Create and Share

A New Design Team

2012-02-01T13:37:00.004-06:00

I just received news this morning that I will be joining the Nuts About Sketches Design Team for March- August! I just discovered this sketch blog, but I really like the sketches! Many of them use multiple photos and there are lots of 2 pagers!!

Part of the application process was to make a layout based on the sketch below. I took Addy to Nickelodeon Universe on Sunday and I thought this sketch would work great with the photos. The photos are a little blurry (two of them are REALLY blurry) behttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcause I just used the camera on my phone, but I wanted to use them anyway.

I used the voucher with our credits on it as part of the design and worked off of the bright colors on that and in the photos. I used my Cricut to cut out the big purple flower shape and then stitched around the whole layout and the flower with my sewing machine. I discovered that I am much better at stitching in a straight line than I am around curves. There is some pretty awful stitching hidden behind those photos! :)

February Calendar and Practical Scrappers Update

2012-01-29T20:48:00.005-06:00

I finished the February layout for our calendar/ Project 12 today. I used another Sketch Support sketch. I am really liking these sketches for this project because they allow a lot of space for lots of photos and it is easy to squeeze even more in. For this sketch, I ended up putting three photos on the left hand page instead of 2 and divided one of the 4x6 spaces into two 3x4s. I am using the right hand page for the calendar this month.

This layout also qualifies for Margy's "Flakey" Challenge at Back Porch Memories. The challenge was to simply use snowflakes on your layout.

In other news, I did not make it to the third round of the Practical Scrappers contest. :( Thank you to everyone who voted for me anyway! I had a lot of fun participating in the first two rounds and preparing a layout for the third round. The challenge for the third round was to be inspired by one of the three quilts they posted photos of and to use at least 4 of the following items: Ribbon, Button/s, Banner/s, Tag/s, Eyelet/s, or Chipboard. (I used everything but the tags.) Here is the quilt that I chose to inspire my layout:

I decided to make diamond for my background to mimic the diamonds on the quilt. I then used my sewing machine to zig zag stitch between the squares.

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 18 and others

2012-01-27T20:34:00.005-06:00

We only had one of the last three days' activities given to us as Elizabeth, who I have been following on this journey, has been sick. :( (I hope you are on the mend!) We came up with our own activities for the other two days.

Wednesday we decided to: play with shaving cream. Ellie has been begging me to get the shaving cream out again so that's what we did. Will was not a fan at all. I have worked with many kids through my previous jobs and his reaction is pretty typical for a kid his age. They are very particular about not getting their hands dirty, unless it is under their conditions.

Addy played for a little while, but she was dealing with the start of a cold and a constantly runny nose and ended up leaving the activity so she could wipe her nose.

Ellie stuck with it for a while, writing in it, scooping it into dishes and squishing it between her fingers.

Thursday's activity was: rough housing. Ellie really wanted to go outside and it was another warm (for January in Minnesota) day so that's what we did. Since it was warm out the snow stuck together wonderfully. First we made a snowman, which was knocked over quickly by bulldozer Will. Then we got into rough housing and had a snowball fight! I didn't bring the camera out for this one because it is easier to participate when you are not holding a camera worried about it getting hit with a snowball. We had a lot of fun!

Today we took another field trip with friends, this time to the zoo. The kids had a great time looking at the animals and playing in the "Beehive" which is the play room for toddlers and preschoolers.

Will started doing something that his big sister Addy has enjoyed doing for quite a while, collecting leaves. It took us a while to get through the end of the Tropics Trail because he was constantly stopping to pick up leaves.

Scrap Fit: Fun at the Fair

2012-01-25T13:37:00.003-06:00

This week's challenge at Scrap Fit is to use kraft paper on a layout. I don't use kraft that often for some reason, but I had a lot of fun with this page, so I think I will be pulling it out more often. For the background on the top of the page I used some Ranger Snow Cap Distress Stain on some bubble wrap and pressed the bubble wrap onto the background. I really like how it turned out, it added just the right amount of texture! For the flower border I fussy cut flowers from a sheet of patterned paper and attached them with differing thicknesses of foam adhesive. Finally, for the chipboard flowers, I used various colors of mists to color them. I added some pink Stickles to the pick parts of the flower for even more glittery shine.

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 16 and 17

2012-01-24T21:38:00.005-06:00

Okay, I'll be honest, I was not thrilled when I saw yesterday's activity: play outside. Yes, we went outside a couple of weeks ago and we didn't have to, but it has since snowed and it is 20 degrees colder.

I told the kids that was our activity and they were so excited so I had to just go along with it. And you know what?! It was fun! I got the kids (and myself) all bundled up and we grabbed the sled and headed to the front yard. Will walked outside before I had a chance to get mittens on his hands and ended up falling and getting his hands covered with snow. Once I got his hands brushed off, I put his mittens on. The first thing the girls did was lay in the snow and make angels.

Will fell a couple more times and ended up with snow covered mittens and lots of snow up his sleeves. I thought that may be the end of his and my outside time. I told the girls to head to the backyard and I brought Will into the house. I took off Will's mittens and realized that his hands were still pretty warm so I just found a different pair of mittens and pulled his sleeves way down over them. We headed back outside and found the girls in the backyard going down the hill on the sled.

I took a couple of turns with Will and then suggested that we head to the front yard again because the hill was bigger there. We all took some more turns sliding down the hill. I then decided to shovel the driveway while the kids played. We were out there for an hour and a half!! The kids had fun sledding, playing with some of their wheeled toys on the driveway as I cleared it, and rolling around in the snow. Maybe I need to take them out more often...

Today's activity was: build a reading tent. I decided to set a up something similar to a fort in the living room facing the window for lots of light. The girls climbed right in and looked at some of the books from our trip to the library last week. Ellie had fun relaxing and looking at books. Addy was a little more interested in figuring out different ways to destroy the tent...

Right after I got the tent set up, Will woke up from his nap. Once I got him cleaned up (this is a story in and of itself...) we all got in the tent and read a few books.

I'm in Round 2!!

2012-01-22T08:46:00.004-06:00

Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Practical Scrappers contest! I made it to the second round!! The challenge for the second round was to make a layout using one of two sketches. Most of the people who made it to the second round chose the first sketch, but I chose the second because it had room for 4 photos and I liked the flowers on it. Here is my layout:

I had a lot of fun making this layout. I did some fussy cutting on the photo mat to frame the large photo. I also used lots of mists on this one. I misted the background with purple mist to give it some interest and I misted the flowers for some shine. For the flowers I wanted to mimic the flowers on my photo mat so I cut out circles in different sizes, crumpled them for some texture, sprayed them with some Perfect Pearls mist, Inked the edges and ridges with purple ink, and then stacked them.

If you like my layout, you can vote for me to advance to round 3 here.

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 14 and 15

2012-01-20T18:51:00.008-06:00

We are half way through! It has gone so quickly! I am already trying to come up with ways to continue this after we are finished. I'm thinking of maybe putting each thing that we've done (I will probably add other things I come across to keep it interesting) on a slip of paper and then putting it in a jar that we can draw from each morning... We'll see.

Yesterday's activity was: plan a party. I was a little unsure of what to do with this at first, but I decided a tea party of sorts would be fun. So after the kids got up from their naps we gathered around the dining room table and I made hot cocoa and graham crackers with Sunbutter and raisins. I set out a tea cup and saucer for each of us. We all had some cocoa and a snack and we chatted.

The kids and brought some of their animal figures to the table to join us. Will pretended to have them drink cocoa from his cup.

After we finished our treats the girls got out some pencils and paper and did some drawing. They had me draw some pictures for them too.

Today's activity was: mega doodles. I had looked through some of the activities when I was deciding whether to do this or not and I remember seeing this one and thinking, "Cool!" We got out a roll of paper and laid it out on the kitchen floor with some crayons and colored pencils. We all drew and doodled for over an hour. (Okay, Will didn't stick with it for that long, and while he was there, he was usually trying to scribble on what the girls were drawing, which led to some extra drama.)

In the end this is how much we colored:

Ellie LOVED this activity and said repeatedly that we should do it again sometime. We are definitely looking forward to what the next few weeks hold.

30 Days of Hands On Play: Days 12 and 13

2012-01-18T18:28:00.002-06:00

We've had two more fun days of playing together. Yesterday's task was: go on a field trip.

We went to the library since we haven't been there in a while and it is nearby. The kids had fun playing with the toys, looking at books, and choosing books to bring home. Sometimes going to the library ends up being very stressful for me, but yesterday was good and I didn't feel stressed.

Today we ended up being a little pressed for time because we got a slow start this morning, but we still had fun. Today's challenge was: play with paint.

I love all thing having to do with art supplies, so I would have liked a little more time with this. We got out the water colors. Will didn't spend a lot of time with this, he didn't like it for some reason. While he was playing, he enjoyed dipping his brush in the water, then in the paint and then back in the water again.

The girls and I had fun painting flowers and other things.

Vote For Me!

2012-01-18T08:19:00.002-06:00

I entered my "Day at the Races" page in the layout contest at Practical Scrappers. I made the top 70 (yay!), but now I need your help. Go to the link below. Check out my layout and all the others in my group. If you like my layout (or any of the others) go to the bottom of the post and click next to my name (and next to the name of any one else whose layout you liked). That's it! The top 25 vote getters from all of the groups will move on! Thanks!

Vote Here!

Halloween Mini

2012-01-17T14:12:00.005-06:00

The make and take at the We R Memory Keepers booth at Scrapfest this year was a Halloween mini book using their Cinch binding tool. I've decided to use it to document our family's Halloween costumes each year. I have been working on getting the last 5 years put in there. I pulled out all of my Halloween and fall papers and went to work. It went together pretty quickly and now I can just add a page each year!

Here is the cover we decorated at Scrapfest:

Here are the pages I have completed:

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 10 and 11

2012-01-16T09:03:00.003-06:00

Friday was Day 10 of this challenge and our activity was: make potions. I had accidentally ended up with an extra box of corn starch a while back so I decided to mix that with water for the kids to play with. Will was freaked out by it immediately. I pressed his fingers into it and he wanted nothing to do with it. The girls and I played anyway. We picked up chunks of it, watched it flow, and let our hands sink into it.

After a little while we added some food coloring and had fun mixing that in. The girls loved this stuff! They played for an hour and a half!! We got it out again on Saturday and they played with it some more!

I switched today and tomorrow's activities because we are having people over and so we did our activity this morning: act out a story. Ellie acted out "Little Red Riding Hood" recently in preschool so that was the story she wanted to act out. She also took on the role of director since she had done this before. :) The first time through Ellie was Little Red Riding Hood, Addy was Grandma, Daddy was the Big Bad Wolf, Will was the Wood Cutter and I was the Mom.

We took turns trying all of the roles. Then we switched to "Goldilocks and the Three Bears and acted that out a couple of times. The kids really had fun with this one!

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 8 and 9

2012-01-12T21:17:00.007-06:00

Two more days down! After tomorrow, we will be a third of the way through. We are having so much fun. Ellie is my child who likes to know what is coming up next (especially when it is something she enjoys) and she has started saying, "I wonder what we are going to do tomorrow."

Yesterday's activity was: play kitchen. All three of my kids like to help cook and pretend to cook, but Addy is my little chef. She loves watching cooking shows and loves pretending to cook (in fact, I will be doing a scrapbook layout about this very soon) so I knew she would be excited about this.

We started by doing some actual cooking. First the girls and I put together some bars for me to bring to book club last night (they turned out great!).

