The first challenge was to use Jen Martakis’ FREE digi template.  For the digi scrappers, use the template and for paper scrappers, use the template as a sketch.  Here is the layout I created:

{credits here}
The second challenge was to use a digi stamp or regular stamp on a card or layout (as a background). Not surprisingly, I reached for my Hero Arts Cloud Background stamp. I love this stamp and the memento blue ink. so so pretty.  I added a banner (yet another expected element) with bakers twine and washi tape flags.

{credits}

The next challenge was to create a layout inspired by a tweet, a fb status update or blog post or email.  I went with a recent tweet.

all these items are from peppermintcreative.  {credits}

then a challenge to use a digi die cut.  I used this awesome dressform shape from my pal, Chris(pea) to make a card.

{credits}

and the last little mini challenge was to create a tag based on your emotions.  and does this tag say happy to you? it does to me.  This is a heidi swapp tag for Tattered Angels. It’s a gorgeous cream color with clear pearl embossed cursive and gold foil elements. it is gorgeous.  I just misted it with sunflower and added some yellow vinyl thickers and a bit of ribbon. :)

This morning I checked in at two peas and I was so excited to see that I won a prize for chatting at the crop, woo hoo! :)  Next time I will remind you ahead of time, it’s a lot of fun.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog you later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

Back when I first started on Miss Mint’s Hybrid team I had one layout featured on the gallerystandouts.com blog.  I was pretty excited about that but never really followed the blog. You know, so many blogs, so little maid service. ha ha. anyway.  I was rambling through some blogs last week and came across a link to gallery standouts and followed.  I added it to the many on my Google reader and a few days later, i saw my pal Amy‘s LO featured there. I was like, hey that’s a cool layout Amy… and as I scrolled down, I saw my own it takes a village layout featured as well. I was pleasantly surprised.  Then two days later I saw my welcome to the family layout featured.  ps. i’m now reading the gallery standouts daily. ha.

I want to share with you what I’ve made lately with my twopeas goodies…

I love these templates byVinnie, it helps speed along the process. I also love these travel epoxies and Wilna’s Somewhere papers and elements. :)

Journaling: after a rough first part of the flight, Jordan finally fell into sleep peacefully.

Give Me Simple Templates 04 , Distress Brush Set 01, Travel Chic Stickers by Vinnie Pearce

Somewhere out there, Somewhere out there – Alphas by Wilna Furstenberg

another awesome template by Vinnie, Super sweet aqua and red papers by Jen Martakis, elements by Michelle Underwood.

Journaling: while watching the Olympics Jordan pulled out his sleeping mat and declared that he is a sledder, just like sonic, in mario and sonic at the Olympic Games on the wii. Feb 2010 ps, is sledder the word for a person riding a sled?

Give Me Simple Templates 02, Distress Brush Set 01 by Vinnie Pearce

Love One Another ADD-ON Papers, Love One Another, Notebook Basics by Jen Martakis

Prep School—Overlays by Carina Gardner

Beautiful Ending Page kit, Vintage Holiday Memories Page kit by Michelle Underwood

I am SO in love with Michelle Underwood’s happy spring colors in this i heart spring kit. those trees, clouds and everything. just happy! I also LOVE Erica Hernandez’s templates. This one was a sized for 8.5×11 and I just expanded to 12×12. and Wilna’s letters, again. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of those.

Journaling: i love listening to my iTouch. I have hours and hours of music to make me smile, dance and groove through the day. it’s just a bit of happiness in my pocket!

Letter Template Value Pack III by Erica Hernandez

I Heart Spring Solids, I Heart Spring Page kit by Michelle Underwood

Somewhere out there – Alphas by Wilna Furstenberg

Thanks for stopping by! :)  Check back again next time when you might get to see some new minty goodies, some glimmery goodness, some cards for operation write home… and of course some pictures from our daily life.  I appreciate you!

Love Love and blog you later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy.

