Creative Cookbooking Challenge!

I'm guest designer at Creative Cookbooking this month! Being GD I get to post a challenge! I've been on an altering kick lately. So I decided to create an altering challenge! Specifically something for your kitchen. Think Menu board, recipe holder, decoration, etc.

I have started using coupons as much as I can. I wanted a way to organize them, create something to keep them in that I could toss into my purse.

This was my solution.

A fun little altered Pine Cone Press altered Pocket Organizer.

I kept the inside pages with pockets SUPER simple.

So hop on over the Creative Cookbooking and join in the fun! I even have a little RAK involved!

Creative Cuts & More Mini Album

9**Warning, this is a picture heavy post!**

I wanted to make something special for my soon-to-be Sister-in-Law's bridal shower. I decided to make her a recipe book with my family's favorite recipes.
I used the Mix & Match Album from CCM and covered the pages with cardstock. The fantastic thing about CCM, is that they will cut the cardstock for you to match perfect! I just did mine last minute and didn't have time to order the colors I wanted. This is definitely one fantastic mini album to keep on hand! For the cover I used Jenni Bowlin Crepe Paper Ribbon and Vintage Button to create a flower. I used a Bazzill template and Black Diamond Stickles to create the flourish. I also used an Antique Label.

I created a pocket on the inside for her to add any recipe's of her choice. I used Hinges from CCM on the inside of the cover.

I created the flower by cutting three different sized circles, distressed the edges and wadded them up to give them wrinkles. I then glued some ribbon on the back and stuck a Doodlebug Jewel for the flower center.

The little red shape to the right of the recipe on the right side page is a Antique Elegance Frame.

Here I used Doodlebug Sugarcoating Glitter on a Small Scallop Circle Frame, more Hinges and Doodlebug Jewels.
A closer view of the die cuts, jewels and glitter.

Here I used more hinges.
I had chipboard hinges and spritzed them with some red Smooch.

More Doodlebug Jewels, Antique Elegance Frame and Circle Scallop Frame.

See, I warned it was picture heavy! The smaller tag pages were from my stash, I don't remember where I got them. CCM has some great tags to choose from that would be perfect replacement.

Other products used: Bazzill Cardstock, Wasaul Cardstock, Jenni Bowlin Paper, Buttons and Crepe Paper Ribbon, Adornit Carolee's Creations Paper, Bazzill Flourishes Template, Smooch Spritz, Dashes, Dots & Checks Ribbon, Making Memories Brads, Unknown Rhinestones, Colorox Chalk Ink, Imaginisce Rub-Ons, Glitz Glitzers Stickers. I found the recipe cards google.com through messyvegetariancook.com.

Citrus Tree Studio June Kit

I have two more layouts and two cards that I created using the June Citrus Tree Studio Mens Department Kit.

Sorry about the wrinkles in the page, I recently learned my 1 1/2 year old daughter can reach further onto my scrapbook table than I thought! lol...
Peyton got so excited when Chris asked him if he wanted to help wash his car. Yep, I wonder how long that will last! Haha! Of course he had to have his own wash spoofa raggy mabopper. I used a fun sketch by Aphra for this layout. Make sure and visit Aphra's blog, she's got some serious talent!

I did lots of stitching and inking. This kit came with a serious amount of fun chipboard to work with. Chipboard buttons, emebellies and may favorite....Thickers! Yeppers peppers, had a pack of thickers AND, yep that was a big AND a second set of alpha sticker! How cool is that?

I have a few random pictures of Peyton I wanted to scrap. I came up with this idea. This is truly a typical day in our life. There is usually a lot of laughter (because of naughty disgusting people out there I chose not to show the bare but photo I took along with the picture of the skivs on the head), a little crying (yes, sadly its an almost daily event) and if Mommy is lucky a nap.

Yep, paper rolling. It took a while, but man, I love the looks of it! I kept seeing layouts from Melinda Sparks. Yeah, I highly recommend you check out her blog too. She's got some serious talent as well!

