The Day Pop Music Died

I have been wanting to start a scrapbook apart from my family scrapbook, that concentrates on the things we witness, day to day, in the news. Mainly about things that really are meaningful to a lot of people, but at the same time I've wanted to write my own perspective on such events. I was never more prompted to write about a news item until last week. You know, it is so easy to forget that none of us are promised tomorrow. We make all these plans thinking that we have all the time in the world but really none of us knows when we will leave this earth. I was reminded of that in a sermon given by the minister of my church, Danny Saltz, a couple of weeks ago. So with that said, please read my journaling that is in this scrapbook page (it is a little long). Here it is:

On June 25, 2009, I was at work listening to the radio, specifically KDES 104.7, when the D.J. came on and said that Michael Jackson had been hospitalized. I thought to myself, “Thank God he’s not dead.” Around 3:30 that day I heard from my boss that they were starting to announce on television that Michael Jackson had died of cardiac arrest. My heart dropped and I immediately felt this sense of loss. Seriously, I have never felt this way about any celebrity! I mean I was so saddened when Princess Diana died. But this was something else. I couldn’t understand it. I got in my car and drove home from work. By this time the radio stations were starting to play his music sporadically. In that moment when I heard I’ll Be There, the tears came. I’ve mourned people close to me but like I said this was something else! I was feeling so much sadness and thinking this is utterly ridiculous, I don’t even know the man personally! It took some time for me to realize maybe I never talked to this great music icon but I did know him. Here are the details!

· I remember sitting in front of the T.V. watching the Jackson 5 cartoons; I was entertained by that cartoon as a kid.

· My Mom used to play the Off The Wall Album day and night. Well, maybe it wasn’t that much, but I remember hearing all of the songs from that album. I also remember thinking as a kid; I really like a lot of this music!

· I remember hearing Billie Jean on the radio and absolutely loved that song. I also remember sitting in front of the T.V watching the 25th Anniversary Special for Motown. I was enthralled by Michael’s dancing! You could feel the awe from the audience coming straight through the T.V. as he did his moon walk! It was special!

· When I heard Thriller for the first time, I didn’t really think the song was that special. The video changed all of that! Growing up in a time where MTV was all about music videos was not a big deal to me until the Thriller video came out. As a pre-teen I couldn’t get enough of seeing it. If you would have asked me then, they didn’t play it enough!

· Lastly as a part of my early 20’s I went out to nightclubs a lot. I remember all the fun I had dancing to Remember The Time.

So maybe I didn’t know Michael Jackson personally, but I did know his music. I could go on and on about it but I don’t have enough room. Yes, there will always be scandal attached to his name and people will always think he is weird or a freak, ultimately though, he was a musical genius and that is the way I will remember him!

Well that is my post for today. I hadn't seen any others out there of the blogs I follow about any historical type of events and so this is my first but not my last. Yes, for some, death is a depressing subject, yet for others it is a celebration of life! For me Michael Jackson's music will always be associated with some good memories. Thanks for reading and looking :)

Magic Kingdom

I've never been to big a fan of Disneyland. I know...the horror! So scrapbooking Jasmine's Disneyland photos wasn't an easy task for me. This is still probably my lease favorite layout. I guess I'll have to live with it because it's done deal :) After this I only have one more layout to post and that one will take a little while because I forgot to take a picture of it, the second time around! The letters are not chipboard, they are just from letter stax by Crayola. At least the photo quality isn't as bad as some of the other layouts I've been posting! Oh yes...I d have one single page layout that I will be posting soon (non Jasmine).

Here is the left side of the layout.

Here is the right side of the layout.

Thanks for looking!

Public Enemies

I just came home from the movie theater. We went to go see Public Enemies. I know...I'm not a movie critic but I have to comment when I've seen some really fine acting! I have never really been a Johnny Depp fan, but I gotta tell you he is one talented actor! This movie isn't one you will take the kiddies too. I also appreciate the fact that there was no nudity. Seriously though, Johnny Depp gave an awesome performance! I enjoyed the movie! There is a lot of gun battles in this one and the arrogance of John Dillinger, if this is really based on truth, just took my breath away! There were some parts of the movie that made me just snicker...yes I said snicker! So...if your in the mood to just see some good acting, go check it out :)

San Diego

Here is a two page layout of Jasmine's trip to San Diego. If you look closely at the picture of the whales you'll see a splash zone sticker. I bought some Sea World stickers and wanted to use them so I placed one sticker on the photo and then the water drops near the title. I had a lot more stickers left but the whole trip was not just of Sea World so I had to restrain myself :)

Thanks for looking!

