Dream, Believe, Imagine

Simple Stories Elementary Layouts

2012-02-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

I instantly fell in LOVE with the Elementary line by Simple Stories. Truth be told, I have eyed their lines for some time now. I think its the colors, patterns and distressed feel to the papers. When I saw the Elementary Line I knew it would be perfect for Peyton's preschool photos.

Footsteps was the name of the preschool Peyton went too. He was super excited to start off his year there (he had gone a couple months in the previous school year). His teachers were FANTASTIC! I can't wait to send Maddy there next year!

I lifted a layout I had pinned on Pinterest, here. These were pictures from Peyton's graduation. To say that I was about ready to chuck my camera across the room is an understatement. I could not get the darn thing to focus and get a good picture. :-( But I did the best I could and printed the blurry pictures anyway.

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Birthday to my little Princess

2012-01-31T20:03:00.000-08:00

We had a jam packed weekend in our household! Friday we baked some cupcakes in preps for the Little Princess's 3rd Birthday Party! Snickers cupcakes with caramel frosting. They were a hit. In enlisted the two munchkins to unwrap the snickers for me!

Friday night my Brother-In-Law and Sister-In-Law and nephew Jaxon came by. As you can tell below, Maddy is quite taken with Jaxon. She liked trying to get him to sit and to shake his hand.
The Little Princess was treated to a manicure and pedicure by her Aunt. She barely uttered a word there, but I could tell she was soaking it all up and loving every minute.
Here are the munchkins with their Aunt and Uncle who they love to pieces! Maddy kept snuggling up to her Aunt. It was pretty cute!
This was my first party for the kids at our latest house. We had been having them at our favorite restaurant in the past. I had been seeing lots of fun table set ups and decorations and wanted to give them a try. So I opted to have the party at my own house. I think it went well and I had a lot of fun. I just love the hubbies family and it was very nice to be able to visit and catch up with them all.
The balloon flower came from Pinterest. As did the party favors. I took paper towel rolls and cut them into three pieces. I stuffed candy in them, wrapped them with patterned tissue paper and then tied them with wrapping ribbon. I figured this a great party favor for adults as well as as kids. We only had 4 kids total (including my two!).
The cake....Maddy fell in love with this cake when I was browsing through a local grocery stores bakery album. I thought it pretty darn cute too and ordered it. I was very impressed with the end result. It tasted pretty darn good (that coming from a non-cake fan) and looks so darn cute! The barbie did come out and is now a toy!
I told Maddy to sit down cause we were going to open presents. Peyton and their cousin sat down up front to watch the presents being opened and Maddy sat right behind them! haha! Silly girl! She then took her place on the chair near her presents.
Since we couldn't figure out how to put the candles in the princess cake, we put them in a cupcake for her. She sat there wide eyed while we sang to her then blew out the candles like a pro!

My next task....to document what Miss Maddy is like now! She is so fun, sweet and stubborn right now. I really want to document it.

Thank you for stopping by!

Cruisin' Camp Double Page Layout

2012-01-27T08:16:00.000-08:00

I have a two page layout to share today! Man, it makes me get the camping itch! I can't wait for our first camp trip of the year!

My fabulous Grandparents In-Law bought this cute Power Wheels Jeep for the kiddos . We try to take it out camping with us very time we go. They have a blast driving circles around camp. This Jeep has brought many fun and funny memories. Like the time Peyton was taking Maddy for a cruise and decided he was done. He drive it right up to a tree, stopped and got out, leaving Maddy to sit their by herself facing the tree!

Now onto the layout...

I used a sketch. I can't remember where I got it, but most likely either from Project 12 post or PageMaps. Aren't the papers , sticker words and embellishments just perfect? They came from a October Afternoon set my super sweet friend Karen had won but knew I'd love so had it sent to me! Don't we meet the sweetest people through scrapbooking?
Close ups of the left and right side. The picture above crack me up. Maddy had grabbed the walky talky and was holding it between her ear and shoulder talking on it. And the picture of her parked in front of a tree too!
I drew lines on for my journaling. I've seen this done on many other layouts and like the looks. It helps me keep my journaling straight.

Below, I cute a scallop circle using a Nestability and my Cuddlebug. I also made a 3-d star and matted it on a dark piece of felt. I then scattered some word stickers. I love those word stickers but sometimes struggle in how to use them.

Another scallop circle, layered with a piece of felt and patterned paper. I picked up the trim at a garage sale.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend in store! We are going to be celebrating Miss Maddy's 3rd Birthday tomorrow!

Birthday Card and Altered Gift Using Scrabble Tiles

2012-01-22T16:24:00.000-08:00

My mom is turning 60 this Saturday! Her birthday is just 2 days after Maddy's birthday! I am busy getting ideas and trying to get my ducks in a row for her birthday party. Invitations went out late...oops! but I did get them out! I started decorating a bit today and can't wait til it all comes together.

Last week I took a few minutes to make my mom a card. I know she really appreciates the ones I make so I try to always make her birthday and Mother's Day cards. I saw this card on Pinterest by Amber Davis and pinned it right away. I grabbed some of my moms favorite paper that I am now hoarding for projects for her and lift the pretty card by Amber.

I just realized I forgot a pearl for the center of the flower. I better go do that before I forget! Now this doesn't seem very Birthday-ish. But I couldn't find a rub on or stickers I liked to spell Happy Birthday. So I went with 'smile'. I came across a poem on Pinterest that I really liked and wrote that out inside. You can find the poem .

I used a satin flower I had made. I just love those flowers!

I have been collection scrabble tiles all summer. I wanted to make ornaments for everyone in the family, but after adding up all the A's I decided that it just wasn't going to happen. So I came up with these instead:

I thought they would be cute sitting in front of picture or on a shelf or ?????? I used some flowers I had made on these little guys too!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope everyone had a great weekend! I also hope that everyone is staying safe in this crazy weather we are having.

Family Layouts

2012-01-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

I've seen a few cards with the layered scallop strips and loved them. I figured why not try them on a layout?

I am loving anything Jillibean these days. Love their papers, die cuts and stickers!
The pictures were from 2010! Yes, I am a bit behind! ;-)

This next one is from the beginning of January 2011. They are from the time right before and after my Grandpa's funeral. It was really neat for me to spend so much time with family and extended family that I normally don't see.
The picture on the left is of me (back row on the right), my brother (front center) and three cousins. There are only 5 grandchildren, and I think this was the first picture of us all together since my childhood! :-0 Hard to believe, but its true! I'm not fond of this layout, but like the pictures. Pictures are more important, so I am okay with it.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope all those with wild and crazy weather are staying warm, dry and safe!

Layouts and Pictures

2012-01-16T17:15:00.000-08:00

I was able to scrap a few layouts this weekend. The first one I'm sharing didn't turn out the way I had hoped and envisioned. But its done! ;-) I ran out of white cardstock! :-0 Yes, no white cardstock...what is a girl to do?

These were just a few random shots of Maddy being her silly self. I had brought her carseat into my moms house and set it under a table. I caught her in her carseat under the table trying to buckle herself in! Her capri's are on inside out in the one of her pushing her tricycle and the other picture she is stuck in an exersaucer that she is clearly to big for! Notice the trend of no clothes too? We had a chunk of hot days and I could not keep that girl in clothes!

Next up is a layout I did for a challenge over at Birds of a Feather. Krissy posted a step every day for a week. I had a lot of fun with that type of challenge.
I just love this Fancy Pants Alpha sticker font!
I painted a scalloped chipboard piece with crackle paint. I then added a metal piece and another piece of chipboard.

Now to catch up on some photos...

Maddy had her first hair cut today! *sniff sniff* This was all Chris's idea and I did not like it one bit. But we figured she is turning three soon, she could use a trim. She LOVED it! You can't tell by her expression, but she hopped right up there in that chair and sat really well. We only cut off an inch, so she still has lots of curl. :-)
Chris took me out to dinner Sunday night. This little brewery has a cute kids corner. A garden is painted on the wall and velcro pieces stapled all over. They then had baskets of stuffed veggies with velcro pieces on them to stick to the wall! The kids had so much fun planting a garden! I'm thinking we might need something like this at home! We got a little bit of snow at a week or so ago. The kids had lots of fun playing in it and were very sad when it melted. There is a good chance we could get some more this week though. I really need to find me some snow boots so I can last longer outside with them.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Sillies

2012-01-09T19:26:00.000-08:00

I complete this layout a while back. I *think* I used a sketch and I *think* it was for a challenge at Birds of a Feather. But, my thinking power is gone and I cannot recall the specifics.

I simple layout using a very old Fancy Pants About A Boy Line. One of my fave lines! I would be tempted to buy this line again! So fun and I just love the colors in it! As I type this I recall that it is a challenge for Birds of a Feather. It was a layout about one thing I wanted to change in the year 2012. One thing I want to change is to laugh at the kids antics instead of getting frustrated with him. The pictures above are of Peyton wanting to wear his cowboy hat to pj day at school and of Maddy and my way of stopping her from taking off her diaper in the middle of the night. At the time, both of these frustrated me. Now I giggle at them. I want to remember to skip over the being frustrated and just giggle and enjoy the moment.

At the beginning of the year I decided to deep clean the house. I mean DEEP clean. This took a full week of every second I had. After I got it cleaned, I started in on a new routine. I am attempting to keep on top of the house chores by choosing a room a day to clean. I also am attempting to hop on the elliptical we bought last year as I always feel so much better when I work out. While attempting to find a schedule that works, that gets the chores done and gets the kids the attention they need, I am struggling to find time to scrap. So hang in there with me. I hope to get my routine down to where I can get some time at least a couple days a week to scrap just a little!

Two layouts using a 4x6 paper pad

2012-01-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

A while back I hit a scrapbooking garage sale. I fell in love with this red, black white and lime green paper pad and chipboard set. I wasn't sure what I'd do with a 4x6 paper pad, but couldn't pass it up. It came in perfect for these layouts that I made of my brother and sister in laws wedding. I made the layouts for my Mother In Law for Christmas.

I love the little red stones in the upper right of the photos.
I was also able to use some of my satin flowers I have been making.
Pretty quick and simple.

Thanks for stopping by!

Favorites from 2011

2011-12-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

Where did 2011 go? I know I say that every year, but I can't help it. This year I have enjoyed my scrapbooking home, Birds of a Feather and the friends I have made there. I haven't scrapped as much as I have wanted to, but I think that will be the case from here on out! haha! I have, however, made a few projects that I have liked and thought I would do a recap post and share some of my favorite layouts, cards and projects.

This layout took a LONG time and was a lot more work than I anticipated, but I LOVE it! Lots and lots of stitching. I also used some of my satin flowers that I started making this year.

Next up is a layout I created using Cosmo Cricket. Love that company! I had fun with the banner and the grid style design.
I lifted a layout by a fellow BOAF friend, Linda, and came up with this layout. I have recently fallen in LOVE with Jillibean Soup. I love how easy their papers are to use and all the stickers and die cuts that make embellishing super easy. I just love Maddy's curls in these pictures.
The Ranch. I made this for me and LOVE it. The pictures are of my Grandpa's homestead that has been in the family for over 140 years. Inside is a lot of the history of the homestead, which I grew up calling 'the ranch'. My mom fell in love with it so I gave it to her on the agreement it would come back to me one day.
I made this layout for my Dad. My Grandpa passed away a little before Christmas last year. I knew this layout would mean a lot to my dad. I used a sketch by Jill Sarginson, that she created off of one of my layouts.
I had a lot of fun with the Cosmo Cricket DeLovely line. Such bright, cheery and fun colors!

I love this color combo. I love how the papers went so well with Maddy's outfit.
I started Project 12 in January. I have enjoyed it SO much and plan on continuing it next year. These are two of my favorite layouts from my album so far.
I think its the colors in this one that I love and the embossed envelope.
I made a few cards but still feel that I struggle. Once I find a good design I tend to use and reuse and reuse and abuse and reuse.... ;-)
I made a few minis. This one was for the Creative Cuts & More blog hop. I had a blast with it. I used mostly Echo Park papers and embellies for it. Fun, fun, fun. If you want to see the inside, go here.
I made this one for the Christmas Bazaar I participated in. I took one of the kid sold board books and cut it apart. It was hard to sell. I just love this Kaiser Kraft line. The colors are so pretty!

