What exactly IS a crafty blog?

Aunt Wendy asked me this question last week after she had visited this site for the first time. "Are you in some kind of competition or something?" Needless to say she was very confused about all the ADSR LOs I've posted lately. I tried to explain to her that I started this blog before I got totally and hopelessly addicted to digiscrapping - ya know, back in the good ol' days when I was really crafty. Hence the name, Jeni's Crafty Blog. So in honor of my crafty past here is a regular old craft project - my swap for March's cardswap.


Speaking of cardswap, anyone out there in blog land want to join us? We are in desperate need of some more swappers to join our little group. I know most of my readers are already in our group, but a girl can hope that some very talented stranger in the Allen/Plano/McKinney/Frisco/Anna area will just stumble upon this blog and cry, "Eureka! Just what I have been looking for!" If this applies to you please contact me by leaving a comment with your email (which I will find quickly and remove after I've snagged it.)

Here are also some pics of ACTUAL paper scrapbook pages I took a little while ago. These are a few of my favorite pages.

I'm not totally sure of all the credits here but I know the vellum, brads, cardstock, and ink are from Stampin' Up! and the foam stamps are by Making Memories.

This page is one of my faves because the pictures are just so darn funny! I know, they're horrified and I'm laughing - what an evil mommy. But come on, are you telling me you didn't laugh at these too?! This was the time Maddie kept screaming, "I don't want to see Movis, I don't want to see Movis." Translation: Movis=Moses. I have no idea where she learned about Moses. I don't think we ever talked about him or showed her any pictures - she was still in Nursery for heaven's sake! Ryley couldn't say anything yet, he was barely one - if that, but I think it's clear he didn't want to see Movis either!

Everything here is from Stampin' Up!

This is another one of my faves because of the pictures. These pictures of Cash are HILARIOUS! He NEVER liked baby food and still doesn't care much for food in general. He is so picky it's insane. He seriously lives off of milk, peanut butter sandwiches, fruit, and the baby fruit snacks. Seriously - THAT'S ALL. Oh, and the occasional chicken nugget.

So I hope I can keep posting about some real crafty projects but I wouldn't count on it! ADSR is still going on - which reminds me. . . I'd better get crackin on #11!

Have you checked out Snap and Scrap yet?

They have some great stuff over there! Every month they do a Little Bird's Nest Challenge with a free mini kit by Veronica Hurly. This is what I did with it this month:

The challenge runs until the end of the month so there's still time to get it! Hurry and get it here.

If you complete all the challenges and get the daily free download off of the blog you can get a HUGE collab kit FREE every month! How awesome is that?! Next month's collab kit is called Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and here's a sneak peak of some of it:

I'm really enjoying being a part of this site. Everyone is so friendly - plus they have great designers and really cute kits that I just love working with! Also sign up for the April newsletter here to get a little something by ME! (Pictures of said something coming soon!) :)

ADSR #9

Well, another one down - not many more to go! There's a light at the end of the tunnel! This challenge was to make a LO using the altered art style. That was the only rule but it was way hard! This is NOT my style and not particularly a style I enjoy. I can appreciate other people's art, but I do NOT enjoy making this type. This is definitely not a page I would ever print because it is so pointless. To me scrapping is about keeping a record and keeping track of the memories for my children - NOT about art or expressing myself in art, although I do feel creative when I scrap. Anyway, enough ranting. Here ya go:

credits here

Well, must be off to check if the next challenge is up yet!

ADSR #8

First off, like the new blog? I finally figured out how to change the backgrounds and stuff thanks to Crystal & Sarah (what would I do without Sarah?!!!) I decided to try my hand at making a few things so everything you see here was made by me - not the greatest stuff ever, but not too bad for a first try.

On to ADSR! I know you've all been waiting with bated breath so here ya go:

credits here

This one was nice and relaxing compared to #7. Sheesh! For this one we had to scrap about our best or most memorable vacation, use B&W photos, use song lyrics somewhere, and use only one word for the title. I don't think this was our "Most Memorable Vacation" in a good way, but I've been wanting to scrap these pictures for a while. The journaling really isn't everything I wanted to write but I thought I'd just mention to good stuff - besides Caitlin getting married of course. We took this trip to California when I was about 4-5 months pregnant with Cash. As most of you know, I am CONSTANTLY sick the whole time I am pregnant so I was just miserable and pukey the WHOLE trip. Plus, Ryley had just been diagnosed with pneumonia the day before we left, we had to fly standby with two small children, carry on ALL our bags and two carseats, and the trip only lasted 3 days. Yup. Fun times. Caitlin was worth it, I guess. The kids did have a very good time on the airplane (don't ask me why!) and they especially loved seeing Aunt Caitlin. I didn't include pictures of the wedding because they just looked weird with the other ones I wanted to use. That's also why I didn't mention the wedding in my journaling. That's a whole 'nother page or two!

