Hiatus

Hello Friends! I wish I could say the blog is on hiatus because I'm going on vacation to Disney, or heading to a crafting retreat. Or, any number of cool, fun things. However, the truth is, the blog is on hiatus while I finish my last undergraduate semester ever. The next ten days or so will involved many long days and late nights finishing big projects and papers and assignments. So while I don't look forward to all of the work and struggle over the next week and a half, I'm so happy that I'll be done with school after this. At least for now. At least until I go back for my graduate degree.

And once I'm done, I promise to be back with more crafting and Disney planning. I'm really looking forward to having more free time to dedicate to these things. Thanks for checking in, and I hope to see you back here in a a couple of weeks! 

Disney & Christmas & Card Making

Last week I talked about the trip the hubs and I booked for Walt Disney World in December. Sadly, the end-of-semester crush of group projects and big research papers and impending finals is putting a crimp in my trip planning. I did, however, get a chance to secure our attendance at the Candlelight Processional, a retelling of the Christmas story with a guest narrator (hello Neil Patrick Harris), a 50-piece orchestra, and a mass choir, all at the American Gardens Theater in Epcot. Hubs made the request to eat at Biergarten Restaurant, so I booked a Candlelight Dinner Package which includes our meal, seats for the Candlelight Processional, and reserved viewing for the IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. I'm so happy that I was able to get this one thing booked. I cannot wait to be done with this semester and really throw myself into the trip planning and look into more unique Christmas experiences that only Disney can provide.

What else besides Disney could make me be anxious for Christmas? Oh, maybe designing and planning my Christmas cards for this year. So, I was hunting around on the internet a few weeks ago when I stumble upon the newest Tim Holtz stamps and I instantly fell in love with these beauties:

I am so in love with the retro look of these stamps. They're very reminiscent of that Christmas line from the now defunct Daisy D's. The line is so old, I can't find the name or a decent image on Google to share with you. sigh. But I digress: Back to the stamps; I couldn't wait. I couldn't resist. I did not hesitate. I immediately placed an order with Simon Says Stamp and the set arrived in the mail today. I'm thinking of pairing the stamps with either Crate Paper's new Christmas line, Peppermint:

Or, possible October Afternoon's line, Holiday Style. They just released this preview on their blog today!

So tell me, are you thinking about Christmas? When do you start making your Christmas cards? 

A Hodgepodge of Disney and Scrapbooking or The Stuff this Blog is Made of!

I am so very happy to report that the hubs and I booked a trip to Walt Disney World for early December!

We've been talking about this for quite some time and now we're that much closer to making it a reality. This is very exciting for a couple of reasons:

A.) It'll be the first time I've been to the World during the christmastime season since my love for Disney has developed. I so look forward to the amazing decorations done only the way that Disney can do it. And, can you just imagine the pictures I'm going to have to scrapbook!?! Disney/Christmas themed pictures! It's going to put a whole new twist on Disney Scrapbooking. I can't wait!

2.) It's been about a gazillion months (okay, maybe only seven) since I've been to Disney and I'm kinda suffering from some crazy Disney withdrawals. By the time we get there in December it will have been 11 months!! That's just far too long (and secretly I'm trying to figure out if I can make a quick weekend trip down in October. shh, don't tell anyone.)

In light of this wonderful news, I wanted to share some Disney information that I've discovered over the past few days. First, if you're a Annual Pass holder (like me) there are some amazing room discounts available right now up to 40% off. This ended up being the best option for us!

Don't despair though if you're not an AP holder, Disney is also running a promotion where they are offering the Disney Dining Plan free when you book a non-discounted room and ticket package for select arrival dates between October 2011 and March 2012. These are both great promotions that really make it worthwhile to stay on property and really plan an Disney vacation sure to loaded with some amazing memories.

While I could go on and on about the ins and outs of planning a vacation at the Walt Disney World Resort (and maybe I will in some future posts) right now I want to leave you with the simplest advice I can give: RESEARCH!

I'm continually amazed at how little guests know when they arrive at Disney considering the amount of information readily available on the internet. Two of my all time favorite sources for information are AllEars.net and the Dis Boards. I use these boards to flesh out my itinerary and get answers to questions I may have. I find the official Walt Disney World website cumbersome to navigate and only use it to book vacation elements and confirm information after I have researched on the other sites.

The first, AllEars.net is a great resource for planning every detail of your vacation. It offers information in a very organized way and is easy to navigate. You can find attendance records, current ticket prices and park hours, full resort information and restaurant information including menus updated regularly! This site is a wealth of knowledge that is necessary for the novice and acts as a trusty resource for the veteran.

The Dis Boards is also a great place to get real life information and experiences. This is a welcoming and friendly message board forum where you can get answers to many of the questions you may have about anything pertaining to Disney.