I made one of these for my mom and one for my mother in law. I got the idea somewhere in blog land.

This is one of my all time favorite things I have made. I found this piece at a thrift store. It was light wood color and had a mirror. I painted it and added doodied it up. It was SO much fun!

I made a few of these 'catch alls'. Or at least that is what I call them. My mom uses hers to keep a few pencils and notepads by her telephone.

Do you have favorite projects/creations from 2011? I'd love it if you linked me up so I could check them out!

Thank you for stopping by! I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

What.....I've scrapped?????

2011-12-23T12:51:00.000-08:00

Are you shocked? I certainly am! I found myself in a state where I didn't want to do what I had on my to do list. It wasn't anything that absolutely HAD to be done, so I sat down and started my November Project 12 layout.
I took Karen's lead on swapping the November and December sketches.

The left side....
The right side....
And a close up....

I haven't been a huge Basic Grey fan (*gasp* I know...I know....). But I fell in love with this Out of Print line. This was a fun layout. I was able to use up a bunch of random embellishments, stickers and papers I had one hand.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Craft and Pictures

2011-12-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

This is not my idea, I found it on Pinterest. I learned maybe I should read the instructions before creating. :-l The instructions said to drill holes, I used eye screws. Holes would have been a lot easier. I like the one I pinned better than my creations. But what can I say....

This was my first one. They are a bit over an inch square wood blocks painted black. I was able to find smaller eye hooks, which I think look better. I also got the idea tonight to add a little bell to the bottom. These are really too heavy for the tree, but would be cute on a door or drawer knob.

I have been MIA for a while. I'm sorry. Life is crazy busy these days.

We picked out our Christmas tree last weekend.
It was DANG COLD the day we went out to look for trees. Peyton was on a mission to get the 'BIGGEST TREE EVER'. Luckily he is very happy with this one. :-) It is definitely not as big as we could have gotten, but it is a pretty tree.
Next came the decorating.
YAY!
Are you done putting up lights yet so I can hang ornaments?

And so it began....
It took Maddy quite a bit of effort at first, but she figured it out quick and jumped right in!We also worked on making our own Christmas ornaments to all the grandparents. Every year I try to make an ornament with Peyton for each of his Grandparents. So Linda if you see this, act surprised when Peyton gives you your ornament! Haha! This year I learned not to use Elmers glue. It didn't work worth a darn. I ended up re-gluing everything with a tacky glue. :-l
I wanted to make something for each of Chris's employees. Thanks to my mom, I came up with this idea. I went to the dollar tree and found candlesticks and star dishes and glued them together. I then made my toffee chex mix and filled each one. A fun but super simple gift.
Ya like this picture? Yeah, me either. :-( My camera sucks. Out of 20 pictures, this was the best one. Peyton had a Christmas program this week. It was very cute and all of the grandparents were able to come and enjoy it with us. Friday was his Christmas party in his classroom. My grandparents in-law (who I am VERY grateful for) were willing and able to drive over and watch Maddy so I could participate in the class party! It was a lot of fun!
Here is our tree. The kids decorated and arranged the presents. I figure this is how the tree will look the next couple of years. They had a blast decorating and putting the presents under the tree.
Today, Chris and I took the kids to our local museum. My parents mentioned that they had a special Christmas presentation. The kids really enjoyed it and I enjoyed seeing some of the regular museum exhibits. I saw a picture of my Grandpa's aunt in there which was fun! :-)

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you are all on the ball unlike me and have everything ready to go for Christmas. Is anyone making anything fun as a gift? I'd love to see or hear about it!

Flowers and Feathers

2011-12-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

Wow...where has December gone? We don't even have two full weeks left before Christmas! I guess I better get on my last couple of gifts I had hoped to make.

I've been hooked on my satin flowers and feathers lately! I think they are such a pretty combo. The night before my Christmas Bazaar I decided that they would be fun to add to my candle stick creations.

I love how it turned out! Just wish I had gotten a better picture of it!

I'm really hooked on the gluing of candlesticks to bowls, vases and frames! I think it is so much fun! I am still searching for the perfect glue, but learned if you glue two of the same products together (i.e. glass on glass or wood on wood) the glues do a TON better!

Hopefully one of these days I will be able to scrap again! I need to get my Project 12 layout done.

Thanks for stopping by!

Photo Catch UpWe

2011-12-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

I went to download all my photos from November to figure out which ones I wanted to use for my Project 12 layout. I realized I hadn't shared ANY of them! :-0 So here we go....

Chris took off for elk camp the first of the month. We thought he was going to be gone 12 days. So I pulled Peyton out of school one day and we headed to my parents for a night. We were able to get all of the cousins together for a lot of play time.

This little guy is my nephew! Is if a busy body and definitely keeps us all on our toes!

We got an early snow! The kids were super excited and couldn't wait to get out into it. Me on the other hand, not so much. I have decided to finally fork over the bucks and get some nice snow boots as my feet froze in the little time we spent outside.

This was another reason I wasn't so excited about the snow. It just so happened the day before we were to head over the mountain to a OSU football game where I was going to meet up with my friend Chelle for the first time! I was a basket case before going and even thought about canceling. But am so glad I didn't! It was so much fun to meet up with Chelle, who as you can tell, was cheering on the opposing team!

Yes, it was quite cold. I had to put on my insulated overalls!

I spent every moment I could crafting for my bazaar. The house often looked like this:

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was such a nice day spent with family!

This is my sister in law Adina, painting Miss Maddy's nails. Maddy LOVES to get her nails painted!
She also LOVES to paint other peoples nails. Grandma some how ended up being the one getting her nails painted by Maddy!
Cribbage is a popular game in our family. Quite a few matches were played.
The kids had a blast playing games and games and more games!

Now that my bazaar is over its on to making my Christmas gifts! So stay tuned, as I plan on sharing most of them as I make them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Don't do it justice...

2011-12-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the bazaar I have been working so hard on. My photography does not do it justice, but the gal who sets it up does such a fantastic job. Here are a few photos.
She has so much neat furniture to set up to display items on.

So much eye candy.Yep. My pictures don't do it justice, but it was such a neat setting. I am happy to say that I hit my goal! :-) It was such a fun experience!

I have a handful of projects left to do for Christmas presents. After that, I may just get time to scrapbook again. ;-)

I am still playing catch up at home. I am so far behind in many areas that it stresses me out to think about it. Any one else feel that way?

Thanks for stopping by!

October Project 12

2011-12-01T13:01:00.000-08:00

It is a lot later than I had hoped to complete it, but it is now done! Here is my October Project 12 layout using Jillibean Soup (LOVE this line):

I really liked the sketch. Most of my pictures were horizontal, so I switched the right page to have a 3x3 grid with square photos.
Yep, I did a major blooper in my journaling. I wrote Chris went elk hunting when I was the one to go hunting! :-0 Its all right though, I will come back and figure out how to fix it later.
I added some stitching between the photos and zig zags where the different patterned papers met.
One of my favorite things about Jillibean soup is all their die-cuts. They make embellishing easy!

Thank you for stopping by!

It's almost time!

2011-11-30T08:46:00.000-08:00

I'm getting super nervous, the bazaar I have been working so hard at starts tomorrow! I turned in all my items yesterday. Last night I started stressing about whether people would like my items and if I marked them too high. :-S I made my first attempt at a bazaar last year and it was a flop. This year I opted for a different style one! The gal organizing it sets it up beautifully. She has everyone drop off their items and then sets it up boutique style. Hopefully I can get pictures tomorrow to share later on this week.

My mom came over Saturday for a bit to help me finish up some items. I put her on feather duty. :-) I am so excited about these headbands. They are SO darn cute!
And here is another one:
Of course I made some with out and in a handful of different colors!
I also made clips. You know...clips are very hard to get a good picture of? Especially if you have a 2 1/2 year old like mine who won't model them. Maybe I could get Peyton or Chris too! :-0 Anyhow, I made a bunch of these both with and without feathers. I think they would be cute clipped on hats, purses and scarves too! The clips hold really well. I wore a clip one day to test it out and it held my hair back great!

I didn't have many of these clips left. I had fun with the flowers on these. I tested out a new Cricut Cartridge for three paper flowers. It was the Flower Shoppe cartridge and I loved it.
I also made a few minis. I just LOVE the colors of this one!
A few of what I call catch-alls. This is a Basic Grey Paper and I LOVE it! I wish I would have bought more when I found it on sale. I had fun with this flower. I coiled yarn, used my Cuttlebug to cut a couple scallop circles and then added some gathered netting in.
I had fun with these magnet boards! I love the colors in this one. It's my favorite.
I struggled getting a good picture of this. It looks much better in real life. I tore and decoupaged sheet music on the back and used my Cricut to cut out 'FAMILY'. I love the thoughts of magnets or clothespins to hold photos. It makes is so much easier and quicker to change the photos when you want.
These babies are so fun and unique! I really struggled with them at first. Finding a glue that worked. I think I have the knack of it now and hope to be able to make more now. I just ran out of time and products to make any more!
These are really fun too! I thought they would be quick and easy. WRONG! But I think they are worth the sore fingers and time. :-)

The above is why I have been MIA from my blog! Hopefully you guys have hung around and haven't given up on my yet! I have had a fun crafting but am looking forward to doing a few layouts sometime in the near future!

Time...I need more time....

2011-11-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

I am working hard at getting projects done for a bazaar I am participating in. All items are due in a week! Ack! I need to get SO MUCH more done to make it worth while. *sigh* That is my excuse for not posting much on my blog!

These little babies take A LOT more time than I thought they would!

Yes...lots and lots of those for projects like this:
And this:

I am in LOVE with these little journals! They are so much fun!

And a couple altered frames:

I have a couple more projects. I just don't have good pictures of them! They are my favorites, so I want to get pictures on a sunny day. That is IF we get a sunny day before the bazaar! Haha!

Thank you for stopping by!

Sun, Sand and Surf Imaginisce layout

2011-11-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

I don't think I have shared this yet, if I have, I apologize. I used a sketch by Allison Davis in her Sketch Book #7. I used a super cute ocean line I won on the Imaginisce blog. I just LOVE this line and all of the embellishments. They make it really easy to put a layout together.

The only thing not Imaginisce is the ribbon and cardstock.
These are pictures from a year ago! I can't believe we didn't make it to the coast this year. :-( The kids had a blast on the beach. Yes, they are in their heavy winter jackets cause it was pretty darn cool, especially with the ocean breeze. See the picture in the upper right? That was what we had to climb up and down in order to get to and from the beach from our beach front hotel. That will definitely be a question in the future when we book a hotel. Maddy got quite heavy going up and down the stairs. We met up with my parents who happened to be there for a walk on the beach. Peyton was quite intrigued by sea life. They saw a star fish and a sea anemone.
We found a really neat restaurant that had a patio on back. The kids were very entertained watching the sea lions and listening to them bark. Man are they loud!

Over the weekend I made it to a garage sale! Yes, people are still having them, even when the temp. is supposed to be in the upper 40's! I found this game:
Peyton and Maddy both have had a blast with it! It can be a bit messy as you put water in the bottom outer ring, but I put a towel underneath it and haven't had any issues yet! I just thought I'd mention it with Christmas coming up and all! I might toss in items my children are having fun with at the moment. Goodness knows I could use some idea for the Little Miss. I always enjoy hearing what others children like to play with too. That way when I am out garage saling and thrifting I know what to keep an eye out for!

Thanks for stopping by!

Echo Park Layout for The Paper Variety

2011-11-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

I created this layout using a sketch from Sassy Little Sketches. I have had this paper from Echo Park for a while now! I thought it went well with these pictures of my adorable nephew.

I'm linking it too the Paper Variety's challenge this week.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I am thankful for... and busy busy busy!

2011-11-08T09:07:00.000-08:00

As I was going through my Google Reader blog list, I came across this post by Rita. She shared a layout she created about being Thankful. Last year every day she wrote down something she was thankful for. The beautiful layout she shared was that list scrapped. She also challenged us to create a list on our sidebar for the month of November of things we are thankful for. I am going to play along! Not because Rita has a great giveaway if you do, but because I think its a great idea and I REALLY want to create a layout like Rita did. So go check out Rita's post here. I have my list up and going. I'm sure I won't update it every day, but by the end I will have a list of 30 things I am thankful for.

