Hometown: Assignment #2

Long day, nothing done, no excuses. It is what it is. This assignment is about capturing the town, city, borough, or wide-spot-in-the-road you call home. Plus, I love seeing all the different places we live - so share please!! :) Last week we started at home, with a photo of the front of your house. Today, or sometime by Wednesday night, take a shot of your grocery store of choice. Here, we are a house divided, I like Safeway, the Hubby likes King Soopers. So, I took shots of both. Artistic they are not! But they are modern grocery stores, not cute little corner markets, so whatcha gonna do? I may reshoot at least one of them, the light was bad and so was the angle.

Now, if you missed getting your photo uploaded last week, never fear, you're just out of the running for a weekly goodie associated with the Assignment. You can do this one and get in on the goodie, plus you can catch up and have them all together by the end of the challenge - I think I said May 5th. So next time (before Wednesday night) you run out for "just" that gallon of milk and come home weighed down with 10 bags and $100 lighter, remember to grab your camera and take a little picture to start drawing your picture of your hometown.

Hop To Challenge #5

REMINDER: Hometown Assignment #1: Photo of the front of your home is due this evening. Waking up to snow (nope, not a surprise, this is what Spring in Colorado is all about - 70 degrees yesterday, snow today) on the ground this morning sure makes the photos below seem much longer ago than just this past Sunday. Well, Saturday for the egg dyeing and Sunday for the others.

Easter was a great, relaxing day. After attending the early Mass (7:00 AM and yep, we were all dressed with combed hair) we came home and enjoyed breakfast with my parents and brother after they went to church, since we wouldn't be seeing them for dinner this year; we were hanging out at home.

After they left, the wind was still blowing so we all took off to the soccer fields to fly some kites. Even little Matthew flew a kite and loved it. Too bad he didn't give the high sign when he was done, because he just let go of the string. He speedy brothers managed to catch up with the loose kite, though.

And on Saturday afternoon, between soccer games (which both the boys won, hurray) I even managed to put the finishing touches on the layout I started a week ago.

So in honor of the combination of snow and the pops of color from the brave daffodils and crocuses surviving under it, create a layout today that combines white, lots of white, with a few pops of colors. This challenge along with any others from this week are due Sunday evening to be eligible for the Cookie Jar Treat.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Hop To It Challenge #4

I've been reading a lot recently about scrapbooking and the idea of perfection. As a perfectionist myself it's easy to get caught up in what I think my layout or albums should look like. Which makes it easy to tell myself to wait for the perfect photos to go with the papers I keep waiting to use. To wait for the perfect time to sit down so I can concentrate on getting great pages completed. To tell myself that spending 30 minutes on a page isn't long enough to achieve fantastic results, even when after 30 minutes the page is done and I like what I see. Being a perfectionist is a great excuse to NOT scrapbook. In reality, who, other than my family (well and you all when I post layouts, LOL) are going to see them? My family loves what they see in their albums and actually, most of the time, so do I (can't love the all). And really . . . isn't that the way it should be? So today's challenge is to get some of those favorite papers, or kit ('cause you know there's more than just one set). You know the ones, you keep waiting for the perfect photos. They're the ones that you love so much you bypass them everytime you search your stash with photos that would work equally well, but they're not the "perfect" pictures. Get those because today there will be no more waiting! You'll get to love those papers doing what they were intended - creating a page! Need a little bump in the creativity? You get a sketch too. :) From Nuts About Sketches

This, along with the other challenges from this week are due by Sunday evening to be eligible for the Treats.

Hop to it Challenge #3

Let's give it a try shall we . . . to hybrid scrapbooking that is. I know that for us paper crafters, that can be a little bit intimidating, but if you give it a try it can be a lot of fun too. So, why don't you give a try: it can be as simple as your computer generated journaling or a digital stamp, or a digital title, embellishment, you name it.... Here on my example I used a digital stamp quote over my photo and then printed it. Trust me it was an easy peasy :-) Here's a close up of the digital stamp So, now let me see what you come up with. Remember you have until Saturday evening to upload your creations of all the challenges to be eligible to win a cookie jar treat. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend and Easter. See ya back next Monday, Bessie

Hop To It - My Hometown #1 & Challenge #2

A tad later in the day than I wanted this to go up, but it's going up. Kids are off today and I took advantage of their being home to run some errands. I thought running by myself would have taken a shorter amount of time, but I think without the whine of unwilling kids being dragged from store to store it actually took longer. So instead of posting this while eating breakfast, I'm posting this while cooking dinner. I'm seeing a trend, I may soon be able to call myself a scrapbooker instead of a hoard. . .ah. . .collector. Another layout done last night. Oddly, I didn't finish the layout started on Saturday, mostly because I didn't remember it until this one was almost done. Guess I have something to do tonight. :)

Now, on to today's post. Assignment #1 of My Hometown starts with the "home" in hometown. Take a picture of the front of your home. Post it by Wednesday of next week to be eligible for a weekly treat.

