Green Eggs & Ham

In honor of Dr. Seuss today, I am posting a flashback - these are some pages that I did of Kaylee the summer before she started Kindergarten.  This was her favorite book to read to herself. 

Gotta love Dr. Seuss!  We tried making some fun bookworm treats for the kids' classes today but my rice crispy recipe would not form right, so we had to settle with plain rice crispy treat squares ;-)  Are you celebrating in a fun way today?

Flashback Friday

So for this week's Flashback Friday I've decided to do something a little different. I am going to share some past creations AND past pictures at the same time - this week's theme is Fall, of course! These pages were done about 2-4 years ago...I like to see how my work has changed over the years - or I think it has anyway!

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I'll start with some of my favorite Fall pages - these were done just two years ago and I am still really pleased with how they turned out, maybe just because of everything I fit in there!

Here are the pages together - you can see the flap I inserted in the middle - it has pictures of all of our finished pumpkins - this insert was just created using an extra pocket from the photo storage page that I cut up and used on the right page - this was before we had Flip Flaps!

Here is a close-up of both sides of the flap:

Here is the left page:

I used the Cracked Glass Technique on the Haunted House (from the Happy Haunting stamp set).

The title came from the Fall stamp set but I altered it a little. The stamp actually says 'Pumpkin Patch' (and you can see the stamp used below on one of my older pages), but I only used the word 'Pumpkin' and then I created the word 'Carving' from the Delightful Alphabet stamp set - doesn't it work perfectly! I stamped both directly on the page and then on purple as well to cut out and piece to get the different colors for my title. I also traced the title with Liquid Glass.

Here is the right page - see the hinges? Those are attached to the pockets I cut from the photo storage page - they lift up to reveal the journaling and pictures of the girls with their finished pumpkins.

Here are the flaps lifted.

And aren't these pumpkins too cute? They are stamped on Textured CS, and I used Liquid Glass on their faces, and green Waxy Flax for the vines. Both pumkins came from the Frightenin' Fun stamp set.

And here are some of my older pages - some are almost 4 years old!

Thanks for looking!

October SOTM Blog Hop!

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! This month's SOTM is called Holiday Warmth and it's a fun set of 11 Christmas-themed stamps. We have a lot of fabulous CTMH Consultants sharing their artwork with this stamp set this month so I hope you'll check them all out! This month we have split our hop into three different groups - you can view all three complete lists HERE.

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When you're done here, hop on over to Helen's blog to see her wonderful creations!
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Here is a fun Christmas page that I created using this stamp set. I've been using so much blue on my pages lately, it was good to think pink again ;-) My original plan was to use the presents from the stamp set under the tree, but then I saw these presents on one of the B&T papers from the Jingle paper pack and knew they would be perfect! I used the new Glitter Brads but wanted a couple more colors so I made my own using Juniper and Creme Brulee brads and Clear embossing powder mixed with Prisma Glitter. Oh, and can you tell I just LOVE our felt die-cuts, I've been using them a lot lately! Here I used some shapes from both the Whimsy and Wonder sets - so many fun possibilities! I also discovered a fun new blog this week, called ScrapSketch - this page was created using this week's challenge sketch. These are the ONLY pictures I have from Christmas 2003 because our computer crashed in January 2004. These were taken with our 35mm camera - we got a new digital camera for Christmas that year and we lost all of our digital pictures - I guess this is better than nothing!

Remember, you can click on the pictures to view them larger.

Products Used (all CTMH): Jingle Level 2 paper pack, Juniper Grosgrain Ribbon (from Jingle Creative Basics pack), Glitter Brads, Spring Blossom brads, Clear Embossing Powder, Prisma Glitter, Whimsy felt die-cuts (yellow brackets and star), Wonder felt die-cuts (tree), Tulip and Juniper ink, Holiday Warmth stamp set, Delightful Alpha stamp set.

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I had three big green Glitter Brads left after I created the page, so I decided to throw together a super-quick card to use them up. This uses the Button Trio pattern from Originals.

Products Used (all CTMH): Jingle Level 2 paper pack, Jingle Creative Basics pack, Topiary CS

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Don't forget to hop along to Helen's Blog and all the rest of this month's participants to see all of their fabulous creations!

Thanks for looking - I hope you enjoy the blog hop!

Emporium Clock

Here is a clock I made for my SIL Sandy - using the NEW Emporium Creative Basics Paper, my absolute favorite from the new Idea Book!

I ordered the clock through Oriental Trading - they also have square ones. Here are a couple more clocks I have done before...

Thanks for looking!

July Challenges

Here's how it works - at the beginning of each month, I announce which layouts from Cherish and Imagine that we are going to be doing. I will also post my example. You then create the layout using your choice of theme, papers, orientation, etc. and send me a link or a picture of your layout. I will even accept pages that you have previously done, as long as they use that month's layout. I will draw a name from all participants and the winner will get a fun bundle of cards at the end of the month. It's fun to see the different results from the same layout!


For the month of July...

...the CHERISH Challenge is 'Balanced Blocks' on pages 104 and 105

Melissa's Cute Baby Pages

On this layout I used some fun Basic Gray papers I received from Melissa Priest - thanks Melissa! I was excited that the CTMH Dutch Blue ricrac ribbon matched so well. I also used CTMH's Wishes booking set, Solo #3, and some silver hinges and star brads.

