Corn Maze Fun!

All of my family is in town this weekend. ALL of them. That hasn't ever happened before. There is nothing like watching all the cousins run around and play with each other. I said good-bye to my sister last night, and I thought I was doing pretty well; but I started crying once I got in the car. I am so happy that my siblings are living in places they love, but I wish we could also be close enough that I could really watch their kids grow up. I'm already missing them!

We celebrated by visiting a local corn maze yesterday. It was fairly sunny when we first got there.


There was so much to do. The kids rode on these big bikes.




And the boys hopped up on the hay pyramid:






Then the kids played with the water:




We all took a ride through the corn:



And we got some face painting:





It was just a perfect day followed by a family Halloween party, which made for a perfect night! You don't realize how much you love and miss your family until you have to say good-bye to them. It's super hard to do so. I only wish Vegas and Alaska were a little closer to the rest of us. But it helps to know how happy they are in their own lives.

More on the Martha Stewart Scoreboard

I really do love this tool, and the more I play with it, the more I realize I can use it on my scrapbooking projects. Today on the Create Blog, I show readers an additional way to create three dimensional items on your layouts. Here is the completed layout:

On this layout I created the banner and sentiment flags with my scoring board. You can find additional photos and instructions for completing this layout on the blog here. Looking for one of these boards? Then be sure to check it out here!

I'm heading off to my son's school Halloween party this morning. And then the school has a Halloween parade through the halls. It should be a sugar filled day for him. ;)

Shimelle's Class WINNER!!

And the winner is . . .



You will be contacted with your registration information soon.


Thank you to everyone who commented!

Think About Joining Me!

I'm really excited about this upcoming event from 2Peas. I'm already Christmas shopping and thinking about holiday crafting makes me even more anxious for the holidays. This event focuses on holiday cards, and I will be sharing some cards over one of the weekends. Think about joining us for classes and challenges!

I wanted to share a few photos of the last couple of days. We have had the most gorgeous fall weather. In the past, we've often had snow by now. But it has been in the low 70's this week, and so I took the kids to take some fall photos. I want to take more, but this was our quickie trip right after school.




I typically get a few of Jimmy like this. He seems to think that part of a photography field trip is several crazy poses. Sigh! Oh well. He definitely keeps things light.




I had an interesting trip with Kate's junior high group yesterday. On the one hand, they asked insightful questions about the windmills. On the other hand, they are totally rowdy. (And I thought Elementary School kids were crazy. LOL!)


These windmills are 265 tall. It takes the average worker 20 minutes to climb to the top (and the ladder to do that is on the inside of the building).




Kate takes her yearbook staff duties seriously:




I'm off in a few hours to the boy's field trip. This time the parents can't ride the bus, which is funny because I would have prefered driving yesterday and riding the bus today. I love riding the bus with the little bodies. The big bodies I could have done without.

Don't forget today is the LAST DAY to enter the drawing for Shimelle's journaling class! Good luck!

October "Mini Album a Month" Class at 2Peas

My October class is up now at 2Peas. And I'd love to have you join in this month. This month we are making a Birthday Tracker. This little ATC acrylic stand is perfect for wallet-sized photos, so I printed off my family's photos with each of their birthdays. And then I created a little page for each of the 12 months. This class includes a helpful video, a downloadable pdf, and additional photos and instructions for completing this album. You will find more details here.

If you decide to play along and create either a birthday album or a flip type album, you could receive a Gift Certificate to 2Peas! Be sure to mark the correct challenge box when uploading your project.

The Martha Stewart Scoreboard

I wasn't sure how much I would like this tool, but I really have fallen in love with it. I've been playing around with it for some upcoming Create blog posts. Today I used this tool to create three dimensional hearts for this layout:



You can read the instructions and find helpful photos for completing this project here on the blog.


Tomorrow I have a field trip with Katelyn. You have no idea how big this is! Kate banned me from her field trips after Kindergarten. She's always been an independent soul, and I've tried very hard to let her be. But I get to go on a Junior High Field Trip. This is big folks!! She reluctantly agreed. Now I have to be on my best behavior so I don't embarass her. :) (Actually she is the best kind of daughter, and I'm just happy to hang out with her for a few hours during school time.) But it is still kind of a big deal.


