Jen Caputo

Do you feel like shopping?

I hope you feel like shopping cause i have to enable you. 

First off, PLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEE go give my paper crafting supplies some love!  They are feeling so unloved from me and their auctions end in less than 24 hours!

Next, Katie the Scrapbook lady is having her monthly 2 day, 50% off sale!  The following info is totally copied from her blog to make sure you see it!

The July issue is done and available for purchase! 50% off sale is good Monday June 26th and Tuesday June 27th only. Go to A Cherry on Top to purchase and you can use pay pal or any major credit card.

You can download a free preview page in the freebie section of A Cherry On Top.

What a deal! - I mean it is only $2.50 and look at everything you get:

There is also a companion quote/word art pack that is on sale for only $1.50!

I think the regular low price is a great bargain but you can't beat the 2 day sale!

I'm leaving for vacation tomorrow night and won't be back for a week but I just have to tell you that you MUST drop by the Sweet Shoppe on July 1st.  TRUST me :)

Ohhh...and have you seen the new stamps that Laura Alpuche has coming out?  They are soooo awesome!  They will be released in the Digi Chick Boutique this Thursday for $2.50 each.  They look totally like real painted stamps!  too cute!

Oh I forgot to tell you all what a dork I am.  I had ordered a new wide angle lens to take on vacation with me since its Adam's family reunion and I thought it would come in handy for the group shots.  So the lens came today and I was so excited and spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get it attached to my camera (it's my first non-Canon lens)...well finally I looked at the box and saw that I had bought the Nikon attachment instead of the Canon...arg!!!! Canoga Camera was totally cool though and they are shipping the Canon lens via 2 day mail to Cape Cod so it should get there by Thursday.  I am such a loser!!!!!!!!!!!!

See ya when I get back!

A Day at the Races

So I had the MOST fun Saturday ever!!!!!!!

It started out with a Digital crop at Studio D in Naperville.  I met quite a few of my online pals so that was too exciting!  Heather Ann and Terra were the instructors.  Lauren (aka Ms Scrappy Pants at Scrap Artist) was there too!  And so was Robyn who I actually met the night before at the SLR class they held.  Lauren took a picture of the two of us - she is too cute!

I had to leave a little early so that I could get to Adam's.  We were meeting up with Aaron and Jordan and Jim and Lyzz to take the train down to Flossmoor to have lunch at Flossmoor Station (a restaurant and brewery).  Wow was it good!  Flossmoor is the CUTEST little town too. You should definitely go sometime!  Here's some pics of us on the train and at Flossmoor Station.

This whole beer sampler was $8.50. For 12 4oz beers.  That's one heck of a deal.  All 3 boys got one.

After we finished lunch we got on the train again and took it all the way till it stopped, practically in Indiana.  Then we hopped on a shuttle to Balmoral Race Park for some harness racing and of course... a beer event :)  (Cause that's what we do.. hehe)  Some more pics of the second leg of the train ride and the race park.

Lyzz pondering the meaning of life

zoom in, you can see me in Jim's glasses.. too fun :P

Adam won $11.  These next two pictures crack me up. He was on top of the world.

What beer should Jordan get next?

But we can't leave yet... we have all these drink tickets left!

me and lyzz

just to prove there were actual horses there and it wasn't just beer.

 

waiting for the train to go home - yes, Lyzz's water bottle is full of beer....

This moment was followed by the very worst hour and change of our lives.  We learned that only the northern suburb commuter trains have bathrooms - the ones that go to the southside have none!  And the trains are an hour in between so if you get off to use the restroom you are stuck there for another 60 minutes....  uhm... yeah...  Thank the Lord that Millenium Station had bathrooms as soon as you got off the train, that's all I'll say about that.

Didn't do too much today.  Made this page of kitty laying out on the porch using Jan Crowley's awesome Just Peachy Kit

Don't forget - there's only a day or so left on my ebay auctions and those high bidders are practically stealing from me right now so please go make my paper items feel loved!!!  Pretty much everything up there is going for like 10% of what they're worth.  ACK!  How can I buy new lenses with my stuff going at these prices?  :)

Want some new sketches?

Tonight marks the 4th Annviersary of Adam and my's first kiss!  Since we aren't married we pretty much just consider it our 4th Anniversary.  Whipped up this page tonight for him using a new kit from Andrea Burns.

Click for credits and a closer view

And here is a freebie sketch template for you to use, instructions are in the readme file or check out my article at SS Reflections.

Download here

I've been playing a lot with my new D-SLR and am sooo in love with it. I don't have kids so the only things I can manage to take pics of are my two adorable furrballs - Kitty (the brown one) and Mr. Meowmers (the grey one). So I decided to combine all my recent pics of them in this layout.

Click for credits and a closer view

And hey... here's a sketch for that one too!!!

