class

I signed up for a Jessica Sprague class. Holdidays in Hand. It is free. Yesterday was the first day. I know, what was I thinking, another class, right at the time my college courses are going into finals! But, the great thing about Jessica Sprague is that the class is yours FOREVER. I can go back and look at assignments, there are no due dates. Except this one is focusing on the Holidays and I would like to have it worked on so I can really have the stories of the season.

Day 1:

::My goals for this season::Assignment 1

more family togetherness

friends

food

reason for the season

joy

memories

sweets

magic

::Commit::Assignment 2

Every day in the month of December I will set aside 20 minutes to record our memories. It can be a blog post, a scrapbook page, taking photos. I need to remember.

::Organize:: Assignment 3

I need to do this!

no excuses

I really have no excuses... I am a slacker. I really am. Over the summer I took a couple of classes online, played with my kids, was with a few friends who delivered babies while their husbands are not on the same continent... You get the idea. But I did get some scrapbooking in. I think I am caught up at least through most of 2005. I think I have 1 or 2 months left. I really want to get over the hump I am in so that I can start scrapbooking the most recent events in our lives. Sometimes I do take a break and do something more recent... Anyway, I don't have photos of scrapbooking today.

In a few weeks I am on my way to a convention. I am going to be running around and super busy there. I want my camera with me so I can take millions of photos... DH wants photos of some of the things he may never get to use in his career... My camera is a point and shoot, but not on the little side. It is the almost DSLR. It has a lot of the functions, takes really great photos, but no extra lenses to change out. I wanted a little envelope type thing to protect it while it is in my big bag. I am trying to not have to carry 3 different bags. On my feet all day, remember? I decided to make one. Remember the bag I made last year. I used some of the same ideas and shape behind it, but a little different... Here you go. The whole evening in photos.

The fabric... Super cute!

I ironed on interfacing to give it structure and to pad the bag as well

Next I sewed up the sides like an envelope... This will make sense in a few photos...

I then cut a 2x2 inch square on each of the corners that folded up.

Then matched the edges of the cut out part and sewed them together to make the bag have a flat bottom.

Once that was done, I turned one of the sides right side out and matched it to the other side. Right sides faced each other.

And sewed the sides together making sure there was a hole to turn it right side out.

After flipping it, I ironed it to get the seems looking their best.

I top-stitched the edges.

Added a button and ribbon to close it off.

I know it looks like a mushroom here, but I am going to find a way to pull those sides back on top.... I am just too tired of trying to figure it out today!

Photos

So, it has been a long time since I have posted! I am taking a class online that is taking up a lot of my time! Plus it is summer and I am enjoying my kids! Aside from the college course I am taking, Jessica Sprague had a free class called Photo Editing: Frame-ups & Special Effects. I signed up for it. I haven't had a lot of time to devote to it.... But, I have learned some cool photo editing things.

This is my absolute F A V O R I T E photo of my little girl! With the textures put on it, it has such a great worn feel.

This photo has the first time I have ever used a brush. That little art and word are brushes. I guess you can say that a brush is like a stamp in the real world.

This photo just has a frame and word art on it. It is a cute one of my little man!

so excited

I am installing my new photoshop right now! I am super excited about it. I got Adobe Creative Suit 4 Design Premium! I can't wait to play on it....

way too long

It has been so long since I have posted here! I have our new family blog, a new volunteer position and a household to run. Not to mention super nice weather! My Crafty Friend had a birthday recently. For her birthday I made her an 8x8 scrapbook with pages of our times together, crafts we have made and I can't wait to have more pictures to scrap and add to the album! I think there were well over 200 photos to choose from. I ended up only doing 11 pages. They turned out so cute, if I do say so myself!

Amazing Woman

I went to college with a great woman, she went on to marry my home teacher. Great Man! Now they have 5 kids. Great family. Actually, they had triplets in January of 2005, one girl and two boys. Val could not have anymore children due to complications at the birth of the triplets. In October of 2007 they brought home Joshua from Uzbekistan. In December of 2007 they brought home Evan from Ukraine. You can read about that amazing journey. It is so wonderful. It always brings tears to my eyes!


But, the big announcement is....They are in the process of trying to adopt two little GIRLS from Bulgaria. This will hopefully even out the estrogen in their home! They are trying to raise some money to help them do this. Here is the link to the blog. Go check it out.

for fun

Yesterday at The Daily Digi Janet had a great post! I downladed the free template that she had made. Filled in the appropriate word (as best as I could... It is a Mad Lib!) scrapped it, and voila!

{I used Reach for the Stars by Stephanie2 and giggles font by Fontologie}

And I have also learned how to resize my photos for uploading to the web! Wow, it is so much faster! If you want to know how, go here. I have a few more things to come, I am just a little on the short side of time this morning.