A LO and some finished 365

Happy Sunday everyone...woke up this morning to snow. Ugh! Last night it was pouring rain and in the 30's. It was in the 70's two weeks ago, what happened here? Anyway, worked on this LO last night and today...this is a 9x9 size, which is fun to work with. It was supposed to be something simple but turned out much different than I had planned. I love, love my 9x9 Making Memories for Archivers Noteworthy papers. It came in a 20 pack and I've used almost all of it already.

Used the Slice to make the letters and then I inked them with my Hero Arts woodgrain stamp. The ribbon was knotted for interest and the tags were made with an ol' fashioned Sizzix die. The vellum was put through the Cuttlebug and the large butterfly was heat embossed on vellum with Halographic Powder and then cut out. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out...thinking about changing the tag string to a different color. ETA: I'm gonna change that string to a natural jute color...the black just doesn't work.

ETA 2(LOL): Just a few minutes ago, I cut off the black string and used some tulle instead...looks 100% better. Agree? Just took this quick pic above...its dark down here in the basement at 10:00 PM! Pic isn't great but you get the idea...

Supplies Used:

Patterned Papers, Ribbon: Making Memories

Vellum & Gems: Michaels

Die Cuts: Slice and Sizzix

Punch: Martha Stewart & EK Success

Stamps: Hero Arts

Embossing Plate: Cuttlebug

Ink: Stampin Up and Versamark

Embossing Powder & Stickles: Ranger

Took some quick pics of my 365 album...sorry some of these have glare on the pics. I'm not gonna mess around with editing these...you get the idea.

You may notice that some of my pics are sideways...like 3 of them. For some reason I didn't even realize this until I was putting them in the album. I'll have to reprint those and I'm going to retake the pic of my students. Its so underexposed...doesn't look right. I feel like I'm constantly making excuses in this post, right?

Really enjoying using one b/w photo every week to add a little something different. The kit also comes with 50 or so trifold cards...gonna use those for extra pics and to add journaling of the funny things my kids say, which is ALL the time.

One thing I'm also doing is keeping a small box with necessary supplies to work on this in my family room next to the album...that way I can easily work on the journaling daily and keep up with the album. Have a great week everyone.

Week 13: Project 365

I can't believe we're 25% through the year already! Lovin the 365 again...so much fun to see all the pics put together. Its definately a lot of work, but it'll be fun to look back on our daily lives years from now.

Sun, March 22: Went to our favorite local zoo. This is just a small one nearby that has local animals in it. We met the kids grandparents there...walked around and had lunch.

Mon, March 23: LOL. Caught Ozan trying to catch 2 NCAA basketball games at the same time using his laptop. My dad used to have a little b/w TV on top of our main TV to watch 2 games...it reminded me of that.

Tues, March 24: Ozan enjoying his new bike. My husband is a serious biker. I made him bike up and down the street to take some pics. He doesn't have much patience but gave me about 2 minutes of his time for this.

Wed, March 25: Aydan came home from school and wanted to play in the rain. Couldn't find the kids raincoats but he didn't mind getting wet.

Thurs, March 26: Kendall giving me her pose. I printed the pics just like this...

Fri, March 27: Some goodies from Ikea. We're getting sick of plastic cups so we got these funky glasses for the kids and a mini pitcher to put on the table for water. At the kids school they serve all their meals "family style" so we're trying to do the same thing...let them help themselves at the table. My MIL saw me taking this picture and now I'm convinced that she thinks I'm weird for doing that. LOL!

OK, and for today, Saturday, March 28: Hmmm...no picture yet. We went out to Greek Islands Restaurant for my MIL's 70th b-day. We had a wonderful time with great food and conversation. Problem is that I can barely talk right now, due to a cold, and it was so loud in that restaurant that I just looked around and watched my family having a good time. My in-laws always have fun wherever they're at.

Oh yeah, about the picture...had my good camera with me. Had it turned on getting ready for pics and then realized that I had no power. I know that I charged the battery...maybe I left it on, but my camera had auto shut-off, so who knows. My FIL told me that he'll email me pics so I'll share later.

