BOTCT FINAL WEEK

Well, the Busy Bees are officially retired :( It has been an intense 4 weeks of discussing, changing of minds, retouching of layouts, posting, and waiting!

Here are our layouts for the final week of the contest. Our matching theme was "heritage scrapping". Heritage scrapbooking is HUGE in the scrapping world. Just like people love to spend hours on Ancestors.com digging around to find pieces of their family history....we scrapbookers love to take the photos we already have and turn them into creative historical art pieces for our family to enjoy for generations.

Please don't forget to go vote HERE!!!

Created by Wendy


Created by Helen

Created by Brandy

Created by Tracie

Created by Emily

A few layouts....

I have been very creative lately....here are the results:

This is my Week 4 Battle of the Creative Teams layout. You will see it again when I post on Monday but thought I would go ahead and place it now, too. I don't do many heritage layouts but this week the majority of our team chose "heritage" so guess what? I scrapped, heritage style. I really do love how it turned out. This is my mom & dad on their wedding day. My dad's parents are to the left and my mom's dad is on the right. Scrapped using the August Collab kit at Pretty Scrappy called Drama Queen.

One of my August CT responsibilities at Pretty Scrappy was to do a layout using the kit, Monica's Wedding. I chose the kit because I knew I had photos to scrap with it (and I do like the color theme in the kit)

Another August CT layout using the kit Doodloo. Again, the colors caught my eye in this kit and I thought these photos of Caiden worked perfectly with it.

This is an old LO I did of some 1988 photos and I posted it here now because it is my "before" layout for the August challenge I am hosting again at PS....A Garden Make-Over. Below is the after layout....

The kit I used, Let's Fly A Kite, another August CT job, lended itself well to my photo. That day, which I remember so well, was such a lighthearted, happy-go-lucky day that the kit's personality is perfect for my layout.

This is a layout I just cranked out for a TaylorMade Designs challenge. She is challenging us to use her kit, Sunny Disposition, to create layouts. The more we create with the kit, the more we earn towards a gift certificate to her store. Hello? Can someone say "Oh Heck Yeah!!!"? I am crazy about this LO.....of course, the white space being something I have grown to love. My photo subject has much to do with loving the layout as he is one cute little dude!!!

Ahhhh, what is THIS all about you may wonder? This was a layout I did for a challenge that I think I totally forgot to ever submit. The challenge was to scrap about......you guessed it, a bad habit we have. Well, the list I had to choose from in my own life of bad habits was longer than I care to share but leaving my shoes around EVERYWHERE is one that really annoys me. Yes, I can annoy myself with my bad habits as much as anyone else can annoy me with theirs, LOL.

So, that's a little peek into my creative world for now. It is nearing 8p.m. and I have not had dinner. Just now getting hungry. Ugh, I hate to eat this late, I really do. Hmmm, what to do!!! Maybe a salad. C'ya, thanks for stopping by!!

Love,

Helen

BOTCT - Week 3 Complete

Here are the results of week 3. Our assignment was to scrap by numbers. In each LO below you will find the following.... (10) Staples (9) Flowers (8) Words (7) Sprays of Greenery (6) Ribbons (5) Papers (4) Frames (3) Photos (2) Fonts (1) Date Element

To vote for the BUSY BEES before 11:59 p.m. CST on 8/04/09 please click here:

http://www.digiscrapaddicts.com/battle/store.html

Without any further ado....here are the layouts:

Created by Emily

Created by Brandy

Created by Tracie

Created by Helen

Created by Wendy

I can't decide....

which one I like better. I think I know but I had to submit both to Angel, my faithful quality control expert, to decide for me. This is my week 3 Battle of the Creative Teams layout. Our challenge this week was to scrap by numbers. Working our way from 10 down to 1 page element. Our choices were.....

10 Staples

9 Flowers

8 Words

7 Sprays of Greenery

6 Ribbons

5 Papers

4 Frames

3 Photos

2 Fonts

1 Date Element

Here is what I came up with....

I am most fond of the top layout. I feel like it is more easy on the eyes. By that I mean, the bottom seems off balance....maybe had I placed my photo cluster on the left and the smaller greenery/floral cluster in the lower right corner.

So, what do YOU think. I want to know. Drop me a comment at the end of this post or email me at helenmparker@sbcglobal.net Tell me "top" or "bottom".

BOTCT - WEEK 2

Here are the layouts from my awesomely talented team, The Busy Bees, for week #2 of the Battle Of The Creative Teams at Digiscrapaddicts

This weeks theme was "music" and we chose to all create a LO based around our Top 20 Playlists. Our uniting element...besides the Top 20 is the Ipod from a kit called, Drama King.

Don't forget....GO VOTE FOR "BUSY BEES" HERE

by Helen the Happy Scrapper


by Brandy the Beautiful Scrapper


by Emily the Energetic Scrapper


by Tracie the Talented Scrapper

by Wendy the Wild Scrapper

Did I not tell you this is an awesome team????????? Now, GO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The insanity of life continues....

please excuse me while I take a break. Well, I don't get to take the break until the weekend but what a break it will be....or so I pray. More on that later.


If you haven't stopped in at DIGISCRAPADDICTS to vote for the Busy Bees, please do so before 11:59 pm CST tonight (thank you)!


