American Pride-SOUS Challenge

Happy Thursday! I'm again super late in doing last week's challenge...I mean another new one comes out tomorrow. It's been another roller coaster of a week here. Between still helping out my parents by being at their house while contractors were getting things repaired and feeling super crummy from a flare with my Rheumatoid Arthritis...I haven't had time or even felt like scrapping...which I hate because I love to scrap!! My dr is working on getting me on a new med and some pain meds too to help me get over this rough time. Anywho...I did manage to finally gte this LO done. I designed it last Friday when I saw the challenge but just got around to starting on it yesterday. This is the first LO that I've completed for Max's Cub Scout album! DH and I are Scout Leaders for Max's Den and we scheduled our Den to attend a Flag Education and Flag Folding ceremony at our local American Legion. This was a requirement for them to earn their Wolf Badge. We had a wonderful time and the boys all did so well. They each got to fold the flag and they learned what each fold meant. They also did an outdoor flag ceremony and got to raise and lower the flag. At the end of the evening, they were each presented with a certificate. I based this LO off of the Stuck On U Sketches (SOUS) sketch from 2/19/10. I used my Cricut for all the cuts. George for the circle and stars, Stand & Salute for the title and soldier, and Base Camp for the USA dog tag. I distressed everything and added a beaded chain to my dog tag. Printed papers are from an old DCWV Summer Stack. I blurred out the face on the other Scout in the picture with Max.

Home Sweet Home-SOUS challenge

It's been a super hectic week here and I'm just now getting around to the SOUS challenge from Feb. 12. We spent last Friday night preparing for Evan's birthday party, which he FINALLY got to have...after rescheduling it twice because of stomach flu. Then his party was on Saturday and was just so much fun. He had a Candy Land theme and it was just the best. My parents had some water damage from a leaking ice maker hose and called DH to come help them tear up their brand new laminate floor that they had put in just 2 weeks ago. Then we got socked with yet another snow storm and the boys missed Monday and Tuesday from school and it was on a delay yesterday!! We are now out of snow days for the year. I've been helping out with being over at my parent's house while the construction guys are there repairing their kitchen while they are at work. I took this LO over with me today to get some work done. I worked pretty well considering all the hammering that was going on in the next room. OK, enough about my crazy week. On to the LO!!! I based this on the SOUS challenge from last Friday. I used my Cricut on all the cuts. The title is Storybook, gingerbread boy and girl are from Paper Doll Dress Up, and the gingerbread snowflake is from When It's Cold Outside. I inked the gingerbread boy and girl and added ribbons to them. I put my snowflake on a giant flower from Hobby Lobby and added a green bow and the little gingerbread house charm is from Oriental Trading and I attached it with a safety pin. I heat embossed the snowflake with white glitter. All paper is from last years Martha Stewart Christmas stack. The scan of the LO didn't turn out the best because of the thickness of the flower, snowflake, bow, and charm combo.

It's SUPER BOWL Sunday!!!

Just want to give a shout out...GO COLTS!!!!! This is from an email that I got from my mom the other day.

Per the National Weather Service...Here's the latest satellite image taken of that gigantic storm heading SE toward Miami!!!


How cool is that??

A Dog and his Boy (SOUS)

I played along with the SOUS challenge again from 2/5. I've been needing to scrap these pics and this sketch worked perfectly. We take our boys to Build A Bear every year for them to either build a new animal or buy new clothes for their old animals for their birthdays. Evan saw this adorable dog named Hearts Dalmatian. He's just the cutest thing and he goes perfectly with another heart doggie that he built 2 years ago...Puppy. She's a white dog with pink and red hearts all over her fur. I used my Cricut for all the cuts. The squares and hearts are from George, the dog is from Doodlecharms, and the title is from Opposites Attract upright feature. I cut a red heart to go over the dogs eye instead of the circle that is supposed to be there so he looks like Evan's dog. I also cut smaller hearts for the heart shaped spots that his dog has too. I also did some inking with black and white inks. Printed papers are from Creative Imaginations.