Also, I got the pages back that I had printed from Scrapbooksplease.com. I love them, but they look HUGE!!!!! I was afraid of that, but oh well. I just need to get used to looking at them at that size. I've only ever seen them on my computer screen. If you're looking to get some single pages printed I would highly recommend them. They did a wonderful job - nothing was cut off and the quality of the print is AWESOME!! Anyway, just thought I'd share.

ADSR3 Challenge #7

Aaaaaaaaah! Number 7 is EVIL!!!!! So incredibly horrible and complex. Ug. I finished it though - ONLY took me the whole flippin day! I just hope I have everything I'm supposed to! Here it is:


And here are the credits because they are so freaking long some galleries won't let me post all of them!

Teammate #1 By the numbers, one designer, no journaling, look messy

Everything is by Britt-ish Designs and available at ScrapMatters
1 PAPER - {Grid Locked}

2 RIBBONS - purple and green striped ribbons from {Brown Eyed Girl}

3 BUTTONS - 1 brown and 1 green button from {Brown Eyed Girl} and 1 white linen button from {Dreams Do Come True}

4 GLITTER - 1 silver glitter circle and 1 green glitter splash from {Brown Eyed Girl}; 1 silver glitter splat from {Lil' Brudder}; 1 gold splat from {Dreams Do Come True}

5 FRAMES - 5 newsprint frames from {It's Christmas Time in the City}

6 PICTURES - my sweet baby boy

7 ALPHAS - L from {Dreams Do Come True}; e from {Judy}; t from {Missed the Bus Alpha 2}; s from {Lil' Brudder}; E from {Missed the Bus}; a from {Brown Eyed Girl}; t (recolored) from {Brown Eyed Girl}

8 STARS/FLOWERS - 1 small blue star and 1 small black star from {Missed the Bus}; 1 white star, 1 cardboard star with gold glitter, 1 silver glitter star from {Dreams Do Come True}; 1 cardboard star with red glitter {Lil' Brudder}; 1 white flower and 1 blue gem flower from {Lil' Brudder}

9 STAPLES - 2 black, 1 red, 1 pink from {It's Christmas Time in the City}; 1 green from {Brown Eyed Girl}; 1 bent silver and 1 staple back from {Dreams Do Come True}; 1 silver from {Lil' Brudder}; 1 silver from {Missed the Bus}

10 RANDOM ELEMENTS

1 blue ticket and 1 yellow stitching from {Dreams Do Come True}

1 extra newsprint frame from {It's Christmas Time in The City}

1 stitched circle and 1 stitched square from {Brown Eyed Girl}

1 bulldog clip, 1 clockface stamp, 1 measuring tape, 1 duct tape from {Lil' Brudder}

1 folded flower from {Brown Eyed Girl}

Whew! I REALLY hope that's everything! I'm so glad Brittney puts staples in almost every one of her kits! I love her stuff and I'm so glad I have enough of it to complete this LO!

Now that I've wasted naptime doing this I'm going to have to stay up late to make my cards for cardswap!

ADSR3 #6

Yet another week, yet another bazillion pages! Well, maybe not that many, but I've done a lot! (Yay me!) Here's the latest LO for ADSR. This challenge was a roadblock, which means only one of us does it. Brianne gets the next one. This one was hard too! I had to look through Brianne's gallery (not the hard part!) and pick one layout to spin and lift and the subject matter had to be the opposite of whatever she scrapped about. Come on! She has a ton of great LOs that I would love to scraplift but it was hard trying to find something that would look good spun around and that I could scrap about the opposite. I finally chose this one:

see her credits here

Now here's my spun 180 degrees opposite:

see my credits here

Not my favorite of all time, but it'll do. I really like Brianne's LO. My scraplift doesn't do it justice. Oh well, at least #6 is finished!

ADSR3 #5

This one was stinkin' hard!!!! We had to interview an inanimate object. Puh-lease!!! I HATE layouts like this. I really thought I'd never even be able to use this LO in a scrapbook because it would be so stupid and a waste of time, but I was totally wrong. I actually really like it now. I've wanted to document the kids' diapeys for a while and this challenge gave me the chance. It just took forever for me to realize it! I plan on doing a page for each of the kids and their respective diapeys, but this is the only one so far. Those will probably have to wait until ADSR is over! Here it is:

Everything is from "Playdate with Jack" by Kelly Thompson. You can find her stuff here.

