Disney Autograph Book (DAB)-Dale

I am working on two autograph books for my daughter and niece.  We are going back to Disney too soon, I don't know how I will finish the books in time!  But I noticed last year that the characters really get in to the home made books and it gives them a conversation starter with shy kids.  Plus, it gives me a chance to show off!  So here is the one I made yesterday: Dale (of Chip and Dale)

The album is an 8x8 CM album.  The background paper is from DCWV textures and finishes stack-and it does have a great feel to it as well as looking like tree bark.  Dale was cut at 4 in from Mickey and Friends and I used SU close to cocoa, CM french vanilla, CM white and SU ruby red for the nose.  Not sure where the pink paper for the tongue came from.  The acorns are SU creamy caramel and SU choco chip. I ran the acorn tops through the BIg Shot with the cuttlebug swiss dots folder for extra texture.  The tree paper is two layers, with the inner oval cut a quarter of an inch smaller than the outer. The top layer is elevated by foam tape.  The background inside the circle is CM brown.  I cut the frame from nestabilities long rectangles.  I wanted it to look like Dale is inside his hole in his tree, so I wanted all the layers.  The acorns I glued on top of each other for added depth.  My plan is to put Chip lying on a tree branch on the opposite page.
Here are a few more pictures of the layers:

Tag for Circle Swap

I am so proud of my tag for the circle swap!  I cut the window from the Christmas Solutions cart at 5 3/4 from SU Chocolate Chip paper.  The window "glass" was cut on blackout from an empty cartridge box (I knew I was saving them for a reason!). The "wallpaper" background is from a Marcella by K paper stack. The grandfather clock was cut from French Manor at 6 inches. The wood paper came from DCWV Textures adn Finishes stack.  The gold accents on the clock are SU gold paper. The tree was cut using the MS branch punch from green CM paper and I don't know what brand of jewels I used for the ornaments.  The curtain is velvet paper bought at Joann's, the valance cut using a SU punch and the rest of the pieces hand cut.  The string of lights on the window are Jolee's.  The "snow" is the usual white flock (this one is Doodlebug) and glitter (SU dazzling diamonds).  The ribbon is SU choco chip. 

  In my first attempt, I put the lights on the tree instead of the window, but it made it too thick. 
Here's another view:

My daughter and I made our first freezer paper tee today

Since I had to start this blog for school, I am going to use it to share my scrapbooking. (So far it has just been all about me, that narcissism I was afraid of!  It is surprisingly easy to write about myself.)  I used my cricut and design studio to make my first freezer paper tshirt.  I am going to try to figure out how to post the cutfile, in case anyone else has a "soccer princess."  I used the Cricut Lite cart Varsity Letters for the "s ccer," Sports Mania for the soccer ball, Paper Doll Dress Up for the crown and Opposites Attract for the "princess."  Then I glued on rhinestones to the crown.  I thought about getting an irock or something similar but Walmart sells iron on rhinestones and they were only a couple of dollars for a pack of like a hundred.  My daughter did the painting.

Skinner quote

There is one last thing I want to add.  It is Skinner's quote from pg 361: "I do not believe that my life shows a type of personality a la Freud, an archetypal pattern a la Jung, or a schedule of development a la Erikson."  We can use observation, experiments and science to tell so much about a human-height, weight, hair color, eye color, genome, even brain waves.  But quantifying personality is so much harder. No one theorist seems to have all the right answers.  There is still so much for us to learn about ourselves and the human race.  The brain might truly be the "final frontier."

My Scrapbook Page About Me

Figured I'd post it before I left:

Starting a blog

Never wanted a webpage.  When I first heard about blogs, I thought they were another example of narcissism at work, the "look at me" generation.  And I am boring.  Super, super boring.  I have been happily married for almost eight years, have one daughter, am going to school part time and I work part time as a nurse and scrapbook as my one and only hobby.  It was the school thing that made me start a blog.  An assignment in a personality class.  So here I am.  And I am actually a little excited.  Not because I am any less boring than I always thought, but because of that hobby I mentioned. Scrapbooking.
     I started scrapbooking ten years ago.  I was invited to a home-based party and went because, as my personality class taught me, I am too kind and eager to please.  So I went, intending to purchase one small thing as I do at every home party, just to support the hostess.  But I spent over a hundred dollars and fell in love.  At the time I was working 50+ hours in the OR and life was pretty intense.  I needed a way to destress and scrapbooking was perfect.  We take pictures of the people we love, in happy circumstances.  Putting them in albums lets us be a little creative and artistic.  These things helped me with my stress.  My family made fun of me, telling me scrapbooking was for old ladies, but I didn't care.  I rescued the big cardboard box of family photos from my parents' basement and started putting them in photo-safe albums.  I added fun embellishments and I carefully wrote the stories that went along with them.  In so doing, I gained a whole new appreciation for my parents and how hard it was for them to raise three kids.  And I created a family heirloom that those same people who made fun of me fight over.  My sisters and mother love to see pictures of themselves through the ages, see how their hair has changed and their style updated.  They drag that book out whenever someone comes to the house and make them see all the old photos.  They think I am so creative.  But I am not, not really.  All I learned about scrapbooking I learned from messageboards and blogs!  It totally changed my opinion about blogs. I no longer look at them as extensions of narcissism but as altruism.  So many very talented men and women take the time out of their busy lives to share papercrafting ideas.  When I figure out how, I will see about linking some of these blogs.  So since I have to start this blog, I figured it was a good push to start sharing some of my own creative ideas and sharing my gratitude for those creative ideas of others.