured out to add those widget things ...cool huh? I'm slowly working on making this blog better and better...at least I hope I am.


To celebrate my first blogiversary I thought I would do what all good bloggers do...give chit away! Hooray! After all who doesn't like free stuff. So for my first giveaway I'm actually offering the winner a choice between whats behind door number 1 and door number 2. Behind door #1 is a fabulous kit to make the Alice in Wonderland wallhanging I posted earlier. You will get 6 CD Cases, 4 Sheets of printable transparency, some die cuts and embellishments and 3 alcohol inks. Behind door #2 is another fabulous kit...from my doubles kit swap like the ones I posted the other day...this kit is full of great papers and embellishments...you wont be disappointed. All you have to do to enter to win is leave me a comment and tell me something you do or don't like about my new blog. You must leave your comment by Midnight EST on Friday March 26, 2010. I will pick one winner at random. Simple right? Good luck! And here's to another 7 days of blogging.

I got krafty last night...

Had to do a monochromatic LO for a scrap-lympics competition I entered and I chose Kraft as my color...I know not the most exciting color.. but hey its a color. I've never done a monochromatic layout before and I discovered they are a lot harder to do than I thought they would be...I apparently don't have tons of stuff in my stash that is monochromatic besides thickers and primas so I didn't have a lot to work with... I also discovered picking pictures for a monochromatic layout is a chore in itself. I did manage to make a few random colored piles o'stuff but was stuck on what do with any of it. After much debate..and a nap (yes I took a nap at 7 p.m.)...and a salad for a snack...I was finally able to come up with a plan. Decided to work with the pics I liked best which meant taking a pass on the pretty blues, pinks and greens and using plain old paper bag brown. Turns out I have a ton of kraft paper and had quite a few different patterns so it gave me some options...also realized that raw chipboard is pretty close in color to kraft paper so decided to pull out a bunch of chip chit to use. After a few dabs from my creamy brown cats eye the chip was a perfect match. Luckily the challenge allows for 10% of the layout to be black or white so I was able to pull some flowers and a title together. Got to say though it's pretty hard to calculate what percentage of a layout a white prima flower is. It took 4 hours start to finish but I finally got it done. Here's the end result....

Seeing double...

Nope I'm not drunk..at least not yet...it's still early after all.. and no I don't need glasses...well actually I probably do but I will never get them...I'll suffer in silence. I'm seeing double because I'm doing this super fun kit swap / scrap challenge. I am hosting the swap on ClubCK right now and I'm also swapping on the side with my bloggy friend, Renee Lamb. The idea is based on the 4 product challenge in Creating Keepsakes magazine...a bunch of scrappers are swapping identical kits ...once the kits reach our swap buddies, we're each going to scrap a layout using our kit and see what we come up with. Doesn't that sound too fun! Here's where the doubles part comes in...instead of going out and buying 2 of everything to swap, each participant is making kits from doubles in her already existing stash. Cool, right! So on top of getting a cool new kit to scrap with, we each get to a little purging at the same time. I already started purging my stash and making my kits and OMG do I have a lot of doubles...I seriously feel like frickin Noah right now. I guess my stash lives by the motto "double your pleasure, double your fun". I had no idea how much stuff I buy that comes with more than one of the same thing. And yes...there is a small percentage of stuff that are things I bought and then realized I already owned...but hey who can keep track of every single goody they own. Anyways I've already made 3 kits and I bet I could easily make another 20 kits and barely dent my stash. And let me tell you these aren't kits made with random remnants from my basket o'crap to put away...these are stellar kits....just look at the pics of what I put together so far. Awesome, right? Mine will be going postal in a day or two...can't wait until I receive mine. Once we get them and get our scrap on, Renee and I will be posting the final results on our blogs...so stay tuned.

Dear inspiration...

thanks for the fabulous ideas for my latest layouts....but...(and this is where I look the gift horse in the mouth) ...could you please come a little earlier than one day before a page call. I would so appreciate it. I bet my boss would too...seeing it's Monday and all and instead of coming in rested from the weekend...I'm like a zombie...and not one of those fun ones who can dance like in the Thriller video...more like the drooling, gruesome ones from Dawn of the Dead. Thank you.

Seriously...I guess I should be thankful inspiration came at all..I wasn't even going to bother with this page call ..for layouts about grandparents...there were several calls posted last week and this one was on the bottom of my list. I actually intended to try another one...for a layout using plastic and pen...it sounded like a fun challenge...but after 3 days I had nothing so I decided to pass. Fast forward to yesterday (can you even do that?) ...I'm sitting with my family watching the St. Patrick's Day parade sucking down a Jello shot and I look over at my step-father and his camera and just like that I get this rush of creative ideas. Not sure if Jello is some sort of brainfood or maybe it was the vodka...or maybe it's a chemical reaction of both...or maybe it was the fumes from all the green hairspray everyone was wearing...but man the creative juices just started flowing. Of course the downfall of this scrapping brainstorm is I still had about 2 hours of parade left and a dinner to attend after. Add to that the small issue of not even having any pictures yet. So I took out my camera and snapped some pics of him with his and watched the rest of the parade.