These two sites are my go-to resources when planning any of my Disney vacations. So, in the weeks and days leading up to our December trip, I'm going to be spending a majority of my time on these boards to plan an unforgettable Christmas trip to Disney. That is of course, when I'm not busy scrapbooking one of my other magical trips. Here's another layout from the 1st anniversary trip the hubs and I took in January 2009.

What about you? Have you been to Walt Disney World before? Have you been there during the Christmas season? Share your favorite Disney Christmas memory!

Winner!

Thank you to everyone who came by to comment on the last post.  I enjoyed reading all of your comments and was a bit surprised to find that we all pretty much are loving the same things out of CHA this summer. Without further ado, the winner of the August More Patterned Paper add-on is: Pegg!

Pegg said:  I love your picks! I have the same favorites. I'm also really looking forward to Crate Paper Random collection which everybody seems to love!

Congratulations Pegg. Please email me with your full name and address at mousepaperscissors@gmail.com so that I can get your prize sent out to you! 

My CHA Picks

I have to admit that I dream of living the creative life. One where I get to scrapbook weekly and take classes and go to conventions and conferences. How sweet it would be to go just once to the big one: the Craft and Hobby Association Show!

The summer CHA show was last month was in Chicago. So close, yet so far away. I spent most of the time glued to twitter to keep up to date on all of the new goodies being debuted at the show. Not being there and getting all my information second hand makes it slightly difficult to put a list of favorites together, but I'm going to try anyhow! In no particular order, here are all of the yummy goodies that I just can't wait to get my hands on:

1. Amy Tangerine for American Crafts

First up is the new Amy Tangerine line. The fabulous Amy Tan has paired with American Crafts to bring us a fun, bright line of double-sided patterned papers, fabric 12x12 cardstock sheets, new Thickers, a cool mini-album, some mixed tape, and a ton of coordinating embellishments. I want the whole line, but I especially love the 12 x 12 fabric paper, Falling for You. The precious hearts remind me of a top I used to wear in elementary school.

I also really, really want to get my hands on these amazing mixed tapes!

And finally, this super simple mini album...

2. Studio Calico

Next on my list is my current scrapbook crush, Studio Calico. This monthly kit club turned manufacturer has three new releases: Classic Calico, Autumn Press, and Memoir. I plan on trying to exercise restraint. Especially after I ended up with both of their previous lines, Countryside and State Fair. Anyhow, here's the full catalogue:

Open publication - Free publishing - More catalog

I'm mostly coveting the new Mister Huey colors. All of them.

The houndstooth and grid background stamps, as well as the I love books stamp set. These are actually the first retail stamps to be offered as part of the new collaboration with Hero Arts!

This pretty amazing ampersand mask!

 

And finally, these nifty asterisk wood veneers!

I'm going to be really, really selective about the paper so that I don't buy three of every sheet!

3. Lily bee Design

Lily bee Design has just recently shown up on my radar and boy do I love them! From what I can tell, they introduced four new lines: 

I'm really digging the bright colors in Head over Heels and all of the office/ledger type prints in Memorandum. Another great thing about Lily bee are the coordinated alphabet sheets. Eight matching mini alphas to go with each line! I own two of their older sets and I LOVE the size of these cardstock stickers.

That's the round up of what I'm most excited about coming out of the Summer CHA show. Since you made it to the end, you've earned a chance at a giveaway! In a hazy midnight ordering frenzy, I ended up with two More Patterned Paper add-ons from the August Studio Calico kit Boardwalk. Therefore, I'm giving one of the paper packs away. This includes the patterned papers from Crate Paper designed exclusively for Studio Calico! I haven't opened the paper and I'll send it to you in it's original brown bag sealed with a trademark SC sticker round. Here's what the papers look like:

Leave a comment here letting me know what you're most looking forward to getting your hands on from the Summer CHA show and I will randomly select a winner. You have until 10:00 p.m. EST on this Friday, the 12th.

New Design

Wow! I'm so excited to share with everyone the updates I've made to the blog. I hate to admit it, but I received Photoshop Elements 6 as a gift from my hubs nearly three years ago. I even purchased two amazing classes from Jessica Sprague to learn how to use the program: Photo Editing: Good-to-Great Workflow and Up & Running With Photoshop - Beginning Digital Scrapbooking.

Sadly, I haven't gone through these self-paced classes yet. So, when I started this blog and I knew I wanted to do some customization, I was a bit disappointed in myself. But, what does any modern, resourceful girl do? I googled how to make a header for Blogger. I found an amazing tutorial on a blog called The Background Fairy! The header you see now is a result of that tutorial and some amazing digital scrapbook kits from Britt-ish Designs. Now that I've accomplished this, I'm so excited to take those Jessica Sprague classes and really learn! This is just one of the things I'm going to do with all of my free time once this final semester is over (SIX more weeks! SQUEE!)

That's it. I'm kinda proud and I wanted to share. Let me know what you think of the new design. Thanks!

