Halloween, New Products and a Welcome!

HALLOWEEN

I'm hoping everyone had a fabulous Halloween.  The girls dressed as Dorothy and a Corpse Bride this year. But the holiday is always busy for us. On Elizabeth's birthday, she got to spend the day at Rachel's school helping with their Halloween party, she even got to read them a book. She loved helping out in the class, it was very cute.  I'll post birthday party photos tomorrow or the next day; the Disco party was a blast. :)

On Halloween day we had volleyball games, which Elizabeth won! Her team has improved so much over the last few weeks,  it's sad that the season is over this week. We have two more games and then it's over...  I wish there was winter volleyball too, lol.

Here are a few more Halloween Pictures:

After trick or treating Eizabeth went to a Halloween party... with boys... at a boys house....

Yes we embarrassed her by telling her
1. No 7 minutes in heaven!
2. No spin the bottle!
3. No truth or dare!

LOL


NEW PRODUCTS

Lil Pets released yesterday and it's a fun kit; perfect for scrapping all those little critters in your life.
Get it at Scrapbook-Elements.

SCRAPBOOK PAGES

Check out a few pages created with the kit:

 This last one was created by Tracey Monette, one of my CT members.








WELCOME JEN!

Welcome the newest membe of my creative team, Jen (aka jencrook)!

Check out her first page:

Okay, that's probably long enough...  :) 
I'll be back later with photos from E's Disco Party.
Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!

a DAM Fine Halloween

I created a free mini kit for the subscribers of Digital Artist Magazine and it is available in the October issue.

Here is a preview:

Here are a couple of pages I made with the kit:

And here is where you can get the magazine and kit:  Digital Artist Magazine.

New CT member

Welcome Gabina to the PICK A PAPER creative team!

She hails from Italy and here is her first page using the Homemade Halloween kit. I look foward to seeing more great pages from her.

I never officially introduced the other girls on my creative team.

The Australians: Baby Black Bear and Ozegirl

The Canadian living in the United States: Mybetrside (aka Tracey Monette of Clever Monkey Graphics)

And of course, me!

I will be announcing more members soon. I am also still accepting applications, check the ad in previous postings and e-mail me at pickapaper@comcast.net.

Products and Party Planning

Sports Update

Elizabeth won all three games on Saturday! Woo hoo! The girls on her team have worked so hard, and all that work is starting to show up on the court. They were so excited and I was very proud of them.

New Products

Alissa's History Rocks 1621
On sale Sunday and Monday for less than $3.00, then it goes to regular price.

Description:
History Rocks 1621 is a great little kit for scrapping Thanksgiving photos as well as photos from visiting historical areas of the United States. This kit could also be used for scrapping school studies regarding the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth 1621. Created at 300dpi, you will find 6 papers and ovr 20 elements including doodles of pilgrims, Native American Indians, a ship and a teepee. From PICK A PAPER by Alissa Jones.

Preview:

Here is my first page with the kit:

Birthday Parties:

We have been busily getting ready for Elizabeth's birthday party which takes place next week.  She is turning 10 and she is having a disco party.

Here are just a few things I have bought for her party... I think perhaps she is spoiled, lol.  But making their parties special not only makes them happy, it makes me happy.  :)

I bought them fom Spencers... I think the lighting will definitely set the mood. And of course I have the disco music and a dvd that will teach them some of the dances of the seventies such as the Hustle. I have stocked up on Disco party supplies and decorations from Party City and I have a few fun games planned and of course the kids will all be dressed in 70's outfits.

Elizabeth will be wearing this fun dress which she can wear later to school with leggings (from Target):

It'll be a fun party.

Now, don't forget...

I'm still looking for a couple more artistic gals to be on my creative team:

And don't forget that I have a free kit available in the October issue of Digital Artist Magazine.

Have a great week!

Sporty Girls... sort of

Sporty Girls

This weeks volleyball games went much smoother, they won one game of three.  So much better than last week where they not only loss, they were creamed! LOL

I think it's because this week Shaun, myself and another parent did took over their practice. We had one adult for every two/three kids and really worked with them on their hitting, serving, placement and the game rules.  We were very proud of their progress.  This week though their coach will be back, and I have told her I'd like to help her out. 

I don't care if they lose, I'm not the parent that insists their child and team win everything. But it drove me crazy when their coach was just standing by and not really teaching them much. As long as they are learning and improving each week, then I'm happy.   And I think the kids are happier that way too.  :)

Rachel has been going to her soccer clinics; Shaun has been taking her while I go with Elizabeth to volleyball. Then when the soccer clinic is over they head over to watch the rest of Elizabeth's game.  Shaun says Rachel doesn't really seem to be 'in' to it very much. Some of the exercises she won't even try, and when they practiced chest bumping the ball, it hit her in the head and she cried. LOL   Definitley not as sporty as Elizabeth.

But she says she loves it.

But when I asked her if she liked soccer better or art class better, art class definitely won the popular vote. :)

Here are a couple of pics of the girls in their game shirts; Elizabeth is 22 and Rachel 11.

New Products

Nothing new this week. But be on the lookout for the October issue of Digital Artist Magazine. I have a free mini kit exclusively for DAM readers.

Phone Numbers, a story about Elizabeth

Last night I asked Elizabeth if she had brought home the phone numbers of the kids she wants to invite to her birthday party so we can call them for their addresses.

She responded that she only got one... sort of.

What does that mean, we asked her.  She responded that she got her friends future number.

Shaun asked her if her friend was moving, but Elizabeth said no. So we were a  little confused and asked her to clarify.

Elizabeth responded, it's the number she wants to have when she's a grown-up.

Ahhh, now everything makes sense, lol.

Creative Team Call

Creative Team Call for PICK A PAPER by Alissa

Creative Team Call for PICK A PAPER by Alissa Jones!