A Trip to Seattle

Okay here is layout that I made for Jasmine's Seattle trip. I like the chipboard letters, you can't tell from the photo but the letters have some kind of industrial type of lines on them, maybe I should call them graphic lines...I don't know but they are cool! I did take a photo of the left and right side but they didn't come out to well, so this is the best I could do!

Thanks for looking!

We Gather Together

Jasmine had several pictures of family gatherings. So this is a combination of those pictures on one layout. Again, sorry for the quality of the photos. I was in a rush to take these as I wasn't home doing it, I was at Jasmine's and I wanted to get in and get out. I normally take some time to make sure I have a decent picture and in this case I didn't :( I really like these letters from Stampin' Up. They are the Jumbo Outline Alphabet. The photo below is of the left side of the layout.

The photo below is of the right side of the layout.

Leave a comment! Thanks for looking!

Wild Child & Zoo Combined Scrapbook Page

I love these chipboard letters. This photo doesn't give you a great idea what they look like but you will see the detail in one of the photo's below. So this layout is a combination of Vijay getting his big boy bed and a trip to the living desert. I wanted to use Big Boy Bed for the title but when you buy chipboard letters you have to be mindful of what letters you are using. You only get so many of each letter. In this case 3 B's would have been to much! So Wild Child is really my substitute title. The right side is a trip to the Living Desert and I just love these photos!

Here is the left side.

Here is the right side. In this photo you can see a little better what these chipboard letters look like. They are really cool! I bought them at Michael's.

Thanks for looking!

Bits of Me

Here is another layout. I used this title because I had different photos of Vijay doing different things and this seemed to fit. Once again, these are chipboard letters. I did take a photo of the layout together but the quality wasn't so good! This is the left side of the layout.

Below is the right side of the layout. You'll notice that Jasmine already added her journaling. I just love it!

Let me know what you think! Thanks for looking :)

New Year's Scrapbook Page

Okay I managed to get some pictures of the rest of Jasmine's layouts. Sorry for the quality of the photos. Here is a layout that I made over 3 or 4 years ago. I originally made the layout for a stamp club and it has been sitting in a scrapbook...unused, for a long time. When Jasmine gave me some New Year's pictures, I knew then I would end up using this layout. Both stamp sets have retired, I don't remember the name of the letter alphabet set but the other set is Perfect Party and it was one of my favorite sets! I just thought I could use the set for other things besides birthday layouts :) It was versatile!

Here is the left side of the layout! Yes...my lettering isn't exactly straight but what do you expect without using a Stamp a majig! :)

Here is the right side of the layout!

Thanks for looking!

Another Card

Okay, here is another card. I think I'm going to call Jasmine tonight and see if I can go by and take pictures of the rest of the pages I put together for her...tonight! So maybe I will have a photo of a scrapbook page up tomorrow. As for now, here is a card I made. By the way, remember the older post about the altered coffee can? Well I altered another coffee can and stuffed it with 20 cards for my craft booth. This is one of the cards that was in the coffee can. The card I posted the other day (Friends 24 -7) was also in the coffee can. All product is from Stampin Up.

Thanks for taking a look!

Card Gift Set

This orange plastic case came with some bath items at one point. Anyway, the bath items were all used and I still had this little case so I decided to make some cards for it and then added a little paper with stamps for the outside as an embellishment. The case actually zippers up so it really is a good place for storing cards.

The patterned paper is from Stampin' Up so is the stamp set. I forgot to take photos of the cards individiually, but you can see them partially through the case. Thanks for looking!

A Card

If you remember, a while back I decorated a coffee can for my friend Mj and made a set of cards to go into the can. Well I recently altered another coffee can and made a set of cards to into the can. I did end up selling it at my table. Here is one of the cards that was in the can. I love these color combinations too! I've really gotten some mileage out of this set because I love it so :) The sentiment, Friends 24-7 is from the stamp set with the same name. Thanks for taking a look!

Set of Cards In A Post It Note Holder

I'm so bummed! I was getting ready to post another "Jasmine" layout and something must have happened with my camera because when I went to download the pictures they were gone. Unfortunately, I already gave Jasmine her layouts so I don't have them to re-photograph. I was so hoping to post my New Year's layout today. Hopefully I can get with her another time and go by her house to take pictures of the layouts. Anyhow, for some strange and mysterious reason, my younger son, Joe, brought home this empty post it note holder. I asked him if he was planning on using it and he said, "No you can have it." Needless to say, it sat around for about a month. I knew I wanted to make some note cards for it and this is what I came up with.

