Attended the GASC in Chantilly, VA for the first time-wasn't all that everybody was saying it was as far as the vendors spaces....most things I could've gotten at Photo Scraps with the exceptions of a few stops and a few things. I am tired and have an early wakeup call again tomorrow so I'll leave you with sneak peeks of what I WAS happy with...the divas will follow later in the weekend.......

This cool guy named TED from Stampers Anonymous

who, in addition to using his own creations ( namely THE STAMPS-HIS CREATIONS-uses great stuff from this line/creator:



created something fabulous for HER ROYAL HIGHNESS -that would be me!! {Sneak peek and yes, it involves a crown or two}



I know I took up a lot of his time ( I was talking way too much) and hope that he knows how much I enjoyed watching him actually use the techniques that Tim Holtz is famous for on his blog-I wasn't as intimidated watching Ted do it ...he was extremely patient, knowledgeable about ALL the products. His STAMPS and creativity were simply divine. In fact, his website doesn't do justice to his stamps; they are 100 times better in person-not the puny stamps you see at Michaels or the other crappy (oops, I said that out loud) big box stores and his prices were so darn reasonable...check out his schedule to see if he's coming to a show near you...you will not be disappointed with his stamps. HE made me a GORGEOUS tag but there are so many other things to do with the stamps so, hopefully I can find the creative bug tomorrow and get my mojo flowing.


Both E and I agreed that we would actually give the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas a really good try this year......
Good night peeps!

Sick or no sick, I had to get up and take Brandon to therapy so, since I was passing Glen Burnie, "Taj" twisted my arm and MADE me stop in at Big Lots (something I don't normally do since it makes my allergies go crazy with the amount of dust in there)-anyway, for once, the store was clean and organized (sorry Big Lots but it's true)

The Thickers and the DCWV foil chipboards were $ 2 and they had American Crafts buttons (at least 7 different colors but I only picked up 2 packs) for $ 1 each...you heard me....they also had American Crafts Metropolitan and A La Carte paper packs for $8 each.


I had $ 20 bucks that was burning a hole in my pocket so now I really have to add alphas and titles to my pages! Sorry for the bad picture; I'm just here for a quick bit then am off to do tea, netti pot and bed in that order...haven't been sleeping good so...am determined to get up tomorrow and get this sickness off my back, get in gear and do my hair (it looks crazy since I've been laying in bed sweating-trust me, it's BAAADDD) & to get packed and ready for the weekend since I AM going to GASC and then am off for a girls weekend with Lisa and Debbie.

Continuing the honor of Father's Day-my favorite layouts of my favorite guys- my husband Ken



and my Dad {Don} and even though my dad was a kid in this layout; he still looks the same to me!

Here's the guy who gave me these wonderful little people we call Thing 1 and Thing 2-He's upstairs as I TYPE this, eating cupcakes that were NOT baked by mwah! Darling BB made him his favorite-chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting!





To all those great Dads and other guys who are filling in as "Dad," hope you had a great Father's Day!

finally...school's out here in Maryland...she's "OFFICIALLY" a Seventh Grader....

and was about to drive my &#$ crazy today since one of her friends was having an out of school "night" party. Am off to go pick her up....lhm!

CraftieRobot Messenger bag

Sketches by Maria

Awesome soy candles

Glass works pendant


BerdandBee Handpainted vintage and thrift finds

This is who took home some really great stuff from the charity auction....Ms. Amber! Got a Cricut Expressions for like $ 175 !!! I forgot the exact price but it was a STEAL and all $$ went to our charity! She was also the winner of 2 of the fantastic books that Tracy donated from Photo Scraps !! Congrats Amber!!!

to play many of the Wii games that require use of all the controller buttons like Mario and stuff like that but I did just start playing this Wii Music

so we had an afterhours Wii pajama jam....and yes Karla, my pjs are loud and comfy!!!

Kala Dala reigned supreme-she was the Wii Music maestro! We shoulda played this first but this was BB's game and I never looked at it so...next time we have another Wii party, we'll do the battle of the bands!
Of course, I'm gonna practice tons beforehand {cheater cheater that I am}

this is what I looked like the same morning-my adopted sis had "da family" over for a yummy brunch and I felt great...I can't tell you how much I missed going to brunch like I used to do back in the day; it was great. Amazing how now that I am older, I can catch a cold in like 24 hours...am just glad that I was the only one who caught the crud; it's mostly contained to the sinuses now so...netti pot....

am still thinking about the requirements, but it does help to add pics YES???

