Saturday, November 29, 2008

To do list?

So, we all have them... the ominous list of things to do. But what about a list of things that you have done? I totally, ahem, 'borrowed' this list but it was fun to do! And it makes me want to do the things that I haven't yet experienced!
You copy and paste this list, then go through it and make the things that you have done bold.So here goes...
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelos David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (ish, I did the cover for a book that was published, does that count?)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone's life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Changes...

I think for the time being, I am going to only do two challenges a month. Between the kid's cooties and sports schedules, I am frustrated by not staying on top of the challenges! Two a month is totally doable, especially considering that the holidays are going to be assaulting us soon! I will post a new challenge soon!!!

A 2 Z


I am admittedly late (again)... I used the Marvy Mega pink punch to make my squares and I totally plundered my scrap drawer for this one! My 3-year old helped pick out the order of the squares and the letters so it was lots of fun!
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Monday, October 27, 2008

From A to Z

For this challenge you need to create a layout describing yourself or a loved one from A to Z. It can be either a one page or two page layout... it's your choice! So get out your thesaurus and/or dictionary and see what you come up with!!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

My Favorites


My favorite things, tied with a string... I just couldn't help it! I know this is late, but I think I will blame the toddler and his separation anxiety and it's impact on my sanity for this delay!!
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Monday, October 06, 2008

These are a few of my...

Favorite things? Create a layout about YOUR favorite things (people or places count too). Tied up with strings if you like! Then post by next Monday!! I can't wait to see what your favorite things are... brown paper packages? Now that song will be stuck in my head.
:)ali

A Week In My Life


You can view a slide show of all seven pages from this challenge here: http://picasaweb.google.com/alicia.willeford/AWeekInMyLife#. In retrospect, it would have been more efficient to do a page each day rather than doing it all at once. Like, I would have realized that I was almost out of ink half way through the week rather than Sunday night when I tried to print our all my photos. Also, my 11-year old thinks I am totally narcissistic... so I should have mentioned the project before he saw all the shots I took of myself like I am my own personal paparazzi. Whatever, I rock! This was really a great project, it had me looking at my daily routine with a new perspective. If you haven't tried it yet, you should!
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Saturday, September 27, 2008

Early Challenge Post

I am posting this week's challenge early so you have time to mentally prepare if you are interested in following along. Ali Edwards is doing A Week In the Life, based on classes that she taught at CKC over the years. This is not an official class, but just something she is doing on her blog for the fun of it. The link with all the particulars is: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/09/weekend-creat-3.html. The idea is to gather photos, receipts/ephemera and thoughts every day (ish) and create an album or layout that uses some of those items. It's kind of like a time capsule of your week to be included, or not, in your albums. How fun will this be?? I hope you are as excited as I am to do this week's challenge!!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Imperfect Photos

This was a fun layout to do, although I may have gotten carried away with the bubble roller stamp! I feel like my style may be evolving somewhat!! I used the white glaze pen on the buttons, a Creative Memories Brown thin tip marker to journal and hand draw my imperfect frames and used pop dots to elevate my word blocks.
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Sunday, September 21, 2008

summer 2008


At last!! Here is my 2 page layout of a condensed version of our summer!!
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Saturday, September 20, 2008

Unrelated Challenge - Off Page


I found this video link off of Donna Downey's website/blog a couple of weeks ago... http://www.donnadowney.com/. There is a free video download on her site on how to make an art journal out of newspaper and I was so inspired to get out of my normal route of scrapping that I made my own! The video however, fails to mention how many glue sticks you will go through... let's just say after eight I stopped counting and I had to go out and buy more! I spent at least ten hours from start to finish, but I made a total of 15 pages and I still have about half of that left for another album... there was a bit of downtime waiting for paint to dry, but this was so AMAZING!
You can view my whole album at http://picasaweb.google.com/alicia.willeford/ArtJournal2008#
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Monday, September 15, 2008

Imperfect Photos

We all have them, we may have printed them out against our better judgement... it couldn't really be 'that' blurry, right????? Or (pre-digital) we didn't know truly how bad it was. My 11-year calls them the 'blurs of inexperience', the trial and error shots where you go, 'huh' what is that?

I am calling for you to out your questionable photography skills and create a layout about them, or the moment they capture, however fuzzy it may have been. This could even be from your latest vacation or trip to the mall, whatever... underexposed, blurry, overexposed... embrace your imperfect moments!

