Teacher Appreciation

Here is what the girls made for their teachers during Teacher Appreciation week.  Brailee drew a picture - here she is still in her jammies and hair not brushed ;-)

This is the card I made for Amy, who is Brailee and Trysten's preschool teacher - we love her!  I used the Wings paper pack, You & Me stamp set for the flourish and pennants, Solo U and Tiny Typewriter stamp sets for the letters on the banner.  I finished it off with some Sparkles.

Brianna's teacher loves purple and butterflies so Brianna is always coming up with something along those lines.  She loves to do 3D projects with the butterflies - for Valentines she found a fun pop up/easel card idea that we incorporated (wish I'd taken a picture!), and here we did a different pop up project.  Her teacher had cleaned out her closet that week and given various leftover supplies to her students - Brianna got this folio and a butterfly cut-out.  So Brianna decorated both and put them together to create this:

Her teacher liked it so much she wants to put it in the fair.

Kaylee made some paper flowers for her teacher and their 'Grandma' helper.  They loved her flowers so much that she got to teach her class how to make them!

Kaylee was inspired by these cards that I was making that week - we love making these paper flowers!  The card on the left uses the Sophia papers, You & Me stamp set, Opaque Pearls, and Designer Tab card pattern from Wishes.  The card on the right uses the Bliss papers, For Every Occassion stamp set, and I have since changed out the Opaque Pearl gem in the center of the flower for a brown one from the Mocha assortment for more contrast (I just couldn't find my Mocha ones when I first created my cards).  I used the Upper Level Focus card pattern from Originals.

Thanks for looking!

Mayberry Birthday Card

One of Brailee's friends had a birthday party this last weekend, so while David was away camping with the Scouts, and I had some playtime after the kids were in bed, I made this card for her.

It's so weird to think that her friends are turning 5, and then I remind myself that she's going to turn that old this year, too - luckily she still has 9 months of being 4 ;-P

I used sketch #99 from the Sweet Stop, the new Mayberry Paper, and some retired stamp sets - the Solo 5 (for the 5 and the stars) and Happy Birthday stamp set.  Once again I used my coluzzle to cut my ovals and my corner rounder to create the scallops - it was a little harder to get the scallops even on an oval but I think it turned out okay.

Thanks for visiting!

9 Months Old

This week's challenge over at Sketches! {by tamara} is a Recipe Challenge from Marcia - use the following on your cards or layouts.
*Staples

*Stitching (faux or real)

*Stamping

I decided to use these items on another one of Trysten's calendar pages - I'm hoping to get caught up on that soon! I used a sketch from the December 2009 PageMaps, I just rotated the sketch once to fit my vertical picture.

I had so much fun with this layout, but don't I always! I did lots of faux stitching using stamps, so I killed two birds with one stone! Plus there are stitches on the patterned paper as well so it all worked nicely together.

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Products Used (all CTMH): Stardust paper pack and Stickease, Solo 9 stamp set, Circle Around stamp set, Togetherness stamp set, Friendship Alphabet stamp set, blue and green staples (retired), Topiary, Moonstruck, and Heavenly Blue stamp pads.

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Here is a close-up of some of the stamping, stitches, and staples.

Don't forget to check out what the rest of the Design Team created for this week's challenge! Thanks for looking!

December SOTM Blog Hop!

Welcome to another fun Stamp of the Month Blog Hop! I look forward to seeing all of the wonderful inspiration that is going to be shared along the hop - I hope you'll join us!

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When you're done here, the next stop is Helen's Blog, so don't forget to keep hopping!
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The first creation I am sharing today using this stamp set is a fun circle card - the pattern came from Wishes and it's called Center Circles. This is also a *very* small peek at the beautiful Felicity papers that will be available starting December 15th! This card uses a stamping technique that is so simple yet makes the stamps so versatile - I curved the stamp on my block to fit around the edge of the circle card - let's see you try that with wood mounted stamps! The sentiment is stamped inside a fun Dimensional Element shape from the On Target set. I covered the chipboard with Bamboo paper and sanded the edges with the Finishing Files to give it a finished look.