The next few weeks are going to be insanely busy for me. I have committed to participate in a Christmas bazaar. So I am going to be busy crafting. Hopefully I can grab a few minutes to take pictures of what I am making to share with you all. But if I disappear, that is why.

I got these in the mail along with a few other items:

Aren't they cute as can be? You can find them here, at the Precocious Paper Etsy Store. She has lots of other fun and cute flowers too!

Geesus

2011-11-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

Are you wondering what Geesus are? They are horses of course! ;-) Last year the kids and I joined Chris out at Kah-Nee-Tah. He had a golf tournament and we had been wanting to take the kids to the pool out there. We had a bottom level room. When we got to our room there were wild horses near our patio! The kids thought this was really cool! Peyton named one Fred and I can't remember what he named the second horse. We aren't sure where Maddy got it from, but she called the horses Geesus. It was very cute! She called them Geesus for at least a year!

I used the May kit at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. I love the pleated strip that is in the kit. Mine curved though and has hard as I tried I couldn't get it to stick straight!
I used a couple of my satin flowers that I made. I also doodled a line on the photos and white paper.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Paper Variety Challenge

2011-11-03T12:41:00.000-07:00

This is a layout I will be giving to my mom for Christmas. It is also for the Paper Variety challenge, to humorous layout, card or project. Anything that makes you chuckle.

These pictures make me chuckle. They are over my nephew. My mom had a large tub of dolls from her childhood. The little black baby that my nephew is chewing on is my Grandpas! I thought it funny that my mom put him right in the tub to play with them all. Amazing how much more laid back my parents are with toys and the grandkids than they were with us! I wasn't allowed to play with those dolls til I was a teacher! haha!

Thank you for stopping by! I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend in store for you!

Jillibean Soup Layout

2011-11-01T15:21:00.000-07:00

Last month, Amy at Birds of a Feather challenged us to scraplift a layout from the gallery! I LOVE scraplift challenges. It seems I am either lifting or using a sketch on almost every layout lately. I have been wanting to lift a layout by Linda Harper that had been posted in the gallery. This is my layout.

I LOVE this line by Jillibean Soup! So cute and fun!
I have been wanting to do a layout about Maddy's beautiful curls. She gets complimented on them so often when we go out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Catch up and The Paper Variety Halloween Layout

2011-10-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge at The Paper Variety is to create a cute or spooky Halloween project. Like I said in my last post, I struggle with Halloween. I have a hard time scrapbooking it. Even worse, I just can't seem to get into it.

That being said, here is a layout from last years Halloween using some old Basic Grey goodies.

I just realized I didn't journal on it! *sigh* This year I was in Madras with the kids. My niece was able to join us in the trick or treating. We went to a couple family members houses earlier in the day so that we were able to meet up with Chris who just got back from hunting in time to go to dinner for my Sister In Law's birthday! The kids were totally wiped out and crashed on the way home.

I used a fantastic sketch by Heather Landry.

Now for a little photo catch-up. Two weekends ago we spent the weekend with my brother and sister in-aw. We had SO much fun! Saturday morning we went to a Fall Festival.
The kids thought the huge crates of apples were pretty cool. They would have climbed in if we let them!
Miss Maddy....our little princess was quite content with the chapstick her aunt gave her and her little purse. And yes....she sat there for a LONG time with the chapstick! Whatever it takes to keep her happy and content! ;-)
We started up gymnastics again. This time Maddy is in a Mommy & Me class right before Peyton's class. I thought she would LOVE it as she is always trying to join in Peyton's class. I was wrong. She did NOT participate in warm ups at all and would only do what she wanted to do. This picture just cracks me up! Look at her face! She will do the beams and bar for a bit, but again, loses interest quickly.
Peyton has been participating in something called Run Club at school. He was very proud last week when he came home with this necklace. He has ran 5 miles!
And a little close up of the necklace.

That is it for me today! Thank you for stopping by!

September Project 12 and The Paper Variety layout

2011-10-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I went to my first ever crop! I had A BLAST! I cannot wait to go to one again. I met some wonderful women, did a lot of scrapbooking and even enjoyed a live band with some dancing.

My first project was to complete my September Project 12 layout. I say this every time, but I just LOVE project 12! How cool to have a a WHOLE year documented in 12 double page layouts at the beginning of the following year? If you ask me, you can't beat that. Even better yet for me, Davinie has fantastic sketches each month, which really helps me get them done quicker.

My pictures had so many bold colors in it that I struggled choosing papers. I dug deep in my stash and pulled out this Fancy Pants About a Boy line. I have to admit, it is quite old but I just LOVE it!
A closer look at the left page.
And the right page.
I used to struggle with the die cuts that came with lines. I now enjoy inking and layering them.

I had so much fun with the little pocket. I ran it through my Cuddlebug with a polka dot embossing folder and then inked it up. I again inked and layered some die cuts. I wish I had taken my sewing machine so I could have done some stitching. But I only had so much room.

Our month in a recap: Chris and I took Peyton to his first game. He did REALLY well and enjoyed watching it. But it was HOT and we were up in the corner with the full sun on us in the peak of the day. Peyton and I took off at half time in search of a soda and toy! Chris spent quite a few evenings and weekends archery hunting. I smashed Peyton's fingers in the door on the way to meet his teacher. This led to a pretty rough meeting. Peyton started Kindergarten and LOVES it! He can't get out of the Tahoe fast enough to run into the gym. We were able to spend a few afternoons on the swingset before school started. The kids enjoyed helping Chris dig and pick veggies from the garden. Chris and I went to another Beaver's game and this time we stayed the night and had a blast tailgating.

Now onto my next layout. I have been enjoying playing along with the challenges over at The Paper Variety. I struggle, and I mean STRUGGLE scrapping holidays, especially Halloween. I conquered TWO Halloween layouts this weekend. This one...I'm not liking at all. But its done and ready to go in a album.
I apologize for the date on the picture. I'm not liking the layout enough to think it worth the time to get another picture! haha!

Thanks for stopping by!

Made With Love

2011-10-20T19:15:00.000-07:00

I've had this photo for a while. It was one of the first times the kids started holding hands all on their own. They still do it quite a bit and it just melts my heart. Often times I hear Peyton say, 'Maddy hold my hand, there is traffic' (when we are in a parking lot) or "Buddy hold my hand" from Maddy if there are quite a few people around. It melts my heart each and every time they hold hands.

I lifted THIS super cute layout by Karen.
The flower and felt with button came from Precocious Paper's Etsy store. She has some super cute flowers and embellishments.

In my search for the perfect title, I came across this quote and thought it just perfect for the photo.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope y'all have a great weekend!

Another Day in Paradise

2011-10-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Here is my second layout based on a fantastic sketch by Helen at Scrap a Little.

I was trying to ink the papers and photos with black ink. I proceeded to get in on a couple spots on my white paper so inked it all up to make it look like I wanted it that way!
I added some fun stickers on to the photos, did a little doodling and a lot of black inking. I had so much fun with this layout and it was super quick and simple! Echo Park sure made it easy to create quick layouts with their fun stickers and patterned papers.

I started following Tessa's blog a while back after seeing some of her yummy Etsy goodies on a friends blog. This month she has something called Attitude of Gratitude on her blog. You can read about it here. She even has a beautiful mini album kit up for sale at her Etsy store, here. I think it is such a neat neat idea! I don't plan on doing the daily blogging, but I would love to make a mini sometime soon!

Thank you for stopping by!

And so it began... a layout for Scrap A Little using Cosmo Cricket

2011-10-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

A while back Helen at Scrap A Little contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in being a guest designer! It took me off of three seconds to reply with 'heck ya'! Okay, I didn't really reply with that, but that is what I was thinking! Helen has lots of FANTASTIC sketches on her blog. Make sure check it out. If you would like to see the post with my feature, click here.

Here is the sketch she sent me, Sketch #52:

Cute huh?

Here is my take on it:

I used the DeLovely line by Cosmo Cricket. The pictures were taken from one of our trips to OHSU for Maddy's 'going' issues. What an experience. It was heart breaking to hear her scream through her blood being drawn and another test. And even worse to have them yield no results. :-(

I did some hand-stitching. Its take more time than I like, but I am usually happy with the end results.

Its kind of perfect timing for this feature as Maddy is going back in for more testing this coming Monday. Any prayers are greatly appreciated. No matter how big or small the test are, it is hard to see your baby go through the 'unknown' to you.

A few weeks ago, Peyton, Maddy and I were upstairs in the family room when Chris got home. Maddy got excited and said she was going to hide. This is her hiding spot:

No, I did not leave her alone like that. Yes, I did explain that it is not a good idea to put a bag over your head and consider that a hiding spot. BUT, I could not help a quick giggle and picture of her hiding spot. Which, by the way, she sat VERY still and VERY quiet til Chris came up to find her!

Thank you for stopping by!

Underwater Sea Garden Layout using Imaginisce

2011-10-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

Today I have a new layout to share with you! I follow the very talented Aphra Bolyer's blog. A few days ago she posted a super cute sketch I just knew I wanted to use. You can see her sketch here. The Paper Variety posted this weeks challenge yesterday. It was to create a paper project with a nautical/ocean theme! What perfect timing! :-)

The pictures are from our trip to the Oregon coast last year. We took the kids to the Underwater Sea Garden. It is a ship that is set in place, turned into an aquarium. The kids were not sure what to think when we walked down in to the bottom of the boat where all the fish were. I have to admit, it was kinda eerie, dark and damp.
I loved all the embllies I could mix together. Here are a few chipboard pieces and layered journaling spot.
I took a photo of the sign on the way into the Underwater Sea Gardens. I fussy cut it for a title.
I saw this idea on the Jillibean Soup blog on a card made by Julie Bonner and knew I wanted to lift it.

We've been really busy here. Last week Peyton got his first black eye! I felt so bad for him. His friend accidentally hit him with a bat! This is AFTER the swelling went down! It was perfect timing too, as his school pictures were the very next day! :-0
Luckily, the colors didn't show up until after the pictures!
Of course, the little miss had to have her picture taken too!
Sunday my mom and I took the kids to a cute little pumpkin patch.
This was their first year I let them pick out their own pumpkin! They had A BLAST!
The gal running it had a really cute display and set up!
Once again, they melt my heart. I heard Maddy ask Buddy if she could hold his hand. How sweet are they? Now if only they could be that way ALL the time! A mama can dream right?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Camper

2011-10-09T16:58:00.000-07:00

I combined two different lines for this one. I LOVE the critters on the October afternoon papers. That line happened to go well with some Mr. Campy from Cosmo Cricket. I love it when two lines from different companies go so well together!

The Paper Variety's Challenge this week is to include a forest critter on your layout. This layout also works for a challenge at Birds of a Feather. We are having a crop this weekend and one of the challenges was to use a banner. It was just what I needed to balance out my page!

In case you want closer views, here is the left page:
And the right:
A close up of the banner. I popped it up using pop dots.

I hope you had a great weekend! We had a busy one!

Thanks for stopping by!

Birds of a Feather Blog Hop

2011-10-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

Hello all! If you came directly to my blog, make sure to head over to the Birds of a Feather blog to make sure you don't miss out on any eye candy! We are celebrating Birds of a Feather's 1st birthday! What better way to celebrate than a blog hop and crop? Make sure you go back to the beginning and post on each blog along the way. Amy is giving away $50 worth of Bella Blvd. goodies to one lucky blog hopper! If you came from Karen's blog, welcome!

I decided to make a gift set for my Step Grandma who recently turned 90. I used the March Birds of a Feather Kit Co. kit.

I apologize for the dark pictures. We've been very overcast and gloomy the last three days. I found this frame at a garage sale for a quarter (ssshhh....don't tell). I liked how it had a large space to embellish.

The tiny type alphabet stickers and ribbon are from my stash. The paper and stickers are from the kit. I popped up a few of the birdhouses for more dimension.

I had some bits and pieces left over so I thought I would make a few cards to add to the package.

