Broke out the embossing powders and heat gun this weekend. I've never really done embossing before and I really liked it. No other way can you really get the white to on a black background.

BTW, this card reminds me of Tiffany & Co. It makes me want to go out and buy jewelry. Ahh... jewelry. I wish I wore it more often because I really do love to look at it. It's so pretty.

I should work on that. Wear more jewelry. Such a goal requires one to buy more jewelry, right? ;)

Above card: All supplies from Stampin' Up!

Do ya'll realize what today is? Well, it's the day that two wonderful things are happening:

1 - It's The Office premiere day! Jim + Pam = HAPPINESS! I'm totally hoping that all works out between them and we have a long year of JAM goodness. Sigh. I love them.

2 - The first meeting of my stamp club! A big group from the art department at work decided to form a Stampin' Up! club and needed a demonstrator to head it all up, so they adopted me! Granted, I'm not a very experienced demonstrator, but I *am* an experienced stamper. So hopefully my enthusiasm will outweigh my fumbles tonight.

Thank heavens for Tivo. Both of these things are happening at the same time tonight.

Here's a preview of what we're making at club tonight (lots and lots of cranberry stitched grosgrain!):







(This last one is lifted from a card I saw at Splitcoaststampers, by SkyesMom. See her original here).

Confession: I am extremely selfish and inpatient when it comes to reading books. I have to read it all at once. This is such an issue that I have to restrain from reading anything until the weekend. Otherwise, I would be exhausted every day at work.

This weekend's fare? Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. Seriously. I read it in one night. It's 498 pages long. The time flew by.

Wow. Now that was a good book. I loved it! Generally, I'm not one to like vampire novels, if you can call it that--it was... different. I think what I loved about it was the fact that it was like Buffy and Angel, but without all the vampire slaying. I used to watch Buffy because I'm a sucker for "we can't be together" romance storylines (as evidenced by my obsessed with Jim and Pam from The Office). And in Twilight, there is a definite obstacle for this couple.

A short teaser, so ya'll will go out and read it:

In the beginning of the novel, Bella moves from sunny Arizona to the most rained on town in the country. She starts attending her junior year of high school right away and is fascinated by the strange Cullen siblings, all students at her high school. They sit by themselves in the cafeteria, never talk to anyone, and even more strange than that, one of the brothers Edward seems to hate her from the very beginning, even tensing up and refusing to speak to her when she is assigned the seat next to him in biology class. She doesn't even know him, and yet, she finds herself inexplicably curious and drawn to him.

So begins a story that will completely draw you in and never let you go. I haven't been this wrapped up in a book since my first time reading Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. Whoa.

Seriously. Go read it.

Seven years ago, there was a Hanes Her Way commercial that aired on television. It was of women in underwear and t-shirts running around in golden wheat fields, with the sun streaming over them at sunset, and they were generally looking happy. The best music was playing in the background, though. I had to know who was singing that song!!

So I emailed Hanes. :)

And they answered something like this: "The song is I've Got the World on a String by Ella Fitzgerald."

Ever since then, I've loved Ella! The best recording that I've found of that song is from Ella: The Legendary Decca Recordings (Box Set). Well, after borrowing the entire set from the public library multiple times over the years, I finally downloaded the entire thing from iTunes (have I mentioned how much I love iTunes?).

Oh, my ears are happy today. So happy, I finally finished the layout below. It's been sitting on my scrap desk for nearly a week, waiting to be finished. It's still not exactly what I wanted, but I like it. :)

Enjoy!

Generally speaking, graphic design calls for the designer to step back and denounce all authorship. In contrast, when one scrapbooks it is for a purely selfish and self-sustaining motivation. Instead of sending scrapbook pages out to line the back of benches or handing our work over to a large press and letting the pressmen glue and trim and stamp, we cushion our pages in protective albums and keep them close to our homes, on shelves that allow us to touch and feel the original. It is ours.

Is this what draws graphic designers to the scrapbooking?

Over the past two decades design has been pushed out of print shops and into everything that is digital. Designers are locked behind computers. Is this why designers are drawn to scrapbooking? Their fingers crave the feel of actual paper, actual substance? Is there a joyful challenge in creating with finite materials, ones that cannot be corrected with “undo” or “replace”?

For years I avoided scrapbooking, even questioned those who did scrapbook, because in my high and mighty designer mind I thought, “Why would I ever do that? I can do it so much faster on a computer.”

And yet, here I am.

Am I here because I enjoy the craft? Am I here because I want to hold onto something I've designed and call it my own? Or is it because I long to step from behind the computer and still be able to create something meaningful?

