I almost forgot to post this. My hottie hubby had these beautiful flowers delivered to me for our anniversary. I was as usual the loser spouse and got him..........nothing. I am so not romantic and I'm not so great at picking gifts for John, in fact it totally stresses me out!!!!!! Although I must say I did good this last Christmas. Well, the bed is calling me, I've got to get ready for my class this Thurs., there are still a few spots left.

What a weekend!!!!!
Can we say party hard!! Last weekend it was party central around here. We started Fri. evening with Sierra's BIG 10th b-day slumber party, that she has been planning for a year now. I must say it was so fun!!!!! I had as much fun as the girls. Sierra invited her 3 best friends and we had an Asian evening. My sister-in-law Wendy lives in China and she is the one that made it all happen. She did all my shopping for me, she got each of the girls a silky Asian outfit, a jewelry box, notebook, pencil chopsticks and a bracelet. Gotta love the prices in China, I actually spent more on all of Izzy's Birthday decorations and pinata then the girls stuff, crazy. So Sierra's party started with the girls all opening their presents, next we had a little photo shoot (the girls really got into it with lots of funny poses), a Japanese dinner followed (we got out all our Japenese dishes and decorations), then it was birthday cake time....Cheesecake of course for Sierra. After dessert I ran out and had all the photos printed for the girls to scrapbook. I put together some little 6x6" chipbook albums with my zutter (I so love my Zutter) and die cutted some fun flowers and got out a ton of old embellishments and let the girls go wild. The girls were so excited when they saw everything set up for them in my artroom. It was a great party.


Then Sat. Izzy had her 3rd b-day party. She was so cute when we went to Party City to pick out her party stuff. She walked into the store saying I'm having a Cinderella party, we loaded the cart with Cinderella everything then she saw all the Backyardagains stuff and went nuts "I want a Backyardagain party!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She was sooooo excited especially when she found the Backyardagains microphones and masks. And the Uniqua pinata made her giggle and giggle.
We got lots of stickers and the kids all decorated their own goodie bags. It was afun party.

Izzy really liked her presents, here she is hugging the cow Madison gave her.
And if that wasn't busy enough our 13th anniversary was Sunday, needless to say it didn't get quite the attention the girls got. My dad did help us make it at least relaxing, he took all the kids for about 5 hours so we could be ALONE!!! I still can't believe it's been 13 years, lol.

I almost forgot to mention one of the one of the great traditions they have at Creative Escape, Dessert First!! This is me and my sister Celeste enjoying the indulgence. Celeste was my lifesaver at the event, can we just say Sisters Rock!!!

Trunk Show Fun.......
Here is Rhonna Farrer's table. I loved seeing her 21 challenge books up close. I really like the way she uses transparencies and overlays in her stuff.









Heidi Swapp's table was full of great layouts. It's always fun to see the actual page after you've seen it in books. Cute Stuff!











I sooooo love setting stuff like this up. This is my table or really tables, I decided to bring tables from home, because frankly it was driving me crazy putting all my pink foofoo stuff next to my warm fall colors. I know I'm goofy but like I said I love setting up stuff like this. I decided to do a theme and since we were using the new Bazzill In Stitch'z that I designed I thought a sewing theme would be appropriate. So, instead of table clothes I used dress pattern tissue and I had 4 dress forms on display that I dressed up. I really had a blast making everything.


This fun lady is the fabulous Lesli Spafford. Seriously, you can't be around her without feeling happy, she's just so dang fun and full of life. Her hubby is SUPER HUBBY, he made enough sugar cookies for everyone who attended and they gave them out at the trunk show. Her and Steve used to cater so I loved that they decorated the table with sweets, such a perfect way to display her great cards.
This is Chris Randalls table. I wish I had a close up of the chandlier she made, it was amazing!!!


I totally want to make soldiered ornaments for Christmas after taking her class. She's so talented and sweet.







This is Ms. Heidi Lynn's table. I thought the jumbo layouts were way cool. She also made the paper topiaries, too cute. She's a sweetie.












This is Tracy Niehues beautiful table. She had some way cool projects on her table. She even wrapped chocolates in pattern paper to give to the ladies. Her cards were amazing, she wrote a card book awhile ago and I really need to get it for my mom. I wish I had some close up pics of her stuff, they were too cool for me to describe correctly. She is what I call a clever crafter.


All in All it was awesome!!!!! I feel so blessed that I got to be part of this amazing event. Have a super Duper Day Everyone!

