Blog Hop Lists

Our October SOTM Blog Hop starts in just 6 hours - I hope you'll join us to see what has been created using this stamp set. We have split up this month's SOTM Blog Hop into 3 groups - you can view the complete lists below if you'd like to check out all of this month's inspiration!

Round 1

Jena DeVries

Helen Onulak

Linda Shewchuk

Kristie Herdener

Sheila Bennett

Cibele Glazer

Barbra Otten

Melissa Laverty

Carla Ironside

Nona Davenport

Deb Young

Terrie Dodd

Alanna Moses

Antoinette Herrin

Jamia Bankhead

Karen Norman

Beth Naumann

Brae Montgomery

Kathleen Androlewicz

Tanya David

Tammy Lea Pinchard

Chris Shouse

Round 2

Debra Van Patten

Lori Leng

Nancy Brown

Krista Ritskes

Katy Donaldson

Pamela O'Connor

Jen Rubio

Haley Dyer

Michelle Nist

Jen Patrick

Kimberly Smith

Sylvia Jacquot

Sarita Schraeder

Dawn Ross

Laurie Newton

Kami Welter

Wendy Kessler

Jessica Booth

Lori Brown
Barbara Harris

Round 3

Judy Burger

Paige Dolecki

Nancy Ball

Adeline E. Brill

Cindy Leek

Carol Taggio

Jody Gustafson

Wanda Riley

Jill Lucas

Susan Brooks

Dawn Heuft

Shannon Pelletier

Laurie Levnik

Caren Goldsein

Brenda Harmless

Amy McVey

Traci Godbee

Maricar Harris

Pam Klassen

Misty Jackson

MMB Give-Away

It's time for yet another give-away over at Mormon Mommy Blogs! Click HERE to check it out. I forgot to mention before that I was one of the winners last month - yipee! I'll post my prize when I get it (if I ever tell her what size I need ;-) I keep forgetting to measure Kaylee).

Wordless Wednesday

Tutorial Tuesday - Flying Kite card

A few of you asked for a tutorial on my moving card that I posted HERE last week, so I'm going to give it a try! This is my first tutorial, so be patient with me! I didn't take very good pictures I realized as I was putting this together - I will try to get better pics next time. Please let me know if you have any suggestions, or if I need to clarify any of my following steps. I just made this up as I went, so hopefully I've made my steps clear here. If you create something using this idea, please post a comment here - I'd love to see the different results!

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First I used my Coluzzle Circle to cut out a small opening in my Dutch Blue CS. I cut about an inch along the red circle and parrallel to that along the purple circle. Notice how my Coluzzle is colored - I marked it with different colors of permanent markers, which helps keep track of which size I am cutting. This has been very helpful anytime I use my Coluzzle!

Then I cut out that piece so you then have a 'track' like this:

Then I cut out my Colonial White circle piece using the green circle on my Coluzzle Circle - that way it is slightly larger than my track, and it also sticks out the side of my front blue piece.

Next I attached the circle to the blue piece using a brad - be sure the brad is in the center of the circle to help it move correctly. The front will look like this:

The back will look like this (sorry this is the worst picture, but you get the idea):

Then I attached a 3-D Foam Square to the circle - through the track - like this:

I then attached the kite to the foam square and decorated the front of the blue piece. I used one of the clouds (popped up with another 3-D foam square) to cover up the brad. Sorry, this is another bad picture, but you get the idea.

Then I attached four 3-D foam squares to the back of the blue piece - this helps your circle move better if it has room. Then I attached it to my Chocolate CS that serves as a mat.

I stapled a scrap of ribbon to the part of the circle that sticks out from behind the blue - it's helpful to have something to hold on to as you move the kite.

That's it! Boy, I sure hope that made sense ;-) Here is my card again - this picture is with the kite down...

...and here is the kite up!

Thanks for looking!

Cheeky

Here is another quick layout that I did last week. I took the pictures on Thursday morning after Trysten's bath, picked them up that night at Walgreens, and created the page the next day! Thanks to Marjorie for the title idea - you can see her inspiration piece here. As I was taking the pictures of Trysten that morning, I thought back to her layout and knew this title would be perfect. I used the following sketch from Scrappy Sunday.

I just remembered I was going to add some hand-written journaling at the top, but now I'm not sure if I really need it or not. Sometimes the pictures just say enough! What do you think?



CTMH Products Used: Tinkerin paper, Wonder felt shapes (twilight circles for bubbles - covered in Liquid Glass), Save the Date stamp set, Twilight and Sunny Yellow stamp pads

Other Products Used: Thickers

Here is a close-up of the felt circles covered with Liquid Glass to look like bubbles. It took a couple of layers to get the smooth look - the first layer just soaks into the felt, but after that dries you can add a second layer to give it a smoother surface. Some of them still didn't turn out as smooth as I would have liked, but it still works for me!