The card on the left was lifted from a card I saw on Pinterest (the SRM sticker was from my stash). The one on the right is using a Cardabilties sketch.

And since I still had a few pieces left over that I just couldn't throw away, I altered a little notepad.

I punched three butterflies, layered them and sewed them to the patterned paper.

Each person in the bloghop has a special word. Put them all together and you have a phrase. That is what you need to win some Bella Blvd. goodies valued at $50! M word:

Now hop on over to Lisa's blog to see what goodies she has up her sleeve!

Make sure to visit the Birds Of A Feather site. Amy is having a big sale to help celebrate! We are also having a crop! You can find the message board, where the crop is, here. The grand prize winner gets a BOAF kit! One thing I LOVE about the crops, is that Amy gives you a few extra days to complete all the challenges! The challenges are due on the 12th!

A Hike To Remember Layout using Jillibean Soup

2011-10-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

I have another double pager to share today! I had a TON of picture from this day so I decided to create a two-page layout. I found a sketch over at Sketch Support (sketch #18). Amy has a yummy color combo challenge up this month at Birds of a Feather. I thought of the May BOAF kit that I absolutely LOVE!

I really like all the additional pieces Jillibean Soup offers and so glad Amy put them in the kit. It makes layering and embellishing super easy.

These picture were from a very special hike. My Grandpas property extends up onto Haystack Butte. This is where we have my Grandma, Uncle and Aunts ashes spread. The whole family hiked up to the top to spread my Grandpa's ashes with the rest of the family. It was quite a hike. The views were incredible.

Thanks for stopping by! Check back soon! I'm participating in a blog hop this week that is sure to offer lots of eye candy! If your around this weekend, hop over to Birds of a Feather. We are having a birthday crop! I'd love to see you come join us!

Artful Delight Blog Hop Challenge #3

2011-09-30T14:28:00.000-07:00

Challenge number 3 at the Artful Delight birthday bash blog hop was to use the colors pink, kraft and white! This was a bit of a challenge for me. I don't have much pink and I don't like using

pink. But I gave it a go anyway and this is what I came up with:

Make sure to scroll down as this was my 4th post today!

Artful Delight Blog Hop Challenge #2

2011-09-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

Challenge #2 over at the Artful Delight birthday bash blog hop was a tic tac toe challenge. I really like the tic tac toe challenges! They are so fun! Here is my take on the challenge:

I did some stitching on this one and used a bunch of tiny type stickers from Adornit to finish the sentiment.

With all of these cards I used little bits and pieces from different Cosmo Cricket lines. I really need to work on using up my rand scraps and cards are the perfect way to use up the scraps!

Artful Delight Blog Hop Challenge #1

2011-09-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Second post of the day????? Me????? How could this be? Well, I came across a birthday bash blog hop for Artful Delight! They posted 3 different challenges. Their first challenge was a sketch challenge. I opted to make a card as the challenge ends in 8 hours. I just found out about it today so a card it is. This is my take on the sketch:

Cosmo Cricket Pixie-Licious Layout for The Paper Variety

2011-09-30T11:25:00.000-07:00

The Paper Variety (TPV) posted a great sketch by Aphra Bolyer for this weeks challenge. I love Aphra's work and love playing along with TPV's challenges. Here is the sketch:

Here is my take on it!
These pictures were taken while out camping over Labor Day weekend last year. Like most siblings, mine fight. There are plenty of battles. But they truly do love each other. They hold hands, share snacks, make sure each other get whatever special thing they got. They give each other kisses and hugs. This just melts this Mama's heart and I pray they stay this way!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Fall mix and picture that melt this mama's heart!

2011-09-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

I admit, I am addicted to Pinterest! Such a cool cool site! That is where I found this idea:

You can find it here. And a close up:
I decided to make this for the girls at Chris's work. They seemed to like it! :-) I also sent one with Peyton for his teacher. Now I need to get going on a fun Christmas idea.

This just melts my heart and makes me smile. The first thing Maddy does when she wakes up from her nap is ask about going to school to get Peyton. We try to be there a few minutes early and wait for him in the lobby. Maddy gets so excited when she seems him she screams 'BUDDY' and when he gets close enough she runs up to him for a hug.
I finally remembered my camera to get a picture of it. It happens every day. :-)
Hopefully I will remember it again so I can get a better picture. Notice Maddy's shoes. Yes, those are Peyton's Spiderman sandals. She will wear his shoes and pajamas but WILL NOT wear his jeans!

Headband and Frame Re-do

2011-09-28T12:11:00.000-07:00

I am addicted to these satin flowers! I just love them! Maddy has been complaining about her hair in her face a lot lately. So I picked up a head band. It wasn't very exciting so I decided to make some flowers to glue onto it.

This is what I came up with.

A while back I posted this picture:

This was my $3 garage sale find. After a little spray paint and pulling out a poster I have been wanting to frame for 8+ years, this is what I ended up with:

Sorry the bad pictures. I really do need a new camera.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cards and a layout

2011-09-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last week I needed two cards. A friend posted on Facebook, that one of her cousins is serving a 18 month tour (I can't remember where exactly). His birthday is coming up and she asked, for all those willing too, mail him a birthday card. The other card was a card just to say 'hi' and send updated photos of the kiddos. I struggle with cards so I almost always start off with a sketch. For these cards I happened to use a fantastic sketch from Cardabilities! I love this sketch and know I will be using it in the future!

I used some papers from a 6x6 Basic Grey pad. I never have been interested in the 6x6 pad size. I picked two up at a garage sale for CHEAP and have to admit, they are VERY nice for cards!
This is the birthday card. I pulled scraps from my stash for this one! I also used a SRM sticker. LOVE those stickers!
I also created the 3-d star, figuring a guy probably doesn't really want a flower on his card!

I'm not digging this layout at all. But it is what it is. I had hoped to journal in white and when I couldn't get ANY of my 3 white pens to work, I gave up!
These pictures were from my Grandpa's birthday. I kick myself now for not getting a picture of Grandpa with all the kids. This was taken at an assisted living center where most of the patience had memory issues.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cosmo Cricket Altered File Box

2011-09-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to control paper clutter and mail clutter on our kitchen counter, I bought this box:

We keep random papers, mail, bills to be paid, stuff to be filed, receipts, etc. in it, all nice and organized! It has sat on our kitchen counter just like that for MONTHS! I finally had a chance to alter it recently.
This is the end result. This is the front. I actually had made the yellow piece before Christmas for my bazaar. It was a magnet board. It didn't sell and I liked it so I kept it, even though I had no place to hang it. It worked perfect!
I added another little magnet board to the side that shows.
I opted for super simple magnets as the papers make the file box busy enough.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The Ranch (Jillibean Soup Layout)

2011-09-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

I created this layout for a challenge at Birds of a Feather. I have been wanting to document the history of my Grandpa's house and my Grandpa's life. This challenge was just the push I needed to do a layout about the house and property. I think its missing something. Maybe something in the upper left? An updated layout may appear soon! ;-) I'm linking this to this weeks The Paper Variety Challenge.

I used the May kit from Birds of a Feather. LOVE the May kit full of Jillibean Soup yumminess!
I did a bit of stitching and layering.
Can you read that? haha! Okay if your interested, here is the journaling. Just a warning though, its long. I had to cut a few things out in order to fit in on these two pages and also shrunk the type quite a bit.

The Ranch, to me, is my Grandpa Read's (Herschel Read's) house that was built in the 18 's. *Interesting side note: The house was built by a one legged man.* The house was built on approximately 2000 acres which included part of Haystack Butte.

Perry Read (My Great Great Grandpa), in his early 20s, spent much of his first winter in the region with Barney Prine, who was determined to start the first town in the central part of this newly established state. Soon Perry Read met Hattie Montgomery (my Great Great Grandma) and married her. Perry Read and Hattie Montgomery were among the first of the white settlers in the Grizzly Mountain area, the first area of what would eventually become Jefferson County. Perry Read took a homestead in the Haystack Butte area, where he established a stage stop business. A small town grew in its shadow, called Perryville, in honor of Perry Read. There were two businesses there that eventually moved north a bit and helped form the town of Madras in the 1900's. Perryville had its own post office, run by Orace Collver out of his general store. This town was located where Haystack Reservoir is now located. When the railroad tracks were going up just a couple miles to the west, the entire town picked up and moved. By then, the community called itself Culver, a misspelled reference to the postmaster. Perry Read lived the life of a western stockman, indoctrinating his only son, James Perry Read, into the life as well.

James Perry Read (who went by Jim Read), as a young buck, raised wild horses. Jim would gather the wild horses up and drive them to a military fort in Brownsville, Oregon where he would sell them. One of my mom's (Jennifer Read Hatfield) fondest stories of her Grandpa was this: Grandpa Jim had a very very nice horse. He took a heard of wild horses over to Brownsville to sell. Someone offered him an outrageous amount of money at that time (my mom thought $100) as well as a cow and calf for his horse. Jim took the deal and it took him 30 days to walk the cow and calf from Brownsville to Culver. Along with raising wild horses, Jim cleared the land around the house and started growing wheat. This was around the time the town moved to where Culver is currently located now. James Perry Read (Jim Read) married Florence Belle Read. They had two sons, James Herschel and Howard Kenneth Read.

Herschel Read was born in 1912 and graduated in 1932. He served in the Navy in World War II, returning to take over the family ranch. Sadly, Howard Kenneth never returned from the war. When Herschel Read returned from the war and took over the farm, he didn't like horses and the farm was basically a dry wheat operation. So Herschel raised a few cattle for himself/the family and slowly added in cows in (this is in the late 1940's). Herschel quit growing wheat in late 60's early70's. There was a government program in the 60s' that subsidized farmers. The government paid farmers not to raise wheat due to a surplus. That is when Herschel could make more money NOT raising wheat than to raise wheat. This is when the Ranch turned from a farm to a ranch. During this time he allowed the cattle to graze in those fields. My mom (Jennifer Read Hatfield) was raised in this house. As a child she didn't always have plumbing. When built, there was no electricity or plumbing. They had an ice houses and an out houses. Over the years, the house was updated and added on too. They took out the stove that was in the middle of the living room and added a heating system, although the upstairs still has no heat. They added on a pantry, laundry room and bathroom on the backside of the house as well as a master bedroom and bathroom on the side.

I have so many fond memories of the ranch. One of my favorite memories is the Christmas Eves we spent out there. I don't remember a Christmas Eve as a child anywhere other than at the ranch with all the family. We had clam chowder and my moms cheese bread. I remember trying to sneak past my Uncle Pete to grab an olive when I wasn't supposed to. Uncle Pete turned it into a fun game. I also remember HOURS and HOURS of playing up in the bonus room upstairs with my brother and cousins. They had a stool that spun. We had contests to see who could stay on the longest as others spun us as fast as they could. There was an old secretary’s desk we used to play pretend with and a closet full of toys we liked. On warm summer days my cousin and I would take off exploring. One time the exploration landed us in a pen with a bull and scared the heck out of us. We also liked to walk a ways from the house to where there was an old broken down tractor. We'd pretend we were driving it. So much history, so many memories, The Ranch will forever hold a special place in my heart.

Kudos to you if you made it this far! Thanks so much for stopping by!

August Project 12

2011-09-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

First off, I have the hardest darn time getting a good picture of a 2-page layout. :-l I get quite frustrated. Any tips? I don't have a fancy program that could stitch two individual photos together. All I can do is crop and mess with the colors a tiny teen bit.

Anyhow, this is my layout for August for the Project 12.

I love the fun and bright colors in these papers and on this layout. The sketch had 3 photo spots, but I just couldn't narrow it down to three, so I did 7!
I hand stitched the butterflies paths and also did some machine stitching. I added a few staples around the title just for fun! I barely fit all the journaling from the month in! I doodled around the edge to make it stand out a tad bit more.
I did a bit of doodling too.
Just a few close ups...

