Some new cards

Life has been VERY hectic lately. My boys went back to school and I thought that I'd have more time to scrap but that hasn't quite happened yet. I spend more time running errands, returning phone calls, volunteering at their school (which I love), picking up the house, and trying to keep everyone well. Evan and I were both sick last week. We both had to see the dr and get on antibiotics. Welcome to the start of school! LOL Then on Saturday, Evan had a really bad accident. He got knocked into our coffee table and almost completely cut off the top part of his ear...the little rounded part. It was horrible. We rushed him to the ER and they were able to stitch him up. It required 6 stitches. He gets them out on Friday...woohoo! The ear is looking better today. The swelling is finally going down and I'm seeing some better coloring in it. The ER dr was afraid that the blood supply wasn't going to be enough to keep that tissue alive but I have better hopes today. He's very eager to get the stitches out because he says that it grosses out the girls in his class. Evan's always got to please the little girls!! LOL

OK, on to some cards. These first two are ones that I made for my bestest friend when she had her new baby boy!!! I made the Welcome Little One for her and the Super Big Brother for each of her two boys. I used Create a Critter for the Welcome Little One card. I also used some Cuttlebug folders for embossing the backgroud. I also added some crushed velvet to the moon's hat. I used my Superman cart for the Super Big Brother card. I embossed the background with Cuttlebug's Diamond Plate folder.

This next card was made for the same bestest friend for letting us stay at her house while visiting. We had the best time and my boys loved spending time with her two boys. It was a great little trip. I used Just Because Cards for everything on this card.

This next card was made for my message board friends that had birthdays in August!! I had fun coming up with this card. I found the stamped saying in my stash first and went from there. I used From My Kitchen for the sweet little vintage phone. I used Nesties for the background shape. Here is the front...it says "Age is only a number"


Here's the inside...it says (Mine is Unlisted, Happy Birthday)
Thanks for taking a look at my creations. I've got more to post but need to get pics off of my camera and LOs scanned in. Be sure and check back!!

Vinyl project for the day

I've been busy getting stuff ready around here for the start of school. Especially since school starts in 3 weeks and 2 days! Where has the summer gone. We've had an awesome summer and I'm not ready for it to end. Anywho, I already know that we're going to have a hectic year with both boys being in Scouts and in full day school too. So, I used my Gypsy, Cricut, and Wall Pops and designed headers for my big dry erase board that hangs in my kitchen. Now, I can keep everything for the boys written down so they can easily view stuff that they have going on and I can keep track of the family's doctor appointments and I've even got a section for Menu so I can plan our meals out for a whole week!! I used the new Varsity Letter for the titles and Designer's Calendar for the days of the week. Enjoy!!

Who needs a Cricut Cake machine?

Not me. Charlie and I have found that we truly enjoy making the boys' birthday cakes and other cakes. They take a long time but it's something that enjoy doing together. We've even gotten the hang of using fondant and have a recipe to make our own...and it tastes GOOD! Here are some cakes that we've made this year.

This first one, Max had a big hand in making. This was for Cub Scouts for their annual Cake Bake. They auctioned off the cakes and the money went to Easter Seals. It was a fun night with so many fun cakes being auctioned. The boys could make a cake to fit a category in hopes of winning a medal. Max won for Best Scout Themed cake. He wanted to make a hat cake that looked like his Cub Scout Wolf hat. He helped with the baking of the cake, icing the cake, and even rolling out the fondant (which was hard work). Max's cake went for $110...to us. We had 4 other families bidding against us and Max REALLY wanted this cake to come back home with us so hung in there and won it back.


Here is Evan's birthday cake from January. He had a Candy Land themed birthday so Charlie and I recreated the Candy Land game board on a cake. There was SO much candy on this cake. All the kids at his party LOVED it.

And here is Max's birthday cake from June. He had a camouflage themed party so we decided to make a cake shaped like a tank. It turned out awesome. We used fondant on this one. I did use a bit of Cricut on this one. I cut the number eight out of paper and then hand cut the 8 out of fondant to put on the front of the cake.

Sweet as Pie

Holy guacamole!!! I scrapped a LO two days in a row. I can't even remember the last time that that happened. LOL My boys' school raised money for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) this spring. They sold paper tennis shoes in their classes and also took in donations. Evan ended up with the most donations out of the kindergarten class. They were going to take only the top student and let them throw a pie in the face of that teacher from that grade level but since the whole student body did very well (raising over $14,000) one teacher from each grade level took a pie in the face. Evan was the winner for kindergarten. This program was in the afternoon and Evan was a morning kindergartner so another teacher called to let me know like 20 minutes before the program and asked if I'd bring him back to the school. Evan got to throw a pie in the kindergarten teacher's aide's face. He had a blast and she said that she wouldn't have wanted anyone else to do it besides Evan. Her and Evan are best buddies!! Anywho, so that's the story behind the pics.

I used From My Kitchen for the refrigerator, stove, pot, canisters, pie, pot holders, and pie phrase. I used Create a Critter for the word SWEET, George for the cabinet doors, and Jasmine for AS. I cut the tile floor by hand. I used my art skills to draw it out, cut it out, and piece each individual tile together. I even hung the pot holders on little brads for the cabinet knobs. I also printed out some mini pics from the event and put them on the fridge like magnets. TFL

MIA.... but I'm back!

It's been a crazy couple of months as you can tell. My last post was over the boys' Spring Break back in March!!! I've been busy with the end of school in May, Scouting activities...always, and our vacation right after school ended. We went to Pennsylvania to Sesame Place. saw the Liberty Bell in Philly, saw the Crayola Factory and Museum, and did Hershey Park for 3 days. We were gone for a week and had a wonderful time. I'm trying to get back on a schedule around the house. The boys are doing school work each morning over summer break so they don't lose any skills. And I'm using that time to sit with them and design on my Gypsy. I designed this LO this morning and got it cut and pieced this afternoon while the boys cleaned up about a million Legos in their toyroom!

I had printed pics to make the boys' Christmas Eve LOs but ran across this year's Tootsie Roll pic and decided to do a LO of all 4 pics of Evan. My dad always gives Evan something Tootsie Roll for Christmas whether it be a giant Tootsie Roll in the top left-hand pic, a Tootsie Roll bank in the top right-hand pic or bottom left-hand pic, or a gigantic Tootsie Roll pillow in the bottom right-hand pic. Evan LOVES Tootsie Rolls and always asks for my dad for one when he comes over to visit and he always has a pocket full for both boys. It's their little thing. My favorite pic is of Evan in the top left-hand pic. This pic was taken in 2006 and he was not quite 3 years old. The look on his face was precious. DH always laughs when he looks at it because Evan was just so excited to get that super big Tootsie Roll. These pics are from Christmas 2006-2009.

I used Christmas Cheer for the holly and the Tootsie Roll base itself. It was a piece of candy and I used the hide contour feature and hid the little circles that were supposed to cut out of it. I cut it three times in each white, brown, and red and then cut the stripes and pieced it together. I used Base Camp for the letters. I decided to make my background paper look like a Tootsie Roll wrapper too since I couldn't think of a good background paper. TFL

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