Name Sign

I am going to take a break from posting my latest sewing projects and share this fun little name frame that I made a couple months ago for a friend who recently had a baby.  I love these name frames - they make great Christmas gifts, and are perfect for Newlyweds and New Babies!  I have posted a few that I have done HERE and HERE if you'd like to see more ideas.

I used the retired Fanfare papers and stickease, along with the Posterboard Alphabet stamp set for the name - I also spraypainted the frame black to coordinate with the papers better than the original oak.  I added a paper pinwheel on top of the frame - I sealed it with a clear sealer spray before I attached it to the glass to help protect it.

Thanks for looking!

H2H Color Challenge - Take Me Out to the Ballgame

This week over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog was a color challenge - it was also my final week as the June Guest Designer.  I had a lot of fun playing along and look forward to participating in future challenges - stay tuned this fall as I'm also going to be a sponsor!

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The colors for this week's challenge are Barn Red, Bamboo, and your choice of blue.  As I was reviewing the challenge, I came across these pictures that I took 2 weeks ago and knew they'd be perfect.  I added some Outdoor Denim as my choice of blue since it matched his jacket.  Here is the page that I created using a sketch from the PageMaps 2 book.

Gotta love the faces he pulled as he enjoyed his ballgame hot dog!

I ran out of Outdoor Denim Bigger Brads for the right page, so I created some more.  I used some Gold Bigger Brads that I had - holding them with my tweezers I heated them with my craft heater.  Then I dipped them into Outdoor Denim embossing powder and heated them again, and set them aside to cool.  This is such a great way to customize your brads!  Anyway, I didn't notice until after I took the pictures and sent them to the H2H coordinator that I forgot to actually add the brads once they cooled - oops!  We were out of town until last night so I will try to get a chance today to update my layout picture.  For now here is the right page.

One of my favorite things about the page is my stitched title.  It did kind of intimidate me at first because I was afraid it wouldn't turn out like I envisioned it, and it was the very last thing I did to complete my page (besides adding on my missing brads).  Once I finally did it, I was really pleased with the results!  I used Cranberry Waxy Flax, even though the page uses Barn Red, and I actually divided the waxy flax - I used 2 strands for my stitching.  For the title I used the Poster Board Alphabet and Giggle Caps and Giggle Lowercase alphabets.  For the circle element on the right page I printed my journaling on some Twill StickStock - I wish CTMH still carried it!  I also used the wood grain stamp from the Universal Backgrounds stamp set to create the piece between the two pictures on the right page - you can see a bit of it in the following picture.

I also used the On This Day stamp set for the tickets that mark the date, and Circle Around stamp set for the circle elements on both pages.

Thanks for looking - I hope you'll play along over at H2H this week and share what you've created!

Super Hero Style

I wish I were a Super Hero! This has been quite a week/month/year - I hope I make it through! My computer has crashed, so I am using my super slow laptop (that hasn't been used in over a year since it's such a pain), but thanks to post scheduling, I won't be disappearing from my blog anytime soon. I still have the rest of this month's Design Team work to share, plus I have been scrapping a lot lately - it helps relieve my stress! Thanks for sticking with me even though I am not able to return the sweet comments.

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Just a quick (but not complete) update - yesterday the two youngest kids were scheduled for their yearly check-ups at the doctor. Brailee went to her cousin's birthday party after lunch and got home about 45 minutes before her appointment. Shortly after getting home she started crying about her ear - she was clearly in pain and I just knew it was an ear infection. Out of all our kids, she has had them the worst - when she was a baby she had a run of them about one a month. We thought we were past that, though as I don't think she has had one for over a year...until now, that is. Usually our doctor visits go so well (even with the shots) but yesterday was a different story. Brailee was hurting and tired (she fell asleep on the way to the appointment) so she was a pill at first, plus it was a fill-in doctor since ours is on vacation, and a new nurse, so I don't think that helped either. After a while she finally got happy again and played with her sisters...but then it was shot time. She only cried for about 30 seconds but she wasn't too happy with me for letting them give her a shot. Oh, and sure enough, it was an ear infection. Trysten wasn't too happy at the doctor's office either - his nap schedule was off yesterday so he was tired as well. He also has at least 3 or 4 new teeth coming in, and on Sunday as we were getting ready for church, he fell and bumped his mouth and tore his frenulum (sp?) so his mouth is pretty sore and makes him cranky! So he wasn't too happy at the doctor, and then he got his shots too - boy that made him mad! We were only there for about an hour but I was glad to get out of there! Luckily David was just getting home from work when we got out so I dropped off all the kids and went to the pharmacy for Brailee's antibiotic. So, anyway, sometimes I just wish I were a Super Mom who could make it all better ;-)

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Anyway, enough rambling - here is what I came to share this morning. This was a page I did for the last PageMaps Blog contest, but thanks to my computer crashing, I was unable to get it uploaded in time for the contest deadline. I just checked out the winners - they are amazing - I never stood a chance anyway ;-P Here is the sketch used - I rotated it once to fit my pics.

