A challenge for Scrap Whispers!

This is based of a sketch on one of my cafe mom groups...I'm entering it in the scrap whispers #61 "can't smile without you" I had so much fun doing this lo! I love these pics!

Dirty Scraps Challenge! *warning this may offend some*

I love this world of scrap booking, even mistakes are made to be fun and forgivable. I love the creative freedom I have found. I love feeling like I belong somewhere I can feel talented, though next to most I still feel inept. I love the scrap booking family I have found online. These women who are so quick to praise me on my small offerings, though sometimes I am sure they are just being nice. I have made a point to absorb my scrappin love into a small electronically charged box, due to my lack of scrappy family in real life. Why would a woman, who has made statements saying how much fun and therapeutic it is to scrap all night with a few pots of coffee some great snacks and a couple of treasured friends, become so enveloped in a much less warm slightly less satisfying world of women she only knows from the internet?

Judgment!


It seems when I participate in a crop I feel their eyes, I can hear the turning of the wheels turning in their heads….”Hmmm what brand of paper is that….is that a Wal-mart stamp…she doesn’t have a cuddle bug…how can she not have that color of ink, stickles, ribbon? Why doesn’t she just go buy it…we are in a scrap store…why would she crop at a scrap store if she wasn’t gonna buy anything?” Sometime’s I get it online as well…I’ll find a great challenge that has a great prize, that I really would like to win….then I find out it has to be done with Basic Grey or Jillibean pps. I don’t have any…I rarely if ever do.

I would like to think of myself as a frugal scrapper…the truth of the matter is my family and I live on a very regulated budget. I can’t spend $20 or $40 at the scrap store every week…I usually don’t spend that on scrap supplies in a month. I know there are so much greater things I could be doing in my scrappin world if I had an unlimited supply of money to spend on such things…however I don’t. So I use what I have. People have asked me why I enter so many challenges online…duh!! To win prizes…don’t judge me because I’m honest…I would love to win with no prize if I won because someone thought my lo was the best out of all the entries…that hasn’t happened. So I enter to win things I perhaps cannot afford to buy…pps, stickles, adhesive…anything. I don’t appreciate the idea that people choose to judge me by my lack of Brand Names…I’m not a scrap snob. I will use supplies from the Dollar Store if I think it fits my needs. I don’t want you to feel sorry for the poor woman who can’t afford to buy the latest and greatest of everything in the scrap world…just a little compassion, perhaps take note of the ability I use to make things the hard way. Perhaps recognize how even with no name pp’s I manage to make a wonderful lo. Maybe even acknowledge that though my skill with a needle and thread may need serious attention I still plug on. I’m not ashamed of my work, I’m not ashamed that every lo I do will not have the latest and greatest of all things on it.

Think about it this way….and maybe your different maybe you scrap for a different reason here’s mine.

In 50 or 80 years when my 3rd great granddaughter is being handed these books so she may study them for a paper she’s doing on her great grandmother…she’s not going to notice the brand of paper…she’s not going to know if it was hand stitched or machine…more importantly she’s not gonna care. She’s gonna read the funny stories, and laugh at how backward our way of life was, she’s gonna read and hopefully begin to understand a little more about her G.G. she’s going to put the book away and do something with her own children or have a feeling or a divorce or something that will remind her of a lo in a book put there Oh so long ago…and she’s gonna appreciate that I took the time to make sure that 3 generation’s from now she’s knows she comes from hardy stock and she can handle this, or she can read about how I handled it. That is why I do this. That is why I feel there shouldn’t need to be the most expensive or coolest or newest tools or supplies…if I could yes I probably would be “that” kind of scrap booker. I can’t so I don’t. So when you see a lo done by me and it has last years making memories, or imaginese pp’s on it…because they were finally priced where I could afford them…due to being last season’s don’t think about what kind of looser would use last season’s supplies…think about how creative it was that I used pp’s to make flowers because I was out of flowers and the price for flowers is a crime! Just appreciate I’m the kind of woman who can manage to stay busy with a hobby that has become so overpriced and …though I hate to admit it…somewhat uppity in the last 5 or 6 years…Just know I do what I can with what I have….and I do a hell of a job at it I do say so myself!



This is my entry for Dirty Scraps "compassion" challenge...I know I say this all the time, but really if you haven't had the experience these ladies give, you have no idea what your missing! The challenge's these ladies come up with encourage raw honesty...these ladies are my new therapist's, they are so much more fun and cheaper!! lol!

