Time gets away from me

I really think the name of my blog should be "and time gets away from me again." I mean really!!! Okay, I'm done with school for this quarter (was on the 19th) and am gearing up for next quarter (January 11th.)

I didn't really make Christmas cards this year. I was exhausted when I was done with school and work both. I did make 13 cards for work, assembly line style, very simple for my co-workers. Now I'm doing a few New Year's cards to try out some new techniques to take with me up to my dad's for New Year's. One for my dad and Sue, one for Aunt Kathy and Uncle Rick, one for Aunt Karen and Uncle Mike and one for Grandpa and Grandma...hope they all can make it.

I haven't had time or energy to just be creative. These four little cards I'm making for New Year's are really for me. I mean I'm giving them away, but they are for me to be able to play a bit. I've fallen in LOVE with one of my Ranger embossing powders. It's a clear embossing powder that has GLITTER in it. It looks amazing to make snowflakes with...subtle but elegant (kind of .)

I also just got the latest stamps by Michael Strong...AMAZING of course!! They are paisley and I can't wait to use them!! I'm thinking maybe a birthday card soon.

Oh, and as I'm wrapping this brief little entry, I have to tell you that while I'm not a big TV watcher, I'm in LOVE...L-O-V-E with Glee!! I'm a total Gleek, have downloaded both season 1 CDs to my Ipod, have downloaded all season 1 episodes to my Itunes account as well...watching them on demand....love them!! It is totally my "happy" show. Every episode makes me smile!!

Got to run now, time for the kids to call their Grandma and say thank you for the books she sent them!!

sharing some photos

Thought I'd share some pictures I took in the studio this past Saturday. The one of the buildings is acutally outside (like you needed me to tell you that) of my school.

This month...

I really don't want this to turn into just a once a month thing, but life sure gets in the way of what you "want" to do sometimes!! Lots is going on in my little corner of the world. I'm still in school (quarter doesn't end until the middle of next month) we've taken a friend in with her three kids, I'm still working full time and I'm just trying to stay caught up with things. I'm still happy in school, though sometimes I allow myself to get a little overwhelmed. I'm looking forward to next quarter as well as my classes look pretty cool (more on that later.)

I've gotten A's on my color theory projects, which REALLY makes me happy as we are mostly working with paint and I am NOT a painter. They are beautiful pictures, but they are showing that I do understand the concepts, whether I do them pretty or not LOL!! This one was using a monochromatic and an achromatic color palette.
My photography class, of course, is my favorite. Rocky is so encouraging and really enjoys teaching us how to take pictures and get the most out of our cameras. No matter what I do when I graduate, what I will have learned from him will be priceless.

This is the week of Thanksgiving and things are hopping around here for sure. My work schedule is crazy as we'll be busy at CVS, and I only have one day off of school (because of my schedule) not to mention cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures of all the festivities!!

A long time coming

I promise I've been trying to write this blog post for like, well FOREVER. It seems every time I sit down to write it all the "quietness" in the world disappears and I lose all ability to concentrate. So, right this very minute I have some quiet, so I'm going to write as much as I can!!

I know it's been forever since I've written anything...I think I'm still recovering from the Crop Out Autism event. It was so incredibly awesome and yes, really wore me out. But there are new and exciting things happening in the Snips of Time world and that's what I want to share!

I've mentioned before that I've made the decision to go back to school. Last quarter was what they call a "short quarter" where you do a quarters worth of work in 5 and a half weeks and it was an Internet class besides. LeighAnn will not be taking an Internet class again unless she absolutely HAS to. For one, it takes half the fun out of it, not being in the class room setting and being able to "share" with your classmates and instructor; but the hardest thing for me really was that because you couldn't share by talking to each other and your instructor, everything was a "written" assignment. I don't have a problem with writing assignments, but because everything was written, everything had to be cited using the MLA format...that was a minimum of 3 discussion questions, a PowerPoint presentation, and an essay every week.

