Cosmo Cricket Card Sketch

As most of you know by now, I'm a HUGE Cosmo Cricket fan. I mean HUGE! LOVE the company and LOVE their product. DT member Natasja posted a card sketch on the Cosmo Cricket Blog Saturday. Card's Magazine will be picking their favorite and publishing it!

I loved the sketch and wanted to play along, here is my take on the sketch using the Togetherness line and some TinyTypes:

I stitched around the large yellow piece and inked its edges. I also did the faux paper pleating. I just can't get enough of sewing and pleating!
I fussy cut a tag shape out of the strips sheet for the sentiment.

I cut a strip from the bottom of the clear tiny type sheet to create the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Satin Flowers

Quite a while ago I saw a tutorial on how to make these flowers out of satin. A few weeks ago I saw a package of them in a store and was shocked that they were so expensive. They were very pretty, and I wanted them, but I wasn't about to spend $5 on two flowers! Last weekend I saw a piece of lavender satin at a garage sale and grabbed it right away. This is what I made:

I LOVED how the flowers turned out. I'll definitely be making more and I think I'll be making some with more layers too! Now the hunt for more satin is on! I checked out our local thrift stores and the thrift stores in the town my parents live in for satin shirts but had no luck. Next trip out of town I'll be hitting on Hancocks or Jo-Annes for sure!

And to see what they look like on a full project I made a card. The purples stuff is really cool. I'm not sure how to explain it other than sorta meshy type material. My mom bought it for me from a scrapbook store going out of business at least 2 years ago! I sure wish I had more!

My Maddy, oh my Maddy, how she will kill me one day when she see's these pictures. lol...She cracks me up and is so full of life! She did this all by herself! Yep, took off EVERYTHING and put on the hat. She loves to sit on the toilet, but only when she doesn't have to go. :-/ We really need to get on the potty training. We've tried a couple times with no luck.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday

The Paper Variety challenged us to create a card, layout or project using numbers in honor of Suzanne's birthday! It just so happened I had a few birthday cards to make! Perfect timing, right? You can't really tell from the photos, but the star is a 3-d one and popped up for more dimension. I layered a couple buttons and used a SRM sticker for the sentiment.

I'm not digging the red 60. I'm thinking after seeing a picture of it, that it should be a darker blue. I may have to pull it back out and see if blue wouldn't look better. *shrug* Why do things look so different on-line that in real life sometimes?

I was in the kitchen cooking and heard Maddy get into the coat closet. I peeked around the corner to see what she was up too. Like usual, she had taken off her pants. lol...She grabbed one of Peyton's hats and a pair of his sandals and put them on. She just cracks me up! She is very good at entertaining herself by getting into things she isn't supposed too! ;-)

Thanks for stopping by! We have a busy Easter weekend ahead with a Easter egg hunt at the park tomorrow as well as Easter meal tomorrow night. Then Sunday is another Easter meal! I better stay on the elliptical twice as long to gear up for all I'll be eating in the next few days!

Happy Easter!

Summer Fun Layout

Amy over at the Birds of a Feather Kit Co. challenged us to use the bling in our stash. But that would be too simple, right? She wanted three different kinds of bling!

I stitched the papers on and ran out of thread! :-( I ended up handstitching as I didn't want to attempt to get the sewing machine back in the same holes. I used Kaiser Craft Hippy Chick paper from the March Birds of a Feather Kit and add-ons. The chipboard leave was also an add-on.
One of the bling was adding a little rhinestone to a piece of Fancy Pants chipboard. Another one was a stick pin which I added a couple beads too.
I won these fun little Jenni Bowlin chipboard banner pieces from the March Birds of a Feather Crop. I inked them to match and then used rub-ons to give them a little flare. The rhinestones on the rhinestones on the banner were another use of bling as well as the glitter glue and rhinestone on the butterfly.

I have been super busy lately. Between things going on and Miss Maddy keeping me on my toes, I haven't had much scrapping time. What does Miss Maddy do? Lets see, she put e a ton of toys down the heater vent, she has learned how to stand on the swiveling office chair to get onto the hutch to get books and things she's not supposed too and she has colored herself I don't know how many times with markers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cards

I decided to make a set of cards (although I am a beginner card maker) for a prize for my soon to be sister-in-laws bridal shower.

I rely heavily on sketches and lifts for my cards and often use previous cards I've been happy with as inspiration for new ones.
I totally lifted a card I saw on the Scrapper Forever Blog.

This was a lift off of a card I had made recently.

I was able to get a little crafty time in over the weekend but am not able to share what I made til after Mother's Day! We have a busy busy week and weekend ahead of us, but hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a few minutes in somewhere to get crafty!