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Supply List

I hadn't really thought about what I was going to scrap for this challenge, so I ended up doing this the old-fashioned way (for me anyway), photos first, supplies second. This is simple scrapbooking at it's best, use what you have and get it done. Everything else follows!
My supplies:
One Punch:Marvy Corner Punch... notched edges
One Stamp: Always Remember (Melissa Frances Acrylic)
One Embellishment: Experiment Tag (Daily Dose, My Mind's Eye).
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Monday, September 01, 2008

Supply List

In keeping with packing our kids off to school this week with their new supplies here is your supply list:
One Punch
One Stamp
One Embellishment (your choice)
Fortunately, these don't have to be *new* because I am certain we all have these in our stash! So, get to work and don't be late! It's a brand new school year!
:)ali

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Color Combo & Me Layout (Psychedelic!)


Whoa!! Lime green & fuschia! Striking color combo. OK, so, this, too is a bit of a cheater layout, because (even though it IS NEW!), I combined the color combo challenge with the describe yourself in one sentence layout. I realize that I didn't really construct a sentence in the layout, but it's the same idea, right??
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Monday, August 25, 2008

End of Summer Layout

OK.... I think I am really excited for the school year to start since this is the first year Kieryn will be in school all day and Meghan starts preschool. What will I do with myself for those 5 hours of me time every week??? I don't know but I sure am anxious to try out the new schedule!!!

Of course, part of me is bummed because it means that our schedule gets more rigid, the rain will eventually come, and a part of me will be a little sad that Kieryn is going to be gone all day.

To celebrate summer create a 2 page layout that shows off all your summer highlights!! What a great way to get all your summer scrapping summarized in one page!!!!

Color Combo


Okay, so I lied to Lori... I didn't use an old layout! But this one is all digital and took as long as one of Jillybean's layouts, you kinda lose track of time when doing it digi-style! And, this is way busier than I would normally do so it definately fits the out of the box premise! Plus... isn't he cute?!
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Saturday, August 23, 2008

Color Combo Challenge


Ok, this is kind of a cheater layout, because it is one that I did last year, but it's done in one of the color combos on the list (orange & light blue) and since I'm feeling a bit pressured because I'm behind on the challenges, I thought I would throw this one in!!
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Thursday, August 21, 2008


Finally a post! Here is my monochromatic with a punch of color + who I am defined layout all in one.
My journaling reads: Jill: n; a/k/a mom, wife, friend, scrapbooker, daughter, sister...{nickname; jillybean} Currently undefinable. A period of uncertainty, unsure of what adventure is coming my way but excited to get started. I just need to open my eyes and be open to the possibilities.

Photoless Memory


This challenge provided me an opportunity to journal/scrapbook some old memories feelings regarding Tucker's diagnosis of PKU. Very therapeutic!
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Monday, August 18, 2008

Color Combos

This week create a layout using one of the following color combinations, try picking colors that you wouldn't normally try and see what you come up with!

dark teal/orange/spring green
cherry red/teal
orange/light blue
orange/red/bright green
magenta/lime green
mango/lavender/sea blue

NO photo necessary

SO, really I didn't know what I wanted or could do for this challenge, but I like the end result. It's totally funky and whimsical, and a complete departure from my normal style. I had thought that Jillybean just hated me since she posted this nearly impossible challenge, but now I think she is a genius because I am so out of the box on this one! Thanks Jilly!
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Friday, August 15, 2008

Defined


Yeppers, I am late and completely digital this time! And I am okay with that now! I don't even know what I am going to do for the unphotographed memories... that almost seems impossible to fathom!!
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Thursday, August 14, 2008

Splash of Color layout

My boy in blue jeans! I never thought I would see the day.
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008

New Challenge - Better Late than Never.

Scrap a layout about a memory that doesn't have corresponding photos.

(I have a layout post coming soon...since I have just gotten back from my trip to MN and didn't do any scrapping while I was there I thought I would combine the last 2 challenges into one layout.)

Monday, August 04, 2008

Describe Yourself

This week, your challenge is to create a layout of yourself.... and you have to describe yourself in one sentence. Mine will probably be a run-on sentence, fraught with too many commas and not enough periods!

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Monochromatic Plus a Punch!


I am so glad that we are doing challenges again! I really missed it! Here's my monochromatic layout, the larger frame is actually a light green, but it's not really showing up that way online!
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Finally.....A New Challenge

Let's get this party started up again! For our new challenge let's do a monochromatic layout with a splash of color. -jillybean

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Inspired


I was so inspired by my class with Ali Edwards that I actually completed this mini-album within a couple days of taking the class! It has just been sitting around waiting to be photographed! Thanks for the kick in the heine ScrappyL! Which challenge do you want to repeat?
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Monday, July 21, 2008

Inspire Challenge

Ok, way, way, way late on this, but better late than never, huh?? One of the things that inspires me most is watching my kids grow & morph into young men and women. Tucker is on this journey now and, while, on one hand, it is hard to see your babies grow up; on the other, that is exactly what they were born to do!! To watch the transformation from child to young adulthood (particularly one in which the child seems to make good decisions MOST of the time) is truly inspiring! I am blessed.
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Monday, June 16, 2008

It's Summer Break!