Then Will woke up from his nap so he got in on the next task: making instant pudding. This is the first time Will has helped with cooking and he LOVED it. I had to pry the whisk and bowl out of his hand when we were done.

Finally, we pulled out the play kitchen toys and cooked some chicken, hamburgers, and salad.

Today's activity was: water play. My kids, who love sensory play, were in heaven! I filled up a big plastic container with water in the bath tub and then carefully carried it to the kitchen where I had laid out a couple of bath towels. We had a bit of bubble bath left in a bottle that I dumped into the water for some bubbles. I also added a bit of food coloring. We grabbed all of the cups and bottles that the kids use as toys during their baths (they play way more with these than any purchased toys). We did some comparing and estimation by taking different sized containers and deciding how many of the smaller one it would take to fill the larger one and then actually doing it.

Then I took a handful of suds and blew it out of my hands. Oh.my.goodness. Will thought it was hilarious and kept giggling; deep, awesome belly laughs. The girls decided to get in on the fun and we were all laughing!

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 6 and 7

2012-01-10T21:11:00.006-06:00

We've completed a couple more days of the challenge. I both activities outside because it was in the upper 40's both days- it's January and we're in Minnesota people, this doesn't happen very often!

Yesterday's challenge was: play islands. To make this challenge work outside, we brought out the sidewalk chalk and drew islands on the driveway. I decided to draw a bunch of different shapes so we had a few options to throw a little learning in.

I started out by calling out a shape and we all had to jump to that shape. The girls took turns calling out shapes as well.

Then we played a game of "Freeze." One person yelled "go" and everyone ran around until that same person yelled "freeze." Then we each had to name to shape we were on. Will loved running among us and yelling "Go!"

Finally we played a little Shark/Crocodile. We ran around among the shapes and the person who was "it" (the shark or crocodile) had to try to tag us when we were outside of a shape. Once a person was tagged they had to go wait on the island I drew (yes, I took the challenge literally).

Today's challenge was: sensory play. My kids LOVE playing in the sensory table at school so over a year ago I bought a large flat Sterilite container and some bird seed and made a sensory box. We don't get it out super often, but we pulled it out today, along with a small bucket, some shovels and some measuring cups. We have played with the bird seed inside, but it is really messy, so bringing it outside makes for a lot more fun for everyone.

The kids didn't play super long in the bird seed today, but they wanted to play some of the games from yesterday again, so we did!

"Where are..." and some organization

2012-01-10T13:30:00.004-06:00

I completed a layout today using a sketch from a new site: "Sketches With a Twist." As soon as I saw this sketch I knew I could use it. Six photos on one page?! Awesome! The twist was that you had to use at least 2 fonts in your title. For mine, I used my Cricut for "Where" and some rubons for "are". This page is actually a "hybrid" page. The journaling spots I used are a digital element that I adjusted the size and color of and then printed out. I rotated the sketch to accommodate my horizontal photos.

This layout also qualifies for the current challenge at Scrap Your CRAP, a challenge blog devoted to helping scrappers use up the supplies they already have. The challenge for this month was to use buttons, which I have plenty of!

This past weekend, we bought a new shelf to house and organize the kids' toys in our living room. It is one of those with the square shelves and then baskets on each shelf, which hide the toys. This is a good and a bad thing. It hides the clutter, but it also makes it hard for the kids to know what is in each one. So I made tags to label each basket. Since my children are not reading yet, I used my Cricut to cut out pictures to give them a general idea of what is in each basket. I also wrote one word titles on the tags to promote future reading. I covered all of the tags with clear contact paper to make them more durable. Here are the tags:

Here is the shelf with the tags attached:

Rick and I are both VERY excited about this shelf and how much neater our living room feels. I also think that the kids like and are using the tags. Even Will knows that they stand for something. I asked him the other night where his animals were and he walked over the the shelf and pulled out the correct basket!

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 4 and 5

2012-01-09T08:35:00.003-06:00

On Friday we did Day 4 of our challenge, which was: play with blocks. Ellie had a dr. appointment that afternoon that my husband brought her to, so I did this activity with the younger two. We pulled out our big tub of Legos and started building.

Addy wanted a "house" and after I finished building mine, she asked for help with hers. Will did a good job of just sticking blocks to the platform. He also likes to build towers so I helped him with that.

Addy eventually wanted a tower too and built one with just a little help from me.

We all had fun with this one and Ellie has started asking what our "activity" is for the day each morning.

Last night we did Day 5 of our challenge: play as a family. We all gathered around the table and played with Barbie dolls. Rick got to be "Ken" and things got a little crazy, but the girls loved it. I didn't take any pictures because the activity broke out spontaneously and I didn't want to stop to go get the camera. We had a lot of fun and I know the kids (the girls especially) are looking forward to the next activity.

Sketchabilities #62

2012-01-08T22:04:00.003-06:00

I used the current sketch at Sketchabilities for this layout. I really like their sketches because they can often easily be modified to accommodate more photos, like I did with this one. I had fun with this one, playing a bit with some spray ink and my Cricut (I used it to cute the large scalloped circle and the words "A Day").

Sketch and Cricut Challenge

2012-01-06T13:39:00.005-06:00

I made this card for my mother-in-law whose birthday is on Monday using the latest sketch from Unscripted Sketches. (By the way, they chose my card as one of their top three last week!)

My card also qualifies for the current challenge on the "Cooking with Cricut" blog which is to use something new! For this card I used the new "Cindy Loo" cartridge my husband got for me for Christmas. This cartridge has lots of different swirls and scrolls, some adorable animals, a few "lace" paper cuts and more. I used one of the paisley cuts and I think it turned out pretty cool!

Craft Day!

2012-01-06T13:02:00.006-06:00

The day before New Year's Eve, I held a "Craft Day" at my house for some of my friends. We had a great time socializing and working on various projects. Since all of our husbands were at another friend's house watching movies, all of the kids were here too- 12 ages 5 and under!

I managed to get one layout almost completed (I completed it later that evening once everyone went home) and make a card. The layout I made was for our calendar. I decided I wanted to try something a little different this year for our calendar and make it a little more a part of my process instead of something "extra." Scrapbook and Cards Today ran a challenge the last couple of years called, "Project 12." The goal of this project was to make a layout each month recapping the previous month. Unfortunately, they have decided to discontinue this challenge, but I have decided to adopt the idea for my calendars. So, I will be making a two page 12x12 layout recapping the month from the previous year (January 2011 is the page for my January 2012 calendar) and then select one of those pages to be on display on my calendar. When the month is over, I will take down the display page and put it in a scrapbook, and at the end of the year I will have 2011 scrapbooked! I will probably do an extra layout here and there for various events, but this will be a way for me to feel less pressure to "catch up".

For January, I decided to use this sketch from "Sketch Support" because it had lots of photo spaces and I like the open area to make a little scene with embellishments.

Here is my layout. The left hand page is currently on our calendar.

I used a technique I saw on Tim Holtz's blog last year using packaging and running it through your embossing machine and used my snowflake embossing plate to make the background.

I also made a card for my sister-in-law whose birthday was Monday. I used my new "Cindy Loo" cartridge for the dear on this one- isn't it cute??

I also got a bit of a start on this layout and finished it the next day. I pulled out my stamps and did a little stamping in the corners to add some interest.

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 2 and 3

2012-01-05T20:28:00.006-06:00

We've had two days of playing and it has been great! I decided the best time to do our scheduled play time was after nap because that is the time of day most days that I struggle to find things to do. Here is what we did:

Day 2:
Build a Fort

I have done this a couple of times before and the kids enjoyed it. This time, with the Christmas tree up in the living room, I decided to try this using our sectional in the basement. I also had some sheets and blankets that had just been washed that I could use for the roof. Addy was the first to wake up. When she did, we built this:

I asked her what she wanted to do in the fort, and she said, "Play a game!"

When the game was finished, she was still the only one up, but I expected/hoped that Ellie would be waking up soon so I suggested we play restaurant. We played for a while and then Ellie joined us and played for a few minutes as well.

Total, we played for an hour! While it was mostly one on one time with Addy, I think it was successful because she had fun and, as the middle child, I think she needs some extra one on one time every now and then.

Day 3: Play with Play Doh

You can use already prepared stuff or make your own. The girls get plenty of the premade stuff as gifts so I haven't made any in a LONG time. Today both girls were awake at the same time so we pulled out the stuff together.

For a long time, I would only let each child play with one color at a time, then, a few months ago, we had a playdate at a friend's house and they mixed the colors (gasp!). Ever since then I give each child a couple colors and they can mix with each other if they want. I love the new colors and marbled Play Doh that has come from doing this. I also think the girls like seeing what the two (or more) colors together do.

These are some of the things I made. :) Look at how fun it is with the mixed colors!

Eventually Will woke up too. He played with the Play Doh toys mostly, he isn't a huge fan of Play Doh yet.

We played for another hour today! Both of these activities are things that I enjoy, but in the busyness of "being a mom" and "keeping the house running smoothly," I've kind of forgotten. I am so excited to see what tomorrow brings!

By the way, if you would like to do this yourself, you can follow Elizabeth's blog as (I think) she will be posting daily and I will most likely post every other to every 3 days.

Catching Up

2012-01-03T21:17:00.005-06:00

In September I attended Scrapfest and put together several layouts sans photos. Well, when I was printing photos for the calendars, I also printed photos for those layouts. When I got the photos, I put them on the pages and slid them into albums. It was quite gratifying to get some layouts done even though I was focused on the calendars for others. If you want to see the before photos of the layouts, you can check my post here.

I also (finally!) used the layout I did as a make and take at the Prima booth last year at Scrapfest.

So, no more unfinished layouts lying around. However, I have two mini albums that need a little finishing...

30 Days of Hands on Play Challenge: Day 1

2012-01-03T14:01:00.002-06:00

A couple of blogs teamed up in November to create this challenge. Elizabeth from Broken Treasures blogged about it the other day and it sounds like a great idea! The goal is to spend at least 15 minutes each day in focused play with your children. I would like to think that I do this, but I know I don't. When I first read about it, I knew I wanted to do it, but I didn't know if I wanted to blog about it. But, after some consideration, I have decided to blog about it because it will hold me accountable and I respond to accountability.

So for today's Challenge:

Take mental note, or jot down, a simple mission statement of how you'd like to become more hands on with your kids.

Also, take time to learn about your kids in this process.
Jot down a few ideas of what your kids are interested in.
[Maybe also include what they're not interested in, or their general behaviors.]
This will come in handy for the upcoming challenges.
Its best to use their interests to maximize their involvement.

Mission Statement:
To spend more time focusing on playing with and interacting with my children, getting to know their interests and how they see the world. I would like to make a habit out of spending time each day focused only on playing with them.

Interests:

Ellie- dolls, princesses, fairies, drawing, coloring, being artistic, letters, books, games

Addy- dolls, cooking, what her sister is doing, coloring, getting messy, books

Will- cars, trucks, animals, books, what everyone else is doing, getting messy

Tomorrow will be our first play challenge, I'm excited to see how it goes!

Back to Scrapping!!

2011-12-28T14:26:00.004-06:00

Now that Christmas is past, I have time to scrapbook my photos again! I started with a sketch from PageMaps that is for the contest going on now.

I actually had these photos printed out in these sizes, waiting to be scrapped. How perfect! I used my Cricut for the bootie tag, the title and title block and the baby in the blanket.

