Stacking Stickles

Apparently Stickles is quite interesting for a 17-month-old boy. Each night for the past three nights, Xan has come to visit me in my scrap room, demanding "'tickles." I hand him the container and he makes a good effort to try and open it. He then hands it back up to me, with "epen." Open, please. Once the box is open, Xan takes the little bottles out one at a time and stacks the Stickles, organizes the Stickles, puts them back in their box, lines them up on my scrap table, etc. Last night, he begged Daddy to join him on the floor to stack Stickles. When Daddy said he would not fit on the floor, Xan immediately inched his little butt over to give daddy a few extra inches of space. Who can resist a little man with glittery Stickles?

Memory Trends!

Rodney went to his first scrapping trade show ... Memory Trends, sponsored by CK Media and held in Las Vegas - which was very convenient for us! Luckily it was a small convention because poor Rodney would have been completely overwhelmed! We wandered around the booths, entering raffles, doing make and takes and chatting with vendors. We got our pictures taken with Cricut and CuttleKid in the ProvoCraft booth. One of the make and takes we did was a Valentine mini paint can - guess which one is mine! Tim Holtz also has yet another fan ... my hubby! We stopped to watch him work, and in true Marine fashion, Rodney proclaimed, "That guys is f---ing awesome!" Yes, dear, he is. I'll sign you up for a class the next time he is in town! :)

Viva La Scrap!

Rodney and I rolled the dice and took a gamble on my new biz, Kits2Remember, and rented a booth space at a home show in Vegas. My friend Nan was organizing the scrap side of the show and got me a nice deal on the space. In a last-minute decision, we decided to go, which meant Rodney's parents coming to babysit the kids, getting some inventory, getting a credit card machine, a Uhaul trailer ... the list went on. But, we made it, made enough money to cover the expenses for the trip and had a pretty darn good time while we were there! Rodney was apprehensive about joining the woman-dominated scrap world, but he was a good sport and learned how to use the Bind-it-All, Crop-a-dile and more. As a matter of fact, the one hour I left him alone in the booth all weekend, he kicked butt, racking up the biggest chunk of our sales on his own. He said the secret to his success was describing everything as "and stuff." As in, "This can punch through CDs and stuff." Whatever works! We also hooked up wit the Scrappin' Pals ... Jennifer and her hubby Jay (Rodney and Jay were often seen mingling together, trying to keep the testosterone pool stronger with the power of two!) and Jean, he brought her bud, Cheryl, a non-scrapper, along for the Vegas fun! Rodney did manage to play some Texas Hold 'Em, coming in 5th out of 45 in one tournament. Of course it was 4th place that won money ... We did manage to go to the strip for some dinner and slots a couple of nights, so it wasn't ALL work and no play for Jessica.

Well, that was Sept. 14-16 ... Monday I hung out in the hotel room, working on the ol' laptop, while Rodney played (terribly at) cards. And then Tuesday, before we headed home, the REAL scrappy fun began ...

I've been published in Zutter's idea book!

This is so much fun! Here are the three pages I am featured on in Zutter Innovative Product's Bind-it-All idea book, "Bound 2 Bind." It was quite surreal when I was asked to sign books at a class in the Midwest a few weeks ago, but I figured I'd enjoy my 15 minutes of fame while I could get it!

A quick welcome home gift for the boys

I had fun with these. I got the 8-inch (or so) W and X on clearance at Ever After in Carlsbad. I added some Scenic Route die cuts, CTMH paper and photos of the boys, did some sanding and I was done in less than an hour. I had the hung the next day. Fun and simple home decor!

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone ...

Well, actually, it has not rained here in a while - it's been reaching 100 degrees for 4 days in a row and, as it usually does in SoCal when it gets this hot in August and September, we have had earthquakes! Two in three days. My mid-western hubby has been quite pale in trepidation of "The BIG ONE." Personally, I am way too excited about my new CLEAR plastic covers!!!

My acquiring these "acrylic" covers was a necessity for me. I happened upon some acrylic months ago and made a "Daddy and Me" album I just loved. I wanted more acrylic! Well, I searched high and low, and anything at hardware stores, glass shops and ready-made online was too thick, too brittle, not the right kind of plastic - you name it and it just would not work in my Bind-it-All! SO, I did a bit of research, got a name from my fellow Zutter Zister Nan and made some calls. Now I have all the acrylic I need (for the moment anyway!) to make all the clear albums I have been dreaming up in my head. And I've got enough to share with YOU! So be sure to head back on over to the site - www.kits2remember.com - and buy up some of that acrylic. I know it's gonna go fast!

I have also hooked up with a brand new company who is creating acrylic albums in different shapes. You'll see those here very soon! The flower album is to die for! And everything is BiA safe! I can't wait to start playing!