Finally...

I have been trying to start a blog in my spare time for a few weeks now. I have an Etsy store and an Online Scrapbook group that I want to get the word out about, plus there are a ton of blogs that I follow and I am loving the challenges I see and I would like to be able to participate in some of them. Most challenges require you to post photos of your entry on your blog. So, here I am with my own blog and hoping that some of you will enjoy it as much as I enjoy yours. Hopefully once I've got the hang of this several of you out there will follow my blog and leave occasional comments. Other blogs I tend to follow are several Cricut blogs like the Cricut Message Board, Cricut Softcuts, Everything Cricut, Split Coast Stampers, several sketch blogs, and many digi scrapping blogs (although I prefer the real paper and glue kind of scrapping). I have both the Baby Cricut and the Expression and Design Studio. I absolutely love using the Expression with the DS because it enables me so much more freedom to create, not to mention get the most from my cardstock. I also follow many of my Scrapping Friend's blogs. The talent of our SF members is incredibly amazing. If I need inspiration for something I always know where to look. SF is a big part of my life and I enjoy it a lot. I created SF a little over 6 years ago in MSN groups/communities I truly love the experiences and friendships I have made from the group so much. MSN closed down all groups in Feb. of this year. We found a new home for SF on Yuku. You can now find us at www.scrappingfriends.yuku.com . We offer so many fun things on SF... weekly challenges, games, questions, great prizes, friendship, technique classes, product classes, four big quarterly crops that last 10-14 days each. SF also has a digital scrapbooking section, card challenges, a place to share peeks of our work, a Wishing Well, etc., etc. My life has been so blessed through SF. If there is something you would like to know, just post a question on our General Board and you've usually got your answer within a few minutes. Our group is private, but all you need to do is follow the above link to apply (mention you heard about SF on Nancy's blog and you will be accepted as soon as I see your application. If you have any questions or want to give me a heads up to be looking for your application please email me at nancyllake@yahoo.com We love new members with new ideas... it always keeps things fun and interesting. Other blogs I follow are basically about scrapbooking, cardmaking, and products I love (like Copic Markers). I am totally in love with Copics and have been collecting colors for about 1 year now. I have about 70 and think I need more colors really soon. I never was much of a cardmaker or stamper until seeing the awesome cards that our Scrapping Friends members were posting sneak peeks of. It wasn't long before I was hooked to cardmaking and those little Studio G clear stamps that are perfect for cardmaking. I am trying to stay strong and focus on buying only the stamps I know I will use a lot, rather than having to have every set! In my quest to find some of the Studio G stamps that I was missing I discovered Pez-a-doodles online store and blog. I became so impressed with the blog and Marti's lessons there that I IMed Marti for permission to use some of her lessons on Scrapping Friends. Marti ended up joining Scrapping Friends and she is just a doll. I've also fallen in love with her own line of stamps, especially the PolkadotPie line. I have had a ball using them and will try to get some of the results posted here soon. I just received Princess Cleo yesterday and can't wait to try it out. A couple of my other addictions are the Cuttlebug embossing folders, and Spellbinders Nestibilities. I use them in my Cuttlebug and they are super easy to use. OMG, the embossed cardstock makes cards and layouts look so much more nice and elegant. I ordered the Swiss Dots embossing folder the other day and should have it by the beginning of the week I hope. Another thing I really enjoy doing is making handmade paper piecings. I carry several of them in my Etsy Store. I make the kind that I cut out with my Cricut, and I can also make them completely handmade by creating a pattern from a photo. I think paper piecings make all scrapbook pages look better. I am currently working on Disney albums from 3 different Disney trips with Melissa and family. What a fun place to hang out with my grandchildren!! I have a album in the works for my Mom. I gave her the album with about 10 pages for Mothers Day 2008 and for every special occasions I add 2-4 more pages to her album. She loves it. I am making what I hope is a very special album for my youngest stepdaughter, Beckie, who is getting married in October. I'm very excited about this project and really enjoy working on it. Let's see... I have several family albums ongoing also. I'm doing Memorial Album of my son, or more accurately, an album of Michael's life. I am scrapping his life, not his death... he was alive in all of the photos and I scrap in the present of the photos. So many wonderful memories. Very therapeutic, but sometimes heartbreaking when it hits me again that we can't make anymore memories together. In addition to running Scrapping Friends and this Blog, I also have a Michael P. Brooks Memorial Site. It was also on MSN and it has been moved to Aimoo now that MSN closed groups. I haven't had much time to update it and re-create the Welcome page in a format the works with Aimoo. Soon I will be adding a button to this blog with a link to the memorial site. I think some people who are suffering profound grief would benefit from some of my ramblings, the poems, songs, stories, and the factual information on grief and the sudden death of a child. I allowed myself to be completely vulnerable when writing several of the entrys. It is very person and real. I pray that in some way it helps other grieving parents, even if only to show that there is no normal or unnormal when it comes to grieving the death of your child, it just is. You can access a copy of the entire site as it was on MSN HERE. It is in a read-only format. I would love to hear from you to know what you think and if it touched or helped you in anyway. If you have made it this far thank you. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to read my ramblings!!