Monkey Birthday Layout

I wasn't planning on sharing this layout, but my mom really liked it, so I figured I'd share it! This is one of those layouts I'm not overly happy about but can't figure out why.

These photos are from Peytons 4th birthday. Yeah...he did just celebrate his 5th birthday 2 months ago...I'm a bit behind! ;-) I've had these large chipboard alphas and numbers for a couple years. One of those things I HAD TOO have, but haven't ever used! I stapled a couple pieces of ribbon that seemed to coordinate really well with the papers. I also did some faux pleating to add some umph (yep..that a real word...at least in my dictionary!).
Reminisce has some really cute monkey lines. I added Adornit tiny types to this sticker to make it my title.

I've posted the June Cosmo Cricket Challenge at Scrapbook.com. Go check it out here. The winner will receive an Odds & Ends Collage Kit and Mini deck! How cool is that?

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! I'm still trying to catch up! I have some photos to share once I can get a few spare minutes. So you might get them before next Memorial Day! ;-)

Teachers Card and Hair Clip

The Paper Variety posted their new challenge yesterday. It was to create a paper project with a school theme. I just made something for Peyton's preschool teachers for Teacher Appreciation week so I decided to make a card. IF I get my cake balls made next week, I may send some of them also!

Here is my card! I was going to print a quote on the green piece, but had already hand stitched it before I remembered I needed to. So I decided to just add a 'thank you' instead.

I am addicted to the satin flowers I make. I thought they would make adorable clips for the little miss. I found some clips on Ebay and they arrived this week.
I couldn't get Maddy to sit still for me to fix her hair or take a picture. Hopefully I can get better pictures soon.

I'm thinking about making some to sell at a bazaar or my Etsy store, which has sadly sat empty for too long now. :-(

Thanks for stopping by!

Perfect

I have had these pictures for a while now. When I came across this line from Piggy Tales I knew it would be perfect! I used a sketch from Allison Davis's Sketchbook #7.

I had a quote from Winnie The Pooh I had come across and been saving. This layout seemed perfect for it. "Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~Christopher Robin to Pooh

A close yo of the left page.
A close up of the right.
I layered some rub-ons and added rhinestones to the flowers centers. I also mixed the titles alphas so it fit better.
More rub-obs and rhinestones. I also added a little dashed rub on to the bottom of the green piece to make it feel more like a journaling spot.

Thanks for stopping by!

Plasma Car and Organization

I saw this little container at the Dollar Tree. It was bare wood. I thought the shape was cute and would look good somewhere in my moms kitchen, as she has bird houses in there. Then I remember that she had a little tub with all notepads and pencils in it. So...I did this to the little box:

I spray painted it white and then covered the front and sides in patterned paper. I then glued on one of my satin flowers to the front. I sure wish I could get a better picture of the satin flowers...they are so cool!
So this is what her area looked like before....
And this is after! Much better in my opinion! ;-)

I was able to go garage saling this weekend! A couple on Friday and a couple on Saturday. Peyton saw a Cat in the Hat hat and REALLY wanted it! This morning I hit a good garage sale. This sale kinda cracked me up. There were three little kids outside and they were having the garage sale all by themselves! :-0 At one point I heard one of the kids say 'hey that wasn't yours!' and the boy she was talking to said 'well, it was in my room so I'm selling it!' Haha! CRACKED me up! Peyton got his first nerf gun and hasn't let it out of his site! I also got this little Plasma Car (I just posted the link to Amazon in case you were interested in what it was like) for $5! This is THE COOLEST little thing ever! I even hopped on it and took it for a spin! :-0 Can you imagine my poor neighbors and what they are thinking? Peyton riding it down the street with his hat on and then me taking a try at it? haha!
You turn the steering wheel back and forth and it moves you forward! Pretty fun if you ask me! Although my old body couldn't take it for long. My hip started to hurt. *insert embarrassed look*

We also hit the libraries book sale. I found a couple books for the kids that I will put in our camp trailer and a Site Words Bingo game. It was really similar to this one, but had dice instead of a spinner. We've already had two rounds of games with it! He LOVES it! And I LOVE it as its educational and helping him learn his words! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stickers Layout for The Paper Variety

At The Paper Variety, in honor of Memorial Day, they challenged us to use Stars for their Star Studded Challenge. This is my take on the challenge.

I lifted a fantastic layout by Amy that you can see here if you like.

My friend Jan inspired me with her felt stars. How I tried to cut nice stars but in the end failed and failed big time! So don't look too close! ;-) I drew in my own lines and also drew a black line around the Thickers to help them stand out. At Birds of a Feather we've had some talk of black inking on bright papers. I finally got the guts to do it and like the effect.

As for the pictures, this is what happens when I leave the room for a minute. Yep...I'm pretty sure Maddy was not the one who put them in her hair. Funniest part was how proud Peyton was! haha!

Now on to some personal stuff. I take the kids to the library almost every Thursday for story time. The gal who reads the stories is INCREDIBLE! I mean, she keeps me totally entertained! She also has a little craft for the kiddos afterwards. This past Thursday she read stories about construction. The craft was to build something using gumdrops and toothpicks! Peyton could have sat their for HOURS! Maddy, not so much. She ate hers and was done! Haha!