...the IMAGINE Challenge is 'Conclusion Combo' on pages 56 and 57

These pages are the conclusion of my 6-page tribute to my horse, Ghostbuster - all 6 pages go from 1985, when he was born, to 2007. He was a gift to me from my Grandpa Sager for my 8th (?) birthday, but I've known him since he was born. He's now 23 and doing great! There was a horse show in Star Valley a couple weeks ago and the little girl who rode him got High Point in her age division - he is such an amazing horse, simply irreplaceable! If you want to see all of the pages for this tribute, click here.

Products Used: It's a Guy Thing paper pack, Clear Inspiration buttons, Charm Upper and Lowercase Alpha, SU chipboard tags, Olive Embossing Powder, Pewter Accessories, Tiny Typewriter Alphabet

I Did It!

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal of how many layouts I wanted to complete this year. I decided I could do at least 2 pages per week, so I set my number at 104. Well, as of last night, I have reached my layout goal for 2008 and we're barely halfway through the year! I'm so excited, even though I still have THOUSANDS more pictures to scrap ;-) But I'm having fun and preserving memories, that's what counts, right? I know some gals who scrap way more than 104 layouts in a year, so to some it may not seem like a lot, but this was a good goal for me. I looked back at last year and estimated that I only got about 50 layouts done, so double that in half the time is great!

So, be warned, this is a long post of artwork! I am posting my goal reaching layouts that I've completed in the last week. I just noticed that they're all old pics - I really haven't scrapped much of my girls lately....hmmmm, interesting.

Here is a layout of my Grandma and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary back in 1995 - oops, I just noticed that I forgot to add my journaling piece on the right page. They were married in 1945 and still together! I still remember, at this party, how my grandpa flipped his hat around and scooped my grandma up into a big kiss - that's the pic that's framed on the left page.

The flip book opens up to the pictures of some of the grandkids holding the Top Ten List.

I used Reflections for these two pages. Products Used: Caprice paper pack, Boutique Numbers, Card Commentary, Chocolate Mini Medleys, Chocolate Ribbon Rounds, Adorable stamp set, Because I Love You stamp set, Square Window Charm, Honey Sassy Strands, 6-pocket Photo Storage Page (cut up to create flip book), Classic Caps, All You Need stamp set (retired)

Here is a layout of our County Fair back in 1989. I added Hollyhock to tie the colors into me, but now I really wish I hadn't - oh, well!

The left page with the large picture of my brother and me, will open up using a TrueFit Folio, and inside will be these pages. I just can't get enough of these stitched circles - they're so much fun!

I used a PageMaps layout on each of these - the first set of pages is from a layout from the PageMaps Book and the other set is from April 2006 - it's just the same layout flipped. Products Used: Sarsaparilla paper pack, Homestead Alphabet, Fresh Shapes Dimensional Elements, Natural Hemp, Star Struck stamp set, Black Bitty Brads, Bigger Brads (my girls helped me use my Desert Sand Embossing Powder to make these brads match the page - they love using the tweezers and heat gun!)

And here is the page I completed last night - I really struggled finding the perfect title on this one, I debated leaving it just 'Cherish' or maybe 'Cherish the MomentS' or 'Cherish the simple moments' - I am still thinking about adding an "S" to the end of Moments - what do you think? This is my brother and I twenty years ago - wow, I can't believe it was that long ago!

I used a PageMaps layout from April 2008 for this one. Products Used: Blue Ribbon paper pack, various Dimensional Element letters, buttons, Moonstruck, Indian Corn Blue, and Sunflower Waxy Flax, Indian Corn Blue RicRac, Sans Alphabet, Calendar stamp set, Delightful Alphabet, White Daisy Grosgrain ribbon

Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for all of the sweet comments - they really make my day.

Inspiration Challenge - Week #11

So I couldn't decide on an inspiration challenge for this week, until I received this catalog in the mail yesterday - it was just so fun and simple, and inspired me immediately.

I hope you'll joing me in this week's challenge - use it to inspire you to create anything! You can use the colors, theme, layout, whatever you pull from the picture to inspire you! Please leave me a link to your creations so I can post them in a link here so we can all see how you were inspired.

I've loved this PageMaps sketch since it came out earlier this month and I was just waiting for the right picture to use with it. Well, the sun from the catalog inspired me and reminded me of this sketch and I instantly thought of the song, "You are my Sunshine" - so I found this leftover picture that I really wanted to scrap but didn't have room for on the original layout, so here is what I did with it. I used Marjorie's Color Challenge #18 but I added Sunny Yellow and Crystal Blue to go with Brianna's swimsuit and the sun idea. I have since added liquid glass and prisma glitter on her name and the word 'sunshine' to make them stand out more. I used WordArt to print the song lyrics to go with the circle - I think it turned out fun!

Products Used - all CTMH: Pink Carnation B&T paper (retired); Pink Carnation, Crystal Blue, Baby Pink, and Sunny Yellow Sassy Strands; Free Spirit stamp set (I heat embossed the swirls for the sun rays), Sunny Yellow Embossing Powder, Delightful Alphabet; Baby Pink, Pink Carnation, Key Lime, Sunny Yellow, and Crystal Blue CS

Thanks for looking!