A very special lo

A card

A card I made for Let's Scrap's card sketch!

A challenge

This is my entry for Scrappy lil Sketch's. I love this site...if you haven't stopped by you totally should! The title is Makin Memories! The journaling says "this pic was taken at el dorado lake" April 2010.

Helmar spring challenge!

Helmar's spring challenge! I have been hearing about this company for months now! Here's hoping I can win some adhesive to try!!

A giveaway!

Check out my blog buddy Chelsea's giveaway!

One more for the weekend!

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, so I only got one lo done. It is however the other challenge on Scrapjazz I wanted to do! Even with the icky feeling all day I wanted to do this lo so bad! I have done a lo using this title before, so I just wanted to try it again with a completely new subject and theme! TFL!

I couldn't resist!

I could resist no longer! I spent all afternoon scrapping, not working on my scrap room like I should have been! There were so many wonderful challenges this week and month I couldn't stop myself from jumping in the kitchen taking over the table and making some things happen! I'll be scrappin tomorrow as well so I will have hopefully at least a few more lo's to come! So on to the scrappy rewards for me today!



This is a double lo using pics from our spring break 2010 vacation! It tells the story of how papa and BigDaddy had some explaining to do when they used the only perfectly calm day to go on a hog hunt instead of taking mini-me fishing! They took her out to the dock the next day! This is based on a sketch I found on Scrap-Fit.
I'm entering it in these challenges!
Scrap-Fit April sketch challenge
Scrapjazz April challenge V



This is the card I made for Sassy lil' Sketches card sketch


This is my entry for Dirty ScrapsI love these ladies they always make me dig deep, journal true, and bleed a little!
Journaling reads: No More Drama

To say this time of your life was dramatic would be an understatement. It all began when I got a letter, one afternoon, from Randall Brookings. The letter is part of this lo. After reading the letter I spoke to your dad about what we should do and how to handle the situation. We decided the decision, however unfair, was really yours to make. You would have to decide to get a new dad or stay with the one who didn’t want to be a father anymore. I was so incredibly torn for you…I tried to make sure you knew it wasn’t your fault…it wasn’t.
When a man calls himself a father for 10yrs then wakes up one morning and decides he no longer wants a simply perfect human being, a human so eager to love and be loved with no ulterior motives, he is no man you should give thought to. You are a perfect human being. You are eager and willing to give and receive love. You made what truly must have been a heartbreaking decision.

I hand you the letter:

You got huge tears in your eyes and said “Does this mean he doesn’t want me”
I said “He just doesn’t want to be a father anymore”
You “Why not”
Me “I don’t know”
You began crying and I cuddled you in between BigDaddy and Me
Me “ I know you are hurt and I know you are angry and you have every right to be. You can feel anyway you want to and it’s ok. You can yell or scream, if you would like you can write a letter to him and tell him how you feel. I know you don’t feel good right now, but I want to tell you about the decision you have to make. You must now decide if you want to keep the father you have, or you could ask BigDaddy to adopt you. Take your time and think about it for however long you want to.”

You looked at me and then at BigDaddy then back to me.
You “ I want BigDaddy to adopt me”
Me “ You can ask him”

You looked up at BigDaddy with great big Alligator tears in your eyes.
You “ Will you adopt me?”
Big Daddy “ I would love to adopt you anytime

You hugged BigDaddy tight around the neck I cried.
You and BigDaddy cried.

The very next week you went to school and began telling everyone you were getting a new dad and a new last name. You and BigDaddy were so very excited the entire 2 ½ months it took to get it done.

After all the drama you had to go through all the time Randall Brookings had done to make you cry or feel left out or alone….you were finally free…free of the fear….free of the anger…free of the loneliness…free of the want for a complete real family where you were the center piece…a feeling every child born has a right to. You were free of all the DRAMA!

Tfl!!

A great giveaway!

One of my blog buddies is having a giveaway!

Pinky, is an awesome and truly talented woman, I found out about her from the Dirty Scraps blog. I adore this woman her talent, her humor, everthing! So go by her blog and check out her giveaway!

If your in my area check this out!

This is my closest scrap store's blog site! I love this store, Karen and Calvin are so wonderful! They are having a giveaway!! Check it out! Scrappin' Time