I Feel the Love: September

Better late than never, right?  I am getting this one in just under the wire.  It has been a busy month, but I made a card this month for the I Feel the Love Project.  The cards are going to Hope Ministries which is an organization that serves the homeless in Des Moines and Central Iowa.  

For my card this month, I used this week's Unscripted Sketch.

I love the changing leaves of fall and so I used them as my inspiration for a more masculine birthday card.  I stamped the leaf with a Stampin' Up stamp.  I started by inking it with Wild Honey Distress ink, then added some Barn Door and finally, edged it with Walnut ink.  I stamped it on the white cardstock circle and then spritzed it with water a couple of time to give it a watercolor look.  The background of my card is Core-dinations cardstock that i dry embossed, sanded and then inked around the edges.  

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 9-29-13

It was a beautiful week here.  The trees are starting to turn, but we had a bit of a warm up late in the week, so we haven't completely said goodbye to summer.  We spent quite a bit of time soaking up the last bits of warm weather at a couple of local parks.

Rule of Thirds

Here is my oldest enjoying one of those glider type things at a park in our new neighborhood.  I didn't do any cropping of this one, she was actually right on the 1/3 line when I snapped the photo.  Talk about lucky timing!

Made Me Smile

How can these two not make me smile?  That is my youngest on the right and a friend's son on the left.  These two are about 6 weeks apart in age, but both VERY busy and active little boys.  They had a blast on Friday scooting around the playground equipment and trying (and sometimes succeeding :/) to eat wood chips.

Lines

My oldest again, this time on the way home from the park.  Our housing development has these white fences all the way around.  I think I will be taking more photos by these!

Alone

My youngest again.  Remember how I said he is VERY busy.  He figured out this week how to open the cabinets in our living room where we keep all the toys.  Guess he can't be left alone...

 Together
These two are interesting together.  They can get along great and then they fight like cats and dogs.  Here is a shot of them having fun together at the park.

Some Cards

We've had a few occasions for cards the last couple of weeks, so I have been busy putting these together.

First up is a birthday card for my husband.  I used a My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad for the papers.  The "Sentimentals" Cricut cartridge had that great crown that matched very well with the crowns on the papers in this line.  I added a little heat embossing in the upper left with a speckle stamp and some copper colored embossing powder.  

Next up is a baptism card from my husband's and my god daughter, Lily.  Her baptism was last weekend and I made this card for her.  I did some more heat embossing, this time in white and then used some Smooch Moonlight ink to color in the cross.  I then masked my cross and stamped the background using Versamark Dazzle ink.  

Finally, our nephew turns 14 on Monday.  I am struggling a bit to come up with appropriate card for this age.  Thank goodness he plays sports!  I ended up combining a few cuts from the "Boy's Will Be Boys" Cricut cartridge and I used some Kraft Funday collection papers.

I have a couple more cards to make in the next few days, so stay tuned!  :)

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 9-22-13

There were some trickier prompts this week (not gonna lie, I took a couple of these photos right before posting), but I have a set to share!  It was a busy week with school and other activities.  We have already been to a birthday party this weekend and we have a baptism today.

Something You Wore

I decided to play a bit with our 50mm lens and took some shots of my earrings.

Reflection

The birthday party was held at an indoor park.  The park had a toddler area that this little guy LOVED crawling and cruising around in.  Here he is, checking himself out in the mirror.

Inside Your Fridge
My refrigerator is neither interesting or inspiring.  I thought this vantage point was kind of cool though.

Daily Routine

A big part of our daily routine is getting this little lady to and from school.  This week the Mommy photography group I am in had a little back to school photo shoot.  This photo is from that.  

Morning

Most mornings the kids watch a little TV.  It gives me some time to get going since the baby is still not sleeping through the night.  

Tutorial and a couple cards

Hi all! It was my turn to post a tutorial over at Scrapping Everyday Miracles.  I chose to do a tutorial for a technique I used on the card I made for this month's sketch challenge.

The ombre effect is really trendy right now, so I started my card by creating that effect with a mask and spray mists.  I used white and gray mists.

Step 1
Lay your mask over your card base or page.

Step 2

Spray the first color of mist, concentrating the color on one end of your project.

Step 3

Spray the second color of mist, concentrating the color on the opposite end.

Step 4

Remove mask and allow ink to dry.

Step 5

Place paper in an embossing folder.

Step 6

Run through your embossing machine.

Step 7

Take paper out of the embossing folder.  Now you have an inked design and an embossed design for extra depth.

Step 8

Embellish as desired.  I made a baby card with this one.

And as a reminder, here is my card from the sketch challenge.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 9-15-13

I got some photos taken again this week for the scavenger hunt.  We are SLOWLY working our way into a routine, with school and other activities.  Here are my photos for the week:

Enjoy a Pumpkin Drink

Really?!  I HAVE to buy a pumpkin drink?!  Okay!  This one is a pumkin white mocha from Caribou.  YUM!  Someone did post a recipe to make a homemade pumpkin spice latte on Facebook the other day that I will be trying soon.