But NOW I'm into the fun stuff...I'm taking classes on campus at the Art Institute of Indianapolis and am LOVING it!! This quarter (which started October 5th) I'm taking Principles of Photography, Color Theory, Fundamentals of Design and Computer Applications. Being that I'm a creativity driven person, this quarter ROCKS!! I love my instructors, and you can tell they really are passionate about what they are teaching.

I'm not going to bore you with me going on and on about how much fun I'm having, but I will post pictures from time to time of what I'm doing in photography, color theory, and design.

Here is a photo I shot for one of my photography assignments. The assignment was to shoot something with a long focal length and short depth of field (if you care about the technical stuff.) I picked it because it's the "hood ornament" from a '34 Packard V12. This is the only hood ornament that is still out there and there are only maybe 3 to 5 of these cars left. A little bit of interesting trivia about this car is that Al Capone had three of these, one of which was the same color as the car in this actual photo. Oh, the hood ornament is worth about $10,000!!

Well, that's all for today...I'll try to be better about writing and keeping you posting on all the Snips of Time "going ons." I know the news won't be as much about things I've created for scrapbooking and cardmaking as before, but hopefully things will still be interesting and creative.

Have a creative day!!

The Crop Out Autism Franklin 2009 crop

I have to share how incredibly AWESOME the Crop Out Autism Franklin was. We had a small turn out, but we had a BLAST!! That's Tricia Morris and Michael Strong. All I can say is, I don't know if we can top our "instructors" for next year!! I'm already brainstorming in who we can invite. Do you think Becky Higgins or someone like that is aiming too high?! To be honest, I really don't know if even she could top Michael and Tricia...what an incredible combination!!

We took a fantastic card class from Michael and Tricia taught us Assembly Line Scrapbooking. Both classes were amazing. I used to watch them both on the Scrapbook Lounge on TVWeekly, when it was still available ( a weekly webisode) and fell in love with them there. To meet them in person, well...there are no words and they both were so patient and real people!!

The croppers who came to support this worthwhile cause were very generous with each other and our charity. We raised a total of $519 for the Johnson County Autism Support Group and can't wait to set the date for the next crop...looks like April!! April is Autism Awareness month.

I have more to share about the crop...but I'll give it to you in bits and pieces as I don't want to go on and on in one long post and because it seems I can't sit still very long to write. So much always going on!!

School on campus starts for me this coming Tuesday and things will get crazy from there on!! I'm taking four classes this quarter and each class meets once a week for four hours each. I have two classes on Tuesdays, one Wednesday evenings and one Saturday mornings. I'm still working full time as well! I always like a challenge!

Well, now I really need to get off to bed. I have to be up at 6:00 as I have to be at work at 7:30 tomorrow morning!!

God Bless and happy crafting!!

I've been sooooo busy!!! I'm sorry!

Well, the intent of this blog was to keep you up to date on the "Snips of Time" world and what have you...I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to keep you updated!! So I'm MAKING some time right now and here's what I have to tell you about.

We are still having the crop (Crop Out Autism Franklin) on September 26th (that's a Saturday.) Things are moving right along and we're looking at it to be a blast!!
http://cropoutautismfranklin.blogspot.com/ There is the link to the blog, check out the details!!

Now in Snips of Time world, I have the crop of course, but I've always taken the plunge and went back to school. It's been about 17 years since I graduated from college!!! Yes, my brain cell still work and this old dog is learning new tricks. I'm attending the Art Institute of Indianapolis to get a bachelors in Photography. This coming quarter will be filled with Fundamentals of Design, Color Theory, Computer Applications and Principles of Photography! I'm totally excited!

Other than going back to school, work, the kids and just life in general keeps me busy. I haven't been crafting much at all lately, but that's mainly because I've been focusing on my school work!

Speaking of school work, I better get off of here and start working on my next assignment.
God Bless and happy crafting!!
LeighAnn

Check this out!!!

I haven't been posting much lately as I've had a lot going on, but this couldn't wait and I hope all of you check it out.

