Project 12 January Layout using what else but Cosmo Cricket!

Both Jill and Karen have talked about Project 12 on their blogs. After seeing their layouts and hearing about it, I knew, I KNEW I wanted to participate this year. The basic thought behind it is to create a layout about each month about that months events. They even provide a fabulous two page sketch to us! At the end of the year, I'll have the whole years worth of events and favorite pictures documented! :-) Doesn't that sound fabulous?

Here is my layout:

I used ribbon from the Cogsmo line, chipboard, patterned paper and buttons from the Togetherness line, patterned paper from the Lil' Man line and Joy Ride line, Licorice chipboard alphas and Tiny Type numbers.

I used Fabri-Tac glue to create the pleated ribbon.

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

Paper Variety Card Sketch Challenge

I knew I wanted to play along with the Paper Variety's challenge this week once I saw the card sketch! I've had so much fun doing the challenges on this blog and its been a while since I played along so I was excited to get a chance too this week.

This is my take on the sketch. I used a little scrap of Kaiser Craft paper that I just couldn't throw away. I LOVE this line. Sadly though, *sniff sniff* its almost gone. :-(
Here is my close up! My super talented friend Patti, who is also on the Paper Variety DT, stitched on her card. It inspired me to sew on mine! The purple flower matches a lot better in real life.

My mom bought this really cool cardboard house that has the images outlined on it (like a fence, door, shutters, dog, etc.). She sent it over to my Mother-in-laws while we were gone for the kids to play with. My MIL brought it to our house. The kids have had LOTS of fun coloring it and playing in it. And coloring other things.....
And a little closer in case you missed the nose, the cheek, the eyebrow, the forehead. lol...
I also discovered a circle on her stomach. I'm thinking that she probably had assistance with that marking! haha!

Cosmo Cricket Christmas Layout

I totally lifted (aka copied) this layout from the talented Linda Harper. She posted a fabulous layout over at Birds of a Feather and I knew I wanted to lift it! It was perfect for my scraps of Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather.

My new camera and I are NOT getting along. Notice how one side looks brighter than the other? :-/ I am going to have to sit down and play with the settings and see whats going on!
The photo brings back so many memories! It was taken at my Grandpas house Christmas Eve during our last visit with him. He passed away within 24 hours of that visit. Although it was a sad sad time, it was a good time. I wouldn't trade that time with the family and being near him for anything!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to get back to scrapping here soon so that I have more to share!

More Photos

I have two more photos to share. These were taken by the cruise ship. We only chose to purchase two as they charged so much per photo.

At each stop they had people dressed up for you to take photos with. This port even had a donkey to get your photo taken with!
We took the formal photos on two different nights. Unfortunately, we didn't get one we REALLY liked, but we settled on this one! My hair DID not like the humidity down there and was quite frizzy and uncooperative. Not that I really know how to control my hair anyways. ;-)

Thanks for stopping by! I have a layout to share tomorrow. I forgot about it til I uploaded pictures!

Sail away......

** warning....LOTS of photos**

In case you wonder why I haven't posted in so long....this is why:

Chris and I went on a much needed vacation. We took a 7 Day Mexican Riviera Cruise! It was so nice and relaxing! We were so tired we went to bed around 9:30 the first night and slept for almost 12 hours! :-0 It was SSSOOO nice!
We couldn't get into our room for a couple hours once we boarded the ship. We figured we'd take in some sun and enjoy a bucket of beer before exploring the ship!

The bucket...minus two beers! :-)This is our teeny room! Actually, it really wasn't bad at all! I didn't feel cramped one bit! Well, the bathroom could have been arranged a bit different. I did bang my elbows and knees a few times! ;-)
Chris and I played cribbage quite a bit! I kicked his butt big time! :-) He did skunk me on more than one occasion though! It was quite cool outside, especially the days we were at sea, so this spot was perfect. We weren't outside with the cool breeze but still able to enjoy the views of the sea!
This was the grand atrium! Yes, I had a sweater and jeans on A LOT!
The first dress up night and a self portrait!
Someone came by and offered to take a picture. I was bummed it was so dark!
We didn't spend nearly as much time outside as I had liked as it was pretty cool.
The first port was Cabo San Lucas. We had to take these little shuttle boats in to land. These littler boats were attached to the ship and they had six of them coming and going to take everyone ashore and return everyone to the boat.
Chris's first bartering and purchase! :-) I had fun bartering and didn't pretty well! After my first attempt at purchase/bartering we walked away and Chris said he was quite impressed with how well I did! :-)
The food on the pier was fairly expensive. So we asked a information desk for a really good seafood place that was more budget friendly. He gave us a map and marked a local favorite. Boy was it good. This was some sort of lobster dish and was Chris's favorite meal of the whole trip!

We didn't get much time in Cabo and would like to go back some time when we could spend more time there and explore more of the area.

They didn't have many pools and most were geared toward kids. But it looked really neat at night! We didn't get in the pool once! It was way to cold for me.
The next port was Mazatlan. We saw a lot of run-down buildings with the doors and windows covered by bars. It was one stop we really didn't care if we ever went back. We took a taxi ride to the shopping area that also had a beach nearby. The taxi was a Volkswagen with the top cut off and a canopy on top of it. It was cute and fun to ride in!
We saw many of these sculptures along the boardwalk/pier.

