As a scrapbooker turned card maker I had a revelation during the Olympics. Maybe it was just because we went to sleep with the TV on every night. But, I woke up one morning thinking, wow, card making for me is kind of like the Gymnastics Gala.

I only started making cards after purchasing the Cricut last fall. For Christmas my husband’s family all bought me cartridges. They had no idea what it was they bought me, but they knew it would make me happy. So, I’ve been making everyone birthday cards and now I think they are starting to get it!

Back to the Olympics, with every card my husband keeps saying, “hey you should quit scrapping and just make cards, you are really good at it.” (No sense telling him how many thousands upon thousands of you out there are also good at it and even better!) It kind of stung, but then I realized like the guys and gals in the Gala I pull out all the stops with my cards. (They don’t get judged so they tend to put on quite a show with their more risky moves.) My dh was right, my cards are kind of a quick fix in creativity for me.

My scrapbooking is the event that really counts, as a family historian. But, I have mountains of pictures to scrap, I’m two and a half years behind. My scrapbooks are aesthetically pleasing, and I do spend more time on my layouts than the average scrapbooker. But, generally they are not glitzy compared to my cards.

I decided even if my scrapbooks are in chronological order I don’t necessarily have to crop that way. I have a top-loading CM Milestones 12 x 12 album and am going to use it to store out of sequence layouts. This gives me the freedom to pick out pictures to work on as they inspire me instead of getting “stuck” with the next chronological event. I’m going to show my husband that I can do scrapbook layouts as good as my cards!

Last night at the Tulsa CK Friday night crop I worked on a layout of some special pictures I’d taken at Woodward Park this year while the Azaleas were in bloom. With about four hours invested I’m still not done. But, hey, some of my cards take that long! So, here is a sneak peak of a technique that I came up with for the layout. After embossing the blue cardstock mat with the Cuttlebug folder I applied baby blue Liquid Pearls selectively to the raised areas. I’ll coin it “Pearl Foiling.” Isn’t it smashing?! Lisa has all of the Adirondack Dimensional Pearls on order, they come in twelve fabulous colors and my possibilities for monotone “Pearl Foiling” will be wide open!

I spent a little more money at the show than I wanted, because I planned to patiently wait on all the stuff I asked Lisa to order for me at CHA. But there were some good deals I couldn’t pass up, including some future RAKs. And, I even won a Shutterfly gift certificate, awarded to me by Allison Davis, a member of the 2008 CK Dream Team! This is a picture I took of her afterwards. I didn’t take any classes but in retrospect I wish I had, she taught five classes…pregnant BTW!