The website for Crop Out Autism Franklin is up and ready to take your registration info
http://www.scrapbookroyalty.com/crop_out_autism.html. So GO THERE and register for the best crop EVER!!

We have three, count them THREE amazing people coming to teach us fantastic techniques. Ana Cabrera, Michael Strong and Tricia Morris. I'm as giggly as a school girl I'm so excited!! Please register soon, we only have 30 spots total for the event, so seats are limited.

Elena from Scrapbook Royalty is just as excited as I am and we can't wait for the special Saturday to get here so we can have fun with all of you.

Check my blog Crop Out Autism Franklin to see other details.

God Bless and make something!!
LeighAnn

Just an update

I haven't been writing much, that's because of computer issues, but I think those are mostly solved. Now it's just day-to-day stuff that has been keeping me busy.

I did have an order of 40 wedding invitations. I got those done and in the customer's hand on Monday. They turned out really cute. She is having a simple wedding so they weren't "elegant" but they did turn out pretty and Danielle (my friend and customer) was happy with them...that was the most important thing to me.

I am "attempting" to get more organizing (no laughing please) because there are some things I really want to accomplish. I want to be able to get some inventory created so that I can stuff on handmade.com and maybe on some other sites. We'll see.

I always have "ideas" but it's getting the actual stuff accomplished that I have trouble with sometimes!!

I don't have much else to tell you about right now. So I'll end it here for now. I'm hoping that day-to-day I'll have more to tell you about!!

God Bless, and PLEASE go be creative!!
LeighAnn

Updates

I don't really have much to tell you about. My life is pretty much the same but there IS something I want to tell you about.

It's about a charity event my friend Lisa and I are planning for September 26th, 2009. It's called Crop Out Autism Franklin and it's a Scrapbook Royalty affliated event. Check out the blog I've dedicated to it and become a follower of the blog so that you can stay up to day on all the info!!

http://cropoutautismfranklin.blogspot.com


Thanks for looking!!

Just a thought

I follow a lot of other blogs...just check out the list I follow. There might be something there that interests you. I've found tons of inspiration from other blogs as well as sketches for layouts and cards. Check them out and make sure to give the bloggers feed back...we all like to hear from you!!

God Bless,
Be Creative!!
LeighAnn

Sharing my love

I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite things. The only problem I'm having is where to start. Do you want to know about my favorite scrapbook products? my favorite TV shows? my favorite anything?

First I'll sing praises to a podcast I think I've sung praises to before...but sometimes I can't help myself. You HAVE to check out Diva Craft Lounge. Diva Danielle and Rayme the Duke of Crafts are FANTASTIC!! I try to listen to them live on Wednesdays when I'm off, otherwise each and EVERY podcast is saved in my Itunes and my favorites are on my Ipod. They interview the BEST guests and they always inspire me to keep creating. PLEASE check them out and let me know what you think. Let them know what they think as well...they have a blog too
http://scrapbooksrubberstampsandcrafts.blogspot.com/

Now on to magazines. Now, I'll admit I subscribe to EVERY scrapbook magazine on the market (I think) but I do have a favorite or two. Scrapbook Ect is my favorite. To me it's a middle of the road scrapbooking magazine and would work well for the beginner or the advanced scrapbooker.
Check out their web page and all that they have on there. It's almost as good as the "paper" edition http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/ call me old fashioned...I still like paper and books. However their website has TONS of information on it and there are paper piecing templates galore on it as well as all kinds of tips.

Now on to product. Right now I'm totally into bling. So, when I'm speaking of favorites I'm not even talking name brands here, I'm just talking what I like. I ordered some awesome adhesive mini pearls from Paper Wishes (I'll talk more about Paper Wishes in a bit) that I love and I have all these little adhesive rhinestones that I think are from Doodlebug Designs. I know I dropped a name there, but with a name like Doodlebug, how can you NOT like them? Anyway, I've been buying little "jewels" here and there. I have some rhinestones from Heidi Swap too that I can't wait to use. Part of my whole favorite thing right now is bright and cheery as well. Can't tell I'm over winter can you?!! After all the gray days we've been having, I've had to do layouts like the ones I posted in my last blog. It goes back to the happy vibe thing...who doesn't need a happy vibe?!