Now on to my next two projects using this stamp set. I thought this was a fun stamp set that paired up well with the Notebook paper pack and Good Works stamp set so I used them all together to scrapbook my girls' school pictures that were taken this fall. I used the same 2 paper patterns on both of these layouts, I just used the back of the paper to give two completely different looks. I LOVE that feature of CTMH papers!

Brianna's layout used the following sketch #40 from The Scrappiest:

I embossed the clip on a transparency and cut out - I did half in Cocoa EP and half in Silver EP...

...I also used the dashed lines from the stamp set for the years...

Kaylee's layout used sketch #39 from 52 Sketches, I just added an extra row of squares:

I used the same stamps from Notice the Details on this layout as the last one, but this time I used a foam square to give it extra dimension...

If you would like to see one more page that I created using part of this stamp set, just click here.

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Thanks for visiting - don't forget to leave a comment and keep hopping along to Helen's Blog and all the rest of this month's participants to see all of their fabulous creations! Enjoy!

Eight is GR8!

Kaylee is turning 8 and getting baptized on Saturday! We love this sweet, caring girl of ours and we're proud of her decision. We're looking forward to a memorable weekend with family and friends.

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Here are the announcements/invitations that I created. I created standard sized cards for family and bookmark sized cards for her friends.

I FINALLY used my Cuttlebug which made these really fast and easy. I embossed and sanded the front out of Breeze CS. I used Amethyst CS and stamped 'Eight is gr8!' using black ink. Ever since I made the card (posted here) when my nephew turned eight last year, I knew I wanted to use the same idea for Kaylee and I think it worked perfectly for these!

Here is the inside - with a poem I found on Sugar Doodle.

And here are the bookmarks - I stamped them with the corner flourish from the Key To My Heart stamp set in Breeze ink.

And then here is the Baptism Book that I created for her. This was another super easy project but I am so thrilled with how it turned out - I can't wait for her to fill it in! I used Silhouette Simply Snapshot 9x9 pages along with a 9x9 Accordian album. Thanks to a file I found on Sugar Doodle, I just copied and pasted the information I wanted to include in her book. I did have to tweak it to fit and change some things to my liking but it went together really quickly!

Here are some close-ups of each page...

...this is the cover - a picture of her in her white dress will go under the Top Coat.

...here is the back cover

...here is where friends and family will sign

...Articles of Faith page

...Baptism Day details that she will fill in afterwards

...Church Leaders page

...the left page here will be filled in by Kaylee - I saved the right page for something special - I hope it works out like I want it.

Thanks for looking!

Flashback Friday

1995 - Leslie, Kevin, David, and Jeff - 4 Brothers, 4 Eagle Scouts!

I think these are the first pages I have ever done of David from when he was younger. I completed these pages on Sunday - it was a fun project to do, and perfect timing as this year is the Boy Scout's Centennial year. This was in 1995 when he and 3 of his brothers all got their Eagle Scout award at the same time - an extremely rare feat, as it says in the newspaper article. I still need to see if I can get a new copy of the article as this is all my MIL gave me and it's missing the second page. The right page is a pocket page with a letter from our U.S. Senator congratulating them on their accomplishment. I used some fun 3-D Scout stickers that I purchased years ago from Hobby Lobby and they matched this Rowdy paper just perfectly.

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You can click on the picture to view it larger.

CTMH Products Used: Rowdy paper pack (retired), Building Blocks alphabet stamp set, Friendship Alpha - small (retired), Solo 4, Outdoor Denim ribbon, Natural Hemp, 3-D Foam Squares

Other Products Used: 3-D Eagle Scout stickers from Hobby Lobby
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Thanks for looking!

Finally!

