A HUGELY OVERDUE...

catch-up post!

Since I've been totally occupied with marching band camp for the last 6 days, the blog has been a bit ignored. Well, since our big announcement on Sunday.

But ignored no more! I have tons of catching up to do - so grab a cup of coffee, turn the music to low, and slide a box of Kleenex next to you.

Trust me!

This morning's blog will... 

• show off some Flocked Heat Transfer Material from Silhouette America {maybe a LIVE! in the works??}
• chat about something brand new in the Scrapy Land store
• and finally unveil the Starting Blox! - with two page samples and a tear-jerker momma story to go with one of them {hence the Kleenex!}
• OH! and I also am asking for opinions {because you've shown in the past that you're willing to share 'em - LOL!} 

so let's get started. 

Band Camp - yadda yadda yadda - I've been going on and on about it for 2 weeks. I know, I'm sorry. But it's my daughter's senior year, so this was kind of a big deal. But we survived - just barely LOL! What made this camp so fun was that I had customized t-shirts for every single day of camp. Some for me, and some for her.

They were each made the night before camp, in under 30 minutes, with my Silhouette SD and some Flocked Heat Transfer Material. If you haven't tried this stuff ladies - what the heck are you waiting for?

This was my daughter's - for yesterday. I cut out a Silhouette font in Black Flocked Material and a few downloaded stars. This Flocked Material cuts like a dream. Seriously, like-a-dream! And the ironing step? Easy peasie! 

This is from the White Flocked Material. It's another Silhouette font. But did you notice what I added to this shirt? BLING! When the shirt was all done, and the letters were cool, I simply grabbed some tweezers and hand-placed my Silhouette Rhinestones. I did one letter at a time - and ironed each one as I went. Since each rhinestone has the heat-activated adhesive on it you can totally be random! I LOVE this one. {And so did the other moms! Everyone now wants their own!}

This was my shirt for the final day of camp. I was anxious to see how well this thin, dainty font cut from the Flocked Material. Guess what? PERFECTION! Here I used the Green Flocked Material and the Pink Flocked Material. Ladies - all of these shirts were inexpensive shirts from Joann's and Michaels. Less than $3.00 the day I bought them. Together with the transfer materials and the rhinestone I don't think I spent more than $25 for an entire week's worth of t-shirts! I am so excited about this material - so fun to have customizable shirts, papers, bags...anything really! And literally, at the drop of a hat!

NEXT - if you haven't cruised through the Scrapy Land store lately, you've missed the news that the Scor-Buddy is now in stock.

This little dream is smaller than my favorite Scor-Pal, but I can't wait to get one. The tool is roughly 9"x 7.5" - it was designed for card makers. Biggest plus for this little guy - score lines at every 1/4". And BONUS - score lines every 1/8" for the first inch! Hello - did you watch the Paper Medallions LIVE! class last week? That project was made for this tool! It still has a scoring tool attached, but now there's a magnetic area right next to it. Perfect for holding your paper clips and brads when you're working on a project. AND there's a cute faux ultra suede carrying case included. Be still my score-loving heart!

Get yours ordered soon, because I have a feeling Scrapy Land is going to blow through this first shipment.

NEXT - the Starting Blox for August 1st. It was done, and sitting here all last weekend. But darn if the Design Team announcement didn't take a precedence. {LOL} And then...well, band camp. But here it is today, and this one is a bit different...

This Blox was one I challenged myself with. I did that by drawing the Blox based on a layout Veronica sent me...

For this gorgeous page Veronica used: QK Marigold and Flirt fonts, clouds from the CC Rainbow & Cloud set AND the 2x2 Cloud. {she's really in to clouds! LOL} She also used a stamped image from the Go Green set and some Blue and Purple Glimmer Mists. Here title here says "coffee with a view".

But what I loved when I saw this layout was the scattering of embellies. The flowers, the gems, the die-cuts and the ephemera. Totally non-me, definitely out of my comfort zone! So I said "I can do this, at least I think I can!" So without telling Veronica - SURPRISE SWEETIE - I did up a Blox based on her layout.

