Taking a breath after Christmas...

What a hectic time of year! (Oh, but we had fun!)

I was in such a rush last week that I did not take pictures of 3/4 of the projects I gifted out. (Shame, Shame...I know).

I have a few to share over the next few posts.

Here is a simple photo ornament. I grabbed some mini frames at the dollar store that originally looked like this...

Then I added a layer of paint...

Added some ribbon, a pattern paper chipboard letter, and a photo...

Here is Alexis with her frame.

Casey with her frame.

Alexis didn't want to hang her ornament up, she found a new home among the nutcrackers.

Christmas break...

I have so many last minute projects to complete in about 48 hours! I have to take some photos and I'll have an overload of photos then to show.
In the mean time....Everyone have a safe, relaxing, memorable, Merry Christmas!

I'll be back next week after the celebration!

Teacher gift and a little embroidery

So I'm really taking a chance here....I really hope my daughter's teacher doesn't blog hop and I hope our friends son doesn't see his birthday gift early! lol {I really think I'm OK.}

I'm hoping this colorful project will brighten Mrs. Foltz' morning! I think this project fits her very well, she is a wonderful, kind kindergarten teacher {and Mikayla adores her}.

I purchased the corkboard in a 4 pack at Michael's craft store. Added some colorful ribbon...

Added some colorful school theme pattern paper, a few crayons, ruler, buttons....

Here is a nice close up...

The apple is a wooden cutout from the craft store and covered with pattern paper.

The corkboard pack comes with double sided adhesive to hang, however, I thought the ribbon would be an easier {less permanent} way to hang. So she has options! lol

According to our oldest girls, our birthday recipient likes Goofy {I sure hope so}. So I dug out the embroidery machine and personalized a sweatshirt.

Hunting for a Tree

Our family has inherited daddy's tradition of cutting down a fresh tree {even if it's really too chilly out and the ground is covered in snow and we have to travel half an hour one way to the tree farm he likes to go to} and we just LOVE it! Ok, so it's a little obvious I'm not a big fan, but I do like to take pictures of the family.

Here is the tree gang with the lucky tree.
Sam and Casey were busy playing tag throughout the trees while daddy hunted for the perfect tree.

Mikayla stayed close to the edge and enjoyed posing for me to take pictures.

And, where's Alexis? You may be asking.... she's fast asleep in the truck! lol We tried to wake her and she didn't want to help. She was content sleeping in the warm truck.

Sketchy Thursdays Guest Design Challenge

The current challenge at Sketchy Thursdays blog site...

This challenge is for individuals who would like to be considered for the January Guest Designer spot. The winner is determined by public votes and their design team votes. In addition to the sketch portion of the challenge, we had to include... (3) patterned papers from three different lines...and...(3) groups of (3) different embellies
I included pattern paper from My Mind's Eye (pink - Bloom & Grow line) (orange - Magnolia line) and Cosmo Cricket (green - Girl Friday)
The 3 groups...3 punched butterflies, 3 different strips of ribbon, 3 stamped button flowers

So my faithful blog viewers, I'd love your vote! Visit Sketchy Thursdays blog between Dec 19 and Dec 21 to vote for your favorite layout.

Thanks!

Thank you cards

Our wonderful little girl, Mikayla, is always brain storming. Last month when I was creating her birthday invitations, she thought she should make some for her classmates at school. She cut up some scrap paper into small squares and started coping the info in her kidwriting. She did this to about 24 different sheets. I honestly didn't think anything of it and assumed she played with them and threw them out. However, to my surprise she came home from school on her birthday with a present from one of her classmates. I was totally surprised (I had forgotten all about the invitations she made)..."Mikayla, did he get a gift for other kids when it was their birthday?" "How did he know it was your birthday that day?" "How did his parents know?" (Remember this is kindergarten students.) So I just blew it off, until I ran into one of her classmates at Wal-mart with her mom. The mother told me that Erica came home with an invitation from Mikayla for her party, but there was no date, no phone number, no time, etc. Ah, now I know how Matthew knew it was her birthday...Mikayla handed out her "invitations". LOL
So this is the Thank You card we made for Matthew.
Then for the rest of her Thank You cards for the family and friends I sent my wonderful husband to Wal-mart to get a pack or two of cards. I remember saying "Just get something I would like." And we get plain jane white cards....(Not what I would have picked.) I had to add some color to them....

Tuesday Trigger and critter tag

The most recent Tuesday Trigger on Moxie Fab World's blog comes from Carolyn King. She was inspired by this very festivel platter from Crate & Barrel.

I used the objects, but changed up the color.

Moxie Fab World is also looking for projects with a critter on it. I think this penguin is the cutest little thing! It is an Inkadinkado stamp and I use him a lot for Christmas theme projects!

Sketch Challenge and crazy hair

The recent sketch at Sketchy Thursdays blog...
I'm working through some older pictures that I have collected at home. These were from a vacation in 2006.

