Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #16

This week's sketch called for two photos and lots of circles. Since it was getting close to the end of the month and I still hadn't made a calendar page for June, I decided to use this sketch for that. I modified it a bit to make it work with the photos and format of my calendar. First, my calendar is 8 1/2 x 11 so I had to stretch the sketch a bit. Also, my photos were horizontal instead of vertical so I rotated the sketch 90 degrees. I added sequins to pull together the elements in both corners.



You can go to the Frosted Designs blog to see what the other design team members did with the sketch! The two guest designers this week are Minnesota girls as well!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Project 365 Week 41

Here are my photos for the week. I forgot to take on on Tuesday, so I have included 2 from Saturday.

5/23 Ellie painting the bird feeder we made. Ellie has a nature crafts book and this was one of the projects. The girls had fun painting the juice container. Unfortunately I wasn't completely prepared and didn't have string to hang it up so it was left on the back step overnight where a squirrel decided to rip the net bag holding the bird seed.


5/25 While we watched the last episode of "Oprah" I gave the girls manicures and pedicures.


5/26 Addy rolling up the hose after we watered the tomato plants we had just planted in the garden.


5/27 Ellie and Will playing with a hula hoop at open gym.


5/28 Rick's parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary on Sunday, so when we went on Saturday I made a cake for them. Here they are with their cake.


Ellie holding some tree blossoms and her necklace after our tractor ride.


5/29 Addy climbing the big ladder at the park. I was astonished when I saw her do it the first time this spring! She is growing up so fast!!

Monday, May 23, 2011

Project 365 Week 40

Here are my pictures for the week!

5/16 Ellie helping to make pizza for dinner.


5/17 Will figured out how to sit up and crawl around his crib this week. This has meant that he gets up and then doesn't lay back down when he falls asleep. This was the first of several times I found him sleeping like this. Looks comfortable, right?


5/18 Uh oh, a fairy lost her wings! Or she just forgot to pick them up after she was done flying...


5/19 I gave Will's hair a trim because the top was getting pretty long. I set him up in the high chair with some crackers and toys. I also set up the camera on the tripod and gave the girls the remote so I would have pictures of his first haircut. So, what do you get when you give the camera remote to two little girls? 120 pictures and about a dozen of them that look like this...


Here is a picture of Will's hair post-cut


5/20 Will and our friend Annie checking out the tiger at the zoo. It was kind of rainy and there were TONS of school groups at the zoo, but we still had fun!


5/21 Addy working on some scrapbooking. Don't worry, that is an extra picture that she is cutting in half!


5/22 Ellie and her friend Kiera sharing secrets at Wally and Darlene's 50th Anniversary party. These two girls have so much fun together! It is amazing how they will go months without seeing each other but are the best of friends within minutes!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Scrapping Time!

I had the opportunity to spend several hours last Saturday at Archiver's scrapbooking. It was wonderful!! I met up with my friend Shannon and we had a great time chatting and working on our books. The first part of the time I worked on this mini album that I started at Scrapfest last September. I got all of the photos I had in it, but realized I need more! So all I am posting right now is the cover (which will also change when I print some more photos).


After I completed what I could on the album I decided to to a layout. I got another page done for Will's album. This one is of his first bath in the hospital. I realized looking at these pictures that Will's hair was really dark when he was born. He has become quite the little blondy! This one I had some fun layering with the bubbles and brad in the middle of the page. The paper bubbles are a cut from the Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge. The felt was actually meant to be a cloud, but I thought it worked well as bubbles too!


I thought I would have to go home after I completed this layout, because Addy had been sick that morning and I felt bad leaving Rick to not only deal with all three kids all afternoon/evening, but a sick kid as well. But, Addy was feeling much better and my WONDERFUL husband called and said I could stay a while longer. So I made this layout for Ellie's book. The collage is one of the premade ones you can download from Scrapbooks Etc., all I did was select the photos, resize them and print out the collage. The paper I used on here is from the K and Company Berry Patch collection. I bought this pad of paper at an estate sale last Thursday because I loved the fun colors and patterns! The entire layout is a scraplift of Gretta Hammond from the October 2009 Scrapbooks Etc.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #15

This week's sketch has lots of layering, something that I am still trying to figure out, but this sketch made it pretty easy. There is space for 1 photo, but I didn't use any! Instead, I used the music for the hymn, "The Servant Song." I have been wanting to do a layout about this song for a while and how it has influenced my attitude about life. This is also part of an effort to make more pages that reflect my faith and how it influences my life. Here are the sketch and my take on it:


(Click on the picture to see it larger and read the journaling.)

