ScrapPink!!

Well it's that time again! I'm finally finished with the ScrapPink invitation and everyone should have one in their inbox shortly! Just in case you don't receive your invite, I have included it below. I changed my email campaign company and this is the 2nd time I've used them. I'm hoping they don't get flagged as SPAM by ISPs.

Anyway, we have a busy week around here. It's 4H fair time and we are participating! My oldest has joined the rabbit club this year and will be showing her rabbit for the first time. I'm not sure what this week will bring, but I know chaos will be on that list!! I have submitted entries as well for my photography, digital scrapping, scrapbooking and jewelry! Who knows if anyone will give my stuff a 2nd look, but hey, it's worth a try, right???

I need to keep this short...got too much to do today!! Until next time...

Invite for ScrapPink!!

Kim (Kreating With Kim) and Laura are teaming up again to bring you ScrapPink 2009! It will be another fantastic weekend of friends, fun and scrapbooking! We had so much fun with last fall, we had to do it again! As you may remember, $10 of each registration goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation!

Our weekend begins at 6:00 pm Friday night, September 18, 2009 and continues until 3:00 pm on Sunday, September 20th. Most of you probably remember the last time Laura and I hosted a weekend crop, we sold out quickly. Space is limited, so act fast!

You are probably wondering how you can sign up as quickly as possible for such an awesome weekend? Registration begins on Wednesday, July 29, 2009. I have included a link that will go live at 7:00 am on the 29th. You can follow this link to sign up and pay for the weekend: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/309461608

You must use this link to register. We have set this up to help insure that registrations are accepted in the order received and anyone registering after the crop is full will be placed in order of registration. This registration link has been set up to accept credit cards, PayPal or checks.

You may pay the full amount via check or in 2 payments. We must receive either the full amount or a 50% deposit at time of registration. Your registration will not be complete until payment is received. Should you choose to make 2 payments, initial payment due at time of registration (no later than August 5th) with 2nd installment due by September 5th. Payments can be made out to Kim Fairbanks and mailed to P.O. Box 202, Lovettsville, VA 20180.

When you register for this awesome event, your registration includes:

* 6 feet of personal work space!

* Snacks Friday night, Lunch and Dinner on Saturday and Lunch on Sunday...of course we'll have sweet treats all weekend long!

* Free make and takes all weekend
* Vendors for your shopping convenience

* Tool table for that includes, Sizzix, Quickutz, custom cutting systems, punches, and much more

*Scrapbooking giveaways and grand prizes!

All of this for only $130! And, $10 of each registration goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Vendors joining us include:

Close To My Heart
Sandy Gigeous
www.sgigeous.myctmh.com
momscrapbookheaven@hotmail.com

Creative Memories
Debbie Moore
gogeemoore@yahoo.com

Album Embossing
Kathleen Taylor
KMT310e@aol.com

If there is anything you would like from these vendors, feel free to email or call them with your requests. If given enough time, they will bring your orders with them to the crop.

Not only that, but new to this event…we have classes!! We’ve lined up some talented ladies to offer you a variety of classes! If you see something below that interests you, please contact the instructor to reserve your spot! Stay tuned for photos of these great projects! Don't worry - even if you can't attend our event, you can still sign up to take the classes!!!

CD Tin Mini Album - $10 - Offered by Lorie Hill

Create a mini album for yourself or as a gift using a CD Tin and custom insert. Decorated with a combination of coordinating papers and embellishments.

Lorie Hill
Total Scrapper
Independent Scrapbook Instructor
Paper Piecing and Scrapbook Design Artist
www.TotalScrapper.com
TotalScrapper@aol.com

Coaster Mini Album - $10 – Offered by Lorie Hill

Create a mini album for yourself or as a gift using a set of drink coasters. Decorated with a combination of coordinating papers and embellishments, and bound as either a flip book, or as a stand-up display.

Lorie Hill
Total Scrapper
Independent Scrapbook Instructor
Paper Piecing and Scrapbook Design Artist
www.TotalScrapper.com
TotalScrapper@aol.com

Fast and Fabulous Card Class - $15 – Offered by Kathleen Taylor

Love making and giving handmade cards? I know I do! Join Kathleen and make 12 Fast and Fabulous cards (envelopes included). You will be using buttons, ribbons, epoxies and so much more. The class is only $15. That is only $1.25 a card! You do not want to miss it!

Kathleen Taylor
KMT310e@aol.com

Intro to Digital Scrapbooking - $15 – Offered by Kim Fairbanks

Have you ever seen a great digital layout and wanted to learn how to do it, but it was just too much? Join Kim in this class to learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop and take those basics to do a simple digital layout. We’ll take each step one by one to show you how much fun and how simple digital really is!