I also made a card from my brother-in-law whose birthday is on Friday using a sketch from Unscripted Sketches. I used some Stampin Up stamps I've had for a while and colored them in with colored pencils.

What I've Been Up To...

2011-12-27T14:44:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I shared the calendars I had been working on for Christmas. Well, that was not all I was trying to complete for Christmas.

When I found out I was pregnant with Will (2 YEARS AGO) I started cross stitching a stocking for him because I have made stockings for both of my girls. The one I selected turned out to be very labor intensive. It is stitched on 18 count Aida cloth (meaning 18 squares per inch) and basically the entire surface of the stocking is stitched. I had hoped to have it done by his first Christmas last year, but I wasn't even close. So this year became my goal. I worked on it as usual throughout the year, but once December hit, I was working on it every spare moment. I completed it on December 22nd, just two days before Christmas Eve!

There were 35 French knots using 6 strands of metallic thread on this stocking. If you have never stitched or worked with metallic thread, know this: metallic thread acts differently than other thread. It catches on itself easier and doesn't slide as easily. French knots require that you wrap the thread around itself and then pull it through the middle, meaning lots of opportunities to catch and make a mess. Thankfully, it went pretty smoothly and didn't take as long as I had feared. Here are some close ups of the knots and some of the other stitching on the stocking.

We got to buy Christmas gifts for Rick's sister this year. I have always wanted to decorate one of these 7 Gypsies trays, and decided to make one for Terri with help from the kids. I cut a piece of white cardstock for each of my kids and had them write their name and draw a picture with markers. Then I decorated the other 3 openings with their current portraits and some paper and embellishments. I added a few extra embellishments to the front for some depth. Here is the final result. Each of the photos is held on by photo corners so they can be changed out.

2012 Calendars

2011-12-26T20:58:00.009-06:00

I can finally share one of the big projects I was working on for Christmas! For the 5th year I made calendars as gifts for members of our families. I made one for my parents, one for my in-laws and one for my sister and brother-in-law. To streamline the process this year I used sketches by Ali Davis. I printed off the 12 single page sketches that were available in October and then chose the sketch that worked best with the photos I had for each month. I will not post each sketch in this post, but you can find all of the sketches (and more!) here.

Sorry for the bad photos, the night I took them, I just wanted to get them done and now I don't have the calendars anymore to take better photos, but you get the idea.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December
I wanted to include photos from our Christmas celebrations with our parents, so I left their pages blank with the promise I would bring the photos the next time we visit.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 12-11-11

2011-12-12T14:49:00.006-06:00

This week's prompts had me taking a lot of non-people photos, which is not my strong point, but I tried a few new things...

1. Less is More
I didn't really know what to do with this one, but I felt like this photo kind of worked because the big chunk broken out of the sucker (less) allows you to see more of my daughter's face...

2. Holiday Lights
There was some great information on this blog on how to take some cool holiday photos so I used the info for this shot and the next. For this one I used a long shutter speed and small aperture to get the twinkling light effect (click on the photo to see it larger).

3. Ornaments
I used a wider aperture to get the bokeh effect with the lights in this one.

Cup of Cheer
I made a cup of peppermint hot cocoa with a dollop of Cool Whip one night. This photo does not do it justice... it was GOOD!

5. Nativity
Because Will is into everything he is not supposed to be and is pretty destructive, the only Nativity we have out this year is the kids' Fisher Price one. Ours lights up and plays "Away in a Manger."

I Heart Faces:Furry Faces

2011-12-12T14:06:00.001-06:00

Another photo from of the horses from last weekend...

Photo Scavenger Hunt 12-4-11

2011-12-04T21:41:00.006-06:00

I'm getting this posted on Sunday night, can you believe it?! The prompts were so fun this week!

1. Portrait
It just so happens that Ellie turns 5 tomorrow so I needed to take her portraits this week! Here is my favorite.

2. Nostalgic
What says nostalgia more than a huge Belgian horse? My sister and brother-in-laws neighbors have several horses, including two of these giants. This is my brother-in-law being greeted by one.

3. Time
This prompt was a bit of a head scratcher for me, but when I saw this photo of the turtles at the zoo, I knew this was it: they take lots of time to move and they look pretty prehistoric.

4. Full of Light
I struggled with this one too, but this photo of my kids staring at the TV in the early morning darkness seemed appropriate.

5. Motion
This one is more about the motion of the waterfall in the background than the monkey, he wasn't moving...

Photo Scavenger Hunt 11-27-11

2011-11-28T15:04:00.005-06:00

I didn't take a ton a photos this week (I forgot the camera on Thanksgiving!), but I used a few that I did take this week, along with some from the last few weeks.

1. Waiting...
for snow?
for a push?
to be put in the oven?
for dinner?
...the possibilities are endless. :)

2. Foliage
This is from after the snow last week. There is some foliage here, it's just a little buried.

3. Candid
We got out our Christmas decorations on Saturday, along with the kids' Little People Nativity. The kids all had fun playing with a "new" toy.

4. Knife, Fork, Spoon
Here's one from our Thanksgiving celebration last weekend.

5. Rule of Thirds
The girls on Halloween, Trick or Treating.

A Productive Night!

2011-11-28T14:10:00.004-06:00

Last night I spent a few hours working on some projects. I managed to complete the December calendar page for our calendar and two cards!

The first was a card from the scraps of the other calendars I have been working on. I used a sketch from a site I found recently: Unscripted Sketches.

Next I did the December calendar page for our calendar using the current Sketchy Thursdays sketch.

Since I had my Christmas papers out, I decided to make another Christmas card for the "I Feel the Love" project.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 11-20-11

2011-11-22T13:48:00.006-06:00

I am so late on this one this week, but I still wanted to participate. It took me until today to get one of the photos, but here are my photos for this week's scavenger hunt:

Mainly One Color
We received our first real snowfall of the season on Saturday, so I had to get some photos of the white landscape.

Around the Home
This is not from my home, but my aunt and uncle's, where we spent Sunday celebrating Thanksgiving.

Reflection
I was actually trying to avoid reflection when I was trying to take this photo, but my husband threw a snowball at the window I was standing in and it startled me a bit and I wanted to get a photo, I didn't take the time to make sure there wasn't a reflection.

Writing
This is the one that took until today. I really wanted to get a photo of my girls drawing because they love to spend time doing that. Here, Ellie is drawing a map (Dora the Explorer- style). The green line in the road and the blue block she is coloring is a bridge with an angry troll. :)

Water
Some melted snow on Addy's hat after playing outside.

"I Feel the Love" Cards + Some Older Cards

2011-11-16T13:39:00.005-06:00

I discovered a blog about a month ago called "Funky Cards". The owner of the blog, Madison, makes beautiful cards, and each month chooses a cause to send cards to. Fellow card makers can join in the fun and send her their cards as well. This month the project is to make a card or cards to be delivered to children who will be spending Christmas in the hospital. To find out more about what is happening check out the blog post here. I am pretty excited about this challenge because I love to make Christmas cards, but with all the other things going on, I usually just make a digital card and print that to send to family and friends. This is a perfect chance for me to get out my Christmas supplies and make some cards!

For this card I used some scraps from the calendar page I was making (for May!). It is amazing how just a couple of themed supplies (in this case some stamps and ribbon) can make non-themed paper look "Christmasy". For the stocking I used dark brown ink and then sprayed the stamp with Brick Glimmer Mist before stamping it. I was surprised by how red the stamped image turned out, but I like it! I also sprayed the background with some Glimmer Mist to give it some sparkle.

As I was cleaning up from making that card, I found the yellow and pink cardstock and decided to make a small card out of it. For the snowflake piece, I cut up some clear plastic packaging, dry embossed it, and then used blue and pearl alcohol inks to color it. I got the idea from one of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas last year.

If you are interested and have time, join in the fun!

I haven't posted in a while because I have been working on Christmas presents (and I don't want to spoil the surprise). I have made several cards over the last month:

November Calendar Page

2011-11-01T13:52:00.004-05:00

I finished this last night- nothing like the last minute, right? I used the sketch at My Scraps and More for my page. I played with some Glimmer Mist for the background, it didn't turn out how I thought it would, but I still like it and will have to try again on lighter paper.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 10-30-11

2011-10-31T13:28:00.006-05:00

I got my photos done for the scavenger hunt again this week! I got to capture some more fall fun!

Macro

Found Texture
Will had a blast playing in the leaves!!

Home
We spent Saturday at home, decorating pumpkins, cleaning up the yard and playing in the leaves.

Cover
Ellie wearing her helmet.

Tree

I Heart Faces: Let Them Be Little

2011-10-25T13:15:00.003-05:00

I couldn't pass up participating this week at I Heart Faces, I have 3 little ones after all! This photo is from the apple orchard a few weeks ago. Will LOVED the cats! He followed them and squealed every time he got close to one. I think this photo really captured his glee.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 10-23-11

2011-10-23T22:00:00.006-05:00

I managed to pull together some photos for this weeks Photo Scavenger Hunt at Ramblings and Photos. A couple of the photos are from a couple of weeks ago. I've realized I may need to get the camera out a little more again!

Words
Addy's birthday cake for her party today. I have to say this is the best my "writing" has ever turned out on a cake!

Under
We spent some time at the zoo on Friday. The Amur leopards are my favorite!

Orange
This one is from our trip to the pumpkin farm a couple of weekends ago, I love how excited Will is!

Fly
They may not be in flight, but they do fly... This is from the marina in Lake City a couple of weeks ago.

Always Look on the Bright Side
Addy getting ready to blow out her candles!

My Little Gnomes

2011-10-20T14:12:00.004-05:00

I haven't been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately because I was working on Halloween costumes for my girls. When the costumes were put out on the shelves at Target, I spotted this one and asked Addy if she wanted to be a gnome for Halloween. She immediately agreed. I thought I could make a costume for less than the $20 price tag on this one, so we took a trip to JoAnn's and bought the supplies- green and pink felt, green and pink thread (the most expensive part!), some elastic, Stitch Witchery, and ribbon. We also hit the thrift store in search of some plaid shirts. I couldn't find long sleeved ones, but I figured they could wear a long sleeved t-shirt under these if it is cold. I spent a couple of nap times sewing and then using the Stitch Witchery and an iron to attach the flowers. I couldn't find suspenders so I just used some ribbon and safety pins to make theirs. Here are the costumes:

I should mention I didn't use a pattern for the skirts or hats, I did a Google search and was able to find directions on how to make both- for FREE! I found the directions for the skirt here and the directions for the hat here.

Multi Photo Challenge

2011-10-13T14:53:00.003-05:00

This month at Back Porch Memories, Crystal's challenge was to use 8 or more photos on a layout. I knew I should have at least one set of photos for that challenge and I did! These photos are from the 4th of July, 2010. That is me in the white shirt, VERY pregnant (it was 5 days before Will was born).

I used a Crafter's Workshop template and some blue and red Glimmer Mist for the "fireworks" in the corners. I realized after I did the first color that I should have masked beyond the edges of the template, but there was nothing I could do at that point, so I decided to embrace the overspray.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 10-9-11

2011-10-11T14:01:00.007-05:00

Last week's prompts really spoke to me, and with the amazing weather and beautiful fall colors, I had lots of photo ops. I'm late to the game getting these posted, but I took the last shot yesterday.

Landscape
I took quite a few landscape photos this week to capture the beauty of fall, but this was one of my favorites, taken at the Minnesota Zoo.

