Here it is the final draft....my completed Circle Journal ready to be mailed off to Monica!  Well actually we will be seeing each other so I will be hand delivering it to her...gotta save on postage when I can.  Again, I am so excited about this circle journal and seeing what themes everyone comes up with!  So here goes!

Happy Scrappin'

~Nati J.

Mid-year, my husband decided that we would take a ROAD TRIP from Texas to North Carolina.....with not 1 but 2 toddlers.....to say that I was overjoyed is an understatement!  I actually was full of anxiety...and not too thrilled about the unknown...of course I knew the route we would take...we would go through Louisiana, then Mississippi, then stop in Atlanta, GA to stay over night and visit our friend JiMiesh, then get up the next morning, drive through South Carolina, then make our way up to North Carolina, where we would stay the week with Brandon and Beverly.......but still the anxiety remained and got worse as our trip drew closer....
So what did I do about this anxiety?  Well, I did what any mother would do.....I turned on my computer and read every blog I could find regarding Road Trips and toddlers.....a few weeks prior at a friends' wedding, another friend, Gigi, mentioned making a quiet book for the girls, so yes, this required yet another internet search.  Gigi was in the process of making her Oh So Adorable little one a quiet book....Me, I'm not the fabric type, so I did a search on a NO-SEW QUIET BOOK.....and I was lucky in the fact that I found 1 Quiet Book, where the source was PAPER (my best friend), not fabric.  I was ecstatic!  So with that being said, I ventured out, and started creating a quiet book for my Little Pumpkin, who is 3....I came up with a pretty big size book and it was fun to make.  I used websites with fabric and the 1 No-SEW Quiet Book sites as inspiration.  Then upon going to Lakeshore Learning, I found 2 fabric quiet books that I loved....so we ended up with 3 quiet books for a 3 year old and a 1 year old to enjoy!  Yea Mom!!!!  Besides the Quiet Books, I also downloaded movies and favorite cartoon episodes to the iPad and gathered a bag full of favorite toys....
Did I mention I also bought all the snacks a kid could every want!  I decided a week before the trip that in order to make this trip go off without a hitch, I had to have plenty of activities for the girls to have, movies on both the iPad and the portable DVD player, snacks, and most importantly a No Rules type of attitude, meaning the girls could do just about anything they wanted to, as long as they were strapped into their car seats of course. 
Well, I am pleased to announced that our trip was great, even when we headed back to The Lone Star State, making an overnight pit-stop in Nashville, TN to stay with friends Sutton & Pete, and then driving through Arkansas before hitting the Texas State Line.....we had a wonderful drive with very little whining involved.  Leading up to our Road Trip to "Far Far Away"  (what we called or trip, as our Little Pumpkin could relate to Far Far Away since that's where Shrek and Donkey went in Shrek 2 - a favorite movie), everyday before we started our Lesson Time (home-schoo) we prayed added to our prayer that we would have a FUN trip to North Carolina and back home with no whining, just FUN....and we went over the United States map, coloring the states we would drive through, which ones we would be stopping in, and how we were going Far Far Away.....
How did this turn out???
Perfect!  The few times when the Little Pumpkin did start to whine, I reminded her about our deal - about having fun and then all was well.  And she only asked MAYBE a had full of times, the infamous question of "Are We There Yet."  For the bulk of the trip, both girls watched their movies, played with their toys, and ate way too much junk food!  When we entered into each state, we stopped at the Visitor Center and took a long break, and snapped plenty of pictures.  I must say this trip went much better than I expected.  Thank you God for answering my prayers....Now I think I could actually do this again!  :)

~Nati

Last month, I received an email from Oprah's Lifeclass for a Lottery that was being done for a Houston, TX Oprah Lifeclass taping.  I jumped at the opportunity and quickly entered my name into the hat....and yes, I WON a spot for myself and a guest.  I took my mother with me on this journey to see Oprah!  And yes, Oprah looks the same in person as she does on TV.  The energy in the theatre was amazing!  I felt so blessed just to be there!The show was so INSPIRING!!!!  My pastor, Pastor Joel Osteen was the guest of honor teaching the Lifeclass alongside Oprah, I mean, who could ask for anything more....Oprah and Pastor Joel!!!!!! 