Kim Fairbanks
Kim@kreatingwithkim.com
http://www.kreatingwithkim.com

This amazing weekend retreat will be at the newly built Holiday Inn Express in Charles Town, WV. The hotel has given us a block of rooms at a discounted rate of $79 (plus 9% tax) a night for rooms. You will need to call the hotel and tell them you are with the Scrap Pink weekend retreat. You may share Rooms with other attendees if you like. Each guest does get the complimentary hot/cold breakfast buffet each day.

Laura and I hope you can join us for a fun, inspiring weekend.

Until then, keep on kreating!!

Kim

Cancellation/Refund Policy

If you cancel at least 28 days before the event, you will get a full refund minus a $15 processing fee. If you cancel 15-27 days before the event you will receive a full refund minus a $50 processing fee. If you cancel 8-14 days before the event, you will receive a full refund minus a $75 processing fee. If you cancel less than 8 days before the event, no refunds or credits will be given.

There are no refunds for "No Shows." You will be considered a "No Show" if you do not attend the event and do not notify us prior to the event.

No refunds will be issued due to perceived quality of a class or an event.

No refunds will be granted due to natural disasters, national emergencies, or Acts of God. If our venue is open then the event will be held with no refunds for cancellations or no-shows. If an event needs to be cancelled due to venue closure, no penalty fees will occur and the event will be rescheduled for a later date.

Mark Your Calendars!

Some of you may have already received my recent email...some of you maybe not. I am working on the 2nd ScrapPink event to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation. We had an awesome turnout last September when we held our first weekend crop for ScrapPink and we are hoping to do the same this year!! So, check your emails and mark those calendars for September 18-20, 2009!! If you aren't on my email list (or you didn't receive the email), leave a comment and I'll send one to you!

I've been busy working - both the regular day job and working hard on digital classes for My Creative Classroom! Many people have asked if I would teach them digital, so I decided that would be my focus for the Fall Semester at MCC. If you haven't been over there, you can visit the website at: www.mycreativeclassroom.com and check it out. There is also a place where you can sign up for a newsletter. This will keep you up to date on all the amazing classes that are offered. Summer is sort of quiet there, but we'll have TONs of great stuff for the Fall!

I've been fine-tuning my photography skills lately. I took a class at Better Photo.com and it was great. I learned quite a bit about my camera and how to use all the fun buttons on it. I've really been obssessed with my flowers and fun things like that. I plan to spend some time today going through the photos and picking out some of my favorites to enter in the 4H fair at the end of the month. How cool is this photo?? I thought the Butterflyweed was cool...the bonus of the bee was even cooler. I can believe how clear his face came out in the photo!

This gorgeous yellow lily is in my backyard...I have been snapping pictures like a crazy person. Each time a new bloom pops open, I have the camera in hand, snapping away. My plan is to do a digital scrapbook with all of the flowers around my yard. I have a pretty large list so far. This book will be huge!

I went to the Western Loudoun Artists Studio Tour weekend and visited some amazing studios in my area!! It was a couple of weeks ago and it was a tour around the western portion of Loudoun County. These talented people opened their studios for two days to show the public what they have. I was so inspired. I learned how to make silver jewelry (the actual silver pieces!!) and I signed up for pottery classes!! I just received my jewelry supplies and can't wait to start making my own silver. My pottery class was awesome. I enjoyed the first one and can't wait to go back and do more fun stuff this weekend!! I'll be sure to post pictures when I get finished pieces of both pottery and jewelry!

I hope you all had a great 4th weekend! We had a wonderful time at the lake with our family. I wish we didn't have to come back to reality. I keep pointing out this run down little house that I think would make a great coffee shop. Can you believe Smith Mountain Lake doesn't have a coffee shop!? Mike hasn't taken me seriously yet...one day maybe he'll surprise me. I think it would be great to have a little coffee shop with a side room of kreative stuff.

Until next time, I'll leave with a few fun snapshots from the 4th weekend...of course they are of the kids...my favorite subjects for photos! The three blondies are mine, the little brown haired cutie and the baby are my brother in law's little people.

It's almost summer vacation!!

Wow! I can't believe that summer vacation is just around the corner! The last day of school is quickly approaching...only 3 days! I am working on the teacher gifts...of course they are last minute things as they always are. I did decide to go digital with them though. I was fortunate enough to have two different events in the last two weeks where I could get great pictures of each child in both girls' classes. I found some cute little CD albums on Shabby Miss Jenn's site. I took the photos and just plugged them into these quick little albums. Unfortunately, I did overlook the size thing when I printed them. Imagine my surprise when I went to pick them up at Costco and they were 8x8 and not CD size like I expected. I did choose 8x8, but the ditz in me didn't think the actual image on the page would print that large! Live and learn. So, I scrambled to figure out what to do since the idea of using these old CDs and DVDs around here was scrapped! My talented friend Lorie gave me the idea of doing accordion albums. I was thrilled. I'm in the middle of assembling them now and will have to post pictures of the finished product later. But as a quick sneak peek...



