BOYS RULE

I had fun creating this page and searching for pictures to add to the layout. I wanted to get action shots of my boys, especially Tate since it goes in his scrapbook. This first page has him playing with a car track with his idol, Jacob. Jacob is my sister's 16 year old son. At the time the picture was taken Jacob was 14 and Tate was four. Jacob can't live a minute without my boys hanging on him and saying his name. He is a wonderful big cousin to look up to. He plays so nicely with my boys and they love him!

Tate is jumping on a trampoline with another cousin, Ben. He is my oldest brother's son. Tate and Ben are six months apart in age, so they love playing with each other.

I used Lazy Days of Summer paper pack and My Stickease on this two-page layout. I wanted to accent the layout with red to give it a little *POW*. I like how it turned out.

Tate is acting like Spiderman jumping off a chair in the family room wearing his Spiderman boxers. On the top little picture, Tate is relaxing in the baby pool we used to have with Tanner. You can see the layout better when you click on the images.

I used Rustic Alphabet for the title. I think that one is my favorite "E" sized alphabet that CTMH carries. In the little jar I used the stamp set BUGS to stamp the little lighting bugs and colored them in with markers. For the tabs, I used my tab punch I bought at Hobby Lobby.

I forgot to give you Jeanne's blog site Creative Bliss, when I wrote about her making my blog banner. She is so awesome! Check out her site! I have tagged her before, but you still need to visit to see what she has been up to lately. Jeanne is getting into digital scrapbooking and is very good at it.

Friday morning I am off to meet my sister for lunch (Happy Joe's) and scrapbook shopping in Des Moines, Iowa! Happy Joe's is a pizza and ice cream parlor that makes the best taco pizza. Well, I think so, because I grew up eating this wonderful pizza pie. After shopping, we are going to a weekend crop. Yippee! How can it get any better than that?

Have a great weekend!

BUGS & KISSES

I see so many cards with this cute little saying that I had to make a couple of them for my boys to send them to their grandparents. Little Treasurers is the perfect stamp set for this. All products are CTMH unless otherwise noted. I made both of these cards with all scraps from my scrap container, so that is why there is a Clover Meadow card base and a Buttercup card base. You know how I love to use up my scraps.

On both cards I used the leather paper technique on the Cocoa cardstock. The first thing I did was spray the cardstock with water and then crumbled the paper into a ball. After I unfolded and smoothed it out, I swiped my Cocoa ink pad across it to make the ridges stand out.

Then I took Weathered Backgrounds and stamped it in Orange ink on the Orange cardstock. After attaching this to the card I stamped the jar, the fireflies and butterfly from Little Treasures in Black ink. I used the following markers: Grey Wool, Grey Flannel, Sunny Yellow, Desert Sand, Clover Meadow, Citrus Leaf, Brown Bag and silver pen (non-CTMH). I daubed the White Daisy cardstock with Clover Meadow and matted it on Buttercup cardstock.

I stamped BUGS from Bugs in Cocoa ink and KisseS and & from The Works Alphabet (2007 April stamp of the month) in Cocoa ink. I stamped "&" on Clover Meadow cardstock and matted on Buttercup cardstock. I finished off the card with Clover Meadow gingham ribbon (retired) and Buttercup brads.


On this card I used the same techniques and stamp sets I just switched the colors from Clover Meadow to Buttercup when it was appropriate to keep the color scheme.

S W E E T

It seems as if I am in a colorful mood lately! Everything I have been making is brightly colored with CTMH markers. I might have to try my new watercolor pencils soon.

I have been wanting to make something with my Little Treasures stamp set and finally got around creating a couple of cards. The only difference in these two cards is the stamped image, which are both from Little Treasures. You really need to click on these cards to enlarge them in order to see the detail. I saw a card in our Idea Book that had a message, "You are Sweet." and it made me want to make something similar. I wanted to put the same message on my cards, but I ran out of room, so I just put "sweet" at the bottom. When I send these as thank you cards, I will tell the person they are sweet. Good idea, eh?

I started out with a White Daisy base and put Hydrangea pattern paper from the Carnival paper pack on the front as the first layer. Then I chose Holiday Red and Sunkiss Yellow for my next layers using a concave punch on both of them. I ran the Sunkiss Yellow cardstock through my Cuttlebug (love this machine) to emboss with spots & dots. I sponged, not daubed, but sponged the edges of the stamp image with Hydrangea ink. I colored the jelly beans with Hydrangea, Sunny Yellow, Orange, Holiday Red, Clover Meadow, Crystal Blue, Grey Flannel, Grey Wool and a silver pen (non-CTMH). My son, Tate, wanted me to use blue and I told him we didn't have that color of jelly bean when I was young. He looked at me with big eyes and said, "Why?". I laughed and told him we didn't have all the different colors like now. He couldn't believe it! All I could think of was when I asked my mom about the olden days, and now when I grew up is the new olden days for my boys. I know I am digressing, but I have to tell you that I got carded today in a grocery store. It made my day, since I just turned "40" this year. I thanked the gentleman over and over. Okay, back to the recipe...

I tied purple ribbon with white polka dots (non-CTMH) around the Holiday Red and Sunkiss Yellow cardstock. Then I stamped sweet from Adorable stamp set in Hydrangea ink on a dimensional element, daubed the sides with Hydrangea ink too and added White Daisy brads. I looked at the card and thought it still needed something. When I saw the jelly beans and lollipops, I thought of an old fashioned candy store that would have an awning in front of the store, so I scalloped the bottom of a piece of White Daisy cardstock with my corner rounder (non-CTMH) and daubed that with Hydrangea ink. I put it on top of the card for the same awning effect. I hope you like these. I sure had a lot of fun making them.

Happy Stamping!

Caught A Bug?

I copied this design from the 2006 Summer Idea Book. It is a Get Well card, but since it is one of a kind I am not sure how soon I will part with it. I thought the design was cute and wanted to copy it. The only difference is I filled the jar with Bugs instead of using sculpting foam to make one. This stamp set is another must, since I have two boys. Especially since my oldest likes to pick bugs up, and bring them to me so I can see them.

In addition, I used The Works Alphabet (2007 February Stamp of the month) and Lazy Days Level 2 paper pack. Accessories used are metal-rimmed tags, spring craft buttons, Dimensional Elements Classic Alphabet, and Buttercup brads. I edged the Crystal Blue and Bamboo cardstock with black ink and I sanded the Garden Green cardstock.

I have two gatherings to prepare for this week, so will have to pull something for the archives to share with you for the rest of the week.

Take time to create!