As or the journaling, these are some hi-lights as I'm sure its pretty hard to read from the picture. he month was kicked off with my mom treating the kids to an afternoon at Sun Mountain Fun Center. We spent the first weekend in Madras at the DuPont family reunion camp out. I spent the next week getting ready for my garage sale. Al, Linda, Harvey, Janet, Richard, Brenda, Chris, Peyton and Maddy went fishing at Walton Lake while I had my garage sale. The following Monday Harvey and Janet took Maddy and I up to OHSU for Maddy's follow up doctor appointment. That Friday, Milton, Heidi, Chris and I took off for the Willamette Country Music Festival in Brownsville, trailer in tow. I had 2 days at home to unpack, clean and repack before heading to my moms for yet another garage sale. The sale was Friday and Saturday. Saturday afternoon my mom and I went to a beautiful outdoor wedding. Sunday we celebrated my Step Grandma's 90th birthday! We spent quite a bit of time at my parents house this month. We were able to pull out the pool and slide for the kids quite a bit, which they absolutely loved! Peyton also got to go down to the garden with Grandpa John to dig potatoes a couple times. He LOVES helping out in the garden. There have been a handful of lightning storms causing fires all over the place. This caused smoke filled horizons. The last weekend kicked off bow season for Chris.

If you made it through all of that...kudos to you! :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

2 Page Echo Park Layout and First Day of Scool

2011-09-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

I just love this Echo Park line, Splash! LOVE the colors! I created this layout using a sketch from Nuts About Sketches. It was for a color challenge at Birds of a Feather.

A super simple layout.
In case you wanted to see each page closer.
The pictures are from our road trip last summer to see my brother in law and sister in law who lived in Core D'Alene Idaho. We were supposed to pull our trailer over there and camp nearby. But, we lost the transmission in our truck. :-( We debated cancelling the whole trip. I am so glad we didn't as we had a lot of fun. We took the kids to Silverwood Theme Park. What a neat neat place! I'd love to take them back some day! I wasn't sure what to expect, so bought a disposable camera. I was quite disappointed in how they came out.

I'm entering this into the TPV challenge this week, which was to use stickers. The big flourish/wave and the sun journaling spot are stickers. The title is alpha stickers too!

Monday was Peyton's first day of Kindergarten! He was VERY excited! If you look closely, you'll see Maddy had her back pack on too. She thought she got to go too!
This is what happened when I asked Peyton to smile and show how excited he was.
I was so proud of him. he walked right in, sat where the teacher told him to sat and that was that! :-) No tears, no 'Mommy don't leave me', nothing! Poor Maddy sat down next to him and refused to get up! I had to pack her out. :-(

Thanks for stopping by!

Teachers Gift

2011-09-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Because I am a slacker, I didn't get Peyton's teacher's gift made til after we had our conference. But, I did make it and will send it with him tomorrow, for his first day of school!

The Paper Variety's last challenge for the blogiversary party was to use your favorite embellishment. I LOVE tiny type alphas. I've been using them a lot lately! The tiny types were perfect for this tag as my printer is down and a lot of letters were needed.

I saw this quote somewhere out there in blogdom and it stuck with me. 'I hope your new year starts out smoothly'. Cheesy I know...but I thought it was cute!

So I made a tag to slip onto a bottle of lotion I picked up. Since the bottle was orange, I decided to make sure that color was in the tag. I have a few bits and pieces from Scenic Route left in my stash and have been itching to use them. I happened to have almost exactly the right sizes of papers to alter the bag! I just love it when things work out like that and I don't' have to throw away paper!
Just a quick and simple tag and card!

Thanks for stopping by!

More Cards for The Paper Variety Blogiversary!

2011-09-10T15:49:00.000-07:00

The Paper Variety is having a big party for their one year blog anniversary! Every day is a new challenge. Today's challenge was to create a monochromatic project. I REALLY struggle with monochromatic challenges. But I love playing along with TPV so I decided to make an attempt with a card.

I started off by opening up my inspiration file and found a card I saw posted a long time ago on the Jillibean Soup blog.
I was also inspired by some of their embellies that I am to cheap to buy, but think I can make! ;-) So I glued some yarn in a circle pattern to a piece of paper, layered it on top of a piece of felt, on top of a couple scalloped netting circles and topped it off with a button.

TPV challenge yesterday was to create a project using your favorite photos. I have a couple favorite photos. I recently read that this Sunday is Grandparents Day! What? Yes...I need to mark this on next years calendar so I can better prepare for it. I decided to make some quick cards for the Grandparents.
I made 4, each one different.
But these two were some of my favorite photos. I used a sketch from Cardablities for these cards!

Now those who know me well, know I love to garage sale. I was able to go out all by myself today! And I LOVED every minute of it! :-) I was able to pick up two Christmas presents for Peyton! :-) A killer deal for a friend. And this frame for $3:
Pardon the clutter behind the photo. I am still in the process of cleaning the garage. I cleaned it up and spray painted it! I'm now waiting for Chris to get back so I can have two extra hands to put my poster in it! The poster had been rolled for at least 8 years, so its hard to handle. Check back soon to see me finished product!

A Couple Cards

2011-09-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Amy at Birds of a Feather challenged us to come up with a creative way to use up alphas. I saw this idea a LONG time ago and finally got around to try it!

I bought some plain pearl headed straight pins a while back. I love being able to alter them to fit whatever project I am working on. I simply glued on a orange and black bead to jazz them up a bit!

Can I just say, this is one of my favorite color combos? I just LOVE it!

The Paper Variety is celebrating their one year blog anniversary ALL week and weekend! They have challenges, prizes and give-aways so be sure to swing by and check it out. Their challenge yesterday was to stamp. I'm NOT a stamper. I really struggle with it. I do have a little stash of sentiments for cards. One of my cousins daughters birthday is this weekend and I thought I'd whip up a card real quick for her. I used a sketch from Cardabilities.
The colors seem kinda wonky in the photo, but in real life it looks much better!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2011-09-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Whats this...I scrapped? Can it be true? haha! August was a whirl wind month and the last 3 weeks of it left me no time to scrap. So far I have been trying my hardest to catch up around the house and with different projects after being gone so much which has meant no scrapping time too! I was able to sneak in a few minutes last night and this morning!

Its kinda hard to think about snow when its in the 90's! But these photos happened to be towards the top of my stack of photos and worked perfect for the sketch challenge this month at Birds of a Feather. As I was working on it, I noticed The Paper Variety's challenge today (for the blogiversary event) was to use your favorite manufacturer! Yay...this layout works perfect for it too!

I distressed a lot of edges, including the pictures. I wanted to sew, but was too lazy, sew I drew on lines instead!
Side note: If your looking for a friendly message board check out Birds of a Feather. Everyone is SUPER sweet and its small enough you don't feel totally overwhelmed when you join! Amy has great challenges each month too! Also, you will want to check out The Paper Variety this week! it is their one year anniversary and they are having a PARTY! Lots of inspiration challenges and prizes! So head on over there and check it out!

Monday morning, during my regular Craigslist searching, I came across a play structure for a excellent price! I was SUPER excited and called on it right away. Chris was a trooper, and even though he needed to get his bow fixed he went with me to check out the play structure. Yes...his bow broke during hunting season...worse of yet, it broke his arrow and the arrow landed on a buck right underneath the tree stand he was in...talk about timing! It turned into a all-day event! But this mama is VERY happy as are the kiddos!
We got it home and got the swing arm off and with all my body weight put into, I could even budge the dang thing, so I knew I wouldn't be able to help Chris. So I marched over to the neighbors house and asked for help! :-) I love having great neighbors!
Ta-da! It is all set up. Although I had to order new swings as the ones they had were broken.

On Wednesday I had a conference with Peyton's Kindergarten teacher. I'm really excited and think it is going to be a great year. I had a bad mommy moment and accidentally shut one of his fingers in the door on the way there. :-( NOT a good way to start off the year.
So I just got this sad pathetic, I will not smile for the camera, shot of him. :-(
Then once inside the classroom, the teacher tried to talk to him and he all out broke down. Which caused Maddy to get upset, which caused me to feel even worse than I had. So I did not get a picture of Peyton with his teacher as I had planned.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

An afternoon by the lake layout

2011-09-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

I lifted a layout found here for this layout! My super sweet friend Karen won this super cute October Afternoon line on Julie Bonner's blog. Knowing how much I love the outdoors and camping, she had Julie send it to me! I am attempting to do her justice with the layouts I create using it! ;-)

At Birds of A Feather (in July, or maybe it was August????), they challenged us to scraplift a layout from the gallery. I LOVE to scraplift!

We are so lucky in that this lake is only 5-10 minutes from our house! :-0 Yep, we don't spend hardly time there either. :-( This must change, right?

We have had a busy busy weekend as usual. Chris was in a golf tournament Wednesday through Friday. Then squeezed in some hunting. Saturday morning we took off to the first OSU football game! This would be my first game (or at least first game I remember) and Peyton's first game!
He really was not a fan of the 3+ hour drive to get there or the horrid line getting into the game. But he had some fun on a few jumpy houses they had outside the stadium.
Our seats were WAY UP in the corner! This was our view. I told Chris if I looked down I felt like I was going to get sick.
Peyton did good. But considering it the car told us it was 96 degrees when we got back to it, its no wonder he only made it to half time.
This morning Chris went out to the garden with the kids while I made lunch. Peyton was SUPER excited to pull some carrots and beans!
Maddy...she just wanted to do what Peyton did.
Once again, they went out WITHOUT me and DID NOT get pictures. So we went out again and dug up some potatoes!

I am a Craigslist junkie....I am a garage sale junkie....there I said it. I feel much better now! haha! I saw a posting on Craigslist and this gal was giving up scrapbooking! *gasp* I know! So I scheduled to meet her Saturday morning. My plans changed, so I didn't get over there til this morning. I'm a tad disappointed as she said a gal went over yesterday and got a TON of stuff. :-( But I was able to score some great finds!

I found a handful of cardstock, some random pieces to some of my favorite lines, some yummy Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstock.
I found a stack of DCWV cardstock (not my fave, but at the same time, so excited to get some more cardstock) some fall glitter cardstock (I'm thinking flowers for home decor items) and the Basic Grey Granola stack!
Basic Grey Eerie Set and doilies.
Special glue, fuzz/flock and glitter (not sure if I'll use them, but couldn't pass them up) as well as a couple punches for my mom!
A 6x6 BG paper stack, 2 Sizzix die cuts, Tim Holtz metal pieces (almost new packages) and grungeboard album, FAMILY chipboard album by Bo Bunny, Autumn Leaves papers and chipboard pieces, flowers, pop dots and more! Anyone heard of Pearl Ex pigments? Yeah...got some...not sure what to do with it. haha! I spent over an hour looking through this gals stuff and chit-chatting with her! She was SUPER sweet! My total for the day was only...are you ready for it....are you sure?...$20! I am one lucky duck!

Now off to put my goodies away and scrap! I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday weekend!

Maddy's 2nd Birthday

2011-09-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

I finally got to scrap yesterday! It feels like it has been FOREVER! While on Pinterest, Karen had pinned a new sketch from Pretty Little Studio. I was SUPER excited about the sketch as it worked really well for The Paper Variety challenge this week too (to create a birthday project and include a banner). So I went to work! I had ordered these cute little banner pieces from Pretty Little Studio and they just so happened to work out perfect for this layout.

I didn't get many good pictures from Maddy's 2nd birthday. So I had to make do with what I had. I inked everything with charcoal colored inkpad.
I wanted the title to stand out a bit so put it on a layered journaling spot I made.
I twisted some bakers twine for the banner and made a couple 3-d stars to finish off the banner.

The Paper Variety is having their 1 year blogiversary next week! They have lots in store for us all, so make sure to check it out!

Dinosaurs Layout

2011-08-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

I created this layout a while back for a sketch challenge at a Birds of a Feather crop.

I wanted to document Peyton's love of dinosaurs. I keep picking up dinosaur papers and stickers and am just now using them!
I doodled a circle and added little footprint stickers.
I also doodled a line around the photos and the journaling lines.

Man oh man have I been super busy! Out o

f the past twelve days, this will be my third full day home! To say I a'm pooped is an understatement. To say I am tired of packing is even a bigger understatement. Thursday last week started by loading the Tahoe for our weekend and then heading to story time. We were told there would be a real bunny for the kids to pet. The kids were quite disappointed when the gal who was going to bring the rabbit wasn't able to make it. They did, however, have fun making their bunny ears!
After the story time we headed to Madras to get ready for our garage sale. This kids did lots of this:
while I was getting things set up and having the garage sale. The kids have so much fun going down the slide into the pool. We had enough stuff left over we decided to have the sale Saturday morning also.