Okay, my inspiration this today is to take this week off! I know, lame right? But I will be more inspired later this week and will have some more fabulous ideas AND I WILL POST my inspiration layout then!
SO, for those of you who just joined us... pick a challenge you didn't get to try yet or one that you want to re-do and post by next Monday. Which means I will post two challenges... something inspired and a favorite challenge!
Blessings!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Inspirations

Your challenge for this week is create a layout about what inspires you. There are no restrictions for this one. It can be anything, from what inspires you to be creative or what inspires you to breathe! Whatever inspires you!

Collections


Yes, I know this is late! Yes, I realize there are no photos on my layout. So, the moral of this story is don't lend your camera to your hubby to take out of town and then expect that the hotel is going to expeditiously ship the camera back in time for you to complete your weekly challenge OR in time for your fifth grader's graduation ceremony. You will be stuck using an old 35mm camera that while you are relieved to find the external flash and see that it does indeed have a light meter, it does not have auto-focus, weighs twenty pounds and is impossible to use while your three year old is having a tantrum and is pinned up against the wall so he doesn't try to escape AGAIN while people give you major stink eye for your inability to control your child and a mother you have known for 3 years calls you Angela and then is offended later when you didn't return her greeting because you didn't realize that she was talking to you because your name is NOT Angela. I hate Mondays! THIS is my layout so just deal!
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Monday, June 09, 2008

My Collections


This is what I did Friday night: a 2 page spread about my collections. Quite fun!


Monday, June 02, 2008

Collections

As women, we have them, bizarre inexplicable collections of things that somehow define us. Your challenge this week is to create a layout that pays homage to your collection(s). Anything from shoes to eyeshadow and everything in between. If you want to scrap your scrapping supplies, you could... but do you really want photo documentation of your millions of dollars of paper online where anyone, including your significant other could find it? Me? I am thinking shoes... he sees them everyday in the closet, there are no surprises there!!

5 Products


This challenge was harder than I thought it would be, not using more than 5 products was difficult... that is the opposite of what I thought would give me problems. My five products were: cardstock, double-sided Heidi Swapp paper, ribbon, one sheet of stickers (this is probably a grey area, but it was my challenge!) and ink.
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Monday, May 26, 2008

Challenge for the last week of May 2008

OMG! It's almost June, how can that be?! Your challenge this week, in honor of the fifth month of the year is to create a layout that uses five products. Adhesive and your photos do NOT count! Use five different patterned papers, be bold, use paint, get messy and create a masterpiece... whatever inspires you, but the end result needs to have five different products! Have fun!

Repentance


I realized after I scanned this in that my photo block was crooked... I guess that gives me another thing to add to my list of things to repent, my need for everything to be perfectly aligned. So, I left it askew, maybe I can change after all!
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Monday, May 19, 2008

Word of the day

What does "it" mean to you? The NY Times word of the day is 'repentance', so your challenge is to use this word to create a layout... or look up a word of the day everyday this week and choose one that inspires you. We will be creative and expand our vocabularies at the same time! Some resources: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/students/wordofday/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwwod.pl
http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/

My Time


Since this one was all about me, I rejoiced in actually being able to go pink! Unfortunately, there are not enough occasions for me to us this... and I just got a yummy pack of pink stuff from Cocoa Daisy!The clock and time stamp are from Inque Boutique, and the frame stamp was 7Gypsies. And the coffee was delicious!
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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Taking Time for Me


One of the things I enjoy doing for me is spending time with my dad. This is from the first Harley ride Dad and I went after Mom passed. The weather was beautiful and shopping was successful. We're doing another ride tomorrow. Yeah!

I used Snow Cap Adirondack Pigment Ink to stamp the Blackberries background on Boxer paper. My new fav ink!


Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Houston, TX Photowalk


I was in Houston this past weekend with Tom to celebrate our 14th anniversay. He had been there the entire previous week to work a trade show--as he has for the past 2 years over our anniversary--so this year, I went and joined him at the end for the weekend. We stayed with our friends, Robbie & Dana Reider, who will soon be moving back to Cincinnati. It was a good weekend, but VERY hot & humid. This was the first time that we left our kids at home, on their own, for a whole weekend, too! Kind of scary, but they seemed to have managed just fine. The layout is all digital (I seem to be able to get the digital ones done more quickly!!)
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