"Owl" Be Yours

This card follows today's SCS sketch. I've had this "owl" set for a while now from October Afternoon. I don't even know what it's called, but that means it's been neglected. My mom was an owl collector when I was a kid, so this card reminds me of my old house and all of those owl collectables that she had. Just the other day I downloaded and printed Papertrey Ink's downloadable try before you buy paper. You can find this right from their home page. This sketch was the perfect use for it. I cut it into strips and adhered it to Very Vanilla, then mounted that to the Chocolate Chip card base. I stamped the owl with Timber Brown Stazon onto Very Vanilla c.s, then matted it onto Kraft and a Chocolate Chip square scallop. I tied on some chocolate twill ribbon and stamped the sentiment onto Kraft c.s. and punched it out with the Word Window punch. That's it for today. I'm hoping to get more things added to my etsy shop. Be sure to check it out!

Alex's Birthday Box/ Etsy Shop

I've been hoarding these mini lunch boxes, just as I do everything else, but I needed a quick birthday gift for this weekend, so I dusted on off and altered it. I used East Coast Prep d.p. (SU!) to cover the lid and the sides of the box. I used Billy (PCS) for the main image and colored it with my COPICS. I punched out a star with the Star Punch (SU!) and a tab with the Round Tab Punch (SU!) and added Alex's name to it. Oh- and I added the striped ribbon (SU!) to the handle. That's about it. I'll put a gift card in it. Just a more fun way to give a gift card rather that just a plain envelope. I wanted to let you know that I opened an ETSY shop and I'll be adding things to it daily. The link is on my sidebar and that's where I'll be selling my creations. If you are interested in purchasing anything I post here, you'll likely be able to find it there. Thanks for stopping by.

Celebrate The Season

Well, as you know Christmas in July is coming to an end- so the cards I made for the next few days will be wintery/Christmasy because you can never get enough of a head start on those babies! This card I've got for you today is for Julee's Mojo Monday sketch from yesterday. I love it's simplicity, because we are getting ready to go camping and I haven't had a lot of time to devote to stamping so far this week. I started with a white card base and I ran it through the Cuttlebug with the snowflakes embossing folder. Then I used Baja Breeze and Soft Sky for a wintery monocromatic color combo. The stamp is from So Many Scallops (SU!). It's time to get lots f use out of that set before it's time to tuck it away

Saturday Sketches With Bellas

I have two cards to share with you today. Both are using Lauren's Saturday Sketches. One from last Saturday and the other is from yesterday. I won't be stamping today because Dustin, the kids and I, my inlaws, s-i-l, and her kids are all going to Soak City at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio for the day. For most of you that's quit a haul, but for us it's only 20 minutes away. My father-in-law is a farmer and he provides the animals for the petting zoo at Cedar Point during the summer. In return he gets free tickets to Cedar Point and Soak City, so we have the opportunity to go there each year. Back to the cards. I love last Saturday's sketch. It is fun and funky. I love the color combo that came about from the ribbon I used (American Crafts from Target). I will definately use this sketch again. My favorite part of the card is probably the flower accent. It used to be pink, but I dyed it using my black reinker. This card uses Clickabella. The second card is from yesterday's sketch. I used Winobella on this one and another dyed flower. This sketch was clean and simple, so I added some Dazzling Diamonds to Bellas dress to livenit up a little. I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend. Tomorrow brings Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch!

Live, Love, Laugh And Then Some

That is the title in the header of my sweet downline, Haley's blog. Why am I telling you this, you ask? Today's SCS IC was to find inspiration in someone's web design. It can be the layout, colors, the header, or whatever you want. I went with all of those things as inspiration for my card. As soon as I saw this challenge I knew her blog would be the one I would use. I love the colors together- chocolate chip, rose red, pumpkin pie, and olive green. And I also knew that the flower fusion felt flowers would be a perfect match for this as well. So, here's what I did... the base of the card is Rose Red. The next layer is Chocolate Chip stamped with random flowers with white and Old Olive craft ink. Next is another layer, this time Old Olive. I wanted to give the feel of the title of the header, so I used the word Love and Cherish. stamped in Chocolate Chip. Those are the closest I had to the actual title (Live, Love, Laugh and then some). Next is the thin strip of Pumpkin Pie through the middle, and I actually stamped the word cherish on this layer. Then I printed the quote she has on her header on the computer and printed it out, rounded the corners and added a few felt flowers. Lastly, I added several more felt flowers to the top right corner and some buttons. I hope I did Haley proud on this one and if you haven't already- head over to her blog, check out her header, and give her a shout out and let her know I sent ya! Oh, I did get a chance to get Lauren's SAturday sketch done, but I also have one from her sketch from last Saturday so I will post them both tomorrow.