There is a price tag on it because I was making all sorts of projects for a booth I had for a women's day event that my church put on. I mainly used patterned paper for the cards and stamped the sentiment on each card. I have a lot of projects I took photos of that were displayed on my table so for the next few days you may see those until I can take pictures again of Jasmine's scrapbook pages. Thanks for looking!

The Proposal

Okay so this is not a scrapbook layout but a movie review. I keep forgetting to tell you all that I went to a sneak preview of this movie, The Proposal, with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. It was the best romantic comedy I've seen in a while! It was sooooo funny! We laughed through the whole movie! I think it releases this weekend so if you haven't seen it you have to go check it out! Believe me it is worth it! You will laugh til the end :)

Thanksgiving Scrapbook Page

I know it is not that time of year yet, but keep in mind I'm scrapbooking for someone that has loads of pictures. Besides, there are no rules about scrapbooking :) Anyway, here is a layout of Vijay in school and pictures of the thanksgiving projects that he made. So cute! Once again I left blank spots for journaling!

Here is the left side of the layout.

Here is the right side of the layout.

I don't know where Jasmine got the borders or Thanksgiving stickers. I think it might have been Target but they went well will the layout. Let me know what you think :)

California Adventure Scrapbook Page

I'm thinking that in the next 9 days you'll probably have seen more pictures of Jasmine and her family than pictures of my own family. Sadly, I have boys who refuse to look straight at a camera. Did I mention they are teenage boys? How I wish I could just capture those moments of them being themselves! I'll keep trying until the camera is pried from my cold, dead hands :) So... here is a page with some pictures of Jasmine and her family's trip to California Adventure. This was a really easy layout. It came together pretty quickly and this was actually the first one I finished. I haven't been posting these pages in the order that they were completed. Anyway... I love the little dimensional Disney characters! I used chocolate chip cardstock because that seemed to be a dominant color in the photos. The alphabet letters are by crayola. They are mounted on the page with foam tape.

As always, here is the left side of the layout.

Here is the right side of the layout.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! :)

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Here is another page combining different things in Vijay's life :) The letters are not chipboard but they are stickers. They came in black and white and I mounted the black sticks onto white cardstock so that they would standout against the black cardstock I used for this layout. I wish I had more arrows when I was making this page...but I used what little I had. The middle of the right side of the layout is blank. I left it this way so that Jasmine can journal about the different pictures. Just in case you are wondering, I always used mounting tape to mount the letters onto the page.

Here is the left side of the layout. I do have to tell you that I'm a dork! I took pictures of these layouts and thought to myself, "I wish I could eliminate some of the background around the photos of these layouts...duh! It only occurred to me today that I could crop the photos! Hello!

Here is the right side of the layout. Leave a comment...I would love to hear what you think. And by the way I really have simple style of scrapbooking. The tons of patterned paper that some people use on a layout is just not my style and I wouldn't have a clue where to start with all those patterns. I'm a firm believe that less is more :) I like the pictures and journaling to speak for itself! Until tomorrow :)

You Are a Star Scrapbook Page

Sorry everyone. Yesterday I was exhausted. I didn't get to much sleep the night before and I forgot to post. Here is the next page for Vijay/Jasmine's scrapbook. I ran twine (I can't think of another name for it) through out the page. The school 3D elements are by Crayola and can be found at Target. Once again I used some chipboard lettering, from Joann's. I had everything laid out on this page and there was still something missing. My friend Paula had come over for a few hours to put pictures on pages that were completed and she suggested the punched stars. Thanks Paula. Yes the punches are from Stampin Up!

Here is the left side of the layout.

Here is the right side of the layout. Let me know what you think. Oh yeah, the heart attached to the star came with the chipboard letters. Hope everyone is having a great day:)

Firehouse Scrapbook Page and Other Days

Here's is another Jasmine layout. What I really should say is Vijay layout because all the pages are for Vijay's scrapbook. This is another combined page. Combined page meaning that I scrapbooked a field trip and several other events that occurred. Don't you just love those chipboard letters? I got them at Joann's and they went perfectly with the fire truck picture. I also used my label maker (a birthday present to myself) for the titles on the photos. I purchased the silver metallic tape for the label maker and voila! I thought this layout turned out exceptionally well :)

Here is a close up of the left side of the layout.

Here is a close up of the right side of the layout.

