I really need a weekend!

It has been such a long, long week....and I could use some down time! Although I'm not sure how that is going to happen since Candace has a Quad-match for volleyball, Cara has a volleyball tournament, Carmen has a soccer game, and Cara has a soccer game - all tomorrow! I am really itching to take the kids out for some Fall photos tomorrow too since the leaves are starting to really change quickly this year. I really can't believe how much my kids have changed since last year at this time. Check out this photo of them from last October.... sigh! Where does time go?

Carmen Grace....

Fall is my favorite time of year for lots of reasons, but I do seem to take more photos of my kids during the Fall season. This is a recent photo I took of Carmen and I love it! Let me brag about Carmen for a minute. She is my baby. She is a drama queen to the max! She is loving, sensitive, caring, and passionate. She has a competitive spirit to her and I can completely relate to that since I hate to lose. She cares about others, whether it be a classmate that is hurting or someone who needs Christ. I really can't imagine my life without Carmen! I love this little girl with all my heart. And....isn't she beautiful?

Creative Imaginations Sketch Challenge

Here's my page for the Creative Imaginations September/October sketch challenge found here:

http://http://creativeimaginations.typepad.com/

Come on over to the blog and check out details for your chance to win an awesome Creative Imaginations prize.

I used the gorgeous Creative Imaginations IOD Loolah papers here for this photo of Carmen trying some Fried Swiss Cheese at the fair. Isn't her face hilarious?

Fall Sports at its best!

I love this time of year, for so, so many reasons, but one of the main reasons I love fall is because of all the fall sports. My kids are all on soccer teams and the girls are also playing volleyball this year. That keeps my weekends filled with sports. In fact, it is not unusual to have 5 to 7 games every Saturday. As crazy as it may seem, I love running from one kid's game to the next. I wouldn't trade these days for anything, although I'm exhausted when my head hits the pillow at night.

Scrapbook.com/Scrapjazz.com are adding new products!

And I played with two of the new Crate Paper collections this month. I adore all the new embellishments that Crate puts out with their papers. These pages came together quickly. Come on over to Scrapbook.com or Scrapjazz.com to see all the new stuff in their store.

Do you ever feel like quitting?

I'm just going to type my thoughts right now. Do you ever wonder if all the hours and time you spend on your scrapbooking is worth it? Do your kids and family members really appreciate the thought, the work, the emotion spent on each and every page you create? Did I just waste a lot of time during my life over the last 6 years for nothing? Why am I doing this?

That is the question I am asking myself today after feeling rejected by Basic Grey. I know I'm putting myself out there by even posting this on my blog but I have always felt that putting my thoughts down on paper (or my blog, now) helps me feel better. I know my Basic Grey work is good. I know I can design and showcase papers well. What didn't they like about me? That brings me to this question.....

Should I quit?

After pondering that question now for the last few hours, I had to remind myself why I love this craft. I love creating memories for my family. I am passionate about photography and capturing every memory with my Nikon. I want my family to know how much I love them, years and years from now. I love the satisfaction of finishing a page and looking at it and feeling proud of what I created, considering I have never considered myself an artistic person. I love the people I've met through this hobby, and, yes, I know politics does play a part and sometimes it is who you know that makes decisions, but overall, the people in this craft are good and I enjoy sharing a little part of our lives with each other. So..

No, I'm not going to quit!

I'm determined now, more than ever, to create because I like to, not because I want someone else's praise or because I need to showcase some manufacturer's product. I love scrapbooking because it has taught me how to create memories that my family will cherish for years and years to come. They are not going to care if I was on Basic Grey's design team when they look at my page. They are going to read my little love notes to them and they are going to smile and remember that Mom loved them so much to follow them around during their ever waking moments with that camera even if she was a nuisance at the time. They will never doubt how much I love them.

Basic Grey Marjolaine project

I made this 12 X 12 frame using the Marjolaine collection. I first created a 12X12 scrapbook page with the photos of the kids in it and then put it in the frame and decorated the frame with all kinds of Basic Grey goodies. I think I'm going to hang this in my office.