The latest ATC swap I participated in was under the theme of books. I went with the iBook theme:

**i had a shot that was not angled,  but I liked that Jordan is peeking in the back ground. ;)  The cardstock is Stampin’ Up! YoYo Yellow,  I used my handy dandy circle and rectangle punches in my abe lincoln book and created the ipod look. I rounded corners and added glaze with gold pearl ex. and memento ink in canteloupe.  do you see that frog holding my card? I got that in the mail from my pal Chrispea. what a sweetie. She also sent lots of goodies and sweet treats for my boys and I.

and seriously, how cute are those goody boxes! The boys were so excited to see their names on the labels :)  I told them aunty chris(pea) made them especially for them.

I so loved this little envelope of goodness. I mean really. the buttons and keys are so awesome. but even that envelope. sigh, it’s a sickness, this love I have for envelopes and paper. ha.  There were also scrappy goodies I can’t wait to use too. Thank you so much Chris! :)

I have also been loving the Japanese Washi tape you see everywhere.  I have seen these at happytape and digi versions from Danielle Thompson.  I have also seen some plain colors at a local store.  I had already started a collection of these and then saw these stripey and *sigh* graph paper tapes. had.to.buy. here.

Sometime in the last year, adobe offered up an upgrade to CS3 for 299. I really wanted to upgrade. really.  but I also was toying with the idea of getting a mac.  I did not want to buy some expensive software and then end up buying a computer that wouldn’t run it.  So I didn’t buy the upgrade. I was so sad because I didn’t even end up buying the mac.  Then last week I got an email from adobe offering a $299 upgrade to cs4. I jumped on that opportunity. I know I won’t be buying a new computer anytime soon, so I was so glad to have to opportunity come up again.  and then I also heard about crucial.com It is a site where you can go and plug in information about your computer and it will tell you how much RAM you can upgrade to and what type to buy. So happy. I ordered more RAM and my computer is humming along so well! I can now listed to iTunes while I use CS4 and blog and all of that and it doesn’t skip anymore. yay!  These pictures for the blog are the first items I have processed in CS4, nothing fancy, but I am so excited to get into it further. YAY! saying goodbye to these old sticks of 512MB ram.

Thanks for stopping by!  I have been so so busy around here, and I am glad I had some time today to update.  Check back next time and I’ll have stories about my van and other fascinations of our life, ha! Oh yes and two more things: I have a halloween layout in the last issue (October) of Memory Makers Magazine and a layout in the October issue of Creating Keepsakes (eeeeeeeeeee!) I haven’t seen the CK yet, no sightings in the store or mailbox just yet.

Love Love and Blog you Later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

total coolness in my book(s!)

We also went to Kahala Mall to visit a new scrapbook store on the Island.  It’s called Pineapple Cove and it’s on the rooftop level of the Kahala Mall up stairs from the Theater.  When Troy and I first got married we lived near Kahala mall and we’d go to the movies there all the time! Since we live further away now, we haven’t been down to Kahala Mall in a long time.  We checked out the store and I was pleasantly surprised! It’s bigger than I thought and there were lots and lots of cute stuff! I scored some more thickers (yellow and pink daiquiri vinyl) some kaiser flowers and some K and Co paper. The owner, ManLe, was so so sweet to talk to. (sorry I didn’t get pictures of the store, next time)

We visited whole foods for the first time ever. and of course I loved it. such an interesting selection of items. but.wow.it.is.very.expensive.  the coolest items I found:

Do you see that man on the logo? It was designed by none other than my pal Chrispea‘s hubby! Isn’t that cool?!

there was this product too:

I bought two different packs of the corn puffs and opened one. it was yummy, salty and sweet and crisp, like chex mix! I’m sending them to Chrispea! :)

When it was time to eat I wanted to try out this place I kept hearing about. It’s called the counter burger and it’s right next door to whole foods.  The boys, however, had molten lava cake on the brain and wanted Chili’s.  After lunch, we went to the uniform store to order some uniforms for Jalen for next school year and then headed home.