Please post a comment and let me know what you think. By the way, in case your wondering, I didn't use a lot of Stampin' Up supplies for her layouts, just the cardstock. If I had the big shot I would have done so. Plus I love the different chipboard letters. You'll be seeing a lot of different kinds in all the layouts I've done. Until tomorrow :)

Jasmine's Scrapbook

This is somewhat of a story so this may be a long post. Sorry I haven't posted in a while but that is about to change! You see I think it was in April or May when I went to a Wednesday night service at my church. It was announced that there was going to be an auction to raise money for the kids to go to camp. So I go to the Wednesday service not really intending to bid on anything but more for support. They started the auction off with people willing to do housework once a week for 5 weeks and the like. I was amazed at the bidding that was going on! Anyway, we started having people auction off different things that they did, such as we had someone auction their cooking skills, he was willing to cook dinner for the whole family or cook for an event such as a party. Someone else built a custom water fountain in their home and was willing to build anyone who bid on this, a custom fountain. We had one guy auction off 25 hours of electrical labor and so on. I had no idea it was going to be like this so when we were right in the middle of this auction I asked Mj (the minister's wife) if I could auction off my scrapbooking skills :) She said she would try to fit me in! So eventually I get called up and tell everyone that I will design enough pages to fill an album for the top bidder. Well then the bidding frenzy was on :) I had two women bidding against each other when Danny (the minister) asks me if I will make two books and each person will pay the same price. Who was I to turn this down! So this page and the pages to follow are a culmination of what I have created for Jasmine who was one of the bidders. I will start on Dawn's book soon. Jasmine gave me her pictures and let me say she has tons of them! We discussed what she wanted and organized what I would be scrapbooking. This layout incorporates two events. The one on the left is Mother's day and the one on the right is Easter. At first I had a hard time trying to figure out how I would scrapbook two events onto one layout but I finally came up with this. That is why there are 2 titles to represent both days. Here is a close up of the left side of the layout. I have to say that Jasmine really has a great camera because her photos have turned out great. Sorry...I don't know what kind of camera she has. Here is a closer look at the right side of the layout. I do have to tell you that Jasmine provided the butterflies. There is a story behind those butterflies. I have the pictures and the chipboard letters all laid out and I was thinking what else can I use on this layout? I tried flowers and a number of other things but they didn't look right on the page. I mean I literally sat for 20 or 30 minutes trying to come up with something when I happened to look into one bag that I had...duh!!! That is when I found the butterflies Jasmine gave me! I had totally forgotten about them! This picture is not to clear but I drew dashed wavy lines for the butterflies. Enjoy and leave me a comment to let me know what you think. I will be posting a layout each day!

Rian's Scrapbook Pages

Hi Everybody, Here are some scrapbook pages I made of my niece, Rian. I initially made these pages to enter them into a class contest for Stampin Up, but I didn't win :( Oh well, better luck next time right? Anyway, I used 2 stamp sets for all three pages and 1 photo for all three pages. The stamp sets are Friend 24-7 and Lovely Letters. I also used my punches for layering the letters. You can use the same layouts and place different pictures instead of the same one like I did. This page to the left uses Basic Black, So Saffron, and Basic Gray. I think this is the one I like most. I generally don't use these colors together, especially the Pale Plum color. I mean I really don't use Pale Plum at all and I thought the combination turned out well. I also, rarely use Bordering Blue which is what I used here, along with Summer Sun and Pacific Point. I really love these stamp sets together. Drop me a comment and let me know what you think!

Mom's House Rocks Mini Book

Okay,

Here is another mini! I tried to make it into the shape of a house. What do you think? Does it look much like a house? Anyway, I was at my friend Leah's and we were talking about how much we love mini books! I told her I was going to go home last night and get started on a mini book shaped like a house and while I did start it last night, I didn't finish it until this morning. Of course I was trying to think of a good title for my mini and I had these little letter stamps; this is what I came up with. The reason the first letters are on green is because I messed up and stamped tocks instead of rocks! I didn't want to have to start over because I already had the cover made! That is the great thing about stamping, if you ever mess up you can fix it! Check out the rest of the book!

I used the oval punch to create the door and a brad for the door knob.

Here I decided to use some more patterned paper. I tried to make the kids look like boys since that is what I have.

This page is actually after the one below. Also, some more use of patterned paper.

Can you see the little head I punched out with the circle punch?

Here is the back cover! One more with one more little boy. So if you have time, leave a comment and let me know what you think. By the way...Leah...this one is for you :)