Complementary/ Triadic Color
I struggled with this one, It is really hard to take a photograph containing only 2 or 3 colors!

Black and White
This photo isn't a true black and white photo, but it doesn't get more black and white than a penguin! I left a bit of color in the photo to give it a little warmth. On a side note, Addy said she thought this guy looked like a Grandpa Penguin, I tend to agree. :)

Food
We made a trip to an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch this week. Here is one of my girls picking an apple.

Blank Space
This one is from the pumpkin patch. This is my oldest daughter as we waited for the hay wagon to pick us up for a ride.

Scrapfest Stamping Technique #3

2011-10-10T00:01:00.002-05:00

It is Monday again! I am back with the last technique I learned in the Hero Arts class (taught by Jennifer McGuire) at Scrapfest.

For this technique you will need:
Versamark or embossing ink
white embossing powder
white cardstock
Clear shimmering spray ink (I used Pearl Glimmer Mist)
2-3 colors of Distress inks (I used Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, and Barn Door)
Clear stamps (you are going to want images that somewhat symmetrical)
A plastic plate (or we used one of these in class)

Step 1
Ink up your stamp with the Versamark and stamp on cardstock. You can use more than one image if you like. (Ignore the redness of my stamp, it was stained when I used some red chalk ink.)

Step 2
Cover images with white embossing powder.

Step 3
Heat embossing powder. Here is mine after it was heated. You can see that the powder has melted and become raised and shiny.

Step 4
Now comes the fun part! Press your inkpads onto the plate (or craft mat) in a triangle pattern, so that they are near one another.

Step 5
Spray 3-4 pumps on Glimmer Mist on the ink.

Step 6
Attach stamp to acrylic block upside down. You can see here that the image is toward the block.

Press stamp into ink. You can dab it a few times to get the colors to mix a bit.

Step 8
Stamp over the embossed images, the embossing will resist the ink leaving the image white and the surrounding area colored (this is why you want images that are somewhat symmetrical!).

Step 9
Flip the stamp back over and use the ink on the plate the same way to stamp the regular image.

Repeat steps 7-9 until you are satisfied with you paper.

Allow to dry and then embellish as you choose!

Here is the one we did in class using snowflake stamps.

Are there other techniques you have seen me use on my layouts or cards that you would like to see me demonstrate? Leave me a comment and I would be happy to do a tutorial- now that I have done it a few times, it isn't so overwhelming! Also, if you use this or either of the other techniques, please let me know and link your project so I can check it out!

Have a great week!

Sprinkler Fun

2011-10-07T21:42:00.004-05:00

I made this layout last weekend when I spent a few hours scrapbooking with a friend- I really enjoy scrapbooking with others because it tends to force me to focus on scrapbooking instead of all of the other things that distract me when I scrap by myself.

Danielle at Back Porch Memories posed the challenge of placing something at an angle on your layout. I angled the large photo and then journaling tag. This layout is also a lift of Cindy Tobey in the January 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend!

Scrapfest Stamping Technique #2

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-05:00

It's Monday and I am back with my second (of 3) stamping techniques that I learned at Scrapfest. For this technique you will need:

watercolor paper
two colors distress inks or stain (I used Chipped Sapphire and Weathered Wood)
clear ink (I used Versamark)
clear embossing powder
heat gun
background stamp (or a stamp you can repeat to create a background)
clear Glimmer Mist (I used pearl)

Step 1
Use clear ink (Versamark or Embossing ink) to ink your stamp.

Here is my card front after stamping it, you can see the faint stamped image.

Step 2
Pour clear embossing powder over stamped images.

Here is mine, you can see the powder sticking to the ink.

Step 3
Heat the embossing powder to melt it. You will know it is melted when it gets shiny and raised. Here is what mine looked like after I heated it.

Step 4
Take your lighter color of inkpad (or stain) and rub it over the design in patches.

Step 5
Take darker shade of ink and fill in until the paper is completely covered.

Step 6
Spray the paper liberally (10-12 pumps) with Glimmer Mist.

It doesn't look great now, but just let it dry...

Step 7
(This step is optional)
Once your paper is dry, you may notice some of the ink pooled on top of the embossing and dried there. To remove it, simply spray with water once or twice and wipe with a tissue. This is what the final product looks like:

On a side note, you definitely want to use watercolor paper for this technique because it is more absorbent than cardstock. I tried this technique first with cardstock, and as you can see the ink bled when I sprayed it with the Glimmer Mist.

Now you can add whatever you would like to complete your card or page:

Here is the card we made it class as another example:

So, there you have it, another fun technique! Come back next Monday and I will have the final technique to share! If you try this or either of the other techniques, link up your project so I can see what you did!

Back Porch Memories, Sketch Saturday and Layout Tag

2011-09-29T14:19:00.004-05:00

I have a few things to share today that I have done recently.

The first is a calendar page for October. I used this Becky Fleck sketch for the Back Porch Memories November Guest Designer contest. The sketch is for a square layout, but I made adjustments for my 8 1/2 x 11 calendar page. I used one of my new Glimmer Mist colors on this one (Raven- black ink with purple shimmer) on the orange block of paper and for the chipboard photo corner under the sticker. I didn't really like the graphic that was in the corner of the journaling block I used so I stamped and heat embossed the pumpkin to cover it up. I attached it to my layout with some foam adhesive the add a little dimension.

Next, I made this card for my nephew who turns 11 tomorrow. Masculine cards are a challenge and 11 year-old boys an even bigger challenge, but I decided to go with a football theme since that is what he plays. I found this week's Sketch Saturday sketch and thought I could easily change it to make it more masculine.

This card came together so easily, but there were a couple of changes from what I thought I was going to do along the way. The paper I used for the football is actually from the Halloween collection I used on the above layout. I saw a scrap of it and thought it would make a great football. I cut it out using my "Boys Will Be Boys" cartridge and my Cricut. For the center panel, I was going to use some grass patterned paper I used to have, but alas, it was gone. :( So I decided I would use this green cardstock and dry emboss the panel. I was going to use a different embossing folder, but when I opened my box of folders, my notebook paper one was on top and and I went, "This kind of looks like the lines on a football field!" so I used that one instead. I edged all of my papers with brown ink and then rubbed a white inkpad over the center panel to further highlight the football field feel of the embossing.

Finally, I participated in a layout tag (or Chinese Whispers as they call it) on the Creating Keepsakes forum. If you are unfamiliar with this, the person running the "tag" selects a sketch or layout as inspiration and sends it to the first person. They make a layout based on that and then send their layout to the next person and so on until everyone has had a turn. It is so fun to see how the original idea changes with each person! I also find it fun to see how another person finds inspiration in my work! You can see the full tag here. Here is my layout.

Conterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop

2011-09-27T23:01:00.001-05:00

Hi and welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Stamping Techniques Blog Hop. If you arrived here from Milissa's blog, you are in the right place. If you did not, but would like to check out the blog hop, you can head over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and start there!

Today I am sharing one of the 3 fabulous techniques that I learned at Scrapfest in the Hero Arts- Thinking Inking class taught by Jennifer McGuire and Shari Carroll.

For this technique you will need:
Tim Holtz Distress Inks, one dark color, one lighter color (I used Forest Moss and Wild Honey)
Plain White Cardstock (smooth would work best)
Stamp
Glimmer Mist or other spray shimmer (In class we used 1 t. Perfect Pearls powder mixed with a spritz bottle full of water)

Step 1
Take darker ink pad and ink paper so that it is completely covered.

Step 2
Ink your stamp with the lighter ink color.

Step 3
Spray inked stamp with Glimmer Mist 3-4 times from 12-18 inches away until lightly moistened. You don't want to get it too wet because the image will not stamp as crisply then.

Here's how it should look after you have sprayed it:

Step 4
Stamp on inked cardstock. Repeat steps 2-4 if you are making a background with a smaller stamp as I did here. You can do this technique with a background stamp (which is what we used in class) and only stamp once.

Step 5

Allow to dry. The stamped image won't be clear at first, but as the inks and mist work together the stamped image will start to stand out. (This technique has to be done using Distress Inks because they are water soluble so they react to water.)

Step 6
Once your paper is dry, embellish as you wish!

For this one, I stamped with Barn Door as well to add another color. I then took a gold paint dabber and edged the paper. I finished it off with a die cut sentiment, ribbon and photo corners.

For this card, I matted the stamped piece, used some scrap strips to embellish, added a die cut sentiment, and attached some brads to finish it off.

There you have it! I really enjoyed learning this technique, and I hope you did too. I have two more techniques that I learned in the class that I will be sharing the next two Mondays, so stop back then! Now you can head to Rebecca's blog and check out her stamping technique.

Cheers to 75 Years

2011-09-22T15:33:00.003-05:00

I just finished this two page layout yesterday. It works for 3 different challenges too: Back Porch Memories "Use Your Stamps" Journal It challenge, Club CK Issue Challenge #4- use numbers in your title, and Sweet Peach Crop Shop Crop Challenge #2- use numbers on your layout.

I also tried some new (to me) ideas on this layout. I used a layout in the February issue of Creating Keepsakes as inspiration for my layout. That layout used two different patterned papers as the bases for the two pages. While I didn't intend on doing that with this layout, I ended up doing it out of necessity because I couldn't find two sheets of the same patterned paper that worked for this layout. I then used the same color of cardstock across both pages to create continuity between the pages. The other thing that I tried was using a paintbrush with my Glimmer Mist. I'm not sure why I never thought of this on my own, but when I heard the idea on this episode of Paperclipping Roundtable, I was inspired! I used it around the edges of the scalloped circle in my title and the scalloped frame around my journaling. I misted the pieces, but felt like I wanted something a little more drastic around the edges to make them stand out.

Here is another layout I made about a month ago that I never posted. I like to do 6 month recaps for the first 18 months to 2 years of my kids' lives with their major milestones. I always struggle with the design of these and tend to put them off, but I finally got Addy's done (she'll be 3 in a month).

Scrapfest 2011

2011-09-20T21:26:00.008-05:00

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend 2 fabulous days at Archiver's Scrapfest, held at the Mall of America. This is the fifth year that I have attended, and it was a lot of fun once again. On Friday I took 4 classes: Pink Paislee- Home for the Summer Layout and Cards, Creative Imaginations- Life Mini Album, Making Memories- Slice Dilly Dally Pages, and Hero Arts- Thinking Inking Cards. I enjoyed each class in its own way and it is always fun to play with new products!

For the Pink Paislee class we got to use some of their Hometown Summer line. We spent the entire class time working on assembling a two page layout. We went home with lots of extras and the directions to make the two cards, which I did that night. (I have not yet completed the layout because I don't have photos for it, but once I do, I will post a picture of the completed layout.) While I didn't learn anything new, I enjoyed this class, the products are fun, the atmosphere was great (especially with Heidi Swapp there playing background music during the instructional lulls!), and we got lots of product to take home!

Next was the Creative Imaginations mini album class. The description of this class talked about working with their Twinkling H20 paints, however, we spent a total of 2 minutes painting 2 colors onto two sheets of resist paper. While the effect was cool, I had hoped for more opportunity to work with this cool product and learn some new techniques. We spent the rest of the class attaching the papers (from their Sakura collection) to the chipboard pages of the album. I will post photos of this album once I finish it (which may be a while, I still have to finish my mini album from last year!).