Now I really believe in shopping at your local scrapbook store. I don't mean the "box" stores either, though they are nice. I mean your local small business scrapbook stores. However, they are closing left and right. Here in Franklin, we don't have any and the ones that are a reasonable drive away are closing faster than I can get to them. Even my very most favorite store in the whole world Scrap N Nook that was in New Berlin, WI has closed...that one brought me to tears!! Anyway, without those stores to go to I've had to find alternative ways to find my favorite products. I tend to turn to the Internet, as with gas prices and time it's much more convenient, if you know what you want, to click a button and buy it. So, my FAVORITE online store is Paper Wishes. Check them out at http://www.paperwishes.com/ . There's a lot of reasons I'm really impressed with them. For one, they carry an amazing selection of product AND my favorite part is that they do weekly webisodes showing you how to USE the amazing products. How can you not love that?! Their customer service is bar none and if you email Sara Naumann she will email you back!! After you watch a couple of webisodes you feel like friends and they really teach you some awesome things. I highly recommend you check out their templates!! I've never seen anything like them anywhere else and I own ALL of them!!

I have many more favorites, but I think I've babbled enough and given you enough web addresses to check out. I do intend, at some point to actually write a blog that gives you all the web addresses I have for videos, and so on so that you can bookmark them and check them all out.

I have so many things that inspire my creativity that I want to share with you. I think we have so much to share with each other. So make sure you share back!!

Be creative,
God bless,
LeighAnn

Just a fun layout

This is nothing extraordinary in the technique department, it was just a fun layout. I think the colors were my favorite part...I've been in a pink "phase" for quite a while now. Which, is really funny if you know me, I'm really not a girly girl at all. Anyway...the colors in the papers made me HAPPY so I like looking at the layout. Does that make any sense at all?




This part is actually the right hand side of the layout. I love the paper...and if you ask me who it's by, I've already forgotten...I'm so not a "name brand" person. SORRY!! But I do know it came in my Memory Works Express box!! Hope that helps. :) Anyway, I was just enjoying the colors and the "happy" feelings from the paper and the picture and I HAD to use this cool acrylic word from My Acrylic Albums. I colored it with Ranger Alcohol Inks (meadow.) I thought it just look cool together. And look at this picture...look at the smiles...doesn't it just make you feel good?! It does me. We need more of this in our lives...happy pictures...happy feelings...happy thoughts!!

And look at these smiling faces!! This whole layout is just happy, smiley people!! Sorry, that's the lyrics from an REM song...but that's how it makes me feel!! So I hope you look at this layout and feel the same way!! Smiley and HAPPY!!!

So, go have some fun, go smile at someone and be HAPPY!!

Don't forget to be creative!!
God Bless,
LeighAnn

Some more to show you

I showed you the Glimmer Mist layout as I thought it really had some pop. Now I want to show you what I did with a stencil from Club Scrap.

This is just a plastic stencil (if it's made from more high tech stuff than that, forgive me Tricia!!) and basically, I just laided it down on the paper, held it securely with my left hand (I'm right handed) took a make up sponge and loaded it with dye based black ink (Whispers was the name brand) and pounced it on the stencil until it covered the paper that was exposed. On the "The Great Outdoors" I hand tore the paper around the image and attached it with foam tape. On the tree image I then took the Marvy Velvet Markers and put some white here and there, kind of where it looked like it should go, and then used my heat gun to make the markers kind of puff up a bit.

All if it was quite simple. The end result I think was pretty awesome though. The papers were from Club Scrap and I can't say enough about the quality of their papers and the idea for the marker came from Michael Strong of Michael Strong stamps. (His stamps are out of this world amazing!!) Anyway, let me know what you think of this as well!!

I hope that I've inspired you to make something. Go be creative!!
God bless and show me your creativity!!
LeighAnn

A burst of creativity!