Chris Pullman writes, “Someone who becomes a successful painter or sculptor or performance artist is likely to be a person who derives their energy and intellectual satisfaction from solving problems that come from inside themselves. In contrast, someone who ends up as a successful designer is probably a person whose energy and intellectual satisfaction comes from solving someone else's problems… Throughout one's professional life, the key decision is: Which problems will you use your skill to help solve?”

If what Pullman says is true, I believe that I scrapbook because it allows me to solve my own problems, but in a way that encourages the use of my artistic/design skills.

So, basically, I scrapbook because I've got problems. And they need to be solved. Yeah, that's it. :)

Why do you scrapbook?

While I was at work today, I took a short break and made this:



It's a day by day breakdown of the shows I “Must See” and those that I classifiy as “Tentative” for this fall tv season. 13 HOURS! Thank heavens I ordered a TiVo just a couple days ago (Amazon has already shipped it!). That way, I can skip all the commercials. Also, there are so many conflicts, I'm glad I got the dual tuner TiVo as well. :)

I anticipate some good television this season.

BTW, who saw Project Runway last night?

SPOILER ALERT!

I was very happy with the outcome--Kayne was ready to go. I would have killed over if Vincent or Angela won. Gag! Those two are the weirdest ones of them all! And can I just say that I LOVE Laura!? She comes in a close second behind Michael for me. When she was crying my heart was just breaking for her! So glad she won. So glad.

Peace out!
Kristina

I received an email from Paper Trends yesterday. They want one of my cards! Wahoo! My first publish! YES!

When I made a goal to get into a magazine by the end of the year, I was truly worried that I wouldn't be able to do it, but now I have!

I mailed off the card to them yesterday and I feel rather proud of myself. :)

would be to add album view. And they did!

(WARNING: This is where my love of everything Mac becomes very apparent!)

Ya'll need to go visit apple.com and download the latest iTunes (click here for the direct download page). I've been having so much fun “flipping” through all my albums. I've listened to music I completely forgot I even had! Here's what album view looks like (Yes, I was listening to Jewel):



Isn't that sweet! I love it! Also, Apple introduced new iPods. Ahh... I love Steve Jobs.

Well, I'm back from the whirlwind trip to St. George. It was a lot of fun, but for some reason I'm incredibly tired. I didn't stay up incredibly late or get up early, I just... I don't know. I'm worn out.

Weird.

We had a bit of down time on Saturday night so I scrapped with Erica (my SU! upline). She brought some scrap things, but I didn't, so I used her stuff and made a page for her. :)

After stamping all day at the training, we were excited to use some non-SU! stuff. I mean, we love SU!, but we also love a lot of other things, too. :)

Here are the results:

Supplies: Patterned paper: PaperWerx, Creative Imaginations, and Chatterbox; card stock: National Card Stock; stickers and brad: American Crafts; decorative trim: Wal-Mart; library card; staples.

Last night's Project Runway had all the makings of great TV. I had NO IDEA what was going to happen!

I was watching Jeffrey making his dress and just hating the fact that I loved it. That yellow plaid was just so out there! But he hit the nail on the head when he said he wanted it to be happy. Yep, definitely happy. I just wish he made me more happy. He's a social idiot.

And don't shoot me, but I also liked Kayne's dress. The colors were beautiful, and the fabric flowing at the bottom was breathtaking. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The judges thought it was over the top, but it was over the top beautiful. Too much? I think they've been drinking too much.

(Or maybe I have no taste, like Kayne ;) )

Uli. I love that girl. Her designs are always so impeccable and inspiring.

Laura. Yo yo, Girl, you dropped it. What was with that collar? Hello! It looked like death warmed over.

Vincent—FINALLY! Speaking of, his death was slow but well deserved. Good riddance.

Michael. His dress wasn't that hot this week, but I think he might be my favorite. He has a fresh, crisp style that I respond to.

Opinions? Someone else out there must have seen last night's eppy?

First of all, notice the new masthead on the blog. Look up. In the tv, that's Jim and Pam in a lip-lock. Man, I love that show...

Speaking of, I stalk Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesley from The Office)—but only via her myspace blog. :)

I love her little tidbits about working on the set, all her goofy photos, her gushing over jewelry, and of course any insight into the life of John Krasinski, my television boyfriend. She's a funny gal. Each afternoon at work I get a bit stir-crazy and have to pry myself away from designing to get a break. I usually check her blog for a new entry. Ahh... Her blog gets me through until the next episode of The Office. But it's been a long long summer and I needed an Office fix this afternoon.

No new Office info on her blog, but she does point out this: the Cupcake Courier. Hello! That's the coolest thing ever. I love cupcakes! But I didn't know I loved them until like three years ago when I was reading one of my favorite blogs and the writer made cupcakes for her daughters birthday and posted a photo.