After a lunch break with my wonderful husband (who works just a few miles away), I headed to the Making Memories class. The description of this class said that we would be working with die cuts made with their Slice machine. I don't own a Slice, but I figured any techniques that they taught could probably be used with Cricut die cuts as well. All of the pieces were precut for us, so all we had to do was assemble the page. This makes for quick assembly (and the only class that we completed the project in the time allotted), but it didn't really teach me much in terms of new techniques. We were just given the pieces and told we could add our own flair to them. The pages turned out cute, and I will photograph them and repost them when I have added photos.

Finally, I headed to the Hero Arts class taught by Jennifer McGuire and Shari Carroll. Oh my goodness! If you are into stamping and ever have the opportunity to take a class from Jennifer McGuire, TAKE IT! I have taken a class or two from her before and every time I am so inspired and come away with great new ideas and this was no exception! We worked with 3 different techniques to make three beautiful cards. I will be doing tutorials for these in upcoming posts because they are just too cool not to share!! We just had time to work with the techniques and most of the card assembly I did when I got home that night.

After I finished my classes, I got into line to do some make and takes. I ended getting into some pretty long (or maybe just slow moving) lines and only got 2 done before they started cutting off the lines for the day. On Saturday I went back with a friend and we stood in some more lines. I ended up completing 15 make and takes. The quality of the make and takes was definitely better than years' past and several of the manufacturers had people going back in the lines helping scrappers get started on a part of the project so that once they made it up to the table, they would spend less time there and (hopefully) keep the line moving. Here are the make and takes I completed (starting from the top left going from left to right): Making Memories, McGill, Authentique, Hampton Art, Echo Park, Sizzix, We R Memory Keepers, American Crafts, Basic Grey/3L/Hero Arts, Fancy Pants, Designs, May Road, Epiphany Crafts, Doodlebug Design, 7gypsies, and Core'dinations.

So, there you have it, it was a fun weekend and I am already looking forward to next year!

Happy Birthday to Rick!

2011-09-15T15:36:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was Rick's (30th) Birthday!!! We already did most of our celebrating, but he did get his presents and cards yesterday. I used this week's sketch from Card Patterns for mine:

I bought 5 new colors of Glimmer Mist last week because the local store I go to, Scrapbooks Too, had them buy 2 get 3 free! I decided to use one of my new colors for this layout: Sugar Maple. It is a gorgeous coppery color. I used a mask and sprayed it on the red background cardstock and I also used it to color the key. After the mist dried I went over the key with a gold paint dauber and some dark brown paint.

I am off to Scrapfest for the next 2 days! I am so excited to learn some new stuff, play with new products and just take in all the scrapbooking energy!

Published!!

2011-09-11T15:42:00.002-05:00

I just found out I will have a layout in the September Scrapbook News and Review e-zine!! It debuts next Sunday!!

Surprise!!! Party

2011-09-11T13:42:00.003-05:00

I haven't had a lot of time to scrapbook in the last couple of weeks because I have been working on another very important project: a surprise birthday party for my husband! It has been one of the most stressful things I have ever done! It is really hard to hide something like that from your spouse! Yesterday was the party and it went great!

My husband is really into board games and one of his favorite games is Carcassone. I decided I wanted to make his cake based on that game this year. I ended up searching the internet for ways to make the "meeples" out of candy. I ended up finding a couple of tutorials using different products. The first was using a product called Plastique, which ended up being a little more expensive than I wanted. So I went in search of another option and found this video using a product called Amazing Mold Putty that was much more reasonably priced.

Here is the result:

And a shot of the birthday boy's face when looked into our living room and say the faces of about 40 friends and family!

Blue Ribbon Scrapping 2011

2011-09-07T20:22:00.004-05:00

I decided to enter a layout into the Minnesota State Fair this year (at the strong urging of some friends). I decided to enter a layout in the 12" x 12" Special Occasion category. I ended up winning that category and the Sweepstakes category, which is the overall scrapbooking category! You can find the full results here. I got to pick up my entry and ribbons today, so here is a picture of it!

Photo Scavenger Hunt

2011-09-04T20:44:00.008-05:00

I found a really cool blog last week called Ramblings and Photos by Ashley Sisk. Each week Ashley gives 5 photo prompts for readers to take photos of. Since I am done with Project 365, I thought this would be a fun way to continue working on my photography skills, especially since many of the prompts are better interpreted using inanimate objects, the area I struggle most. It is also an opportunity to play a bit more with Photoshop Elements. Here are my photos for this week's prompts:

Stairs

Macro

Clouds

Abstract

Smile

Some Cards and Back Porch Memories Contest

2011-09-02T21:36:00.004-05:00

I completed a few projects today and gave my Cricut a workout in the process! The first was this layout that I have been working on all week. It is for the October Guest Designer Contest at Back Porch Memories. My layout is based on this fabulous Becky Fleck sketch.

I used Echo Park papers and Heidi Grace embellishments for this one. To add some texture to the background I used a Crafter's Workshop mask and Slate Glimmer Mist. And no, your eyes do not deceive you, that is indeed a banner on there! I really liked how the last one turned out so I decided to stick with the one suggested in the sketch and use it for my title. I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot to cut the triangles, the "Sentimentals" cartridge for the bracket paper, and the "Cricut Classic Font" cartridge for the words "You're a".

I also completed two cards tonight. The first is a birthday card for my niece. She is turning 14 on Sunday (so she won't be receiving this in time). I used the current sketch at Card Patterns. I used my Cricut and the "Live Simply" cartridge to cut the flower.

Finally, I made this card using some scraps from the above layout. I also used the current Mojo Monday sketch. I used my Cricut quite a bit for this one. I used the "Boys Will Be Boys" cartridge for the shoe and circle and the "Makin' the Grade" cartridge for the "Happy Day" sentiment.

Sketchabilities and Final Day Big Idea Festival

2011-08-28T12:13:00.003-05:00

The final word for the Big Idea Festival was revealed Friday: play. Since most of my layouts involved self reflection and improvement I decided to think about what ways I need to work on play. I make it a point to make time to work on my hobbies, but I often don't make the same effort to play doing the things my kids enjoy. So my final page talks about what I need to work on.

I also completed this layout this past week using the current sketch at Sketchabilities. As you can see, I used more photos than are shown in the sketch, but otherwise I stuck pretty close to the sketch.

Big Idea Festival: Days 9-11

2011-08-25T15:14:00.004-05:00

As we get to the end of this project, the words are getting more difficult for me. I feel like some of them overlap words that I have already done, so I need to take some time to think of a unique angle to come at it.

The word for Day 9 was "Free." I really wanted to come at this one from a biblical standpoint. I ended up just using a bible verse because I didn't feel ready to put my own thoughts into words for this one. I played a lot with layers in PSE for this one. It is pretty different from my other pages, but I like how it turned out.

Yesterday's word was "moment." I thought a lot about the moments that have really changed my life and ended up wanting to reflect on the way the births of each of my children changed my life. I wanted to say more in my journaling, but couldn't find the words and I ran out of space on my page...

Today's word is "embrace." The instructor for today's word, Nic Howard, talked about embracing things that you may not have chosen directly for your life but have become a part of your life through other choices you have made.

Sketchy Thursdays: September Calendar

2011-08-24T14:44:00.003-05:00

I have had a little time to do some paper scrapping amidst all of my digital work the last week and a half. I completed my calendar page for September- with several days to spare!! I used this week's Sketchy Thursday sketch. I turned the sketch 90 degrees so I could have larger photos using the 8 1/2 x 11 format.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #22

2011-08-23T15:47:00.002-05:00

We had another wonderful sketch by Karin to work with this week. I decided to do just one photo as the sketch suggests because I didn't have any sets of multiple photos that worked. This is a photo I took of Ellie when she turned 4 last December. I cut the little tags using my Cricut and Sentimentals cartridge. I wrote words that described Ellie at that time on the tags.

Unfortunately, this is my last week of being on the design team at Frosted Designs as the new team begins with the next sketch. I have had a great time working with all the wonderful people and sketches and wish the new design team the best!

Big Idea Festival: Days 7 and 8

2011-08-22T21:24:00.003-05:00

Two more days and some more thought-provoking words. Yesterday's word was "cherish." Saturday evening into yesterday were kind of rough. Will was cranky at dinner and then was up from 10 until midnight throwing a tantrum, so I was exhausted and feeling inadequate. So the word kind of smacked me upside the head as a reminder of what I should be doing, which is where my journaling came from.

Today's word is "live" I had an easier time coming up with a page for this one. The instructor for today, Lisa Day, posed the challenge to do something you are afraid of and scrapbook about it. It took me a bit, but then I remembered my trip to visit my sister and brother-in-law a few weeks ago and I knew what I wanted to scrap!

Big Idea Festival: Days 5 and 6

2011-08-20T21:23:00.004-05:00

Yesterday's word was "enjoy." I had all day to think about what I wanted to do. I ended up choosing this recent photo of the kids and talking about those precious moments when they are all getting along.

Today's word is "nest." I struggled a bit with this one, I knew I wanted to do something on what I do around the house to make it a "home." I had opened a few photos and two of them were of flowers so I decided to go with that angle.

Sketch Saturday: Sympathy Card

2011-08-18T20:50:00.001-05:00

I made this card last weekend using this week's sketch at Sketch Saturday. I heat embossed the image and made the flower using this tutorial.

Big Idea Festival: Days 3 and 4

2011-08-18T20:35:00.002-05:00

Our word yesterday was "less." I decided to do a page about my weight loss. I have been about 10-15 lbs. more than I would like to be for as long as I can remember. I've worked out fairly consistently but was never able to get rid of those last few pounds. When I signed up for TEAM Fitness, one of the requirements was to keep a food journal. I wasn't thrilled, but knew it would be good. I ended up downloading the app My Fitness Pal for my phone. It was the best thing I ever did! I enter in everything I eat and it keeps track of my calories throughout the day. If I exercise, I can enter that in and it will allow me to eat that many more calories. When I set it up, I entered my current weight, my goal weight and how quickly I wanted to lose it. It has a bar code scanner so if I eat something packages, I just scan the label using the camera on my phone. It also has the option of entering in my own recipes, so it makes keeping track of home cooked meals super easy! In case you are wondering, they also have a website, so you don't even need a smart phone to use it! (Okay, sales pitch done.)

Here's my layout:

Today's word was "give." The instructor for today, Wendy Smedley, gave us the challenge to scrapbook about giving of something non monetary. At first, I was going to talk about all of the things I do for my family, but then I started to think about giving blood and the impact that has had on my own family and that of a friend. So I ended up with this:

Big Picture Classes- Big Idea Festival

2011-08-16T14:12:00.003-05:00

Big Picture Classes is holding a free class/festival for the next 12 days called the Big Idea Festival. I signed up last year, but didn't do any of the challenges. This year I wanted to actually participate and so I decided to work on my digital skills and make a digital page each day that I hope to make into an album at the end.

Each day we are given a word to scrap and journal about. We are also given a template that we can work from if we choose. I have decided to use it to simplify the process. Yesterday's word was "share" and today's is "wonder". I have had fun making my first two pages and it has provoked some very thoughtful journaling on my part.

Here are my first two pages:

Project 365 Week 52: COMPLETE!!!

2011-08-15T21:31:00.005-05:00

I am here with my final 8 photos! I made it, and I only missed a few days over the course of the year. I also learned a lot about using our camera, and I think my photography skills have improved some (although I still have plenty to learn!).

8/8 All three kids getting along (if only for a moment). The girls are taking turns putting together a puzzle on my phone while Will watches.

8/9 Karen, Lily and Sara at "Book Club." We weren't actually discussing a book this week, just hanging out and celebrating completing another book!

