Wendy, this one's for you

This pages cracks me up. One morning, Tom came home and told us that there was something in the front yard. So, we went out to see...A TURTLE. Uh, okay. Not something that you would expect in our area. It was pretty large and had a very sharp "beak." Our dog, Sam, got a little too close and that thing hooked his nose in a split second. Poor Sam. He was beside himself. So, we put on some welding gloves because the thing had CLAWS like an aligator...and a long tail??!! Anyway, the turtle made its way around the neighborhood for the next few weeks. When I saw these pictures, I pulled out my CTMH "Lazy Days of Summer" paper because I knew it came with turtle stickers. I even got to use some Thickers...don't you just love saying that word:) HEE HEE.

I fell in love

I sure did! I went to the local scrap store (normally I can avoid it for months at a time). I was only picking up some puffy squares and I stumbled on this BEEEEAutiful paper. I LOVE this paper. Did I mention that I kinda like this paper. I was so excited to use it. But when? I have all boys. Then, it happened! I was flipping through my pile of pictures that needed scrappin' and I saw my birthday pictures from last year that Dallin took. We were having dinner in our red dining room...PERFECT!! Aaaah. I feel much better now:) Ooh, and I even sprayed the red flowers with some of my Tattered Angels glimmer mist. LOVE IT! Now I can continue on with my usual masculine pages.

First pages of '08

Well, I had my first official weekend off work. I spent some time scrappin' ... for therapy, of course! These are some pages that I have been making over the last few weeks. I sure had fun making these pages. This one was made with some paper I picked up in North Carolina. I love the colors. I had the border sticker for a few years and I was happy to finally unload it onto a page. The font for the title was cut with my newest, favoritest Cricut cartridge, "Old West." It has 4 different fonts and tons of western images. It is perfect for a family full of boys.

This layout was a ton of work. I love the hand stitches, but they took me an hour!! I was using waxy flax, so I couldn't use a needle. I just had to poke the holes big enough to slide it through. Then, after all that work, I ended up covering the majority of it! Ugh. Oh, well. It was a great page because I included Scott's favorite song for the title. Once again, I used my "Old West" to cut out "bad." I also had some double sided sticky letters that I rubbed copper glitter on. I think Scott is my only child to have pages made of his yowchers. He is always getting hurt.

fun boxes Papertrey Style

Papertrey Inc. is one of my most favoritest paper and stamp companies. They had been offering templates for download. I loved this one that was called "time for takeout." Once you download them, you just print the template right onto your paper. Then, you just cut and paste...voila! All cutie! Even my 4-year-old nephew made one of these for his primary teacher. easy shmeasy.

Wedding Cake

What a week! I spent a good part of it making this cake. Wedding cakes take forever!! I must say that I cringe whenever someone orders a "simple" square cake. YIKES I should charge more for simple. People, we need decoration to cover the flaws:) THIS time, I discovered bench scrapers. It not only gave me a 90 degree angle to make the sides straight, but it also was a smooth enough surface to give me a pretty nice edge. UGH. I pray for a round cake next time:) Anyway, this cake was four layers. The top was chocolate cake with cherry filling. The next one down was chocolate with raspberry filling. 3rd layer was yellow cake with white chocolate, cream cheese mousse filling. Lastly, the bottom was spice cake with bavarian cream filling. YUM A NUM. It feels good to be all done. The reception was BEAUTIFUL. They used burgundy and dark chocolate colors. Cranberries were the theme all over. They made garlands, pinned them all over lil' styrofoam balls, filled vases. Very classy.

Scrapbook weekend at Mom's

Oooh, I had a fun weekend scrappin' at my mom's house. I had some yummy pictures that I got in the mail this week from Zenfolio. They do some amazing work. I love the metallic finish to their photos.

Last weekend I was at a scrapbook convention in Bellevue. I found some great things...and some even better ideas. Technique Tuesdays was a favorite booth of mine. I love all their layouts. This one was right out of their idea book. Funny thing...I was at Costco and saw this cute outfit that instantly made me think of my new neice. Then, I saw these family photos they had done - and there it was! The cutie outfit. Gotta love it!

This next layout was SUPER fun. I have been collecting western style paper, embellishments, stamps, etc for a long time. My boys love cowboy stuff. So, when I saw my brother's family pictures were taken with horses in the background...I knew I was set. I think the twine is my favorite part...or the sticker that says "Sassy Cowgirl!"

And last of all, this is my tool time page. My brother took the boys to a woodworking store and taught them how to make pens with a lathe. They really enjoyed working with their uncle and Papa. Dallin also made a beautiful picture frame and stand for me. Now, I just need a house to put it in:)

New Close To My Heart Christmas Paper

I wasn't too sure about this paper when I first saw it on the cover of our new catalog, but I love it now. It is so much better in person and I even made it work with boys:) It is called Jingle. I had fun with my "Evergreen" stamp, too. I have had it for a year and I am finally putting it to use...a few buttons, some glitter...and I'm down to 2 more layouts left in 07:) WOOHOO. I had a gathering this weekend and used this as inspiration for the card I taught. I'll have to post that later. The ladies had fun making it, but we ended up with glitter EVERYWHERE!:)

My Star of the Show

I loved making this page. I found this fun paper in NC when I was visiting. Archivers is WAY too much fun. I get really excited when I find paper that will work for boys. This was Dal's first recital in 07....yes, I am almost done with 07. Just a few more layouts.