The cute little one of Mikaela and her friend was from the "Back 2 School" CD album kit and for Kasey's class, I used the "Weeds N Daisies" CD album kit.

Many of you know that I had been working at the job that was horrible. I worked from home, but the stress and the horrible manager was a little too much for me. I finally got the nerve and quit! I feel so much better now. I can't believe how much this was dragging me down and making me simply miserable. I have missed out on so much because of the hours and the ridiculous stuff I put up with. I was constantly worried about what I would get 'yelled at' for next. I didn't enjoy anything because in the back of my mind, I knew that no matter how hard I tried, she would find something and I would be in trouble. It's unbelievable what it did to my self-esteem. I think that's finally coming back. I just feel like a totally different person right now.

Anyway, now that I am finally feeling up to it and I have the time, I have been working my way back into kreating! I did a big afternoon thing with my mom's Red Hat Society ladies. I set up stations and the ladies had a great time making cards! Most had never stamped before, so that was a challenge. But, we all had a great time.

Since I'm focusing on Kreating With Kim again, I wanted to find a fun stamp to help promote myself (who knows what I'm doing with the business, but shoot, I have to promote, right???). I found this site and they do custom stamps...how stinkin' cute is this (excuse the dark background - I didn't turn on enough lights, but you get the idea!):



If you like this, you can get one for yourself at The Stationary Studio. They have a TON of stuff and it's all very cute!!

OH and lastly, I am beginning the planning of ScrapPink 2! I have contacted the hotel and once I get the confirmation for my dates, I'll send an email to everyone! We had such a great time last year, I know this year will be just as fun!! Laura and I enjoy spending the weekend with everyone. You guys are such a great group! For those who haven't attended yet, you really have to. It's a blast!!!

Off to finish assembling these albums...I'll be sure to post the final product when I'm done.

Have a great week!!

Oh My Goodness!

I can't believe that my last post was in January! Goodness! Time is flying by me. I have taken on more work and it's consumed a lot of my time - a lot more than I had thought it would. Even though I haven't posted, I have been kreating stuff. I'll post some pictures of things I have done.

Laura and I had our 2nd weekend crop in February and had a blast - as always! The ladies are always such fun to have. I have met some truly great people doing these crops. I'm already beginning the work for our 2nd annual ScrapPink crop at the end of September. Look for more information to come soon.

I'm also in the process of kreating a fan page on Facebook. If you are a "Facebooker" you can visit me there as well. I am slowly working on this, so keep checking for updates.

Kasey and I ran our annual Daisy Dash for Girls on the Run on May 16th. I haven't done layouts for those pictures yet - even though my husband only got 2 of us! I have included the layouts I did from last year's race below. It's such a great event and a wonderful program for girls. If you have a daughter that is 8 or older, you should check it out www.girlsontherun.org. Kasey has enjoyed it the last two years she has participated. We were happy that we beat last year's time - only by about 4 minutes, but I guess it's better than taking longer! Next year I told her we would do even better than this year. I suppose I need to keep going on this treadmill so I don't get too out of shape!



I am also thrilled that I finally got my new Photoshop program - CS3 Extended! I am learning how to use it because it is a tad different than PSE 5.0, but oh when I get it down, it's going to be soooo cool! This version does all kinds of great stuff. I'm really hoping that eventually - sooner rather than later - I can start doing some of my own designs for digital kits. We'll see. It's a big dream, but if I keep my focus, I'll get there.

OH yeah and I'm also working on a digital class for My Creative Classroom! MCC is sort of 'closed' for summer, but will be opening up in the Fall for a bunch of great classes! New instructors and new ideas...I'll keep you all posted when things start hopping over there.

Enjoy your gorgeous weekend everyone! I have loved this perfect weather today. I planted a bunch of new flowers in my pots on the deck. I'm so loving the color and cheer that's out there now. I cleaned off the deck furniture, put up the canopy and now the pretty flowers. Perfect for lounging on these cool spring evenings or coffee in the mornings...I love it!

Until next time - Keep on Kreating!!

A Snow Day - Finally!

Seems like we've been waiting for ages to have some snow and today we got it! The last few weeks have been unbelievably cold. I think it was 0 (yes zero!) degrees here on Saturday morning. Cold, but no snow in sight. The girls had a great time outside playing in it today. Who knows when we'll see more, so they had to take advantage of what we had. There wasn't quite enough in the grass, so they resorted to making snow angels on the deck. Silly girls! They even tried to get the dog to lie down so they could make snow dog angels! That poor dog is so patient with these girls. She puts up with soooo much.

