**Magic**

What do you do when have a birthday party for a five-year-old pop up out of the blue? When it’s the very next day and you really don’t want to try and squeeze in a trip to the store? Not to mention wrangle all the kids into first the car, then the store, then the car again? You make a magic bag of course. And if you’re lucky (like me) then your kids will think it’s a super cool idea and join in on the fun. And if your kids are lucky (like mine) then they just might end up with a magic wand of their own. 😉

Magic bag

We made a super-quick drawstring bag for the “magic bag”. We put a black ribbon through it for the tie. Next came the cool-i-o magic wands. Stars were cut from Crayola sparkly paper and glued together and to a popsicle – I mean craft – stick. So easy, fast and fun.

We added a magic trick with instructions – “Up, Up and Away”. It’s all about lifting a dime with a straw, so those were included as well. I had an extra Family Fun magazine from our library discard pile, so we put in the article about all the neat tricks our bodies can do. Oh my, an educational present. lol. I did have the thought that it would be fun to make 4×6 layouts of the magic tricks and print those out – all colorful and whimsical (and inexpensive to boot). Maybe for a future birthday. I can think of two little boys that wouldn’t mind this present.Magic bag with tricks

a quote to remember…

I love a good quote. One that makes you say “amen” right after reading it. One that you wished you had said first – lol. One that makes you think. One that makes you laugh. One that inspires. Here is one that fits many of those categories.

“Above all else, it is about leaving a mark that I existed: I was here. I was hungry. I was defeated. I was happy. I was sad. I was in love. I was afraid. I was hopeful. I had an idea and I had a good purpose and that’s why I made works of art.” -Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Amen.

A true gentleman…

I pulled open the van door tonight and asked the kiddos to hop in. Joshua (3 and 1/6 years old – but who’s counting 😉 ) started to climb in and then stopped. He climbed down and said, “Ladies fwirst”. He then proceeded to help his little sister Autumn into the vehicle. Ahhhh, melted this mommy’s heart.

The best part is that I know where Joshua gets his sweet, helpful nature from – the gentleman that always opens my door.

Why I Scrap…

This contest deserves a blog entry of it’s own. 🙂

Scrap Artist had a contest to describe why you scrap. The prize for the contest is a free custom kit made by two of the designers at Scrap Artist, Michelle Coleman and Dianne Rigdon.

Here’s the gorgeous ad header for the contest:

Why I scrap

For the contest, we were asked to include images, color ideas and/or journaling on why we scrap. There were 80 entries and they were so fun to read through and see all the reasons that people participate in this wonderful artform.

Here’s the entry I posted:

Why I Scrap contest entry

fonts:Black Jack and SA Cinta, filter on photos: brownie by Virtual Photographer, color swatch and photos by me

I took these photos of Joshua within a minute’s time. He was just being so silly and hamming it up for the camera.

My journaling for the entry reads:
“I scrap to become more like my children.

My eye for detail and wonder of life (two of the qualitites my children possess) have grown since I began scrapbooking. I not only want to preserve my memories, I want to make my memories worth preserving.

My children teach me many lessons that I also see reflected in my scrapping. To use a few well-known scrapper’s mottos, I am able to see “the bigger picture” and “enjoy the process”. Now if only that undo button worked with parenting. 🙂

My children and scrapping remind me of the importance of quality play time. I also play dress-up on my pages and my imagination is free to wander.

Because of the digital scrapbooking community, I believe in friends that you cannot see.

I try to reflect my children’s expressive nature in my layouts, and it is also an outlet for me to express myself.

Scrapping helps keep me young and child-like. I am nowhere near grown up.”

Now, everyone that entered receives the kit, so I felt I had nothing to lose. I love Michelle and Dianne’s work. I have been a big fan of them and the Scrap Artist website for over a year now! However, I did not in a million years guess that I would be the grand prize winner! wahoo!

I received an email late Friday night from Michelle and I had a hard time going to sleep that night I was so thrilled. 🙂 I also received a congratulatory email from Dianne on Saturday. I am so excited to work with these ladies.

Check out Michelle’s blog entry about it. There she says “I loved the adorable, expressive photos of her son Joshua and her included color swatch 😉 Becky has won a $20 GC to the ScrapArtist Shoppe as well as a custom kit created specially for her and Joshua, she will be given access to a private gallery where she will be able to watch her developing kit and will have input on the final product. I imagine her photos will inspire a fabulous, playful little boy kit!”

In all seriousity – I am thrilled and stoked and a tad excited. This is so cool. 😀

A contest gone … a contest won.

You can’t win them all.

I found out last night that I did not move on to the next round in the Ultimate Digi-Scrapper contest. I did make it three rounds though! 🙂 Not too shabby. It was narrowed down from 380 to 200, then 100. My layout for Round 3 can be found here. The cut last night was to 40. Ouch. I did not make it but the challenge sounds so fun, so I might post in the “play along” gallery.