Baby pages

Oh, I love getting the chance to make girl pages. Don't get me wrong...I love my boys and wouldn't trade them for anything. HOWEVER, as a scrapper, it is nice to be able to make froofy (sp?) pages once in a while!! So, I thank my brothers and in-laws that have girls so I can have the opportunity to add a lil' bling and shhhhwankiness to my books:) I was able to visit an Archivers store while I was visiting NC. These were some of the goodies I found.

vinyl lettering

My friend, Patti, taught me how to do vinyl lettering with my cricut. So, I played a little with it on our trip to NC. M.'s room is so girly and fun. I let her pick the design and words. It was a little tricky getting the transfer tape to cooperate, but it went pretty smoothly. I love how well it went on to the wall. I cut some extra flowers and dots and she got to put those on too. The best part is...it is removeable.:) If you're sick of it after a few months, then you can easily pull it off and do something else.

Birthday Surprise

A friend of mine had a birthday this week, so I thought I should get something made for her. It has been a while since I have been able to just create all day. I even got back into pj's half way through the day:) WOOO HOOO! This was a template that I got off of Papertrey Inc. I love the templates they offer...so easy to follow and very affordable.

10th Anniversary

Yes, I am 2 years behind on my scrappin'. This school thing doesn't exactly allow for much "me" time. I have had this paper for quite a while and I was excited to finally get to use it! It is all glittery and I have VERY few occasions that will permit the use of glitter in my house:) Pretty simple layout...what a fun night that was. We went to El Gauchos and had a delicious dinner. He pretended to look at another woman walking into the restaurant. I spun around to see who it could be...only to turn back around and see a ring on my plate. I guess he gets points for the ring...definitely NOT for the method of surprise!!

CHERRIES! FINALLY!

I am really on a cherry kick lately. I am searching for cherries in paper, stencils, stamps, etc. Then, when we were at our last CTMH meeting, Patti pulled out some cherries that she cut with her Cricut! YEAH!! I was a tad bit excited. Then she showed us how to cut vinyl with the Cricut. SO, I cut some of these cherries out and made my exchange for next month:) LOVE the cherries!! I also used my Wizard and Swiss Dot folder to make some polka dots. What could be better than cherries AND polka dots?! MMMMM. I am a happy scrapper now!

Inspiration cards

Our little Close to my Heart group had a challenge to find inspiration this month. We could use pictures, clothing, anything that inspired us. I chose a shirt of my mom's. I love the white with red flowers on it...so here is the card I made to mimic the shirt:) Pretty fun! One of the girls made a page after looking at Rainier cherries and the other made a page based on a cute apron she had.

Peterson Wedding

Okay, this is by far the most unique wedding cake I have done. It turned out to be really fun to make. I loved how they decorated for this wedding I did in April. The favors were those big swirly lollipops in vases. So colorful and fun!! The base of that cake was 20" across!!! Not so fun to roll out fondant that big. That was just one part. Then, we had to transfer it to the cake...and it was square to boot! It was fun and cheerful, though...did I mention fun?:)

Cutie cupcakes

A friend of mine was celebrating her granddaughter's first birthday. She wanted daisies, so this was a fun project. I made the daisies out of gumpaste...the first time I have ever used store bought gumpaste. I was not impressed. It never dried hard. I was glad they stayed firm enough to rise off the cupcake, though. I also injected these with some boysenberry jam...nummy.

Dinosaur ROAR!

Man, do little boys love dinosaurs! I kind of missed out on that having grown up as a little girl:) Michael's kindergarten teacher put on a dinosaur production for the parents and grandparents to come and watch. It was so cute. Of course, Michael was in heaven because it involved making masks. He came home and made his own the next day...this set even had claws. He is so creative. He does these thing all on his own. For this page I used Close to my Heart's Rough and Tumble paper pack. I also got to use their sheer Clover Meadow for the first time ever...thanks Mrs. Wilson for making their masks that color of green!..all in the name of scrappin'!!

Swimmin' Scooter

I have had this picture for a year! I can't believe it has taken me this long to scrap it. Ah, well. I am just grateful that I get Sundays off from my "other" life:) This is my Scooter. He is so animated and I find myself taking a ton of pictures of him. I have to even things out with the other two. I used some really great stuff for the chipboard letters called liquid glass from CTMH. I love this stuff. I also added some of those dew drops around the polka dots. This paper is all from CTMH Good Times set. The brads...love those...were from K & Co. (I THINK) They are so chunky and fun. I wish I had shoes with that pattern on them.

Emporium Gift Set

Okay, this Emporium Paper from Close To My Heart is so fun to work with. This is the new Spring Creative Basics. These were a gift for my hostess of my last gathering. Very easy...the colors were so cheery! I just covered a box that I found at Walmart after Christmas. They had sets of gift boxes for 75%off. Can't beat that! So they were a quarter a pair. LOVE IT!

Birthday Card

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday. So I whipped this card out this morning. I used the CTMH Serendipity paper pack from last year. I hope he doesn't mind the flowers on the front!! HA HA I never understand why they waste a perfectly good masculine color scheme on flowers...leave those for the pansy colors!!:) It was a quick card and fun to make, though.