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!

***

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!

Too close for comfort...

So you may remember I posted (HERE) that we saw our first snake a couple of weeks ago.  We figured no big deal - we didn't see ANY snakes last year so maybe it was just a once a year sighting.  Then on Saturday, David was working in the garage and Trysten was playing around up front when all of a sudden he freaked out and came running towards the house - I have never seen him so scared!  David was holding him and trying to go over to where he was when he started screaming and he kept saying, 'No! No!'  When we finally got him to tell us what was wrong, he kept saying 'Snake!' - so we went to check it out.  We never found a snake but we did find a little cottontail bunny that jumped out when we got too close so we figured he just got a little spooked by the bunny but still remembered the snake we saw before.  So now let's move to Monday - I casually glanced out our bedroom window and what do I see sitting right in front of our house?  This snake - yuck!

So the kids and I watched it for a while and then it started to climb onto Trysten's ATV that was still sitting out there from when we were playing outside on Saturday.  It was so freaky to watch it move and climb all over, I finally had to quit watching.

Then it started to slither closer to the house so we squirted it with some squirt guns to try to haze it away from the house.  We scared it away and haven't seen it since (knock on wood).  That night when David got home from work he spent 3+ hours trying to clear the grass from around our house - we really need to get a rough terrain mower to make it easier on him and hopefully safer for us!  We figure last year we didn't see any snakes because the previous owners had dogs and cats and they probably helped keep them away - then once we moved in, the kids were constantly driving their 4 wheelers around the house and we think the noise kept them away.  Now there are no animals and the 4 wheelers both have broken axels so it's nice and peaceful around here - maybe a little too quiet!  We welcome any advice - we've considered chickens, cats, and pigs - maybe some ducks and geese, too ;-)

B-I-N-G-O!

I was chosen as the June Guest Designer over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog - this week was one of my two chosen weeks to play along.  I had so much fun with this challenge - don't forget to check out the complete challenge details and what the entire Design Team created HERE!

***

This week's challenge is a BINGO theme - we were given the following BINGO card and told to chose 3 items in a row to use on our project.

I used the entire bottom row and came up with this card using the Classic Closure Pattern from Wishes.

GEMS = Mocha Opaques Gems that I used for the owl's eyes.

BUTTONS = two Chocolate buttons threaded with strips of paper.

RUB-ONS = the branch is a rub-on.

Other products used:  retired More to Adore paper (still an all-time favorite!), You're a Hoot stamp set, the bitty flowers under the gems on the eyes came from the Chocolate Mini Medley set - these are currently on sale for over 60% off, don't forget to check out the other awesome deals for the Clearance Sale! 

***

Thanks for looking - I hope you'll play along over at H2H!

Summer Vacation - Week #2

We had another fun-filled week - here is an update!

MONDAY

Craft day - we played with beads and created lots of bracelets and necklaces.  I love my craft stash (even though David sometimes calls it my Craft Crap) - we had everything we needed so we created the morning away and Skyped with my mom. 

These are my favorite creations from that day - so simple but fun for everyone.  They can be a triple wrapped bracelet or even a necklace - everyone got their favorite colors.

That afternoon the girls started their first day of Adventure Camp - there are lots of fun activities planned through the summer, they're going to have so much fun!

Trysten dressed himself that morning - I love the shirt partially tucked into his underwear, backwards pants, and his almost straight socks.

That evening Brianna had her first baseball game.

Love these pics that I got of Trysten - watch for a scrapbook page to be posted next week using these pictures!

After the ballgame we grabbed some dinner and headed to the State Park to eat and see the buffalo (but couldn't find them that day).  Instead we checked out a new (to us) site called White Sulpher Springs - I loved the interesting rock formations...

...and the rock steps

Trysten and Daddy had fun throwing rocks into the river.

That night when we got home we saw 6 bucks in our backyard - here are 4 of them.

TUESDAY

This was preschool day for Trysten - the girls came along, too.  Some random pictures - Brailee found our friend Oreo...

...and Trysten packed up his 'lunch' and headed to 'work' - just like his Daddy!

That afternoon the girls had more Adventure Camp, and that evening it was Kaylee's turn for softball practice.

WEDNESDAY

This is our playgroup day - we just packed a lunch and played outdoor games and played at the park.  I forgot my camera AND the iPod that day so I didn't get any pictures.  The girls went to Adventure Camp again and after that we somehow ended up with a free even evening so we just did some random projects.  The only pictures I managed to get that day were some of Trysten trying out his new goggles...