Well all 34 pages of the scrapbook is finally finished. No, I didn't have it all done by the 6th, but they were all done by the 8th (at 6:00am on the 8th!!) I basically did almost all of it in 3 days. That's crazy I know and I don't recommend that anyone do that. I should have spaced it out a bit...but it was fun all the same and thank goodness I had three days off in a row so that I could do that. I'm not going to post all of the pictures at once. I'll kind of spread it out, maybe base it on what I want to talk about or show you (show off LOL.) I'm also going to pick a photo sharing site and put them all there and post the link here so you can actually see all of them at once. You just won't get all the crafty tid-bits there that you will here.

The reason I put "a burst of creativity" as my title of this specific blog entry is because of how making all those scrapbook pages made me feel. Yes, I got tired, but I felt so energized at the same time. I look back at the pictures of the pages and I love the way I feel looking at them. Some of the are just PRETTY!! It makes me feel good that I made something pretty. Okay, that may sound funny, but it works for me!!

This is the left hand side of a two page layout...okay, yes they are all two page layouts LOL!! Anyway, these are pictures of the girls in Santa Fe NM. I loved the paper's bright and cheerful feel and guess what...it's Dollar Tree (Miss Elizabeth) paper!! The title was done with just orange paper sprayed with Glimmer Mist in Terra Cotta. I cut the letters out with my Cricut (numbers for 2004 as well) in the Storybook font. The hat was cut out with my Cricut as well, I think it's the cowboy hat from the Paperdoll Dress Up cartridge.

This is the right hand page. The plain black square is for my friend to put her journaling in. I can't give you a "great" reason for the buttons, except that I wanted some color and something to put a little division on the page. Some fun and funky I guess!!

These close ups of the title are just to show you how beautiful the Glimmer Mist is. It's not a cheap way to embellish paper for sure, but it is beautiful. It really gave the title some pop.

I tried to use things like this through out this album. I decorated and embellished with Glimmer Mist, chalk, and little things here and there. I wanted it to be special. I know that I was getting paid to do this album, but it was about four women who travelled together every year and basically their "journey" over all these years. It meant a lot to me to be entrusted to make this scrapbook. I hope the girl who is getting it enjoys reliving all the memories that pictures bring back and that Becky's journalling reminds her of!!

That's all for this entry...just think...only 32 pages to go!! Oh some entries will be mostly pictures. Some will be more wordy. Some days will have multiple postings. Please feel free to comment and give constructive criticism. I'm always looking for ways to improve!!

God bless and go be creative!!

LeighAnn

Just a few pictures

I don't have all the photos loaded on to my laptop yet, so I will have to post more later. I don't know if that's easier for you...for me to spread my creativity out :) But here are a two layouts that I've done recently and one close up of a embellishment on one of the pages.

This is a two page layout for the album my friend hired me to create. It's of all the vacations she and her friends have gone on. It sounds like it'll be an on going thing for me...every year to update the album.

This layout is from Bar Harbour with the title being the spoof of the way the people in Maine say Bar Harbour...Baa Haba.

Here is the second two page layout of Bar Harbour.

And below you can see the shell embellishment I made using a Micheal Strong stamp with stazon ink on shrink plastic. I just stamped it and shrank it and there you have it. I did two and they are on the first layout above. I think they turned out pretty well.

Well, I'm off to work on a few more layouts. I promise I'm taking pictures of each and everyone I'm finishing now. I will post them all as time permits. I'm trying to stay "crafty" as it really does make me feel better and when I feel better, life is better.

Go make something beautiful!!

God bless,

LeighAnn

Scrapping space

I don't know if you need the "perfect" place to be creative, but I do need almost perfection in my surroundings to feel the creativity flow. So, I have once again rearranged my area and in doing so now have only taken over one wall of the living room. My desk now faces a window (can't ask for anything better than natural light!!) and I think it makes the whole deal more appealing. I've also created my own "clip it up" to hold a lot of my embellishments so that I can see what I have and don't NOT use something because I forget I have it. I know NO ONE is guilty of ever doing that.

