Happy Valentine's Day

Let's start the week off right with some inspiration.  We'll start with February's Guest Designer Deanna Deaton's layout de Jour - isn't it the cutest thing?  Hopefully it didn't escape your notice that she made three pages with this one Echo Park pack from the Smaller than a Breadbox kit!  Way to go - and isn't her Granddaughter the cutest?  Her page makes me think of cake. . .frilly lace, like icing, the delish colors make me think of a layered cake.  Seriously, I think I need to make a cake.  Go check out more of Deanna's fantastic work at her blog HERE.

So let's see. . .today's challenge is to create a layout using those traditional Valentine's colors; red, pink, white OR create a layout about something you love.  Upload it by Sunday evening.

Now, it's my turn.  My boys had a great weekend in basketball - the 12 y.o. and his team are heading off to play for third place next weekend with their win this weekend against a team who hadn't been defeated in three years!  My 10 y.o. and his team are heading into the semi-finals for the championships with a one-point win this weekend.  Really, the coaches should tell them not to do that to their mothers.  Way to go my boys!!

On Friday, I made the last minute decision to head out to Archivers to crop.  For the sisters who are reading this, it WAS last minute, like at 3:00 I called to save my space for a 5:00 crop.  In the couple hours I had, I needed to get dinner ready and then figure out what to take with me.  I'd used up my stash of items during the last crop I went to.  Basically, I was snatching and grabbing having no idea what I was taking.  I was just trying to match up photos to kits to LOAD challenges.  In the end I had a mismash of stuff, my iPod and my shoulder tote bag.  I grabbed dinner on the way to have no interruption in my time.  I popped my earbuds in and started working.  In the end I finished nine pages which equalled five layouts and caught up all but one of my LOAD challenges.  Of course I didn't get any done over weekend, so I'm behind again, but still. . .  And if you'll note, there is one layout using this month's Fancy Pants (holy cow) and one using last month's American Crafts (dang).

This LOAD challenge thing has been so fun.  I know she's handing out goodies every now and then, but truly, the thrill is getting so much done and I'm hoping it helps solidify a "habit" to scrapbook more often - it is a 2011 goal after all.  The above layouts represent an "intended" journaling challenge, a five item Friday challenge, a "feeling" color challenge, an inspiration challenge (which I don't collect inspirational items, so it was just a sketch, LOL) and a challenge based on a magazine page.  Like I said I got all but one, a button one of all things - I can use buttons no problem - caught up and then this weekend's challenges I didn't get to since I was swimming in boxes.

So I'm off to get chores done, get a nice dinner planned and maybe bake that cake, so I can play again later today.

I hope there's a touch of cheery red and pink in your day,