And finally the last of this week's challenges - the one you love - 5 on Friday:

• 1 sheet cardstock in green or brown
• 1 sheet patterned paper
• 1 set of chipboard
• 1 set of boarders
• 1 set of buttons

This along with the sketch challenge and Bessie's challenge are due Sunday evening, please note the change because of the timing of this week's posts.

Plans for this Easter weekend? We start ours with soccer tomorrow morning and afternoon, egg dying tomorrow night and then Sunday after church, we'll have the hunting of the baskets and snarfing of peeps - a time honored tradition. I hope the weather cooperates where ever you are and that your day is filled with wonderful moments that become fond memories.

"Hop To It" April Challenges

Spring is Spring-ing, temps are warming, plants are greening, kits are stacking. . . Wait. Kits are stacking? No, that can't be. But if it is, if your kits are stacking, it's time to do something about it. Just like Spring gets us out prepping gardens, and enjoying the sun, so we need to get to work on some layouts, in the "it's not a chore" kinda way. So this month, let's Hop To It and get some cropping done. Fun challenges will be posted, prizes will be given and pages will be completed. Not quite as intense as February's Don't Stash It Challenge, this month I'll post a challenge every other day or so, layouts will be due Sunday evenings to be eligible for weekly prizes and we'll enjoy the process of creating. To be eligible for the Grand Prize, all layouts will be due Wednesday, May 5th, including the completion of the Hometown project (see below). As something a little different, this month I also have "Assignment: My Hometown" for you to participate in. Each week, I'll give you a photo assignment concerning the town you live in. Share the photo by the due date and you can be eligible for a Treat. Create a layout using the photos you've taken by Wednesday, May 5th and you could win again. :) I think it'll be fun to see where everyone lives, so I'm hoping there will be lots of participation. Right? Right. We'll kick off the "Hop To It Challenge" today with a fave - sketches! Today's is from 52 Sketches..52 Weeks the site is no longer updated, but is still a great source of sketches and inspiration.

Stay tuned tomorrow for My Hometown: Assignment #1. Enjoy your day and the sketch.

No Foolin' Around, All Kinds of Things Goin' On

First off - no, there was no sketch challenge yesterday, but hang in there, it's coming. :) Second thing, there are big bells to be rung and horns to toot over our very own Gloria Stengel who has been asked to be part of Graphic 45's design team!! They have a wonderful line of papers (hope to use some this year in kits) and it'll be exciting to see what Gloria produces, as her work is always inspirational. CONGRATS, Gloria!! Next, and almost as exciting, is I scrapbooked some more last weekend. I know. What is going on? I haven't scrapbooked or produced this much in two years!! I met up with Jennifer H. another talented AS designer, who lives nearby, and we cropped away. Okay, so we talked most of the night and cropped a little. Which is evident in the fact that we got more accomplished the last time we met up because we were at separate tables, LOL. But I did manage to complete one 2-pager and get the photos down on a second 2-pager, it just needs to be embellished. Below you can see the completed layout (using paper from December's Smaller kit.) I won't tell you how long it took to complete it though, or point out the fact that the 4 y.o. in the photos below is now 9!

Next, is simply because he's too cute not to show. My 1 y.o. being a big helper with snow removal. My daughter grabbed the camera when Matthew saw Daddy shoveling the snow off the lawn (our front yard faces due south, and if you don't shovel it off, it stays there until May.) He went and grabbed a shovel more his size, though not so much, and proceeded to help out.

Finally, there are winner from the past two weeks that need acknowledgements. Fantastic layouts produced, which are certainly motivating me. So, congrats to:

• From the week of 3-15 to 3-19 wendipooh13 Wendi, send me you shipping information to lori@apronstringsdesigns.com
• From the week of 3-22 to 3-26 molly Molly your goodies will ship with your next kit shipment.

Congrats ladies! Keep rolling the out with this week's and you could win!