I love all the natural light, when I open the front door it's even better. I really do have everything almost at my finger tips and it's more efficient. Even my husband is a little happier with it. It seemed to open the living room up a bit more.

There's all my ribbon and paper. The ribbon is just on a cheapy curtain rod attached to the shelf. I highly recommend those paper keepers from Cropper Hopper.

My homemade "clip it up" is just another cheapy curtain rod that I used cup hooks to attach to the shelf and then used cheapy shower curtain hooks to hook up the embellishments. I LOVE it. I put the stuff I use most on there and basically anything that had a hook on it. In the other picture you can see I have clear shoe boxes with other embellishments in them. I like that as I can kind of see what I have in there.

I have also labeled the "crap" out of everything. That way all I have to do is look at the spine of the book or binder and I know immediately what's in it. I love it!!! I have all my Micheal Strong stamps in one binder, and so on.

Well enough about all that. I'm off to finish my 34 pages by the 6th. I better get on it!!

God bless,
and PLEASE go do something creative!!

LeighAnn

A silly blog

Okay, in these tight financial times, I have a favor to ask all of you. I have finally given in and am allowing google ads to be placed on the side bar of my blog. I won't make a mint, but you know, every bit helps. I get paid for you clicking on them, so please, just click on them. I know it's a pain in the butt, but if you knew how tight we were, you'd understand. I appreciate every little bit of help you can throw my way.

That's it, no more groveling LOL!! Have a great weekend.
LeighAnn

Here's the latest

Well, this past Monday I spent the day scrapbooking for/with a dear friend of mine. She wanted a scrapbook of her trips with these three specific friends...they go somewhere together every year. I whipped out 17 pages that day!! Whew...today I start again and have about 34 pages to get done by the 6th of April.

For those of you that have been following my life a little more closely than this blog really talks about...those 17 pages and the time with a dear friend was better than any therapy could have been. I THINK and HOPE and PRAY I've come around the corner back toward my happier self. I'm inspired again (I thought I had lost my creativity during that black period) and am ready to dig into those pages!!

I have NOT forgotten about the address book project for my friend Christina and all supplies have been purchased and as soon as I'm done with this scrapbook it's all about her!!

It feels good to have creative goals again and to be able to lose myself in the process. It was so hard for a while...now I really think I'm back!!

I don't have any pictures of the first 17 pages, but should have pictures of the rest. I'm starting on them right now, as soon as I'm done writing this, and I'll do my best to take pictures along the way!!

God Bless, thank you for prayers and thoughts and
GO MAKE SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL!!
LeighAnn

Checking in

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still around. It has taken me a bit (understatement) longer to get things organized than I anticipated. But I am working very diligently to get things done tonight as I got a phone call for an order for a scrapbook that's due in a WEEK!! So tonight I'm knocking myself out in the organizational department and WILL have it all done!! I'll be posting pictures SOON. (Tomorrow maybe even.) I like how it's coming together too. I can be kind of crazy when it comes to having things organized so while it can be a slow process, everything will have a place.

I am excited about this project and I also have another project (an address book) for a dear friend that I REALLY need to get working on as well. My only excuse for that one is that I just recently got the supplies needed to put it together. For what it's worth, I did go to Archiver's today and pick up some bling and flowers and adhesive I needed/wanted for the project as well. So I have NOT forgotten about you Christina!!

I'm not going to spend anymore time on here as there is a lot of stuff for me to get done and I'm not getting it done writing this. So, hopefully the next post will at least have a post of the "uber organized scrapbooking area!!!"

God bless, and thanks for reading!!
LeighAnn

I'm back home!

I'm back home and getting ready to get my desk put together and get CREATIVE!! I'm off today and plan to actually get the whole living room cleaned up. Then, I'll feel FREE to create again. It will be wonderful to be able to get my hands dirty in my inks and cut up some paper again!! I have so many ideas, I don't know where to start. That's one of the reasons I have to clean up the living room first. I'm afraid once I get started nothing else will get done LOL!! Not to mention there is a huge pile of stuff in front of my desk!! LOL!!