We are on fire....literally, there are TONS of fires around us! This was the view from my parents house. You couldn't even see the butte maybe 3 miles away or the mountains! It has been REALLY bad. Left ashes all over my car and anything else we left outside. I think its the cause of my headaches. Sunday afternoon after packing up our garage sale leftovers, my mom and I headed to a wedding. It was a TON of fun and I wish I could have stayed longer. It was beautiful, even with the smoke filled sky. It was out in a farm field. They did a fabulous job setting it up. I wish I would have taken my camera to get more pictures!

The smoke was so thick that I had to take a shower when I got home as my hair and clothes REEKED of smoke!

Peyton LOVES to help my dad in the garden and he got to go dig up potatoes twice during this visit!
Sunday afternoon was my Grandma's 90th birthday! She came into our lives about 15-16 years ago (I think) after my Grandmother past away! She is such a sweet lady and we are lucky to have her in our lives.
My brother and his kids were there. It was really funny, Peyton, Maddy and Jazzy (my niece) were hiding under the table from Jaymeson (my nephew...who is 15 months). He was picking on them all so they decided to find a spot and block him out! haha! It was pretty funny how the little one dominated all three of the older ones! He was quite the bully!

I was wiped out when we got home! It took all I had to unload the Tahoe , unpack and start laundry! Now on to another crazy week!

If you have some time, check out this blog hop here. She makes and sells the CUTEST handmade embellies! You can see her Etsy store here. Best of all, if you check out one of the blogs in the blog hop, you can get a code for free shipping! Happy enabling!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Stay tuned! I'm going to be having a give-away soon!

Music Festival Fun

2011-08-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

Man has this been one crazy busy summer! I've been gone more than I've been home the last couple of weeks! Friday morning we took off for the Willamette Country Music Festival. We were blessed to be able to access three sets of Grandparents in order to be gone almost 4 days! :-0 Nothing like passing them off the kids three times in one day! They had a blast and were spoiled as usual!

We took off Friday morning with Chris's cousin and her husband with the trailer in tow. A few hours later we arrived at the event. This was our first year going so we weren't really sure what to expect. We were greeted and told to stay on the path and watch out for the ditches so we don't get stuck. :-0 I tried to get a picture out the window and this is what I got!

Are you liking that angle? haha! This is pretty much where it was located. A huge field mowed down!
We were trying to figure out where our camp spot was. We really liked ours. In the very back and nobody behind us or beside us!
Once set up we did a little relaxing before the events got started.
And a little sunning....
Here we are, ready to roll on the first night! Left to right is our cousin Heidi, Milton, me and Chris!
Did I mention we were way in the back? It was a bit of a walk to the event. But that is okay with us. We only had to cross one ditch and that was actually quite entertaining! There were over 1000 camp spots! We dubbed this guy Papa Smurf. heehee... He was quite a flirt and asked quite a few of us girls to dance.
The concerts didn't start until 2ish. It was upper 80's to lower 90's so we hung out in the shade quite a bit.
Upon entrance, the Marines had a booth set up. You could win a shirt if you did 26 pull ups (for a guy) or hang there with your chin above the bar for 70 seconds. Chris got me to try it and I'm proud to say, I won a shirt! And a nice shirt at that! :-) I was a little embarrassed stepping on the Marine's let to reach the bar. But like Chris said, that he wouldn't be a marine if I hurt him stepping on him real quick. lol...
There were TONS of people!
Group picture again!
I don't know who the guy in the white shirt on the right was. But he was cracking us up as I was taking pictures! Chris started a civil war chant war. It got LOUD!
I think this is the only picture of the two of us we got the whole time!
Chris was a fantastic chef, cooked us breakfast burritos and he and Milton made a excellent chicken and stir fry!
We played some cards and 10,000.
One last crazy shot on the last night.
I'm not sure what we were doing...but we were having fun!

The last day was SUPER hot! See the line of outhouses. YUCK! YUCK YUCK!
This was our view from the beer garden. Not a great one, but the crowds were HUGE and this was closer than if we were in the general area.

We saw Diamond Rio, Steve Azar, Phil Vassar, Alan Jackson, Amy Clawson, Little Big Town and Blake Shelton! Yep...jam packed weekend full of music and fun! So much fun we've reserved our camp spot for next year already!

My stomach ACHED by the second day from laughing so hard. So many memories, so much fun! Thanks to my hubby and cousins for such a weekend!

July 2011's Project 12

2011-08-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

I have been LOVING participating in Project 12. I think it is the neatest idea and one I will treasure for a long long time! My journaling struggles sometimes. I document events and wish I would be better documenting about the kids, the things they say and their personalities. Hopefully I can remember to do that in August.

I loved July's sketch! This Echo Park line jumped out to me when I was going through my papers.
July was such a busy month that journaling spot wasn't big enough! :-0 I drew a line around the edges of the kraft paper just to give it a more finished feel. This layout is very simple. I ran out of time and ran out of ideas on how to jazz it up.
Those little glass beads on the banner, or whatever they are, I found at my Grandpa's house while cleaning it after the estate sale. I thought they'd be perfect for scrapbooking!

In case your wondering about the journaling it went something like this: July started with the end of Em's summer visit. Followed by the 4th of July with a bbq at a friends house and watching the fireworks from the front lawn. Peyton had gymnastics twice a week (which he LOVED) and we also had the library summer reading program. The grandparents kept the kids for a weekend so Chris and I could attend the Customer Appreciation Concerts put on by his work. We had A BLAST seeing Dirt Drifters. My Uncle Dale passed away. We ended the month camping at Walton Lake (love that place) and attending a cousin significant others funeral and spending time with the family. We were on the run a lot. Anytime we knew we were going to be at my moms, she'd fill up the pool for them. They spent HOURS in this pool with a slide.

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Card

2011-08-18T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Paper Variety's challenge this week is to use threads (baker's twine, ribbon, sewing thread, etc). Here is my take on the challenge.

The papers and bird sticker came from March Birds of a Feather kit. The felt rick-rack is from my stash as well as the SRM sentiment sticker.

Last week was the local fair. I took the kids on Thursday to see how our entries into the open class crafts did. We also stopped by the animals. Trying to get both kids to look at me for a nice picture was not in the cards this day.
We returned Friday night with Chris to hit the carnival. Peyton REALLY wanted to walk though this maze. When we got up there, he wouldn't go by himself so Chris ended up going through it with him.
Yeah...I don't think Chris was overly thrilled with this and will probably hack my account and delete this picture if he ever discovers it!
Next we headed to the game area.
Who knew that they'd charge $5 for 3 darts! :-0 Who knew that Peyton would pop 4 balloons with 3 darts! :-0 With four balloon we still only got a cheezy little stuffed animal.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a fun weekend in store!

Mini Album or card? You decide!

2011-08-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I can't believe how much of a slacker I have been this summer posting! I think I have been gone more than I have been home!

Last week was my Dad's, Chris's and my Grandmother-in-law's birthday! I wanted to do make something for my Grandmother-in-law but wasn't quite sure what to do. After some thinking, this is what I came up with:

Is it a card or a mini? I can't decide what to call it. haha! This is a Daisy D's Cd Mini Book. Or so that is what the package said. I made the flower on the front. I glued some yarn on a punched circle, then layered it on a piece of burlapy type material. I then took some Jenni Bowlin Crepe Paper Ribbon and gathered it a bit as I glued it the burlap.
When you open it up, you have a pocket on the left and the right side is flap that can be opened. There are three tabbed pieces too. I opted to put them in the pocket.

Here it is with the flap open.
And some of the tabbed pages....
I changed my photos to sepia as the colors just clashed big time if I didn't.

What do we do when we actually get a day at home?
Why dress up of course.
And go shopping! For some reason they call the laundry basket a shopping cart and like to push each other around in it. Maddy struggles pushing Peyton, but still tries!
Pardon the top missing. :-S She tends to have a mind of her own these days and when we are home its just not worth a fight!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cosmo Cricket Challenge

2011-08-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I hope you all are having a great weekend, or had one (depending on when you read this).

I host a challenge for Cosmo Cricket at Scrapbook.com. This month I challenged everyone to use more than one photo on their layout. Easy peasy, right? You can see the challenge here. I'd love it if you came and played along! The winner gets some goodies from Cosmo Cricket and their layout featured on the Cosmo Cricket blog! All you need to do is create a layout using more than one picture and that is 90% Cosmo Cricket and then post it here.

Here are two layouts I've created using Cosmo Cricket that have more than one picture:

Thanks for stopping by!

You make me Happy layout using Cosmo Cricket DeLovely

2011-08-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is one of my favorite pictures of Maddy from last summer. I thought the DeLovely line from Cosmo Cricket was just perfect for it. I used a sketch from Sketchalicious that Amy had posted at Birds of a Feather in July.

I wish I had a good computer program to edit pictures. The colors in the picture above are off. :-(
I had fun sewing on this layout!

I am linking this layout up to the The Paper Variety for their challenge this week. If you haven't checked out TPV, head on over there! They always have great challenges!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Simple Camping Layout using Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy

2011-08-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

I have had very little scrappy time lately. We had a family reunion this past weekend that took me a couple days to get ready for as it was all weekend. It was a blast. I am so fortunate to have married into such a fantastic family! I've also been spending a lot f time going through things to get rid of and pricing stuff for my garage sale this weekend! That and making presents for two of the three birthdays we have this week!

Here is a layout I created a week or two ago. Just a quick and simple layout. I love the Mr. Campy line by Cosmo Cricket! This was for a challenge at the Birds of a Feather crop. The challenge was to create a layout about what you are doing or have done THIS summer and journal at least three sentences.

The pictures were from our Memorial Day camp trip. We played games, napped by the fire (well, I didn't...but Chris did), went and explored new territory and enjoyed sitting by the campfire at night. The picture of the fire is right after Chris through our Christmas tree on the fire! It was pretty fun to watch!
The chipboard letters didn't really match color-wise, so I distressed them so nobody would notice!

Thanks for stopping by!

Em's Visit Layout using Echo Park

2011-08-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

I created this layout a while back for a Birds of a Feather crop. I used the Little Girl line by Echo Park! I used pink! I used pink! Are you shocked? I am! ;-)

I apologize for the bad pictures. I couldn't get a good one at the time and have forgotten to go back and retake it. Looking at it here, I wish I hadn't put that bird sticker on there...its to cluttery right there. I'm wondering if I can pull it off without messing up the layout?
Every summer my Cousin Emily and her two girls come up to visit us. I look forward to their visits every year! I sure wish they lived a lot closer so we could spend more time together. I'm so far behind, that these are pictures from last years visit!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Silly Kids Layout

2011-08-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

This is a quick and simple layout I created using sketch #47 by Helen at Scrap A Little. The Paper View challenged us to use circles on a paper project this week. I LOVE me some polka dot paper! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Camping

2011-08-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

**Warning: This is a picture heavy post. **

Chris took a weeks vacation last week. We had plans set, hotel rooms booked, doctor appointments scheduled and then things started going to pot. Maddy's doctors appointment 3 hours away was rescheduled and then we had to be back two days earlier than planned for a funeral. So we scrapped all our plans and took off camping! This was Chris's decision and I think it was an excellent one. We've been wanting to go up to Walton Lake. It is only about a half hours drive from our house! :-)

Here we are:

This is our views...you can see some of the lake. It was so nice to be so close to walk too!

The first thing the kids did was ride their scooters back and forth.

We needed some campfire wood so we took off for a little drive to see what we could find.

Of course Peyton wanted to help.

And because Peyton did, Maddy did....

While helping Chris load the wood into the back of the truck I came across these. They brought back so many memories! These were my wildland firefighting gloves from way back in the day before kids.

Oh Walton Lake...how I love you...how I wish I could have a cabin right here to go to often....

Yes, those were capris that were more like shorts, paired with a camo jacket and rain-boots. She is quite stylish!