Friendship Grows With Love

I enjoy visiting everyone's blogs that do sketch challenges. Sketches are my favorite challenge. This one comes from Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge. I always look at her sketches on Friday, but have never played along before. Today I plan on stamping all day and catching up on all those sketches that I love. I've neglected my Bellas for a while now, so today is Bella day for me. I'm going to make all of my cards with my Bellas. I've got to restock my card supply anyway because I'm having a garage sale this weekend and have sold LOTS of my cards! *And just a side note, if any of you are ever interested in purchasing anything you see on this blog, just send me an email and we can work something out!* The patterned paper used on this one is Basic Grey and Veggie Bella is coloered with COPICS. Wow, I am having a hard time getting the hang of those things! Any words of advise would be greatly appriciated! I hope everyone is having a great Saturday and I'll likely be back with Lauren's Saturday sketch!

Happy Birthday Little Monkey

In just a couple of weeks on August 10th, my baby boy will turn 3. I'm having a tough time with this.....well, because he's "the baby"! He's every bit as outgoing as his big brothers and no longer clings to my leg when someone talks to him. In fact, he loves to talk on the phone and has even started calling all of his grandmas to pick him up so he can spend the day with them. He's a busy body- doesn't like to stay home (like his momma!) and so independent! In about a month he'll be off to preschool. I think that is going to be a tough day..for mommy! Anyway- I made this card for his birthday using yesterday's SCS Ways To Use It Challenge. We were to use the negative of something, be it stencils, chipboard, reverse masking. You get the idea. I opted for the negative piece of the chipboard star. I always save the negative pieces, but rarely use them, so this was a great challenge for me! The sock monkey is a sneek peek from one of the great sets in the upcoming SU! catty. My wonderful friend, Dawn, sent me a few of the images because I don't have this set yet. You can see her awesome SCS gallery here. I'll be back (hopefully) a little later with today's SCS challenge, but no promises. I'm having a garage sale today and tomorrow. TGIF!!

Teacher Thank You Card Tote Bag

It must be all this Christmas is July stuff that's got me in the moos to get a head start on my Christmas gifts. This tote bag with 4 thank you cards will be given to one of the boys' teachers for their Christmas gift. I used the retired SU! Primary Colors SSK. There is so much paper and stickers in those kits. I have made several scrapbook layouts, not to mention countless gifts with the kit and I still have parts and pieces left.

I've Jumped On The Copic Bandwagon

I have wanted Copic markers for a long time, but I've held out longer than most people. Mainly because of the cost and I'm not really sure if I can color with them as well as some of the bloggers out there. Well, I broke down the other day and bought a set from ATS. They have shipped and hopefully they will be here by the end of the week so I can give them a try. For now it's SU! markers or Prismacolor markers. Today I had a chance to work on the SCS sketch challenge. It's a pretty simple sketch so it didn't take long at all to finish. I used Walkabout Walley and the sentiment from High Hopes. The d.p. is retired from SU!

Sketch Book

Wow, it's only 9:30 a.m. and I feel like I've done a whole day's work already! This is just a quick post to show you the book I put together to draw card sketches for future reference. There are so many great blogs out there that provide sketch challenges and I just can't get to them all. I want a space to put them so I can work on them at my own pace. I covered a SU! On Board Art Journal with Basic Grey paper. I had to use the SU! Spiral Punch to fit the paper around the binding of the book. I tied various ribbons around the binding and added some Maya Road chipboard letters to complete the book. There you have it!

Happy Birthday Cameron!

How is your Saturday going so far? Today is Cameron's 6th birthday. It's going well, but he's a little sad that his dad isn't here to celebrate with him. He is on a 4- wheeling trip in West Virginia. We are going to have a birthday party in a couple of weeks for him and Carter, so today really isn't that big of a deal. We also have my nephew's birthday party today, so he's going to get birthday cake regardless! We have a while until it's time to go to the party and Carter is down for a nap so I had time to whip up this card. The stamps are all from High Hopes, except for the sentiment, which is from Stamping Bella. The patterned paper is from the A shore Thing Line by Imaginisce. Hope you have a great day! Happy Birthday Cam- Man!