Sunday started off with church where Pastor Jim is starting a new lecture series on the body, fearfully and wonderfully made.  If you know me, I am fascinated with medical shows like mystery diagnosis (Hello Dr. Amy!!!) and Troy and I really enjoyed the sermon. We thought we’d try a local diner for lunch but after we went in there we found out it was a cash only kind of place. Next week we’ll be better prepared for that. (Do you usually carry cash? I almost never do. Check card and check card only for me.) We had a quick lunch at Genki Sushi, stopped in at Wholesale unlimited for some local candies and rushed home for a quick nap before an afternoon tweetup in Waikiki. (that’s a meetup of people who use twitter) I had the best.mochi.ever. Renee aka @surfchik4jesus brought her famous haupia mochi and I’m so loving it. In fact I’m thinking of an excuse to order some in the near future.

and they boys got to play with some friends in the sand…

and on the way home we decided to hit the counter burger that we had missed out on the day before.  If you have never been to the counter burger before (as we hadn’t) they offer predesigned burgers and other items, but the real draw comes in the build your own burgers.  You can choose from 1/3 2/3 or 1lb (cooked weight) turkey, beef or chicken breast.  select cheese, toppings (up to 4 included!) Premium toppings, a sauce, and bun.  we ordered cheesy fries, sweet potato fries and onion strings. we’ll know next time we won’t need all of those… but check out the spread:

we also had shakes, vanilla for Troy and Jalen, Peanutbutter and chocolate for Jordan and I.  Jordan got kids mini cheeseburgers and when his plate came, he picked up the first one and promptly dropped it on the floor without even a single bite.  he picked up the other and started digging in and the server brought us another one, no charge.Isn’t that the awesomest ever?!  We’ll definitely be going back to the counter burger again.

check out my burger:

1/3lb, Honey wheat bun, provolone cheese, grilled onions, dried cranberries, carrot strings, lettuce blend, mayo.

Next post will be scrappy!  Thanks for stopping by, Love Love and Blog you later!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

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In real life news, yesterday I spent the afternoon with my girlfriend and her cute 3 year old son.  This picture is from the last time we got together in March, right before our vacation.  We’ve had dates for lunch and playtime with the two boys about once a month or so.  Yesterday we enjoyed lunch and the boys played legos and firetrucks.  As the afternoon passed along we came into my scrapbooking room to look at pictures on the computer and her son started complaining about being cold.  (we have central air, ceiling fans etc) I passed him a blanket, he snuggled with his mom and I asked Jordan to turn off the ceiling fan.  a few minutes later, he jerked and gasped and I thought he had seen something that startled him, so i looked to the top of my bookshelf to see if there was something scary up there and she jumps off the chair and says, he’s having a febrile (fever-induced) seizure!  so we carried him to the kitchen counter and stripped off his clothes and cooled him down and called 911.  The ambulance and fire department showed up a few minutes later.  Thankfully the seizure only lasted a few minutes, but it was very scary.  His lips started to turn blue and he was not breathing.  all the while Jordan watched, a little confused as what was happening.  all of this happened at 2:15pm. a few minutes before I usually leave to pick Jalen up from school.  I made a quick call to the school (and how is it that I didn’t have the school on speed dial?) and they said they’d put him in afterschool care.  Once my girlfriend and her son were in the ambulance, I got the carseat out of her car, put it in my van and went to pick up Jalen from school.  We all drove down to the hospital to wait for them to be released.  I mean really, when you ride the ambulance to the hospital, someone has to come and take you back home (or to your car) and if you have a child in a car seat, they need a car seat to bring the seat to the hospital… so many things to think about.  Thankfully and mercifully he is doing okay. He was cleared for meningitis, flu and other ailments.  They suspect some other cold like virus that is causing the fevers.  This was his 3rd febrile seizure and we’re just hoping he’ll outgrow it and not develop epilepsy.  Once Troy called me and found out we were on the way to the hospital, he met us down there and sat with the boys in the er waiting room while I sat with my friend and her son in the back.  Jordan was telling Troy, “he had a seizure, he had a seizure.  He rode in the ambulance!”  My girlfriend took the day off from work today and is on fever reducer medicine watch, alternating Tylenol and Motrin…. and so far he’s doing well today. Please do say a prayer that he feels better soon. thanks!