Download here

One last layout to share. I made this one last night using Shawna's new Stapms! They are so much fun to work with, seriously, go buy them :)

Click for credits and a closer view

As always, if you download the sketches leave me a little love in the comments section and PPPPPPLLLLLLEEEEAAAASSSSEEEEEE come back and link us up to your layouts when you use them! ***SMOOCHES***

Won't somebody love us?

Hi, this is Jen's paper-crafting supplies writing.  Jen has been ignoring us since she got caught up in this digital business a few months back... we are very sad and lonely and feel completely unloved.  Tonight, we decided to take a stand and listed ourselves on ebay.  That'll show her!!!  Won't you please check us out?  We're going in big groups because we don't really want to part each other's company.  We've also listed ourselves extremely cheap because we don't want someone to pay too much to love us even though we are worth sooooo much more.  We'll even ship ourselves all together if you win multiple auctions and save you some cash.  Please come bid on us!!!  Please love us!!!

Ahem.... sorry about that....  Jen here...  just wanted to show you this layout I made last night.  It's a complete CASE of the new back cover of the TAC catalog.  I used Cindy Simon's kit with Shawna Clingerman's stapms.  What a great pair!

Strawberry Kiwi kit by Cindy Simon (NDISB)
Arrow Fun and Polka Flowers by Shawna Clingerman (NDISB)
scraplift of someone at The Angel Company.

Happy Father's Day. Can I get a toot toot?!!

Well it's 11:40 pm here in Chicago so I still have 20 more minutes to post my father's day page (although it's 12:40 in Michigan where my dad is....) Happy Father's Day dad, love you!

Click for credits and a larger view

I used the new Father's Day gift with purchase kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs. I think it's available for just one more day so go pick it up!

I made 4 other pages this weekend but I can't share them because they are for some secret projects by some sweet designers so you can't see them till July 1st.

Ok... I have some ridiculous TOOTING to do...  I was invited to be on THREE new Creative Teams this weekend... 3!!!!!!!!!  I applied for both Jan Crowley and Deb Fisher's teams and made it on to both which completely made my weekend.  I love their work so so much!!! Then I made myself a promise that I wouldn't do any more CT's because I kinda got my plate pretty full.  But then I got a PM from Shawna Clingerman asking me to join her creative team to pimp her awesome stapms!  Well I can easily combine her stamps/stapms with my other CT projects so I said, why the heck not!!!!  I was so honored that she came to me in the first place, too cool :)

Have you heard about the best new board for digi gals to hang out?  Check out Shannon's blog for details and then head over to DigiShopTalk to be overwhelmed by awesomeness with much much more to come.  Screw 2 peas!

Gourmet Mexican and a freebie

Adam's favorite cooking show is "Mexico, One Plate at a Time" on PBS, hosted by Rick Bayless. Rick just happens to own a restaurant in Chicago that was voted the third best casual dining restaurant in the world! I didn't say in Chicago, I said the world!! Anyway, he asked to go for his birthday so we did :) Rick even sat down for dinner with his wife at the table next to us while we were dining, how cool is that? Mmmmm... they had the best Margaritas ever!

I used Laura Alpuche's brand new Trousers 'n Ties kit available at the Digi Chick.

I made a sketch for this layout and you are welcome to it! Here ya go! If you grab it, leave me a comment or something to let me know and of course post back with links to your layouts so everyone can see them!!

Click here to download

Well, Windows keeps bugging me to restart so I'm off for the night. 

Curds and Ale

....or cheese and beer?  Yum...  Sunday we had one of our Chicago Beer Society events.  They paired 20 different beers with 20 different cheeses and man was it good!  Our favorite pairings were Lindemann's Framboise with a goat cheese and a smoked aged Porter with a 9 year old Cheddar... so fabulous!  Jordan and I wore our new beer mug earrings that Sally Gardner made.  Aren't they so cute?!?!

here's our whole group (Adam, me, Jordan, Aaron, Liz, and Jim - if you go down up down up etc.)

Jordan came over on saturday and we worked on making her place cards for her wedding and had a sleepover party (the boys had gone to Michigan for a Fiasco they call RELOGD - REliving Old Glories Day).  We cut almost 20 sheets of numbers on my wishblade.  They will be so cute though!  We also drank a lot of margaritas and had ribs at the Ram.  Too fun!

I scrapbooked Friday night (do you like how this post is in reverse?)  Here's what I made!

Third page of Aaron's (adam's brother) graduation. I think I have one more in me!


Adam and I at our photo shoot last weekend.


Yes I've scrapped this picture 4 times, no I'm not going to apologize :)

don't forget to click on all those pictures to view the credits!

Gotta tell you about a new designer

... well new to me at least. Deb Fisher has some amazing stuff!!  If you are quick, everything in her store is 41% off, if you've missed it, at least go grab her gorgeous freebies so you can test out her designs.   

I made this page tonight with her Serendipitous Days paper and accessory packs. I'm just tickled with the way this one came out... one of my favorite pages i've ever done :)

well it's almost midnight meaning it's almost time to wish Adam a big Happy Birthday! I love you baby! Happy 27th :)

this is a long one (but there is a freebie!)

