Got a Pazzles machine?

(click to see larger)

I don’t have a Pazzles, but my friend Klo does and she does amazing things with it!  (See above example)  She’s on the Pazzles design team and travels around the U.S. to expos and CHA and similar shows to show people what can be done with the Pazzles.  She recently developed a CD for Pazzles and I wanted to share it with you here and where you can buy it.  This CD is chock full of BEAUTIFUL stuff!  You can purchase it here.  Here’s what’s included:  20+ layouts, photos & assembly instructions for each layout, cutting instructions, cutting files in wpc, dxf, ai, gsd, and pdf files, great for creating classes, kits, and personal layouts.  You can get e-mail support directly from the designer Klo. 

I’ve gotta tell ya, I’m absolutely DEPRESSED right now that I don’t have a Pazzles and with Christmas coming up I think it will be the only thing on my list!    Don’t get me wrong, I’m TOTALLY gonna buy this CD anyway.  Klo has made all the files into PDF so you can print and hand cut them.  Just one more reason to love her!

If you have questions, you can e-mail Klo at kloriginaldesigns@scrappingusa.com

edited to add:  I now have purchased my own machine and here are some of the things I’ve done with it that I’ve shown in other posts here on the blog.

A graduation photo board here.

A different graduation photo board here.

Vinyl words on my bathroom mirror here.

A scrapbook “wall” here.  No, not kidding.

As I get more accustomed to my Pazzles and learn more about what I can make with it, I will share more stuff here.

Fun In A Box — Halloween project

Here’s a project I made for my daughter.  She had so much fun trick-or-treating with her best friend that I decided to make her an exploding scrapbook to remember it!  I actually got the instructions from somewhere on the internet.  You just never know sometimes what your kid is going to like, you know?  Within a few weeks after I gave this to her, it was already getting rough around the edges because she looks at it so much and shows everybody that comes over.   She really enjoys it, and that makes me feel so good!

(click on photos for larger view)

(forgive me for the glare on some of the photos)

In case you’re interested, here are the supplies I used:

Queen & Co  Frills Halloween Tag Its

Making Memories black buttons

Bazzill pumpkin cardstock

Prism Pigment “peach” ink

Doodlebug Halloween Kaleidoscope pattern paper

ColorBox Chestnut Roan fluid chalk

Urban Lily Gypsy Caravan pattern paper

SEI Granny’s Kitchen alphabet stickers

Bazzill flowers

Imagination Project Pic-nicky Fancy Napkin pattern paper

Creative Imaginations Studio  Basics 101 Halloween brads and tags

Queen & Co ribbons

Scrapbooking the bad stuff part 2

I got to thinking about that horrible story of mine from the other day and remembered there was another story I hadn’t scrapbooked about that happened to my little girl.  It was traumatizing, but it does have a happy ending!  Thought I’d share it here. 

February 9, 2006–Summer was being a grouch this morning (she inherited that from me). She was mad about having to brush her teeth (as usual) and went into the bathroom & locked the door. We live in an old house with old doors and old doorknobs, so our lock is not on the knob like most you’d see nowadays. It’s on the door, a little switch that you just flip to the right. Well, it’s a little harder to flip back to UNlock the door. So guess what? She locked herself in & couldn’t get out. Ken was in the driveway with the motor running cause it was time to go to school & she couldn’t get out. He was SO MAD (doesn’t like to be late). He had to get his tools, take the doorknob plate thingie off the door and use a screwdriver to unlock it! So he took her to school, came back & for probably 25 minutes he was in there trying all kinds of skeleton keys from the basement to see if any of them worked. Nope! He finally did find a ratchet that was the right size. There was a point, though, where I wanted to cry. Her little girl voice cracked & she got choked up and we were telling her to just turn the lock, turn the lock and she said “I tried to turn it and I can’t do it. I’m just a little girl…” It was so pitiful. I’m sure someday we’ll think that incident was funny!