So, my weekend. Where on earth do I start. How about the happy stuff. Friday night was our "Girlfriend Night" women's event at church. Two hundred women came out to fellowship with one another and either pamper or be pampered with facials, hand & feet spas, chair massages, etc. I have photos to post but in all the craziness of other things I am working on, I have not posted them yet. Soon, hopefully. So, Friday was a long day...worked all day and went right to work on finishing prep work for the event and didn't leave the church until nearing 11 pm.


Saturday morning was my Food Pantry volunteer day. We had several clients come in which helped make the time go by faster and that is always nice. Then, the afternoon was filled with a graduation party for my (I almost said youngest...not any more, lol) nephew, Jesse. It was a sweet day outside and I tried to be out in the fresh are as much as possible since it is rare to have a 75 degree, no humidity JULY day in the midwest. All the fresh air caught up to me about 6:30 pm and I headed for home to rest up for church the next day.


Sunday I felt refreshed and ready to tackle a day with God, friends and of course, food. What I wasn't ready to tackle was spending 8 1/2 hours in an ER waiting to learn if my dear friend was going to be okay. While dining after church my friend, Suzy, passed out to the point of losing pulse and no breathing. Thankfully we have nurses in our group and they performed CPR and she was back within about 30 seconds but not too with it. At the hospital they determined her potassium was a 0.2 on a scale of 8.0....HELLO??? No wonder her heart stopped. They did a round of potassium and release her (against our wishes). Suzy insisted we then go to Cracker Barrel for pancakes....did I mentioned she is a nut? So, off to CB we went from the ER. It was extremely crowded and loud inside the restaurant. After waiting outside in the rockers for about 15 minutes we were seated. Soon we had our dinners (or breakfasts for most eating) in front of us and we were just enjoying the fact Suzy seemed okay. That came to an end when she once again passed out but this time never losing a heartbeat or anything. Back to the ER we went. This time they admitted her. A sonogram of her neck (where she was complaining of swelling) was performed to discover she had a stone in her saliva gland. This was what was causing her the pain when she ate and then to pass out. But, the doctor wants to sure there is nothing else wrong with her heart or arteries in her neck that caused the heart to stop. After 11 hours+ away from home on Sunday I was exhausted in every aspect of the word.


We believe we have probably been banned from a few Troy restaurants due to our ability to freak out large groups of customers & break dishes better than the Greek's can at a Greek wedding. But, we still have our Suzy with us and that is what is important....I just hope no Edwardsville restaurant owners read my post and decide to pre-ban us from eatery's up there. LOL!


This weekend I am taking my mom on a weekend trip to Kentucky. It is an impromptu trip that is much needed. I have no set plans. Just to arrive and settle in and go from there. I plan to spend time with my God, my computer, my scrapping and of course, my mom :)


I leave you with a layout I did using an awesome kit by Lorilei Murphy of Rosey Posey Studio....image is linked to her store to purchase the kit.

BOTCT - Week 1 Complete

I have to begin by saying....the Busy Bees are one amazing group of digi scrapping ladies! The layouts below prove it! Whether we get the votes for this week or not, we are definitely winners. I am honored to be a part of this team, thank you. You can click on any of the images to be directed to their gallery to go leave them some love!



By the amazing Wendy


By the amazing Tracie


By the amazing....me


By the amazing Emily



By the amazing Brandy



If you are as blown away as I am with this LO's I sincerely hope you will go over to Digiscrapaddicts and vote starting Monday morning, July 20th. Here is the link to the forum where you can go ahead and get registered and then be looking for the link on my blog Monday for exactly where you go to vote.


http://www.digiscrapaddicts.com/forum/

BOTCT (Battle of the Creative Teams) Week 1

It's Sooooooo on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



I signed up to participate in this a few months ago and the time has finally arrived. I am so excited....so nervous.....so pumped! I am on a team with 4 other ladies and the 5 of us represent the store, Pretty Scrappy. We call ourselves the Busy Bees. This is the avatar one our teammates, Emily, created for me....



I so LOVE the camo hard hat.....we are fierce group of bees I tell ya!

I need YOUR help. If you are reading this, I am asking you to support this endeavor I am on. Now, this is a contest so that means there is a prize! At the end of the 4 weeks, whichever team has the highest cumlative points, WINS! Voting is done by the PUBLIC....YOU!!! Our entries must be posted by midnight (eastern) on Sunday and voting begins on Monday and ends Tuesday at midnight (eastern). No exceptions!!! I hope you will head over to the forum where this is taking place and register so you can start voting on 7/20/09. Will you do that for me? Here is the link: http://www.digiscrapaddicts.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=125. If you have any questions/problems registering, please leave me a comment or email me. I imagine they will post a thread that will appear after midnight on Sunday where you will get to vote but I am not sure how they will do it for certain. Again, our TEAM NAME IS....BUSY BEES! NOT to be confused with the team The Honey Bees!!!!

We have our assignment for week 1 and our team has decided on the various Pretty Scrappy kits we will be using along with a few special instructions for our layouts. This is working differently than I had thought it would. Each week, each of us on our team must create & upload 1 layout. But, the kicker is....each of our LO's must coordinate with each others in a certain theme/style. Not that they have to look exactly alike in design....not at all. For instance, this week our challenge is to use WHITE SPACE and our layouts have to have a similar color scheme, i.e. monochromatic, red/white/blue, etc. I flipped when I saw our challenge was white space....I love using white space. All this means, if you don't know, is you have a large area of your background without any elements. There are several ways to create white spaced layouts and I am certainly going to stalk the digi-scrap world for some awesome inspiration in design.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks in advance if you choose to help me out by registering to vote!!