Billy And Lily Need A Break....

...for a few weeks anyway until the accessories at Pink Cat Studio come available! I've used them so much that you all are probably tired of seeing them! Here are the last few coaster frames I finished up the the daycare families. For all of the coasters I just used scraps of patterned paper measuredto fit the front, rounder the corners, sanded the rough edges, and embellished as desired. For the back I attached two pieces of ribbon to hold the 2 coasters together with tape and covered them with cardstock measured to fit. Happy Thursday!

Daycare Childrens' Coaster Frames

I decided for Christmas that I would make coaster frames for each of my daycare families. It's inexpensive, yet a great way to easily display a photo of their children. I know it's early to start thinking about Christmas, but if I can get these little projects out of the way now, I'll be less stressed in a few months when the Christmas season is in full gear! I used Dress Up Billy for all of these. Tomorrow I'll have the girls' done using Dress Up Lily. I hope the families will enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them! Oh- Cameron thanks you for all of his great comments on his card yesterday. Today he is birthday shopping with my grandparents at Bass Pro Shops. He turns 6 on Saturday!

Crafty Monkey

The first thing I want to share with you this morning is a card that my 5 year old, Cameron, made for the Crafty Monkeys "summertime" challenge. I just came across this blog yesterday and everyother Friday they have a challenge for kids to do. Cameron thought that it was so cool that he was doing a challenge like mommy does. He is so proud of his card and it's actually really good, so leave him a comment on this post and let him know what you think! I'll be back later with my post.

Billy Coaster Frames

Happy Monday morning to you all. Hope everyone had a great weekend. We stayed home all weekend. That is rare around here so we enjoyed it! I put together these two coaster frames on Saturday while it rained and I couldn't do much else. Of coarse I used Billy because he is just so perfect for little projects like these. Enjoy the day today and maybe I'll be back with Julee's Mojo Monday sketch.

All Aboard Thomas Tin

A while back I bought several of these tins in different colors from Michael's for $1.99. Well, I've been hoarding them, but today I found a great use for the red tin. The last outfit that I need to dress Billy in was his train conductor outfit. I had some Thomas patterned paper sitting around and I thought it would be perfect to alter the tin using that paper and Conductor Billy. I already had Thomas Trains bought for Carter's birthday coming up, so I thought this would be a fun way to present them. What do you think?

It's Not Easy.....

being me! That's how I feel a lot of days! I haven't played with Hanna for a while, so I thought I'd dust her off and pair her up with Stampin' Up!'s Berry Bliss d.p. I wanted to accomplish the look of wallpaper with the patterned paper behind Hanna and also carpet by flocking the area where she is vacuuming. I put liquid applique on her slippers so they look fluffy and finally I stamped the dust pan and duster on white and puinched them out with the 1" circle punch. Then I matted them on Purely Pomegranate and punched them out with the 1 1/4" circle punch. There you have it! Happy Thursday.

T-Ball

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Here is my layout for Haley's Scrap With Me Tuesday Challenge. If you're not sure what I mean by that, read the post below. I was planning on this being the next layout I scrapped anyway. It just happened to work perfect for her challenge to scrap something representing summer. Enjoy!

Birthday Party

I haven't shared a scrapbook page with you in a while, so here is one I put together yesterday from Austin's birthday party in May. The patterned paper is the Celebration line by American Crafts. Today my goal is to put together a scrapbook layout for Haley's Scrap With Me Tuesday Challenge. She has a weekly contest going on, so head over to her blog and check it out. This week's challenge is to create a layout representing summer. I will probably start working on our Myrtle Beach pictures.

Smile

I don't know about you, but everytime I see Billy I smile. This card was made by using Lauren's Saturday Sketch. The patterned paper is Stampin' Up!'s East Coast Prep.

Today I'm going to spend the day trying to get out the this mountain of laundry and maybe create a card or two!

We're Back!

My family at Broadway at the Beach on July 4thThey FINALLY fell asleep on the way to dinner at Planet Hollywood.
Carter with his new goggles and new hat. He even slept with them.
This is a man made lake full of carp and ducks. Carter lost one of his new Nike shoes in that water so we had to go buy him a new pair of shoes.
Dustin & I at Broadway at the Beach

We are home from our first family vacation to Myrtle Beach and we survived. A few times during the week we weren't sure if we'd be coming home with all three kids, but overall they did pretty well. They had a great time. I have some pictures I want to share with you this morning, then I'll be back later with a card.