"the boy and his dog"

The Story:

When Lizzie showed up on the property she was barely four months old, skin and bones, and filthy. (It took four consecutive baths and an entire bottle of dog shampoo to get the stench off of her!) Clearly, she had been dumped. It was heartbreaking, but the last thing in the world I wanted was a puppy. We had Roxie (The Princess) what more could the boys want? I told them the puppy could stay until we had her cleaned up, fattened up, doctored by our vet and spayed, then she'd be a great dog -- for someone to adopt from the SPCA. (Sure, Momma, whatever!)

Days stretched into weeks and weeks stretched into months and I watched as she slowly became a part of the family, albeit a part of the family who chewed shoes, piddled on the floor, and shredded paper. The boys always took her part, defending her to me when I would freak out over pieces of tissue lying all over the living room. "Mommy, you have to be patient. She's just a puppy." (That's a direct quote!)

Sometimes doing the thing doesn't make sense, turns out to be the perfect decision. . . Although she's really the boys' dog, Lizzie has made us better as a family -- all of us, including Roxie. She's ours. (Why I fooled myself into thinking she wouldn't be, I will never know.) We're hers and I think that was the way it was supposed to be all along.

The Layout:

This layout was inspired by one of my scrappin' gal friends, Anna. She posted on her blog (nest happenings) some information about crafting green. It really got me thinking seriously about the amount of packaging we have in scrapbooking that gets dumped into landfills. Scrapbooking has to be the ultimate art form for reusing materials like plastic and cardboard. So I have been saving my packaging and trying to figure out how to get it onto my pages. I have a few ideas mulling around in my head and this is the first that I finished.

The plastic is from Tim Holtz charms. I filled each bubble with a trinket and attached the whole embellishment to the paper with brads. The paper is Sassafras Vintage Yummy and I stitched on the layout with embroidery floss.

I hope this layout will inspire you to look at your packaging in a new way before you toss it! Thanks for making me think, Anna!

National Scrapbook Weekend

"And the only thing that does any good is to hop in a cab and go to Tiffany's." -- Holly Golightly



It was a fantastic weekend at Simply Scrapbooks! I do not know how Laurie and her awesome staff manage to top themselves each year, but they did it again. . . It was "Breakfast at Tiffany's" all weekend. From the Tiffany blue decorations, to the fabulous food, to Ashley's adorable acrylic Make and Take book, to the juicy give-aways, to the darling vintage hats, to the marvelous Theron and his Quickutz demos. . . it was a sublime way to spend a weekend. . . "Cross my heart and kiss my elbows."



It was a memorable weekend. I want to give a shout-out and thanks. . .

. . . to my two best scrapping pals, Debbie and Kathy, for that perfect combination of friendship and scrapbooking.

. . . to Ella and Sylvia for being great tablemates -- these gals know how to have a good time.

. . . to Pam and her little furry friend for keeping us all in stitches. Poor Jana!

. . . to Carrie and Kristi for modeling both proper and improper embossing techniques!

. . . to Jana for the pinky promise -- I won't forget!

. . . to Wilda and Courtney for their tech savvy advice and sweet compliments -- I'm sure I'll be in contact!

. . . to Laurie for hosting another perfect weekend.



I completed five layouts and they are below. Each one has a story behind it and I'll share over the next few weeks.

Just, so Andrew!

My Andrew is so many things. I am not sure I know a more expressive personality. He has been fiercely independent since he got up and started walking at 9 months. He is who he is, so just deal with it already. I theorize that it could be that middle child thing -- sorry to you middle children -- he needs to be seen and heard. Over the years my photos of him are so "in the moment" and one doesn't ever have the same feel as the next. I love that kid! He colors our world in such a big way.

I shot the photos for this layout last summer -- ah, glorious summer! I had intended on scrapbooking them at Spooktacular, but got so caught up in the ATC fervor that I put them aside. Those of you who were there know I was into my ATC holder. For the last week I have been slowly getting ready for National Scrapbook Weekend -- okay, I can admit it, I was unpacking some of the stuff that has been sitting since Spooktacular. It was like Christmas! So it is actually a good thing that I never unpacked. I ran across these photos and they matched perfectly with paper I picked up at the store last weekend.