Upcoming Class........Bookin' It Oct. 4, 5-9pm. When my grandpa was alive he would always have us go around the Thanksgiving table and say what we were thankful for. So for my next class we will be creating this Thanksgiving book that is perfect for passing around the Thanksgiving table for everyone to write what they are thankful for this year and then you can add all your great pictures of everyone relaxing after stuffing themselves all day. Last year I taught a Thankful book class also and I am so glad I had that book on Thanksgiving, it was the first year I actually took Thanksgiving pictures.

I will post more pics of CE later, I've got to get them off my sisters camera. Plus I have a sick little guy tonight so I don't have much time. Hopefully tomorrow he will wake up feeling great and breathing great, darn asthma is so hard on these little guys.

These are the frames I hung behind me at the trunk show. I had a few ladies ask me to post pics of them and directions on how to make them. So here ya go Beci & gals.

First, I removed the glass and mats from the frames (you could also buy open back frames). I repainted my frames to match my artroom, I choose brown (a tip when you are repainting something like a frame in brown I recommend dry brushing a lighter brown over the top to give it a more natural look)
Next, I cut chipboard (well, really my Dad cut the chipboard,lol) to fit inside the frame. Then, I painted the chipboard with white Gesso, white craft paint works too. Once the gesso was dry I decoupage on dress pattern pieces overlapping each other and I purposely let the tissue crinkle. (tip: if you want a lot of print on your pattern tissue buy kids clothing patterns, also most fabric stores will have clearanced patterns for $1. I love a cheap project)

After the decoupage (modge podge) was dry I dry brushed a little gesso randomly all over, try not to cover too much you want the patterns to show through. Also, sometimes the pattern tissue can be a different color, so make sure you check to see if you like the tissue color.






Once the gesso is dry apply instant age varnish by rubbing the varnish on with a rag. Finally once everything is dry just embellish. I used an assortment of buttons. To get all the colors of buttons I wanted I used the clear Autumn Leaves Bag-O-Buttons and back them with pattern paper in the colors I wanted.
Well, that's it hope it makes sense, it really is an easy project. Have fun and keep creating.

More Gifts..........This adorable goody bag was full of great stuff from Japan. This one was definitely special to me because it took me back to the 4 years I spent in Japan. I always loved the hair accessories in Japan, so I was super excited to receive this cutie. Seriously, I don't know what it is about Japanese hair clips but they stay in so good but they don't hurt your head..nice. Thanks again Dee, Tracy & Hanum(?) from scraptheplanet.com

And of course I can't forget my sassy Texas sisters and mom, Joyce, Ronda and Penny, who brought yummy Peanut Butter Fudge and topped it off with the cutest card and even the recipe for the fudge..... Yum Yum!!









I must say, I think the highlight for my kids was all the candy. It was driving them crazy waiting for me to take pictures of all the goodies. They were like a flock of crazed vultures hovering over the candy calling dibs on which they wanted. As you can see Izzy got the M&M's that had Creative Escape printed on them... Seriously how cute is that. She also got covered in some of the confetti in the bags, you can see it stuck to her little hands.


Thanks again to all who were so sweet to give us teachers gifts and to all you ladies who attended and just brightened my life with your enthusiasm and smiles......Thanks sooo much.

Overwhelmed.......totally and completely amazed and overwhelmed by the kindness and generousity shown to me by the sweet ladies who attended Creative Escape. This picture is of some of gifts and goodies attendees gave me.



This awesome scrap bag was made by Georgia. What's even cooler is it matches my scraproom perfect! Thanks Georgia ILOVE IT!.
This is the amazing charm bracelet that the Yahoo ladies made for each teacher. I especially loved the tags from each lady that went with their charm....sooooo cool.
Here is another pile of goodies, I loved how so many of the gifts coordinated with the CE color scheme. I am loving the flower headband that Lyn used to wrap her gift with. I have a big head but it fits Izzy perfect and she LOVES it. Thanks again ladies I'll be posting more throughout the week.

17 Hours and counting .....until Creative Escape...Yeahhhhhhh.....I'm getting so excited and a bit nervous. I am totally paranoid something is going to go wrong with my power point. We have to bring our own laptops, I am now wishing I had lied and said no I don't have one just so I wouldn't have to set it up, I am computer illiterate or you could say just scared of them. But overall I feel ready. When I stopped into Scrapbooks Etc. the other day there was a couple groups of ladies there from out of town who will be attending CE and they were so excited, it got me so pumped up. Well, since CE is just hours away I thought I'd post a couple of sneak peek pictures of stuff for my trunk show table. Oh, it's going to be so fun. I can hardly wait to see all the teachers stuff and get to visit with them again.