I've had the scrap kicked out of me...

Yes, I know that's a pretty lame title but it made me giggle a little. I'm going to blame it on the lack of sleep due to preparations for this...


Scrap-A-Palooza was a huge success. We ended up with 196 croppers and sore feet. Scrapbook Generation provided a fully stocked store (which was so much fun to pack up! Not really.) We had paid classes, free classes and demonstrations on a huge big screen.

Somehow I was the one who was talked into doing these demonstrations. Although I'm pretty sure there wasn't much conversation about it other than, "Hey, Allison! You are going to do the demonstrations." So all day I had a "pop star" mic attached to my head and a camera in my face. I think I finally got the hang of it on the last one. Stacey and Jeremy were trying to talk me into ended a demo by jerking my mic off, throwing it on the floor and saying, "Ali Davis. Out!" As tempting as it was, I refrained from doing that. Maybe next time.

Knee deep in Thickers.

It's a rough life working at a scrapbook store...

Okay, I can't lie to you guys. It's awesome working in a scrapbook store. This is how I spent my day on Monday. Knee deep in Thickers and not one complaint out of my mouth. Every Monday I start my day off walking up and down the aisles straightening up the products - aka shop. Off and on throughout the day I get to chit-chat with other scrapbookers, hang out with my sister/best friend, harass my mom and somewhere in the middle of it all I teach a class. Yup, it sure is rough. 

At Scrapbook Generation we are also knee deep in preparations for Scrap-A-Palooza (and everyone knows that all great things end in "Palooza") this Saturday! The largest crop to ever take place in the Springfield area. As of Monday the last count I heard was 175 and that number keeps growing each day. It's going to be awesome! :) Hope to see you there! 

Where did the name Rayce come from?

I know a lot of you know that I'm a big fan of racing but my love of racing isn't really where the name came from. When I was pregnant with Drew we had decided to take a name from Mike's family to use for a middle name. When I was pregnant with Jackson we thought that it was only fair to use a name from my family.

I knew instantly that I wanted to use a name from my Dad but in all honesty I just wasn't a big fan of his first or middle name. I know that sounds kind of mean but they are both more his era than now. It was time to get creative. I could have shortened his first name to Ben but that just ended up sounding more like my Grandpa than my Dad. It really didn't matter what I came up with because every time I would try to think about my dad the word "race" would pop into my train of thought.

Then the wheels started turning. Could I use the word race as a name? I pitched the idea to Mike and I got a very stern no. I even tried to explain that we could change the spelling to "Rayce" so that it resembled a name and not so much a sport. Mike still wasn't buying it. I remember being so disappointed and so frustrated that Mike couldn't understand what that name would mean to me.

A few months later, Mike came up to me on a random Tuesday and said, "let's name him Jackson Rayce." What!?! What in the world had changed his mind!?! He told me that he knew he was being selfish and he knew that it was important to me. I remember being so excited and so thankful that Mike finally got it.

What makes the story even better are the similarities between Jackson and Dad.

• They both weighed the same at birth.
• They both had the same full head of dark hair when they were born.
• In a family full of brown eyes, Jackson and Dad were blue eyes.
• Jackson's length at birth was 19 in., my Dad's race car number.
• Jackson has got the same easy going, calm, happy personality that my Dad had.

I know it's kind of silly, but all of those similarities make me really happy.

Last Page of 2008

This year for Christmas we all decided to make layouts to go into an album for my Grandma. Each page started with "she is..." and we all picked a word of our choice. Drew even helped me make one to give her from him and Jackson. He loved having the opportunity to play with my scrapbooking supplies. For some reason, I didn't take a picture of the one Drew helped me with. I'll have to remember to do that next time I'm at her house.

This page ended up being my last for the year 2008. At the beginning of the year I started keeping track of how many layouts I had made and looking at it now I'm quite pleased with the number.

• 92 two-page layouts
• 13 one-page layouts
• 105 total for 2008

That's not including cards, mini albums, classes and kits. These are just my personal pages. Now I just need to get caught up on albums since half of these layouts are sitting in a stack on top of a table!

Have a great weekend! :)

The Today Show Surprise.

I love surprises. On Monday I got one of the best and biggest surprises ever.

Last January, Creating Keepsakes and Shutterfly teamed up to offer different photo book templates designed by some of your favorite Creating Keepsakes people. I was asked to create a sample using Jessica Sprague's super cute ABC album template to use for promotion and to get the ball rolling.

I decided to take a different approach to just a regular ABC album and assigned letters to our family members and asked them to come up with advice for Drew on becoming a big brother. You can see it here...

Click here to view this photo book.

Fast forward to this January...

On Monday I was going about my usual routine when I decided to check my Facebook account. There on my page were three different posts about my Shutterfly ABC book being on the Today Show. I stared at it for a few minutes trying to understand what I was reading. Kind of like when you first wake up in the morning and don't know where you are. My book on the Today Show! You have got to be kidding me! I frantically followed the link and sure enough there it was.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Great designer moment for Jessica and a great mommy moment for me!

• The winner of the 101 Expert Solutions book is:

kroller@centurytel.net said...
Awesome--I just wish I had it in hand now--home with a sick kiddo. This looks like it would pass the time on the couch a little quicker! TFS

I hope that kiddo is feeling better! :) Email me at alidavis19@gmail.com.

101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking

It's finally here! 101 Expert Solutions for Scrapbooking!


A special issue full of ideas for common problems we run into while scrapbooking with layouts from the 2008 Dream Team, Hall of Fame and Scrapbooker of the Year.

The book is available for pre-order here. Plus we have an online group at Creaking Keepsakes that you can join here. All week we will be posting projects and challenges so stop by and say hi!

What a copy of it now? I've got one to give away so leave a comment and I'll pick a winner on Wednesday. :)

2008 in a nutshell...

We had tornadoes in January and spent hours huddled up in the office at Scrapbook Generation watching the severe weather reports on a teeny weeny TV.



For some reason we thought two dogs weren't enough. Chewy stole our hearts and ate our lamp, couch, window...



Drew spent three days and two nights in the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. Probably one of the scariest moments in my life.



The best thing that happened in 08 was when we welcomed Jackson Rayce to the world.



Drew turned three! I, however, stayed 27 and refused 28.



Mike and Jeremy attempted skateboarding and decided against going pro when... well the pictures pretty much tell that story.





I experienced teaching at CKC for the first time in Tulsa.




A month later I was at it again in KC. I also got to meet flat Joscie who took over the microphone for a photo opportunity.



Drew did a lot of this...



and when you weren't looking he did a lot of this...



Mike and I learned that laughter is a key element to handling parenthood.



Drew gave up on pouting in pictures and starting taking interest in cameras. If you can't beat em'...



Jackson at only seven months, had his first haircut that finally put an end to the "oh what a pretty little girl!" comments.





And this Christmas was by far the best.



Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

Happy New Year! :)