BTW, I uploaded some of my pages to scrapbooksplease.com to get printed yesterday. I looked around for a while at the different options for printing and decided to do some single pages. I just don't trust my kiddos with a book of paper pages. I've seen too many of their other books ripped and wrinkled and torn. I worked hard on these pages and I'm afraid I'd never let them touch them if I did it that way and that would defeat the whole purpose! So this place sent me some samples of their paper and I think they're prices were pretty good. I actually think Costco would be cheaper but I don't have a membership there. It's not that much of a difference though, plus I don't have to pack up my children and go to Costco with them to get the pages. They'll be delivered to my door! That is worth just about any amount of money! ;) I'll let you know how they turn out. I'm also looking at some wide format printers and papers to see if buying one would be more cost effective in the long run. I'll keep you updated.

Beautiful Girls

This LO isn't for any CT or ADSR! Can you believe it? These are just some pictures that I've had for a while (can't you tell by Tally - now 3!) but just haven't scrapped yet. I love these pictures! They both look so pretty - I think it's how blue their eyes look. Beautiful!

click LO for credits

ADSR3 Challenges 3&4

This week has been CRAZY! I feel like I have done nothing but scrap (and the laundry, and the dishes, and the cooking, and the cleaning, and piano lessons -ugh!) So I'm very slow in finishing my last two challenges for ADSR. But here they are in all their glory. These were a little tougher than normal. They were way more about me than I would like. Plus I have like NO photos of me. I'm always taking the pictures (Josh can't even figure out how to use the camera!) I took the one of me and Cash (on the red page) by holding the camera out away from me and guessing when it was focused and aimed in the right spot. That's why you can only see half of me and half of him. I like it though. Kinda artsy.

CHALLENGE #3
make it all about me
use 1/2 the page for journaling

credits here

CHALLENGE #4
spill it - could be about anything just needed lots of details
use blending (I had NO idea how to do this - thank you Jessica Sprague!)
1/4 page journaling
1 large photo

credits here

I really like both of the LOs. The last page is one that I have had the idea for just sitting in my craft room for like a year! I thought about it ALL the time and felt guilty for not scrapping it. Oh my gravy how I love digi. I have caught up SOOOOOO much!

The last LO is also one that I used the March collab kit "Song For You" from Snap and Scrap. This is the kit you can get for free with the daily downloads on their blog and some more for doing the challenges. Such a cute kit and SO FULL! It's huge. Seriously.

The top LO (the red one - sorry I keep switching back and forth!) is made using the "Rainbow Coated" kit by Kelly Thompson. She has lots of fun boy stuff in her shop at Scrapbookbytes. (Man, I feel like a commercial! But I really wouldn't post about it if I didn't really like it and want you to know about it! I promise.) Well, off to scrap some more. Too many ideas, not enough time!!!!

Crazy, I know!

Well, have you noticed all my blinkies over there? I can't believe it but I got accepted to 2 more CT's! How crazy is that? I'm totally excited though. I'm now on the Snap and Scrap CT and a guest CT for Kelly Thompson at Scrapbookbytes for the month of March. I'll be posting some of their stuff soon. In the meantime, go check them out. Way cute!

Kelly Thompson
Snap and Scrap

Snap and Scrap has a TON of challenges every month where you can get pieces of a huge kit for free when you complete them. They also have a Bird's Nest Challenge with a free mini kit that is so adorable. Great stuff over there!

Grab Bags!

ScrapMatters has several Grab Bags for sale until Friday (3/7) only. They are stuffed to the brim and such good deals - only $2-$3!!!!! After that, everything will be sold separately. So much cuteness! I can't divulge EVERYTHING, but I can give you a little sneak peak!

Here's a LO I created with one of the kits in Happy Scrap Girl's Grab Bag:

click on LO for credits

I used one of the alpha sets from Andilynn's Grab Bag on this next layout. This alpha also comes in black AND orange in the bag!!

click on LO for credits

Dont' let this chance pass you by! The Grab Bags are all really amazing and such great deals!

ADSR3 Challenge #2

For this challenge Brianne and I each had to half of the layout. I started with the left side and she finished it with the right.

click on LO for credits

Brianne had a much harder job since she had to kind of match my half. She did awesome! I LOVE IT!