I actually used one of the old skeleton keys on my layout and used rubons to put “open” on the photo of the door, symbolizing she wanted that darn door open!  I thought the little Making Memories “freak out” tag was appropriate also, since that is what we were all doing!  

Scrapbook the bad stuff too.

I went to my first college football game Saturday and watched the University of Illinois against Penn State.  I don’t really like football much, but this was something on my list of “things to do before I die.”  I took a few pictures with the camera phone and saved our tickets, of course, so I could scrapbook all about it.  It was SO exciting I could hardly stand to watch.  The band’s halftime show was spectacular, and I’m not a lover of marching bands.  I was in awe the entire time.  Very enjoyable and I’m glad we went. 

Something else happened that was NOT so enjoyable.  That was the trip to our seats.  Well, the walk from the car to the football stadium nearly killed me.  And then once we got there we discovered we were on the opposite side of the stadium, so had to walk all the way around it.  Then once we got to the correct section we walked out (to a spectacular first look at the football field I must say!) and the attendant informed us we were “way up there.”  Are you kidding?  So we had to go back in and walk up ramps (thank God they weren’t stairs) all the way to the top balcony of the bleachers, come outside, and THEN walk up 3 flights of stairs. 

Okay, so  here’s the deal.  I waited 5 years to get in shape after my child was born.  I was going to the gym, not eating junk food every day, lost some weight and was feeling good.  Now I’ve recently miraculously managed to put on 70 pounds in the last year and a half.  I swear to you, it happened overnight.  I have never been this large in my life.  I have also never been this out of shape in my life.  I happen to be married to a man who is 30 years older than me, but he is in better shape then I am (even after heart surgery).  Isn’t that just WRONG?  (I’ll answer for you; yes it is.) 

Okay, so he’s in better shape, we’re late, already missed the kickoff, and he’s in a hurry to get to our seats.  He takes my hand and pulls me up what I’m pretty sure was about 8 flights of ramps (thank God they were not stairs; I cannot say it enough).  Quickly.  Did I mention how NOT in shape I am?  Anyway, I’m about to collapse by the time we get to the end of the ramps.  Then we go outside to the bleachers and have to walk up the 3 flights of steps.  Did I mention I’m also scared of heights?  Oh my lord, when I got the first glimpse of that football field from that high up, I thought I was going to faint.  Seriously.  So up the 3 flights of steps my husband starts to drag me.  We’re about halfway up and my legs are some serious jello.  I’m thinking I can’t make it.  The only thing that kept me going was the thought of having to sit down on those steps in front of all those people to rest, so I used every bit of strength to get to my seat.  And you know what I did when I got there? 

I cried.  My head was spinning from the view that high up.  My legs were jello.  My heart felt like it was going to pound out of my chest and throat.  I guess it just all overwhelmed me so much that my emotions couldn’t take it, I don’t know, but all I could do was sit there and cry.  My poor husband was flabbergasted.  Then I continued to cry because I was SO disgusted with myself for being so out of shape.  I am SO mad at myself for letting my weight get to this point.  I am not healthy at this weight.  I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol.  I’m only in my 30′s.  This is ridiculous.  And it’s very easy to get caught up in life and work and my daughter and not make time for me and forget about me and my body, but I can’t do it anymore.  Something has got to change.  Something has got to be done.  I’ve got to find the inner strength and motivation to lose the weight again, and now there’s MORE of it than the last time I lost weight.  It’s very intimidating. 

I guess my point here is that I had a great day doing something new and fun and exciting, but even on a great day something not-so-great happened and I want to scrapbook about BOTH things.  Because I think what happened that day (not the game) changed my perspective of myself.  And it’s going to change my life, so I want to document it.  I want to document the moment when my reality hit me like a ton of bricks (or a ton of ramps/stairs).   Sometimes that’s what it takes.  I want to document the moment so that I will NEVER forget it again.