I liked Chris's hat so much we got a second one for me! :-) We were hounded at the beach by locals trying to sell their goods. It got quite annoying. :-/ I'm sure I looked odd as I wore my swimsuit under my jeans and tank top and never got warm enough to take my pants off and sunbath! So I sunbathed in my jeans! Haha! Our next stop was Puerto Villarta. We REALLY liked this port! We caught a van tour outside our ship. Another couple we ran into told us about it and we thought we'd give it a try. We paid the guy and he took us all over the area, stopping where we wanted to and spending what time we wanted to where we wanted too. It was GREAT!
He told us that there wasn't unemployment there as they did everything by hand. He wasn't joking! The guy on the left was sawing through a metal railing with a hand saw! :-0 We saw guys mixing big ole containers of cement too!
Isn't it pretty? Our tour guide said the place we had stopped at has some of the best views to be found!I can't remember what these flowers were called. Fire something, but man they were pretty!
We stopped at a Tequila factory. Well, they didn't make it there, but they showed us how it was made and then let us sample some! YUM! Nothing like sampling tequila at 10:30 in the morning! Haha! Our guide there was a hoot ! He was a TON of fun!
It was pretty neat to look at their collection! Who knew they made tequilas that have a almond flavor or coffee flavor? Man those two were so delicious!
All the roads were cobble stone. This is the street leading up to Mr. Tequila, where we learned about how they made tequila.
We went on the tour with two other couples. They wanted to stop for lunch. Our guide took us up to this little restaurant! I love how they are open without walls and windows! It was very pleasant!
Back on ship, the guys who made down our beds and cleaned our rooms created animals out of towels each night for us. This mouse was peeking out under our sheets.
This elephant was left on the counter! haha!
We chose to do the more formal dining most nights. This is the dining room we ate at most! We were lucky enough most of the time to sit in the very back near the big windows!

We really enjoyed and needed the time away just the two of us! My brother and sister in law came down and stayed the first two nights with the kids and then took them to my mother in laws where they spent the whole week. They had a fabulous time! My mother-in-law washed all their clothes for me! Wasn't that sweet of her? I so greatly appreciated that! I am so fortunate to have so much family around and even better than that family that loves to help with the kids and spend time with them!

Thanks for stopping by! At some point I will be caught up and able to scrap again! but 7 days away from home...man...there is a lot to catch up on!

Sketch Support Layout using Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride

I am absolutely LOVING Sketch Support! Its overflowing with inspiration and talent! I used this sketch for the following layout!

Miss Maddy's first big boo boo, her first shiner too! She took her glider rocker on head first and lost. :-( I'm not sure if Peyton assisted in the match, but I kinda have that Mommy hunch he was! ;-) You can't see it too well in the photos, but it did look pretty bad. Side note: I'm not overly happy with my camera....its colors seem off and kinda dark. :-(
I layered and popped up some chipboard and stitched a border on. Cosmo Cricket has THE BEST chipboard! It sticks SO WELL!

These pictures were from a few weekends ago at my Grandpas Memorial Service. My mom bought the girls (Maddy and my niece) matching dresses and the boys their dressy outfits for Christmas in hopes of a nice picture of all the grandkids. Well, only Peyton made it into his outfit. So we thought we'd get them to wear their outfits to the service.
Maddy wanted nothing to do with the picture and nothing to do with the nursery at the church. :-( Chris ended up missing the majority of the service thanks to Maddy's great vocal abilities! ;-)
Isn't he adorable? Yep, he is one BUSY boy! He loves to go go go go!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I wanted to let you know I'm taking a little break and won't be posting next week! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend and week!

Beautiful Layout Using Bo Bunny

Hello! I'm glad you stopped by! Today I wanted to share a recent layout I created and a funny story and pictures to go with it!

First off is the layout. I have gone away from doing one picture layouts as much as possible. I have so many photos and so little room to store the layouts that I am reverting back to multiple photo layouts.

Maddy gets me....those curls, those big blue eyes, her personality. These are some of my photos that I just LOVE and feel show her personality.
I stitched the border by hand. I also made all the flowers. For the orange and brown ones I used my Cuttlebug Asterisk Die. punched tow of the larger flower and layered them. I then cut a circle out of this burlap type material I have and cut around the circle shape in a spiral to the center. I tightened the curl and glued it to give it a bit of dimension. I then put a dab of glue in the center and twisted some jute/twine in a circle for the center! I also made the turquoise flower from a zipper by gathering the non-zippered edge and glueing it along the way.

*Don't forget the Cosmo Cricket Challenge I posted here: Scrapbook.com Cosmo Cricket Challenge*

**Birds of a Feather is having a crop this weekend! Go check it out! Amy always has fun challenges and fabulous prizes!**

Now on to the funny story...Little Miss Maddy, oh my Little Miss Maddy, how she brings so much life to this house! I was running late and didn't get Peyton's pj's picked up or her changed before having to take Peyton to preschool. So when we got back we went in to change her right away. Well, apparently I didn't choose out a good outfit cause it wasn't but a half hour and she had already stripped and was putting Peyton's pj's on! Not only that, but she found his overnight *special* underwear (side note, he hasn't had an accident overnight in,...a long time...at least a few months, but I'm afraid if I take them off he will. That's what happened last time I forgot to put one on him a few months ago, he had an accident after months of not having one....back to story now...). So she put the *special* underwear on, this she did need a tad bit of help with as she couldn't get them all the way up. This is what she ended up with:
It was quite cute, quite funny and I just couldn't make her take them off.
She WOULD NOT hold still for a photo. She kept them on ALL Day! It was the first time in a LONG time that she went over 6 hours without stripping! Lol....Yep, she is my little character for sure and definitely keeps me on my toes!