Ok I'm gonna start with my good news - some of you have already figured it out and left me congrats so THANK YOU!!!!! :)

I made it onto Laura Alpuche's creative team!!! I'm so excited as I absolutely love her work!  Here is the last layout I did for the contest.  We had to use any of her kits along with the quote "The Sky is the Limit". Earlier this year I taught a training class in El Paso in a small airport. The owner's wife took us up flying on our day off! The cross in the photo lives high on a mountain right on the border of Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico. It's a 6 hour hike to get up there, or 5 minutes on a plane :) 

Click for credits

And here is the freebie sketch based on that layout!

Download here

Oh and I almost forgot to tell you! My june article at SS Reflections is up and I have 3 more sketches over there!! Here's the previews:

That first one may look a little like the free sketch I gave you today, that's because it's pretty much the same sketch, I just modified it to show fewer horizontal pictures.  The last sketch is a 2 pager.  So anyway, go check out my June SS Reflections article!

I've been playing with my Rebel all weekend!  Saturday morning Adam and I walked to this little park not too far from my house and along with my tripod, 50 mm lens and remote control, got these pics:

 

and had to get some of the scenery too!

we were ready to leave when Adam spotted this guy so we followed him around the park for a bit.

Here's a layout I made yesterday using one of the pics of Adam on his own.

Yesterday, Aaron and Jordan threw a going away party for Yari, Sam, and Aurora. They throw the best parties and are amazing cooks so everyone had a blast.  What a great opportunity to use my rebel some more right?

Adam and Aaron


Jamie and her sister:


Yari cooking tostone's (or however you spell those.. fried plantains basically)


Adam saying cheers from the deck


Rob


Yari with Courtney's adorable puppy


How funny is the puppy's t-shirt?


Sam and the puppy


Aaron and Jordan:


Sorry, the puppy is too cute!


Rob and Jordan, I just LOVED this picture!! Yay to not needing a flash with the 50 mm lens!!

Ok I could keep going but I'm sure most of you stopped reading like 10 minutes ago so that's it for tonight!

My Rebel XT is here!!!

I ordered a Canon Digital Rebel XT from Shop-At-Home for a great price since they are going out of business.  I also ordered a ton of accessories from Amazon and everything came in the last two days so I've been playing and learning... long way to go :)  Anyway, wanna see the accessories I got?

Canon Wireless Remote Control - this little guy rocks! I wasn't sure how it was gonna work but once I tried it, I was hooked. I LOOOVE it!!!  yay I can be in pictures, as long as I pair it with this next guy.

DigiPower Tripod (DP-TP100) - this thing is so inexpensive and it rocks, it folds up to only about 10 inches long meaning it easily fits in my camera bag but it also extends to up to 40" long. Cannot beat it for the price!

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens - everyone kept saying this was the first lens you should buy but I totally did not get why.. until I used it... I took pictures tonight at about 10 pm in my living room with only one light on and I didn't even have to use a flash!!! So cool!!

Canon Accessory Starter Kit for Digital Rebel XT - some have mentioned that this is over priced but I think $60 for this awesome case, an extra battery, and a lens isn't too shabby (free shipping remember) As I mentioned before, my tripod fits in here!

SanDisk 1 GB Ultra II CompactFlash Card - Bought 2 of these. They are fast for taking action shots really quick. 2 cards in case one gets lost or damaged.

Ok, now you have to look at some pics of my kitties i took with this get-up tonight.  Mr. Meowmers was so patient, I think I have about 40 pictures of him sitting right here.  I used my little tabletop tripod down on the floor for these... (i didn't post the tabletop tripod but i got it at Shop At Home for about $4)  These were taken with the kit lens.. not too exciting but i'm learning about the f-stop stuff and I like that Kitty is blurry in the background.

Ok, then I put on the 50mm lens, mounted it on the big tripod, and started playing with that remote.  See, I'm in the picture!!  (and no, Adam isnt' here - yay tripod and remote!!!  See the remote in my right hand - I didn't crop that out just so you could see it in action)  Excuse me looking dead, I had to be at Physical Therapy at 6:30 this morning so I'm quite exhausted at this point!  I'd like to remind you that I took this photo at about 10pm with only one light on in my living room!  This lens rocks, I love how much light it let in.  So can anyone tell me how I'd be able to tell that a lens can let in a lot of light?

Not bad for my first few shots, right?

Enough about my new camera now, huh?  I finished my layout for the next round in Laura Alpuche's CT search.  We had to use her awesome new Bobby Socks kit and scrap why we wanted to be on her team.

click for credits and journaling and a larger view

I went digi shopping today and I was gonna show you all the stuff I bought but this post already has a lot of pictures and I need to go to bed so instead I'll just tell you. I got Gina Miller's new cd (I linked to her site like you don't go there everyday or something.. hehe) and a bunch of goodies from ScrapArtist because they had a 25% off one day only sale.