I love these colors together! {Anything with orange makes me happy!}

Ok, and now some proof that my youngest child has crazy, unmanagable hair! I get tired of seeing the pigtails every day, but her hair just....looks messy! I'm thinking about getting them trimmed and see if that helps? I don't know, why would that help? ...I'm desperate! lol

And we got a little more snow last night...see it in the background! I love to look at it, but I don't like the cold! Alexis was telling me the other day that she likes purple snow. It never melts and it's not cold. I'll take some purple snow too!

Christmas Family party and an embellished shirt

My mother's side of the family had our annual Christmas party this past Saturday. We always rotate the location, so everyone gets a turn to be Hostess with the Mostest! This year it was Aunt Janet and Uncle Randy's turn. To give more room for our growing family, they set up the celebration at a local JC club. It was nice to have some room to spread out.
Here is Grammy just taking it all in. This woman has sacrificed more in her life then I will ever understand or comprehend. I have a feeling that the memories of her life are locked in her head never to be laid on paper.

This is my crazy cousin Terri and her children (can't see Sierra though). It's amazing how big these kids have grown and how much they resemble their mommy!

This is our little peanut, Alexis. Not sure what this confused little reaction is from.

My aunt Anna have a good hearty laugh. Not sure exactly what the punch line was, but we definitely were having some laughs with the games.

My (very dear to my heart) Uncle Randy! I wish I could repay him for all he has done for me in my life. He is absolutely amazing (and very CRAZY too!)

Mikayla giving me a very mean look because I wouldn't let her have my camera. I've created a monster! (I secretly love it!)

And now my shirt creation....
I got the flower idea from Ms. Elizabeth Kartchner (amazingly creative woman). She had a small clip on Studio 5 (I never heard of it before, but I found it online and watched the clip) that showed how to make these cute flowers out of ribbon. I used ribbon with the wire edge and that made it really easy to scrunch and create the flower.
Then I added an applique cutout from a Cricut pattern. I have been meaning to try this for quite some time, but I waited till the night before the family Christmas party to create it then I got to debut it at the party. I was very excited to receive several nice compliments on it. I think I know what I'll be making for additional Christmas gifts!
NOTE: It held up through the wash too...I was a little worried, but it worked out fine. Just had to readjust the ribbon flowers, very easy to do!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We got our first snowfall for this season! We had just enough to cover the grass, but it didn't take a big effort to shovel off the walks.
The girls couldn't wait till we got home from church to go outside and play. Alexis wanted to go out in her dress shoes and tights!

Alexis has been practicing how to make snow angels on the carpet for months now...she can finally make some angels in the snow now!

And she just kept making them...She'd create one, get up, move to a fresh spot, drop down, and create another one. Over and over again!

We celebrated Samantha's 12th birthday yesterday! Wow...12 already! We'll soon hit the teen years and I'm not ready yet! And she's in that "I'm too cool to look at the camera" stage, so it's all but impossible to get a nice shot.

Some PINK layouts...

Two more of the layouts I completed on the last crop event.

This layout shows some crazy things our youngest likes to wear. I wanted to add "girly" embellishments, but didn't have any handy....so, I made one! I punched a circle, cut off part of the bottom, and inched the edges. Added flowers, ribbon, and a brad then attached with a foam adhesive....tada! {journaling reads...."you inherited your dad's sense of style"}

This layout was inspired by the title. I thought it was a cute title and she definitely fits it. I didn't image it would turn out so monochromatic, but I like it.

Christmas projects featuring Inkadinkado Stamps

All of these projects are featured in the scrapbook project section on Michael's website. You will find a list of supplies and instructions if you would like to recreate!

This colorful little gift bag is so darling! I used a lunch bag for my base, added some pattern paper by K&Company, buttons, stamps by Inkadinkado, and ribbon to create a cutie.


This card works as a gift card holder! It didn't photograph well, but the paper has a metallic shine to it, which gives it a very elegant look.
This project used the same metallic paper and looks amazing for the flowers. Again, all the stamped images are from Inkadinkado clear stamp sets.

Need a quick and easy favor idea? Here is one...

Be sure to check out the creative project ideas at Michael's website.

A Chilly morning

It was looking a little like Christmas this morning, with our yard covered in frost. I guess I need to get moving and get the Christmas decorations put up. I'd like our family to get lots of time to enjoy them.

Another layout I created at the crop event was this bright creation....

Our church held a fall Pumpkin Festival and we had lots of fun with the carnival style games, yummy food, and time with friends!

Another all day crop!

Oh I had the greatest Black Friday ever! I stayed far away from the busy stores. I attended an all day crop {from 10am to 10pm} at the It's Scraptacular scrapbook store! I had an absolute blast and laughed so hard! What a wonderful group of ladies I met!

I got about 8 layouts/projects finished. So that was pretty good. My absolute favorite is this scraplifted design. I used a layout created by Kim Watson in a recent Making Memories magazine. I followed her layout very closely but changed the colors to a more girly feel. I love how it turned out...It's my current favorite!

I'll share more layouts soon!