Are you interested in working with my fun and colorful designs? Well then check out my store at Scrapbook-Elements and/or my blog and then apply to be a member of the PICK A PAPER by Alissa creative team.


Requirements:

Create at least one page per kit / four pages per month
Post to at least three galleries
Active in team forum and digi community


Send the following items to pickapaper@comcast.net :

Name
User name
Gallery link
List of other creative teams
Short biography
Blog link
E-mail address

Homemade Halloween and Costumes

Homemade Halloween from PICK A PAPER by Alissa has released!  Available at SBE.

And here are a few pages using the kit:

I love Halloween! :) 

This year we are going to be a skeleton bride and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  Yesterday we bought Elizabeth her costume and glow in the dark make-up to giver her a nice eerie glow. I still think she should wear vampire teeth, because that was her original idea, but once she chose the skeleton bride costume, all thoughts of vampire went out the window.

Here are the costumes:



We bought the shoes for Rachel and she has the hair naturally, so now we are still looking for the dress in the correct size.

Every year I try to talk Shaun into wearing a funny wig or something, but he just refuses. Actually, he did it one year (a pirate) and then refused to ever do it again, lol.  Might have something to do with the pictures I took of him....? LOL

What are you doing for Halloween?

Sports and Scrapping

Fall Sports

Today was Rachel's first soccer clinic, and she loved it.   She was fun to watch because I'm not too sure sports are going to be her thing, lol. I supposed we'll have to wait and see, but I suspect she might be the more artsy one of the two. Elizabeth had fun helping her though until it was time for her volleyball game.

Poor Elizabeth though, she is learning a sports lesson this season, lol. First of all, she is the tallest on her team, no big surprise there because she has almost always been the tallest in everything she has done.  But this time, most of the girls are really a lot smaller than her; one girl barely reaches her chest, lol.  And then only one other girl on her team has actually played the game before.

You can just see the frustration on Elizabeth's face as time after time the girls just stood there (in the game) and let the ball land on the floor in front of them while they just watched.  So we're trying to encourage her to be patient and remember when she was the only one in softball that had never played before. In fact, she thought she third base was first base, LOL.

But even through all my 'good try's' and 'wahoo's and 'go team's I have to admit that I was getting frustrated wtih her coach. She just wasn't coaching, she wasn't even correcting the kids positions, and none of them were in the right spots, lol.    So I am trying to remind myself that she's just a college student... and I guess I should perhaps try to help next week during practice instead of silently giggling at the girls efforts.

New Products

Scrapbook-Elements had a new U Build It kit; many of the designers created paper and element packs all using the same color swatch and them of Abundant Fall. But rather than sell it as a huge collab, we're selling them each for either a dollar or two dollars each and you the customer can choose which pieces you want.

My products are all on sale for only $1.00 each! :) The kit will only be available at this price for a limited time, so don't procrastinate on picking it up.

Alissa's UBI Abundant Fall element pack no. 1
from PICK A PAPER by Alissa

Alissa's UBI Abundant Fall element pa ck no. 2
from PICK A PAPER by Alissa

Coming Soon...

Homemade Halloween kit will release tomorrow 10/4/2009. I enjoyed creating this kit and I think you'll enjoy playing with it too.  It has paper pieced elements, doodles, ribbons and more.  Check it out...

Alissa's Homemade Halloween

I'll be back with some layouts tomorrow. :)

Costume Ideas

I aked Rachel what she wants to be for Halloween and she immediately responded, "Dorothy"! 

Then I asked her what she thought her sister should be for Hallwoeen and she quickly responded, "a donkey"!  LOL

Nice sister. :)

Little Helpers and New Products

When Shaun works around the house he always has two little helpers with him. The girls follow him around and sometimes he even lets them do part of the work. For example, over the last couple of weeks, Elizabeth has learned how to mix cement, use a level, hammer and an electric drill.

Elizabeth loves to help her dad with fixing things so much that Shaun has even given Elizabeth her very own tool set. It's pink and has flowers on it and everything, LOL.

This means, of course, that she has spent the weekend hammering away and building boxes out of scrap materials. She's very industrious when she wants to be. :)

Now Rachel, on the other hand, tries to be helpful. Here she was helping Shaun dig post holes, but quickly had her attention diverted to the baby salamander that they found. 

He has a new home in the garden now. :)

NEW PRODUCTS

This weeks new products include a paper pack and a fall themed element pack.

Autumn Crafts
Available at SBE and on Sale today.

Alissa's Earthy Solids
Available at SBE and on sale today.

And here are a couple of scrap pages:

Catch you later!

Walk Now for Autism

If you are need of a cause, or a great scrapbooking kit, then you should head over to the Walk Now for Autism blog and purchase the fun and colorful kit. 100% of the proceeds go to the charity, and  in return you get....

1. to help somebody
2. to feel good
3. 110 digital scrapbook papers
4. 180 elements
5. 5 alphas
6. a 12 page quick-page album
7. a 12 page brag book album

and more!

Go here for more information and to donate/purchase the kit!

Walk Now for Autism

Mood Swings, part 2

Rachel is a little rascal... here she is my darling daughter, caught playing with Mommy's mascara...

Credits:   Alissa's Mood Swings from PICK A PAPER by Alissa Jones available at Scrapbook-Elements.

New Product - Mood Swings

I have a new kit in the store today, called Mood Swings. I don't know about you, but my kids have them, so this is the perfect way to scrap some of those moments that we definitely want them to remember one day when they are parents. :)

The kit is available here, at Scrapbook- Elements and is on sale Sunday and Monday.









And here is a cute photo of Rachel telling us about her first day of pre-school and how she gave her teachers her 'straight' face all day, lol. Yeah, she cracks us up.

Have a great week!