Ultimate Digi-Scrapper ad

And for kicks and giggles, in the outside world, I could sign my name, Becky, Puddle Jumper and in the top 100 Digi-Scrappers. Ah, hahahaha. Seriously though, some amazing ladies went on and some amazing ones were cut too. I can’t complain. I have three gorgeous layouts I love. And then there are some of my very favorite “layout artists” that didn’t even enter the competition.  I don’t feel it’s a tried and true way to find the “top” digi-scrapper of course, but it sure is a lot of fun.

On to more scrapping news.

I entered the Shabby Princess NSD layout contest at The Shabby Shoppe. I won third place in the “Dinner Party” contest. I scraped some pictures of Jacob when we lived in Layton. He was 2 years old and would have picnics with his stuffed puppy, Tiny, all the time. Here’s the layout:

Party of 2

Dinner Party kit by Shabby Princess and Sara Carling, 2 from Distressed Alpha by Michelle Coleman, fonts: Journaling Hand and JWoodbury

I won 10 dollars PayPal cash. How cool of a prize is that? Sweet! Now to figure out what to spend it on. I like a dilemma like this. 😉

Cookies with Michael …

Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! Don’t you just love holidays like this? It was just the push I needed to bake this evening. 🙂

I had a wonderful time baking and singing along with Michael Buble. Maybe that is why they turned out so yummy:

Cookies with Michael

flower brush by Rhonna Farrer

Warm, gooey chocolate chip cookies and Michael Buble’s “Home” song, mmmmmmmmm heaven.

I have a wonderful recipe for chocolate chip cookies from a good friend I met in college, Gavin Cox. It happens to be on a layout I made a few months ago.

Cookie Bakin' Kiddos

Sugar kit by Dani Mogstad, Template used to cut heart also by Dani, Brown heart by Amy Jo Smith, Cross stitch by Shabby Princess, fonts: JW Artists Manual Type, Artistamp Medium, Journaling Hand

Now, when is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough day? 😉

Tasty Cookie Dough

swirly brush also by Rhonna Farrer

Happy Mommy's Day!

Yummy Mommy's Day

This is what I woke up to this morning. Mmmm. Some of my favorites. Pancakes with homemade strawberry jam and scrambly eggs with cheese. It’s not often that I awake to the smell of breakfast cooking – and what a wonderful smell. Jacob and Joshua helped Daddy get it all ready and were such sweethearts. I hope every Mommy gets this treatment at least once. Andrew, who normally screams through his baths, was so calm today. Not happy, but calm. I’ll take it. And then Autumn kept saying, “nummy” during her dinner of burrito and lemon-lime jello. She was so pleasant and thankful. I am so spoiled. 🙂 Happy Mommy’s day to the rest of you out there! May you have many of the things that make you happy.

Something new, but worn…

Nancie Rowe Janitz, a digital designer that makes gorgeous scrapbooking kits, came out with a new product. Okay, so it’s not new new, but pretty new.

Digital Distressing Kit

It is called the Digital Distressing Kit and looks to be fabulous. The description from the website says:

“This Digital Distressing Kit from ScrapArtist will help you to create wonderful accents for your digital scrapbook projects, distress a paper or two, create overlays and much, much more!

Included in the kit are 67 brushes and 19 overlays, designed to simulate distressing techniques from the real world! These brushes and overlays will help you to sand, chalk, and distress your digital creations, as well as create realistic inked edges, stamp pad effects and acrylic paint brush strokes. All brushes are included as Photoshop Brush sets (.abr) as well as .PNG files.

As a BONUS, when you purchase the Digital Distressing Kit, you’ll also get a tutorial in PDF format which will walk you through each technique by helping you create a project or two. In addition, this tutorial includes goodies so you can follow along every step of the way!”

I love the fact that it comes with a tutorial and am excited to use the chalking, inking and sanding to give some of my layouts that wonderful “worn” look. When I won a gift certificate to Scrap Artist as part of National Scrapbooking Day, I knew exactly what I wanted to purchase. It is now downloaded and I am thrilled to play.

*Review coming soon!* 🙂

Courage and bravery for all…

okay, so there is so going to be a layout right here.  That’s right.  It’s just still in the works.

Wondertime

I *know* that this magazine, Wondertime, is in print just for me. It is the bestest one in the wide whole world (to steal a phrase from my three-year-old son, Joshua).

Wondertime

The subtitle of the magazine is “Celebrate your child’s love of learning”. It is full of ideas to do just that. It is by the makers of Family Fun magazine, another of my favorites. Family Fun is full of fun crafts, recipes and travel ideas. I have subscribed to it for years and have used lots of ideas from it.

This magazine though is full of learning-related articles. The articles I have read have been about imaginary friends, teaching your children how to work, and how to answer those science questions that come up (like why is the ocean salty). This issue also has a fun article on “outing your inner child” that teaches adults how to play again and one on learning games for the wading pool. Fabulous! The writers are top notch and there is enough content to keep this reader happily busy for a while. Add in the ideas I plan on using from this magazine and it is well worth the money.

I love the focus of this magazine. The photography is simply gorgeous and the feel of this magazine is amazing. The magazine is a larger one, the pages are thicker and they smell wonderful. Yeah, I might be a tad obsessed. Especially since it’s only my second issue, the second issue ever printed. But I believe in love at first sight. And this is it. 😉

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