As soon as the parade was over I made a beeline to my house to upload pictures and get them ordered. Then it was off to dinner...I was like a kid at church...I couldn't wait to get out of there. I know bad right. Luckily my son had a ton of homework so we had to leave early anyways...I swear it's true.

Finally get home with pics in hand (thank goodness for Walgreens) and even as tired as I was from the day I was determined to at least get one of my ideas on paper. Four hours later I finally finished. UGH! Of course now I'm tired and on a scrappy high (a very dangerous combination) so being the glutton for punishment that I am...I gave layout #2 a go. Luckily the scrap gods took pity on me in the wee hours of the morning and I was able to finish the second layout really quickly. Still had to take pics and submit them so that was another hour. By now my eyes are screaming for sleep...I don't know why ...it was only 2 a.m. It was worth it though...got 2 pages done about my mom and step-father that I probably wouldn't have done so it's all good and I got them submitted in time. Now I just have to count down the hours until I can go home and take a nap.

We interrupt this blog for some mommy brag time...

Yesterday my son ran his very first road race..6.2 miles... and out of 55oo participants...he finished 111th! Woot Woot! Oh yeah! So proud of him! No idea where he got the fleet feet from ...he certainly didn't inherit his speed from me...the only way I could run 6 miles is if they gave me 365 days to do it and even then it would be a challenge. Seriously though I am so so happy for him and I know he was really proud of himself today...and rightly so...you did good kid!

Wanna Know What I Can Do?

I can take off my jeans without unbuttoning or unzipping them. Cool ..huh! No I'm not Houdini and no I don't work in a business that requires me to take off my clothes quickly. I can do this amazing (yes I think it's AMAZING) feat because ....I HAVE LOST 25 POUNDS (that so deserved all caps). So hands up in the air ladies and give me a woot-woot! I've been eating better and exercising since the first of the year. I've swapped my double stuff for chocolate rice cakes (which by the way are super yummy) and I'm eating enough veggies to make the bunny in my yard jealous. It's taken longer than I thought but I finally made it to by first big number. When I first started dieting at the first of the year I was losing weight so fast I thought I would be a size 6 by now. Then BAM...I hit that brick wall of dieting commonly known as a plateau...which by the way in Latin is Dietus Haltus...it was so majorly aggravating...what worked for 6 weeks for some mysterious reason stopped working at all. UGH! Finally made it past what is sure to be the first of many plateaus and started to lose again...much slower than originally planned but hey as long as the numbers are going down that's all that matters. Truth be told they probably would've gone down a little faster if not for a few slips here and there...nothing big...an occasional double stuff....a few cocktails when I went out...skipped the treadmill on a few occasions...oh well life can't be all celery sticks and fiber bars. On the plus side after every slip (and the expected self imposed guilt) I got right back to it. And now after all that huffing and puffing on the treadmill and gnawing on carrots I have finally hit my first big number...25...sigh...love that number.

Onto the next 25 (funny how that number sounded better a second ago).

Here's a layout I did to celebrate my big achievement...

Just Like at The Oscars

As with every event there is always a lot of behind the scenes work being done before the big day... then of course afterwards there are the thank yous. You know the drill...I'd like to thank my dentist (get it drill ;), my mom, my barber, my kindergarten teacher, yadda, yadda. Well as much as those long winded Oscar thank you's bore me to tears...I find now that my "big event" is over I too have a little index card full of notes and names of people to thank. You see this blog didn't just magically appear...it was weeks of work ...yes I said weeks. Now for the average person, blogs don't take weeks to set up. But I am not your average person...I am a somewhat needy, computer challenged person who relies heavily on my friends for information, guidance and encouragement. So this morning as I sit here typing in my wrinkled designer gown (it's Gucci...thanks for asking) I'd like to take the time to thank all the little people (I have a lot of short friends ;).

So without further ado...I'd first like to thank my amazing friend Kim (Hi Kim!) and my other late night chat buddies, Emily and Leslie (yes I put her name before yours...get over it) for my being my cheering section...my sarcastic, witty cheering section. Thanks ladies for all your support.