Take away from the show:  Supersize me Jesus!  I Do Declare!  And also saying positive things to ourselves, about ourselves, or our loved ones.  Where do you plan on being in the next 5 years?  Tell yourself where you want to be, and then start doing things to get you to where you want to be, watch God do His work, in His perfect timing!  Anyway, check out the book I Declare by Pastor Joel Osteen and watch Oprah and Pastor Joel on the Own Network this Sunday (that's tomorrow) to catch Part 1 of the 2 part series I AM, and I guarantee you, you will never be the same!

I AM dedicated to God and my family.  I AM looking forward to the great and amazing things I will accomplish through art and photography.  I AM looking forward to reaching my God given greatest potential! 

What is your I AM ________________________???????

From November 2012 - January 2013, myself and 5 other ladies will be doing a circle journal.  For those of you who are new to Circle Journals, it is similar to a quilting group.  In this case there will be six of us.  Each of us will create our own themes for our books, we will then pass each book around, like until the circle (quilt) is complete and our completed book is returned back to us.  Click here to read a great blog post on the concept of the Circle Journals. 
Pictured here is a Sneak Peak of the Title Page of my Circle Journal, where the theme will be The Slice of Life.  I will be posting pictures early next week of my completed book (well, up to my entry anyway, since the book won't actually be complete until January when it is returned to me).  This is actually my third time being a part of a Circle Journal.  Each time, I have enjoyed the process and I'm looking forward to this one! 

Hello everyone!  As we all know, this is NOT a political website....but I did want to encourage everyone to Vote.  Vote Early if possible.  It seems as though this is going to be a close race, so every vote counts.  Raise your voices, Exercise your Rights and get out there and vote for who you believe will be best fit to run this country! 

Election 2012!

Hello and Happy Technique Tuesday!!!!!!  Today I will cover how to create the look above - a decorative wooden letter frame.  This was a really simple, and non time consuming home decor project, that was place in a home studio.  To create this look, complete the following: 

Materials Needed:
8x10 black picture frame
White Wooden Letter
Black Acrylic Paint
12x12 Music Sheet Scrapbook Paper
Adhesive
Glue Gun with 1 glue stick

To make this frame, you would complete the following:
1.  Paint Wooden letter the desired color you would like for it to be.  Let dry.
2.  In the meantime, trim Scrapbook paper to be the fit the size of your frame, in this case, I trimmed my scrapbook
     paper to be an 8x10 sheet of paper.
3.  Remove glass from frame, you won't use this. 
4.  Glue trimmed scrapbook paper to paper or cardboard in the frame.
5.  Paint dry wooden letter with glossy decoupage glue.  I used Mod Podge Gloss-Lustre Decoupage Glue.  Let dry.
6.  Adhere Wooden Letter to Music Sheet using your hot glue gun.  Let dry.
7.  Add music sheet with wooden letter to frame.
8.  Hang on wall or place on end table for added decor.

This is a fun project and you can add all sorts of thing to your letters, bling, feathers, glitter, etc. the possib

To all who lost a family member in 9.11, to those who have lost family members (our fallen Heros) in the War…..we will never forget. May God bless you all and may God Bless America!

Good Morning!!!!

Today I wanted to share a card that I made using some scraps from my scrap basket…..and I stamp that I bought some time ago and FINALLY got the chance to use it.  So here it is, just a cute simple card.  I glued the background (scrap paper) onto my card base and then stamped the image of the pencil onto some scrap paper and used dimensional adhesive to adhere it to the card.  I used Copic Markers to color the “Always Creating” sentiment on the pencil.

Now go out and CREATE a master piece using your scraps everyone!!!

Happy Scrappin’ and Happy Livin’!

I just wanted to wish all the Grandparent’s a very happy and blessed day! Here, we were able to celebrate with my parents over dinner.

For today's Mother's Day card, I took a challenge from Elizabeth Kartchner's 52 More Scrapbooking Challenges book.  Challenge #3 was:  Life a design idea from a home-decor item.  In our living room, we havea tan colored chair that has dark-brown and blue pillows as seen above.  So hence the card: First I cut my card to size, then ran it through my Sizzix Texture Boutique to emboss the card front.  After that, I used Tim Holtz Broken China and Vintage Photo distress ink on the front of the card.  Next I stamped the sentiment with Dusty Concord Distress Ink and inked the edges on the sheet with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  And that was it, a really nice and simple Mother's Day card.

Happy Scrappin'!

-NJ