scrapfreakintastic!: February Reveal...FINALLY! (caution, long post!)

So when we got out DT package, I was so excited to get it started. We all received a Maya Road mini chipboard album and beautiful new paper by Jenni Bowlin. I had a really hard time trying to decide what to focus the minialbum on when my girlfriend offered up her wedding photos! I was ecstatic that she would trust me with them but a bit apprehensive as wedding pictures are a very special thing and they weren't digital so that meant no playing with sizes and colours! However, I headed out to a crop and got 8 of the 10 pages done - I was unhappy with 2 of the pages but overall, had a great jump on things. Then, I brought everything home and put it to the side for the online crop we had (mistake number 1). That online crop was so darn fun, I was a scrapping maniac (mistake number 2). However, when I scrap normally, I need to clean my workspace off after 2 layouts max...if I don't, I can't find anything and I end up getting super frustrated. After delaying my reveal due to ear infections, birthday parties and basically life, I realized that I needed to find my table top again. This is my before picture - can you see the table?!

But yesterday, I finally got up the nerve and cleaned it up. My son was happily helping me (mistake number 3) and I finally found enough space to clean. Just as I sat down, I asked my son to take the bag of garbage downstairs for me - my back was towards him and as you can probably now imagine...this was my biggest mistake of all :( I continued to scrap and went to reach into the bag behind me to grab my neat little Cat's Eye charcoal chalk ink but suddenly...no bag?!!! Oh the panic... However by this point, everyone in the house was napping so I was trying to panic quietly.

I searched everywhere for that little blue bag. Where could it go? Was it not just right there?! How is it that when you clean, you suddenly can't find anything???? I wondered if my son had thrown it out so I went through the 4 garbages in the house but no luck.... So, I put on my shoes and coat and headed out in minus 17 to dig through the garbage bin across from my house. I had flashbacks to when I had to dig in that bin for my ring that had fallen off in there once - and let me tell you, it wasn't a pleasant flashback. As I walked across the road, grimacing with every step, a sudden glimmer caught my eye. There, in the side of a snow bank was my chalk ink! YAHOOOO ... I picked it up and headed back into the house to warm up and think about what else was in that bag... Did I really need to go dig in that bin?! Just then, my son came downstairs and I quickly asked him if he had tossed the bag out and what was in it.... His response? (Oh how I wish I had this on tape...)

Gosh Mom, I would NEVER throw out your scrap stuff!! You asked me to throw out that bag but I saw what was in it and put it away for you in case you changed your mind. See? It's here in the craft drawers! (it was a little crumpled but it was rescued! There was Riff Raff, brads, flowers, fibers, and another ink!) I kissed that little jellybean of mine, I was so happy! I forgot to ask how the one ink got outside in the snow...I think I was sidetracked!

Anyhow...long story short is that I finally got the reveal done :) I am happy with how it turned out. It was a hard challenge for me as the papers didn't match the wedding colours but I think it worked well. I am an embellie addict so mini albums are always a challenge - but in a good way!
Enjoy the pics of my beautiful friend Tanis and her handsome husband.