8/10 The kids moving from one part of the park to another. No, Will is not walking yet. He is close and has taken a few steps, but not walking yet. This is a perfect illustration of why I WANT him to walk, it would be so much neater!!

8/11 Ellie's prayer banner from VBS. She did lots of fun crafts over the course of the week.

8/12 Ellie playing with the parachute during games at VBS.

8/13 Will saying "Hi!" to a chicken at the county fair. He loved all the animals, and he is not afraid of them!

8/14 This is the front yard at my in-laws. Doesn't it make you want to grab a chair and a lemonade and just relax?

8/15 Addy with our garden's bounty of vegetables from today. The girls ate quite a few of those vegetables before they even made it in the house!

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #21

2011-08-09T13:53:00.005-05:00

Another fabulous sketch has been revealed at Frosted Designs! I made a layout for my son's baby book- that makes 6 layouts and he is 13 months old!! Guess I need to get working on that...

I loved the big circle on this one, but wasn't sure what to use to make it. I decided to use the Echo Park "Little Boy" collection. I cut the car paper into the smaller circle. First I used some yellow spray ink and tried to make a masked circle, but that did not show up enough. Then I drew a large circle, but that was a little to stark. I went over the circle with my sewing machine, which helped. Finally I decided to add the buttons to fill in the circle. I am very happy with how it turned out! For the title I used my "Zooballoo" Cricut cartridge. The "welcome" is a cut on the cartridge, however it has some birds and a nest on top of it, so after I cut it out, I just clipped those off the top! For the texture in the corners I used some dry embossing folders. I clamped the folder around the corner of the paper and then rolled over it with my brayer so it left an uneven, light impression. The cardstock I used is Core' dinations so it has a colored core. After I embossed the paper, I sanded it to expose the core.

Project 365 Week 51

2011-08-08T13:09:00.008-05:00

One week left! As I near the end of my project, I decided to try another new thing with the camera. The second part of the this past week, I shot only in RAW. This is a file type that requires work to be done on the photos in Photoshop or some other post processing program. I was astonished at how much I could improve my photos with just that change!! I think I will be using it more in the future. It also makes me a little more picky about the shots I take and keep because each one needs attention later if I want to use it.

Well, this past week was... difficult. We were at the Dr.'s office 3 days and in contact with them a 4th for various ailments Will had throughout the week. We closed out the week with both girls coming down with some sort of stomach bug. Needless to say, I am hoping the first 7 days of August are not an indication of what the rest of the month will be. In between all the illness I was able to capture some fun, including Will getting into trouble (even though he was sick, he still managed to keep up his regular shenanigans).

8/1 Here are the jellyfish the girls made last week (Addy's, then Ellie's). It took me a few days to help them get the eyes on these guys. I have since punched holes in the top, threaded some yarn through the holes and they are hanging from the curtain rod in their room.

8/2 Some cherry tomatoes in my garden. These plants have been producing very well for me this year!

8/3 Will pulling towels out of the kitchen drawer.

8/4 Ellie waiting for the bird show to start at the zoo. Looking at this picture I am struck by how grown up she looks, where does the time go??

8/5 Will emptying my wallet. This is one of his favorite things to do, probably because there are so many things to pull out!!

8/6 The girls playing outside with the sidewalk chalk.

8/7 Will trying to put on glasses. He knows where they are supposed to go, he just can't quite get them on his face yet!

Third Birthday Card

2011-08-07T20:34:00.002-05:00

I found a new card sketch site, Mojo Monday. I have to make one card this month, here it is! It is my nephew's 3rd birthday on Tuesday, I can't believe it! (Mostly I am having trouble with this one because Addy is only a little over 2 months away from turning 3 now!) Addy helped me pick this cute robot from the "Boys Will Be Boys" Cricut cartridge. I dry embossed the orange pieces for a little extra texture. Here is the sketch and my take on it:

Practical Scrappers' 2nd Anniversary Challenges

2011-08-06T20:27:00.004-05:00

Practical Scrappers is celebrating its second anniversary and they have been doing all kinds of fun things this week to celebrate! They had a progressive recipe challenge throughout the week, a blog hop this weekend and lots of projects celebrating 2.

I participated in the recipe challenge and had a great time! Each day they posted 2 "ingredients" to add to your layout. You can check out the ingredients for each day here. Here is my final layout:

For the blog hop, each of the members of the design team showcased a project that represented "2" somehow and many had prizes on their blogs. Brenda had a challenge to use one of the following pairs to create a layout:
1) cardstock only (no patterned paper) and ribbon or twine
2) patterned paper only (no cardstock) and buttons
3) journaling strips and two photos
4) two or more types of alphas in your title and brads somewhere on your page
5) two different sizes of photos and handwritten journaling

I chose the last option and created this layout:

Thanks for some fun challenges Practical Scrappers!!

Project 365 Week 50

2011-08-01T20:51:00.005-05:00

Only two weeks left!! As I near the end of this journey, I have been contemplating how I want to continue this feature of my blog. I am thinking I will set a goal of taking at least 1 photo per week instead of day. If you have any thoughts or suggestions on the subject, feel free to leave a comment. :)

Looking at the photos from this week, I realized how HOT it was. The first couple of days I kind of forgot about taking a photo until the end of the day so I took some pictures of things around the house. The rest of the week was spent in or near water...

7/25 The kids are back! While the kids stayed with my parents all of the toys were put away. As soon as they returned home we started finding toys all over the place again. Here are some Barbies hanging out in the arm chair.

7/26 I love the farmers' market! Not only do they have fabulous vegetables, they have beautiful bouquets like this for just $5!!

7/27 All three of the kids playing in the sprinkler ball.

7/28 Addy checking out how one of the frogs spit water at the park.

7/29 I found this craft in the July issue of Scrapbooks Etc. The girls made jelly fish from paper bowls. Here is Addy painting hers.

7/30 My sister Clare with her first place medal from winning the 20-29 age division at the Wabasha 5k. She finished in 22:59! (I finished in 30:02.)

7/31 Ellie swimming in Grandpa and Grandma's pool.

Try Something New!

2011-07-29T14:46:00.005-05:00

After I wrote my blog post yesterday about my aversion to banners, I started working on this layout. I had the blocks of patterned paper and photos in place and I was trying to decide how to embellish the page. I decided to put a banner on it!! I thought the top right corner needed a little something and it worked well with my farm theme. And... I liked it! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I used my Cricut to cut out the triangles, glued down a piece of twine to "hang" them from, and slid the triangle flags underneath.

What are you afraid to try (in scrapbooking or otherwise)? Go try it, you may like it!

August Calendar Page

2011-07-28T20:20:00.003-05:00

I finished my August calendar page just in the nick of time! :) For this one I used the Sketch Challenge over at Global Scrappers which used this fabulous sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches.

I really liked this sketch and stuck pretty close to it. I didn't do the banner... I was tempted, but, can I tell you a secret? I'm a little afraid of banners, they seem very tedious to me. Not sure why the tedium of banners gets to me, because I will spend lots of time doing other tedious things, but I just seem to shy away from them. Anyway, here is my layout using pictures from Will's Baptism last August.

Oh, and Sketches in Thyme is currently doing an open challenge which means you can use any sketch to enter this week!

One is Fun!

2011-07-27T13:59:00.003-05:00

I am here with a layout I did last weekend for the journaling challenge at Global Scrappers. The challenge was to use strips to print or write our journaling on. I use this technique pretty regularly so this was a pretty easy challenge.

To make the large polka dot paper on the right a little more festive I stamped the balloons and "smile" circles and then used embossing powder and heat embossed them. The border in the middle of the photo collage is made up mostly of leftover die cuts from other projects. I made the cupcake, present and hat using my Cricut and "Doodlecharms" cartridge specifically for this layout.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #20

2011-07-26T07:20:00.002-05:00

Today a new sketch was released at Frosted Designs! This week's sketch is really pretty with some layering, something I have been working on lately (trying to use up my stash!). I used mostly KaiserCraft "Magic Happens" for this one. The embellishments across the top are a hodgepodge of manufacturers.

Thanks for stopping by and check out the Frosted Designs blog to see what the other design team members did with the sketch and to enter your take for a great prize!

Project 365 Week 49

2011-07-24T21:45:00.007-05:00

Only 3 weeks left! We had some kid free time this week so there are very few photos of the kids this week!

7/18 A "self portrait" of Ellie and me. Thought I should get one of me in here!

7/19 Will climbing the stairs of the "Lego" castle at the Children's Museum.

7/20 "Clans" board game. Rick found this at a thrift store for cheap, it is pretty fun!

7/21 Jim Thome doing what he did best at this game: getting a strike (see the ball in the catcher's mitt?). Rick and I went to our first Twins game at Target Field. It is a very nice stadium and the weather was nice, however, the Twins' playing left a lot to be desired... They lost 6-2 to the Detroit Tigers.

7/22 Garden goodness! Green beans, snap peas and cherry tomatoes straight from my garden.

7/23 We went to the Community Theatre production of "Footloose" in New Prague, and on our way home, at 10:30, we decided to stop at Mystic Lake! This is the ceiling in the casino, I thought it was pretty cool.

7/24 Today we picked up the kids from my parents' house. We had lunch at Pizza Ranch and then checked out "The Way of the Cross" which is an outdoor stations. Here is Addy looking at one of the statues.

Project 365 Week 48

2011-07-17T19:24:00.007-05:00

Another week over! We (especially I) had some fun this week.

7/11 Will doing one of his favorite things: dumping out things. Here he is dumping out a bag of toys Addy had collected.

7/12 I want my fairy godmother to look like this, don't you? :)

7/13 Another of Will's favorite things: eating stuff off the ground. He also thinks it's funny to shove even more in his mouth when I say "No!"

7/14 Addy saying "Hi!" to one of the penguins at the zoo.

7/15 My friend Taryn and her brother Ben (aka Oak Ribbons) playing at the 331 Club.

7/16 Girls Weekend! It was HOT and HUMID! What better way to spend the day than in the pool chatting!

7/17 Baby Shower Time! Karen, guest of honor Lily and Taryn with the gifts.

Month of Cards: Part 4: Finally Done!!

2011-07-14T21:39:00.004-05:00

Whew, I think we have made it to the other side. Don't get me wrong, making cards is fun in its own way, but when I spend so much time just making cards I really start to miss making layouts! I am hoping I will be able to find some time next week to work with photos!

I drew inspiration from several places for these last cards. This one, for Will's first birthday last weekend, started as deciding which cut to use from my "Boys Will Be Boys" cartridge. The colors then came from the background paper I chose. I have had half a sheet of that license plate paper sitting around for a couple of years now, I thought it was about time to use it!

Next, I used a video tutorial from Frosted Designs for this wedding card. It was so easy and fun! If you have a wedding card to make any time soon, I highly recommend trying this design!

For the last two cards, I turned to some trusty sketch blogs. For this shower card, I used the current Cardabilities sketch. Everything except the scalloped circle were cut using the "New Arrival" cartridge. It is a little hard to see, but the letters in the banner in the top left spell "baby."

Last, but certainly not least, is this graduation card. I used the current sketch at Card Patterns for this one. Another great sketch to work with! The only thing I did to deviate from the sketch was to add the cut sentiment.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #18

2011-07-13T13:39:00.003-05:00

Yesterday a new sketch was posted at Frosted Designs. It was another one with just 1 photo, which I stuck to this time. I turned the sketch 90 degrees since that's how my photo was oriented. I used the photo and cluster of circles to make a pocket to hold my Mothers' Day cards. This is probably the most unique pocket page I have made, and I like how it looks!

