Generally a lot of my scrapbook pages are quite thick. Between foam tape (or SU! Dimensionals) and ribbon and brads they can get a bit bulky. For some reason, this one is very... flat. I guess that's the word. It's simple and I wanted to keep it that way.

Edited to add: This isn't the response to the Challenge from yesterday. Just a page I made a couple weeks ago and hadn't posted yet. :)

Enjoy!

This week's challenge is brought to you by Erica:

"Create a scrapbook page based on another you've seen somewhere. It can be the web, a magazine, anything. Just post a link to the page online, or post what book or magazine it was in so we can compare and see how you were inspired."

I'll be doing this one tonight or tomorrow. What about you?

I am a traveling machine! I have many trips planned over the next few months...

July - Stampin' Up! Convention, Session 1 - Denver, CO
September - Scrap Fest 2007 - Minneapolis, MN
October - New York City

I'm looking forward to the Stampin' Up! Convention so much! I have three awesome roommates that I met on Splitcoast who will be my best buddies during the week I'm in Denver. I'm not sure how many swaps I'm making, but it will definitely be a lot. I didn't make any for the Salt Lake Regional in April so I'm going to make sure I have plenty for Denver. Airfare, check. Hotel, check. Convention registration, check. Anyone else going to Convention? Roll call!

In September, I'm going to Scrap Fest! I'm super excited because I'll get to spent the whole weekend with my sister Marisa! She lives a little bit away from the Mall of America so we'll be staying at a hotel and getting our scrap on all weekend long. I just bought my airline tickets so I'm for sure going. Anyone else going to Scrap Fest? Roll call!

NEW YORK!! AH! I haven't been back to NYC since November 2004 and I'm so excited to be going with a friend from work named Annie and her roommate Amber. We bought our airfare and Broadway tickets last Wednesday. We're seeing three broadway shows in two days! Are we crazy or what? We're seeing The Lion King, Legally Blonde the Musical (nominated for several Tony Awards!), and The Drowsy Chaperone.

I love traveling so I can't wait to get all these trips started!

My colors: Rose Red, Almost Amethyst, So Saffron, Going Gray, and Buckaroo Blue
Stamps (I only used two): Dotted Background, flower from Office Accoutrement
Product: sponge with ink

So Erica (my SU! upline) and I are going to give each other weekly challenges and ya'll are welcome to join us! Each Wednesday either she or I will post a stamping or scrapbooking challenge. Because let's face it, after tonight, we won't have anything to watch. Idol and Lost end tonight. We need something to keep us busy, right? ;)

We're planning to both complete the challenge tonight, but you'll have until Friday! So, post a link here when you're done and we'll come check out what you did. :)

Lost Idol Challenge #1
You will have 30 minutes to complete this challenge from start to finish. You can think about what you'll do beforehand, but once you touch card stock or paper, the clock is ticking. Here are the rules:

1. Use 5 (yes, that's five) colors.
2. Use 3 stamps only (each letter in an alphabet set counts as 1 stamp, also a background stamp is 1 stamp). You can repeat a stamped image more than once. But only 3 total stamps are used.
3. Use a product you have not used for at least 2 months. Dig out that Coluzzle, pearl ex powder, or Perfect Layers. It must be a product that had not seen the light of day for at least 2 months.

Game on!

Instead of creating my own tutorial, I found some good instructions for the box I made the other day.

Origami Box Instructions

I used a 12" x 12" piece of patterned paper for the top of the box, and for the bottom I used patterned paper that was cut just barely larger than 11.5" x 11.5".

Good luck! If you make one of these boxes, leave a link here so I can see what you did. :)

Things I want to mention tonight:

1. My dad and step-mom gave me Twilight and New Moon (the special edition with the first chapter of Eclipse in the back) for my birthday. My dad gave me the gifts at dinner on Saturday. What a sweetie! I asked for them because when I read them the first time I got them from the library. Now I can love them forever and forever.

2. Andy chose Tessa! Okay, I'll admit it, I got sucked into The Bachelor this season. But, hello! What a cutie! I was so rooting for Tessa the entire time. She didn't throw herself at him and he had to really pursue her. I think in the end that's what made a difference. Andy's a traditional guy, and a traditional courtship would really appeal to him.

3. Went to Chili's for lunch today with the crew from work. Just a bunch of creative people crowded around a tiny table. :) We had to wait a long time for our food and after we received it I concluded that my meal must have been the first done and was placed for three hours in the furthest spot away from any heat. Maybe in front of the freezer even. French fries were cold, hard as rock, and tasted like cardboard. It was the VERY first time I've ever sent my food back to the kitchen. "Um... my fries are super cold."