We went for a drive to Allen Creek Reservoir. I found a new place I want to camp. This would definitely be a Chris and me, no kids and tenting it trip. The road is pretty rough getting in there, but man, is it beautiful and so incredibly peaceful.

This photo is the works of Peyton.

The kids had a blast throwing rocks into the water. I got Peyton to wade in with me til his shorts got wet. But he wouldn't go swimming because we forgot his swim trunks.

Maddy didn't care to sit and wait for the fish to bite. So I'd take off for a walk around the lake with her. They closed down the lake last year to re-do the camp spots and the trail around the lake as well as kill off all the fish and restock the lake. Peyton was quite the fisherman. He caught 15 fish total! A few times he didn't have his line in the water but 2 minutes before he caught a fish! He learned to cast all on his own and DID NOT want anyone touching his pole when he was casting, he wanted to do it all by himself!
The kids cracked me up. They got restless, whiny and cranky, but also had lots of fun together.

We had a lot of fun!

As if that wasn't enough to wear the kids out (think, no naps and late nights) we got home Friday morning. Unloaded the trailer, did a few loads of laundry to load back in the trailer, packed for another weekend away and took off again! We had a birthday party, a funeral and Chris had a golf tournament Saturday and Sunday. All that called for staying where it was all located. I spent some time at my moms just hanging out. The kids were able to hop in the pool and play some on Sunday. They could spend HOURS in the little pool and going down the slide.

I also caught Maddy climbing into an exersaucer! She cracks me up!

I've been playing catch up since being gone so much and have another busy weekend and week to plan for. Wish me luck! At some point, life will slow down, right? We have a family reunion weekend camp out, 'I'm heading out to visit a on-line friend for the first time, we have three birthdays and a garage sale, all within a matter of 9 days! :-0

So as you can see, I haven't been home. I do, however have some new layouts to share with you. So check back soon!

Stuck On U Sketches & Creative Cuts & More Summer Mini Album Blog Hop

2011-07-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Summer Mini Album Blog Hop sponsored by Creative Cuts and More! The hop is being hosted by Stuck On U Sketches and Creative Cuts and More (their blog is Die Cut Diva).

I am so honored, Terry at Creative Cuts and More called and asked me if I'd be interested in participating in this mini album blog hop! Of course I jumped at the opportunity! Today's blog hop consists of Design Team members from both Stuck On U Sketches and Creative Cuts and More (which I have previously designed for). If you want to start at the beginning now, head over to Stuck On U Sketches. Make sure to read to the very bottom where you will find a coupon code to Creative Cuts and More.

I started off with the Circle Window 6"x6" Album. The Sweet Summertime line by Echo Park jumped out at me when I found out the theme was summer.

I opted to let the chipboard show. I'm loving the look of kraft on my layouts and figured I would test it out on a mini. I'm really happy with out it came out. I fussy cut clouds and the banner triangles and then used the Echo Park alpha stickers for the title. The grass at the bottom was cut using a Sizzix die and then overlapping the pieces a tad.

This is the inside cover! I'm still not 100% sure exactly what I'm going to do with it, but I have a few ideas rolling around in my head. I think I might add some photos to the right page above and below the circle.

A close up of the inside of the cover.

I was inspired by the pinwheel patterned paper and pinwheels in some of the stickers. I created my own pinwheel on the left hand side.

Here I used the super cute Filmstrip (small) and put different patterned papers underneath.

I made a couple more of those fun little pinwheels.

I used the Scallop Oval Fram #02 - Large on these pages. I cut them in half. The butterflies are from a couple Martha Stewart punches I have.

I just love these flowers. They are two of the Flower #06 - Small. I layered two of them and used a sticker for the center.

I have recently seen some really cute pop up cards. I got to thinking that they would be fun to put in a mini!

This is the Pop Up 2A Insert Horizontal Pop Up Bar.

I used a Scallop Circle Frame Small on each of these pages.

I used the Pop Up card insert again on the final page.

And the final page...I'm not sure what I'm going to do in the center. Maybe 'Made by' and the year. Maybe a quote. I used the Filigree Square Label with Squares.

Kudos to you if you made it through all those photos!

Now hop on over to Kim Langhorst's blog!

Make sure to:

1. Become a follower of each blog

2. Leave a comment on each blog

3. Leave a comment on Die Cut Diva letting Terry know you stopped at all the blogs.

Die Cut Diva will then pick one lucky winner that will in our amazing blog hop give away that is sponsored to us by Creative Cuts & More. The winner will be announced on the SOUS and Die Cut Diva Blogs on August 5th. So do stop by and see if you are the lucky winner!

The hop today consist of DT members from both Stuck On U Sketches and Creative Cuts and More. We will be showcasing the minis in alphabetical order and the order is as follows.

Beginning at the SOUS Blog then on to:

1. Annette Gearside

2. Beatriz Guzman

3. Becky Voth

4. Bonnie Friesen

5. Dawn Gallop
6. Dawn Lotharius
7. Fern Riley
8. Kayla DuPont <-----YOU ARE HERE
9. Kim Langhorst <-------GO HERE
10. Kristine Reynolds
11. Leah Schaeffer
12. Melissa Waldorf
13. Nanne Harry
14. Noelle Reese
15. Sandi Clarkson
16. Stine Ursin
17. Taylor Usry
18. Wanda Boardley
19. Die Cut Diva

With that being said, I hope you hop along and enjoy all the inspiration and eye candy! Your first stop is SOUS. Thank you so much for stopping by today and have fun!

One more quick thing, Creative Cuts & More is also offering our readers a 20% discount this week! Just use discount code SOUS20 during check out to save 20% off your entire order!

My Beautiful Family Layout

2011-07-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hello all! Birds of a Feather had a crop this weekend (you have til Wednesday to upload your layouts). One of the challenges was to use a photo that was 5x7 or larger! I have had this photo taken at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's wedding last summer for a while. I was having a hard time getting started on it. While at the Horse Races a few weekends back I saw a full page ad in their pamphlet that really jumped out at me so I tore it out and put it in my purse! :-)

This is what I ended up with:

I wish the photo was netter, I may try to retake it after I get the correct butterflies. I spent A TON of time cutting the papers just right and stitching everything! I'm not sure I'd do it again. haha! Part way through stitching around the circle Peyton came up and pushed a button on the sewing machine! :-0 I'm not sure what he did...but he changed my stitch! It adds character right? I was bummed when I got done with the stitching and realized I had forgot to ink each piece of patterned paper.

I made some satin flowers to go with the layout. They seemed to go well with the papers.
Lots and lots of stitching!
I used Cosmo Cricket Tiny Types and American Crafts Thickers for the title. The lace is layered on a piece of brown ribbon. I wanted something in the upper right corner of the photo and by the title to create a triangle (ya know...rule of 3 and triangle rule in design). I had this cute little brown butterfly that seemed to fit. But wished it was pink. I then remembered I had bought Maddy hair clips with butterflies on them. I searched and found a clip under the recliner. ;-) It was bent up and not overly pretty, but it would work for the picture til I could order some more butterflies! I hope to be able to order a itty bitty pink one and one similar to the size I have by the title. I might even order a couple extra in case one would look good by my satin flowers! Most of the papers are Basic Grey. There are a few pieces that I pulled from my stash and can't remember their brands.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Make sure and stop back by Friday to see my mini album and play along in the blog hop I'm participating in!

Breath Taking layout and Garage Sale Finds

2011-07-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

I've been having a lot of fun playing at Birds of a Feather Crop! I have gotten a couple layouts and a couple cards done! Wahoo! Chris has been fantastic at keeping the kids entertained and their needs met so I could scrap away! :-)

One of the challenges at the BOAF crop was to scrap a photo of an inanimate object! :-0 I had to think hard about this one. When I was thumbing through my photos I came across a few photos I have been putting off. It just so happens, the sketch worked perfect for the photos. Karen told me about the Pretty Little Studio. They post a sketch on their blog and I decided to play along with it.

I LOVE this Crate Paper line! The papers and die cuts seemed to go well with the pictures.
I scored and sanded a line around the edges to give it a little umph. The brown circle is attached to my journaling spot.

These photos were taken the day we hiked to the top of Haystack to spread my Grandpa's ashes. This is where we spread my Grandma, Aunt and Uncles ashes here and this is where I hope to have my ashes spread. Its so beautiful up there. Its quite a bit of a hike, but so well worth it! The lower photo is showing a lot of my Grandfathers land that has been in the family for over 150 years. This land holds so much history.

Don't f0rget I am participating in this next week:

I was able to get out and garage sale a bit Friday and Saturday. I found a few games for 75 cents each!
I LOVE Uno and its been years since I've played! Peyton seemed to enjoy it so I see lots of Uno in our future.
This game was BRAND NEW! :-0 Peyton has had a blast with it and it will be perfect for Chris's family reunion coming up in a few weekends.
This was a fun game too. We played it quite a few times.

I found a few other things too. I was very excited to find a 3-wheeled Princess scooter with a basket on front. And for only $3! Maddy LOVES her 'princess' scooter! A chalk board to alter for my scrap space, a pair of really nice black Levi dress pants for Maddy for a buck. Some other odds and ends too!

I'm still hoping to hit a good garage garage sale that has clothes for both kids. I haven't had much luck in the clothes area so far this year!

I'd love to hear what you were up too this weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cute cute cute buttons and blog hop!

2011-07-21T07:44:00.001-07:00

While blog hopping, I followed a link to these buttons. Go check them out! The blog is cute too and there is currently a give-away going on!

See...super cute, huh?

Also, make sure and stop by later next week. I'm participating in this:
I am super excited about my mini! Want a sneak peek?

I used the Echo Park Sweet Summertime line! :-)

Papa's Girl No Patterned Paper Layout and CROP!!!

2011-07-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

Amy challenged us over at Birds of a Feather to create/alter our own background paper! I thought to myself...okay, that's not so bad. You could stamp, use paint or mist....but then I kept reading to hear an additional twist, after all it is a 'challenge', right? The twist...you couldn't use patterned paper!!!! Here is my take on the challenge using a sketch from Creative Scrappers.

Looking at it after I glued everything down really well, I wish I would have moved the title out a bit. Somethings kinda off but I can't figure out what.
I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the squares and a Martha Stewart punch for the butterflies.
Thank you to Karen for this super cute butterfly! Its just perfect for this layout!

I found this picture on my parents computer. Maddy's puckered lips crack me up. I can't remember when it was taking but guessed it was Winter of 2009.

This also works for the challenge over at The Paper Variety. Their challenge this week is all the colors of the rainbow or grids. I created a grid with my embossed squares. Head on over and play along! TPV is such a fun challenge blog!

What do you have going on this weekend? Do you feel like scrapping? Head over to Birds of a Feather. There is going to be a crop! Amy always comes up with fun challenges and we always have a great time! Challenges start Friday morning! Head over there soon as Laura has already posted the Bingo words!

Capture the Moments using Cosmo Cricket DeLovely

2011-07-17T15:57:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon! I hope you all had a great weekend! Anyone get to do anything fun? I had a night out with Chris at the local horse races. Its a pretty big deal around here and I had A BLAST!

I had a lot of fun with this layout! Love how cheery and fun the DeLovely line is to work with!

This is Maddy last summer riding their roller coaster! The kids just LOVE the roller coaster. On our last move, it ended up staying at my moms cause we don't have room for it. My dad keeps threatening to get rid of it, but I have to remind him how much the kids LOVE it!

Last week, or was it the week before???? I'm all confused as to what day it is and where we are in the month! Anyhow, I chatted with my long lost twin, Karen, on Skype for the very first time! :-) My kids were not so cooperative. Peyton didn't quite understand why they couldn't just come over to play. ;-) But it was fun to see them and chat with them! I hope to be able to do so again soon. Karen took this picture and I sure wish I would have thought to do the same thing! Next time!

Echo Park My Little Travelers Layout

2011-07-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

When I saw this layout, I knew instantly that I wanted to lift it. Love everything about it! So much so, I'm sure I'll use it for inspiration again in the future!

I've had this adorable Little Man line by Echo Park for a bit now and thought it perfect for these pictures of the kiddos in their car seats. They are such good travelers (most of the time). We tend to go a lot and since moving 35-40 min. from our hometown, we seem to spend a lot more time in the car. They were just too darn cute to not take pictures of this particular day. No, I wasn't driving, Chris was.

