Inspiration Elevator- Scrapping a favorite childhood memory.

You may recall that the purpose of this challenge group is to take our scrapbooking to the next level, to stretch our creative process and to grow as artists by embracing challenges that make us think, work and grow. You can view all of the challenges our new Inspiration Elevator Blog, here.

This month's challenge is issued by the super talented, Lisa Moen. Here's what she had to say in her very own words:

"I have been thinking lately, that I have only done one layout of my childhood and realized that maybe some day, my kids or grandkids would enjoy looking at a few more pages and learning about my siblings, my parents and I.
So my challenge for you this month is to create a page about a childhood memory of yours. It can be a good, a bad, a funny, a photoless or whatever you choose kind of layout.

Just remember to add journaling to tell the story behind your childhood memory.
Can't wait to see your projects!"

I had a hard time zeroing in on a favorite memory. My childhood wasn't bad- it was filled with small magical moments in between a lot of boredom.

Now that I'm writing this my brain is filling with awesome tiny moments:

• Discovering we could get HBO and watch naughty movies like "Into The Night" or "Nightmare On Elm Street" if we put the tv in a certain place and tape a wire hanger to it. 
• Watching my Mom finish the Pac Man level 100. Saying "Mom kiss ASS!" and not getting spanked for it.
• Playing Uno with my Dad, brother and two sisters. Sticking one of the cards on our foreheads- who's ever card fell off first looses.
• PIZZA and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- The Movie
• Garbage Pail Kids cards but not the one called Messy Michelle with all the snot everywhere.
• Playing Bash-A-Saurus- basically using a red plastic bat to bash my sisters and brother over the head- yeah I was THAT big sister. I get bashed too- by all three at once.
• Watching ET.
• Watching "Star Wars Return of The Jedi" on tv with no commercials- Mom let us stay up!
• Dad taking us to Orchard Beach in the early evening when the sun was just setting and the hoodlums had gone home.
• Mom's turkey day feast
• The Christmas we got Laser tag AND 2 small tvs to play Nintendo.
• Sesame Place in the bath tub- because were were too poor top go to the actual park but with 4 kids and some bathing suits who needs 30 dollar water parks?

But I recently took a fantastic photo of a typical New York City Ice Cream Truck so I went with this:

For my page I decided to talk about how when I was a kid the Ice Cream Truck jingle RULED the night. We lived on the fourth floor of a huge apartment building on Grand Concourse in the Bronx.
When we heard the music we knew we had to put our shoes on and RUN like the wind down the stairs.
Woe onto him or her who forgot their dollar allowance- the ice cream truck lady waits for no one.

Detail shot of my journaling:

Still working off my ipod to photograph pages but I figured out how to use a PC to do my photo captions. The page photo above was loaded using Flickr- I had to decipher some HTML code- something I've never tried before. Seriously- I can't wait for my Mac to arrive- I miss it so!

I hope you will stop by and see what the rest of the team has created:

Lisa Moen
Christa Uttley
Cathy Harper

Lisa Spiegel

Joanne Burton

 Laurel Seabrook

Jodi Wilton

Michelle Hernandez

Ann Jobes

Laura Whitaker

Sue Sykes

Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle

Trip pix and wonderful scrappy news!!!

It's great to be back home!! Here are some "Best Of" shots from the trip. No scrappy work to post as I didn't have the attention span or alone time needed for it. 

I got word that I made the Gauche Alchemy writing team while I was away! YAAY! Please add this to your blog reading list: 

Gauche Alchemy

I promise to be very entertaining and insightful and all that. Check out their ArtFire store- there is lots of really fun non traditional scrappy stuff there. :)

PAESTUM
3 large temples on site a Museum and restaurants across the street and plenty of room to roam- this is the best bet for great photos  if you have  limited time and want to avoid crowds.

Leticia and Roberto on the balcony- ahh smell the romance!

We survived our shock at the lack of sidewalks. On the left of David a loudly honking 10am bus to Amalfi. On the right a 300 foot sheer drop into the ocean with only a rusty railing as protection.

Waiting for the bus to Ravello.

SORRENTO
Changing cabanas in the beaches of Sorrento- we ate Calamari salad and watched the cruise boats dock. Sorrento is PERFECT!! GORGEOUS, safe and has lots of budget restaurant and hotel choices- we will be staying here in out next trip.

POMPEII
Our 4 hour tour barely scratched the surface of this wonderful site. Skip the tours, be brave and use public transport. It will be a whole day trip- bring your own lunch and diner as local eats are expensive. DO NOT skip the Limoncello ice cream or the Granitas- those always rock. The cruise crowds make this place awful in the morning and in mid afternoon. Every single interior space was crowded with culturally insensitive tourists who insisted on taking flash photos of the frescos and freaking out over the "Red Light District". YUCK. But beautiful- so just do it!

MAIORI
Is the perfect town for budget tourists who don't like to eat McDonald's when they visit other countries. The food is good, the locals are wonderful, the place is safe and the pricing is fair. You pay 5 euro for a chair and a umbrella on the beach- which is VERY rocky so bring your water shoes if you are a tenderfoot like me. :)

And the reason for the whole trip- Leticia and Roberto's wedding in Minori.
One of the most romantic things I have every witnessed. Letyy arrived BY BOAT and Roberto waited for her on the dock- locals crowded around and watched them approach the church- it was amazing.

Since I was a witness for the ceremony, I don't have a lot of photos but Letty hired 3 photographers so there will be many many photos in the next couple weeks. Here they are just after tying the knot. YAAY!