4. In reference to number 1, I just finished re-reading Twilight. Sigh. I need an Edward in my life. But maybe one that's less... vampirey. And more alive or something. :)

5. This weekend's baked item of choice was Chocolate Chip Mint Cupcakes. Yum. I have yet to completely finish them, however. The recipe said I could freeze them so I stuck them in the freezer and when I'm ready to frost them, I'll whip those puppies out, thaw them, and slather on the mint green icing. Double Yum.

6. In reference to numbers 1 and 4, I pre-orderd Eclipse this weekend as well. Someone stop me. I'm entangled in the complex world of Stephenie Meyer.

7. Quick update on the workshop last Saturday. Not a whole lot of sales (read: two tiny orders), but I'm still holding out that the hostess might get the total of all orders up to $150 so she can receive hostess benefits. A couple people that wanted to order weren't able to come so she's showing them the catalog and getting their orders that way. Also, she seemed to like the box. Was fascinated with the glitter and everyone there wanted to know how I did that. Just glue and glitter, people. Super simple. They were happy to hear that. :)

Speaking of the box, watch for a tutorial on making one. Hopefully I can add it this weekend. :)

Hostess Coaching is what SU! encourages all demonstrators to do. Basically, hostess coaching is helping your workshop hostess have the best workshop possible, and also making them feel special and to thank them for helping your business thrive.

I've never been big on hostess coaching, but I'm trying to do better. I have a workshop this afternoon and I've been really trying to help her out as much as possible. I've been in contact with her over the phone as well as going to her home once to talk over the types of projects she wants to do. I really hope this helps her get better sales and in turn helps me out.

In the past, I would give my hostesses all the cards I demonstrate and then a few other small goodies. This time, I decided to make her something special as well. This is a box I folded, decorated, and filled with small cards. I hope she likes it. I've seen instructions for this box in numerous places in the internet. I'll find some directions and post them here.

And this is one of the cards we'll be making as a group:

I am in pre-mourning because The Office ends tonight. WAA! No new episodes until next season. I'm totally bummed already.

Buck up, Kristina! You need to appreciate tonight's episode! Maybe just maybe Jim and Pam will FINALLY end up together tonight and the last scene of the season will be the two of them rushing off to get married and moving as far away from Roy and Karen as possible.

One can only hope. :)

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My birthday was super fun! My co-workers decorated my cubicle with 4 dozen cupcakes! They know me so well. :) And then I went out to dinner with my mom that night.

Thanks everyone for the warm birthday wishes! You're all too sweet! My Stampin' Up! upline, Erica gave me the cutest gift last night at our group meeting. I'll have to take a picture of it and share it here. She's just adorable!

Okay, I just had a weird deja vu experience...

Question: Have you experienced deja vu? How long ago was it? Do you experience it often?

Leave a comment. I'm totally curious!

Not quite the 15th yet, but I made a birthday page this morning anyway. :)

My mom gave me one of my birthday gifts a bit early. A KitchenAid mixer! It's a lovely 9-speed hand mixer and I LOVE it! I broke it out on Thursday night to make cupcakes for a birthday at work and then again tonight to make cupcakes for a combined birthday/Mother's Day celebration we're having as a family tomorrow.

My sister-in-law's birthday was yesterday and mine is Tuesday, so we usually combine our birthdays. :)

Anyway, I wandered through Barnes and Noble this morning and found a couple of really cool cupcake books. One really isn't a book, but it's still so cool. It's called The Cupcake Deck (don't ya love how I'm talking about Barnes and Noble, and I link to Amazon. ;) hee hee. I'm a total Amazon supporter. If there was an actual Amazon store, I would definitely frequent it). It's a really cool box with 25 cards inside with photos of each cupcake and then the recipe. Wicked cool!

The second book is called 500 Cupcakes. I'm sure some of you out there (holla Sarah!) are already aware of this yummy book. Anyway, I made the Strawberres 'n' Cream Cupcakes tonight and let me tell you... DELISH! The new mixer was a champ and plowed right through the very thick batter. Speaking of how thick it was, it was the consistency of cookie dough. Seriously weird. I thought I'd done something wrong, but after they were baked they were all sorts of fluffy and spongy. In fact, a couple of the cups were a bit too full and overflowed the cupcake wells. Imagine a sugar cookie on top of a cupcake. It looked like that! Sweet!

I still have to do the whipping cream and strawberry topping for it (I'll save that for tomorrow before I drive to my brother's house where we're having the party), but the cake portion is fantastic! One of the cupcakes came out all wonky so of course it became the "test cupcake." One must always have a test cupcake. After all, who wants to spend all that time frosting the little buggers if they're gross?