Have a quick card share here...this is for a b-day party tomorrow that kendall is going to. Just cut a card into a hat shape, then take 3 strips of tissue paper (I cut mine 2"x4". The card is 4" wide at the bottom). The ran a glue tape down the center of the length of each one so they stuck together and then just cut little strips on each side, leaving the center intacted. Added a scenic route sticker and I'm done. I used a piece of 9x9 paper here...fitted perfectly. I cannot tell you how quick and easy this card was to make. If I could make a ppd file for you, I would.

And I had plans of sharing some of my finished 365...which I'm caught up on until last Saturday. I took this picture inside since it was raining but I didn't like the result here. I figured I'd post it anyway and i'll share more later. I rounded off the pics to match the journaling cards.

Layout for a challenge

So my friend Laura posted a challenge on her blog here. The challenge was to use the following items:

1. Colors Green and Teal

2. String

3. Embossing

4. Paint

I took these pics of Aydan on his tricycle last week. He is super, duper fast on that thing. At first, when we brought it out this season, I was chasing him up and down the sidewalk worrying that he was going to go into the street. I identified his boundries and he listens to them. Of course, I'm out there with him, but I don't have to run to and fro. Whew!

This was a fun challenge, I knew that I was going to use teal, red, and white with this LO...added the chipboard letters for the green part.

I embossed a metal sheet and used a Stampin Up rolling stamp with paint under the title. I wanted to add the metal sheet and the screw brad to add some toughness to the page but Aydan is really made of sugar and spice so that's the reason I added the scalloped felt...to me, it fits his personality. He's all boy playing but then he'll let his sister dress him up or he'll wear my pink shoes. LOL!!

The rub ons were on one of those rolling tape dispenser and when I got to the top portion, I made it crooked...and I was almost done with the page...so I just added a few more extra lines to make it look "roughed up"...kinda like tire marks. Then added the checkered gafer tape to resemble a racing flag.

So go check out Laura's challenge and check out the other projects that the other 2 designers did...

Supplies Used:

Patterned Paper & Chipboard Letters: Scenic Route

Felt Border: Fancy Pants

Metal Sheet and Brad: Making Memories

Rolling Stamp, "love you" stamp, and Cardstock: Stampin Up

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug

Gafer Tape: 7 Gypsies

Label Stickers: Jenni Bowlin

Blue Photo Tag: Heidi Grace

Marker: American Crafts

Week 12: 365 Project

Week 12, come on? this is crazy-ness! Well, today was an exciting day because I finally got my 365 album kit in the mail...a nice reward after some hard work keeping up with this. Thanks, Laura, for getting it for me! I had about 4 pics missing from the pics so I took a couple extra...add them below (shhh...the dates are fake, took them this week).

Sat, Jan 24: So lucky to have an Ikea in our town!! I love it. Even though its close I only go every few months. Its only because you can't just run in there...you have to go through the whole store to get around. I usually end up going in circles and it drives me crazy!

Sun, Mar 1: This is usually what we do with the kids when we go shopping. I know, breaking the rules here, but its a good way to cage them, yet they have fun sitting in there. I don't have to worry about them running off or having them hold my hand.

OK, now with the real week...

Sun, March 15: Aydan loves, loves his tricycle. He is super fast and he's really good about knowing his boundries. He is a child who actually listens to me and I'm not quite used to that yet! This tricycle was given to us but the pedals didn't work, so Ozan got another one...that one has a bell on it, which is cute. Aydan calls the bell his "ding-dong" and he calls the streamers on the handle bars his "noodles". How cute is that?

Monday, Mar 16: Kendall and our neighbor Abby. They are one month apart and have known each other their whole lives. Abby is always a head taller than her. This is Kendalls first time on roller skates...they used to be Abby's, who is about 3 shoes sizes bigger than Kendall.

Tues, March 17: Kendall doing her homework. She can spell 3-4 letter words now. For this homework assignment, I had to read her the words from a list and she wrote them out. She got them all right the first time.

Wed, Mar 18: (Yes, kendall is wearing the same shirt but they were taken on the same day. LOL). The kids sitting in the van. The van came with a DVD player, which I didn't think was needed, but it does come in handy. They have a 30 minute drive to school, so this helps out.

Thurs, March 19: Yes, we went from 75 degrees to winter coat weather overnight...that's what is normal around here! Kids playing at their favorite park here. There was frost on those climbing rocks and one of the parents was smart enough to bring a towel!