Anyway, now that the holiday craziness is behind me and we are settled into the new year, I'm back at my 'kreating'. Laura and I have been busy planning another weekend retreat for February. We are so excited and can't wait. We had so much fun the last time.
We still have a few seats left. If you are interested in attending, go to this link and register: http://kreatingwithkim.eventbrite.com. We would love to have you!

I just redid her blog - as she says, new year, new blog! She rolled it out today and we are both excited about how pretty it is. I still have to add some things to her upcoming events, but we're pretty much done. Check it out: www.memorylaneinc.blogspot.com.

I have a class coming up at her store on January 31st. We'll be learning dry embossing techniques. If you are available that day, come on over! I don't have samples yet, but will post when I have them.

I've also been working on some fun digital layouts. Here is one I did yesterday for a challenge on a digital site. I was supposed to use only the elements from the kit so I was a little limited with my 'kreativeness'. The two blondies are my daughters and the little cutie in the middle is my neice Jessica. We went to Disney in December with the family and had a blast!



I also downloaded several great kits during the "Christmas Around the World" Collaberation. There were great designers with awesome kits that participated. I enjoy all the freebies and the designers don't skimp with their work. Here are just a couple I did. One I used a QP - quick page, the other is simply two papers.



This is the one using the vintage papers. I just love the vintage look!



This one is just a QP. I love those for fast pages. Just slide your picture in the designated spot and you're all set!

By the way, if you are following my blog by just checking in here and there, I have added a subscribe button to the sidebar. You can just hit that button and you will receive an email when I update the blog.

Look for more fun layouts to come. I have finished up the girl scout calendar and had a blast with that one. I think the layouts turned out great. I just hope everyone likes them. Now I'm setting aside time each day to do more layouts for myself. I also found a place to get them all printed for pretty cheap. They have lots of great reviews from other customers. I want to use two or three different places to see which I like the best.

Ok, I'm off to kreate!!

Happy New Year!!

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted! Sick kids, holidays and the stress of holiday shopping has me way behind. This year I plan to be on it again...every week an update!

As I'm sitting here watching the wind blow outside, worried a tree is going to fall on my house, I can't believe it's almost 2009!

This last year has been a very different kind of year for me. It wasn't one I want to remember so much and I'm looking forward to a new year to begin a fresh outlook on life.

I have been thinking of so many things I want to start fresh and new...focusing on my health is at the top of my list. It isn't bad now, but times a tickin' and I'm not getting any younger. As a mom I push aside so many things for myself to do for others - aka - KIDS and just don't make any time for me.

I also want to fine tune those digital scrapping skills I have been playing with. I subscribed to a site with lots of tutorials to teach me how to actually create digital elements for myself. That's one area I really, really want to explore...me, a designer...hmmm...sounds kind of cool, huh?? With all the madness this last month, I miss not creating and need to get back into it. I did some fun projects (not digital) for gifts, but it wasn't enough for me...I need a big kreative fix!

Laura and I are working on our second weekend scrapbooking retreat for February. Registration begins tomorrow and I can't wait. We had a great group of ladies at our last crop in September and I'm sure we'll have a great group at this one as well.

Have a Safe and Happy New Year Everyone!! I'll be back soon with some fun projects to share!!

Here's Hippo!

Yeah, it's Friday at last! We have a great weekend ahead...nothing but Sunday school/church and that's it!!! Soccer was over last weekend - YIPPY! I love that Kasey plays. I think it's great for kids to participate in teams and such, but 3 days of soccer a week, I'm ready for it to end after 3 months! She loves it, so we support her and cheer her on.

Did you guys notice that I figured out how to do a playlist and add it to my blog?? I was so excited! These are just a couple of my favorites - my ipod has over 300 songs...I figured I didn't want to overload the blog with lots of music so I stuck with my man Chris Daughtry (YUM! did I just type that outloud??!! LOL!) and some others that I like.

This summer, Jordyn finally convinced Mike to let her get a rabbit and join the 4H rabbit club. It just happened to be around the time that our neighbor's bunny had babies. She was in the rabbit club so we got one from her. It was such a tough decision when we went to get the baby bunny. They were all SOOO cute! But, Jordyn finally decided on an all black baby named Hippo. Lyndsay (our neighbor) had named each baby as it was born and Hippo was named such because he was the largest of the group - a chunky little monkey!

The girls fell in love instantly and that poor bunny hasn't had a moments peace since he came to live with us! They keep him outside in their playhouse for now. The girls and Mike cleaned out the chicken coop (dumb chickens won't use it!) for him to live in, but he just hasn't been moved yet.

Here is a layout I did using Latte Dah Designs Nature's Beauty kit. You can see just how much Hippo is loved and how darn cute he is!! Enjoy!!!

By the way, my digital friends...go over to Tracy's site (Latte Dah Designs) and check out her newest kit. She created this kit for her friend who suddenly passed away this week. It's a gorgeous kit with lots of great colors and elements!