This line was SO much fun to work with! Its super busy, but I like it! :-)

I LOVE the alpha stickers that come with the kit. I inked everything with a dark color.
The banner in just orange wasn't doing it for me. So I layered it a couple times.
I fussy cut a cloud, then traced and cut it out of the blue and white polka dot paper.
I had so much fun with this layout! Thank you April for your inspiration!

I'm posting it over at The Paper Variety for their photo challenge this week too! LOVE the colors in the photo shared. Go check it out! That photo is FULL of great ideas!

We were invited to a bbq on the 4th of July. Pinterest can be a bad thing for me. I found these and knew I had to make them for the bbq:
Strawberry Margarita Jello Shots! Man were they delicious and didn't last long at the bbq we went too! Not the best of pictures...but what can I say, I'm not a good photographer. ;-)

I also made some of these:
The kids LOVED the chocolate dipped pretzels.

And finally these:

Our friends have the PERFECT house for summer bbq's.

Maddy had fun in the pool. Peyton fell in. It was quite funny, but he didn't think so.
Above, the kids were not scared of the rubber fishy (like the rubber ducky) war that was going on! Those fish were whizzing. Peyton still has a bruise where he got tagged with one! :-0 He didn't cry when he got hit though and it didn't stop him from continuing to gather the fish that escaped the pool!

Yes...a few hours of sun and play and we come home and do this:
Okay, WE didn't, Chris, Peyton and Maddy did!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

June Project 12

2011-07-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I finished this layout yesterday and couldn't wait to share it with you! It is my June Project 12 layout!

I instantly fell in love with June's sketch! We had such a busy month it was hard to narrow down the photos. The sketch had 5 photos, but I snuck in an extra one! I was having a hard time getting a good photo. Thanks Karen for helping me get the colors adjusted! The papers and chipboard are Cosmo Cricket and the stickers are Echo Park!

A close up of the left side. We had Adam and Adina's wedding, the Round Up Cattle Drive and Parade and the Carnival and Rodeo all within two weeks!
Now the right side. Peyton raced his stick horse at the rodeo. Peyton had two days a week. We finished off the month with my cousins yearly week long visit! I struggled with how to do the journaling. In the end, I decided to cut strips and outline them, adhering them to each photo. I wanted to make sure and note that Peyton also graduated preschool (which my pictures from it came out HORRIBLE) and that we spent the week at my moms house when my cousin was here. So I added a few extra strips and matted them on the dark brown cardstock to tie in with the dark brown title. Now for some close ups! This layout was pretty time consuming. But in the end I'm very happy with the results. I did some stitching on the patterned papers. I love how stitching looks on layouts and wish I did it more often. I also did some paper curling. I bought a quilling tool and it made the curling so much easier! The bracket shape I found on-line and printed off in the size I wanted. I then traced it onto a piece of cardstock and the photo and cut them out. I just noticed that I didn't put the year on there. I will do so in Tiny Type stickers below the picture of Peyton at gymnastics.
The cloud sticker was too big so I cut part of it off and then layered it.

We had a busy and fun weekend! Friday morning Peyton went in for his first ever dentist appointment! The dentist said it was a picture perfect appointment! He did a great job and it was a great experience. Thankfully my mom came and took Maddy out for me as she was being a handful. We then took off garage saling.
My mom took the kids home with her as Chris and I had a customer appreciation concert to go to Friday and Saturday night. Thank goodness for family some-what close by! I am so lucky to have 2 sets of grandparents and one set of great grandparents that my kids LOVE to go visit and stay with! The kids spent one night with my parents and one night with Chris's parents. Saturday night we saw the Dirt Drifters. I was able to go backstage and meet them too! The radio station was taking pictures and hopefully I'll be able to get the one of Chris and me with them. I really like them and they were very friendly.

We had a lot of fun both nights but Saturday was the best! I actually got a picture of us together! :-0 Shocking...I know! ;-)

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you'll come back soon!

Christmas In July and Cousins Layout

2011-07-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

Over at the Paper Variety they are challenging us to create a Christmas themed project. I thought I'd make a few tags for present.

Tag #1:

Tag #2:

Tag #3:

I created this layout for a color challenge over at Birds of a Feather.

I used a sketch from Allison Davis.

Thanks for stopping by!

Echo Park Thank You Card and Cosmo Cricket Layout

2011-07-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I hope you all are enjoying your summer! We have been so so busy since Peyton got out of school and have a lot on our calendar before he starts Kindergarten! EEK! Kindergarten! :-( I don't even want to think about that yet!

My Aunt gave my kids the coolest books. I wanted to send her a Thank You card. My card stash is very low so I decided to make one. I saw a card by Nicole Nowosad on the Jillibean Soup blog a while back and instantly knew I wanted to lift it.

A little closer shot. The oval journaling spot is from Scenic Route. I cut a oval from Echo Park paper to layer on top.

I'm trying to create less pages of one event. I am out of room for albums (at least right now where I can keep the albums out of Maddy's hands). So I am trying to put more pictures on one page for events like the fair where I took a ton of photos.
The Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety line was just perfect for these photos. The Doodlebug alpha stickers are some of my all time favorite fonts. I am going to be so sad when they are gone!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone is having, or by the time you read this, had a Happy 4th of July!

I used a sketch from Page Maps (April I think).

I can see me using this sketch again! :-)
A close up of the left side.
A close up of the right side.
I'm haven't gotten tired of banners yet.
I colored a piece of chipboard with a marker and did a little doodling.
I put a few staples on their for a little fun touch.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pictures pictures pictures.....

2011-07-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

It seems like so much work to upload them, go through them, decide which ones to print...

I realized I hadn't posted any pictures from my brother in law/sister in laws wedding a couple weeks ago.

We took off Thursday morning, trailer in tow. There was a campground just a jump, hop and skip away from the wedding location. It worked out great! Thursday night was also the bachelorette party!

Above is my Sister In Law Amanda, me, Sister in law Adina (the bride) and her friend Jessi (I think that is how you spell her name, its pronounced Yesi). This was a much needed night out for me and I had a lot of fun.
Friday we headed to Chuckie Cheeses. My first time there that I can remember. The kids had a blast. Maddy was more interested in putting the tokens in the slots and pulling the tickets off than playing the game!
This picture cracks me up. Even us adults had fun playing the games. There was a token pusher game that Chris and I were completely addicted too.
Peyton had a BLAST!
Maddy was NOT keen on seeing Chucky Cheese.
Later Aunt Brenda painted Maddy's toenails and fingernails a pretty orange for the wedding.
Saturday morning the work began. Al those bows/sashes....we tied! : -0 Yeah....there were a handful of us and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.
We also did the other decorating like the tulle and lights on the stairway.
I was lucky enough the the bride offered me her room to change into since once I got there at 9, I was there. :-) Isn't she beautiful! Her dress...her hair...her make up...everything was just perfect!
They were so stinkin' cute on their first dance!
Maddy thought the music a little too loud.
She also thought the potatoes were fun. As soon as Grandpa GG's (Chris's Grandpa) sat down with his plate of food, she was right there grabbing his spoon and feeding him his mashed taters. He's such a good sport too and let her! :-)
Peyton was quite the dancer. lol....He was break dancing and busting moves like nobody else! ;-) That was his favorite part of the wedding.

It was a busy and tiring day but such a great one full of many great memories.

I have a couple layouts to share so check back soon! Thanks for stopping by! Happy 4th of July!

July Cosmo Cricket Challenge at Scrapbook.com

2011-06-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I've been over at my moms hanging out visiting with a cousin who is in town. I look forward to this cousins visit EVERY year!

Since I haven't had much time to scrap lately and nothing to share, I thought I'd share some older layouts. I used a couple old layouts for examples for my challenge over at Scrapbook.com. I challenged everyone to use fun shaped borders, whether it be a border punch, fussy cut or hand cut.

I've always like this layout. I love the way that paper fussy cut to a fun shape. Early Bird is one of my favorite lines!
This is another one. Speaking of the cousin here, this is her and her girls! :-)

I hope you'll play along! Cosmo Cricket always sends out goodies to the winner! :-) They arrive in the cutest box ever...a Cosmo Cricket Pizza box!

I had planned on taking TONS of pictures while my cousin was in town, but my camera battery died. :-( And I hadn't thought to pack it. I have a few days left!

2011-06-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

Good Monday morning! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! We were super busy, but it was a good weekend all in all!

Here is a layout I completed for a sketch challenge over at Birds of a Feather. I struggled with the sketch a a bit! I loved the sketch at first site, but then when it came to putting it together I hit a road block! Don't you hate it when that happens?

I used some Echo Park Papers and stickers. The chipboard is Lilly Bee.
Maddy came up with the idea to put her baby in my scrap tote and drag her around the room all by herself. I asked her what she was doing and she said, 'walk baby'.

Along those lines....I had a couple laundry baskets out I had been hauling stuff around in. Maddy climbed in on and Peyton took off with her! They would just giggle and giggle and giggle!
Yesterday was kids/family day at the rodeo. Peyton took the stick horse he made last year and raced it! He was quite disappointed he didn't win the belt buckle/first place, but I think he had fun! For some reason I sent the camera with Chris to get pictures. I realized to late that I should have kept it as he will only get backside shots!

Off to get a work out in before I had to my moms house! One of my cousins that I only get to see once a year will be in town! I can't wait to see her and her girls! :-) Have a great week and thanks so much for stopping by!

Busy Saturday (lots of photos)

2011-06-26T07:54:00.000-07:00

We have had a busy busy week. Tuesday and Thursday were gymnastics for Peyton. I'm getting really annoyed with my camer as this keeps happening when I try to get pictures of him during his class:

Wednesday was the summer library program.
As you can see, both kids enjoyed it.
Wednesday was also the cattle run for the Round-Up (a big event here where I live). A herd of cows is herded down the main street.
The time was printed wrong in the advertising, so we ended up waiting almost 2 hours to watch. I debated going home, but had never watched one so I wanted too. I was expecting big bulls and had to laugh at the calves running down the street. The first side street they could, the herd took off. Once turned stopped and back on track they did okay for a block till they found a gas station and fast food restaurant to wander through. lol....
Friday I took the kids down to the park where they had bouncy houses and different activities for the kids. Peyton LOVED the blow up maze.
Both kids enjoyed the bouncy house.
We also stopped by Chris's work for their customer appreciation bbq. They had rodeo princesses, queens and the rodeo clown there.

Peyton was so tuckered out that he fell asleep on our way out of town to my Mother-in-laws birthday bbq. He chose to wear his costume. :-)
Saturday was the Round Up parade. Maddy cracks me up in this picture. Its totally her...yelling something.
Then turning around and giggling with exciting over what she sees!
These people were pretty cool. Can you imagine standing on those horses like that? They were the rodeo entertainment that we watched Saturday night.

I saw my dream car...well, almost my dream car. Mine will be a convertible! ;-)

Peyton and Maddy had fun collecting candy. Although Maddy would grab one piece, take it back to her bag, then go back for more, which was all gone by the time she got back. haha! She also ate it as fast as she could collect it!
Both kids thought the rodster cars, the big trucks horns and the sirens were too loud!
There were bagpipes on. LOVE bagpipes!
This is my favorite part of the parade. The local sanitary service company converts their trash cans into drums and beats on them as they walk down the road. They do such a great job and its so much fun to listen and watch them.
Later in the afternoon we took the kids to the carnival. I had total sticker shock! My word has carnival prices gone up! Wowza.....Sissy was disappointed that she couldn't go with Buddy. But he really enjoyed the roller coaster.
Peyton also got to play a couple games. He popped a balloon on his first try!

The gal at the pond was very nice and let Maddy pretend she was playing the game while Peyton was.

After the carnival we headed to the rodeo. Can you say 'cotton candy?' What a HUGE mess that was. Thank goodness I brought a bunch of wipees.

This is what you get when you sit in the front row...
We sat their as we thought it easy access to escape if the kids acted up and it was just easier with the kids. I didn't think about all the people walking in front of us. I love rodeos. I wish we could have stayed longer, but the kids were ready to go home.
Luckily we were able to watch the show before we headed for home.