So hopefully, my next post will have pictures of something I made!!

God Bless,
LeighAnn

Hellloooo

Hello to everyone out there. I know some of you have been wondering what's been up with me that I've been gone for so long. Well, unfortunately, LIFE happened. Most of you know that my step-father fell and broke his hip last month and it was a harrowing experience for all of us. He dealt with a lot of obstacles in his getting out of the hospital.

His first hurdle was that he takes blood thinners, namely Comidin and Plavix. So while he broke his hip on a Friday night, he wasn't able to have surgery until the following Wednesday!! He lay in a hospital bed all that time in traction!! That led to the next problem..."hospital psychosis" which is a condition, more prevalent in the elderly, where they get delusional and basically get a bit "crazy." In all honesty, I think this was harder on my mother than him. He remembers almost none of it. My mom remembers it all vividly.

Then came the surgery, more crazy stuff with the "hospital psychosis" and then off to two weeks of rehab. He did really well in rehab and came home Friday the 13th of February. I arrived in Augusta on Thursday the 12th and was ready for his homecoming. He has continued all the physical therapy and occupational therapy that was started in rehab. This picture was taken just two days after his discharge from the rehab facility!! So, for all those that prayed for him....THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH AND PLEASE DON'T STOP!! He still has long way to go, but you should see him trucking with his walker from bedroom to family room. It's absolutely amazing!!

And here is a picture of all the cards from everyone. Thank you so much to all of you for all the cards you sent and all the well wishes and prayer. I know that it made a big difference to him and I know to how he felt. I cannot say thank you enough. There really aren't words to express it. He was absolutely amazed at the work that went into the handmade cards and the fact that all these people who don't know him would bother to send him a card...and some from overseas!!!

I don't know if I will say my life will be back to "normal" shortly...I hesitate to call my life normal at ANY time, but I should be back in my more creative mode if nothing else. I am really ready to get back at my desk and CREATE something...get my hands dirty with some ink and some glue...just get back to it. I have missed my creative "mojo" and I hope at least that is back soon.

So to all that missed me, I'm back. I should be back more regularly too. Still looking for comments!! Let me hear from you ALWAYS!!

Now go be creative!!

God Bless,
LeighAnn

Where I've been

First off, I'm really sorry I've been gone for so long. There has been a lot of things going on that have really knocked me for a loop and changed the whole schedule of my day, my life.

First and foremost my stepfather fell and broke his hip (he's 85) and it was very stressful as they live in GA and he's on blood thinners so he had to lay flat on his back for 5 days before they could do surgery. To add to that, he developed a phenomenon called "hospital psychosis" which is apparently common in elderly patients. Common or not, it didn't make things easier to deal with!! He has since made it through surgery with flying colors and is now currently in rehab and doing well. It'll be a long road for him and my mother, but but they will get through it. I will be going to GA as soon as he's discharged from rehab to help my mother help him to adjust to being at home.

The other "happening" was the "death" of our laptop. Well, it's not really dead, but definitely in intensive care!! My husband is really hard on things and had dropped it a few times and after breaking the screen finally broke the port that you plug in an external monitor. I got fed up with all the problems with it and went and bought myself a new laptop with our tax return money. I think he's a little frustrated with me...I have it password protected so he can't use it without me know it and signing him in. Well, if you know him and computers, you'd understand why. We are getting the other one fixed, but until then he just has to suck it up.

So with all that being said, the next "slow me down" issue was moving my scrap area around. It's still in the living room, but I wanted to move it to facilitate room for a couch. We now have the couch, but my area is far from done. I figure a few more days though and it should be okay. It just creates such a mess to clean stuff up...know what I mean?!!