Picture 1 of the Christmas in July RAK- details to follow next week and I will add more stuff (surprise)as I continue to clean up this space! Unfortunately, the RAK is only open to U.S. residents ONLY....

I lose brain cells when I am sick-I got this lovely lovely RAK from somebody in blogland from the great state of Pennsylvania-if you read my blog, can you send me your blog and name so I can officially post those awesome cute goodies!???? Loved everything you sent me and want to send some blog traffic your way!

and speaking of RAKs, I haven't forgotten about mine, I'm just still not up & running at full speed yet...that's what happens when you get sick and are still sneezy and then the sinuses get infected (TMI I KNOW)and the scrapstudio is still a hot mess....I'm thinking about what theme I want to do and what date I want to do it...maybe a Christmas in July kinda thing??? I think I'll do 2 RAKs.....am off to post the 1st pics of "SOME" of the goodies leftover from the charity crop that will be in the RAK package. You know it will involve blog following and a TWIST!

sick....started feeling sick Sunday early evening and it started with a ticklish throat and then by midnight, full blown sick...have been in bed for 2 days! Yup- 2 days and am still feeling cruddy and sore and yukky but since hubby is going to Memphis in the morning, I have no choice but to drag my butt outta bed since Brandon has an early appointment with the opthamologist and B is still in school....at least I got 2 days to suck down Nyquil straight from the bottle tho'. :) Am sad that both Brandon (he who started the germ passing) and I missed his pre-K graduation celebration...will have to do my own photo shoot next week when I feel better.

when I looked in my camera, I realized that I didn't even take very many pictures so....I'm missing a lot of folks-I do apologize and promise to do better next time! We'll have meet -n-greet time and photo ops!








and thank you Karla, for making your first {and probably last hehehheheee} scrap page-my twin sister is not a scrapbooker but since this was a scrapbook charity event, she got a picture from my sister {L} and did this just for the event...sweet huh???

was a success {in my opinion} considering it was our first one...thanks to Susan
for all the hard work she did and for being so organized! I am waiting to hear back from her as to whether we can do this as an annual thing...she is opening herself to comments and suggestions to make it better-I heard some small suggestions as I walked the crowd. For example, that we could tweak the food a bit-thanks Brian for going to the Arbutus store for the cakes and the yummy chicken! Also have a coffee/tea/juice/water station since not everybody can drink coffee all day like I can! Also, we figured out that scrappers need junk food!

To Lynne and Essandra for giving me all the goodies to put in the GO GREEN bags for the charity event-I hope folks enjoyed....
Sometimes you just don't know how much stuff you have until you start to purge.....

I also wanted to thank Amber, Jennifer O., Graciela a/k/a Chela Pinder and Donna Lehr for contributing scrap kits and scrap supplies for the silent auction for the folks who attended!!!!!!!

And last but not least-thank you Lisa from Ethnic Scrapbooking who came by to donate and personally sign a copy of her book "Ethnic Scrapbooking" for me to place in the silent auction!

to Ms. Tracy Beck over at my favorite favorite scrapbook store, Photo Scraps


When she and her staff found out that I was having a charity event, they jumped right in and gave us sooooo many goodies AND a gift certificate for a future crop!! I was overwhelmed by their generosity but if you know Tracy, Lisa C, Lisa H and Cindy then you just know that that's how they are....here are some of their amazing donations and all money went to the Children's Miracle Network and the Johns Hopkins Childrens Center! **cool huh?



Here are some upcoming card classes at Photo Scraps-please check out Tracy's calendar, come out to the store (easy to get to once you ride there once), and remember to signup for her email notifications-

quick post-yesterday wiped me out! It's hard to co-host an event-you are pulled in so many directions and I'm upset that I wasn't able to take pictures with each and every person that came to the event yesterday....

Will post tomorrow folks! But for now-some pics as always! Some of the giveaways we had at the event!