Head on over to Frosted Designs and check out what the other design team members did and post your take on the sketch for a chance at the fabulous prize!

Frosted Designs Blog Hop Winner!!!

2011-07-12T00:00:00.001-05:00

Thank you to everyone who stopped by and left a comment! Thanks also to those who have become followers! I hope you find inspiration here!

I had 21 comments so I entered that into the random number generator and it gave me 7! The #7 comment was from Elizabeth:

Elizabeth said...

I love white cardstock too! My favorite thing about birthdays is our "Birthday jar" tradition where each year relatives and friends write something they love about the birthday boy or girl. We put them all into a decorated canning jar and throughout the year when that child is down, sad or just in need of encouragement they open their jar and read why they are loved! Your layout is adorable!
July 8, 2011 1:11 PM

Elizabeth, please e-mail me your address at jlshurts(at)gmail(dot)com and I will get your prize out to you!

Project 365 Week 47

2011-07-11T14:09:00.008-05:00

Looking for the Frosted Designs Blog Hop? Click here!

We celebrated Will's first birthday this week! I can't believe he is that old already! It was a hot and sticky week weather wise, but we did get out to enjoy the summer.

7/4 Will meeting some baby pigs on Grandpa and Grandma's farm. He was not afraid at all! He stuck his finger in a baby pigs mouth and even wanted to pet one of the sows!

7/5 Addy showing off a leaf she found in the yard.

7/6 Today I started TEAM Fitness. It is basically a class that meets 3 times per week with a trainer to work out and we are held accountable to one another for getting 3 cardio workouts and 2 strength training workouts per week. Part of the program is also keeping a "food journal." I think that is the thing I will benefit from most because it has made me pay attention to what I am eating and make better choices.

7/7 After lunch and watching the magician at a local park, the kids played in the water features there. It was a hot day and they had a great time cooling off!

7/8 Will's first birthday card! After oohing and ahing over it and putting it right up to his face he set it down and started clapping. He was pretty excited!

7/9 Will's birthday cake

7/10 Will loved when we lit the candle on his cake. So much, in fact, that he cried when his sister blew it out! He was happy again when we gave him some cake to eat, shoving it in his mouth as fast as he could!

Frosted Designs Blog Hop!!

2011-07-08T00:01:00.004-05:00

Welcome to Our First Birthday Ice Cream on The Beach Blog Hop!
I’m so happy you're still with us, you are almost done!! If you came here from Debbie Bakk’s Blog you are in the right place, if not please stop by Frosted Design where the Hop starts.

Here is my question and answer that you need to know to enter to win the grand prize:

What’s your favorite color of cardstock?
My favorite color of cardstock is white. I like that it is a "blank slate" and I can color it and decorate it any way I want to work with my pages.

Not only is Frosted Designs celebrating a birthday, we are celebrating a birthday in our house this weekend. My son turns 1 on Saturday!! So, in honor of the birthdays, I will be giving away this prize of Birthday stuff!!

To be eligible to win the prize, simply leave me a comment and tell me what your favorite thing about birthdays is.

This week’s challenge at Frosted Design is a Recipe Challenge: Ribbon/trim, charm, rhinestones/pearls and summer celebration (beach, pool, birthday, picnic, etc.). Here is my take on the challenge. I based this off a layout by Jennifer Perks in the February issue of Scrapbooks Etc.

Thank you for stopping by and your next stop is Libbeti.

Month of Cards, Part 4: More Sketches

2011-07-06T15:00:00.000-05:00

I made a few more cards to share: 3 birthday and 1 anniversary. I used sketches for two of them and played with my alcohol inks for the other 2. I'll start with the sketches.

For this one I used the current Card Pattern. I also did this month's stamping/card challenge at Global Scrappers. The challenge was to use scallops and a bow. Since the sketch called for both of those things as well, I stuck pretty close to it.

This week is Card Week at Sketch Support so I used that one for my next card. It made a great masculine card, but you could definitely replace the stars with little flowers for a girly take on it. This is also a great sketch to use up scraps- look at all those strips!! Once I got this one put together I inked the edges to give it a distressed feel.

Finally, here are a couple of cards I used some glossy cardstock and alcohol inks on. For the first one, I did the plaid on a scrap of the cardstock and then cut the hearts out using my Cricut. If you want to see the tutorial on how to make this plaid, you can check it out here, on Tim Holtz's very own blog.

Last, I used my resist ink again on this card. I stamped the trees and sentiment and then heat set them. Then I rolled over the card with Chipped Sapphire ink on top and Forest Moss and Walnut Ink on the bottom. For the clouds I dropped Pearl Mixative in clumps. The bear was stamped and cut from regular textured cardstock and then I used foam adhesive to attach it to the card. I added the knotted ribbon for a little extra interest and to direct the eye to the sentiment.

There you have it, 4 more cards! I only have 2 left!

Project 365 Week 46

2011-07-04T19:26:00.005-05:00

What a busy week! We started with the remainder of our vacation/ family reunion and ended with 4th of July festivities.

6/27 The girls and their cousin singing "I'm a Little Teapot" on their "stage" at the resort.

6/28 Sugar Bowl Island, on the Wisconsin River. We saw this during our Duck Boat ride.

6/28 Our nephew playing in the pool at the resort. He is a little guy, but loved playing with this big beach ball!

6/29 Ellie playing mini golf at Pirate's Cove. We all had fun, but it got to be a little too warm for the girls around hole 12.

6/30 Ah,home sweet home, sleeping in our own beds!

7/2 The girls and their cousin dancing on the "stage" at Grandpa and Grandma's. Rick is in the background watching "Mr. Busy" Will climb the stairs.

7/3 Ellie and her second cousin watching fireworks.

Project 365 Week 45

2011-07-01T10:20:00.006-05:00

Sorry I am so late on this post, we were on vacation!! We had a great time but are happy to be back home in our own beds!

6/20 The girls visiting the goats at the zoo.

6/21 One of the pansies in the pots on our front step

6/22 The swimming stuff is all together and waiting to be packed!

6/23 How can you say 'no' to that face?

6/24 How do you keep a very busy 11-month-old occupied while working in the kitchen? Give him metal bowls and a spoon. It is very noisy, but he wasn't climbing on my legs once!

6/25 The pool! This was the first day of our vacation. The kids had fun playing in the pool at the resort we stayed at. Here's Addy splashing in the 6" deep kiddie pool.

6/26 We spent the morning at Noah's Ark. Addy wasn't a big fan of the slides, but had fun splashing in the water. It took Ellie a little while, but she eventually had a lot of fun going down some of the slides with Mom or Dad. Here is Ellie checking out the periscope in the submarine in one of several little kid areas around the park.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #18

2011-06-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

This week's sketch called for one photo. But, since I rarely make one photo layouts, I modified it and made a collage of photos to fit in the space. The pictures are from last spring when the girls helped me water the flowers in front of our house. I used K and Company Berry Patch papers and the mushroom and flowers in the bottom right corner are from the "Live Simply" Cricut cartridge. Head on over to Frosted Designs and check out what the rest of the design team did with the sketch and try it for yourself!

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday: Black and White + 1

2011-06-24T20:51:00.003-05:00

The current Friday challenge at Frosted Designs is to use black and white and one other color of your choice on a project. I decided to make an anniversary card for my sister and brother-in-law. The bridesmaid dresses for their wedding were a pool blue color so I tried to imitate that color.

For the circle, I used glossy cardstock and swirled blue alcohol ink and pearl mixitive on it. The black cardstock behind it was embossed and then rubbed with silver ink to make the embossing pop. Finally, I cut black flowers in half and used them as a border around the circle. Pull our your black and white materials and get creating!

PageMaps Contest

2011-06-24T20:38:00.005-05:00

There is a contest going on right now at PageMaps for 3 full collections of Best Creations paper. The challenge was to use the sketch below. I used it for my July calendar page, so I modified it a bit to work with my 8 1/2 x 11" format.

The background I used for this layout was a piece I made after I made the star paper for this calendar page.

The template had so much excess ink on it, I didn't want it to go to waste, so I pulled out a blank sheet of white cardstock and pressed the template onto it for the reverse print. It isn't perfect, but I like that it is a little "distressed."

Month of Cards: Part 3: Sketches

2011-06-22T13:48:00.004-05:00

I used a couple of sketches as inspiration for some of my cards- it just so happens they were both for my grandmas who celebrate their birthdays this month.

The first was a sketch from Sketches: Creatively Yours, which is normally a sketch site for layouts, but they had a card sketch this time. I also tried a technique that was on Practical Scrappers not too long ago. The technique was called embedded embossing which is to emboss more than one layer of paper together. I tried it with the background paper and three panels on this card. The embossing wasn't as pronounced as I would've liked, but I have something I will try next time. Overall, it is a cool effect though. I also used a cut from my "Botanicals" Cricut cartridge and then used water color pencils to color it. The colors were not as dark as I wanted after I wet them so I went over it with the pencils while the paper was still damp and it turned out great! The pencils colored so smoothly on damp paper! Anyway, here is the sketch and the card.

Next is a sketch from Card Patterns. This is their current sketch. I stuck pretty close to the sketch, the only difference was that instead of a ribbon across the top, I hand cut some elements from scraps of the patterned paper and pop dotted them over the same elements for some depth and interest.

Finally, here is the anniversary card I made for my husband (we celebrated 7 years this past Sunday). I got the idea for the stamping on the right side from flipping through a Stampin' Up catalog. Keep your old catalogs because there is so much inspiration to be had from just flipping through them. You can use the cards in there as a sketch or they can just give you an idea for an element- try it next time you are stuck!

Month of Cards: Part 2: Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-21T16:22:00.003-05:00

I made three Father's Day cards last week: one for my dad, one for my father-in-law and one for Rick's grandpa. I also made a birthday card for our niece for her 15th birthday.

For our niece's card I used a sketch from the blog "Card Patterns". I am really liking their sketches, I have already used their next one! My biggest challenge for this card was finding embellishments that were sophisticated enough for a 15-year-old. My girls are little, so I don't have much for older girls... yet. I eventually found this cute dress in a pack of Thickers chipboard from Scrapfest last year. I tried using a rub on that said "One of a Kind", but it didn't show up very well, so I covered that with the "Wow" die cut. (By the way, the side circles say "Smile".)

For the Father's Day cards I used the tutorial Colette posted last month on Challenge Masters (which, sadly, is now closed). The tutorial was to make these cute shirts. It is actually really easy! You can add a tie, buttons, pockets, whatever fits. I really like how the tie looks, but since my dad only wears a tie to funerals and weddings, I thought buttons (well, actually eyelets) would be more appropriate.

For Rick's grandpa, I used used my texture boutique to add some texture and then rubbed my gold metallic ink pad across the texture to make it stand out.

I Heart Faces: Let's Hear it for the Boys!

2011-06-20T20:17:00.004-05:00

When I saw this was the challenge for this week, I just had to enter! I have hundreds of photos of my boy. Here is one from a few days ago. This is a rare shot because Will doesn't love to crawl in the grass and I just love the look of determination on his face!

Project 365 Week 44

2011-06-20T15:37:00.007-05:00

I took a couple of photos on my phone this week because I had forgotten the camera, but I didn't miss any days! It is getting to be a challenge for find new things to photograph!