And then on Friday I get to go with James on his 2nd Grade field trip to a local pumpkin patch/Halloween place. So it's going to be a fun couple of days! I love being with the kids. I love it when I go to Jimmy's school and all of his classmates from Kindergarten up wave at me and say hi to "James's Mom." There's nothing like being called "Mom" to one of your kids. I feel so happy when they want me to notice them. They are adorable.


Today I'm working with some Little Yellow Bicycle prototype. I have to say that the product designers for LYB really knock it out of the park every time. If there's a little bit of drool on my completed projects, you'll just have to forgive me. I'm just in love and can't help it. ;) Just wait until you see these new lines. Sheer heaven!!


I hope you are having a lovely week. Mine is crazy busy but good.

Shimelle's "True Stories" Class GIVEAWAY!!!

Have you had the opportunity to take one of Shimelle Laine's fabulous classes yet? Would you like the opportunity? Simply leave a comment on this blog post by Friday at midnight MST for the random drawing of ONE class giveaway.

Be sure to check out the "True Stories" class here for more details. Here is a summary of the class:

True Stories covers fifteen different ways to approach your story and commit it to paper. You can use these prompts as a scrapbooker and see your journaling evolve to something that will be a treasure to read. You can use the prompts as a blogger to make your entries feel like honest, unique and compelling tales. Or you can just use them in general as a collection of ways to add a bit more excitement to your writing if you’re feeling like you’re in a rut of writing the same way on every project.

Want a little peek at the project I submitted for this class? Here you go:

I know some of the topics covered in this class, and I can promise you that it DELIVERS!! Shimelle understands what scrapbookers are looking for in a class and you won't be disappointed. If you want to go ahead and sign up, then you can do so here!

So make sure to leave a comment in this blog post so that I can select a lucky winner. BE SURE to leave your e-mail address in the comments so I can contact you in time to register you for the class.

Good luck!

Bwahahahahaha!!

Can you believe that Halloween is right around the corner? Have you purchased your costumes? Have you decorated your house? Have you already consumed all your Halloween candy? ;) (I haven't bought mine yet this year because I do that every. single. year. And I'm determined NOT to do it this year. LOL!)

I'm prepping for the holiday with some neighbor gifts. I got some more tins from the dollar spot but this time I grabbed Halloween ones. Then I filled them with candies for my neighbors and altered them with Little Yellow Bicycle "Booville" products. Such a darling line--so many textures and fun items. I just love how perfectly their colors go with all things Halloween. You can find the products to create this tin here at 2Peas.





I also wanted to create some cards for my friends to go with these tins, so I made two little cards. I love layering items and using adhesive foam squares to pop up part of my project (like the little black frame sticker on the "trick or treat" sticker. It just adds that little something, which I love. You can find the products to create these cards here.






Now I am off to work on some other projects. Look for a new video from Little Yellow Bicycle soon!


Have a spooky day!

We Wish You an Early Holiday!

You can't blame me for getting a headstart on holiday projects when holiday products start arriving at my door. I've seen a few Christmas items hitting local stores. It's only a matter of time before I hear Christmas songs playing and smell that hint of cinnamon stores use to get you shopping. Gotta love it!!


I wanted to make some quick and easy holiday neighbor gifts using the new American Crafts "Dear Lizzy Christmas" line. So first I made little notebooks, which I purchased for super cheap at Target and then covered in yummy scrapbook goodes. You can purchase the products to complete this project here.






The second project is a holiday tin, which I picked up at Michael's in their dollar bin. It cried out for peppermint candies. I altered the tin just a bit, and then added a little snowflake ornament as an additional gift for my friend. You can find the products to complete this project here.



And finally, this week's create blog "Work It Out Wednesday" focuses on one technique for using the Martha Stewart score-board. I just recently purchased this tool, and I love it!! I'm going to focus a few of our "WOW" blog posts on some ways to use this tool in your scrapbooking so stay tuned! You can find instructions for completing this project and additional photos here.

Yesterday was a pre-holiday, package receiving day! I received a set of Stampin' Up! ink pads--yummers! I purchased a few more Copic Markers (I have to break it down and get just a few every so often). And then I received a set of Letraset Markers from England, which I CANNOT wait to play with (keep your eyes peeled for a video). I can't wait to get all inky. ;)

Here's hoping you have a happy unholiday day! (Hee, hee!)

Halloween Party

So Kate celebrated her b-day last Saturday with a Masquerade Party. She goes all out so we decided that I would work on some items for a 2Peas project, and she could use the items afterwards for her party. Let me tell you, this girl has more creativity in her than I have in my pinky finger. So fun to raise a child who is really capable of anything. Really fun!

