Hey everyone! Happy Tuesday! I’ve got a sick girl home with me today. Poor little thing just gets hits by one thing after the other. Now it’s a sore throat and cough. At least having her home means we can catch up a bit on some of her school work. We just finished making play-doh for one of her school projects. She has to make a 3-D model that represents George Washington, and she’s decided to make a scroll of the US Constitution. She wanted to make it out of clay, but I figured this was easier and cheaper than making another run to the craft store. We’ve printed out a copy of the Constitution and now we just need to roll out the dough, cut it to size, adhere the text, and roll up the top and bottom ends a bit to look like a scroll. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Now that I’m taking a little break to let the play-doh cool, I can share with you all this week’s challenge over at the Random Chaos blog. I loved this one. The challenge for you is to use only scraps on your layout. The base patterned paper or cardstock may be new, but everything else must be a scrap. What a great push to clean up our work spaces a little bit, right? Here is what I did.
Look at that cute picture! That is me and my brother when I was 3. My mom made us these matching Indian costumes out of burlap sacks for Halloween. Funny, but I can still remember how uncomfortable it was. Luckily, she saved these costumes, and Pete even wore the boy costume when he was a little guy. Gosh, I love memories like these.
Almost everything on my page comes from the October kit from Paper-Playground. The background Trickery die-cut paper from Creative Imaginations is one of my absolute favorite pieces of this month’s kit. I also had just enough scraps left from some other pieces to make several strips across the layout and a mat for my small photo. I even got more mileage from a scrap piece of that gorgeous May Arts ribbon by cutting my piece into smaller strips and tying it into knots. That used much less ribbon than using a full strip across the bottom. All I added that was not from the kit are the chipboard and alphabet stickers. I even tucked a couple of feathers behind my die-cut framed journaling piece to mimic the feathers in our head-dresses. Oh, I do love this kit.
And before I go….I’ve been tagged by my scrappy buddy and fellow Webster’s Pages DT pal, Dena Coe. Here are the rules for the game. Think this is seriously going to tax my brain to come up with something interesting.
(The rules….link your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.)
Here goes!
1. We have a hedgehog for a pet. Seriously. His name is Sonic. He’s been sick with a upper respiratory infection that he’s had since we got him about 3 years ago that no amount of antibiotics seems to cure. I got him for Peter for his birthday……..but don’t anybody be fooled. This little baby is MINE!
2. I am addicted to HGTV. I seriously love all those designing show to pieces, and I have to admit that they make me cry quite often, too. Especially that Deserving Design show. I just get so happy for these people.
3. My most favorite job I’ve ever had was when I was a park ranger. I worked at the most gorgeous park just off the northern California coastline at the end of my college days. I got to use a chain saw and a huge chipper, blaze trails and take care of our animals. We had bobcats, deer and foxes all the time. I even had to get deputized. Deputy Audrey. Didn’t think I should smile for that photo and it ended up looking like a line-up photo. We used to fight over who got to mow the big fields with those ride-on tractors.
4. I also used to work at the SF Zoo in a program protecting and rehabilitating endangered wildlife. I got to work with over 80 different species including reptiles, amphibians, aves and mammals. My least favorite was the alligator. Oh yeah, I have a healthy respect for those guys. Here’s a photo of me in 1989 free flying a golden eagle in the huge field that used to be at the entrance to the zoo. This majestic animal had been shot in the eye and someone found her by the roadside. Her wingspan was wider than I am tall.
5. I co-own a small kit club called the Paper-Playground Kits ‘r It club with my good friend and former boss, Kathie. Kathie owned a brick and mortar scrapbook store that I worked at for 3 years until we went out of business last November. Neither one of us wanted to give it up completely, so we started a kit club. Us, along with hundreds of other people! LOL! Kathie tells me she doesn’t understand how I can scrapbook with my science brain. I don’t understand it, either.
6. I worked as a tour guide at the Duke Primate Center in Durham North Carolina. The Duke center is the only facility in the US that houses and free-ranges about 30 species of lemurs. They also have Pottos, Lorises, Bush Babies, and the most rare and exotic animals I have ever worked with, Aye-Ayes. Working there gave me the opportunity to meet in person one of my biggest heroes, Jane Goodall. Also got to meet the Kratt brothers. Remember them? They had their own show for awhile and they used one of our lemurs as their “mascot” Zaboomafoo. And I’ll tell you a little secret. Zaboomafoo is not his real name, and….he’s a GIRL!
7. I have always loved crafts of all kinds ever since I was a little girl. I still have one of my favorite earliest books called 101 Things to Make. I used to gather up all sorts of acorns and seed pods from outside and glue them collage-style over boards or cardboard. I’ve also been obsessed with cross-stitch and needlepoint, decoupage, stamping and jewelry making at one time or another. I started my stamping career as a Stampin’Up demonstrator, which I did for 5 years. I blame my friend Amy for that! 
That’s what got me started scrapbooking.
Well, that was the longest post in history. Hope I didn’t bore you all to tears. Now to tag 7 others……hmmm….
Ok, Michelle, Zarah, Sasha, Ann Marie, Pearl, Elaine, and Brandin. You’re it!
Have a great day everyone!