Friday, Mar 20: The kids and I were off. I woke up in the morning after hearing some noise and found my kids riding Aydan's new tricycle around the house and Kendall riding on the back in their PJ's. Too cute! Not a great pic of Kendall, but it was the best one. What I like about doing one b/w pic a week is for this reason!

Sat, Mar 21: My in-laws just flew in from San Diego last night to visit the family. We all live here so they miss the kids! They both are very good at drawing and they love to hang out with the kids coloring. My kids are crazy, crazy about them!

And I have to finish this post with a pic I took of Kendall yesterday...used two PS freebies. Isn't that frame fabulous???? You can get it here and the black and white dark chocolate action here. Trying to expand my knowledge in PS. I've never used an action before and wasn't sure how to use it, figured it out by googling it.

Week 11: 365 Project

Another week here and I'm so excited that I will receive my 365 album this week, thanks to my friend Laura!! It will be so awesome to have that album in my hands and actually start it! I have a lot of work to do but I'm up for it. Been a good creative week as well...its feeling more and more like spring and our moods are picking up. I think it also helps to have more sunlight in the evening. I didn't add Saturday's shot from last week so I'm adding it here.

Sat, March 7: Kendall is always saying that she wants her hair short like mine, so I finally caved. We got our haircuts at the same time and she's happy! This is a gorgeous pic of her! We actually took this pic today because we didn't take one last weekend.

Sun, March 8: OK, terrible quality here!!! The kids built a tent in Kendall's room with sheets and made quite a mess. They asked me to join but it didn't last long. I'm too uncomfortable. LOL! And my kids look really funny here, as do I, but it was the only shot of us all looking at the camera.

Tues, March 10: My junior xray students. This was taken at 8:00 AM at the hospital I work at and we had terrible weather outside. It was pouring and it looked like night-time out there. I'm definitely planning on taking more pics in the future. I like this location because its a brand new building and there's tons of windows facing east.

Wed, March 11: Just starting giving the kids a shower rather than a bath. Its easier on me so I don't have to stretch over the tub. We have a glass shower stall in our master bath so its easy for me to watch them. They have so much fun in there.

Thurs, March 12: My favorite shoes...wear these all the time. I think I got them in Dec or Jan but I had to take a pic. Love them. These are Dansko shoes, which are very popular with health care workers...and I don't wear my jeans that high, lol, just pulled them up for the shot. We switched to these terrible gray scrubs so I like to wear fun socks and shoes with them.

Fri, March 13: Made this for Kendall's room. I purchased an open stock frame on clearance, spray painted it white, added cork and some chicken wire, then added some butterflies. Most of them were made with my Slice. And I added the "Dream" with the Slice using some of their vinyl paper. I have to add that some of the butterflies fell off before I took this picture and I didn't realize it.

Sat, March 14: Ozan is very much into his bike riding...he'll ride about 20 a day. He hasn't purchased a new one in almost 9 years. He finally got a new one today and don't ask me how much it costs, we'll be paying this off for about a year. At least he uses it or I wouldn't have agreed to it!

OK, now for a few extras. I made this layout of when Aydan was born. I had these photos printed out a while ago. I trimmed them down and layered them on white cardstock. I did blur out two of the pics in this picture...not that there was anything bad, just don't want my bare belly shown nor a picture of my son before he was cleaned off. Used KI Memories sheer 12x12 sheet and then used a lot of Making Memories products on it...tons of Animal Crackers here.

This was my project this evening. I've been wanting to make jar labels for my scraproom for ages. I finally just grabbed some generic shipping tags, cut off the end a bit, stamped a journal background on it and wrapped some ribbon around it. I have a TON of American Craft ribbon so I used that for all the jars. I completed about 25 of them tonight and still have 27 to go. I actually ran out of the tags, so I'm stuck until Monday. But I liked how they came out.

And this is how I've been storing my clear stamps lately...use a Making Memories stamp folder and just put it in this Kassett box from Ikea. Its so much easier to flip through this and just pull out what I need. I have 17 sets in here and its only 1/3 filled. I know they make a binder to hold these in but it only holds so much.

OK, been a long enough post, right?? Have a good weekend.