Now for a simple Father's Day card. I love kits that come with cards and/or alterable items! This kit came with TWO cards! how cool is that? Since men are men, I kept my cards simple. I think they appreciate them, but I don't think they totally get the concept if I spent a TON of time on them KWIM? Although I do have to say, I gave one of Chris's cousins (younger teen age) a handmade card with money in it and he commented on the card, thought it was cool and thanked me for the hand made card! Yep, a good kid he is! Okay, on to the next card...

The chipboard frame was so much fun! I sprayed it with a little Smooch Spritz and Maya Mist. It has a really neat look to it IRL!

Yep, yep, that about does it for my June Citrus Tree Studio Mens Department Kit. Or I should say, that is what I've completed with it so far. I have enough left over to create a couple more layouts and/or a handfull of cards. Such a fun kit it is.

Apparently I used a lot of slang in this post as my spell check went WILD. Apparently lol..., IRL, KWIM, skivs, embellies, thickers, yeppers, spoofa, raggy and mabopper are not in the dictionary! ;-)

Yeah....

Sometimes I just can't think of a great title for a post. Today is one of those days.

My brother had a couples baby shower last week. I made them a little scrapped page of their cutie patootie. My mom had a frame and I forgot to get a picture of it in the frame, but luckily I got one before the frame. My brother is HUGE Oregon State Beaver Fan. He wanted to do his sons room in the theme of OSU. I just so happened to have Oregon State Beavers papers and stickers. The black and orange check was really white and black, I just colored it orange! Isn't that an adorable photo of him? He's such a sweet and good baby!

The other day Peyton was all excited to show me what he found in the yard.

Yep, its a worm. No, I don't make him wear a helmet when he is outside playing, he was riding his bike or triked prior to finding the worm. ;-)

Yep, I was quite surprised he picked it up. As he screams like no other and runs when he sees a spider! haha! Chris came home after dark this past week and said there were TONS of worms all over the place. I told him he should have stopped and scooped them up. Peyton and I could set up a little worm stand on the highway and catch the fisherman headed to the lakes on Friday and Saturday! haha!

I bought this blow up thing for Maddy's first birthday. I decided the other day to swap it out with a tent and tunnels of Peyton's that have been put a way for a while. She cried. Peyton kept asking for the ball pit back, so back it came! I'm telling ya, its such a cheap toy for the penny per play theory! I bought a blow up sand pit/pool for Peyton when he was Maddy's age and he LOVED it. He spent numerous hours in it playing, reading books, etc. So any of you moms out there...I HIGHLY recommend this idea. It pools their toys and they LOVE it!

Yes...that is a PINK shirt she's in! ;-)

Citrus Tree Studio June Kit Reveal

Cindy at Citrus Tree Studio e-mailed me and asked if I'd like to be a guest designer using their June kit. Of course I jumped at the opportunity! I received the kit in the mail and boy howdy was I ever excited. This is one FAB kit. I have gotten 4 layouts and 2 cards and still have enough left for more! Plus it came with TWO alphas, yep, you heard me right folks....2 alphabets! I have two layouts to share today and I'll be back soon to share the other layouts and cards!

I used a sketch from Scrap a Little for this one. Isn't that flower neat? Yep, its part of the kit. The brads and embroidery floss are from my stash.

There was a ton of chipboard buttons in this kit! I inked them and layered them.

I cut the flourishes using a Quickuts die and my Cuttlebug. I did lots of inking and sewing on this layout.

This picture of Peyton just cracks me up! I heard him say "I'm going shopping Mommy" and turn around to see him in my boots, no pants on, underwear on backwards using his sisters walker as a shopping cart! He's such a hoot and getting to be so creative!

Do you ever have those layouts that start out with big fantastic ideas, but in the end, its just a let down to what you had pictured? Well, this layout is one of those for me.