Calgon...take me away!!

Do you all remember that commercial from the 80s?? Well, that's the way that I'm feeling today. Evan's birthday was on January 21st and he turned 6. We had his party scheduled for the 24th, but big brother Max ended up coming down with the stomach flu and we had to reschedule. We figured that if we rescheduled everything for 2 weeks later that it would have run its course through the family and everything would be fine. Well, guess who came down with the stomach flu today?? Evan!! He came home from school not feeling too well and had a tummy ache. Well, after we got home from picking up Max this afternoon, it REALLY hit. I'll spare the nasty details but he's definitely got the stomach bug. So, I again had to call everyone and reschedule his party. His friends' parents are going to think that I'm nuts!!

Lincoln Logs

Max and Evan LOVE Lincoln Logs. They got these awesome sets from Pa and G-ma for Christmas. It's a Yukon Express set that builds 5 little cabins, a train track, and even has a train with figures. They each got a set so we've been having nothing but fun with them. I was going through my paper stash yesterday when I sat down to scrap these and was shocked when I had only bought 1 sheet of each of the patterned paper that I used. I ALWAYS buy 4 sheets of any paper that I buy. I don't know what could have come over me that would possess me to only buy 1 sheet!!! So, I had to use different papers on each boys' LOs...I don't like to do this but I had no other choice because the one set of paper I bought at an Archivers and the closest A's is almost 2 hours away. Oh well...I finally found 2 sets of patterned papers that worked for both and I'm very happy with both.

I used my Cricut for these pages. I used My World for the Cabin and Trees and Old West for the title. I'm totally loving the fonts on Old West!! Since the cabin didn't come in layers, I cut apart the logs and inked them individually and then re-assembled it. I did lots of inking on everything to bring out the rustic look of the papers. I used a new February sketch from Pagemaps.com.

Here's Max's LO. The papers are all by Cloud 9 Design...Great Outdoors collection. And yes, he was upside down in the bottom photo...he was acting silly.


And here's Evan's LO. The papers are all by Cosmo Cricket...Mr. Campy Happy Trails collection. And yes, Evan is rolling a boulder of snow down the railroad track to smash the oncoming train.

SOUS challenges

I've been back in the mood to scrap again. I'm hoping that by following awesome sketches that I can get caught back up in no time!! This first one is from a SOUS challenge from January 29. I just had to scrap the Colts going to Super Bowl. It was such an exciting game and an awesome outcome! I used my Cricut for this LO. I used Sports Mania for the giant football and Old West for the title including the little horseshoes for the U's. I welded my title together on my Gypsy and cut it. I also used this amazing color accent print studio called Magic Splash. It's the best color accenting software that I've used. You can either have your pic in black and white and color in what you want or start in color and color in in black and white. I wanted to make my pics really pop on this LO so I chose to color accent certain things. On the first pic, I accented the Colts players and the endzone, second pic...the stadium lights with the final score, and third pic...the football with the Colts vs. the Saints on it. These pictures were all taken of our TV screen while the game was on.


For this LO, I followed the sketch from January 22 from SOUS. I used Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More for the background shapes, Doodlecharms for the dog face, A Child's Year for the dog bones, George for the circle, and Paper Pups for the title. Max had the stomach flu last weekend and he was trying to stay awake to watch the AFC Championship game between the Colts and the Jets but he kept falling asleep. His dog, Rootbeer, was dressed in his Colts gear too. Printed papers are from the DCWV Pet Stack.

Blog Award

I just want to say how incredibly honored I am to receive a blog award!! This one came from the fabulously creative, Leah. She has an awesome blog and is always posting some of the most gorgeous stuff. She's also a design team member over at SOUS. They've got some amazing sketches so hop on over and check them out!! Thanks again, Leah...you rock!!

So, as part of this blog award, I'm supposed to list 10 things that "knock your socks off".