As you can see in the picture, Peyton made dum-bells. He then made a bench press. lol....

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate each and everyone of you that stop by and LOVE reading the comments you leave me!

Go Beavers!!!

Amy over at Birds of a Feather challenged us to use three different stamps on our layout. But that would be too easy right? So we had to embellish one of our stamps (emboss, color, etc).

This was my take on the challenge. The Today journaling spot was a stamp and I colored the orange ring. The circles (you can't see the orange in the picture above, but can in a close up below) and title are also stamps. I hadn't pulled out these Technique Tuesday Stamps for YEARS!
This is why I quit using them, I cant stamp straight worth a hoot. :-/ Oh well, adds character, right? ;-) Funny story about the splatters, or maybe I should post this on here, I might scare you all....oh what the heck....the kids were napping and I was trying to get this layout done before they wake up. My scrap space is upstairs. I didn't have black mist so I decided to try and use a paint brush and splatter paint. I knew it would be kinda messy and that I'd need water. So I went to the bathroom instead of getting a cup of water and going outside! haha...lazy, I know! Anyhow, the paint got all over the toilet and bath (insert embarrassed face and annoyed face mixed in one). So there you have it...have you ever scrapped in your bathroom???? Give it a try! Haha!
Here are the circle stamps. My orange ink pad wasn't very good so it didn't show up too well.

I just adore this picture of Maddy and her Papa. Oh how she loves her Papa!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a fun weekend in store! I'm taking the kids to a carnival by myself (yes...I do think I am crazy). Wish me luck!

April's Project 12

I am really enjoying Project 12. I really struggled with this months sketch, but found one from that past that I liked and used it instead! Here is my April 2011 using a few different lines from Cosmo Cricket!

April was a busy month for us! We celebrated Peyton's 5th birthday at Charlies. He requested a Spiderman birthday and cupcakes with my special frosting. So thats what he got! Maddy got her first haircut, but not how we thought she would. Peyton gave her a little trim! :-0 Yeah...I still have the curly locks and they will make it onto a layout! Luckily with her hair as curly as it is, you can't tell at all. Our Easter was spread across two days. The kids were not into the public egg hunts, all the people overwhelmed them. They preferred the ones we had at home. We went to many t-ball games and froze our little rear-ends off. We finished off the month with a nasty flu. We were supposed to celebrate my 30th birthday with a day full of shopping with my mom on Friday and then a bbq Saturday night. But Maddy woke up super sick Friday and passed it onto Peyton who started tossing his cookies Saturday morning who passed it to Chris Saturday night! I luckily, did not get it! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Just A Cruisin' Layout

This is a two-fer layout! Amy posted a great sketch at Birds of a Feather and The Paper Variety challenged us to create a layout or project inspired by a movie.

My kids are pretty good about traveling. Long trips are not a joy, but if I get them set up with a snack and juice they usually do really well on our frequent trips to my hometown 35-40 minutes away. They looked so cute, Peyton totally in a posing position and Maddy with her stuffed toy I couldn't resist grabbing photos (Chris was driving of course).

I added a little netting under the butterfly as well as a pin to jazz it up a bit. I've had the Making Memories frame and Jenni Bowlin butterfly for quite some time now! I hope I'm not alone in this hoarding of products I love? I have, however, gotten better at using them. That is their point after all, right?

A little bit of layering at the top and bottom helped me feel like my layout is complete. I'm totally addicted to these butterflies! I had some Ranger Pearl Medium (like Stickles but pearl). LOVE it! Want a few more colors in it! :-)

I guess I should mention the title was inspired by my sons LOVE of the movie Cars!

Now onto our weekend, I have a few pictures to share. Sunday we decided to take off for a little drive to our favorite camp spot. We hope to be able to get this said spot on Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to get the GPS coordinates for some friends that will be joining us. Both kids were excited at first. That is until we hit the gravel road. Peyton got mad that it bounced the pretzels out of his bowl and Maddy kept telling Chris to 'stop it'. haha!
Peyton was all excited to take his new little container and catch some frogs. When we didn't see any in the whole 3 minutes we were outside he was ready to go home.
So was Maddy! Actually she was mad cause we turned back from our little walk. She wanted to go further and Peyton didn't.
So we drove for a little bit finding a few back-up spots in case the one we want was taken when we got there. That's when we came across the spot above! I thought it was so pretty! We hope to get back there Memorial Day weekend and do a little hiking and exploring! Too bad their wasn't a way to camp right there at the base!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mr. & Mrs. Always

Amy over at Birds of a Feather challenged us to take a photo and edit it two different ways, then scrap the photos. A while back I was told about a site called Be Funky. Since my computer situation is quite pathetic and I don't have a photo editing program, I used Be Funky.

I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers. The Cosmo Cricket Circa line has been screaming at me to use it for a while now. What, papers never screamed at you???? Well, your missing out then! ;-)

Because I hate to cut into a full sheet of paper for a itty bitty square, I cute the little squares out of a Cosmo Cricket brochure/catalog. :-)

I added a few beads to the pins to jazz them up (no this was not my idea...I came across it a while back) and made some satin flowers. I wish you all could see these flowers in real life. They are so pretty! My mom bought me some Jenni Bowlin Core'dinations embossed paper for my birthday and it worked perfect for this layout!