I have so many stories to tell! Here's the first- apparently ALONDRA means "in London" in Italian so when locals asked me her name I would confuse the heck out of them by replying Alondra- it was a total "Who's On First" scenario. So after a few days of getting these HUH looks when ever we spoke her name we switched to Lola. I love how Italians say Lola! They stretch the O sound and make it positively mellifluous. Now Lola says "Ciao!" and "Mama!" just like italian babies! LOVE IT!

That's it for now- I took 3 hours to write this- time for breakfast!

The some ipod Hipstamatic app filters simply cannot handle high contrast light situations. Here we have a great photo but the deep darkness in the eyes is really creepy.

MuChoS SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Xoxo America!

It's been a great week! So great I don't want to scrap. Who wants to hang around in a tiny dark apartment when the weather has been so perfect?

THIS is what you do in great weather!

It's 4th of July weekend and we have no plans. Not having a car puts a great fat crimp in that department but the pay off is this- many humans have left New York City.  If you stay you can now enjoy a walk down Broadway without getting carried off by streams of harried workers. Or take the subway without wrestling people to get the baby carriage in and out the train car. We can even walk in and sit down at that cool restaurant that always has a long line in front of it - not that we can afford it but you get the idea. New York during 3 day holidays is AMAZING.

Water feature at High Line park has no one else wadding in it!

So I'll share a page that's been "in the works" for a while. This is my "first draft" for my July page for TRUE XOXO GIRLS! I forced myself to sit down and do this but didn't like the results after a couple of days. You can tune in on July 7th to see the final version or even better- join the fun!

True Xoxo Girls SNEAK (first draft page)
Materials: Sassafrass Lass stickers and flowers, Bazzill kraft,  K and Co transparent frame, American Crafts
numbers, American Crafts clouds paper (cloud template), GCD Studios "Be brave" paper clip

PAPER ISSSUES has a wonderful Fourth of July link party going on! Many of you make beautiful decorations and/or scrapbook pages for this holiday so go link them up! Plus- we have a whole new Creative Team to introduce!! I am SO happy to learn fave crafter Amy Baldwin has made the team! YAAAY!

Inside

Here's my project using October Afternoon's Rocket Age. It's a card for the hubster who will be turning 37 next week.

Materials: October Afternoon Rocket Age,
Fiskars star punch,
American Crafts gold paper

Happy 4th America!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!

Michelle

Summer Lovin'

This is not a post where I extoll the virtues of that admittedly fabulous movie "Grease". It's just another post where I use yellow paper to try to remind myself winter is almost over. TGIM (March)!!!!!

A Day With Papi
Materials used: Crate Paper/Studio Calico exclusive paper, Sassafras Lass Foldies (Sweetly) and Sweetly Smitten flags, Maya Road star pins, Crate Paper and Studio Calico paper strips, Prima Donna Downey Sculpture Flowers, American Crafts Aquatic paperback fabric alphas, AC pink fabric alphas, Studio Calico Country Side Die Cut tag, red and pink ribbon.

Your Scrapbook Stash sketch challenge 4/4/11.

I'm submitting this page for a Your Scrapbook Stash.com challenge. Their sketch challenges are gorgeous- check them out. I ordered a "butt load" of stuff over at 2 Peas and unlike my usual M.O. (stuffing it away for later) I broke it out and had some FUN! I didn't know where to begin- the colors in the Crate Paper, Studio Calico and Sassy new releases had me in a tizzy.

Run outta room? That's what THESE are for!

This page is about how much Lola loves Daddy. When 5 o'clock rolls around she starts looking for him and the minute she hears him in the hallway she jumps off whatever she's currently trying to scale (her latest "wonderful" habit) and runs to meet him. She gives him a little scream and jumps up for her hug- my husband is Bono to our kid. It's nice.

That tag- pink AND a grid??? LOVE IT!

I used to get jealous of these moments- why doesn't she give a little scream for ME? But she sees me everyday- I'm furniture (literally- she's constantly trying to climb me). Daddy leaves AND returns so he gets rock star status. It's ok- I'll take this life over my previous one working 14 hour days for EVIL bosses anytime!

Lola BREAKS!!!

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
Michelle

Summer- MISS IT SO MUCH!!!

Lots of bad news from around the world these days. There's much to worry over. Here in New York the snow is making me miss summer very badly so I decided to scrap a page about a good day in July.

July Memories- Studio Calico Kit challenge page 1/24/11
Materials: Sassafras/Studio Calico exclusive paper, Crate Paper- slipcover (flowers and red border)
Cosmo Cricket mini alphas- yellow, Uniball gel pen- black, pop dots

Poor Miss Lola has had RSV for 7 days now so we've been stuck inside. She's got a huge case of cabin fever that I broke last night by going to Michael's. I bought 10 new 12x12 cases- it's organization and purging time! But let's tell the truth- there will be VERY LITTLE purging going on. I got Miss Lola a new ball and some crayons she promptly chomped- oh well.

This page is a 360 change from what I was making a few days ago but the truth is that the grungy/moody style has very few admirers- at least the way I do it. It's good to change things up and try to look at the bright side of life- especially when you have a sick baby and 6 feet of ice encrusted snow to deal with.

Quick peek at the layering of flowers.

I did 5 hours of fussy cutting for this page. It was so WORTH it! I love looking at this page up on the wall. Crate Paper is KILLING ME with their new collections by the way- cannot WAIT for those to hit the stores! The boy centered toy collection is calling my name!

February's True XOXO Girls challenge page! click here to go there.

I have some FUN news! Ty's page was mentioned on Practical Scrappers.com. This page will be up for lifting on TRUE XOXO GIRLS starting February 6th. Please go to the site and add your page to the current January challenge- a great box of goodies awaits the winner.

We spent a lot of time hunched over to help Miss Thing walk back in July 2010-
 good thing she picked it up quickly.

MuChOs SmOoChEs!
M.