1. My Husband-who provides all the funding for my scrapping addiction and who never questions me.

2. My boys...Max and Evan-who provide all the super cute inspiration and smiles so I can "scrap it all"

3. My parents-for always being there.

4. Friends-Scrappin' friends are the best and MB buddies ROCK!

5. Cricut MB-I've met some of the best people over on the Cricut MB...and lifelong friends.

6. Cub Scouts-I learn something new every day from them.

7. Books-If it weren't for Twilight...I'd never have known that I was in love with a vampire ;)

8. Acapulco's-the best Mexican food around.

9. SWARMS-because they are just too much fun!!

10. Snow in the forecast-still makes me feel like a kid to see it and anticipate its arrival!!

I'd like to pass this award on to...

1. Candice-whom is the person that I've been friends with longest on the MB. And she opens up her own "bed and breakfast" when I come up for SWARMS!!!! She also got me started on this whole blogging thing and also she needs to update her own blog. ;)

2. Karen-whom I first met at a SWARM and became instant friends with.

3. Andrea-whom is new to the Cricut world but it totally rockin' with that bug!!

Once Upon a Time

It feels like way too long since I scrapped a page. I finished my parent's Disney album and I was burnt out on scrapping after that marathon. They did love their album for Christmas though. Here is a LO that I just finished today. Max and I have been down with the stomach flu and it felt good to get back up to my scraproom and get a page done. This is my DS, Evan. Since he's a kindergartner, he gets to participate in his school's Birthday Book Club for the first time. We pay $15 and he gets to pick what type of book he would like and the PTO purchases it in his name and it goes in the library. It's a good way for the school to get new books and it's great because the kids have a lasting memory of the books that they helped buy for the school. Evan's book this year was Jack and the Beanstalk. It's a newer version and very fun to read. There is an ogre in it instead of the giant. I used this awesome sketch over on Stuck on U Sketches (SOUS). My friend, Leah, has been wanting me to try some of the stuff over there...thanks, Leah for pushing me! ;) I used my Cricut for this LO. I used My Community for Jack, the beanstalk, the giant, and the hen. I never thought I'd get to use these great cuts on this cartridge. I used George for the circle, Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More for the funky background shapes, From My Kitchen for the golden eggs, and Storybook for the title. I did lots of inking on everything to make it all pop. I heat embossed the eggs for that perfect "golden egg" look. Papers are all by My Mind's Eye...Tres Jolie collection.

Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad!!

My parents surprised us and met us in the lobby of Pop Century when we went down to Disney back in June. They had told us that they were going to Las Vegas and they were leaving the day after we started our drive down to Disney. We had been in contact with them the whole time on our drive and she had even given us flight info for their "flights" to Vegas. Come to find out they flew down to Disney instead and were waiting in the hotel lobby when we walked in to check in. It was such a surprise and a relief because Max was SO sick on the drive down. We had had him to the dr before we left and he just thought it was a stomach bug but he got much worse when we got down there and we ended spending one entire evening in the ER. Come to find out Max had c. diff...a nasty bowel infection caused by an antibiotic that he had been on 2 weeks before. By time we got back to the resort that night, he was vomiting and passing nothing but blood. We got him on a right antibiotic and he made a remarkable turnaround. They got to share several days of our vacation with us before they had to fly back home. This was my parents first time to Disney and honestly I didn't think that we'd ever get them down there!

They kept telling me that they didn't need anything for Christmas this year but I knew just the perfect gift. My mom and dad both love the scrapbooks that I make the boys but my mom doesn't scrap. So, I pulled all the pics that I had taken and made this album for them. I started on it the day after Thanksgiving and worked like a mad woman to get it done. I finished it on December 23...just in time because we celebrate Christmas with them on Christmas Eve...talk about working under pressure. Oh, and I also made teacher gifts during that time of a total of 3 gift bags and 24 cards. It was a crazy crafting season for me. Some of these pages are not up to my usual standards but I tried with the short time frame that I had. My favorites are the Trash Can Band, Monorail, Pop Century. ENJOY!!!!