Cheap Lettering "Alterations"

I use a lot of peel and stick letters. I've found that you can find sticker letters cheap at discount or dollar stores and alter them to fit your needs. I buy them even if they are odd ball colors and then use my markers to color them as I need them to match my pages.

As you can see here once you put them on a page you dont know the difference but these letters were a yuckie greenish color at the start that I got from a discount store for 1.00 for the sheet.

I loved the size of these letters and even the shape of them but I never do a page that is appropriate for the use of pastel letters in four or five different colors (why they make them that way I dont know) so I buy them and make them black usually and if you do them like this and you run out of a vowel it wont matter because the color makes them all kinda blend and you can use different shaped ones together. Just a cheap way to get more for your money when doing sticky letter titles and journalling.

See more photography & scrapbooking at http://www.thelinkoushouse.com/

World Championship Chili Cookoff

The world championship chili cookoff was pretty good. Although I have to say that I dont like green chili at all ! I certainly like the red chili better. I thought it was cool that the World Championship is held here in Charleston, WV.

The booths where set up and you bought a ticket to enter the area and then with your tickets you could get sample bowls of chili from each of the 300 chili choices. My favoirite was the New Mexico State champion chili. It was the very best !

To see more photos from the cookoff go to my flickr account at http://www.thelinkoushouse.com/

Handmade Graduation Invitations

Okay, I have had several girls call about handmade, custom, graduation invitations so I am finally getting to that. I will post them to the flickr file for viewing so as I add more you will see them there if you want more than I have room to post here. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendyhackneybaisden/sets/72157622424553697/)

All the cards made will be custom to your special personallity and needs and no one else will be given the same card for the same year. So your invitations are Your very own !!!

This is just a sample of the kind of thing we can do and is Not Kierra's actual graduation card...I am working on some ideas for her but needed to post some to give the general idea of what we can do. We can use Pirate paper to make it even more "Belfry" or do them for another school.

There's more to come....

See more photography & scrapbook pages at http://www.thelinkoushouse.com

New Page & Layout ideas

This page is made using a layout designed by me on a page layout system that I have had for several years but never used. I have been playing with it to try to get more photos on a page. Its hard because my preference is to do pages that have lots of filly things on them and then I dont get as many photos onto the page as I probably should. ( I am trying Renee !) I also tend to not do two page layouts....I am gonna work on that later too ! (I promise Kelly...more two page layouts !)

The page has some standard detailing on it that I typically do on every page but assuming that some of you are beginners I will point those details out.

First I love to layer paper. Any paper will work together if it has the same colors or if it comes from the same paper stack. Literally I could pick any two sheets of paper out of a paper pad and make them work together on a page ! (come on Renee...you know you love paper as much as I do !) You can see on this page that one way I make all the paper come together is that I use my Tim Holtz inks  (http://www.timholtz.com/ink.htm) and rub the edges of everything in a unifying color. As long as the paper is inked up in the same edge color...It works !

On this page a couple details to point out that I used are that I used a piece of this new border strip that I love and ran it down the side of the page on the right but it came in white so I used my Tim Holtz ink again and just ran it over the edge strip and made it pink/red  which matched the edges on the rest of the paper and tied it all together nicely.

To bring in the green and add some sparkle...which we scrapbookers love...I used little green "bling" things (http://www.paperwishes.com/products/4001638) and attatched them along the little flower strip. The edging on the strip of paper down the right side in the background is a Martha Stewart Edge punch that I got recently that I love !  You can never have to many punches or border punches ! Its just not possible. (http://www.marthastewartcrafts.com/index.php?v=msc_prod_tool_punches)

The jounaling is done using my label maker and again I ran my finger thru the Tim Holtz ink and drug it over the paper to make it match the details on the rest of the page. You can do this with a little piece of cloth and your fingers wont be red the rest of the day like mine ! But I kinda like the look of scrapbook ink on my hands...lol...

This butterfly is of coarse one that I made using my butterfly templates.(http://www.paperwishes.com/products/4007352)

If you use this layout to make a page please send it to me at wendex@msn.com
and I will post it for others to see ! I will try to put up more layouts monthly and will even be doing contests where we let guests of the blog vote on who they think should win "best page" from the entries ! Good luck !

You could easily turn this layout into a two page spread as with any layout by simply mirroring the page. A trick I have learned is if you dont like it to be totally symetrical then do one page and turn the layout one turn to the left or right and repeat the layout that way and it matches but isnt identical. So you could have a title on one page going across the top of the page and the page next to it your title area may would run down the side.

I hope you are all scrapbookers and if you are not....Get one pretty pad of paper and lets get you started ! Can you remember every little cute thing that your child has said ? Of coarse you cant. None of us can. Thats why I scrapbook. So that I can look back and pass down the memories of his childhood and my life as I see it. No one will ever be able to tell the story of "your" memories like you can ! Just imagine what it will mean to your kids and grandkids and the generations to come to have those memories all documented for them.

Happy scrapbooking !

To see more of my scrapbook pages please visit the scrapbooking & photography tab at

http://www.thelinkoushouse.com/

This little guy looks like my mom !

Okay, I have to say again...this child looks like my mom ! We snapped these photos on the way to school this week on school picture day. His daddy made him pose and so help me when I got home and looked at the pictures I couldnt believe how much he reminds me of my mom.

See more photography & scrapbook pages at http://www.thelinkoushouse.com

I love to make butterflies

I am into making butterflies with the new templates.(http://www.paperwishes.com/products/4007352) Gosh there are so many different ways to make them. I love that you can make one from little scraps of the paper you use on your page and it will exactly match the page. If you havent already gotten one of the templates you have got to get one ! You will love it !

See more photography & scrapbook pages at http://www.thelinkoushouse.com

Thank you Holly Fossen

I must admit I was excited when I met Holly Fossen in Charlotte a few years ago. She is an awesome gal and I like to say...She is a party in Shoes ! A barrel of laughter and spot on honest about what she thinks. Qualities that are hard to come by in a person.

She calls me "crazy" Wendy. Something about my gun safe and the message that hung on it with the code so that robbers could open the safe and see that nothing but scrapbooks where inside...???....something about that made her think of calling me "crazy" Wendy. (HeHe)

I mention her because I was setting here today thinking about what I would post to a blog ? What would I say or talk about if I had a blog? I thought about our guests at the Bed and Breakfast and Scrapbooking and my two sons. I guess I have thoughts about most everything just like everyone else does.

Then I thought of what is on my mind today...

My templates ! I guess they are just little pieces of plastic and maybe not that exciting to other people but for me they are a huge source of pride. Something that I thought of. Something that I created in my head one day while scrapbooking.

Then my thoughts turned to Holly.

Holly made this possible and Holly deserves the credit for that dream coming true.

So today I just want to say thank you to Holly Fossen from Tampa Florida for her time and connections and for all the work that she put into my two little pieces of plastic ! hehe ! Thank you for your friendship and for your honesty and for opening your home and your life to me over the past two years.

Thank you for my templates !!!

http://www.paperwishes.com/