Wordless Wednesday (first lost tooth!)

No photo layout

I'm not sure if I've ever done a layout without photos before, but I like the result! I really wanted to use the monogram side of the Cosmo paper, but the Ms were off the edge and no W at all. Then I realized the A and T were next to each other...

Studio Calico's Into The Woods kit from last month and a bit of white Mr. Huey.

So glad my theater has all those fun colored tickets!

Howdy Pardner!

Matthew and McKelle had a great time Saturday night at Sadie Hawkins. They consented, despite the chilly, rainy weather, to let me take a few pictures of the group.

McKelle & her date

Matthew & Julia (and little brother Mason peeking out the window!)

They wanted me to try to take some jump photos - not too bad.

The gals

The guys

The cutest cowgirl this side of Texas

The kids came back over to the house after the dance for dessert. McKelle and I put together a little Wild West dessert table.

Haystacks

Cowboy Cookies

We also served Wild West Chocolate Delight, suggested by one of the sweet ladies over at Studio Calico and it was yummy!

Spring Cleaning

Can you tell I'm cleaning off the front of my fridge?? It is definitely a mom fridge, full of schedules, love notes, little hand-drawn pictures and permission slips. Most of the time, I really don't mind - it is my life, after all. But it is getting pretty full and I decided to save some of my favorite pieces before they get knocked off and disappear into under-the-fridge oblivion.

This is Mason's family drawing. Sometimes we are Ninjas, sometimes warriors, almost always with weapons of some sort. Must come from growing up with a bunch of big brothers!

Into the Woods kit and add-ons from Studio Calico, a little Mr. Huey (Hot Dog), twine (Lemondrop) and Zing (Butter, Cricket and Red.) I used a Versamark embossing pen on the chip stars before Zinging.

On a Thursday...

I am

* WAITING for insurance approval to switch meds. Rituximab is holy cow expensive - $6500 or so per infusion (I will need 2). In the meantime, chemo & prednisone are the routine. Got a DEXA scan yesterday to look at bone loss from long term steroid use. Crossing my fingers that it isn't too bad.

*SIGNING kids up. Mason for kindergarten (gasp!) Matthew and McKelle for Driver's Ed (finally!) Max for baseball.

*PREPARING for the weekend. Mitchell is have his birthday party Saturday afternoon and I also agreed to host the dessert portion of McKelle's Sadie Hawkins date Saturday evening. We're thinking one of those cute dessert tables with a cowboy theme.

*PLAYING with Studio Calico's Into the Woods Kit and add-ons.

The striped paper just looked so much like spring - perfect for last year's Easter photos. It is punched with the circle dot punch from EK Success - hard to see in the photo, but adds a nice subtle touch IRL.

I love that Michael is always willing to be involved with our holiday fun, from dressing up at Halloween to dying eggs (his are always artistic!) with the kids at Easter. 

This one is pretty simple and I've scrapped these pictures of Mason before, but I really wanted to save some of the little love notes he likes to write to Michael and me. The hearts are punched from the KI button clip packaging and I used a bit of twine as well. It is actually green twine - I've noticed my photos are not translating well color-wise from iPhoto to Blogger lately - not sure why.

ZINGed!

This layout got a little crazy. I had a vision in my head - not so sure the result matches the vision. I was going to link this up with Kelly Noel's Challenge on the SC blog (step outside your box to make a page) but I missed the deadline by a day.

Everything is from SC Into the Woods kit and add-ons except the Zing and mini alpha (October Afternoon.) Punch is from Martha Stewart.

Lessons learned:

*getting a clean, crisp print with embossing ink over masking is difficult, especially when embossing on textured cardstock.

*make sure you dump the color of Zing you just used back into the bottle BEFORE you go on to the next color (I now have a lovely mixture of Cricket and Butter...ahem)

*Embossing ink stays wet longer than you think, so no need to RUSH and mess up your stamping.

My littles

One more from SC's Candy Shoppe featuring my little guys. They're the only ones who don't give me grief about taking pictures lately, so almost all my recent layouts have been of Max and Mason. Kind of the reverse of what normally happens! I'm the oldest and my parents took so many pictures of me, but hardly any of my three younger siblings.

Candy Shoppe love

This kit looked a little feminine (for a houseful of boys!) when I first opened it.  However, every time I think I'm about done with it, another layout pops into my head. LOVE this kit!

