My First Scrapbook Album Kit

After hearing over and over that I should teach classes, but not knowing really where to start, or having the guts to put myself out there and try, I have decided to try kitting one of my albums.


And so here it is!

My 2008 Haunted House Acrylic Album!

Completely kitted and ready for purchase. The kit contains a full 25 page instruction guide with step by step instructions and over 120 pictures, all of the patterned paper, card stock, vellum, and velvet paper needed for the album, templates and sketches for the tricky parts, Color Box Cat's eye ink pad, Door hinges (not shown in picture), rivet door knob, binder rings, fibers for the binder rings (not shown in picture), double sided foam tape, wire for the weather vane, and of course, one of my signature, hand cut, acrylic albums.

When I posted my original Haunted House Album on Two Peas in a bucket, it maintained the number one position for most votes and most views for approximately 24 hours.


The album kit has some minor variations to the original design, that in my opinion, are equally visually pleasing and much easier to create.

The front cover

The back cover

I hope you love it!

Busy, Busy, Busy...

I've been working on kitting my Halloween Album. It should be ready on Monday or Tuesday. :)

I am excited and Nervous.

So I apologize for my lack of posts, but watch for my album kit, coming soon.

I also found the paper I want to use for my Christmas album set... Sorry Basic Grey, I love you, but you can't expect me to wait!

Cosmo Cricket - Oh Joy!
And if the Halloween album does well, I'm thinking of kitting my 2008 Christmas albums. :)

New look

I have updated my blog look all on own....

Previously, I have always asked my good friend Amber Halversen to update it for me because she really knows her stuff when it comes to digital scrapbooking and just does an amazing job.

I have always wanted to learn how to do it myself so I decided to give it a try. it's not quite as well finished as when Amber does it, but I think it turned out pretty well.

What do you think?

I did it!

Okay so first of all, when I signed up for the Saint Luke's Women's Fitness Celebration, this is kind of what I expected:

Sunshine, and cool temperatures because, after all, the run is in the morning in late September, in Boise, Idaho.

THIS is what I got...

I took these pictures leaving the house this morning on the drive to the race.

It was yucky outside. Rainy, Windy and overcast, the tempurature was in the low 50's.

Since this is my first 5k ever, I've never even signed up to walk one, I wanted to make sure I got there plenty early, which translated into waiting in the rain for about an hour with about 10,000 other soaking, cold, women. We were all drenched, and bouncing around trying desperately to keep warm.


The run went pretty well. It was tough starting out that wet and cold, and carrying quite a bit of extra weight with all my clothes soaking wet, but once I got into my pace I felt pretty good.

When I came around the bend and could see the finish line I was overwhelmed with emotion. not over finishing or anything, but what this run represented to me. I started running this spring for the emotional healing after loosing my baby, Vincent. I was coming from the worst possible place, Physically and mentally. Horribly out of shape and recovering from childbirth, depressed and extremely unfocused. Being able to do this means so much to me.


All things considered, I did alright and I'm happy with my results. My official time was 32:07, which is about a minute or so faster than my practice time, and about 2:07 slower than I was dreaming for. I placed 386th place out of 710 runners. What I said when I registered, was I didn't want to finish last, and I hoped to come in near the middle of the pack. I was a little behind were I was hoping to finish, but considering where I was physically when I started training in May/June of this year, I feel pretty good about how I did.

Afterward, it took about 25 minutes to find Andy and the kids. We were all drenched and cold so we decided to head home right away. Poor Aaron was shivering from the cold and his legs hurt. Andy has a sprained ankle from basketball last week, and we had about a 2 mile walk back to the car. I got to carry Aaron, who weighs about 37 lbs... when he's dry... all the way back to the car.

Next year, I'm bringing someone extra along to take pictures of me. Sorry Andy, but you're fired as my photographer. We took this last one when we got home from the race.


I think I might take a nap this afternoon...

By the way, I hope my friend Heather is having a great time! She's running the Top of Utah Marathon this weekend. Go Heather!

Sneak Peak at Santa's Village -2008 Christmas Acrylic album set

I didn't think it was too early to start thinking about Christmas until I emailed my friend Michelle, who sells scrapbook supplies, to ask her about Basic Grey's new Christmas line-Wassail, and she told me it won't be available till sometime in October.

What??? That's just way to far away for me. I want to start creating, and with the encouragement of my new friend, Damaris, my plan is to kit these albums. Scary, I know... Well, maybe not for you, but for me... Stay tuned to see if I actually get up the courage to do it!

Anyway, here's my sketches. I've actually taken these to the next step and I'm getting ready to start cutting the acrylic.


Now I've got to figure out what paper line? Dang you Basic Grey... you're my favorite, but the albums all have to match, and I can't be expected to wait till October to start!


On a different note, I taught a simple card class the other night at my church.

These are the sample cards I advertised the class with.