I stitched the buttons on a little different, just cause! ;-)
I fussy cut paper and layered and pop dotted it. You can see in the bottom left corner, I doodled on the journaling spots like the paper was printed up above.

I had so much fun with this kit. Its one of those perfect kits that are very flexible. I can picture masculine pages, family pages, kids pages, you name it! Cindy has two fantastic kits up for grabs this month, I designed with the Mens Department one!

Hoarder & I've Got a Climber

I'm a hoarder. If it looks like something I can alter I keep it. I bought this quite a while ago at Target in the dollar spot. It was filled with little boyish embellies. I thought it was too cute to throw away.

So I added a few epoxy stickers and an accordion mini. The bow looks horrible, but I gave this to my mom, who is good at bows and figured I'd let her fix it! haha!

This adorable little boy...he's my nephew (insert big proud grin). Isn't he cute? And thats his big sister holding him! And then a generation photo, my dad, brother holding my nephew and my grandpa!

So I blocked off my scrapbook area as the Little Miss has taken a big interest in scrapbooking supplies. I have found ribbons, embellies and papers in her room! Yes, she is only 15 months...Well, this is what I caught her doing a couple days ago!

Yep, I've got a climber on my hands! Guess I'm going to have to come up with something that is a little bit taller that I can put there! I SSSOOOO need a piece of scrapbooking furniture so I can reorganize and not have to block her off. Comon' Craigslist... :-) As you can see...with my little helper, I haven't gotten much time to get scrappy! :-(

The poor little miss got her first big boo boo last week. She took the glider in her bedroom head on. I was cooking dinner and still wonder if it wasn't a forced motion from a bigger helper...She's too little to tell and the bigger helper changes his story like I wash my hands! lol...

It pretty soon looked like she had deep purple eyeshadow on. She got over it quickly as you can tell and it never seemed to bother her.

Pictures from the Weekend

Warning, I have lots of pictures to share!

We found a new area to camp this year! I was VERY excited to find out it was only 15-20 min. away from our house. I absolutely LOVED this area and can't wait to go back. Isn't it pretty?
This was an old Ranger barn that is being restored. Boy was it fun to walk through.

We had a nice little creek running by camp, although its kinda hard to see in the photo.

Here we are all set up. Yep, thats a little old outhouse behind the truck. Can someone tell me why outhouses had two spots to sit? I find that kinda interesting, who really wants to take a duke when someones sitting right next to you?

Upon arrival, after the trailer is set up, we get to work creating a fire pit and cutting wood for the camp fire.

Peyton is old enough he now helps too. He drug larger pieces of bark to the wood pile.

After working up an appetite we enjoyed some burgers by the fire.

I just loved these overalls on Peyton and they look just as cute on little Miss Maddy!

Peyton thinks he's pretty cool drinking a soda. He quickly learned that out camping we get special treats. One being he can have soda...
Another being he can have lots of marshmallows!

He rode his bike down this little hill, which was quite a thrill to him. He wiped out twice, but that didn't stop him. He ran ALL day long. He loved playing crochet, badmiton, lasso/cowboy golf and riding his bike.
Oh and lets not forget the creek. He couldn't get enough time by the creek throwing rocks in and even wading in!

Aren't they cute? Maddy just cracks me up! She wanted to be like big brother. She absolutely LOVED camping. She walked all over the place and sat down where the sticks looked interesting to play! lol...

We went for a drive. This tried to race us....

Yep, ran into quite few of those out on our drive! Maddy thought they were pretty cool. She'd bust out with huge laughs when she saw one. Peyton wanted to know why cows liked to camp! :-)

Our friends had a 4wheeler and were nice enough to let Chris take Peyton for a little ride which he liked. They also let us borrow it to get to this really cool cabin they spotted!

It was the coolest little place nestled in the woods. I could spend all summer there, even knowing there was no electricity and no running water, I could still live there all summer.

That was our trip! Apparently it rained everywhere but on us. We got a few sprinkles but it wasn't til we were packing up that it rained hard enough for us to take cover!