You can see what the other design team members did with the sketch and join in here.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Project 365 Week 39

We had some great spring weather this week! The flowers are starting to bloom!

5/9 Addy doing a somersault in the living room- pretty good for a 2 1/2 year old!


5/10 The girls watching "Pinkalicious" at Toddler Tuesday.


5/11 Will as a turtle on one of the playgrounds at the zoo.


5/12 Mother's Day roses from my girls.


5/13 My mom came and helped me plant my flowers today! It was a little chilly out, but it went well and look how colorful they are!!


5/14 I got to go hang out at Archiver's for several hours this afternoon and evening with Shannon and this is what I accomplished. (I will have a post with better shots in the next few days.)


5/15 Summer Feast! We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over our fire pit, had potato salad, baked beans, potato chips, and cole slaw. Yum!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Frosted Designs- "Girly Layout"

Fern posted a challenge for NSD to create a "girly" layout with at least one thing you wouldn't find in the scrapbooking aisle. Fern made a beautiful pink and frilly layout as an example. While I love pink and making pink layouts, I pulled out this photo of the girls that we had taken at JCPenney's two Christmases ago and knew pink was not going to work. So, I made a BLUE girly layout. I tried to use lots of sparkle, ruffles and dainty details. For my non scrapbooking items I had a piece of lace, a chain of rhinestone and some indivitual pearls I cut off a string for the centers of my flowers.


I learned how to make these flowers last year at Scrapfest. They are pretty easy and I like how they look. I used some Glimmer Mist to accentuate the texture and make them sparkle.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Project 365 Week 38

The weather finally started to warm up and we got outside quite a bit! I love photographing in natural light! Happy Spring and Happy Mother's Day!

5/2 Will checking out how his sisters had lined up his blocks by the stairs.


5/3 Smoothie face. Addy doesn't eat ANYTHING neatly...


5/4 Ellie giving Will a push at the park. It was a beautiful day!!


5/5 The daffodils in my front flower beds (and Addy peeking out the front door).


5/6 One of the girls' dolls in the high chair. Just a little reminder of the sweet little girls that live and play here.


5/7 Rick and Will acting like puppies with Will's bib. (Another beautiful day!!)


5/8 Will's latest "trick"- crawling! He figured it out on 5/7 and has been busy since!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Frosted Designs NSD Crop: Quick Scrap

This is my quick scrap challenge at Frosted Designs, it just went up!

I am here with a quick scrap challenge for National Scrapbooking Day. My challenge is for you to create a layout based on this one by Maggie Holmes from the October 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes. You can see more of her awesome work on her blog here.

Here is my example, and yes, I completed it in under an hour, so it is possible!

I will draw a name from those who participate and send them this 8x8 album kit.


Let's see what you come up with! You have an hour to create your layout and 15 minutes to get it photographed and posted. Post your layout to the Frosted Designs blog by 2:15.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

May Blade Masters Challenge!

Happy May! It looks like spring has finally arrived! I don't know about where you live, but I know here we got lots of April showers! And we all know April showers bring May flowers! So my Blade Masters challenge at Challenge Masters this month is to use your cutting tools to make a dimensional flower. There are lots of options for this one, the flowers I made for my layout are just one example.



For my each of my flowers I cut 3 scalloped circles in 1/4" diameter increments using the Storybook cartridge and my Cricut. I then crumpled up the scalloped circles, uncrumpled them, inked the creases and edges and then sprayed them with turquoise Perfect Pearls Mist. I used glue dots to stick them together and to the page. Here is a closer look at the flowers:



You can use punches to make your flowers, or even scissors! You can curl your flowers, crumple them, or just leave them flat and use foam adhesive to lift a layer of the page. Get creative and have fun!