I haven't posted any layouts in almost two months - besides my Word Puzzle Workshop layouts, I haven't been doing many pages lately, I've had lots of other projects I've been doing instead. Trysten's Calendar is the only thing I've had a chance to work on for myself. I've been trying to get back on track, though - last year by this time I had already met my yearly goal - this year I only have 23 completed pages, so I'd better get busy!

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Here are the pages (the only ones with pictures and journaling, that is) that I did back in May. I was originally going to do the Front & Center - Mosaic pattern from Reflections, but then I found this Level 1 page, so I combined the two ideas. I used the Rustic Numbers for the '3' and Hodge Podge Alphabet for the 'months old'. I used a Stickease for the tag and tied it all together with a bit of White Daisy RicRac ribbon. This one came together really fast - I am starting to like the Level 1 pages, as long as I have pictures that work with them! I love this Stardust paper - it's what I will be using through his entire calendar.

Then I got these ones done yesterday. I used another Level 1 page, so another quickie. I just added some Stickease to the corner, along with some Bigger Brads, and used the Solo 4 (clear embossed on the patterned paper) and Small Friendship Alphabet (embossed with Heavenly Blue EP) for the title.

Thanks for looking! If you missed them before and would like to see the other calendar pages I've done for Trysten, you can see them at the following links:

Birth Month

1 Month Old

2 Months Old

Moving Birthday Cards for Boys!

Here are some cards I've made recently for little birthday boys. First here is the card I made for one of the little boys that I babysit - T turned 3 last week and he is OBSESSED with construction equipment - he can tell you which is an escavator, bobcat, loader, etc. Anyway, I just knew I had to do something like that for his birthday card. I don't have any construction stamps, so I paper pieced this fun card. I used the Solo 3 for the big number in the bucket, and the dirt came from the Wonderful Charms stamp set. And since I haven't been able to get rid of all of my decorative edge scissors, I finally put a pair to good use - they worked perfectly to create the track and the bucket! I also tried a funky rocking shadow stamp technique with the birthday sentiment.

It was inspired by this shirt of Trysten's.

Next here is the slider card I made for one of our nephews - he turned 4 earlier this month. He loves trains so I knew I could put this new stamp set, Childhood, to use. I created the base of this slider card using Clover Meadow CS, then I tore some Dutch Blue CS (I used the lighter side) to resemble mountains. The cute sun came from a retired set called Crayon House.

Thanks for looking!

Card Mania!

Here are some cards that I made for the birthdays and other events in January, February, and March...I just never got around to posting them until now ;-P
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Birthday card for my BIL - using It's A Guy Thing paper, and Beautiful Things and Happy Birthday stamp sets

I used this sketch from Mojo Monday

Birthday card for another BIL - using Sarsaparilla paper, and Lovely Buckles and Happy Birthday stamp sets

Birthday card for my friend, Colette (she likes Orange) - using Abundance paper, and Treasure Life and Happy Birthday stamp sets

Birthday card for my SIL (this was part of my March Word Puzzle Workshop) - using Emporium Creative Basics paper and Moments in Time stamp set

A non-traditional Wedding card for my dad who remarried in January - using Emporium paper and Noteworthy and For Every Occassion stamp sets

Birthday card I made for my Grandpa in December - using Simple Pleasure paper and Annotations stamp set

I made this one for my SIL, Sandy, using Emporium paper, and Confidential and Happy Birthday stamp sets - but I wasn't completely thrilled with it...

...so I made this one for her instead ;-P It's a lot simpler but I like it the best. I used Emporium again (can you tell it's one of my favorites) with the Happy Birthday stamp set (another favorite and most used sets)

I used this sketch from Caardvarks
Thank you card for my mom using Citrus Leaf Textured Cardstock and Adorable Backgrounds stamp set with the Solo T

Here are some cards that the girls helped me make for their friends - they stamped and colored the Family Ties stamp images - the notebook is for Kaylee's friend who got baptized.

Whew! Well that's it for now. I will have some more cards to post a little later. Thanks for looking!