Now on to HAPPY NEWS. I have been in touch with Elena from Scrapbook Royalty and she is going to help my friend Lisa and I get our crop fundraiser for the Johnson County Autism
Support group rolling. I'm VERY excited about this. We have a teleconference with her this Tuesday night. Scrapbook Royalty helps plan fundraising events for scrapbookers and I'm SO excited to be working with them to get this moving. Our hopes are to have our fundraiser here in IN the same day they have the Autism Speaks crop in CA. I figure we can do a live web feed back and forth and have a blast with it!! So, we're looking at September for the time frame I'm hoping Elena can give me lots of good ideas to go with and how to get the ball rolling!!

Other than that, I haven't really been creating much. My desk has been a shambles as I've been moving everything AND babysitting for my friend with a 22 month old. I can't wait to get my desk back in order so I can start pumping out the Valentine goodies. Pink is my favorite color so these are some of my FAVORITE things to make. I'm also kind of stoked about reorganizing my paper into vertical storage and hoping that helps me use up more of my stash.

I DO have to tell you that I've made my first project out of Designing with the Divas and it turned out fantastic!! I emailed a few pictures to Diva Danielle and she really like it. I'm sure once they figure out how to post pictures to their blog you'll get to see it there. I would love to post a picture of it here, but the pictures I took of it are saved on the other laptop which is in ICU, so they will have to wait :) I plan to make many other projects from the book and they are all completely doable. I'm telling you people....pick up your copy today, it's an amazing book!!

OH and I had my 15 minutes of fame!! I called into the Diva Craft Lounge and can be heard talking to Diva Danielle and Rayme the Duke of Crafts. If I was really with it I would tell you what episode, but to be honest, I'm too tired to look it up right now (I have had a long day and have to be up at 3:00am for work) so I can't remember it. But it was incredible talking to them in person and they can be assured they WILL hear from me again!! They are terrific people and so genuine.

The other thing that I'm so touched by is that there are so many giving crafters out there. My stepfather has received a minimum of 10 handmade cards from around the world all wishing him well and a speedy recovery. He is tickled pink to get them and is amazed at the workmanship/creativity of each as well as the fact that these "strangers" care enough to send him a card. So if you are one of the many that have been sending him cards....thank you so much...it's meant the world to him!!

I think that's about it. I can't think of anything else "exciting" to share with you. Please feel free to comment (as always) and please don't hesitate to share this blog with others. I would love to have a lot of readers!!

I do intend to post pictures of my finished scrap area (I even found out how to hide those rough edges of the shelves when you cut them) and will be looking forward to hearing what you think. By the way, I'll tell you the secret of hiding those rough edges after I post the pictures:)

That's enough for this evening. It's only 8:30pm but I know I have to be up early tomorrow morning and I need to start winding down to so I can go to sleep. Hope all of you are crafting and having a wonderful day/evening.

God Bless,
LeighAnn

It's been a little bit of time

Well hello everyone, sorry it's been so long. The holidays really kept me busy this year and I managed to fall behind on just about anything and everything! But...I do have news. So sit back and relax and I'll tell you what's going on. Please feel free to comment and give me suggestions. With what I've got going on, any help would be fantastic!!

It's kind of hard to know where to begin :)

I'm a Fiskateer now. Please check out www.fiskars.com to find our more about that;) Actually, I'll explain it to the best of my ability. Basically what a Fiskateer is, is someone who is a crafting ambassador for Fiskars. No, it's not a PAID position, but aren't the best things free;) So I'll just get to keep doing what I'm doing and that's telling people that I like Fiskar products and whatnot. "Sharing the Fiskars Love" as we say.

The other big news is that I'm starting a chapter of Delta Phi Scrappa here in Indiana. Check out their website at www.deltaphiscrappa.com to see what we're all about. It's really about fun! It's a sorority for scrapbookers. How cool is that?

I'm still busy making cards and I'm about to start on a scrapbook page that is about my family's latest "addiction," Itunes!!

I'll be sure to update you more soon. Right now I need to act on that creativity bug and I'll post some of what I come up with:)

Have a crafty day!
God Bless,
LeighAnn