So here's what I created for the 2Peas SpookCraftfular event. (You can see more photos, download a pdf, and watch a video here.)

And here are a few photos from her party. The table settings (all her):

Here is her costume:

The little boys who "helped":

The funny thing? I forgot to take photos of the guests and the games. Just got too involved in other things. Sheesh. Sometimes I need a professional photographer just to follow us around and document our life.

My left wrist is hurting today. Sometimes I have a little carpal tunnel that flairs up, but I have no idea why the left and why tonight and today? I guess it's good that I'm taking Thursday and Friday and the weekend off to spend with the kids. OUCH! :(

2Peas Gallery Items

Yesterday a few of my layouts went live in the 2Peas Gallery. I thought I would share them here. The first is about my daughter. I went with a brown, gold, and pink scheme. I created a grid on the left side of the layout so I could adhere several small items to the rectangles. They're like little mini pages, which makes me happy. :) You can see additional photos and find the supplies to create the layout here.

On the second layout, I wanted to document my teenage daughter decorating her locker for her 8th Grade year. She takes it pretty seriously and has accumulated several cool items for making her locker fun--including a candy dispenser. I love that she enjoys every aspect of school! You can find this layout and the supply list here.

Has fall touched your area of the world yet? The temperature has dropped a bit here. Makes me wonder if we'll have snow for Halloween--we often do. I want to get some deep cleaning down before the snow sets in. I don't like cleaning out the car or the garage in the snow---brrrr!

Whew! What a Week!

It's funny how some weeks can be so jam-packed. Monday I filmed a class for Little Yellow Bicycle. Tuesday I filmed a segment for Scrapbook Trends magazine and held a church meeting at my house. Wednesday I had a meeting at the Scrapbook Trends office. Thursday I took the oldest to the ortho and then volunteered at the my son's school, and then I worked on an article for the "Mini Albums" idea book. And Friday I edited the Little Yellow Bicycle video, worked some more on the article, and ran errands. Saturday we had a combined party for my niece, my mom, and my daughter. And then we rushed home so my daughter could have her b-day party, and I finished up my article. And then yesterday I had church, went to an Eagle Court of Honor and then had a meeting. Long hours, long days. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off this week as the kids will be home, and I want to spend some time with them.

Just a couple of things I've been working on. This is my favorite, recognize the little girl? That would be my niece, Zadie. Man that girl loves the camera, which makes my job as photographer so much easier. You can purchase a physical copy or download the digital copy here.

I'm also hosting the weekly challenge at 2Peas until Thursday night. You simply need to use this color scheme to create a layout. The winner will receive a 2Peas GC! You can check out the details here. Already have a project with those colors, go ahead and upload it.

I'm sure there are other things to share, but I can't think of what they are right now. LOL! Be sure to check out the 2Peas Gallery today. There should be another release of Garden Girl projects. Plus be sure to check out our three 2Peas events for additional inspiration this week!

The Create Blog Spooktacular

Have you been reading our create blog's entries this week? We have lots of giveaways to celebrate Halloween. Today I shared a layout with My Mind's Eye's "Haunted" line and guess what? We're giving away a prize package from this line so be sure to check out this blog post to enter.

Here is my layout:

On another note, Savor from Little Yellow Bicycle is now available at 2Peas. I absolutely LOVE this gorgeous line which has a retro vibe with updated styling. Check out the Savor Embellishment Stickers:

And the Savor 10 Things Pocket:

Here is a kitchen corkboard I created with this line, which LYB took with them to CHA:

Really, you'll love this line. I love it. And I don't even like to cook. LOL!

So Much Fun!

Really. This job is just way too much fun to really be considered "work." LOL! I was touched to see that I am being spotlighted this week at 2Peas. Be sure to check it out here. There will be other GG's being spotlighted throughout the month so continue checking back on the 2Peas Events page. Simply click the link to participate in the current activities!

And now I am off to prepare to film the next few segments for Northridge Publishing. Both excited and intimidated EVERY time. ;)

Stamp Winner and Idea Book Winner!!

The randomly selected winner of this lovely stamp set:

Is . . .

And the randomly selected winner of the Stamping Idea Book:

Is . . .

Please contact me at js_gallacher@hotmail.com with your address so that I can ship these out. Thank you everyone for playing along!