Scrapbooking Disney

Life has been crazy busy. I guess that's what happens when you work full time and take 9 credits in the summer. I have been counting down to the end of the semester and the end of my undergraduate program. I'm happy to report that I will be done in a short 6.5 weeks!

In the spare moments I've been following all of the CHA Summer show news. I was so sad all of last week reading all of the tweets from the show and all of the blog posts from the amazing manufactures. I hope to be back soon with a recap of my favorite new products and lines from the show. And in case there was any question, I do rank my love for a piece of patterned paper on how well I could scrap one of my many Disney vacations with that piece of paper. 

While I'm working on that, I wanted to share some more layouts from our 2009 anniversary trip to WDW:

This layout was created using Studio Calico's April 2011 kit, Singing in the Rain. Neither the layout or the kit would be considered my "normal" scrapbook style. I usually scrapbook two-page layouts. I usually use more than one picture. But, I think that's what's great about subscribing to a monthly kit club. You are presented with product you may not normally pick out and you have the challenge of using it in quite possibly a new way.

Here's another single-page layout (crazy, right?) that I did. I was originally trying to go for a softer, more whimsical look for these requisite pictures in front of the castle (Partially because of the amazing layout my scrap genius friend did). The only problem? Each time I pulled out paper with softer color schemes and tones, I was disappointed. Finally, I reached for the Back 40 kit from Studio Calico. I had also purchased the add-on patterned paper for that month. This was back when I first started subscribing and hadn't worked out a system that made sense to me. So, really this layout has paper from the add-ons, but I didn't buy the add-on, just the patterned paper from the add-ons. Make sense? Doesn't matter. All that really matters is that it was chalked full of these bright colors from Echo Park and American Crafts. I held my pictures against the paper and knew this was the way to go.

Thanks for taking a look today. I hope to be back in a few days with a rundown of everything magical from CHA!

Crafty Canvas Project

All of my family lives in Arizona. Sometimes this is good and sometimes it's bad. It's especially bad when I'm reminded how little I get to see my 11 year old niece. Well, it just so happens that my niece is in the Mitten for the summer. She has been staying with her grandmother and visiting with friends and family for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, work and school have limited the amount of time I get to spend with her. I was finally able to pick her up on Saturday. Over a biscuits and gravy breakfast I asked what she wanted to do for the weekend. Shy at first, she finally came clean and said she wanted to back to "that craft store." Turns out, she was referring to Michaels. I had taken her two years ago when she was visiting in the summer of 2009. The fact that she hadn't outgrown the crafting bug made my heart swell. No one else in my family shares my creative tendencies. While we were in Michaels the ideas started spilling out of her... The one that stuck? She wants me to teach her how to make a scrapbook, like I do. Then my heart was breaking. If only we were closer. If only we could craft together more often. We actually skipped the scrapbooking and decided to do some painting instead. We picked up a three pack of 4" x 12" canvases and some paint. Here's what my crafty niece came up with:

I noticed some things about this girl while she worked on the canvases. She is a lot more like me than any of us have ever imagined (my mom is always saying this is so, mixing our names up and such). Turns out, this girl is quite the perfectionist. She was fretting over every dot, swirl, and letter. This is just like me. Sometimes I'm so worried about how a project is going to turn out that I can't make the cut into a piece of paper. I've mostly gotten over this, but it still takes me quite awhile to finish the simplest projects. I don't know how such detail oriented, perfectionist type A's like us get drawn to the creative hobbies. Anyhow, she actually ran of time to finish the third canvas. Her and I are both hoping that she can come back before returning to Arizona to finish her canvas. Rumor has it... the last canvas is going to say Castle. 

Welcome

Hi! Welcome to my shiny, new blog. I'm working on the design and tweaking a little bit still, so please don't mind the pixie dust...

I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Wendy and I love all things Disney and Scrapbooking. I especially love when the two topics intersect and some scrapbooking magic happens. You can expect that I'll be talking about Disney, Scrapbooking, and Scrapbooking about Disney. I might slip in some other stuff, but really these are my passions and I would like to share them with you.

As an introduction, I would like to share with you a recent layout I created. These pictures are from the hubs and my 1st year anniversary trip to Walt Disney World in January of 2009.

I'm pretty proud of this one. I created it using the Lawn Party kit from the fabulous Studio Calico. I hand cut all of those spirograph-looking circles out of the kit exclusive Studio Calico paper. The lanterns are American Crafts stamped with Jenni Bowlin's beautiful inks. My scrap genius friend Jenna had the idea to add a touch of bling to the stamps to give them some dimension.

I pretty much stared at the layout for a good 20 minutes after I finished it. (and hubs wonders why I get so little done at a six hour crop!)

That's it for now. I should be back soon with more Disney layouts. Thanks for taking a look and I welcome any feedback.