Garage Sale and Games

Since I'm lacking crafty time and new projects to share, I thought I'd start sharing my garage sale finds! :-) I'm a garage sale addict, really there should be a program for people like me. I see signs and postings on Craigslist and get anxiety attacks. It seems to be getting harder and harder for me to get out though. :-( Peyton is losing interest in going with me and it is a pain taking both kids in and out of the car at every stop. We did get out this morning though!

I found two of these! Only $2.50 each. Do you remember the Home Interiors mirror/shelf that I altered using Cosmo Crickets Wanted line? You can see it here. I thought I might do something similar. I put a 6" ruler in the center to give you an idea of its size.

We found this game for fifty cents! You can see it here at Amazon. We've already played it. It is a very fun game! I would highly recommend it! GREAT for a little bit of age span between kids playing it and Peyton LOVES the dancing part! Unfortunately, we are missing one penguin, so I'm going to have to find a substitute. But hey, for fifty cents I can't complain!

Speaking of games, Peyton got a really fun game for his birthday. Its called Cat in the Hat I can Do That. You can see it here at Amazon.com. He had a BLAST playing this game. I swear he played it for at least 4 hours the first night/day he had it! He has fun playing it on his own too, which is a huge plus for me! :-)

Anyone else garage sale lately or come across something new and fun? I'd love to hear about it!

Zipper Flower Altered Clothes Pin

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt-in-aw and Grandmother in-law and I are throwing a bridal shower for my soon to be sister-in-law. I am in charge of games and prizes of the games. I love these altered clothespins and haven't altered one for a while. I think it will make a great prize!

The challenge this week over at The Paper Variety is to incorporate flowers. I LOVE these zip flowers and recently picked up a handful more zippers in a variety of colors at the thrift store to add to my stash.
I layered it on a piece of burlapy type material and put a rhinestone in the center to finish it off.

The photo the clip is holding is one from Maddy's 2 year photos shoot! Randy with RM Images did a fabulous job. I was VERY happy with ALL of the photos.

I got this picture over the weekend. Isn't it cute? Its a bit dark, but I still like it. This is Maddy and her Grandpa GG's. Oh how Maddy loves both her GG's (Grandpa and Grandma). We are so blessed to have Chris's Grandparents nearby. The kids LOVE going over to their house.

Again...thanks for stopping by! I do appreciate you visiting my blog!

My baby is 5!!!

Can you believe it? My baby turns 5 today! :-0 How can that be? Happy birthday to my baby boy!

We celebrated his birthday last weekend at Charlie's, one of our favorite places to go.

As requested by the birthday boy, we had a Spiderman birthday party. If found this quite surprising as he LOVES dinosaurs, shark and fish so much!

Cupcakes with my homemade frosting were also requested. I found the fun cake tower and couldn't resist it!

Look at the size of the candle! Yep, another request by the birthday boy, and how could I say no?

Of course, lots of fun presents to open up! The party went great. Peyton had a TON of fun playing with his cousins. He cracked me up when he asked me 'what do those words say Mommy?' as he opened the first card! How sweet is that? He wanted me to read each card before he opened it!

Monday was Peytons first T-ball game! Man was it cold. I mean it was COLD!

Peyton got his t-shirt and hat. Isn't he cute? He plays on team Thunder!

Above, he is warming up! Go Peyton go!

He was first up to bat in the first inning! Poor kid, wasn't 100% sure what to do. But he figured it out quickly!

It was so fun to watch the little kids run around the bases. A few somehow ended up with home runs as they were so excited they didn't want to stop at first base! haha!

Peyton played in the pitcher position. He did pretty darn good for it being his first game.

After that though he was done. He was beyond cold and miserable and begged to go home. He clung to me and wouldn't bat or participate anymore so we headed home. :-( Not long after being home and after he had warmed up he was ready to go back and play. His next game is tonight, so wish us luck!

I apologize for the black dots on the photos. They only appear when I zoom. :-( Maybe I should have gotten a warranty on the camera.

Thanks for stopping by!

Our Time Layout using Cosmo Cricket Social Club

Two weekends ago Birds of a Feather had a Its a Spring Thing Crop. This is one of the layouts I created for the challenge using a sketch by Liz Qualman.

I LOVE the Social Club line by Cosmo Cricket! Lovin' the yellow!
I am still loving the looks of banners and have just now started using them on my layouts. Yes, behind times I know...thats just how I am! ;-) I had fun playing with the new embellie Butterflies and Doilies! I cut the doilies in half for the banner.

I fussy cut a journaling spot to put the title on. I didn't have alphas in the right color I was hoping for so I inked some white ones yellow. I also put half of a doily under the title just to give it a little more umph.