I love these Let's Get Together papers - but you'd never know they were a favorite of mine since this one and Brailee's Birthday Girl pages that I posted earlier this week are the first ones I've done with them - and I've had the papers for over a year now! I want to re-do my journaling spot - the buttercup ink didn't show the journaling lines as well as I would have liked, and my Garden Green marker is going dry so it all just didn't work well together. This was the first time I've used the new Irresistables Color-Ready Alphabets and they are so much fun. I do love these pictures of Kaylee - they make me smile! So I do love the page - just need to order a new marker and fix my journaling spot...eventually!

Products Used (all CTMH): Let's Get Together papers, Posterboard Alphabet stamp set, Doodle Alphabet stamp set, Comments stamp set, Simple Stitches stamp set, Irresistables Lots of Dots (sticker letters), sponged with Breeze ink, Autumn Garden mini medleys (Olive Corduroy Brads)

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Thanks for looking - and thanks for your sweet comments, they really brighten my day!

First Christmas

Remember this layout that I posted back in October for my Word Puzzle Workshop? Well I had a chance at the end of 2009 to add a quick picture...I love this sweet little boy!

I'm keeping this short and sweet today but thanks for visiting and looking!

December Word Puzzle

As I mentioned before, I got a LOT of projects done when David was out of town for a couple weeks and I had nights to myself - here is more proof! I got my NOVEMBER workshop samples done and October is barely halfway over - that's like a record for me! PLUS, I added pictures to my layouts - I'm so proud of myself ;-)

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Anyway, here are my workshop creations. I used the *new* Jingle Level 2 paper pack AND the *new* Jingle Creative Basics paper with the ribbon, the December Word Puzzle, November SOTM Around the Block, and Posterboard Alphabet stamp set. And don't forget, if you're unable to attend my workshop on the assigned day, you can purchase the Workshop Kit that includes cutting guides and instructions to create them on your own!

12x12 Option - you will get to pick from the 'girly' layout or the more 'neutral' layout - you will obviously use the title of your choice - this is just what I picked for my pages.

I am saving this page for pictures of Trysten and his first Christmas. I don't know if you can tell in the picture here, but I used the word 'merry' from the Word Puzzle stamp set and just stamped the 'm' and the 'y' before the word 'first' and then 'Christmas' from the same Word Puzzle stamp set is stamped just underneath and to the right of the word 'first', so the title says 'My First Christmas'.

And here are my pages with pictures and the companion layout! For mine I used the *new* On Target Dimensional Elements for the circles - I just sponged on the Tulip color. Workshop participants who order the Exclusive Plus kit will also get to use these fun Dimensional Elements. And how perfect is this paper with my girls and their jammies!

Once I got my pages in the page protectors, I used my Flip Flaps to add even more pictures! I added 6 extra pictures to this page - they were just too funny and I had to include them ;-) Sorry the color is off - I had to turn off my flash to avoid the glare and the coloring looks weird now - but you get the idea!

6x6 Option - I used the scrap dimensional element from the right page of my layout to add to one of these pages, but workshop attendees will be using a circle cut using the Coluzzle instead. Also - the right page shown here has a 'reverse' mat - so the picture will actually attach to the back of the page but show through the front - make sense?

Card Option

Here are the layouts and cards exactly as they are created in the Workshop Guide - you can see that I changed mine a bit. I didn't get the Exclusive Workshop Kit once again this month, so I didn't use the stamp set that comes in the kit on my samples. You can click HERE to request more information on this month's featured kit.

The Jingle Exclusive Workshop Kit that I will be featuring next month is only $29.95 (retail value $35.85) and includes the Jingle Level 2 Kit, Exclusive B-size stamp set - Somethin' Special, Twinkle Brads Jolly Assortment, and a Workshop Guide. What a great deal! But there are also other pricing options for the workshop - ranging from $5 to $43, so don't forget to check out my workshop details HERE.

Thanks for looking!