(silence)

They were the most beautiful cupcakes I've ever seen. All of their cupcake-edy goodness traveled across the world wide web and stabbed my heart. I HAD to make a cupcake like that.

I tried. Mine were ugly. But they were delicious.

If only I had the Cupcake Courier to inspire me to make cupcakes. Sigh.

In a craft related note, I got my online orders from A Million Little Things (some Fontwerks and Paper Salon) and 2Peas (some Chatterbox and Basic Grey rub-ons)... Oh, the goodness! I can't believe I'd never used a rub-on until about a month ago! I just want to scrap all night!

But, alas, I think I'll limit myself to working on my swaps for this weekend. My SU! upline has a training in St. George once a year and I am most definitely attending! So, I need to make, like, 50 cards or something.

Better get crackin'.

This one is totally going on my desk at work. It's too small for my usual 12x12 scrapbook. :)

Supplies - All supplies are from Stampin' Up! except for the 8 and 0. They're from Fontwerks.

Okay, how many posts can I blog today?
Here's what the aftermath looks like on my drawing table (Christmas gift from years ago that finally has a home in my scrap room):

And did I say how much I love this stamp set:

Perennial Favorites rocks! I could use that little leaf everywhere!

Final counts for this weekend (unless I do one more layout (which I'm sorely tempted to do): 5 scrapbook pages, 9 cards.

in the scrap room. :)

I've been scrap happy today. I haven't done anything besides scrapbooking and stamping all day (except for watching Failure to Launch and eating Café Rio with Mom--thanks, Mom!).

So, here are my latest creations (minus the ones I'm keeping under wraps in hopes that they'll be picked up by a magazine--my goal of being published within the year is still going strong... nothing yet, but I hope).

All supplies are from Stampin' Up!

I'm hoping for a workshop soon (my last workshop didn't foster any new bookings, but I'm still holding out for one). Anyhow, I think this will be a card I'll demonstrate.

All supplies are from Stampin' Up!

Usually I don't remember my dreams, but lately I have. Weird.

Last night's dream featured The Vicar of Dibley, a british sitcom that I absolutely adore. I own the all the series on DVD and have to break them out every once in a while to watch them. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's freakin' hilarious!

Anyway, in the dream, the cast of The Vicar of Dibley was traveling all over the world performing on stage. Now, I don't think they've ever done this before. Maybe in front of a studio audience, but never in a theater.

So, they came to Salt Lake and my entire family was going to see the show. Right before it was to begin, they asked me if I could replace Alice in the cast. Okay... that was strange.

So there I am, on stage with Dawn French (who I LOVE!), delivering Alice's lines (which miraculously I know) when someone out in the audience who is trying to move from one balcony/box seat to another throws a small baby hoping that a person in the next balcony will catch it. Not so.

THUD!

The entire audience and all the actors on stage (including me) gasp. The next thing I know a booming voice comes over the sound system, praying over the baby that it will be okay. Everyone says “amen” and then the voice says, “There will be a 15 minute intermission.”

The entire audience leaves. And never comes back. So does the cast and crew. Everyone except for me and Dawn French, sitting on stage staring out into the empty theater.

That was the strangest dream.

Can anyone interpret?

Hello!--two layouts in one afternoon! I'm totally rockin' the old photos today. While I was cleaning out my mom's office closet last week, I found a box of old photos. I was so excited! I've been working on scanning all of them so I can use them in my scrapbook.

So much of my scrapbook right now is just my nieces and nephews, but I really want to make an album that's just about me--what it was like while I growing up, trips that I've been on, and just everyday things. A true book about me. :) The last couple pages I'm scrapped will go in this album. I'm so excited. Thinking about scrapbooking in this new light has rejuvenated my eagerness to create.

Supplies - Cardstock, patterned paper, ribbon, brads: American Crafts; large buttons: Bazzill Basics; alpha stamps, line stamp, stamping ink, black pen: Stampin' Up!

Hi all! I'm still working my way out from under boxes, but had a chance to visit Paper Creations this morning and buy some goodies. :) I just had to try them out when I got home. I was feeling a little off, possible scrapper's block, but I feel like I'm back on track with this layout. It's much more my style.

Just seeing this layout makes me all choked up. My brother truly is the most amazing friend. He's always been there for me, and this photo proves it. I'm only four-years-old in it. In fact, it's my fourth birthday and I just received the big wheel bike I'm riding on in the photo. He walked behind me to make sure I was okay. :)

Supplies - Patterned paper, brads: American Crafts; scalloped cardstock: Bazzill Basics; lighter patterned paper, rub-on: MME Bohemia; navy card stock, black pen, stamps and stamping ink: Stampin' Up!