In other scrappy news, I got an email newsletter from twopeas the other day and was pleasantly surprised to see my photo of the big peach right there in the photo inspiration (chrispea had her puppy’s picture there in the past too!). it’s funny how the little things get me excited?! :)

Today Troy is riding his motorcycle is some military motorcycle safety awareness something or another rally. I’m just praying for his safety and the safety of all the other riders too.  This weekend is Memorial Day weekend. I’ll be playing along with the CardsforHeroes blog hop and I am very honored to be a part of this blog hop. There are over a hundred crafty bloggers sharing cards, stories and inspiration too. join us on Saturday, won’t you? I hear there are some cool prizes too!

Last, I’ve accumulated some really cute, cool supplies that I (surprisingly, okay maybe not) bought more than I needed, so I’m thinking about selling some supplies.  Maybe etsy, I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know. :)

Be safe out there! Love Love,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy.

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I also finished up the Church Calendar project last week, yay! I was really sweating over the whole thing, not really knowing what I wanted to do with it.  I called the printer for further information and then got into a rhythm and figured it out.  Such a relief to get an email from the Pastor saying he liked the mock up copy he got. YAY!

I am trying to work on some paper projects today.  I have some ATCs to do and some Concroption.com projects too.  I want to send a shout out to the three newest members to the TaG team, Lynn, Allie and Sue!  I can’t wait to get to know you all better!

My girlfriend Chrispea has created a set of Christmas Journaling spots that can be used in Digital Scrapbooking (like my layout here) or printed out and used in Traditional (hybrid) scrapbooking.  The best thing of all, other than they are fabulous, is that she’s giving them out for free!  Check out her blog: Chrispea! If you decide to download them, leave her a comment and tell her you heard about them from bossy joscie!;)  credits: Kraft Paper (Kindergarten Krafts, www.peppermintcreative.com) Staples (Foxy Lady Kit, www.peppermintcreative.com) Curled Frame (Miss Mint’s Curled Frames, www.peppermintcreative.com) Chrispea’s Christmas Tags (workforscraps.blogspot.com).  Font: Joscie, courtesy of yourfonts.com Journaling: Jalen, Aiden and Derek.  The rapping Santas also did the running man, the cabbage patch, raised the roof and the Roger Rabbit.  I could not stop smiling! December 2007.

For the Dymo Caption Maker: it is available directly from Dymo : here or you can check amazon, Wal-Mart, or your lss or other big box store.

The retail price is 24.95.  For Jocelynne, the cassettes are easily interchangable for Upper/Lower and Script in the same words! (what a great idea that is!).  Also, I did not find any other fonts than the three included in the kit. Labels are available in many colors (including clear) and it is very easy to use.

also, if you are making/sending holiday cards, why not consider sending some to our Country’s Heroes?

We are hosting Jalen’s class pet Indy again this weekend.  We braved the rain to take him to Bishop Museum to learn about Megladon (a huuuuge shark) and to see the volcano and the rest of the science center. We also hit McLunch, J’s KnickKnacks (got some spellbinders pinked circle dies, label 1 and cuttlebug houndstooth embossing folder and black chipboard *score!), Lighthaus Camera where I coveted a 10-22 lens, an 18-200 lens and a 24-70 L lens (which really felt at home in my hands). ahhh if only.  The last stop before returning home, Dee Lite Bakery for some rainbow cake, our family favorite. okay, my favorite.  Jordan told me his favorite was chocolate when we got home.

Now, back to my paper.  Love Love to you all, and I’ll blog you again soon!

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!