The day of the class I called all the women who signed up and asked them to bring a paper trimmer and scissors if they had them.

One of the gals brought these:


Wow.

Remember when these were all the rage and we all HAD to have them. And all our scrapbook pages, and photo mats had the decorative edges?

Secret confession... I still have mine. I think my kids would have a conniption fit if I tried to throw them out. They can't figure out why I'm not using them.

Maybe I'll try my first blog giveaway... anyone want my decorative scissors??

Wedding Cake Album...

I'm thinking about making a wedding cake album... You know acrylic, multi layer, tiers, flowers, etc.... All an exact duplicate of the original. I did not like my wedding cake, so I'm looking for pictures.

If you had a beautiful wedding cake and have very good, detailed pictures of it, please email them to me at camillemcc@gmail.com.

I probably won't start on this album for a bit (too many other irons in the fire, know what I mean...) but if I pick your cake pictures you will have the option to purchase the album when it's finished.

I don't need wedding pictures, just pictures of the cake. :)

Rowdy Products - New bags!

Oh Yummy!

Rowdy products just revealed some of their new bags at the Las Vegas Baby show. I can't wait for more pictures!

So I tried to steal the pictures off my sister in law's blog, but it didn't work. You'll have to check them out here.

Be careful... your palms might get a bit clammy, and your wallet will begin to spontaneously splurge it's money.

Yuck!

mom: Aaron, go wash your hands.

Aaron: Mom! I'm washing my hands with my tongue.

Number One!

Woohoo! I posted my album on Two peas in a bucket last night, and it's number one by votes! Yay!!

It was a Dark and Stormy Night....

Woohoo!

My Acrylic Haunted House Album is finished!

Complete with a bat weather vane, hand cut bare trees, ghosts, yellow eyes, and a picket fence.

As usually this album contains, almost exclusively, my original artwork. I do not use templates, punches, or any of the various personal cutting machines. Everything is created by hand.

The exceptions are the skeleton on page 5 and the rub-ons used on page 4 and page 8.




The picket fence is made of paper and wire.

And the front door opens.

I used a lot of poppers on the page elements, add to that the very nature of an acrylic album, and this album looks more like a three dimensional model than a 2 dimensional scrapbook.









Most of the papers in this album are from the Basic Grey Periphery collection.




I couldn't make a Halloween album without adding trick-or-treaters complete with their goody bags...



I love the cardboard box, aluminum foil robot, with aluminum dryer vent arms, and duck tape pants.







I still haven't decided if I want to list it on eBay or not. Sales have been a bit down, and I wouldn't want to see it go for less than $70.00 ... and honestly even $70.00 would be a bit of a disappointment.

Oh yeah...

This unfinished shaped album template, completed decorated album, and all the original artwork contained in the album, as well as the pictures of the album are copyright Camille McClelland 2008, and cannot be reproduced, or used without express written permission.

If you'd like to post any of my pictures on your blog or website, you may do so under two conditions. 1. Proper credit must be given as well as including the text"Copyright Camille McClelland 2008". 2. Send me the link once you have created the posting to camillemcc@gmail.com

Thank you!

The Calm - About My dream

Last night Andy and I watched a movie called Cinderella man. It was a really good movie about James Braddock, a boxer during the great depression.

Perhaps as a result of this movie, I had an unusual dream last night. (I was at work, which is strange because I don't have a job.) The building was about the size of a car dealership showroom. I say car dealership because the walls on the front of the building were made of glass, like you see at a dealership.

I was talking to a friend and co-worker and we were pretty excited because a big storm was rolling in. All of a sudden my dad was there. He was very happy to see me, and kept hugging me and telling me he loved me. Then we went outside together to secure my car for the storm. There were high winds and dark clouds billowing in. Everyone was opening their car doors and putting the windows down, that was suppose to make the cars safer in the storm... I have no idea if that's true or not.

In my dream we opened all the car doors, and then the storm was getting really close so we ran inside. As soon as we got inside I turned and looked out the window and the sky was suddenly clear. Not clear like a bright sunny day, but clear like it looks right after a big storm, or when a storm seems to break for a bit.

I remember kind of feeling like, "That's it? Well, that was easy," and my dad in a serious tone saying, "this is the calm before the storm, it hasn't even started yet... we haven't seen anything yet."

I woke up calm, but feeling like a storm is coming. Like this is the calm before the storm, and like maybe the great depression was nothing compared to what's to come.

Nothing like a little dooms day in the morning, right? But really it wasn't like that. I wasn't like the storm is here now, more like a premonition that I should be prepare myself for what's coming. The Bible does promise seven years of famine. The great depression started in Oct 1929, and bottomed out in 1933. It took quite a few years longer (1949) for the economy (ie. stock market) to recover and surpass 1929. The great depression bottomed out in less than 4 years. A seven year famine... That's kind of a little scary to think about.

Especially when one is as bad a gardener as I am...