Here is my take on Veronica's design...

I rotated the Blox to use a horizontal picture, but I love how that worked. I'm a bit more of a journaler - so I added my words around the perimeter of the block, but I totally think it works.

See how easy it is to alter a Blox to fit your needs? I used: QK Yogurt, QK Jacqueline, QK Nesting Hearts and several older 2x2 heart dies. I worked for 15 minutes on the "randomness" of my buttons and beads. LOL - I was cracking myself up. It's more difficult than I thought it would be, but I did it!

Veronica THANKS for the inspiration and the beautiful example to work from.

FINALLY - the Kleenex. If you can't make out my journaling, it says:

Oh Boy Do You Know? That I figured I would only have girls? That I was totally afraid I'd raise a momma's boy? That I do worry that {you...oops forgot a word} feel left out at times. That when I roll my eyes at you I am laughing inside! That I love you!

The reason I'm sharing this is because of what happened when I placed the last exclamation point on the page.

I handed it to my son, who happened to be sitting in my office. As he rotated the page around so he could read the journaling - he got real quiet. He mentioned that i had left out a word {gee thanks!} and then stood up and walked around the table. He set the page down in front of me and engulfed me in a bear hug. Then he said "I love it when you scrapbook mom!"

{sniff, sniff}

THIS ladies - is why we do it. We hoard our papers, we covet supplies and new tools, we set ourselves up and compare our work to others, and we seem to want to obtain the situation known as "caught up". But HELLO - memories and emotions, this is what scrapbooking is all about. Chronicling, documenting, recording, and remembering. 

GOSH I love this craft!

So - I challenge you over the next two weeks to scrapbook a page that stretches you. Whether it be misting on a page, coloring a stamped image, or placing random bling around the perimeter of your page...PUSH YOURSELF. If you've tackled all of those - I dare you to journal. It doesn't have to be lengthy - it doesn't have to be mushy, heck you don't even have to have all of the words there {!!}...but journal something from the heart.

I dare you! NO - I double dog dare you!

OKAY - whew - sorry girls. But you know me and catching up. If it needs to be caught up it will be caught up! I need to get started on my scrap table. Because I have a FedEx arriving in less than 4 hours. The July QK Release and the Special Delivery Gift Set is due here before noon today. What are you most excited to see from these collections? What dies are you waffling on, that you need some more info on? Which one are you really tempted to add to your cart? Let me know here in the comments, and I'll do my best to show off those dies first.

Any other questions, ideas, suggestions...we'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment here and be heard!

I'm here for your habit... 

Comments

[Basketlady]

Sniff, sniff... I love the boy page, but best of all is the story. Priceless.

[Karen W]

Gosh Susan where to begin - so excited about the Score-Buddy - I think this little one will be a huge hit and be flying off the shelf!
The T-Shirts are just 'Keuter' than anything you can purchase. I really have to give this a try!
Veronica, I just love your layout and how exciting that it turned into a Blox that Susan scraplifted! Susan love your layout and glad I had my Kleenex at the ready. You have a pretty special boy there!

[Gail]

Me, too. Couldn't figure out why I needed Kleenex, but now I do! Beautifully said, Susan. When all's said and done, its the emotion behind a page (or card, or whatever) that really counts. Gail

[Deborah Keizer]

Loved your blog today. I'll have to see if I can find a tear jerker page. I would like to see the stitching die as I have never done this and not sure I get it. Also I did not order the bird cages as I thought they would be to fragile to work with so persuade me before they are gone. Deborah

[Scrapy Land Susan]

Deborah - DONE and DONE! Stitching dies and bird cages. Two very high on my list to play with first.

And just to edit my challenge ladies - a page doesn't have to be a tear-jerker, I didn't mean to imply that. What I'm challenging you to do is journaling, from the heart - honestly and completely! Just let if flow. Say what you maybe don't always say in person. Sometimes it might bring laughter or embarrassment. Sometime, tears. You just never know!

THANKS!

[Househund(Ros)]

Great spread(post) Susan...
The score buddy is in my basket as we speak....!
Can't wait to see all the new goodies!!!