I didn't have shorter pin or one that would work for under the butterfly (which was punched using a Martha Stewart punch). So I made my own! :-) I cut a piece of wire and glued a few beads on the end! A little inking on the butterfly and a couple dabs of Ranger Enamel Accents and I call it done. I kinda wish there was something behind the butterfly, but I couldn't figure out what!

Thanks for stopping by! I have a few more layouts ready to share, so please stop back soon!

Mother's Day Card

Birds of a Feather had a fun crop over the weekend. The current Guest Designers as well as the Guest Designer Alumni each posted a challenge. Mine was to create your own flower and use it on a card. I'm addicted to making flowers. Especially these satin flowers.

I'm not sure why I didn't edit the date out...but I didn't! For the bottom of the card I used a piece of corrugated cardboard that came as packaging to something.

For the center of the flower I put a blob of Fabri-Tac glue and dropped some little beads in it.

For my grandmother-in-law I altered this frame. I found it at a garage sale across the street and liked the size and looks of it. But it had a scratch. :-( So I painted it! :-) I doodied up the center and put a picture of each of the kiddos in it.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all are having a great week!

Mother's Day Gifts

I saw this idea and thought it would make a fantastic Mother's Day gift.

I made one for my mother-in-law and the one below for my mom!

I got a ton of photos over the weekend between my nephews first birthday, an uncle's 60th surprise birthday party combined with his daughters 40th birthday party and of course Sunday's Mother's Day! I'm sure I'll have a few to share once I get them uploaded.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Salt Air Cosmo Cricket Layout

One of Amy's challenges this month at Birds of a Feather is to spend some time in the gallery and choose a layout to scraplift. I chose a layout by Janet you can see here. This is my take on it using the fantastic Salt Air line by Cosmo Cricket.

I fussy cut the little flowers to create a fun border.
About a block away is a little creek. The kids LOVE going down there and jump at every opportunity to get outside and walk down there. They love to throw rocks in it. These pictures were taken last year. As soon as the weather warms up I'm sure we'll be taking many more little walks down there!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers!

p.s. I am linking this to a challenge over at The Paper Variety!

Garage Sale Finds

I was able to get out first thing this morning and hit a few garage sales this morning! I thought I'd share some of my finds!

This was my last find. 50 cents. I have been loving all the 7 Gypsies trays I've been seeing, but just can't stomach the $17+ for them. So I figured this would be a great substitute once I got it painted. Of course I'll change out the red rope too. Any guesses on what it is? It is a tray to hold Melissa and Doug wooden dolls! :-)

I hit a fantastic sale. Cheap cheap prices and great toys like this flannel book. I thought it would be great for the trailer.
And Peyton was pretty darn excited to find a Woody, Jess and Buzz figurines.
The big Spiderman he has barely let out of his site! :-) The dino on the left is a Imaginext one. Its wings flap, mouth and claws open and it makes noise. Imgainext makes such cool dinosaur toys.
I had fun playing with the Zip Track and Peyton thought it pretty cool.

I also got 4 scrapbook magazines (2 of them from this year), a cute t-shirt for Maddy and a game! My total spending for the day was only $7.50!

Garage sales....how I've missed you! :-)

Make sure to check back soon! I have a few projects I've been waiting til after Mother's Day to share!

Cosmo Cricket Altered Goody Container

Hello everyone! Ever get a itching to do something and aren't sure why you really get that itch? That was me here. I have a ton of project that I want and some I need to do, yet I do something not on that list! Haha! These containers held buttons at one point. I saw this idea quite a while back and have saved a few containers and just now am getting to altering them.

I used the Togetherness line from Cosmo Cricket. Sorry for the bad glare! It was very sunny and my pictures were either too bright or too dark!

Whats inside you ask? Chocolate covered asai berries! Oh my are they ever delicious! I don't buy them for myself cause I can't stop eating them. My mom bought me a bag for my birthday over the weekend and I decided to share them with a couple friends! :-)

Do you have plans this weekend? If not, make sure to stop by Birds of a Feather. We are having a crop to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day! The DT alumni are posting challenges. I have mine ready to go along with a game! :-) On top of that Amy has a special sale set up, something different on sale every hour! So make sure and stop by!

Handmade Satin Flowers

I've gotten quite addicted to these satin flowers. I think they are so pretty!

A few close ups...

I pulled out some beads for this one.

I love this dew drop or whatever it is. It came from my stash and I'm not sure who the manufacturer is.

A few super simple cards to share. I like this design and its really easy.

This one isn't a card, its smaller (like 2x3 or something around that) with cardstock as the base. I jotted a note a the back and tossed it in a package I was mailing. :-) I think I'll be making more of these. So quick and easy and a great way to use up bits and pieces left over from a line.

Apparently I didn't edit this photo. Sorry!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I do truly love having you visit and leaving comments! :-) Have a fabulous day!