I played around with this first one and added some Zing in Powder and Glossy Accents to that gorgeous Studio Calico paper. It is hard to get a good picture of the 3-D effect, but it looks pretty cool IRL. I also used my Slice and Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, as well as an Ali Edwards stamp.

I used more Zing in Aqua on this one to make the grid. Buzz cuts are definitely a sign of summer at our house.

More Zing on this one, this time in White. I actually embossed the title after I had the pictures adhered - I changed directions midstream, lol. I was a little worried about the pictures with the heat, but they were just fine!

Our totally untraditional, Americanized, kid-friendly St. Patty's Day

We're not Catholic. And not particularly Irish, though there's probably some back there somewhere. But I just can't pass up a holiday. Nobody at our house likes corned beef or cabbage, so we came up with our own way of celebrating.

The leprechaun hides his pot of gold and leaves a trail of glitter and mischief throughout the house. Green milk, green toilet water, etc.

The mask came from his big brother and he ran around all afternoon singing "I am Lucky the Leprechaun!"

Max made his own mask ;)

We had a lively discussion about rainbows and ROYGBIV or ROYGBIP (must be a Canadian thing) tonight at the dinner table.

Random green foods that we like. Much better than cabbage!

A little rainbow jello.

And everybody's favorite Shamrock Pie.

March 17, 2011

Say what?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!


This little guy says the funniest things. I keep little notebooks to jot them down. Or add a note on my iPhone. Or if they're really funny, I'll post them as my status on Facebook.

This is another Studio Calico Candy Shoppe layout, with a bit of Lemondrop twine. I followed the brilliant sketch by Waleska for the Sunday Sketch challenge.

Come back tomorrow and I should have pictures of our green/rainbow St. Patty's feast!

Stickers, stickers everywhere!

Give a boy a sticker...

Stickers are his treat-of-choice when he is forced to go to the craft store with me. There is almost always one stuck somewhere on his body, a few on his clothes (I have to check the laundry diligently - for stickers and crayons) and a smattering on his dresser. He is reminded quite often that walls and the dining room table are not a good option for sticker placement.

Layout is a scraplift of Kinsey Wilson (queen of incredible stitched layouts!) in the latest Scrapbook Trends. I used Studio Calico's On the Easel and a little Mister Huey in white.

And since I seem to be in a orange/blue mode, I'll share a couple of cards I made yesterday.

Card bases are from DCWV. Patterned paper is the 8x8 pad from October Afternoon's Schoolhouse line. Love those smaller prints for cards! Kaiser bling, American Crafts ribbon, Ali Edwards stamp with Close  to My Heart Grey Flannel ink. Tag is from my stash - no idea the origin.

Almost St. Patty's Day!

Do you celebrate? I don't remember doing so as a child, except for the yearly trip to McDonalds for Shamrock Shakes (and what's up with McD's shakes?? Not thick like they used to be...) We moved to Philadelphia when Matthew was two and McKelle was not quite one, we were introduced to all things green and leprechaun-ish by my sweet friend Janet. Leprechaun traps, hidden gold, glitter trails throughout the house and of course, leprechaun mischief. Green milk, green toilet water, little messes here and there. The kids LOVE it, even the bigs.

And me, well any excuse to decorate and make fun food is a good thing!

Many thanks to Matthew, his girlfriend Julia and her mom for going back to Hobby Lobby for me (it's an hour away) when I realized I had purchased two Ks and no U. I blame it on the prednisone. Or the chemo. Definitely NOT old age yet...

I saw something like this on a very small thumbnail for a link-up party and decided I wanted to make one. I pinned it and then collected my buttons. When I went back, I realized it was a free printable! All that sorting...

I kinda like the 3-D effect of the clouds and real buttons.

Burlap is just lovely. I just wish it didn't leave little hairs all over my pants and my table and the floor. I made a couple of rosettes for my glass candle holders. I would link to the tutorial I used, but I can't find the specific one - just google - they're all over, including you tube videos. 

I pinned a lovely Valentine's Day bouquet from Rebecca Cooper's blog but never got around to making it in February. I noticed it again last week on my Pinterest board and thought hearts would make some very cute shamrocks. I used felt, some old dictionary pages and cardstock covered in washi tape.

Can't wait for our green and rainbow dinner on Thursday!