THURSDAY

This is our cleaning day - the kids are still such great helpers.   Their favorite jobs are washing the windows and mopping.  Trysten has always loved to vacuum.  Speaking of Trysten, can you tell he dressed himself again ;-)

After lunch it was more Adventure Camp and that day they were headed to the pool to do some swimming so I took the two little ones and we joined them.  We all had fun but it wore them out!  Brailee was starving when we got home and ate the leftover sandwiches from lunch, a fruit bar, a cookie, AND an apple! Trysten fell asleep on the way home and I put him in his bed - when it was time to head back in to pick up the girls from camp and head to ball practice, this is how I found him...still sound asleep!

FRIDAY

This is our free day so the kids just relaxed and I got some creative time in - Brianna and I FINALLY got to start working on her baptism invites - they go in the mail tomorrow and I will post them later this week.  That evening Brianna had another baseball game, but earlier that day we had fun watching this beautiful bird...

When we tried to get closer for a better look, it flew away.

SATURDAY

I needed some pictures for Brianna's baptism invites so we headed outside for a photo shoot - I got a bunch of great pictures...but then realized that I didn't have a card in my camera - grrr!  By the time I realized it and ran inside to get my card, the wind started to blow :-(

Kaylee enjoyed checking out the many wildflowers that we found growing around our place.

We did find this awesome WISH - it was huge, and Brailee has always especially loved Wishes (see here and here)

She was kind enough to share with Brianna

So since our pics didn't work out, we decided to head into town and go to the car show.  We pulled Brianna's hair back (just in case it was windy in town too) and headed back to White Sulpher Spring and got some fun pics there instead.  Here are some of my favorites...

This one was just for fun.

Next we walked around to look at the cars - these were the girls' favorites

This one reminded us of Mater

Trysten enjoyed his ride

We picked up some Kettle Corn to take home and ended our walk with some ice cream - yum!

Kaylee's favorite is always Mint Chocolate Chip and Brailee's is always Bubble Gum - they are the only ones with a favorite.

SUNDAY

We had an enjoyable Father's Day.  Started off the day with Kaylee saying she didn't feel good around 6 this morning - she ended up throwing up but now she thinks it's because she ate too much popcorn the night before!  Trysten was up a lot of the night coughing, so David was going to stay home from church with those two.  Brianna, Brailee, and I were ready to go and then Brailee said her tummy hurt - I figured she was faking and just wanted to stay home but I didn't want to take any chances since I was in charge of Sharing Time today, so it ended up just Brianna and me going to church today.  Turns out she was fine - little stinker!  We hung out and relaxed the rest of the day and called and Skyped family to wish them Happy Father's Day.  We ended the day by building a blanket fort in the living room - the girls are currently sleeping in there, and I'm up with a little boy full of energy thanks to a super late nap that he took this afternoon (my own fault, I know) - hopefully we'll all be in bed soon.

***

I hope you all had a great week - thanks for joining me on a glance through ours!

Relay Race

So it's been a while since I've participated in a Blog Hop - I used to be the administrator of the Stamp of the Month Blog Hops, but once we decided to move I stepped down, but I've really missed it!  Once I found out about the following hop, I couldn't wait to join in and get started again. 

***

For this Relay Race, you need to start at the beginning.  If you came here from Tamytha's Blog, you're on the right track!  If you're starting here, then you need to go back to the beginning to Nikka's blog to see how our hop progresses since this one is a little different - this is an Inspiration Relay Race and each person is inspired by the person before them to create something new.

***

Tamytha created the following page:

I was inspired by the sketch and decided to turn it into a card.  I rotated it once and used the large scallop circle and Sparkles as well.  I was inspired by the 'U' in her title to create the sentiment on my card, and the bird inspired me to use something with wings.  Here is my card:

I used the Wings paper, Friendship Alphabet Large that I embossed with Clear Embossing Powder on the patterned paper and popped up with 3-D foam tape, and Friendship Alphabet Small.  I cut the butterfly out of the patterned paper and used 3-D foam tape again to make the wings pop - I also added Sparkles to the butterfly's body.

Now that you've seen my piece, next stop is Tracy's blog - see how my card inspired her and discover what she created!

Thanks for visiting - I'd love to hear what you think so leave a comment below!