Creative Block Momentarily Dissolved.......

So, with both of the young un's feeling under the weather I decided to abandon my household duties and park my frannie at my "creative center" AKA the craft table. I know it doesn't look like much, but due to it's central location in the loft upstairs it allows me to hear what is happening downstairs as well as monitor activity upstairs (as if the littles would dream of staying plugged into a movie downstairs when mom is a sitting target in front of the "off limits" area of the house). Now that I see it in a picture I also see how desperately it needs to be cleaned off and organized (AGAIN).

My sister-in-law and I decided to do our own scrapbook swap each month and ambitiously decided that we would each do a full tw0-page layout for ourselves and each other every month. October went well and then I fell off the schedule. Naturally, she dutifully fulfilled her end of the bargain and produced fabulous Thanksgiving pages for November which she delivered to me at the family Christmas party. See how creative she is?

Feeling the guilt, I committed myself to produce something and set to work. I sat, and sat, and sat, and couldn't come up with anything for November. I did however, give a valiant effort and have two pages to throw away as I wouldn't dream of giving them away or even try to claim that they were created by the five year old. Instead, I dedicated my energies to December and February, in no particular order and clearly out of order and here is the end result. Hard to tell in the pics, but I did use a lot of dimensionals to raise up alternating trees and squares. Now I just need to move past creating the pages and stick photos on them! HA! That would be a feat indeed, as I seem to be a collector of pages and photos, although not together. (I have two albums of pages that are 'picture ready' and a bulging photo storage box that has been organized by event and date and set back on the shelf.)

Needless to say, I am now working on January and am sincerely hoping that inspiration will strike and I can come up with something for November. I am enjoying finding ways to use my Stampin Up! stuff for scrapbooking, as well as for making cards. I signed up as a Demonstrator in August after visiting my cousin in VA and attending a stamp camp with her there. It only took once and I was hooked! It has come in handy though, as a therapuetic creative outlet that has enabled me to make handmade gifts for birthdays and I no longer have any excuses to not have a card on any given occasion.

I'm off to create some more.....as the baby has finally given into sheer exhaustion and is peacefully snoozing on the floor at my feet. I'm sure I'll post later!