Category Archives: LOAD

Balls in the Air

Balls in the Air

Goodbye October, we hardly knew ye!

Seriously, last month went by so fast! Between being sick, trying to find a new job, family birthdays, and just general chaos, October came and went in the blink of an eye.

So, what’s the plan for November?

Let’s see…

Starting a new job.

Schedule and host a couple combo Stampin’ Up! & Pampered Chef shows.

Finish and publish my sketch book. I just got notification back from one of the companies I wanted to use as an inspiration source, and they were not willing to let me do that, three months after I originally contacted them. So now I’ve got to re-write and re-arrange a section of the sketch book. Then I’ve got to finalize the images I will be sharing with you, and try to optimize them for kindle format. I wish I could afford to pay someone to do this part for me, but that’s got to wait till it starts paying for itself.

Hosting Thanksgiving at my house. My sister’s going to be here this year!

Get new glasses. I am sitting in some pretty weird positions in order to read and use the computer.

Joining in with NaNoWriMo!

nanowrimo_2016_webbadge_participant

If you’ve never heard of it, it’s a month long challenge to write a novel. In a month. The goal is to write 50,000 words, or about 1,667 words a day, and finish an average length novel in 30 days. It’s a pretty crazy idea, especially with everything else I’m trying to fit into the month, but I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment.

I mean think about it. New job. New business. Might as well throw a tough challenge in there as well, right? I mean it’s not like I don’t like a monthly challenge now, is it? (LOAD anyone?)

Speaking of LOAD… Did any of you participate in LOAD this October? I only made it through the first two weeks. Then the galloping ick just sapped my will to create. That and the unholy mess that is my craft room. I desperately need to clean!

Since this month is going to be so busy, I won’t be around very much this month.

I’m not going to do my month of thankful cards. I just can’t commit to that, and have any time for my family. I think I’ll be moving to a monthly how-to. If I can figure out a way to make a video that doesn’t completely suck, I’ll be doing that. I know how much you all like videos, but between poor lighting and shoddy equipment, I haven’t had much luck shooting anything worth sharing in months.

Since I’ll be around so little, you might want to sign up for my mailing list (up at the top right) so you can get an email when I post. Emails letting you know about posts goes out once a week. So if I post once a week or three times a week, you’ll get one email for the week. If I don’t post at all, no email! When you’re new to my mailing list, you also get an email every other week with some links and posts that I think you might find interesting. That only lasts for a few months though. I’ll also let you know when a new book comes out, or if I ever get my video recording figured out, video classes too!

Whew! That sounds busy doesn’t it? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go finish my word count for today.

Making Pages

Making Pages

I haven’t been making many pages lately. But LOAD started on Saturday, and so far I’ve managed to play along. Want to see what I’ve got?

Day one: This photo has been calling me. I want to go here and write every day. Boston’s a little far to go on a daily basis though.

noexcusescrapbooking.com

Day 2: The prompt had a whole list of ingredients for the page, and I think I got most of them. I fussy cut a photo people! Who am I?

noexcusescrapbooking.com

Day 3: This has got to be my favorite photo from our trip to Atlanta over the summer. Also, if you’re in the Atlanta region, you MUST go to the Georgia Aquarium. It’s simply wonderful.

noexcusescrapbooking.com

Day 4: My kid has generously given me his cold. Pocket page and stickers is about all I can manage.

noexcusescrapbooking.com

Today’s the fifth day, and I haven’t checked the prompt yet. I’m going to do that, make something, and then go back to bed, maybe with a pile of books and my laptop. I need this cold to get out of my chest. Hopefully I can sleep it off. I’ve got a house to clean! Company’s going to be here for my oldest’s 15th birthday.

How am I old enough to have a 15 year old?

Stay crafty my friends!

Keeping My Crafty Hand In

Keeping My Crafty Hand In

And we come to the final LOAD page for the month. This is how I’ve been keeping myself from going completely stir crazy, with bits of lettering and coloring, list making, and a few scrapbook pages. This teaching gig is a bit time consuming.

oh happy day || noexcusescrapbooking.com

The page started with a preprinted black and white background that included the “Happy Day” part of the title. A few pieces of scrap scrapbook paper, some super-old letter stickers, (Can you say 15 years old? Thank you!) and some self-adhesive gems made this a quick and easy layout.

I don’t have time for anything that takes a lot of time. That should change in June though. School’s almost over for the year! Hooray!

I’m really looking forward to a solid week or three of not waking up to an alarm at 6am every day. How about you? What’s on your agenda for the summer?

I Am the Annoying Older Sister

I Am the Annoying Older Sister

I refuse to admit I’m falling behind. Behind and scrapbooking are two ideas that belong nowhere near each other, in my opinion. However, this layout was for a LOAD prompt from last week. So you can decide for yourself if I’m “behind” or not. 😉

your nose is purple ||noexcusescrapbooking.com

Let’s see, a few things to note about this:

The glitter S’s and E are adapted numerals. Why do I run out of those so quickly? The purple is a font I cut out with my silhouette on mirror cardstock. I like mirror cardstock. It’s shiny. 😉 I can’t remember which font it was. I’ve got a lot.

I finally learned how to take a screen shot of my iphone. I’ll have to practice that some more so I can capture some of the more epic chats I’ve had with my sister.

I think the newest product on here is the gold acrylic fun from Heidi Swapp. I need to use up some stash people!

So, how have you all been doing? Make anything new and fun lately? Share!

Enough

Enough

When it comes right down to it, I’m a pretty simple scrapbooker. Most of my pages have a linear design. I find it really easy to build pages this way.

The latest page I made as a sample for this May’s LOAD is a clear example of this.

enough ||noexcusescrapbooking.com

Just look at it! A single strip of stamped paper acting as photo mat and anchoring spot for journaling. Even the embellishments on this are really minimal. Three single sequins. But the whole design really ties it all together with the theme of the page. I read enough. There’s enough on this page to tell the story.

And that’s really the point of scrapbooking without excuses. What ever you do is enough. And it’s pretty amazing too.