I fussy cut the leaf/vine strip at the bottom and inked it as well as almost everything else on the layout.

These pictures were from a fundraiser for our Chamber of Commerce. They have a nice buffet dinner, present some awards and then a comedian performs. The year pictured above, Chris was selected to go on stage. Of course, they couldn't have asked for a better person as he hammed it up big time and even got them laughing pretty good a few times. Chris and I have two events we try to make it to every year just the two of us. These are our times to get away and go out together kid-free. We always have a lot of fun and look forward to them every year. RARELY do I ever get pictures at the events and always regret not snapping a few. This year we happened to get a couple photos.

Thanks for stopping by!

Project 12 March 2011 Layout using Cosmo Cricket Togetherness

I am SO happy I am doing Project 12 this year! It is definitely something I want to keep going for a LONG time! I know at the end of the year and years down the road I am going to cherish these layouts that recap our months events and happenings. I do, however, need to get better about journaling about every day stuff. Little things the kids say and do.

I apologize for the bad pictures. I've tired twice now and give up. :-( I'm not sure I am diggin' the blue base. But that is all I have. :-( I wanted a red, but don't have but a few pieces of red cardstock left and none of those reds had 2 sheets of the same shade. With no LSS nearby, I am stuck with what I have. I didn't adhere it very strongly so it will be easy to pull up later on.

Again, sorry for the bad pictures. I just love these little chipboard critters!

I wasn't happy with the grid look of photos, they each got lost. So I cut little strips of red, inked them and put over the lines where the photos met each other. I LOVE the sheet that is included with each Cosmo Crafting paper kit that is full of journaling spots!
This months recap: We had a weekend party to make all of Adam and Adina's wedding invitations as well as party favors. We had a lot of fun and it was so nice to spend so much time together. Maddy grew quite attached to her Uncle Adam. Every time I turned around he was holding her or she was in his lap. Chris hit snow on his trip to Portland to trade our trailer in for a smaller and lighter one . Thank goodness I was not with him and that his dad went. I would have made him pull over and let me out for sure! We were able to keep our tradition of going to Charlies for green bombers on St. Patricks Day. We had only a few decent days. But we were able to get outside and play on them and walk to the creek (the kids FAVORITE thing to do). Peyton started T-ball which he is loving.

The other day Maddy started sassing me. And when I say sassing me I mean yelling at the top of her lungs "Don't do dat mommy, stop RIGHT now" sorta sassing. This does not sit well with me, even though I do find it kinda funny! So she goes to her crib. I go sit down to scrap. I leave her their til she's calmed down and has stopped yelling at me. When I walk in, this is what I find:
Yep, she had a helper. Peyton put every toy he could find in her crib! :-0

Bunny Card and T-ball

Amy challenged us to create a shaped card during the Its a Spring Thing Crop over at Birds of a Feather. I had downloaded this adorable bunny from My Scrap Chick. This site has the most adorable paper piecing images you can download. If you sign up for her newsletter she often sends out freebie images. They images can worth with electronic die cut machines too (which I do not have).

I have had the bunny for a while wanting to do something with it. It is supposed to accordion out for a mini, but I made it into a card. I cut all the pieces out of white cardstock.
I popped the paws up and inked the nose and inner parts of the eyes. I also used a creamy brown ink to do all of the edges. I also drew the face on.
The tail is also inked and popped up.

Peyton started T-ball last week. He is LOVING it! They start out by doing a little follow the leader to warm up. It is so cute to watch them run around out there.

Then they practice their throwing and catching a bit. There were lots of 'oohhs' and 'that was close's coming from the parents as we watched! haha!

Then they kind of did a make-shift game. Training the kids to hit then run to first, second, third and home. The kids rotated around out in the field to different positions too.
And he's off to first base....
He is loving every minute of it. We bought him a T-ball stand, balls and a bat over the weekend and that is all he wants to do. He has another practice this Thursday then games start next week for him! Lets hope it warms up! We are forcasted snow this week! :-0

Twofer Miss Independent layout using Comso Cricket Garden Variety

I got some scrappy time in over the weekend! :-) It wasn't as much as I had hoped, but it was more than I normally get!

I had a lot of fun at the crop over at Birds of a Feather. The challenges aren't due until Wednesday night so there is still time to play!

Maddy has always been pretty independent. I hear 'I do it, I do dat' A LOT! She is quite the determined little thing.

This layout was for the sketch challenge. Here is the sketch:

I haven't had much time to play along with The Paper Variety challenges. Its such a fun blog. So I decided to do a twofer layout, a layout for the BOAF crop and for the PV blog. :-) The PV challenge was 1-2-3. I used 1 piece of chipboard, two word title and three photos!

Thanks for stopping by! I have a few more projects from the crop to share!