Scrapbooking Kids!!

I just finished up helping about 45 children from my churchs' children's Trailblazer Camp create scrapbooks from their days at camp starting on Saturday August 11th and ending yesterday August 14th!  There were mostly girls, but the boys  (12 of them) really did a fantastic job at scrapbooking the photos that were taken of them and their friends daily!

The theme for camp was "Wild About Jesus" and the boys had 6 x 6 camoflage covered scrapbooks and the girls had 6 x 8 zebra print covered scrapbooks.  I could tell the kids that grew up with someone in the household that liked to scrapbook.  But the ones that were "learning" did such an awesome and inspiring job!  I was enjoying their creativity!  It made me want to join in and create...but that will have to wait.  I was busying helping to trim pictures and make sure they had plenty of paper and glue sticks.  These kids did a fantastic job!  And some of the guys even did some journaling!!

I loved every minute of it.  I took some pictures of them working and will create my scrapbook pages later and post them here....A Big thank you to my church, Central Carolina Community Church (C4) and our Children's Pastor, Pastor John Hunsucker for asking me to share in this activity!

My RESCUED Grand-doggies

This past weekend I cropped some pictures of my daughter and her now new husband and my "grand-doggies" when they were in Charleston, SC at a Dog Park.  I had fun, and I actually got 24 pages made during this crop!  Yeah!  But scrapbooking by Grand-doggies which are all rescued babies (Toby and Miles are brothers and were adopted together and Jasper was adopted later), makes me more sure that more people should rescue the dogs and cats that are in the shelters.  They need good homes and for whatever reason they have ended up in the shelters abandoned or were abused.  They need the love that you can give them.  They will return that love back 100 fold!  I have a rescued baby, an Irish Setter that was severely abused.  Abby didn't trust at first, but we have had her since 2007 and she has been my faithful and loyal companion.  She has brought me much joy!

My Grand-doggies are in Hawaii now since that is where my daughter is residing for the next several years.  I miss them.  All three have their own unique personalities that bring alot of joy to you.

I hope that you enjoy these pages that I cropped (if I can upload them, this is the first time that I have scanned them in and will try to upload them...so we will see).  I used the one of the newest sets of papers from Close To My Heart called CLEMENTINE.  The more I worked with the papers the more I fell in love with them.  I love the color combinations.  You can go to my website to order if you have fallen in love with this paper packet, or to see more new paper packets.  Let's see if I can up load these pages.....

Awwww....that was easier than I thought!! Enjoy!

These pages were done using the Studio J from Close To My Heart!  You can get pages done so much faster...which helps when you are so far behind.  But I still enjoy cutting and pasting with the traditional scrapbooking.

More pictures to come soon....

Life is short....enjoy every moment...and scrap them to enjoy them over and over again!  ; )

Life changes

Wow!  I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged.  My life has changed drastically!  I have had two surgeries, my two daughters have gotten married!  Life has been FULL of CHANGES!  I have tried to scrapbook all of these life changing events...
After we got home from going to Arizona May a year ago, I started on a life changing journey to change my life and the direction that I was going in....I decided, after alot of research, to have Bariatric Surgery.  On June 16th 2011, I had the Roux-en-y Gastric ByPass surgery.  It completely got rid of my diabetes.  It has been a struggle to learn how to eat again, but at the passing of the complete year I have lost 88 pounds!!

While losing this weight, my dear husband decided that we needed to go on the Virginia Creeper Trail (an old railroad trail that has been turned into a trail for walkers, bike riders, and horseback riding).  We road bikes (the first time I have been on bike in over 25 years!  I had fun until I wiped out coming off of a train tressel and tore my rotator cuff.   So in October I had surgery for a rotator cuff! 

In December, one of my twins became engaged while she was in Guam visiting her boyfriend stationed in the Navy there.  Also, in December, on the 30th, my other twin daughter was here, she had been living in San Fransico, and her boyfriend from Wales came to visit for Christmas and they eloped!!

All of 2012 has been planning the wedding of my dear daughter that was engaged.  She returned to Hawaii in February to be with her intended while his sub was in dry dock in Pearl Harbor.  They both flew home on the 22nd of June and were married on the 28th of June.  They left to go back to Hawaii on the 5th of July!  So this has been my roller coaster of a year since I last blogged.

I will have you know that I did indeed dance at my daughter's wedding!  I have many, many pictures to scrapbook.  I have been doing a little here and there.  I am going to try to post some that I have done to show you I have been "crafty".  I am planning on posting more regularly here.  My life will settle down some now!

Sedona, AZ

on the Pink Jeep tour!!

At the Painted Desert

At the Grand Canyon

June 2, 2011

Well, it is so hard to believe that this time last month I was in the great state of Arizona! Wow! It is so different from NC. I loved the Grand Canyon!!! It was breath-taking!! Pictures are beautiful, but nothing like seeing it's beauty with your own eyes!!

While out there we also went to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert! Absolutely beautiful there too. We also visited Sedona. Such a beautiful place too! I highly recommend if you go there, take the Pink Jeep Tour!! We went "off roading" and it was wonderful!!

While in the Phoenix area I went to the Museum of International Music. This was wonderful too. If you are a music person or a history person...great trip. I wore these earphones and when you would get in front of a particular area, you would hear and see this area of the world and their music. I "traveled" around the world and enjoyed their music!

Back in NC and trying to get caught up. I took soooooo many pictures it will take forever to get them all scrapbooked....but I will definitely have fun trying!!