I actually picked up the yellow Chatterbox paper first. It is a sunny yellow and the circles are flocked. I matched it with two pieces from The Paper Company Studio - Celebration Line. The stripe has a bit of glitter on it and the green is called "Dotted Circle." I cut the lettering on my Cricut using the font "Socket." I love my Zip Dry, but I had a little trouble adhering to the flocked paper initially. I had to hold it down a bit and give it a chance to set. The heart charm I picked up somewhere and it was in my stash. I have been making a conscious and conscientious effort to use some of my stash and scraps lately because, you know, I bought it, I saved it -- I need to use it!

Aaron's Notebook Cover

Aaron is taking "Preparing for Adolescence" at church. It is a six week course that gives the sixth graders an introduction to the changes that they will be going through in their teen years. Parents take the class with the kids and it has been great, so far, at focusing our conversations.

I find myself slowly (and rather reluctantly) wrapping my brain around the fact that Aaron is going to junior high next year. I know every mother that goes before tells you don't blink an eye because it seems a moment and their childhood is gone. I am now that mother. The one who will tell you that the pre-teen years have come much to soon. (Pity Party over. . . for now.)

One of our assignments for our class this week was to make a cover for the notebook. Aaron and I picked out some Cosmo Cricket paper and I had a bunch of leftover embellishments, like stickers and accents that coordinated. Aaron picked out the ones he liked and decorated his cover. With so little paper, I am sure you would be surprised by how much glue he went through -- shocking!

I cut Aaron's name on my Cricut using my fancy new Sure Cuts A Lot program. I layered the letters over each other and staggered them before I cut. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sure Cuts A Lot! It has rocked my Cricut world! If you haven't heard of SCAL, it is computer software I picked up from eBay. It allows me to cut any (yes, any) true type font, including dingbats on my Cricut. No need to buy cartridges anymore, no need to change cartridges to cut different letter styles, AND you can turn text to cut 12 inches! I paid $58. If you buy it, I don't want to know if you pay less. :)

My Playlist Book

A few weeks ago I was cruising Ali Edwards' blog. (She is amazing!) She had an adorable layout with a "playlist" as the subject. The playlist was music on the ipod in her baby daughter's room.

I love my Nano and I have a serious iTunes habit. I decided to use Bisou paper and chipboard accents to make my own playlist book.

Cover: For the cover I used chipboard and I copied and pasted the album from iTunes into a grid. I printed it on photo paper and adhered it to the chipboard. I created a frame in Photoshop using some circle brushes that I downloaded for free from a website. I printed this on an overhead. I put a piece of vellum between the overhead and the album cover grid. (Since taking the photo I have colored in a few of the circles with permanent markers.)

Pages: Each of the pages is chipboard. I cut apart three different sheets of Bisou paper into different sized squares and rectangles. I pieced them together and glued them over the chipboard. I printed the playlist songs and the journaling about each song on vellum and glued another picture of the album cover next to each entry. (I thought that I could print new pages as my favorite music changes over time.)

Hello, My Name is Laura, I am a Flairaholic!

I am hooked on Facebook! I know, I know, it is a blackhole for time, but I have had so much fun reconnecting with old friends and keeping up with relatives who are spread out all over the country.

One of my favorite applications on FB is Pieces of Flair. They are the FB version of all those little buttons we used to wear on our jean jackets in the 80's. They are so much fun to collect. The application has some annoying limits -- I have way more flair than space to display it all in!

I created this layout on Kraft paper. I copied and pasted the flair buttons into a publishing program and printed them out on photo paper. Then I glued the photo paper to chipboard and started cutting -- yes, by hand. I attached the flair to a scrap of old denim. I overlapped and popped some of the buttons using foam squares. The chipboard accents and journaling rectangle are from Bisou and the nametag I picked up for free off of a digital scrapbooking website. (Sorry, I don't remember where I found it.)

Just Plain Fancy

The name of my blog comes from the children's book, Just Plain Fancy by Patricia Polacco.

The story is about an Amish girl who finds an odd egg which she gives to one of her chickens to hatch. When the bird emerges the girl discovers it is a peacock. She tries to keep her "fancy" new bird a secret because she is sure her community will shun him. This funny and lighthearted story's message is about appreciating all of God's creations, "plain" and "fancy."

One of my friends has described my scrapbook style as "just plain fancy." My scrapbooking reflects the mood I'm in. Sometimes it is plain, sometimes it is fancy!