Love is You

So when I got the Love is You kit from Scrap-Tastic I'm not gonna lie....I was a little intimated. While I LOVED most of the papers and stuff...they just weren't my style I had NO idea what I was going to do with them. However...they took on a life of their own and I LOVE the results!

So, here's what I've done so far. (and I've still got a lot of kit left!)

And I've got a few more things to share from this kit, but I think I'll save them for tomorrow (don't want to over-load you all you know! ;)

Color Me Daisy

Well...I don't know if any of you noticed yesterday or not...but I have a pretty new little blinkie under my "designing for" header on the right hand side...I'm SOOOO excited to share this news with you all!

Sunday evening I got an e-mail asking me to consider being a "daisy girl" at Color Me Daisy which is a fun and amazing little kit club! I was thrilled and of course accepted right away. So...would you like to see part of WHY I'm so excited? Check out these amazing sneak peaks of the Feb. kit! I'm DYING to dig into this and I'm totally stalking the post man until it gets here!

Dear President Obama

I am not the most eloquent person in the world and I often have a hard time verbally expressing the dichotomy of my thoughts, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. For example, while I think it is amazing that we have finally elected our first African-American president I simply couldn't rejoice in his election because of his views of the sanctity of life. I saw this clip from the Sunday sermon at Bethlehem Baptist Church by John Piper and was both moved and convicted. I was convicted by my lack of prayer and my lack of faith in this matter. Please, take a few moments (it's only about 3 minutes long) to watch this clip. I pray that it will touch you and convict you to pray for President Obama as it has me.

6th Picture

My friend Jessica tagged me with this fun little game. You're supposed to go to where you store your pictures on your harddrive, count to the 6th folder, open it, and then post the 6th picture in that folder. I'm rather excited about this because I didn't look to see what the picture was before I uploaded it...so at this very moment I'm sitting here waiting for it to show up so I can explain it to you! lol...I DO know already that it's from a camping trip with the youth in 2005. Soo... oops...figured out why I was STILL waiting. I forgot to hit upload! *insert embarrassed face here* I know I haven't been around a lot lately...I've been striving to better balance my time so that I might better glorify God with what He has given me by being a better wife, mother, and homemaker/housekeeper. I'm not sure it's working but I'm sure trying! lol.

Ok, it's up!
I'm slightly embarrassed to say this, but I'm not sure what these kids names are! This was a trip Tim took with the youth he was working with at our church at the time. So, there ya have, the 6th picture in the 6th folder in my picture file. Exciting stuff huh? ;)

Swagbucks

Soo...do you all know about Swagbucks? And if you do, why did no one tell me sooner?!?!?! It's great! I mean, I don't know about you...but I use Google all the time...searching is something I do on a daily...if not hourly schedule...so when I heard that I could be earning gift cards for something I was doing anyway....well I was in!

Swagbucks in an on-line search engine that rewards you for searching. It's VERY simple to sign up for...takes about a minute...and you don't have to give them hardly any info. No phone number, no address, no credit card number...none of that. And you automatically get 3 swagbucks for signing up. Then you get points for searching for things and you also can earn more swagbucks by refering other people...and you not only get points for them signing up...if they earn points for searching...you get those same points too!

So...what are you waiting for? Sign up for Swagbucks here (and yes, this link does credit me with your sign up! :)

{fabby}

My AMAZING friend Jennie gave me this Fabby Blog award....wasn't that so sweet of her?!?!
So I'm supposed to list 5 addictions and then pass the award on to 5 other gals.

Here we go...

1. the internet
2. hoodies
3. my family
4. scrapping
5. reading/Bible study (although I have to say I'm praying this will become even more of an addiction!)

And I want to pass it on to...

1. Kirsten
2. Lela
3. Cassie
4. Heather
5. Heather

Something to Think About...

Today I stumbled across this very interesting discussion about "Me Time" on the Dominion Family blog. She has some very valid points that I have been thinking for a long time...but she is much more eloquent than I could ever be.

Here's little sample of what she's talking about:
"I can almost guarantee you that your needs are not as big as you perceive them to be. I can guarantee this because the Bible says that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. If you don’t have something that you perceive that you need then way before you start whining you should start praying."

You can check out the entire article here.