Read A Book

This photo is from two weeks ago (the first week of school).  This is one of Addy's preschool teachers reading "The Kissing Hand" during their open house.  Addy is the cutie pie in pink and pigtails.  :)

Bake Something Sweet
Piece of Cake!  (Literally!)  It was Rick's birthday yesterday so I made him a cake and decorated it like the game "Can't Stop".  The pieces are even edible!  I used Wilton Candy Melts and the actual game pieces as molds to make them.

Animal

We made a trip to the zoo on Friday.  On one the trails they have an open air aviary where the birds can be above and around the visitors.  This one had taken up perch on one of the railings and my kids thought it was pretty cool to see it this close... until it flew at them.  

Artsy

I tried playing a bit with some of my Photoshop actions, but wasn't satisfied with the results, so my shot isn't super artsy, but here are some of the flamingos at the zoo. I guess I have to be satisfied with a somewhat artsy angle and call it a day...

Scavenger Hunt Sunday 9-8-13

It's Sunday again which means it is time for another scavenger hunt.  It was the first week of school here, but the really big news was that my brother-in-law got married yesterday!  The majority of my photos are from the wedding festivities.

Labor Day

We headed to my in-laws place for Labor Day to spend some time in their pool.  We had not been in it all summer !  Well,  the day started out chilly and cloudy and we were afraid we still wouldn't get the chance to get in.  In the afternoon though, the sun came out and it warmed up enough that we were willing to try it.  It was a little... brisk, but we had fun. Here is my daughter enjoying the water.

Phone Call
This isn't actually a phone call, but it does feature a phone doing one of the many things that phones do these days- taking a picture.  This is the bride's parents and sisters- they are a fun bunch!  :)

Pill

This is my three-year-old.  He is a sweet boy and a lot of fun when he is well rested and happy.  He was neither of those things yesterday and spent the day being a pill as 3-year-olds tend to do from time to time.

Up Close

My daughters were flower girls for the wedding.  I did their hair.  Here is a close up of my younger daughter's hair.

White Space
The bride.  :)  Isn't she lovely?  I am so very excited that she is a part of the family now!

Scrapping Everyday Miracles- September Main Challenge

It is the first Monday of a new month (September, already?!) so there is a new challenge at Scrapping Everyday Miracles. Helen gave us this challenge for the month:

My challenge for you this month is to create a layout about your favorite season of the year. Let your project show us God's miracles and His mighty work as you highlight this season.

The Scrap Twist that you need to include on your project is to use 3 or more leaves --- to remember how God changes the color of the leaves with the seasons.

I had to think a bit to decide what my favorite season is.  One of the reasons I enjoy living in Minnesota is that we have 4 distinct seasons and there are aspects of each one that I like.  I love the colors of fall, but fall also means that winter is on the way.  Winter is definitely my least favorite, mostly because it lasts so long.  I also really enjoy spring and seeing the new life spring forth from the ground and the trees.  It also means summer is coming.  Which brings me to the season I chose: summer.  I love the lack of schedule. the warm weather, being able to wear flip flops and tank tops, and especially playing in and around the water.

I decided to scrap these photos of my oldest enjoying some water fun from a couple of summers ago.  She has a very similar attitude towards water as I do.  She likes to be in it, but is cautious as well. 

I had a lot of fun mixing and matching brightly colored papers and embellishments.  For the scrap twist, I cut out a palm tree (with 5 leaves) using my Cricut and the "Stretch Your Imagination" cartridge. I started with the sprinkler paper from Creative Imaginations and worked from there.  I used DIY Thickers and some American Crafts glitter for the word "wet".  The big blue heart is a rub on and the "pool" sign is a sticker I covered with Glossy Accents.

For the journaling, I started with the Creative Imaginations journaling spot, but quickly discovered it was much too small.  I pulled out a sheet of Echo Park journaling spots and chose one that coordinated with the other colors on my layout.  The first spot is popped up with pop dots and the second is tucked under it. 

 Make sure you go check out the Scrapping Everyday Miracles blog to see what the rest of the team did!  I hope you join us!

Materials:
Cardstock- Bazzill, The Paper Company
Patterned Paper- Creative Imaginations, K and Company, Die Cuts With a View, Echo Park
Stickers- Creative Imaginations, American Crafts
Glitter- American Crafts
Rub on- Basic Grey
Button- Daisy D's
Pen- Creative Memories
Tape- Target, Bella Blvd.
Photo Template- Scrapbooks Etc.
Thread- Coats
Adhesive- Ranger
Die Cutter- Provo Craft
Cartridge- Stretch Your Imagination