Thanks for looking!

He's getting so big!

Trysten's latest thing is standing - on his own! He will pull himself up and then get brave and let go - he will balance for a second or two and then plop! He's pretty proud of himself, though, and will do it over and over! I used my Continuous Shot mode on my camera while we were playing outside the other day to capture it. He's growing too fast!

Flashback Friday

September 2007 - Kaylee, Brianna, and Brailee with Gma Nae & LR

Check out those legs on Brailee - love 'em!

Grow...With Love!

Trysten is 8 months old today! He is growing up too fast - he is crawling everywhere, climbing over obstacles, and pulling up on everything! He likes to play 'So Big' and he loves to clap his hands so he enjoys 'Patty Cake'. I took these pictures last week and couldn't wait to scrap them. When I saw the weekend sketch contest at Practical Scrappers on Saturday, I knew I wanted to do something fun with the tree where the circle element was on the page. Then once this week's sketch over at 52 Sketches posted, I knew they would be perfect together and it would give me a chance to use all (or most) of the pictures that I took. I was going to use my Grown With Love stamp set, but the felt was funner to play with ;-)

I had this poem that I had saved and knew it was a perfect fit. The original poem is by Diane Woolley, but I changed a few parts to make it work better. Here is what it says:

At first you didn't lift your head, you didn't know to smile. The time before you knew my voice seemed such a long, long while. I couldn't wait for you to roll, and then to sit and clap. And now you're off and crawling, not helpless in my lap. How could I forget, how fast a baby grows? That every little baby stage soon comes, but sooner goes.So I'll enjoy the fleeting time before you learn to walk. And treasure every tiny noise before you learn to talk. For soon you'll learn to walk then run, and talk and sing a song. A little boy you will become, the baby will be gone. Little Trysten, please take a bit more time to grow into a little boy, for while you're small, you're mine!

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This is the sketch from Practical Scrappers - even though I didn't get mine done on time for their contest, I still had fun playing along!

Here is the sketch from 52 Sketches

CTMH Products Used: Animal Cookies paper pack and stickease, Heartfelt Wonder felt pieces (brackets, tree trunk, circles), Circle Coluzzle, 1/4" circle punch, Vellum, Font CD

Other Products Used: 1/2" circle punch, 3/4" circle punch

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Are you ready for more trees? Here are a couple of cards I made last week. I LOVED this Grown With Love stamp set when it came out and got it right away, but this was the first time I've finally used it - now I have so many more ideas running through my head, I can't wait to play with it some more!

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This was the card I made for my SIL Hannah - using the beautiful Grace papers I made this fun Tri-fold card. I started one of these fun folding cards back in June - it's super easy, I just never got around to 'decorating' it until now. I will definitely be doing more of these. You can find the instructions HERE.

Here is the card closed...

And open...

Then this one was the first card I made with this stamp set - I tried something different by turning the circle in the pattern of the card (from Wishes - Bullseye) into the tree top by stamping the leaves all over. I used Jeanette Lynton's color combo from last week's Color Me Monday. Maybe it's just the colors or the circle behind the tree like that, but it seems really 'Halloween-y' to me - if that were a word ;-)

So after that card - I had to play with the Halloween idea, using the Enchanted paper back with some Black Textured CS. I think it turned out cute! The cute little bats came from the retired Fall stamp set and they are popped up with pop dots. I used the same Bullseye pattern from Wishes, but this time I turned the circle into a moon.

Wow, I didn't expect this to be such a long post, but there's no turning back now! If you've stuck with me this long, thanks for looking!

Wordless Wednesday

Birthday Cards - by Guest Stampers!

Today you get a break from me ;-) Enjoy the fabulous work of Sandy and Shirene for today! I have been creating and have lots of stuff scheduled to post the rest of the week so stay tuned!

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Here is the card my SIL Sandy made me for my birthday. I love all the layers and glitter!

And since my Open House was just a couple of days after my birthday I had a card contest - Shirene's card, shown below, was the only entry I received, but how fun is this card - I love the unique fold and circle cut from the front! Sorry I didn't get a better picture - I didn't realize this one was so bad until after I gave the card back.

Thanks, ladies!

Princess Birthday Card!

Here is a quick card I made for Izzy for her 3rd birthday - she loves princesses and bling and even had a castle birthday cake, so I thought this was just perfect for her.

Wishes card pattern - Keyhole

Products Used (all CTMH): Daydream paper pack, Princess stamp set (retired), Happy Birthday stamp set, Prisma Glitter, pop dots, Clear Sparkles, Hollyhock and Spring Iris ink pads

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Thanks for looking!

Childhood

Here are a couple of cards that I created a while ago using the fun Childhood stamp set - it's a favorite of mine!