More Basic Grey goodness....

The Basic Grey Sweet Threads is such a gorgeous, soft collection and I love the embellishments in this collection. I love to do multi-photo pages and I wanted to display all these cute photos of my great-niece, Addison! Isn't she adorable?

Halloween treats (Basic Grey Eerie)

I made these cute little treat packets from the fabulous Basic Grey Eerie collection. Aren't they adorable?

Scrapbook.com/Scrapjazz.com - September project

I love all the new products arriving daily at Scrapbook.com and Scrapjazz.com, but occasionally, I enjoy pulling out some of the not-so-brand-new stuff and working with that too. This month, I pulled out some Basic Grey Hello Luscious and played with the gorgeous colors in that collection, and I even mixed in some Basic Grey Kioshi too. I just love how the Basic Grey collections mix and match. This is my pretty niece, Ava! She's so adorable! Come on over to Scrapbook.com or Scrapjazz.com and check out all the new products arriving daily!

Another Basic Grey project (have I mentioned how much I love Basic Grey?)

I just adore the Basic Grey Indie Bloom collection and thought the bright, happy colors were perfect for our Smokey Mountain vacation, so I created this acrylic album. This was the first time I have ever worked with an acrylic album and it wasn't real easy but I love how it turned out.

More Basic Grey to share with you....

I was really trying to show Basic Grey that I have a versatile style and that I could do "fun" as well as anybody. I love, love, love the Lime Rickey collection, so I pulled out all my Lime Rickey that I had left over and made this page with my family's recent Chinese Ping Pong party. We had so much fun. Everybody gathers around the ping pong table and 1 person at the end of the table hits the ball, moves to the right, and the next person hits the ball, until the ball drops. That person is out. It comes down to only 2 people left and then you finish the game. What a fun time we had. Have I mentioned how much I love Basic Grey? :)

The creative kit from My Creative Scrapbook!

Here are just three pages I completed with this fabulous kit! I can not believe how many goodies Pam included in the kit this month. Come on over to Mycreativescrapbook.com for some fun stuff going on!

My Creative Scrapbook's September reveal.....

Isn't this album kit just beautiful? I had such a fun time playing with all these pretty colors and patterns. Come on over to mycreativescrapbook.com for more details on how you can join the kit club.

Basic Grey...the first project entry!

I took a trip to Hobby Lobby this week and tried to find something fun to alter. Since I love the new Basic Grey Oxford collection, I wanted to do a school-themed project. I found this $2.99 chalkboard and decided to play with it. This little chalkboard project turned out rather cute, don't you think? Carmen has her first "man" teacher this year and she wanted to give him a gift, so she took this in to him on Friday. He is using it for a decoration in his room, and Carmen feels special now too. So...I created my first Basic Grey project for the Design Team call, I made a teacher a nice gift for his room, and I even managed to make Carmen feel rather special. Mission accomplished! :)

Oh....Basic Grey, I love you!

I admit it! I have not applied for a design team since way, way back when Scenic Route had a design team call. I submitted what I thought was my best work and was rejected. I hated the feeling of not being "good enough". I have not submitted to a design team call since. However, when Basic Grey put out their call, I thought "darn, I wish I had time to put some new projects together for the call." I have so many Basic Grey projects but they have all been seen before and I wanted something new and fresh. So....4 days before the call was over, I got to work, every evening (after work and soccer/volleyball) and started creating....and remembered once again how much I love Basic Grey products. It was so easy to put 3 pages (I submitted an older page too) and 4 projects together with all the Basic Grey goodies I had in my stash. I wanted to display different styles with my submissions to show that I really am a very versatile scrapper. I take pride in design and showing off product. This was my first page that I put together, an elegant, rather simple page, showing off the gorgeous Indie Bloom collection.

I'm now a Creative Imaginations Design Team Member! Yippee!

And here are my first two projects since joining the team. I love the versatility of all the products from Creative Imaginations. I am going to have so much fun playing with all this gorgeous stuff.