April 4, 2011

WOW, I can't believe that it is already April!! My daughters are going to be 25 this month! Where does the time go?? (I know everyone says that, but it is true) I had a great weekend at Myrtle Beach on March 23-27th! Courtney and I just kept scrapping the whole time....except to eat and sleep! I was really excited about what I got accomplished. I got 64 pages done for the whole crop. I was sooooo pleased. Since I have been back home, I have had a lot of work to make up, so I haven't been able to post this before now. Hopefully I will get some pictures up soon of some of my pages! Take care and remember to cherish each and every moment with those you love before time slips away!

Hooligans Halloween 2010

These are the Hooligan Level 1 and Level 2 and Level 2 My Stickease from Close To My Heart. I love these colors. I know I am not a very good photographer, but you have to do the best with the camera you have. These are pictures of my daughter, Courtney with her three dogs, Jasper, Toby and Miles, and my girl, Abby the Irish Setter. We had fun that afternoon, and they were fun to crop too!

March 22, 2011

Well, this month is really flying by...they seem to do that don't they? Tomorrow one of my daughters and I are going to be cropping from Wednesday until Sunday afternoon at the beach. I really hate packing for these kinds of crops, I feel like I take "everything", which I don't...if you saw all that I had you would know that I didn't pack it all! I want to "slim down" and take on the necessary items. But they are ALL necessary, you never know what creative juices are going to start flowing and what you will need! Am I right girls? Must have the stamps, ink pads, stickles, embossing powder, heater, watercolored pencils, Copics, .... let's see... have I forgotten anything? Well, I know if I did...it is waiting for me in the hall by the downstairs door! Please tell me I am not the only one who suffers like this! (Our Pastor was talking 2 weeks ago about remember the Lord's Supper and he referred to all of us that are photographers and scrappers, that we capture these moments to remember and then crop them....he said that our group that meets at the Church once a month, that he always asks me if Cliff and I are having any trouble, because it looks like I have taken everything and moving out!! I was soooooo embarrassed. ) But ladies you know that you have to have it wilth you because when you are away, you sure can't run home to get what you need! Maybe when you are across town, but not when you are three hours away!! Anyway, that last crop was on my birthday and I got to spend it doing what I love. I got 38 pages done!! All but a few embellishments that I didn't have, and some journaling that I like to do when I am alone with my thoughts! I was pretty excited!

All this to say....I hope I can finish up all of 2010 pictures and work on 2009! Uh, yes...I am very far behind....I done some, but want to compile them into books together, instead of this and that particular event!. So far 2010 is in 3 albums, and could go to 4! Wish me luck! I will get back to you with some pictures and a post after I start! Ya'll have a good evening! So glad Spring is here!

I love this Close To My Heart Stamp!! It makes my heart soar! Just wanted to share with you!

March 8th, 2011

Taxes are done and filed! Yea!!!!! Now I can concentrate on the "fun things"! I have tried to scrapbook a couple of evenings during the week. I have been successful. Will give you my totals to date later....left that info at home. I have been scrapbooking some really hard things for me...pictures of my dear mother. Her birthday would have been on Monday the 14th. I was her early birthday present, as mine is Saturday the 12th. This will be the first time my mother will not be able to call and wish me a happy birthday. Going to be hard, please keep me in your prayers....The pictures are wonderful, but very bittersweet as these fun times will never be again.
I am having a crop on Friday the 11th and Saturday the 12th at my church, Central Carolina Community Church. Hope we have a good turnout. I will let you know more later.

All, have a good day!

Cathy

February 7th, 2011

This past weekend we had a Crop at C4. I got 13 pages done...whooohooo. Congratulations to Judy Ward who won the drawing for the Mystery Hostess for the Gathering. Way to go Judy. Whooooo will it be next month?? I have made a deal with myself that I can not scrap anymore until I get all of our tax stuff together to take over to the CPA. I am not one of these people that can just take a "box" of stuff over for them to sort through. I have to organize it! Later...

Off to a good start!

This past January 7th through the 9th I went to a weekend scrapbook crop. I was able to finish 29 pages. I did other things, like fixing up some other pages, but from start to finish, I did 29 pages! Last night I did another 4 pages. I am trying hard to get at least 200 scrapbook pages done this year. I will not be able to scrap anymore until I have all of our tax information together. (I do hate having to get this all together, but I have no choice!) So the incentive to hurry up or else I don't get to do anything "fun" is out there.

Another goal that I have this year is to start a Scrapbooking Club. I hope that I can find some interested people to join me. More about that later....

Cathy's Creative Corner: December 15, 2010

Cathy's Creative Corner: December 15, 2010: "Well today I got all of my Christmas cards in the mail. That is personal cards AND cards for work!! Whew!!! I made our personal cards this..."

December 15, 2010

Well today I got all of my Christmas cards in the mail. That is personal cards AND cards for work!! Whew!!! I made our personal cards this year. WHAT AN UNDERTAKING!! But I did it!!. Check them out below...The stamped image is a Magnolia stamp and the Word stamps are
Close To My Heart...the paper is Bo Bunny and the stamp was colored with Copic markers. Ink for stamps is Close To My Heart.

December 6th, 2010

I am so excited! This past weekend I was finally able to get my Master's Degree with Close To My Heart!! I am thrilled...now to start working on the Ph.D. part of the Degree. I love these online classes and training that Close To My Heart offers in four areas: Business, Personal Development, Creative Training, etc. It took me almost a year to get my Bachelor's Degree, but the Master's took a little longer. I love how this Company really helps you to succeed! Anybody out there that might be looking for another job, this is a GREAT Company, and I would love to share this experience with you! Let me know!

September 9, 2010 - Thursday

I have been trying hard to do some creative things to upload, but my heart just is not in a creative mood. I know that once I start creating, that I will loose myself in it and feel better, but everything that I am doing is just not working....

I feel that my life is so out of control....nothing will EVER be the same again....