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This was the card I created for David's brother and his wife who welcomed a new baby boy to their family back in July. I even stamped a fun border on the envelope.

I used the Twitterpated paper and the following sketch from Mojo Monday.

Here is a fun moving card that I created for one of my nephews who is turning two in November. His brother got this moving train card for his birthday earlier this year, so I wanted to create a fun one for him, too! The kite flies! I have step by step pictures that I took while creating this card so if anyone is interested and would like to know how I did it, I can put a tutorial together - just let me know!

I used another sketch from Mojo Monday for this card as well.

Thanks for looking!

Family Update

Wow, it's been SO long since I've really given a full update about my family - so now you have been warned, this is a LONG post with lots of pics ;-) Oh, and I forgot to mention before, thanks to my friend Camie who got me started on the Wordless Wednesday posts, and my friend Melissa who got me started on the Friday Flashbacks - it's been a fun, easy way to post. But then I still have to do updates like this, of course! Hmmm...where to start...

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...well, we have discovered in the last couple of weeks that mosquitoes and Trysten just don't get along. No matter what I do to protect him, they find him and his body doesn't react too well. Plus the darn skeeters have been so thick since the end of August - what a nuisance they are! On Thursday, August 20th, he got bit on each leg - they swelled and pussed and scabbed and were on their way to getting infected, but with a little Peroxide they cleared right up. One week later, on Thursday, August 27th he got bit again, this time on the face. On Friday it was looking a little red, and then Saturday morning he woke up looking like this...

...so I got him into a doctor that is open on the weekends, got him on an antibiotic and it cleared right up. Then two weeks later, on yet another Thursday (yes, there is something about Thursday mosquitoes - they are the worst) he got bit on the forehead and swelled up and scabbed over again. I used Peroxide again because it was in a safe spot to do so and it cleared right up. We're just going to have to be more careful!

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As for me - I turned 28 a couple weeks ago - I can't believe I'm getting so close to 30 ;-P This year when I went to the eye doctor for the first time ever, it finally hit me that I'm not as young as I used to be. I now have to wear reading glasses - but it's been nice because I've finally been able to read again! Before I realized I needed glasses, I would start a book but then I'd get a headache or just not be able to focus, so I'd give it up.

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David has been feeling older as well - he got hit with allergies last year (his first time ever) and they were even worse this year. He gets hives, his eyes swell shut, and his throat closes up and they really take a toll on him! Hopefully it won't be as bad next year.

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Now on to the subject of TEETH! Brianna has her first loose tooth and she is SO excited! I wonder when the tooth fairy will finally get to visit her?!? So now Brailee is convinced that she has a loose tooth as well ;-) And then Trysten had his first tooth pop through last weekend. He should have a second one any day now. Kaylee has to get a minor procedure done next month - I won't even try to spell it or explain it, it's something to do with the skin that attaches her lip to her gums. I didn't even realize it was a problem until she went to a new dentist earlier this month. Apparently Brianna will need it as well, but hers can wait for a while. It's supposed to help with the gap in her teeth once it's taken care of.

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I still can't believe that September is more than halfway over - this whole year has gone by so fast and summer just flew by! We had fun swimming - the girls all took lessons this year (their first time) and my little fishies loved it! We also enjoyed our daily bike rides and walks - the girls especially loved riding to the 'Dead End' for our Ladybug Hunts...

Another favorite from this summer - picking Raspberries! We picked LOTS of berries this year but never made anything with them because they would get gobbled up too fast!

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And these pics are from just this week - to show my mom how our pumpkins have grown! She brought the girls a pumpkin plant when she came for their dance recital and this is what we have now - I never expected them to get this big! We've grown pumpkins before but they were not bigger than a basketball. Right now the biggest one is 'caged' in because David moved the jungle gym to mow the lawn one day and it didn't get moved back right away and the pumpkin and vines quickly grew through and around it! Brailee posed next to them to give an idea of how big they are.

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We finally replaced our sliding door - it's so nice to finally have a screen and a door that the kids can actually open on their own! I even had a hard time with the old one sometimes. Plus the new one is nice because it has the blinds INSIDE the door so nothing for the kids to get tangled in and no blinds to clean ;-)

Bye-bye old door!

Trysten likes the new door, and leaves adorable little smudges all over the window.

We've repainted our entire living room, but I loved the color I already had in there so I didn't change it, but David replaced all of our Base Trim. We even painted our huge shelves on both sides of our fireplace, which meant we had to move the fish tank, so it got a much needed full tank cleansing - it looks so much better! We still have some painting to finish up down the hallway, but the big, messy project is done - for this year anyway!

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The best thing about cool mornings is the hot air balloon that often flies over our house - sometimes it even lands in the field right behind our house. The girls enjoy watching it, especially in their jammies!

Well, I think that's everything - I have some more pictures to share but I'll save them for another post. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me ;-)