Next I'd like to thank my genius friend, Kerry...when it comes to all things computers...she is the Obi Wan to my Anakin. Kerry helped me with my questions about web hosting and adding custom backgrounds ...needless to say it was quickly determined custom backgrounds are way to complex for my pea brain to handle (HTML what?). She was also the one who helped me finally decide between 2 names for my new blog. Thanks Girl!

And last but certainly not least a big shout out to Amy who helped me big time with my PSE deficiency and helped me with my blog header. That girl has mad skills. Without her I would still be banging my head against the keyboard. Thanks Pixie Dixie!

And lastly thanks to all of you who visited my blog on my first day...I had 290 visits in one day! Absolutely amazing. I feel like Sally Fields (you like me, you really like me). Thanks for making my launch a huge success!

and now your late night news. ;)

Alice in Wonderland

OK the wait is over. I promised you a never before seen project to share with you and I'm ready to make good. Here is my "Alice in Wonderland" inspired wall hanging. I made this wall hanging this past weekend and it was a total labor or love. I haven't been this into a project in a long time...I basically ditched everything I was supposed to do this past Sunday so I could finish it. Bad Mommy! Oh well I'm over the guilt..it was worth it.I got the idea to do this project Saturday when I was down in my cellar (the one I was supposed to clean on Sunday) and I noticed all my unused empty CD cases sitting on the shelf. I used to keep all my stamps in them so I have a bunch. Well I thought what a waste...I really should do something with those. So I grabbed six and headed to my scrap room.Because they are acrylic, my first thought was I had to do something with alcohol inks. From that thought on, the project just took on a life of its own. I needed some pictures for my project so I played around in PSE and discovered I really like the stamped effect so I converted a couple pics to "stamped". After I printed out a few to play with the idea of Alice in Wonderland came to mind... and that's how I came up with the design to do the large image with the 3D foreground. It's perfect for my daughter because we call her Alice sometimes because she has her head in the clouds and has quite the imagination.I know it sounds a little complicated but it really wasn't. It was a little time consuming but it was super simple to do and I will walk you through the steps.

Here's what you'll need: Alchohol Inks, Transparencies, CD Cases, Assorted Embellisments, Fishing Line, Seed Beads, Pop Up Dots

Step 1 - Select Pictures - I chose pictures of my daughter that were evenly lit. Shadows tend to cause issues when you do the "stamp" effect. Also I chose pictures where her eyes were well lit and clearly visible. Again this is because of the stamped effect...squinty or dark eyes don't look so well.

Step 2 - Apply Stamped Effect - Once you select your pictures, you'll need to edit them. I used PSE 5. I just did the basic edits to clean up stray hairs and things like that in the photo but because it was going to be converted to black and white, I really didn't need to tweek colors or anything. Once your initial edit is done, you can do the "stamped" effect. This is super simple to do. For future reference, if I can do it in PSE it has to be easy because I really don't know what I'm doing. So to convert your image to stamped, simply open the effects option, which is shown above your layers palette. When the drop down opens, you'll see a bunch of options and above will be a new bar...look for the drop down menu and select "sketch". Once you select "sketch" you will see another array of options, the "stamped" option is in there. Just click on the "stamped" icon and hit apply. A new window will open showing your image in "stamped" form. You can click under the image and select "fit to screen" to see it better. In that new window, you can make some adjustments if you want. If you slide the light/dark slider to the right, you will get more detail, to the left, less detail. I opted for less detail because I wanted her eyes to be more transparent so I could tint them after. I left the smoothness at 5, that seems to give a good image. Once you get it the way you want, click OK. Don't be dissapointed if some of the images don't look so great in stamped form, this part of the process is trial and error. It took me a while to find pictures that worked well.

Step 3 - Crop, Resize and Print - So now you have your pictures "stamped" you will need to crop them to your liking. I cropped mine so that my daughters face took up approximately half of the image, I also cropped it so it was not a full head shot, basically I chopped the back of her head off. You then need to resize the image to fit the dimensions of the front of the CD case. Since I'm not sure how uniform CD cases are I won't quote measurements. You can figure it out with a scrap piece of paper. After you have the image croped and resized, it's time to print but before you do, you need to reverse it. So if you want your final image to face left, you have to print it facing right. Once you reverse the image, you can go ahead and print this on a transparency.About the CD case...when I got mine, I popped out the hub to use for stamp storage so if you buy them, you will need to do the same before you can do anything. Once I popped out the hub, I unhinged the 2 pieces. For the most part you are only working with one piece (what I refer to as the front). The front is longer than the back and it sits inside the back when put together, the back has the clips on it to hold the cd cover in and is a little shorter to accomodate when it is opened. Hope that made sense.

