National Scrapbook Day Celebration

If you are in the Zama area, please join us at the ACS building on May 15, 7 pm for a National Scrapbook Day celebration! I know - National Scrapbook Day was officially May 2, but we could not get the space until May 15. Better late than never, right?

It's going to be a fun evening with door prizes and refreshments, Make N' Takes from Stampin' Up consultant Windy Joell, and a Creative Memories digital photo storage demonstration by Dee Saari. There will be supplies from Close to My Heart and a Make N' Take with Memory Works products courtesy of Moi!

The entire evening is free and everyone is invited to attend. Hope to see you there!

Click Here for Great Information on Going Green with Scrapbooking

Happy Earthday everyone!

The price of Freedom

My son left for a one year tour of duty in Afghanistan today.

Since taking office in January, President Barack Obama has ordered an additional 21,000 U.S. troops to be deployed to Afghanistan, which will bring the full U.S. deployment there to a total of 60,000 troops, joining 39,000 coalition troops from 43 countries.

I'm very proud of my son, but I think of all the wives and young children who are also making sacrifices. Did you know there are 600,000 American children under the age of 5 who are living with a parent deployed in war? For many of these children, their lives will be changed forever.

I'm every bit as proud of my daughter-in-law and my two tiny grandsons for the sacrifices they must make. It's a sad truth that those who wait, also serve. The boys had such a hard time saying goodbye and on the way home, Gregory asked his mom, 'who will keep us safe now?'
I ache for them tonight as they all look at the empty spot at the dinner table. The evenings must be the hardest time of the day.

My daughter-in-law is going to have to go through so many changes and hardships this year all by herself - in addition to experiencing the stress of sudden separation, constant worry about her husband's safety, and dealing with the chores of single parenthood. And I know the children, as young as they are, are asked to be brave. There must be so much they don't truly understand. I wish I was closer to hug them all. It is hard being half a world away from my loved ones.

Sketch Submissions

Here they are! All the submissions in my first sketch challenge. You know what I liked about the entries for this sketch? They all followed the sketch without much deviation! You know how sometimes you see a LO done from a sketch and you think, 'that doesn't look anything like that sketch'? These are all done with the sketch as guildline and I love how each LO looks different with the colors and themes of the page. I think they are all awesome. However, I did pic a winner. Drumroll please ... The winner of my RAK is Kathy W! Send me an email and I'll send you something cool from Japan! In fact, I'm sending all the entrants a little something just for playing along! Now, don't you wish you had entered? Watch for my next sketch for May and you could win something from Japan, too!

I made Layout of the Week at Back Porch Memories! (click here)

Have you discovered www.BackPorchMemories.com yet? What a great site (and I'm not saying that just because they chose my Curl layout as Layout of the Week)! I entered this LO in the 'Inspired by Picasso challenge. They've also got a challenge that requires you to use some mini pictures in the LO and another one that requires you to use a mask. I've entered all the challenges and enjoy this easy-to-navigate site. Hop on over and join us!

A Scrapbook on Wheels

A full year ago this month, I attended a car show in Palm Bay, FL with my husband. I enjoy looking at the fancy and classic vehicles on display but this one vehicle has stuck in my mind for the entire year now. So I felt that I wanted to share this with you. Because of this car, I have been inspired to create unusual scrapbooks with my photos - such as my scrapbook hat and scrapbook geta (Japanese shoes), both posted on this blog.

I hope you also find inspiration in this amazing piece of work.

Andy Ortiz has the most remarkable Suzuki I have ever seen. He calls it the Vietnam Memorial on Wheels and gave me a look of pleasant surprise when I said it was a scrapbooked car.

Every inch of this car is covered in photos of Andy and his brother's Vietman experiences. All the photos are laminated and attached with nail heads. There are Vietnamese coins, letters from home, decals of all kinds, patches, flags, buttons, tickets, his Army helmet - no single inch of the vehicle inside or out is uncovered.

Above the windshield, a large sign reads: "In memory of over 58,044 veterans who never returned from Vietnam, 62-72."

Mr Ortiz has been working on this scrapbook since 1992 and still finds things he wants to add to his masterpeice.

Inspiration and a Sketch Challenge.

DA-da-da-DAAAA! Announcing- my first sketch challenge! Make a LO from the sketch below, comment to this post with a link to the LO on your gallery or blog - or just send the attachment by email to TheresaAmlong@hotmail.co.jp -- and you could win an RAK from me. I'll choose my favorite on April 18. I can hardly wait to see what you come up with.

If you are stuck for further inspiration, then head on over to Letters to Scrap By at http://letterstoscrapby.blogspot.com/

They have a color challenge every couple of weeks. I find that this is just what I need to help me get out that piece of paper or embellie that I bought six months ago. You know what I mean - it looks so great in the store and you just have to have it. Then you get home and the moment is gone, you just don't know what to do with it now.

Letters to Scrap By chooses the color they want you to work with - color is their only guideline - and the rest is up to you.

A winner is chosen by random generator, but you could win a nice prize. And that is exactly how I won for the color Magenta. So, toot toot! Check out my winning LO here: http://sunshinemem.blogspot.com/2009/02/kawaii.htmlt.com/2009/02/kawaii.html


You could be the next person to be tooting your own horn as the newest color challenge has been posted today. The current color is Navy which can be used to bring your pages a cool sophisticated feeling. I used a split complementary color scheme to make The Catch of the Day which, coincidentally is how I came up with the sketch.

So now you've got two great ways to win a cool prize. Good luck and happy scrapping!