Christmas Mini Revisited

Woohoo!!! I beat Blogger! lol....I tried added the pics to Blogger as a URL from another site rather than uploading them directly from my computer and it didn't turn them sideways like it was before! :D Yea!!!! Soo....that all said, here are the cover and missing pages from my Christmas Mini album! TFL.

Christmas Mini

Hey look! I'm not dead! lol...I just haven't had anything blog-worthy happening at all!!!

However, last night I got to play with my Pink Paislee Tinsel Town stuff...and wow...I still love it as much as I did when I bought it! lol. I used my pictures from Christmas morning here at the Johnson house and made up this little mini. Originally I had a tin I was going to alter to match it and store it in, but once I was done with the album I realized it was too fat to fit in the tin! lol. (as always you can click any of the pics to see them bigger or read the journaling.)
(this LO, the one above, cracks me up, because for the first time I can see why people ask me if Kessa and Zeke are twins! lol)
Ok so this is only half of it...and not even the front cover, but everytime I upload the pictures Blogger turns them sideways!!!!!!!!! Anyone know how to fix that?

Fall Fun

So I'm hosting a challenge over on SCS tonight...you should stop by and play along if you've got time!!!!

This is the challenge:

Hey ladies...I know it's cold...and maybe even snowy for a lot of you, but are you ready to think about fall? Fall always seems to bring out an aged beauty in my eyes. Everything in the same...but somehow has a new beauty...different colors and textures...makes me nostalgic. So...we're going to be thinking about fall tonight...we're going to be taking our normal scrapping supplies and giving them an "aged beauty." We're going to be doing what is ONLY my favorite technique EVER! lol We're going to be inking and distressing. Those are the only requirements for tonight. You need to ink and distress at LEAST one piece of patterned paper or cardstock (but the more the better!)

Now some tips...if you don't have an edge distresser you can easily use the edge of your scissors to accomplish the same effect, just be careful because it's easier to tear your paper if you're using scissors. (however if you do...no big deal...because that's the look we're going for!!!!)

As for the inking I often sponge on a lighter color and then use a darker color to just highlight the very edge of my paper.

Oh, and did I mention that there will be prize?!?!

You can check out the thread here.

And here's my example. The circle is a Secret Keeper by Urban Lily. They're GREAT!!!! The pack has a TON of different shapes and styles in it and they're all white so you can paint them, glimmer mist them, or as I did here, cover them with pp.

You can click on the picture if you're interesting in knowing why the title is "timeless."

Back to my Roots

Well....my papercrafting roots anyway. I've been making cards like crazy and still am only about half-way done with all that I need to make. Thank you cards...for all our family members...from my kids (and DH and I too! lol) for Christmas and Zeke's birthday. I usually just go buy cards when I have a lot to do but I didn't make it to the store and I just have so many scraps leftover from such yummy kits I figured I'd just plunge in and make them this time. So...here's what I've been working on!
These first two are from the January Project kit over at Scrap-tastic and the last one is from the January Main Kit (Frosted Elegence.)
I've got some more cards hiding out but they seem to be wanting to upload sideways...hate it when blogger does that. Anyone else ever have problems with that?

Starbucks Mini

Just popping in to share a little mini album I made last week. (Kirsten, if you're reading this...just pretend you don't know its for you...it should be postal tomorrow! ;)

2009 Word

I've been thinking a lot over the past few days about Ali Edwards "Word of the Year" concept and what mine would be this year. I finally settled on one. And a few hours later I was amused to read this post by Virgina about "intentions" rather than "resolutions."

So....my word is:

in⋅ten⋅tion⋅al

   /ɪnˈtɛnʃənl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [in-ten-shuh-nl]
–adjective

1.	done with intention or on purpose; intended: an intentional insult.

2.	of or pertaining to intention or purpose.

3.	Metaphysics. a. pertaining to an appearance, phenomenon, or representation in the mind; phenomenal; representational. b. pertaining to the capacity of the mind to refer to an existent or nonexistent object. c. pointing beyond itself, as consciousness or a sign.

January 2nd, 2009

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY EZEKIEL!!!!

Top 10 from 2008

So I've seen several people doing this and thought I'd jump on the band-wagon. These are (in no particular order) my personal top 10 favorite layouts from 2008. (as always you can click on any LO if you wish to see detail or read the journaling.)