Step 4 - Adding The Backround - So now you have your printed transparency you need to add the color to the background. Use your alcohol inks and an applicator (I just use pieces of white felt) to add color to the PRINTED side of your transparency. If you've never used alcohol inks ... I can tell you 2 things...one, they are super easy and fun to use and two, you can find tutorials all over then internet. Couple tips to keep in mind while coloring your transparency...alcohol inks spread, so when adding color near the image, don't go to close as to avoid the color bleeding onto the face...also since your working on the backside of the image, apply your main color first, and then apply your other colors. After I did my background, I used a q-tip to apply a little color to my daughters eyes. I also found it looked best if you only tint one feature on the face, if you want to tint the lips, then don't do the eyes and vis-a-versa.

Step 5 - Embellishing - So now that your image is printed and the background is colored, go ahead and flip your transparency over. Important-- before you start embellishing your image you need to cut the transparency to size to fit inside the CD case. Once you add the embellishments this will be very hard to do. Once you are sure it's cut to size, you can start adding the 3D foreground. I used a bunch of my punches and my cricut to create all the tree elements. The tree branch is off the Storybook cartridge... I cut them in multiples and then glued and stacked each die cut to make it the thickness of chipboard. You can get really creative with this part of the project and use all sorts of fun stuff...flowers, birds, snowflakes, butterflies...whatever you would like. Once you have all your embellishments selected, you'll need to assemble them and adhere them to the transparency. Since the transparency is slick, not all glue will work. I used elmers liquid glue for the really small stuff and glue dots for everything else. I also used lots of pop up dots to give lots of dimension. Once I was done with my embellishments, I added a few final touches like stickles and white paint for snow. Once your all done, set it aside until the glue is dry.

Step 6 - Making the wall hanging - while your images dry, this is the time to prepare the cases to be assembled. First you will need to drill 2 small holes on each end of the CD case to string the fishing line through. It's best to pop them back together at this point so they are more sturdy to drill into. The holes on the bottom of each case will actually be in the back of the case, and the holes on top will actually be in the front of the CD case. Once you drill the holes, take the case apart again and put the front aside. Measure out a piece of fishing line that is more than double the length of your wallhanging.

Step 7 - Final Assembly - Once your images are dry, you can place them in the front of your CD case with the image facing out. Now put that aside for a moment. You will start assembling from the bottom of your wall hanging up. Take your fishing line and insert it through the two bottom holes of the CD case and pull the line so that each side is even. Pull the lines up towards the top of the CD Case. Now put a few pop up dots around the back of the case to support the image on the front. You have to do this because of the clips on the side...if not only the sides of the image will be raised and the center will sag. Once you have the pop up dots in place you can snap the front of the CD cover back in place. Now the first one is done. Thread the line through the top 2 holes of the case and then add some seed beads to the line on each side to act as spacers. Repeat until you have all the cases strung together. Then you just tie a knot in the line at the top and your done!

It's a bird, it's a plane....

It's flying pigs! No really...look out your window. I have officially joined the world of bloggers after years of saying "I would never". When will I learn never to say never...apparently never! So if you've ever told your kids "you can stay out until 2 a.m. when pigs fly" it's time to kiss your the little ones goodbye and get ready for a long night because the little piggly wigglies have taken flight.So I know your just dying to know why I started blogging...no...well I will tell you anyways...scrapping. Bet you thought it was going to be some long drawn out explanation but nope, the simple answer is scrapping. I want one place that is mine all mine to blab on and on about my favorite hobby (read: obsession) and a place to show off my handmade creations. Sounds kind of egotistical right...well I guess it kind of is. Oh well...add that to my little list of faults.So now that we've established this is all about me, me, me...you should know a few things about me and my writing style...after all you will be reading all my dribble (read: fascinating tidbits) ..first of all I like dots... see... somewhere I picked up the habit of using them in place of commas. Weird trait but something you should be aware of. I also like to use (read: ) alot...again another quirky writing trait. Oh and one last word of warning and this is a biggie...I tend to babble... if your looking for a blog with nice succinct posts, this ain't it.Want to know about my blog content? Well to repeat...it will be me, me, me. My scrapping. My work. My friends. My daily happenings. But that's not all ...after all I am really not that exciting. I am hoping to have guests to entertain you, challenges for you to try, links to other really cool stuff I want to share, an occasional contest, tips, techniques and lots of other fun stuff. Hopefully I can come up with enough to keep you all mildly entertained.To get this blog kicked off right I have a very cool project to share with you all...but you'll have to wait just a bit longer...need to get my camera to talk to my computer again (they had a mild tiff last night) so I can get the pictures on here for you all. So check back later. How's that for a tease...oh well you know what they say...always leave them wanting more!Oh and once last thing to share, if your going out today, you might want to grab an umbrella...flying pigs can really make a big mess ;).