Artist

Evan as an artist...


Max as an artist...
Happy Thursday! It's my boys' Spring Break and I was happy for a rainy day so I could get these LOs finished. I've had them designed on my G for a couple of weeks because it's based on the SOUS sketch from 3/12 but I never got it cut before that week ended so here it finally is. I used Storybook for the background shape, Locker Talk for the paint brush and palette, Dreams Come True for the paint splats, and Printing Press for the title. I inked all my cuts in black ink. Those splats were very tricky to ink the edges but it turned out pretty good. Printed paper is from My Mind's Eye...Just Dreamy collection.

I got asked to be a Guest Designer!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited and feel so honored. I was asked to be a Guest Designer for Stuck on U Sketches (SOUS). Here is the sketch that they emailed me.
And here is what I turned it into...(Max's LO)
And Evan's LO...

As soon as I opened the sketch, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. That angled piece of torn paper on the sketch just said "staircase" to me and of course this is exactly how my living room looks and how we have our Christmas tree set up too. I designed and cut everything on this LO using my Gypsy and Cricut. Here is a list of what carts I used...

A Child's Year-Santa with boy
Christmas Solutions-Rocking horse, teddy bear, tree, and tree topper
Joys of the Season-Garland and ornaments
Sweethearts-Presents
George-Staircase, spindles, footboards, railing, and picture frames

The staircase was the trickiest to design but using George on every bit of it, I was able to do it. I welded a bunch of rectangles and squares together to create the base for the stairs. I cut footboards using George too. The spindles were created by welding a tall skinny rectangle with a long skinny oval and two smaller ovals. I was most proud of those. The railing is just a long rectangle. I created the frames using George as well. I just put a smaller square inside a larger one and cut it. I created my own faux wood finish by cutting everything in brown paper. I used my Zig .01 fine tip marker and just marked it up. Then I inked all the edges in black. The wood floor was assembled in strips and I added nail holes too. Everything was inked on this LO. I did heat embossing on the garland, ornaments, and tree topper. Here are some close-ups of the detailing.

Picture frame...


Wood floor...

Staircase...

And yes...call me crazy. I did make 2 LOs...one for each boys' album. So, I cut 2 of everything or in the case of the spindles...18 of them! Thank you to the SOUS DT for asking me to be a Guest Designer. I've had a blast.

Do I save PJ's???

This is the phrase that I hear EVERY single morning from Evan. I tell him every morning that I only need his PJ's on Wednesdays and Sundays for laundry but some how he never remembers. He told me this morning that it'd be nice if he had a sign or something to remind him. Hmmm...I can do that!! So, I sat down with my Gypsy and designed a double-sided door hanger for his room. The only problem that I see with this is if I forget to change it on Tuesday and Saturday nights for the next mornings. Mental note to self...don't forget. LOL I used my Gypsy to design this and the Cricut to cut it. I used My Community of the door hanger, Cuttin Up for the words, Everyday Paper Dolls for the doll, jammies, towel, teddy bear, and laundry basket. I used a basket with a handle on it from the cart and made it wider than it was and added round cornered rectangles from George to the basket to make it look like a laundry basket. I just had to cut off the handle after I got it cut out. I inked all the cuts. Printed papers are by My Mind's Eye...Wild Asparagus Collection.

I'm so behind...

in posting pics that I've decided since I have a nice quiet evening that I'm going to do it tonight. Some of these go back to February. I've included lots so make sure and scroll through them all. I've got scrappy, crafty, and just plain fun pics so....ENJOY!!

Here is a card that my DS, Evan, made for my mom for her birthday! He has these pigeon books and he wanted to try drawing the pigeon and the duck from the story. This is from The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems. I think he did an amazing job considering that he's only 6. He's going to be my scrapping buddy!


Here are some Valentine Artist Trading Cards that I made and sent out. How perfect to have Twilight Valentine's?? I used a stamp set that Charlie bought me for my birthday and I thought the MS Drippy Goo punch was just too cool to add to the Edward side. These were double sided so no matter whether you are Team Edward or Team Jacob...I had ya covered!

Here is Evan's birthday cake!!! He had a Candy Land birthday party and Charlie and I made his cake. We spent 2 1/2 hours decorating this cake but it turned out just amazing! He LOVED it. We also had a life-size Candy Land game set up around the first level of our house. We had all these colored paper taped together to resemble the Candy Land game board and even had all the extra spaces on there too like Gloppy's Molasses Swamp. The kids at his party LOVED it.

Here's Max before his Seussical Musical performance for Young Author's Night. He looks like he's ready for Green Eggs and Ham. LOL His class did a wonderful job performing the songs.

SPRING?? It sure felt like it here last weekend...not so much today. It was wonderful out last weekend so we decided to get our trampoline back out. We don't have our screens in our windows yet so I snuck upstairs and opened Max's window and got these awesome shots of the boys jumping with Charlie. I got some great video too.

Pinewood Derby day!!! We had our Pinewood Derby this morning and these are the boys' cars and Charlie's too. LOL They had so much fun racing them. Max's car flew off the track twice so he didn't even get to finish a race and was bumped out. Evan got beat by a Tag-a-Long girl and Charlie got beat in the championship race so I guess he got 2nd. The boys each won a ribbon. Max's ribbon was for "Fastest Looking" car...I think because of the paper flames. Evan's ribbon was for "Best Tag-a-Long" car...say "CHEESE" Evan!! I painted Evan's car this week. The mouse looks a little "cheesy" but he won anyway!

So Happy 2gether-SOUS challenge

Happy Thursday and Happy March! The sun is finally shining here today and our temp is in the mid 40s!!!!! Another busy week here and another late posting. Maybe I'll just plan on posting my challenge LOs on Thursdays and if I get them done sooner, then YAY!! I based this LO off of the SOUS challenge from Feb. 26. This LO is of my DS, Evan, and his turtles. He has this fascination with these large eyed turtles. They look so sad to me but he loves them. I got him the green one with the Santa hat at Holiday World this summer and he got the yellow and brown one for his birthday. He loves sleeping with them as you can see. We were tucking him in one night and he had both of them in his arms so I ran and got my camera and started snapping pics while he slept. Then as were getting ready to leave his room, he rolled over and you could see the face of the yellow and brown one peeking over his shoulder and the look on the turtles face is just priceless...it's like he's smiling because he has someone that loves him!!

I used my Cricut for this LO. I used Walk in My Garden for the turtle and I redid the eye on it to match his actual stuffed turtle. I used George for the hearts and Don Juan for the title. Everything was designed on my Gypsy. I used a Scalloped Circle Nestie for the circle pic. All paper is Basic Gray. TFL

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!!