500 Cupcakes. A real winner. Go buy the book. I mean it. Buy it and then make something and tell me what you think. :)

One of my good friends Colleen and her family have their annual "Gathering of the Girls" this weekend. I got to tag along for a bit and take photos of this too cute family!

Before I get to the photos, I have to tell you that this family gets together each year over Mother's Day weekend and just spends time together. All the women in the family who can be there. What a great idea!

Before I left the park after taking their pictures, Colleen and all the girls gave me an early birthday gift! And it was so cute--each of the them signed their name on the outside of the box! And inside... Tons of Scenic Route scrapbooking product! AH!! They really know a way to a girl's heart, don't they? Too sweet of them! Truly, Colleen is one of the most genuine and kind people I know and I suspected that her family was the same. Now I know they are. :)

Anyhow, here are just a few of my favorites. I couldn't narrow it down to less than ten, so there are a few here and then make sure to go over here for the rest of the ten.

And here's Colleen and one of her daughters. Aren't they beautiful?!

First off, before I get to the card, here are the interview questions from Sarah with my answers following each one:

1. If you were to create a new Ben & Jerry's flavor, what would it be?
I would love a flavor that taste like Samoas Girl Scout cookies. Yum. (NOTE: I was just told that they actually do make this flavor! I must go to the store and get some immediately!)

2. What is one of your guilty pleasure songs?
Definitely "White Christmas." Sung by just about anyone. I could listen to that song all year round! Yum.

3. If you were a paparazzi photographer, who would you stalk?
John Krasinski from the The Office (also known as my television boyfriend. Have ya'll seen *the* trailer?). Yum.

4. What is your favorite thing to do on a day off work?
First I sleep in. Then I read a good book. Then I maybe stamp or scrap a bit. Then I must go out to dinner. Yum.

5. Everyone is a snob of something--what are you a snob of?
I'm a seafood snob. As in I only eat the good seafood. Get rid of the calamari, but bring on the shrimp. Yum.

This month our club hostess is one of my co-workers, Lauren. She absolutely LOVES small cards and requested them for our projects in May. So I sat down yesterday and made a few 3x3 cards. These are just a few of the ones I came up with to choose from later:

Hi all! Here are the two cards that appeared in the March issue of Cards Magazine. Now that it's been two months, I can now share them here. :)

I just received an email from from Paper Crafts via Sarah that alerted me to this website: shaneswish.com

Shane is a small boy with leukemia who is turning seven May 30. His only wish is to break the world record for birthday cards received. His goal is 350 million!

Let's all commit to making a one card (or a few) to send to this little guy. His mailing address is at the website linked above.

Get the word out! If you have a blog, post it there. Remind your family and friends. Let's help his wish come true! :)

Just a quick update before I head off to work. This is a notebook that I bought a while ago and just now got around to decorating. :)

BTW, I mailed out all the Cards Idea Books yesterday. All you lucky gals should get them soon.

Some more Palette O'Prints for ya'll. I just love these papers and I absolutely love the You Make Me Happy stamp set in the Spring Mini Catalog as well.

In none paper crafting related news, I've recently discovered pandora.com. Such an awesome site! You just enter in a song you like and then it finds similar songs and plays it for you like a custom radio station. As each song plays, you can give it a thumbs up or down, and it "learns" more and more what you like. Totally awesome! I've discovered some new artists that I really enjoy. I totally recommend it and listened all day at work today. :)

Also, it's been a crazy few days at work. Between birthdays and retirement parties (someone else's, not mine...hee hee!) I haven't had a chance to mail out the Cards Idea Books I gave away last week. So sorry, girls! It's on my to do list tomorrow, I swear!

Has anyone seen the new Martha Stewart crafts line in Michael's stores? How does it look? I'm so curious! I haven't had a chance to drive to Michaels since they put in all the product. From what I hear, it all looks great. And I hear that there are designer cupcake paper liners! I'm all over that! (Sarah, have you seen them? I know you're on top of everything cupcake).

Speaking of cupcakes, I made Orange Pound Cake Cupcakes this weekend. Um, not that great. When you see a cupcake, it should taste like a cupcake, ya know? And you bite into this, look down at it and you're all, "What...is... this? This is not a cupcake. Who's been messin' with the cupcake?" That would be me. Gross. Won't be makin' those again.

And to think I totally smoked my mom's handmixer over these pieces of cupcake trash? However, my birthday's coming up... Hmmm, Kitchaid mixer? Pretty please. ;)