[Claudia McDaniel]

Awww, made me tear up. That is exactly why we scrapbook!! That's just so awesome. You totally made my day.

[Cindy Wyse]

I did not think that I would cry!! I have a boy too and he seems to be tough and solid on the outside but he is sometimes as mushy as I am :) He is my first and starting 11th grade in a few weeks so the "he's growing up and going to leave me" blues are setting in.

I would be happy to see everything you get on the dies. I would like to see the actual dies and sizes. I am curious about the nesting flower with the circles, the CC plant, and danylion flower.

Thanks so much and have a great time playing with the goods :)
Cindy

[Gemiel]

Love that you added flowers, buttons, hearts and stuff on a boy page. I'm always looking for ways to incorporate these thing in my boy layouts without making htem look girly (if you know what I mean LOL). Great job!!!

[Diane in NH]

First: BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL page, Veronica! And wonderful design lift, Susan. Both pages are so different considering they follow the same design. The joy of scrapbooking!

Second: Glad you had so much fun at band camp, Susan. I remember my daughter's last cheering camp when she was a senior. I was there EVERY day.

Third: Aren't kids wonderful? My daughter used to sneer at my scrapbooking hobby. Last week I finally finished the album of her growing up and I let her see it. I had kept notes that she wrote to me when she was 6, 7, and 8, and some drawings she did, and added those to the scrapbook. When she got to that part, she stopped and read them, looked at me with watery eyes, and said, "You kept all these?" AH! Now she knows why we scrap, and I think I can make a convert out of her!

[Scrapy Land Susan]

oh you ladies are SO SWEET! Glad you didn't mind a little mushy-son-emotion this morning! LOL!

And Gemiel - go ahead and use up those flowers and buttons and baubles! I figure if I have to shop for jock straps, razors and manly body wash then he can put up with a little "fluff" on his pages! LOL - and you know what? He's never ever mentioned the flowers to me! {he probably doesn't notice!}

Diane - Thank you - YES our kids are all wonderful! Even during the yucky, ugly, or painful times - the good usually is what we remember! You will make a scrapper out of your daughter, I'm just confident!!!!

THANKS LADIES!

[Vicki Morris]

I love hearing about Band Camp, always seems like you have some great thing going on associated with stuff you do with your kids and you didn't disappoint once again, oh my gosh Susan, those custom shirts are awesome. Great job!
Your son is adorable, dontcha just love those sweet moments. I had taken my sons second Marine book up to his last month and left it in his guest room meaning to look over it with him. Well I forgot. He called last night and said Mom, I found the 2nd scrapbook. He said mom it's awesome. Made me feel so good. Course then in the next breath he said he'd bring the rest of his deployment pictures with him when he comes home next with all the other stuff (tickets, brochures, etc), in case I wanted to do his deployment pictures, DUH! lol.
It is why we do this.
Saw the video you did showcasing the gift set, darn you Susan, I don't make cards and now you have me believing I need it anyway, lol. It really is a great set. I haven't placed my order for the birds and bees yet cause several dies I want are always out of stock so I'll be placing mine in the future. The caterpillar and flowers CC-SHAPE-094-2 are my favs and can't wait to be able to order them. Lots must think the caterpillar is a must have too, it's out of stock (went quickly too, lol).
Thanks for all you do Susan!

[cheryle]

Love the blog entry! Great idea with the tshirts and I'm glad that you're enjoying your daughter's senior year! There's only one senior year so make the fun out of it! I like the starting blox and the LO's.

Veronica, was that taken near Stockholm?

I'm enjoying all the pix!

[Veronica]

I'm on vacation without internet access for ONE day and you manage to suprise me with lifting my LO =)
Cheryle, the pics are taken at Skansen in Stockholm - so you're right =)

KRAM

[Dania]

I love this blox and I'm glad I have the perfect picture for it thanks to your picture Susan I was reminded that I had a cute picture of Christopher I wanted to scrap. You'll see why your picture jogged my memory when I submit the LO. Thanks Susan and Veronica.