By the way, I used two page sketch #5 from Sketch Support for this layout!

National Scrapbooking Day Projects

I have already completed a couple of challenge for the NSD crop at Challenge Masters! The first was a Card Challenge. The challenge was to make a card with a button and a butterfly on it. I made these four Mother's Day cards for my mom, mother-in-law and two grandmas yesterday morning so I could get them in the mail in hopes that they would receive them today.


The second challenge was the Ice Cream Sundae Challenge. The challenge was to choose vanilla or chocolate ice cream and three toppings from this list: peanuts, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, cherry, sprinkles. I chose vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, with a cherry on top. (I know, my mouth is just watering thinking about it too!) Those ingredients then translated into scrapbooking "ingredients." Mine ended up being sewing, ribbon, flowers, and buttons. I made this layout with our pictures from last Easter. I scraplifted a layout by Suzy Plantamura in the October 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes.


The sewing is around the edge of the circle patterned paper, there is a ribbon border using two different ribbons, flowers all over the place and buttons as the center of the flowers and to add some dimension to some of the circles.

I hope to get a few more done before the Thursday deadline!

Friday, May 6, 2011

National Scrapbooking Day!

Actually, National Scrapbooking Day is tomorrow, but there are lots of festivities that have already started! Challenge Masters is hosting a crop in our forum. There are 10 different challenges posted and tomorrow night we will be playing some games.

I have posted a "Progressive" Challenge. For this challenge, I created a layout and then wrote step by step instructions. However, you are to only look at the instructions one at a time as you complete them. So you have no idea what is coming next! Someone else had done this last year and I thought it was so fun and it actually makes for a pretty quick page because you don't have the opportunity to sit around and debate what to use and where to use it. Here is my first direction:

Gather your supplies: 2 4”x6” ish photos (I have one vertical and one horizontal), 1 sheet of cardstock, 3 different patterned papers (one should be decorative edge)- these may be scraps, tag or quote, 1 ribbon, one round ~1 ½” embellishment, 3 similarly sized embellishments, 3 small metal embellishments, letter stickers in various fonts or paper to cut title.

If you would like to complete the challenge, go here. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Also, Frosted Designs will be holding an online crop on our blog and Facebook page starting tonight at 5. I am hosting a 1 hour scraplift challenge on Sunday at 1.

I hope you have a chance to be creative this weekend!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Frosted Designs Sketch Along Tuesday #14

Today a new sketch was revealed at Frosted Designs. This week's sketch included 3 photos and I stuck pretty close to it. I used pictures from our family photo shoot last Easter. Thankfully Rick bought a remote for our camera so we just had to stand there and he just kept hitting the button until we thought we had a good photo. I used a couple of the outtakes as well as a good shot on this layout. If you would like to see what the other ladies on the design team did with this sketch, you can check them out here.



Don't forget, Frosted Designs is hosting a crop this weekend in celebration of National Scrapbooking Day. I am hosting a challenge at 1:00 on Sunday!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Project 365 Week 37

I am posting my pictures for the week on Sunday, this is early for me! I did forget to take a picture on Tuesday, but the rest of the days are accounted for!

4/25 Will sleeping in the car on the drive back from Illinois. He fell asleep with his hand like this, isn't it sweet?


4/27 Will standing next to the ottoman sucking on a toy mustard bottle like a baby bottle. He loves standing next to furniture, he thinks he's pretty hot stuff!


4/28 Addy making a giraffe headband at ECFE.


4/29 Ellie by the koi pond in the conservatory at the Como Zoo. If the whole experience of going to the Como Zoo could be as calming and beautiful as this scene, I would do it all the time. Sadly, it is not, that zoo is not at all stroller friendly so it is exhausting to take 3 small children there.


4/30 Addy "styling" Rick's hair. I'd be a little afraid if my stylist was laughing like that, but not Rick, he's a brave guy. :)


5/1 Cake for the "Beatification Bash" that we attended today celebrating the Beatification of Pope John Paul II. JP II, We love you, pray for us!