6/13 The girls rolling down the hill in our backyard.

6/14 Rick playing soccer with his co-workers at lunch. (We like to come sometimes with a picnic lunch to watch.

6/15 Addy working on a puzzle at the library. She has been really into doing puzzles lately.

6/16 Ellie filling a bucket from the sprinkler.

6/17 What happened here? I'm not sure, but I can tell you what I think happened...
I think Will got bored in his crib during naptime and pulled the animals down from where they sit on the back of his crib. He threw the zebra overboard, and shoved the ostrich and giraffe through the slats where they got caught. Any other guesses? :)

6/18 All 3 kids playing with Duplos. The girls put them together in the form of houses, and Will pulls them apart.

6/19 Happy Father's Day. Here is Rick "nurturing" Will. ;) They have fun rough housing together.

Memorial Day '10

2011-06-17T13:07:00.002-05:00

I did this layout earlier this week. I used a sketch from Sketch Support. I liked the stars in this one and I thought they worked well with the Memorial Day/ patriotic theme. I added a twist to the red, white, and blue color scheme and added some pink and used cream rather than a true white. I pulled out all the stars I could find (shoot, now what am I going to use for all my boy pages??), sprayed them with pink and blue Glimmer Mist and edged them with cream paint. I stuck pretty close to the sketch, just adjusting it a bit for the number and size of my photos. Here are the sketch and my layout.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #17

2011-06-14T14:35:00.004-05:00

Today the new sketch was revealed at Frosted Designs and it's a 2 pager!! I have been doing a lot of two pagers lately as I have had lots of photos to fit on my pages.

For this sketch, I decided to do a layout I've been thinking about since Will was born. Since he made us "wait" (his sisters were born at 36 and 37 weeks and he at 39), we found lots of things to do to keep our (okay, my) mind off of they fact that I was still pregnant. We had taken pictures of several of the fun things we did, so I put together this layout. I used my Cricut and "New Arrival" cartridge for the stork. I also found a clock stamp and, instead of carrying a baby, the stork is carrying a clock. :)

You can see what the rest of the design team did here. You can also enter your interpretation of the sketch for a chance to win some fabulous flowers and trim made by our design team's very own Debbie!

Project 365 Week 43

2011-06-13T20:15:00.006-05:00

The week started out hot (it was over 100 degrees on Tuesday) and ended with us wearing sweatshirts and staying inside. We had lots of fun though!

6/6 This is how Will sleeps best: with the blanket pulled up over his face.

6/7 One of our friend's parents have a pool (and they live nearby) so we spent the hottest day in about 20 years hanging out by the pool (Thanks Taryn!). Here is Will having a blast playing in the water table NEXT to the pool.

6/8 Today we went to the library. Will had fun playing with all of the toys and undermining Addy's efforts to put together puzzles. (Doesn't he look like trouble? :))

6/9 We went to a concert at Nicollet Commons park at lunch. The girls had fun standing up by the other kids and the performers. Here's Addy taking a peak back at Will and me on the blanket.

6/10 It was chilly out today so we went to "nastics" (as Ellie likes to call it). One of the local gyms has open gym on Fridays and the kids can play on all of the real gymnastics apparatus. Here's Ellie playing with one of the ribbons.

6/11 I glanced out the window after dinner and noticed this woodpecker on an old stump in our neighbor's yard. He eventually flew up on to one of our trees (where I caught him in this photo) and then flew away.

6/12 We went to Canterbury Park in the afternoon to watch horse racing. Sundays are Family Day so they have a small petting zoo, free pony rides and free face painting. Here is Addy showing off the horse she had painted on her arm.

June Blade Masters Challenge!

2011-06-12T08:59:00.003-05:00

Hi all! Happy Sunday to you! I posted my June Blade Masters challenge at Challenge Masters this morning!

There are so many great die cut/shaped papers out there to use on your pages, but they are kind of expensive, so my challenge for you this month is to use your cutting tools to make your own die cut paper! I used my Cricut Expression to cut mine, but you can use a decorative scissors, regular scissors or even punches to do this.

Here is my example. I used the scalloped circle from "Live Simply".

Try it out, and then post your page in the Challenge Masters gallery!

Month of Cards: Part 1

2011-06-08T21:09:00.004-05:00

From June 9th through July 9th, we celebrate 12 birthdays or anniversaries in our family and extended family (that doesn't count Father's Day). So... this is the time of year I make LOTS of cards. Here are three cards that I have made in the last week for various occasions.

The first is a sympathy card I made for a friend whose mom passed away last week. I used the card sketch last week at Sketch Support. Here is the sketch and my take on it:

Next is the current sketch at Cardabilities. This card was a shower card for a friend who is getting married in a few weeks. I moved the smaller circle accents to the left side to cover a small "flaw" my stitching around the big circle.

Finally, an anniversary card. This card was for the Impromptu Challenge at Challenge Masters. The challenge was to make a card that included: 2 patterned papers, 2 buttons (at least), 2 different colors ink, ribbon/thread/jute. I also tried a new technique on this one. I bought some resist ink a couple of weeks ago at an estate sale which I broke out today for the first time. I used the resist ink to stamp the butterfly on glossy cardstock. I used my heat tool to dry the ink and then I took my brayer and rolled some blue and green ink over the butterfly. I think it turned out pretty cool!

Project 365 Week 42

2011-06-05T21:15:00.005-05:00

I forgot to take a picture one day again this week (Wednesday this time), but I have included an extra one from Saturday. We didn't do a whole lot in the middle of the week, but we had fun weekends on either end!

5/30 We went to Mazeppa for Memorial Day to hang out with the Josselyns. We started the day at a ceremony at the cemetery. It was a beautiful program and such a good reminder of why we celebrate the day. Thank you veterans!

5/31 Will swinging at the park. He really loves to swing, and I don't mind pushing him in the swing because, since he can't walk he crawls around and eats wood chips when he is not in the swing! On a side note: this may be my new favorite angle to photograph a child in the swing (I'm crouching down, shooting up), I just love the background of the treetops and blue sky!

6/2 Will after he dismantled the Swiffer- doesn't he look proud of himself?!

6/3 Addy smiling at the dinner table- look at all those dimples!

6/4 Addy dancing around the living room. One of the girls' favorite things to do right now is to turn on music and take turns dancing around- it's pretty cute!

6/4 Ellie playing in the sprinklers at the zoo. Ellie has really become brave when it comes to water. She loves running through the sprinkler and is no longer afraid of getting her face wet!

6/5 Rick and Will in the pool at Rick's parents house. We had such a great time playing in the pool today!

May Challenge Masters Challenges

2011-06-01T13:20:00.005-05:00

I was able to complete a few of the challenges at Challenge Masters for May. I have reached the point where we got our new camera so the number of photos has gone up A LOT. I think I will be doing a lot more double page layouts...

The first challenge was the Day In the Life challenge, which was to scrap outdoor photos. I used these gorgeous shots from our trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum last spring.

The next challenge I did was the Stamping challenge. The challenge was to "pop dot" part of your stamped image. I made this anniversary card for my father- and mother-in-law who celebrated their 35th anniversary this past weekend. I pop dotted the hearts.

Finally, I did the Scrapping the Girls challenge. This month the challenge was to scrap celebration photos. I pulled out these photos of Addy from last Easter.

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #16

2011-05-31T09:01:00.004-05:00

This week's sketch called for two photos and lots of circles. Since it was getting close to the end of the month and I still hadn't made a calendar page for June, I decided to use this sketch for that. I modified it a bit to make it work with the photos and format of my calendar. First, my calendar is 8 1/2 x 11 so I had to stretch the sketch a bit. Also, my photos were horizontal instead of vertical so I rotated the sketch 90 degrees. I added sequins to pull together the elements in both corners.

You can go to the Frosted Designs blog to see what the other design team members did with the sketch! The two guest designers this week are Minnesota girls as well!

Project 365 Week 41

2011-05-30T20:39:00.009-05:00

Here are my photos for the week. I forgot to take on on Tuesday, so I have included 2 from Saturday.

5/23 Ellie painting the bird feeder we made. Ellie has a nature crafts book and this was one of the projects. The girls had fun painting the juice container. Unfortunately I wasn't completely prepared and didn't have string to hang it up so it was left on the back step overnight where a squirrel decided to rip the net bag holding the bird seed.

5/25 While we watched the last episode of "Oprah" I gave the girls manicures and pedicures.

5/26 Addy rolling up the hose after we watered the tomato plants we had just planted in the garden.

5/27 Ellie and Will playing with a hula hoop at open gym.

5/28 Rick's parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary on Sunday, so when we went on Saturday I made a cake for them. Here they are with their cake.

Ellie holding some tree blossoms and her necklace after our tractor ride.

5/29 Addy climbing the big ladder at the park. I was astonished when I saw her do it the first time this spring! She is growing up so fast!!

Project 365 Week 40

2011-05-23T12:33:00.006-05:00

Here are my pictures for the week!

5/16 Ellie helping to make pizza for dinner.

5/17 Will figured out how to sit up and crawl around his crib this week. This has meant that he gets up and then doesn't lay back down when he falls asleep. This was the first of several times I found him sleeping like this. Looks comfortable, right?

5/18 Uh oh, a fairy lost her wings! Or she just forgot to pick them up after she was done flying...

5/19 I gave Will's hair a trim because the top was getting pretty long. I set him up in the high chair with some crackers and toys. I also set up the camera on the tripod and gave the girls the remote so I would have pictures of his first haircut. So, what do you get when you give the camera remote to two little girls? 120 pictures and about a dozen of them that look like this...

Here is a picture of Will's hair post-cut

5/20 Will and our friend Annie checking out the tiger at the zoo. It was kind of rainy and there were TONS of school groups at the zoo, but we still had fun!

5/21 Addy working on some scrapbooking. Don't worry, that is an extra picture that she is cutting in half!

5/22 Ellie and her friend Kiera sharing secrets at Wally and Darlene's 50th Anniversary party. These two girls have so much fun together! It is amazing how they will go months without seeing each other but are the best of friends within minutes!

Scrapping Time!

2011-05-18T13:26:00.005-05:00

I had the opportunity to spend several hours last Saturday at Archiver's scrapbooking. It was wonderful!! I met up with my friend Shannon and we had a great time chatting and working on our books. The first part of the time I worked on this mini album that I started at Scrapfest last September. I got all of the photos I had in it, but realized I need more! So all I am posting right now is the cover (which will also change when I print some more photos).

After I completed what I could on the album I decided to to a layout. I got another page done for Will's album. This one is of his first bath in the hospital. I realized looking at these pictures that Will's hair was really dark when he was born. He has become quite the little blondy! This one I had some fun layering with the bubbles and brad in the middle of the page. The paper bubbles are a cut from the Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge. The felt was actually meant to be a cloud, but I thought it worked well as bubbles too!

I thought I would have to go home after I completed this layout, because Addy had been sick that morning and I felt bad leaving Rick to not only deal with all three kids all afternoon/evening, but a sick kid as well. But, Addy was feeling much better and my WONDERFUL husband called and said I could stay a while longer. So I made this layout for Ellie's book. The collage is one of the premade ones you can download from Scrapbooks Etc., all I did was select the photos, resize them and print out the collage. The paper I used on here is from the K and Company Berry Patch collection. I bought this pad of paper at an estate sale last Thursday because I loved the fun colors and patterns! The entire layout is a scraplift of Gretta Hammond from the October 2009 Scrapbooks Etc.